HaPpy BiRtHdAy to Mieke today, Sept. 27th!!

May your day be as special as you are!

Mieke, there are many birthday wish's going out to you on the Sept.13th OT....

Much Love,
North and the Fam

http://www.intentblog.com/archives/2006/09/open_thread_42.html

is the OT Mieke, with lots of birthday wish's being said for you today....

@Admin: thankyou, for providing for us, another Open Thread this week! May the conversations here, be titilating, aspiring, inspirational and smothered with peace...

Check this out you may like it...........

God created the donkey and said to him.
"You will be a donkey. You will work untiringly from sunrise to sunset
carrying burdens on your back. You will eat grass,
you will have no intelligence and you will live 50 years."
The donkey answered:
"I will be a donkey, but to live 50 years is much. Give me only 20
years"
God granted his wish.
...........................
God created the dog and said to him:

"You will guard the house of man. You will be his best Friend.
You will eat the scraps that he gives you and you will live 30 years.
You will be a dog. "
The dog answered:
"Sir, to live 30 years is too much, give me only 15 years.
"God granted his wish.
........................
God created the monkey and said to him:
"You will be a monkey. You will swing from branch to branch doing
tricks.
You will be amusing and you will live 20 years. "
The monkey answered:
"To live 20 years is too much, give me only 10 years."
God granted his wish.
.......................

Finally God created man ... and said to him:

"You will be man, the only rational creature on the face of the earth.
You will use your intelligence to become master over all the animals.
You will dominate the world and you will live 20 years."
Man responded:
"Sir, I will be a man but to live only 20 years is very little, give me the 30 years that the donkey refused, the 15 years that the dog did not want and the 10 years the monkey refused.
"God granted man's wish
........................
And since then, man lives
20 years as a man,
Marries and spends
30 years like a donkey,
Working and carrying all the burdens on his back.
Then when his children are grown,
He lives 15 years like a dog taking care of the house
And eating whatever is given to him,
So that when he is old,
He can retire and live 10 years like a monkey,
Going from house to house and from one son or
Daughter to another doing tricks to amuse his grandchildren.
That's Life.
Is it not??????????

Sanjeev

India feels its air just starting to cool, in the dark of its late evening. In its bright midday, the US splits raggedly with northern cool and southern warmth. On Intentblog, the complex heat and current darkness of India runs in and clasps hands, and then runs away, leading a masterful dance with Europe's late day, Australia's night, US's bright skies, and all points between, in a dizzying swirl of words, thoughts and passions. What an amazing place to visit!

love, Heather

Dear Mohinder Suresh,

You wrote a touching piece in the other thread, even though you say that you cannot write. Like all others who addressed you before me, I would also urge you (and other silent admirers of IB like you) to shed your inhibitions and write here whenever your heart desires. Don't worry about whether your grammar is correct or whether you are eloquent enough.......that's all crap. What matters most is whether you write from the heart or not. IB is a place where people come to write and share their thoughts just for the fun of it, not to take part in some "best writers competition".

Each one here is a unique writer and each one is valuable.

Cheers!
Navin

Thanks Rehan.

Heather, I tell you what. You ought to write a Weekly Intent one of these days. That was brilliant! Indeed time and geography shrink in cyberspace. Good day to you!

Sanjeev

Dear Mieke,
I hope you are having a wonderful birthday filled with love and joy.
Many of these days,
Donatella

Dear Sanjeev,

Your #4 was a very apt description of the life of the male of the human species on this planet. LOL. Thanks.

Cheers!
Navin

Dear Savjeev

It's only there sometimes, not often enough to fuel a weekly intent. Today there was a confluence of rich, tender, lyric thoughts here, in a 90-minute period of time, especially on Aresenio's Quietude, which seemed to have lent a fringe of lucid energy to everything else. You're very kind, but I'm a painter-in-waiting.

love, Heather

The Hindu festival of Navaratri (the nine nights of the goddess) occurs each year during the months of September-October. This year it runs for nine nights from either September 22 or 23, depending on which part of the world you live in. It ends on the 10th day, known as the day of victory.

Navaratri – the cycle of transformation
The cycle of nine nights and the 10th day of victory in Navaratri is a time when we can undergo a powerfully transformative experience. One way in which we can achieve this is by committing to complete a spiritual discipline during the period of Navaratri, a sadhana. This often involves chanting a set number of mantras every day for nine days.

The nine nights are divided into three groups of 3 days, which are under the auspices of three different goddesses. The first three days are under the auspices of Durga-Kali (destruction of the negative in us), the second under Lakshmi (abundance in all forms) and the third under Saraswati (spiritual illumination).

During the first three-day period of Durga-Kali we often undergo recognition and purification of negative patterns in our body-mind, a process that can sometimes be a little distressing if we are not prepared.

During the second three-day period of Lakshmi we are ready to garner the forces of abundance and attain the means to live a good life and to support others.

During the third three day period of Saraswati spiritual realizations dawn as a result of successfully completing the previous days of practice.

This ultimately leads to the 10th day in which all the forces combine to create spiritual victory over the forces of darkness within.

http://www.bigshakti.com/navaratri.html

Dear SANjeev! So sorry! That's the second serious typo I made today. Left and right forefingers exchanged their places on that one.

love, Heather

Disclaimer:

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it,
or who said it, no matter if I have said it,
unless it agrees with your own reason
and your own common sense.

Buddha

Dear Rehan,

If I'm not mistaken, your name means Basil or sweet Basil. Right? This was also Aamir Khan's name in the huge hit this year, Fanaa, and sounds great.

Cheers!
Navin

Chapter 11
Hymn to Narayani

The Rishi said: When the great lord of asuras was slain there by the Devi, Indra and other devas led by Agni, with their object fulfilled and their cheerful faces illumining the quarters, praised her, (Katyayani). The devas said: 'O Devi, you who remove the sufferings of your suppliants, be gracious. Be propitious, O Mother of the whole world. Be gracious, O Mother of the universe. Protect the universe. You are, O Devi, the ruler of all that is moving and unmoving. You are the sole substratum of the world, because you subsist in the form of the earth. By you, who exist in the shape of water, all this (universe) is gratified, O Devi of inviolable valour! You are the power of Vishnu, and have endless valour. You are the primeval maya, which is the source of the universe; by you all this (universe) has been thrown into an illusion. O Devi. If you become gracious, you become the cause of final emancipation in this world.

Heather,

What makes you think that painting and writing are two mutually exclusive arts? Suchitra—Shekhar’s wife—is a painter-cum-actress-cum-dancer-cum-singer-cum-writer! And Navin is a budding actor, but he writes well and has appeared on Weekly Intent twice (may be more?). I have been reading your comments; you come across as a very sensitive person with a keen perception and an uncanny ability to see through people.

You also said you read a lot. Muse is a very fickle mistress. With a little perseverance she can be at your beck and call.

Sanjeev

I am enjoying this thoroughly! LOL.

Kate, the hacker has written on my profile page again, hearing your question. Just click on my typekey profile icon. This hacker guy is a clown. I'm lovin it.

Cheers!
Navin

Here is a copy paste of what the hacker has posted:

"Tell Kate not to be too curious. I am not in a mood to go for a walk with her which I am sure is her ulterior motive to punish me after I were, revealed (I am trembling and literally shivering now! Are you setting a trap Mister? Believe me, it is waste of time.) I hope you wouldn’t further suggest your own theories with false associations when you chanced upon some irrelevant evidence.………………..Thanks for your unintended help anyway in the fiasco of the last few days. Your advice is taken, I shall go take a walk but on one condition, don’t force me to do that with Kate…………….As I said, I like to see you mention S, RK in your comments. At least stand by S, I believe you have the piercing eyes to see all the avatars of this Little Krishna in the presence, Re,Wh,Wa,Am, the first two already contacted you, the last two are little secret weapons, now don’t abandon your friends. OK, I shall take a walk now, a solitary walk indeed!"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIEKE. LOVe and GOD bless.

I loved #4 Sanjeev, thanks. Namaskar.

Pyari Saheli Heather, your #5 has 5 exquisite lines. Please do write a weekly intent. Love and God bless.

Donatella #12 is very nice. I had the good fortune of listening to a divine sage this past weekend. He told us the story of DURGA MATHA. I would like to share the gist of it.Love and God bless.

Long long time ago, during the time of DEVAS, Asuras etc in the Indian Subcontinent(Mythological times), there were two Asuras, SHUMBHA, and NISHUMBHA who were especially mean, brave, and had many boons and were very powerful. They were troubling the Devas and defeated them in war and took their kingdom and their positions.All the Devas including Vishnu, Brahma, and Shiva entreated Divine Mother to help them. Divine Mother took the DURGA avatar and appeared, all the Devas gave their subtle energies also to her, SHE was invincible and defeated the Asuras. So we celebrate NAVARATRI in rememberance of that.

I am on a fruit fast, during the day, like many women all over India and elsewhere. We started the fast on Saturday the 23rd. We will end it on the 1st of october. We also either read DEVI MAHATME, chant Durga ashtottara, or Lalitha Sahasranama.

NAVARATRI GREETINGS TO ALL MY FRIENDS AT IB.

Dear Geeta,
Thank you. I dedicate the Mahalakshmiashtakam to you.
Tomorrow, I will start the Saraswati mantra.
Namaste,
Donatella

@Geeta--Many Blessings and Happy Celebrations to all those celebrating...

Dear Hacker,
(Thus addressed due to confusion on your Real name/s)
Be assured - taking a walk in the park was not on my mind, but now that you mention it, I will take my broken heart and tears to the river at sunset, and reflect on your rejection.
Well,
thanks for ruining my afternoon.
Ever yours
in dreams only,
~ Kate

@Kate--dear Kate.. please don't be wounded by the calousness of another? I wish that post were never posted here... which caused you this un-necessary pain.

Realize dear Kate..they reject themselve's when they reject your love-offering...

so very many of us have walked with you this past year, and will at anytime you would have us with you...

Love,
North

Dear Kate,

I hope you were not serious in your #25. Just laugh at the Hacker like I do. He is just playing a little game with us. Let us just play along and amuse ourselves.

Dear Hacker,

Hope you will write something to mend the broken heart of dear Katie in your next hacking adventure.

Cheers & good night!
Navin

Dear North,
Thank you for your sweet words.
I am truly baffled at the rejection of the hacker/s.
I can only say,
I would never force anyone
to walk with me,
~ Kate

Dear Navin,
Here are my tears, that you have gently captured in your warm hands.
Sweet dreams to you
(and dear hacker/s - please let Navin rest in peace tonight)
~ Katie

@Dear Kate.. that post should not have been openly-posted.. seems to me, it were only meant for Navin? Navin, why would you post this painful thing for Kate to read here at IB?

Kate, continue walking in your beauty..and those of us captivated by your kindness, will always see the beauty as you do...

Love,
North

TypeKey is a free, open system providing you a central identity for posting comments on weblogs and logging into other websites. You can register for free.

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Comment Registration with TypeKey
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It Works All Over the Web
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http://www.sixapart.com/typekey/

Rehan, it is such a pleasure to meet you. Salam Ale Kum. Thank you dear Rehan. We are all sparks of the same Divinity, whether we call Him/Her Allah or Durga Matha. At the level of soul Navin, Sanjeev, North, Donatella, Heather, Kate, the Hacker, and the rest of us, including you and I are one.

Durga Matha is ferocious to the evil doers, and gentle to the gentle folk. Parvati is a gentle Goddess and takes care of pregnant women.

Thank you North.

Thank you Donatella. You are so beautiful inside and out, just like the Divine Mother. Love and God bless.

Dear Hacker, please come and celebrate Navaratri with us. Namaskar.

Although I mentioned a long break, I never promised not to show up once in a while. Before I too get banned here, let me assure everybody that my intentions on intentblog are sincere and my “guiding light” is truth, reality and reason!

Faith vs. Reason.

A reason-based mind will say this:

“Mysticism is a rational enterprise. Religion is not. The mystic has recognized something about the nature of consciousness prior to thought, and this recognition is susceptible to rational discussion. The mystic has reasons for what he believes, and these reasons are empirical. The roiling mystery of the world can be analyzed with concepts (this is science), or it can be experienced free of concepts (this is mysticism). Religion is nothing more than bad concepts held in place of good ones for all time. It is the denial - at once full of hope and full of fear - of the vastitude of human ignorance.”

”A kernel of truth lurks at the heart of religion, because spiritual experience, ethical behavior, and strong communities are essential for human happiness. And yet, our religious traditions are intellectually defunct and politically ruinous. While spiritual experience is clearly a natural propensity of the human mind, we need not believe anything on insufficient evidence to actualize it. Clearly, it must be possible to bring reason, spirituality, and ethics together in our thinking about the world. This would be the beginning of a rational approach to our deepest personal concerns. It would also be the end of faith.”

In contrast, a faith-based brain might write something like this:

--Wisdom tradition will grow to embrace the great spiritual teachings at the heart of organized religion.
--Faith will no longer be seen as an irrational departure from reason and science.
--Aspects of the paranormal and miraculous will be widely credited.
--Prayer will be seen as real and efficacious.
--Manifestation of desires will be talked about as a real phenomenon.
A faith-based brain may even feel that remote cutlery bending is a reality that our culture is trying to deny us, or connect consciousness to quantum mechanics and critical mass.

Some of the reason-based minds belong to: Richard Feynman, Sam Harris, Carl Sagan, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Hawking. These guys will share their knowledge with you in language you can understand. They won’t ask you to abandon well-established laws of physics but will explain these laws to you. You will end up with knowledge not belief, fact not fiction!

The above reason-based reflections are Sam Harris’s.

Posted on:
www.intentblog.com
http://www.krishworld.com/politics/
http://whitewings.sulekha.com/blogs/commentdisplay.aspx?cid=98567

“If what Richard Bronson is promising materializes, it will have put him in the rank of one of the world's most generous philanthropists, "planetarians" and humanitarians of all time.”
Well said Ron. The highlight in Germany was my buddy Kuhn getting his young team into the next round, followed by the lowlight of them being eliminated without conceding a single goal!

Yes Kate, soccer is it. Our favoured sport tends to be like our religion, what we grow up with we often stick with.

Even though we are all born atheists!
But then the miracle happens. As we grow up, most of our parents and our cultures choose the only true God for us. By the time we are adults, we are so convinced we have faith in the only real God we start killing each other because the others believe in a false one.

What would have happened if we had all stayed atheists or agnostics, focusing on things that are, rather than believing in thing that are not?

Dear Kate,

My suspicion is that the hacker would very much like to join you on one of your walks, hoping to get your attention by stating the opposite.

Love, Patzi

@Dear Patzi...good point! : )

@Dear Geeta... best wish's allways, Geeta..((not just during this celebration(wink))

Love,
North

Dear Kate and everyone else

I would not take anything the hacker and WW have to say seriously. Their purpose is to create dissension and discomfort, to weaken the bonds between people, break down mutual support, and exercise psychological power over people here, from time to time. They are not the kind of people you want as your best friends, needless to say.

love, Heather

Dear Mieke,

Many happy returns for today my love...

I hope your birthday today was a very special day for a very special woman....

I will write you a birthday card tomorrow...

Lots of love

MWWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAA XX

Simon xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xxx x xx xx xxx

@Simon--you are sooO sweet!! Will you share the card here with us.. or is only Mieke privy to it, being as she's the birthday girl!!

Oh where o where, is our birthday girl??

@Heather--great points Heather!! I do hope you are feeling better soon, and have recovered from the near-hit by a vehicle the other day.

North

Aloha to Patty and hello to Skeptisch.
Enjoy your walk, Kate :)
Love,
Donatella

Since the days when Roman Emperors threw Christians to the lions, the relations between the emperors and the heads of the church have undergone many changes.

Constantine the Great, who became Emperor in the year 306--exactly 1700 years ago--encouraged the practice of Christianity in the empire, which included Palestine. Centuries later, the church split into an Eastern (Orthodox) and a Western (Catholic) part. In the West, the Bishop of Rome, who acquired the title of Pope, demanded that the Emperor accept his superiority.

The struggle between the Emperors and the Popes played a central role in European history and divided the peoples. It knew ups and downs. Some Emperors dismissed or expelled a Pope, some Popes dismissed or excommunicated an Emperor. One of the Emperors, Henry IV, "walked to Canossa", standing for three days barefoot in the snow in front of the Pope's castle, until the Pope deigned to annul his excommunication.

But there were times when Emperors and Popes lived in peace with each other. We are witnessing such a period today. Between the present Pope, Benedict XVI, and the present Emperor, George Bush II, there exists a wonderful harmony. Last week's speech by the Pope, which aroused a world-wide storm, went well with Bush's crusade against "Islamofascism", in the context of the "Clash of Civilizations".

* * *

IN HIS lecture at a German university, the 265th Pope described what he sees as a huge difference between Christianity and Islam: while Christianity is based on reason, Islam denies it. While Christians see the logic of God's actions, Muslims deny that there is any such logic in the actions of Allah.

As a Jewish atheist, I do not intend to enter the fray of this debate. It is much beyond my humble abilities to understand the logic of the Pope. But I cannot overlook one passage, which concerns me too, as an Israeli living near the fault-line of this "war of civilizations".

In order to prove the lack of reason in Islam, the Pope asserts that the prophet Muhammad ordered his followers to spread their religion by the sword. According to the Pope, that is unreasonable, because faith is born of the soul, not of the body. How can the sword influence the soul?

To support his case, the Pope quoted--of all people--a Byzantine Emperor, who belonged, of course, to the competing Eastern Church. At the end of the 14th century, the Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus told of a debate he had--or so he said (its occurrence is in doubt)--with an unnamed Persian Muslim scholar. In the heat of the argument, the Emperor (according to himself) flung the following words at his adversary:

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached".

These words give rise to three questions:

(a) Why did the Emperor say them?

(b) Are they true?

(c) Why did the present Pope quote them?

* * *

WHEN MANUEL II wrote his treatise, he was the head of a dying empire. He assumed power in 1391, when only a few provinces of the once illustrious empire remained. These, too, were already under Turkish threat.

At that point in time, the Ottoman Turks had reached the banks of the Danube. They had conquered Bulgaria and the north of Greece, and had twice defeated relieving armies sent by Europe to save the Eastern Empire. In 1453, only a few years after Manuel's death, his capital, Constantinople (the present Istanbul) fell to the Turks, putting an end to the Empire that had lasted for more than a thousand years.

During his reign, Manuel made the rounds of the capitals of Europe in an attempt to drum up support. He promised to reunite the church. There is no doubt that he wrote his religious treatise in order to incite the Christian countries against the Turks and convince them to start a new crusade. The aim was practical, theology was serving politics.

In this sense, the quote serves exactly the requirements of the present Emperor, George Bush II. He, too, wants to unite the Christian world against the mainly Muslim "Axis of Evil". Moreover, the Turks are again knocking on the doors of Europe, this time peacefully. It is well known that the Pope supports the forces that object to the entry of Turkey into the European Union.

* * *

IS THERE any truth in Manuel's argument?

The pope himself threw in a word of caution. As a serious and renowned theologian, he could not afford to falsify written texts. Therefore, he admitted that the Qur'an specifically forbade the spreading of the faith by force. He quoted the second Sura, verse 256 (strangely fallible, for a pope, he meant verse 257) which says: "There must be no coercion in matters of faith".

How can one ignore such an unequivocal statement? The Pope simply argues that this commandment was laid down by the prophet when he was at the beginning of his career, still weak and powerless, but that later on he ordered the use of the sword in the service of the faith. Such an order does not exist in the Qur'an. True, Muhammad called for the use of the sword in his war against opposing tribes--Christian, Jewish and others--in Arabia, when he was building his state. But that was a political act, not a religious one; basically a fight for territory, not for the spreading of the faith.

Jesus said: "You will recognize them by their fruits." The treatment of other religions by Islam must be judged by a simple test: How did the Muslim rulers behave for more than a thousand years, when they had the power to "spread the faith by the sword"?

Well, they just did not.

For many centuries, the Muslims ruled Greece. Did the Greeks become Muslims? Did anyone even try to Islamize them? On the contrary, Christian Greeks held the highest positions in the Ottoman administration. The Bulgarians, Serbs, Romanians, Hungarians and other European nations lived at one time or another under Ottoman rule and clung to their Christian faith. Nobody compelled them to become Muslims and all of them remained devoutly Christian.

True, the Albanians did convert to Islam, and so did the Bosniaks. But nobody argues that they did this under duress. They adopted Islam in order to become favorites of the government and enjoy the fruits.

In 1099, the Crusaders conquered Jerusalem and massacred its Muslim and Jewish inhabitants indiscriminately, in the name of the gentle Jesus. At that time, 400 years into the occupation of Palestine by the Muslims, Christians were still the majority in the country. (my addition: Same is the case with India. After almost 1000 years of Muslim rule, majority of Indians are not muslims) Throughout this long period, no effort was made to impose Islam on them. Only after the expulsion of the Crusaders from the country, did the majority of the inhabitants start to adopt the Arabic language and the Muslim faith--and they were the forefathers of most of today's Palestinians.

* * *

THERE IS no evidence whatsoever of any attempt to impose Islam on the Jews. As is well known, under Muslim rule the Jews of Spain enjoyed a bloom the like of which the Jews did not enjoy anywhere else until almost our time. Poets like Yehuda Halevy wrote in Arabic, as did the great Maimonides. In Muslim Spain, Jews were ministers, poets, scientists. In Muslim Toledo, Christian, Jewish and Muslim scholars worked together and translated the ancient Greek philosophical and scientific texts. That was, indeed, the Golden Age. How would this have been possible, had the Prophet decreed the "spreading of the faith by the sword"?

What happened afterwards is even more telling. When the Catholics re-conquered Spain from the Muslims, they instituted a reign of religious terror. The Jews and the Muslims were presented with a cruel choice: to become Christians, to be massacred or to leave. And where did the hundreds of thousand of Jews, who refused to abandon their faith, escape? Almost all of them were received with open arms in the Muslim countries. The Sephardi ("Spanish") Jews settled all over the Muslim world, from Morocco in the west to Iraq in the east, from Bulgaria (then part of the Ottoman Empire) in the north to Sudan in the south. Nowhere were they persecuted. They knew nothing like the tortures of the Inquisition, the flames of the auto-da-fe, the pogroms, the terrible mass-expulsions that took place in almost all Christian countries, up to the Holocaust.

WHY? Because Islam expressly prohibited any persecution of the "peoples of the book". In Islamic society, a special place was reserved for Jews and Christians. They did not enjoy completely equal rights, but almost. They had to pay a special poll-tax, but were exempted from military service--a trade-off that was quite welcome to many Jews. It has been said that Muslim rulers frowned upon any attempt to convert Jews to Islam even by gentle persuasion--because it entailed the loss of taxes.

Every honest Jew who knows the history of his people cannot but feel a deep sense of gratitude to Islam, which has protected the Jews for fifty generations, while the Christian world persecuted the Jews and tried many times "by the sword" to get them to abandon their faith.

* * *

THE STORY about "spreading the faith by the sword" is an evil legend, one of the myths that grew up in Europe during the great wars against the Muslims--the reconquista of Spain by the Christians, the Crusades and the repulsion of the Turks, who almost conquered Vienna. I suspect that the German Pope, too, honestly believes in these fables. That means that the leader of the Catholic world, who is a Christian theologian in his own right, did not make the effort to study the history of other religions.

Why did he utter these words in public? And why now?

There is no escape from viewing them against the background of the new Crusade of Bush and his evangelist supporters, with his slogans of "Islamofascism" and the "Global War on Terrorism"--when "terrorism" has become a synonym for Muslims. For Bush's handlers, this is a cynical attempt to justify the domination of the world's oil resources. Not for the first time in history, a religious robe is spread to cover the nakedness of economic interests; not for the first time, a robbers' expedition becomes a Crusade.

The speech of the Pope blends into this effort. Who can foretell the dire consequences

From: http://www.counterpunch.com/avnery09262006.html

Terri Irwin--an interview with Barbara Walters from Australia. I had written a piece on Steve's tragic death on my blog. Watching Terri, whom showed such strength, and I admire her courage to face the nation...the photo's shown, are captivating and completely touched me to the core. Such a tragic and senseless death.... Crickey Steve, you will be missed!!

Naj---great post!!

North

If this ship sinks - a valve is let loose - in a drunken brawl - who can we count on - other than Kate? - to deliver that death kiss - to spread her seraph wings - up heavenwards - in a surreal walk?

(These words are put together as per the wish of my employer)

*

Your sincere concerns shall be heard. We are looking for at least ten messages from the regulars of this blog, which should include at least five men, five women and one contributor. After our conditions are met, every minute detail shall be addressed with utmost care and seriousness. It is an unusually generous offer from my employer, who is a very busy person.

Kobayashi, Consigliere to Keyser Söze

Kate is a kindly woman, filled with unconditional love and compassion for every member at Intent, including those, whom would hurt her with immature, careless, willful abandon. She has a daughter and parents, whom she adores, and speaks of them regularly, sharing the joy they give to her, with us all. Kate is adored by everyone here at IB! I have never seen Kate say an unkind word, not even when provoked. She is a lamp.

With Loving Kindness,
North

True Meanings of Computer Industry Acronyms

AOL: Almost On-Line
Apple: Arrogance Produces Profit-Losing Entity
ACRONYM: A Completely Random Order Never Yields Meaning
Basic: Bill's (Gates) Attempt to Seize Industry Control
CD-ROM: Consumer Device, Rendered Obsolete in Months
DEC: Do Expect Cuts
DOS: Defunct Operating System
IBM: I Blame Microsoft
ISDN: It Still Does Nothing
Macintosh: Most Applications Crash, If Not, The Operating System Hangs
M.C.S.E.: Must Call Someone Else
MICROSOFT : Most Intelligent Customers Realize Our Software Only Fools Teenagers
OS/2: Obsolete Soon, Too
PCMCIA: People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms
PENTIUM : Produces Erroneous Numbers Thru Incorrect Understanding of Mathematics
SCSI: System Can't See It
WINDOWS : Will Install Needless Data On Whole System
WWW: World Wide Wait

Sanjeev

Couldnt remember if i had sent you all this site before. If not then take a look...probly one of the best i have ever found concerning real world functional fitness. Used by many trainers, athletes, military, law enforcement etc...very well rounded for all ages and fitness levels.

Their philosophy in 100 words...
Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat. Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast. Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense. Regularly learn and play new sports. http://www.crossfit.com/

They say to start with the warm up and a scaled down version of the WOD "workout of the day".

Afew Crossfit women...very inspiring :
http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/051204.wmv

Jack LaLane's birthday was Tuesday.

He turned 94. Will he swim the English Channel again?

At work, 26 yrs. ago, they called me "Jack",

can't imagine why...

Condolances to the family of Byron Nelson(golfer),

he passed on yesterday at the age of 92.

David,

It looks like the devil has reared his ugly head again there in Colorado this time in Bailey high school. You take care friend.

Kind Regards,
Stan

Hello Everyone,

food for thought and upcoming elections in November

So, if our President Bush is pretty much telling our House and Senate that he NEEDS to TORTURE, so, they better hop to it and give him the a-okay in writing doesn't that pretty much exonerate all the men and women who were convicted of torturing in the Abu Grubby affair becuase, yes, we now know, that, in fact, they were following orders; the dogs, the naked bodies piled on one another, the hooded hangmen, the sexual stuff all the degredation that was photographed with these enlisted men and women was just them doing their jobs and now they are in jail, court martialed. What is wrong with this picture? Shouldn't we be standing up for our enlisted and making the Department of Defense release them or if not shouldn't we insist that Bush and Rumsfeld suffer the same punishment for the torture?

What is the deal here, the Attorney General denied that torture was okayed and encouraged, but if that were the case why would our President insist on getting an okay in writing from our House and Senate.

Why did those Republicans make such a big deal about it and then pretty much say okay to what the President was asking?

Why is the American public so stupid as to let the men at the top put enlisted men and women, who risk limb and life for our Nation's safety, be punished for following orders?

I am confused.

Dear Kate

I hope the sun is shining for you today, and if it's not, you like the weather anyway. Fresh breezes down by you are snaking their way up the Atlantic the coast, all the way to here. Love, hugs and kisses to you.

Dear Geeta, North

Thanks for your wishes about my health, the strep throat I contracted as a result of the shock of my near-accident is backing down now.

Dear Sanjeev

Your confidence is me is touching, but I'm a painter-in-waiting. Most writing I do is a way of trying to distract myself from the difficulty of facing that. (Two of your IT acronym defs are slightly dated, as Apple has redeemed itself in the past 18 months.)

Dear Kobayashi on behalf of Keyser

I'm glad your employer paid proper tribute to Kate.

Otherwise, I'm not sure what your mysterious request means. Messages to Keyser? Like my fervent hope that he will be able to arrange to a trip into Alaska's oncoming winter for a while? Does that count as one? Or, my prayer that he will learn to meditate on life's mysteries, and will no longer need to spend his very valuable and busy time making up his own? Does that count as two? Or my practical suggestion that he take off his mask and put on another? Does that count as three? If these are acceptable, and more than one message is allowed per person, I can easily fullfil the entire quota of women's messages. Moreover, if he'll be so kind as to grant me a waiver for sex and status, I can fulfill the entire quota he's requesting. But if I'm being dense and I'm simply not understanding his request, please explain further.

love, Heather

@Ruth--I am against the bill, which would condone human torture!! AS we all know, information obtained via torture, fear and deprivation of sustenance, do not necessarily constitute a truth! I am aghast really, that the american people are willing to up the ante of terror on this planet, by allowing human torture to become a law! Outrageous!! Bush is the terrorist, we all know that!

@Heather--glad you are better...and shaking off the strep and shock of a near-hit by a vehicle!

@Stan--caught that on the news here too..isn't it so sad, that people would harm children?

@Kate--you are in my thoughts.

North

Dear Kate,
I hope you had a delightful vision of the new moon glowing with love and nurturing bestowed upon you.

Dear Ruth,
Great points in 51.
Love,
Donatella

Professor's data at root of latest corporate scandal BIGGER THAN ENRON

Research triggered look at firms that backdated stock options for top executives
By Todd Dvorak
ASSOCIATED PRESS
IOWA CITY, Iowa - A framed single share of Enron Corp. stock hangs on the wall of University of Iowa finance professor Erik Lie's office.

The stock, purchased in 2002 when Enron's value hit rock bottom, features the inscription "Respect. Integrity. Communication. Excellence." That served as the disgraced energy company's corporate slogan.

"It's a good reminder for people who forget," said Lie.

In executive suites across the country, there are plenty of CEOs, financial officers and board members who might like to forget Lie.

From his second floor office at Iowa's Tippie College of Business, Lie spent months analyzing data to demonstrate how companies were illegally and retroactively timing stock option grants to fatten bonuses paid to top executives.

His work is widely credited with exposing the latest scandal to rattle corporate America.

"He's uncovered a scandal that has just mushroomed," said Adam Pritchard, a former attorney at the Securities and Exchange Commission and now a law professor at the University of Michigan. "He recognized something there that needed looking into. I don't think you can understate what he's done.

"There would be no issue right now if he had not done this research."

The SEC's chief accountant issued a letter Tuesday giving companies extra guidance on handling and reporting stock option grants, designed to differentiate between companies that granted them in good faith and those that artificially inflated their value.

So far, the SEC, along with the Department of Justice, has launched 82 investigations into companies nationwide over the possible manipulation and illegal reporting of stock option grants.

Investigations have already led to criminal charges against executives from two companies, and many more are conducting their own internal inquiries.

Regulators and academics who study corporate finance and governance say the backdating inquiry could be the most widespread and significant corporate scandal in 30 years.

Lie's work has made him a focus of media attention for months, but he's maintained a modest, reform-minded view.

"When we conduct research, we all want to make an impact," said Lie, who grew up in Norway and taught at the College of William & Mary in Virginia before moving to Iowa City with his wife and two children in 2004. "I'm very happy to see a clear and immediate effect of the research on the corporate world."

Lie's findings are spelled out in two papers, one published in 2005 and the other made public on Web sites last November.

The first piggybacked on research by David Yermack, a finance professor at New York University who in 1997 studied the relationship between stock prices and option grants. Yermack concluded that executives were either bending the rules or keen at predicting their company's stock performance.

Lie took it one step further.

After reviewing proxy statement data filed with the SEC from every company on the S&P 1500 index, Lie discovered a pattern in which stocks fell slightly just before options were granted and rose shortly after the grant date, an increase attributable to shifts in the entire market.

Those price patterns were attributed in the past to executives predicting how their companies would do; but if that were true, it would mean they could predict what the whole market would do, Lie said.

"To me, that was a clue that people weren't merely predicting," he said. "There's certain things we can't predict."

Backdating options can be legal if approved by a company's board, disclosed to shareholders and properly accounted for in tax and regulatory filings. But Lie said too many public companies, more than 2,000 overall that gave stock options to executives, ignored those rules or failed to deduct the added compensation from their bottom line.

Options allow employees to buy shares of their company's stock in the future at a set price, typically the price on the day the option is issued. Backdating grants options retroactively, and as Lie found, coinciding with a slump in the stock's value. Options dated to a low price then redeemed during a surge helped hundreds of executives reap multimillion-dollar paydays.

Randall Heron, a professor at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, said he believes Lie never intended to unearth corporate wrongdoing when he began investigating backdating.

"His original idea ... was that there was this puzzle out there and a lot of unanswered questions about what was happening," said Heron, who shared an office with Lie during their doctoral days at Purdue University.

"But after the first study, I'm sure his moral compass kicked in and he said, 'OK, these guys are doing something wrong.' And I'm sure that increased his desire to get to the bottom of this," Heron said.

But the first study's data lacked the key evidence necessary to make an airtight case that rules were being broken.

So Lie, with Heron's help, did a second study, this time including in their analysis insider transaction documents filed with the SEC.

They found the pattern of dating options between a fall and subsequent rise in stock value declined sharply in August 2002 after Congress passed a new corporate accounting law. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act took aim at a variety of questionable corporate practices, and Lie attributes the falloff to a provision that closed the window for reporting option grants to the SEC from a period of months to two days.

Despite its far-reaching scope, experts agree the backdating scandal has yet to reach the degree of public outrage generated by the misdeeds of executives at Enron, Worldcom Inc. or Tyco International Ltd.

"The Enron stuff is very sexy, but that type of fraud was not pervasive," said Andrew Metrick, a professor of finance and corporate governance at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. "This is widespread, pervasive. I think when this is all said and done, the total amount of dollars that we'll find have been stolen from the corporate till is larger here than any other case we've seen."

It's hard to tell how many millions of dollars are involved, Lie said, because it depends on how far down in the organizations backdating occurred and only executives and directors are required to report option grants.

For Lie, life as America's newest corporate sleuth has meant a flurry of interviews with reporters from around the globe and the knowledge that investigations could lead to corporate reform and greater vigilance among shareholders.

"To be able to sit back and say my research did this is nice ... but I've decided it's not going to change my life," Lie said. "It's more important that we deal with these issues, move forward and make the financial markets more transparent."

LIKE I HAVE SAID WE ARE ENDING DISEASE ON THE PLANET

Print this out - Inform others - Spread the word
RE: Open Letter by Matthias Rath, M.D. to the Health Food Community in the USA

Dr. Rath is the physician and scientist who led the medical breakthrough on vitamins and cardiovascular disease documented in his book “Why Animals Don't Get Heart Attacks - But People Do”. Two-time Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling stated in his last will in June 1994, “There is no question in my mind that I thought about Dr. Rath as my successor”.

Dr. Rath was born in Germany and worked in the USA for many years. Now he lives in Holland and is organizing the battle against the head of the international Pharma-Cartel Germany's Hoechst, Bayer, and BASF and their efforts to ban vitamins and other natural therapies world-wide.

With this Open Letter Dr. Rath informs the health food community in the U.S. and the American people about important recent developments in the global battle to preserve vitamin freedom. Moreover, this letter is an appeal to every human being to seize the historic responsibility and opportunity helping to end the tyranny of the Pharma-Cartel and lay the foundation of a new health care in the interest of the people.

The time to act is now.

German Pharma-Cartel Hoechst, Bayer and BASF
– Unmasked as the Organizers of Auschwitz
- Now Threaten World-Wide Vitamin Freedom

• German pharmaceutical multinationals Hoechst, Bayer and BASF spearhead international efforts to ban health information on vitamins and other natural therapies

• Deutsche Bank (German Bank), in a futile forward defense, admits that they financed the concentration camp Auschwitz and Nazi war efforts on behalf of Hoechst, Bayer and BASF

• With credibility of the Pharma-Cartel at an all-time low, people around the world now have the historic opportunity to liberate themselves from the yoke of the Pharma-Cartel and its “business with disease”

• Health food stores and the health food community become cornerstones of a new community-based health care system that is effective, safe and affordable

The years 1999 and 2000, the turn of the millennium, also coincide with a fundamental turn in human history and human health. The 20th century will become known as an epoch were human health was controlled by the pharmaceutical industry, an industry that shamelessly promoted diseases as the basis for a trillion-dollar annual business with pharmaceutical drugs.
Now, at the end of this century of deadlock for human health, the most common dis-eases are recognized to be the direct result of vitamin deficiencies and therefore preventable in a natural way. As a direct result of this knowledge heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure, heart failure affecting and killing millions of people today will become largely
unknown during the 21st century.

In order to secure the survival of its trillion dollar global market, the pharmaceutical industry will put up a fierce fight against anything that threatens it. The key for the survival of the pharmaceutical industry, as we know it today, is the immediate and comprehensive ban of information about natural therapies, particularly health information about vitamins.

The health food stores and the natural health community at large is facing another wave of attacks from new regulations, legislation to the infiltration of the nutritional supplement industry and the take-over of vitamin companies by pharmaceutical multinationals.

In the battle for global health care in the next millennium there will be only one victor. On one side is the pharmaceutical industry which maintains and promotes disease as the very basis of expanding their pharmaceutical markets. On the other side is the natural health community with its goal to prevent and eliminate diseases through vitamins and other natural therapies.

In this historic battle, the Pharma-Cartel has received a series of severe blows before, among them the DHEA act of 1994. But now, in February 1999, the Pharma-Cartel received its biggest blow from which it is unlikely to recover.

Under pressure, Deutsche Bank (German bank) had to reveal that the German pharmaceutical companies Hoechst, Bayer and BASF, the spearheads of the international Pharma-Cartel, were the organizers of the worst crimes ever committed in recorded human history.

Chemical/pharmaceutical giants Hoechst, Bayer and BASF were the organizers of the Auschwitz concentration camp, the financiers of Hitler's rise to power, and the driving force of his military conquest of the world,
the Second World War.

These revelations show the true face of the international Pharma-Cartel. In its insatiable greed to control the chemical and pharmaceutical markets of the world, this industry risked the death of over 50 million people during World War II. Now, with its plan to ban health information on vitamins, the same Pharma-Cartel risks death of more than 600 million people from preventable disease in the next generation alone

Pharmaceutical Industry – Business Based on Proliferating Diseases

• According to European health insurance companies, 98% of the pharmaceutical drugs currently marketed and prescribed are without proven efficacy. Thus it is now established that most pharmaceutical drugs can
neither prevent diseases nor cure them.

• According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, severe and known side effects of pharmaceutical drugs are the fourth leading cause of death in the US and other industrialized countries. Thus, in an effort to expand their global markets, the pharmaceutical industry created the fourth largest epidemic to haunt mankind, the drug side effect epidemic.

(JAMA, April 15, 1998).
• In a public alert, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in its January 6, 1996 issue warned that all cholesterol-lowering drugs currently on the market cause cancer and should be avoided. Yet the Pharma-Cartel consistently ignores this warning. Since this public warning, the market for cholesterol-lowering drugs has been extended to an estimated
20 million people worldwide creating a time bomb for a future cancer epidemic.

• After publication of these anti-Pharma-Cartel studies in JAMA, the pressure of the Cartel on the American Medical Association (AMA) increased. In January 1999 in an unprecedented move the AMA fired JAMA-Editor-in-Chief Charles Lundberg under a bogus pretence. The real background of this step is the Pharma-Cartel's effort to control and manipulate the information provided to the doctors in America and beyond.

The credibility of the pharmaceutical industry with patients and consumers is approaching zero. In a desperate effort, the Pharma-Cartel is putting the finger in this dam of lost credibility.

1999/2000 Decisive Years in Battle of Human Health Against the Pharma Cartel

The next two years will be decisive in the global battle for a new health care. The Pharma-Cartel remains determined to outlaw health information on vitamins and other natural therapies worldwide.

• Spearheaded by Germany’s Hoechst, Bayer, and BASF, the world's largest exporters of pharmaceutical products, as well as the German government, the next meeting of the UN Codex Alimentarius Commission on nutrition and dietary supplements is scheduled for spring 2000 in Berlin, Germany.

• With global mergers, the pharmaceutical industry tries to prepare for the decisive battle to manipulate world opinion about health matters with mass media advertising through sheer financial force.

• Lobbying and manipulation of national and international pharmaceutical laws remain a key tool in the Pharma-Cartel’s effort to suppress natural health information. In a spectacular move, German pharmaceutical giant Hoechst plans to merge with French Rhone Poulenc and establish its headquarters at Strasbourg, the seat of the future government
of the United States of Europe.

• At the national level every legal device is used by the Pharma-Cartel to roll back earlier defeats. New nutritional labeling legislation is introduced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) violating the accomplishments of the Dietary Health and Education Act of 1994.

• New “standardization” rules and requirements for clinical studies are introduced making it difficult or impossible for vitamin companies to finance proving the efficacy of natural health remedies.

• As a last desperate step, pharmaceutical multinationals are trying to infiltrate the health food industry and its industry bodies. In the April 1996 edition of the Medical Investment Report, Rexall Sundown, an influential member of the NNFA and of the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) announced a “strategic alliance” with Hoechst. Shortly thereafter,
Rexall Sundown tried to acquire other major vitamin companies in the US.

Not surprisingly, at the last meeting of Codex Alimentarius in September 1998, CRN was openly siding with the Pharma-Cartel’s position. Almost a side aspect in this context: Rexall Sundown was publicly connected to Organized Crime in a lead article of the April 14, 1997, issue of the Dow Jones Weekly Barron’s.

All these efforts are not signs of strength, but of a battle that can not be won by the pharmaceutical industry. But the biggest blow for the Pharma-Cartel was yet to come.

Hoechst, Bayer and BASF – Committing Crimes Against Humanity Then and Now

In a widely publicized speech at the city hall of Chemnitz, Germany on June 21, 1997, I had already revealed the dark Nazi past of Hoechst, Bayer and BASF in the context of our fight against the Codex Alimentarius plans. This tribunal against the Pharma-Cartel was immediately translated into several languages and disseminated through the Internet (www.drrath.com).
Over the last 18 months this Chemnitz Program had created a public ground swell inside and outside of Germany. It was this speech and its international repercussions that terminated 55 years of silence on the part of German companies ignoring the justified demands of victims from Auschwitz and other forced labor camps.

On February 4, 1999, 20 months later and under increasing international pressure, the largest German bank, Deutsche Bank, had to open its Nazi files totaling more than 6 miles in length. The Deutsche Bank files about the Nazi connection of Hoechst, Bayer and BASF force us to re-write the history of W.W.II and the 20th century. The revealed documents show:

• To achieve control of the world's natural resources and raw materials Hoechst, Bayer and BASF's promoted Hitler's rise to power and his W.W.II effort to conquer the world. With over 70 million Reichsmark (more than half a billion dollars in today's currency) they were the single largest donors to the Nazi Party, essentially financing the preparations for W.W.II. To combine their strategic global efforts Hoechst, Bayer and BASF had formed a Cartel with the code name “IG Farben” (Interest Union Colors).

• Hoechst, Bayer, BASF’s IG Farben execu-tives Hermann Schmitz and Karl Krauch developed the four-year economic plan for the war preparation and met with Hitler’s Reichs-Marschall Hermann Göring on June 15, 1936. Three months later, on September 9, 1936, Hitler himself presented the IG Farben plan in a spectacular announcement as the “New Phase,” the official Nazi economic policy to prepare for war.

• 80% of the positions in the newly created German Ministry of “Resources and Raw Materials” in W.W.II Germany were filled with Hoechst, Bayer and BASF specialists who coordinated the acquisition of industries and property in conquered European countries on behalf of IG Farben.

• The Auschwitz concentration camp was the forced labor outpost of “IG Auschwitz,” the largest industrial plant in W.W.II Europe and a 100% subsidiary of Hoechst, Bayer and BASF's IG Farben. This concentration camp supplied free labor for nearby “IG Auschwitz” which produced 100% of all synthetic gasoline and rubber as well as other chemicals for Hitler's war.
The chemical and pharmaceutical corporations Hoechst, Bayer and BASF were the organizers, architects and the operators of the Auschwitz concentration camp, the site of the worst crimes ever committed against humanity.

• To test unexplored pharmaceuticals and vaccines, Hoechst, Bayer and BASF used thousands of innocent inmates of the concentration camp as human guinea pigs. More than 50% of all participants died during these “experiments.” Many more were silenced afterwards so that they would not be able to tell others about their torture.

• Daily selections among the work force of Hoechst, Bayer and BASF were made at the factory gate to optimize work efficiency of “IG Auschwitz.” “Useless work force” was disposed of in the gas chambers of the Auschwitz camp. Even the extermination chemical Zyklon B was provided by Hoechst, Bayer and BASF's IG Farben.

• In the 1947 Nuremberg War Crime Tribunal several managers of Hoechst, Bayer and BASF were convicted of mass murder, slavery and other crimes against humanity. Telford Taylor, the lead US-Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Tribunal concluded: “Without the support of IG Farben the Second World War would not have been possible.”

• In 1947 the Nuremberg War Tribunal dismantled the IG Farben-Cartel, but Hoechst, Bayer and BASF were allowed to continue. By 1953 all of the convicted managers were free and immediately assumed highest positions in
post-war German industry.

• Only ten years later, in 1963, Hoechst, Bayer and BASF were ready for their next global attack on human rights. As part of the global expansion of their pharmaceutical market, Hoechst, Bayer and BASF had to make sure that the health benefits of vitamins remain unknown. Towards this end they pressed the German government to spearhead an international effort to ban vitamins and other non-patentable natural therapies. In 1963 the German government became the political executor of these plans by initiating the now infamous UN Codex Alimentarius commission on nutrition, and chairing
this commission since.

Deutsche Bank – Assisting in Crimes Against Humanity Then and Now

Why was Deutsche Bank's CEO Rolf Breuer forced to make these revelations and why did Deutsche Bank have to come out with the truth now, over half a century after the end of W.W.II?

• On February 6, 1999 the influential German Newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) wrote about the Nazi-IG Farben documentation: “Deutsche Bank was the house bank of IG Farben and they (Hoechst, Bayer and BASF) dictated the business terms of this bank.”

• Half a century ago Hoechst, Bayer and BASF dictated that Deutsche Bank finance Hitler's military conquest of the World on behalf of these chemical/pharmaceutical multinationals. Their involvement was so deep that a 1946 Allied investigation of the Deutsche Bank recommended it be liquidated and its leaders tried as war criminals.

• Today Deutsche Bank is still the “house bank” of the Pharma-Cartel and this bank plays the same role: Financing the way for the economic conquest of the world on behalf of the German Pharma-Cartel.

• This global strategy explains the current plan of Deutsche Bank to acquire Banker's Trust of America to become the largest bank in the world. In light of the facts, neither the people of America nor American corporations will benefit from this merger. To the contrary. People, politicians and anti-trust authorities in the USA should stop this merger now.

• The Pharma-Cartel sent Deutsche Bank boss Breuer into the minefield in an effort to clean up the Nazi past on their behalf. In a desperate forward defense they thought by revealing the historic facts they might be pardoned by the world opinion. This pardon, they know, is a precondition for the unhindered expansion of their global pharmaceutical market.

• Even with the timing for going public with this historic confession, Deutsche Bank and the Pharma-Cartel showed how much they fear the light of the day. The revelations were deliberately placed during times of maximum media distraction in the US the last days of the Clinton impeachment trial and in Germany at the climax of carnival season.

Futile Efforts by the German Government to Protect the Pharma-Cartel’s Interests

The current German government continues the tradition and functions as a blind servant of the German Pharma-Cartel. Immediately after he had become German Chancellor in September 1998, Gerhard Schroeder started a whole series of secret meetings at the Chancellery with executives from Hoechst, Bayer, BASF and other German companies. The purpose of these meetings was to find a way to protect German companies from an avalanche of class action lawsuits from concentration camp survivors. Schroeder assigned his chief of staff Bodo Hombach to the job of manipulating public opinion and twisting the arms of the Jewish community as well as the US-government officials. Hombach’s travel party includes Rolf Breuer, the CEO of the
German Bank who was sent on this sinner’s pilgrimage by his corporate clients.

The targets of the Hombach-Breuer mission in the US are, among others:

• The World Jewish Council from whom they want approval,
• Ed Fagan and other attorneys from class action lawsuits who are pressed to abandon those lawsuits,
• The US financial and anti-trust authorities, among them New York City Comptroller Alan Hevesi, who are pressed to approve the merger between Deutsche Bank and Banker’s Trust,
• Stuart Eizenstat, Under Secretary for Economic, Business and Cultural affairs at the US-State Department, who is pressed to legally exclude any further lawsuits from Nazi victims.

Hombach’s mission is to try to pressure the US government for a legal guarantee that German corporations would not be held responsible any longer for the crimes they committed. In return, on February 16, Schroeder and Hombach announced a “fund” for Nazi victims, which would leave some victims with a few hundred dollars each, while ignoring most of them. The proposed deal would mean that in return for starting the Second World War, plundering all of Europe, killing millions of people and using millions more as slaves, the German Pharma-Cartel would be pardoned in return for a donation of a few million dollars and given green light to continue plundering millions of people worldwide by means of a trillion-dollar
pharmaceutical market.

On Thursday, February 11, Germany’s Chancellor Schoeder even had the audacity to meet with President Clinton pressing him to back this remarkable plan. He was not successful.

Lessons to Be Learned for History

There can be no amnesty for Hoechst, Bayer, BASF, the builders of Auschwitz, as long as these corporations continue to commit crimes against humanity.

In the interest of excessive financial gains, these corporations continue to cause unnecessary suffering and premature death of millions of people by maintaining and proliferating diseases in epidemic proportions in order to expand a global pharmaceutical market of over one trillion dollars.

With their plan to ban life-saving health information on vitamins and other natural therapies, they actively prevent the eradication of heart attacks, strokes and other common diseases, the primary cause of which are
vitamin deficiencies.

Hoechst, Bayer, BASF and other members of the international Pharma-Cartel have to be held responsible not only by the survivors of the Auschwitz concentration camp, but by millions of patients world-wide who have fallen sick, remained sick or by the relatives of patients who died as the result of known severe side effects of pharmaceutical drugs.

Why We Can Win the Battle Against the Pharma-Cartel

The main reason why we can and will win this battle for a new health care system is that truth is on our side. The Pharma-Cartel can only win if it is able to suppress the truth. We can win if we speak out loudly about the truth. This is true for the historic facts as well as for the current facts presented in this letter. Let’s have a look at the recent years:

• In 1991 I discovered that heart attacks and strokes are no diseases but, similar to scurvy, the result of vitamin deficiencies and therefore preventable. These discoveries are summarized in my book “Why Animals Don’t Get Heart Attacks – But People Do.”
• For the pharmaceutical companies it was clear at that time that the survival of their hundred billion dollar annual market of cardiovascular pharmaceuticals had become dependent on one single factor: how effectively could they prevent the information about this medical breakthrough from spreading.
• It was this medical breakthrough that triggered the fierce attack on nutritional supplements led by the FDA on behalf of the Pharma-Cartel. But they could not win this battle. The people of America won the battle for vitamin freedom culminating in the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA).
• Analysts confirmed that the DSHEA of 1994 was the worst defeat in the history of both the FDA and the Pharmaceutical industry. Once again, the moral strength that comes with the truth has prevailed over financial and
political power.
• With the US the largest national market was lost for the Pharma-Cartel, forcing it to turn to the international level. This is the background why the dormant UN Codex Alimentarius Commission was suddenly reactivated in 1995, bringing the center of the global battle for vitamin freedom to Germany.
• In 1996 my book was published in German and in 1997 I moved to Europe to lead the battle against the head of the Pharma-Cartel-hydra directly from its doorstep. We were able to achieve some remarkable accomplishments:
• At the Codex Alimentarius meeting in Berlin, September 21-25, 1998, the Pharma-Cartel was unable to get consensus from the delegates of more than 40 countries. The plan to outlaw natural health information globally had to be postponed to the next meeting in spring 2000. The resistance we had put up before and during the Codex meeting in Berlin, including the
Berlin Tribunal against the Pharma-Cartel, is documented on our Website.
• In the Federal German elections the previous chancellor Helmut Kohl was voted out of office by a landslide defeat. Helmut Kohl was a former lobbyist for the Pharma-Cartel and had been promoted by the Cartel into the highest position of the German government. From there he served the Pharma-Cartel politically for 16 years on the national and international
level.
• Analysts confirmed that our national campaign for vitamin freedom in Germany became the single most important factor in the land slide defeat that washed away not only Helmut Kohl but also the entire previous government.
• On behalf of patients world-wide and to clear up the role of Helmut Kohl as political accomplice for the criminal practices of the Pharma-Cartel I filed a complaint against Kohl for assisting in crimes against humanity and other felonies with the Federal prosecutor in Bonn.

The text of the complaint can be reviewed on our Website and could serve as a starting point for class action lawsuits against the Pharma-Cartel in many countries.

Responsibility of Health Food Stores

During the battle for vitamin freedom in the US from 1992 to 1994, the role of the health food stores can not be overestimated. Thousands of health food stores across America became the locations were information was
disseminated to millions of customers, and they were the coordination points of fighting back the attack of the Pharma-Cartel.

In this battle the health food community gained invaluable experience for the next and decisive stage of the battle. There can be no doubt that the Pharma-Cartel wants to eliminate the natural health sector or confine it to a fringe existence. But the actual role of the health food store is exactly opposite:

Health food stores across America have become the corner stones of a new community-based health care system. By joining the public fight against the Pharma-Cartel at this new and decisive stage, the health food stores of America and beyond will emerge as the natural leaders into a new era of human health. This new health care system will have rid itself from the
yoke of the Pharma-Cartel and will promote the prevention, natural healing and, above all, the eradication of diseases.

What Needs to Be Done Now

There simply can not be amnesty for the organizers of Auschwitz as long as they continue to risk the lives of millions of people worldwide.

The first and foremost task is to inform your customers about these developments and the background. You may copy this Open Letter and hand it to your customers. Your store should become a continuous information center that can serve your customers with information they do not receive anywhere else.

Your customers may also want to take a firm stand on this important issue. Here are some actions that need to be taken up immediately. Make sure your Senator, Congressman and the White House learn about your opinion:

• No legislation can be allowed protecting the organizers of Auschwitz from further lawsuits from their victims
• All talks with German politicians acting on behalf of the Organizers of Auschwitz need to be stopped immediately
• There can be no approval of the merger between Deutsche Bank and Bankers Trust designed to pave the way to expand the grip of the German Pharma-Cartel on the American people and businesses. Let your opinion be
known.
• German Chancellor Schroeder, Chief of Staff Hombach and other accomplices of the Pharma-Cartel must be declared undesired persons in America as long as they act as accomplices of the Pharma-Cartel and support Codex Alimentarius. Send them an E-mail at the address below.
• Hoechst, Bayer, and BASF, the organizers of Auschwitz and the spearheads of the international Pharma-Cartel and of Codex Alimentarius must be banned from trading on any US stock exchange. Speak with your political representative, help to make the issue public.
• Consumers in the US and around the world must boycott all products from Hoechst, Bayer, and BASF until these companies have paid due compensation for the past crimes against slave labor victims as well as the other destruction and suffering their action caused across Europe. Inform your friends, neighbors and colleagues about this boycott. Ask local
newspapers to write about it.
• Individual and class action lawsuits must be filed against Hoechst, Bayer, and BASF and other pharmaceutical companies by patients who suffered from severe side effects of drugs marketed by those companies.
• Pharmaceutical companies must open their files on the side effects of pharmaceutical drugs they are selling in order to protect patients from being harmed.
• Write to your political representatives urging them to stop any and all support for the Pharma-Cartel’s plan to restrict health information in relation to vitamins and other natural therapies at the national or international level.
• Write to your political representatives urging them to stop all legislative and regulatory plans undermining the accomplishments of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act.
• Write to the Commissioner of the FDA, the FTC and inform them that any regulation they issue that complicates the free exchange of life saving information on natural health, is compromising human health and human lives. Any official involved in such measures should be tried for criminal offenses.
• When you deal next time with CRN or any other organizations pretending to represent your interest, have a close look.

I encourage you to join this new stage of fighting the Pharma-Cartel in your own interest for the survival of your health food store, in the interest of your customers and of millions of Americans who are interested
in effective, safe and affordable natural health.

Sincerely yours,

Matthias Rath, M.D.

Medical journal reveals that 70 percent of drug decision-making panel members have financial ties to industry

The journal Nature has published studies showing that 70 percent of the drug decision panels run in this country are rigged with decision-makers who have strong financial ties to the very drug companies whose products are affected by these decisions.
So much for evidence-based medicine. Drug approval decisions have little to do with evidence and everything to do with materialistic greed and cold, hard cash. That cash is doled out to decision-makers in the form of research grants, consulting fees and outright bribes. These decision-makers, who are often physicians, generally do not reveal their conflicts of interest. Yet they accept positions on decision-making panels where these so-called experts sit around and decide what should be the standard practice for various diseases, symptoms and conditions. Write-ups of those practices are then distributed to physicians around the country who follow the procedures. The journal Nature has revealed that 70 percent of these panels are rigged with decision-makers who have conflicts of interest.

Conventional medicine tries to say this is all evidence-based. They say you should trust all this information because doctors are trained in medical school and their studies are published in peer-reviewed journals. What they don't tell you is the reality of the situation, which is that pharmaceutical companies pay for most of the clinical trials conducted on drugs, and nearly all drug trials magically produce results that favor the firm footing the bill.

They also don't tell you that the negative studies are swept under the rug and censored by the drug companies. You only hear about the positive studies. They could conduct trials on a particular drug in which five trials reveal that the drug kills people and five other trials reveal that it helps people, and guess which five you will hear about? Guess which five the mainstream press will cover in the news? Guess which five will show up in a published peer-reviewed article in the medical journals? They also don't tell you about the influence of medical journals themselves.

Drug-pushing medical journals
Drug company advertising brings in hundreds of millions of dollars a year that fund these medical journals and pay the salaries of the editors who determine which studies the journal will and won't accept. So guess what gets into the journals? That's right -- the studies that promote prescription drugs. The benefits of these drugs are routinely exaggerated and the risks are routinely minimized.
When something goes wrong with the drug and it starts killing tens of thousands of Americans, guess what? They convene a decision panel. This is what happened with the FDA recently, when they convened a panel to decide whether Vioxx was dangerous enough to be banned from the marketplace. It turns out Vioxx has probably killed more than 60,000 Americans, according to a senior drug safety researcher at the FDA, Dr. David Graham. He revealed this in testimony before the U.S. Senate. According to the FDA, that's not dangerous enough to pull the drug. The FDA panel voted to keep Vioxx on the market.

What they did not tell you is that many of those panel members had strong financial ties to drug companies. They were being paid consulting fees or receiving research grants from the very companies that were affected by their decisions.

Once again, so much for evidence-based medicine. The only evidence that I'm finding here is evidence of a giant drug racket. There is ample evidence of corruption and collusion. In fact, the more you look at this industry, the more you realize just how deeply the American people have been conned. It's a giant scam. There are really no other words to describe it. To call it scientifically based medicine is a hoax. It's an insult to real science and honest scientists.

Prescription drugs are a leading cause of death in America
Conventional medicine wants you to think these drugs are recommended because they've been scientifically proven, because they have undergone safety testing and have been approved as safe by the FDA. They don't tell you the rest of the story. Prescription drugs are now the fourth leading cause of death in this country. The drugs approved as safe by the Food and Drug Administration are now killing 100,000 Americans a year.
Prescription drugs make deaths from terrorism, murder, automobile collisions and illegal drug use seem tiny by comparison. The number of deaths from prescription drugs dwarfs just about everything else that's happened in this country in terms of fatalities. That's the story they absolutely do not want you to know about. In fact, it has taken years for the truth to surface about these decision panels populated by experts with ties to the pharmaceutical industry. They don't go out of their way to tell you about their conflicts of interest. They keep them hidden until someone comes along, does the research and finds out that these people have been taking money from the very companies whose products they are testing.

Intimidation of critics
Do you know what happens when you're a doctor on one of these panels and you vote against the approval of one of these drugs? Take a guess. Your research money suddenly dries up, and you have no more research grants. Your career fizzles out. In fact, this was happening at the Harvard Research Medical Center. One of the people there, Dr. James Fries, characterized it as "a pattern of consistent intimidation by the drug companies." That's his quote, and that's what's happening to experts who don't say good things about prescription drugs.
Critics can easily be blackballed by the industry, so there is tremendous pressure on doctors and decision-makers to always vote in favor of brand-named, high-profit prescription drugs anytime they sit on decision panels. Now, they will tell you they have no conflicts of interest. They say, "We only decide based on the evidence." And yet they consistently decide in favor of dangerous drugs, even when clear evidence of harm is right in front of them.

They are heavily influenced by drug company money, intimidation, threats and the medical profession's "circle the wagons" mentality. For years and years, I've been warning about collusion in the drug industry and the magnitude of the drug racket in the United States. This industry is largely a scam. In fact, what's going on today is criminal in nature.

If you wish to be a healthy individual, then you have to find alternatives to prescription drugs. You have to say no to unnecessary surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. You must get outside this corrupt system and move on to something that actually promotes healing like naturopathic medicine, nutrition, herbal medicine, homeopathy or massage therapy. These are the areas of medicine in which you can experience and discover lasting human health.

Don't be a financial slave to drug companies that are only interested in turning your body into a profit center. Remember, they can only make more money by expanding the definition of disease and using your body as a system for generating financial profits. They're exploiting your health to generate shareholder profit. That's the reality of what's going on out there today, and thanks to the Internet, the truth about conventional medicine is finally beginning to be told.

That above was written by The Health Ranger

http://www.healthranger.org/

Richard, great articles!! Thanks for posting them! Amazing, how government is willing to damage it's own people, for the corporate world, which now controls the world! Very scary indeed!

North

Women are meant to be loved, not understood.
Vs.
Women are sphinxes without secrets
Oscar Wilde

Here's my..;)
By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll become happy; if you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.
Socrates

Love, Passion, East-European, but.. then again,
;)

weatherthestorm team:

The recent kind teachings here about Navaratri, from Donatella and Geeta, have had me thinking it might be an apt time to share a fantasy character I've been thinking about for a month or so. Here's a description of what this character is like in my mind:

"A heroine like a comicbook character, with blazing lightbulbs in place of hands. She swung her hands around and dashed them against some stones, and now her hands are open shards of glass -- look out -- she is seeing hurt all around her, and will hurt you if you touch anyone unfairly. She has disconnected herself from her normal way of being to protect the goals and dignity of others, and has become brittle and sharp. Her anger needs to flow out, molten and unchecked, to reverse the process of unfair attacks."

Some people have said this character is kind of Durga-like. I plan to work up a sketch or painting of her. When I do, I'll share it here. Maybe Gotham's company will pick it up the character, and do a book. For now, the concept is wholly mine. I don't believe anyone has thought of a character like this before, although Edward Scissorhands is a little like her, when he's angry.

I'd like to thank you for your consistent negativity, hounding and unfairness to people here, as these qualities of yours were the direct inspiration for this character.

Dear Marek

Well said!
May I add:

Most women are in love, at any moment: with life, with their families and kids, their husbands and lovers, their goals, with God.

Most men are too, but they're often very unaware of it.

Dear Admin

My hands-of-glass character comment was written in response to a versified comment from the weatherthestorm team. Please feel free to delete my comment above. Its context has been diminished, and perhaps it's too Durga-like in its message, anyway.

love, Heather

Marek, I've great respect for Oscar wilde and Socrates. You too seem to have burnt your fingers. I already became one 5yrs back, my brother is on his way, as Socrates says.

Dear Marek,
Thank you for your noble views on women.
Love,
Donatella

Me, too, heather, me too, but you have too, there is no other more divine brainchemistry..;)

June, call it Karma, call it contrast,
in my case, God thought..?, that's the quest?-ion.. or adventure..

anyhow, in my Polish-Dutch, distinctions,
It's better to overpay, for every value,
then,
but maybe that's Karma,

Better to give that a bearhug, then to quote Louise Hay's later..

So, little by little, I see more,

Love, Passion!

Heya Donatella,
My pleasure, from the heart,

Princesses do exist, scientific fact!,
take my Polish word on that,
where, ..mhmnn..

That and,
love, Passion,

Some people seem to understand only the language of attack. Some women are elated when they are praised for being so kind, so generous and so humble. That’s it. They never try to incorporate those qualities into their being. Only a few do. These people have heard the teachings of Mother Teresa -- Don’t stop giving even if you are ridiculed. If you stop loving when you are attacked (or hated?) then that is not your true nature. You are but hypocrites. You talk about fairness but are unfair with double standards -- you are but hypocrites. You judge others and presume to know their motives while you cannot take an ounce of criticsm. It is but a disgrace to woman hood if you don’t practice what you preach. You have to be brave enough to accept you mistakes and faults and stop judging the intentions of other people and ridiculing them and labeling them, slandering them with your narrow-mindedness -- grouping people who don’t agree with your views and labeling them as one and to direct your anguish and personal attacks, you remind me of the unfair treatment to people. That certainly is not the qualities of a true woman. For example, only few women have those qualities in this blog: Geeta , Donatella, North etc. Women, who run away from criticism or humorous ridicule directed towards them, are pretenders. When a friend of yours is attacked (You see differently when you are attacked) then you would go give moral support and ask her to be strong, and counter attack the attacker with unfairness and double standards. Where are your qualities of woman hood -- love, compassion, kindness, humility at all times? I forgot you like to justify your actions and never accept you fault unlike some men/women of integrity. Also, you can see through my malicious intentions crystal clearly — I forgot.

As the NeoCon American Zionist ideologues move in for the kill:

"Wiretap bill moves closer to passage,"
http://[delinker]www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15012302/,

and,

"Republicans move to seal terror trial plan,"
http://[delinker]www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15044215/

and,

"Bush and Iran: Going to War to Save His Own Ass?"
http://[delinker]counterpunch.org/lindorff09262006.html

And the only thing the democrats worry about is being apart of the show . . .

Christian, and secular, anarchists unite!

Peace

Cornerstone

I have this thought
of a smooth flat stone
pulled up from a damp riverbed.
Like a cottage step,
or an old hearthstone,
its bound to our lives by a thread

of love, and it's lasted
because of its strength,
worn smooth by passage of time.
Its texture's gray silk,
of a hard, cool kind, and
it sparkles, though covered in grime.

On this cool river stone,
I build my hope
we can all live together some day,
without knives of steel
deep in our sleeves,
or poisons that help us betray.

With this gray river stone
smooth-textured and strong,
a floor of safety I'll lay,
with a prayer to the Gods
and the universe, too.

Of peace for us all, will I pray.

Two hours' pause is just a start.

love, Heather.

And just for the record, this is a lengthy quote from Russ Feingold; pretty good 'stuff.'

"Even Timothy McVeigh Was Afforded Constitutional Rights
The Flaws in the Military Commissions Act
By Sen. RUSSELL FEINGOLD

Let me be clear: I welcome efforts to bring terrorists to justice. It is about time. This Administration has too long been distracted by the war in Iraq from the fight against al Qaeda. We need a renewed focus on the terrorist networks that present the greatest threat to this country.

But we wouldn't be where we are today, five years after September 11 with not a single Guantanamo Bay detainee having been brought to trial, if the President had come to Congress in the first place, rather than unilaterally creating military commissions that didn't comply with the law. The President wanted to act on his own, and he dared the Supreme Court to stop him. And he lost. The Hamdan decision was an historic rebuke to an Administration that has acted for years as if it were above the law.

Finally, only because he was essentially ordered to do so by the Supreme Court, the President has agreed to consult with Congress. I would have hoped that we would take this opportunity to pass legislation that allows us to proceed in accordance with our laws and our values. That is what separates America from our enemies. These trials, conducted appropriately, have the potential to demonstrate to the world that our democratic, constitutional system of government is our greatest strength in fighting those who attacked us.

And that is why I am saddened that I must oppose this legislation. Because the trials conducted under this legislation will send a very different signal to the world, one that I fear will put our own troops and personnel in jeopardy both now and in future conflicts. To take just a few examples, this legislation would permit an individual to be convicted on the basis of coerced testimony and hearsay, would not allow full judicial review of the conviction, and yet would allow someone convicted under these rules to be put to death. That is simply unacceptable. We would not stand for another country to try our citizens under those rules, and we should not stand for our own government to do so, either.

Not only that, this legislation would deny detainees at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere-people who have been held for years but have not been tried or even charged with any crime-the ability to challenge their detention in court. Among its many flaws, this is the most troubling-that the legislation seeks to suspend the Great Writ of habeas corpus.

The legislation before us is better than that originally proposed by the President, which would have largely codified the procedures the Supreme Court has already rejected. And that is thanks to the efforts of some of my Republican colleagues for whom I have great respect and admiration.

But this bill remains deeply flawed, and I cannot support it.

One of the most disturbing provisions of this bill eliminates the right of habeas corpus for those detained as enemy combatants. I support an amendment by Senator Specter to strike that provision from the bill. I ask unanimous consent that my separate statement on that amendment be put in the record at the appropriate point.

Habeas corpus is a fundamental recognition that in America, the government does not have the power to detain people indefinitely and arbitrarily. And that in America, the courts must have the power to review the legality of executive detention decisions.

Habeas corpus is a longstanding vital part of our American tradition, and is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.

As a group of retired judges wrote to Congress, habeas corpus "safeguards the most hallowed judicial role in our constitutional democracy--ensuring that no man is imprisoned unlawfully."

This bill would fundamentally alter that historical equation. Faced with an executive branch that has detained hundreds of people without trial for years now, it would eliminate the right of habeas corpus.

Under this legislation, some individuals, at the designation of the executive branch alone, could be picked up, even in the United States, and held indefinitely without trial and without any access whatsoever to the courts. They would not be able to call upon the laws of our great nation to challenge their detention because they would have been put outside the reach of the law.

That is unacceptable, and it almost surely violates our Constitution. But that determination will take years of protracted litigation.

Why would we turn our back on hundreds of years of history and our nation's commitment to liberty -- particularly when there is no good reason to do so? We should be working to provide a lawful system of military commissions so that those who have committed war crimes can be brought to justice. We can do that quite well without denying one of the most basic rights guaranteed by the Constitution to those held in custody by our government.

Some have suggested that terrorists who take up arms against this country should not be allowed to challenge their detention in court. But that argument is circular--the writ of habeas allows those who might be mistakenly detained to challenge their detention in court, before a neutral decision-maker. The alternative is to allow people to be detained indefinitely with no ability to argue that they are not, in fact, enemy combatants. Unless any of my colleagues can say with absolute certainty that everyone detained as an enemy combatant was correctly detained--and there is ample evidence to suggest that is not the case--then we should make sure that people can't simply be locked up forever, without court review, based on someone slapping a "terrorist" label on them.

There is another reason why we must not deprive detainees of habeas corpus, and that is the fact that the American system of government is supposed to set an example for the world, as a beacon of democracy. And this provision will only serve to harm others' perception of our system of government.

A group of retired diplomats sent a very moving letter explaining their concerns about this habeas-stripping provision. Here is what they said: "To proclaim democratic government to the rest of the world as the supreme form of government at the very moment we eliminate the most important avenue of relief from arbitrary governmental detention will not serve our interests in the larger world."

Many, many dedicated patriotic Americans share these grave reservations about this particular provision of the bill.

They have reservations not because they sympathize with suspected terrorists. Not because they are soft on national security. Not because they don't understand the threat we face. No. They, and we in the Senate who support the Specter amendment, are concerned about this provision because we care about the Constitution, because we care about the image that American presents to the world as we fight the terrorists. Because we know that the writ of habeas corpus provides one of the most significant protections of human freedom against arbitrary government action ever created. If we sacrifice it here, we will head down a road that history will judge harshly and our descendants will regret.

We must not imperil our proud history. We must not abandon the Great Writ. We must not jeopardize our nation's proud traditions and principles by suspending the writ of habeas corpus, and permitting our government to pick people up off the street, even in U.S. cities, and detain them indefinitely without court review. That is not what America is about.

Unfortunately, the suspension of the Great Writ is not the only problem with this legislation, nor is it the only instance where the legislation goes beyond establishing military commissions to include unnecessary provisions with deeply troubling results.

The Administration has spoken about the need for this legislation to bring clarity to the War Crimes Act, which makes it a crime to violate Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. It has proposed that we specifically list the actions that would be considered crimes under that law. On the face of it, that certainly sounds sensible. But when you look at this legislation, you realize that the modification it makes only muddies the waters. Not only that, it does so retroactively.

The key problem is in the definition of "cruel or inhuman" treatment. This is a critical definition because it is the provision that determines which coercive interrogation techniques amount to crimes under U.S. law. But because of the complex structure of this section, it is very difficult to understand what the new definition would criminalize, and I am concerned that any ambiguity may be interpreted too narrowly by some. The definition incorporates several terms that in turn have their own separate definitions, and it even has one new definition that doesn't go into effect until the date of enactment, even though the rest of the amendments to the War Crimes Act are made retroactive to 1997. Frankly, the new prohibition is extremely unclear. And we have already heard different interpretations of it from Senators and Administration officials who negotiated the language. If our goal is to give unambiguous guidance to our personnel, and the courts, this does not do it.

The way the provision is drafted, it even seems designed to grant immunity to senior officials who authorized coercive interrogation techniques.

We should just follow the approach originally endorsed by the Senate Armed Services Committee, which would have applied the language of the McCain amendment.

I am also very concerned about the definition of unlawful enemy combatant that is included in this legislation, and about the corresponding issue of the jurisdiction of the military commissions.

This legislation has been justified as necessary to allow our government to prosecute Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other dangerous men recently transferred to Guantanamo Bay. Yet if you look at the fine print of this legislation, it becomes clear that it is much, much broader than that. It would permit trial by military commission not just for those accused of serious terrorist crimes, but also individuals, including legal permanent residents of this country, who are alleged to have "purposefully and materially supported hostilities" against the United States or its allies.

This is extremely broad, and key terms go undefined. And by including hostilities not only against the United States but also against its allies, the bill allows the U.S. to hold and try by military commission individuals who have never engaged, directly or indirectly, in any action against the United States.

Not only that, but the bill would also define as an unlawful enemy combatant subject to trial by military commission, anyone who "has been determined to be an unlawful enemy combatant by a Combatant Status Review Tribunal or another competent tribunal established under the authority of the President or the Secretary of Defense." This essentially grants a blank check to the executive branch to decide entirely on its own who can be tried by military commission.

If we are going to establish military commissions outside of our traditional military and civilian justice systems, at a minimum we should explicitly limit their application to the worst of the worst, those who pose a serious threat to our country. We shouldn't leave it up to just one branch of government to make these incredibly important decisions.

The bulk of this legislation concerns the structure and process of military commissions. Although we heard from many witnesses at congressional hearings this summer that we should hew as closely as possible to the long-established military system of justice, this bill instead essentially starts from scratch and creates a whole new structure. It does so despite Justice Kennedy's wise advice in his concurrence in Hamdan, where he said: "The Constitution is best preserved by reliance on standards tested over time and insulated from the pressures of the moment."

For example, this legislation creates a presumption for the admissibility of hearsay evidence. Now, it is true that because of the exigencies of war and active combat situations, hearsay rules may need to be structured differently than they are in our criminal courts, but the rules laid out in the UCMJ are drafted to handle these same exigencies. While there may need to be some adjustments to the UCMJ hearsay rules, we need not discard them altogether.

The presumption against hearsay is a fundamental protection built into our existing legal structures to ensure that proceedings yield a just and fair result. Yet in this provision and elsewhere, the legislation erodes such protections-going far beyond what is allowed in the military system-and without justification.

Even more disturbing is that the bill appears to permit individuals to be convicted, and even sentenced to death, on the basis of coerced testimony. According to the legislation, statements obtained through cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, as long as it was obtained prior to December 2005 when the McCain amendment become law, would apparently be admissible in many instances in these military commissions.

Now, it is true that the bill would require the commission to find these statements have sufficient reliability and probative value. But why would we go down this road of trying to convict people based on statements obtained through cruel, inhuman, or degrading interrogation techniques? Either we are a nation that stands against this type of cruelty and for the rule of law, or we are not. We can't have it both ways.

The idea that coerced statements can be used as long as they were obtained long enough ago is appalling. It seems to assume that there was a lack of clarity in the law prior to December 2005. In fact, there was great clarity, until this Administration decided to invent a narrow definition of torture that had never been used or accepted anywhere in the civilized world. The McCain amendment was needed to get this Administration to return to the law. It was a repudiation of the legal theories of the infamous Bybee memo, which the Administration even said it was withdrawing once it was publicly revealed. Its enactment should not now be used as a dividing point before which evidence obtained through cruel and inhuman treatment can be used in court.

At times of great adversity, the strength of a nation's convictions is tested and its true character revealed. If we sacrifice or qualify our principles in the face of the tremendous challenge we face from terrorists who want to destroy America, we will be making a terrible mistake. If we cloak cruel or degrading interrogations done in the name of American safety with euphemisms like "alternative techniques," if we create arbitrary dates for when differing degrees of morality will apply, we will have betrayed our principles and ourselves.

Statements obtained through such techniques should not be admissible, even against the most vicious killers in the world, in proceedings held by the government of the United States of America. Period.

In sum, this legislation is very troubling and in many respects legally suspect. I fear the end result of this legislation will only be more delay. It will surely be subject to further legal challenge, and may squander another four or five years while cases work their way through the courts again.

We can and must fight terrorism aggressively without compromising fundamental American values. We must remember what the Army Judge Advocate General told me at a Judiciary Committee hearing this summer: that the United States should set an example for the world, and that we must carefully consider the effect on the way our own soldiers will be treated.

In closing let me do something I don't do very often--and that is quote John Ashcroft. According to the New York Times, at a private meeting of high-level officials in 2003 about the military commission structure, then-Attorney General Ashcroft said: "Timothy McVeigh was one of the worst killers in U.S. history. But at least we had fair procedures for him." How sad that this Congress would seek to pass legislation about which the same cannot be said."

http://[delinker]counterpunch.org/feingold09282006.html

Peace

It is good to have you back, Craig. Sign me up on your secular wing!

You got it brother!

Revolution ahimsa style!

Peace

Dear अग्नि

Oye, it's good to see your sig!

Dear ConsciousOne

Some people seem to act only in attack, though the attack may be veiled. When one so attacked puts up his or her arms, or clasps hands with others, to fend off the attack, the attacker yells loud, to point others towards the attempt at defense, labeling it attack, as you've done.

There are layers of consciousness and feeling that your comment tells me you have never plumbed. Hang around a while, you may find things getting interesting.

The anger you read comes from attacks by some, directed towards others. It's a common refrain from those who like to control, that a woman is not a woman unless she's willing to put up with anything, all the time. Such people forget the lessons of Navaratri, which I am just learning, myself.

A woman's nature includes things that not all can see, at first. One is the capacity to love past all bounds of space and time. Another is a willingness to confront betrayal, because betrayal can be lethal to vulnerable individuals. The fight against betrayal is just one aspect of love.

If your last sentences are directed at me...

"I forgot you like to justify your actions and never accept you fault unlike some men/women of integrity. Also, you can see through my malicious intentions crystal clearly — I forgot."

...if these words are directed at me: Clearly you must have forgotten one thing: You don't know me, nor I you. I don't even know who you are, though you can find out something about me. If you knew me, such words could never pour from your fingertips, to be directed at me.

As I said, hang around a while. You may get to know me, after all.

love, Heather

Dear Marek,

Your cavalier spirit, witty humor and sharp intellect put you, categorically, in a league of your own.

Ref.: #60.

Cheers.

Skep, my esteemed wingman!

It's great to see you posting here again with a fair degree of regularity. You are certainly one of the brightest commenters and gentlemen on this blog.

Regards.

Some of you may find this very interesting!! DNA Activation? Been reading this site a while tonight, and sounds intriguing; on how to activate your DNA!!

http://www.dnaperfection.com/index.html

Also found a great page for learning all about the Chakras!!

http://healing.about.com/cs/chakras/a/alignchakras.htm

I am always learning... and I love the net for utilizing it's library of knowledge, for positiveness, wisdom and perservering to learn new methods of self-empowerement and self-improvement.... hope this links prove helpful to others as well...

North

Aye, I see you my sis Heather.

"You can be my wingman anytime." Hey . . .
I heard that line b4!

North! Yes! Can you imagine? The next generation can veritably be gods . . .

Peace all

There is a natural healthy sweetener used in Japan called Stevia. In the United States it is illegal to sell it as a sweetener. The reason being is this natural sweetener would compete with the harmful "patented" artificial sweeteners. It can however be bought as a supplement. Apparently Rumsfeld was involved with the company that produced Aspartame

Go ahead Google rumsfeld sweetener (amazing yes?)

The FDA actually publicly burned books that told all about it's use as a sweetener. Read about it http://www.stevia.net/bookburning.htm

This is an atrocity; this is why the United States is so messed up, where corporations and individual greed are allowed to bring harm to the Nations People.

Obviously the people and corporations that use the United States Government as a tool for profit are not in position to judge any other country.

The other thing that is great about Japan is a large number of the population takes and is informed about the benefits of Co-enzyme Q10. If the citizen population of the United States practiced the same it would cost the medical industry hundreds of million of dollars.

The people using the United States Government as a tool for profit are the Largest Criminal Enterprise in the world and it is time we stopped being fooled by the "appearances" they create.

They are far worse than the "Mafia" ever was, and have killed millions.

Of course there is corruption in every country and this is why we need transparency and self government by the people.

One day Craig.. it will Be that way.

Richard..government has been, and always will be a legal, criminalized organization.

WE, the little people will always be their "grunts."

North

Hetaher: Why do you hate ravi so much? You complain when he comments. You have same problems when he doesn’t comment. What is your problem? Do you direct all your negative energies against ravi and his ghost? Do you imagine yourself to be a savior like Durga Ma and try to guide others as to how they should behave? What have you taken upon yourself? Do you have only friends and enemies, don’t you know that there is something called humane nature, to love unconditionally not to hate others, because in the long run it is you who is going to suffer, it you who are hurting yourself, not somebody... There will always be somebody. You will see traces of ravi everywhere you go because he has became a part of you, your evil self trying to take over you… Love Heather, love is what binds you to somebody.

ConsciousOne, I second rehan, your post is interesting but how many people do you think would reflect upon themselves to really understand you?

Dear Abhay

I don't hate Ravi, I oppose only some of his comments, and have no worries at all if he does not comment. I direct my positive energies against those who hurt others intentionally, as a principle of my life. You see me as trying to guide others as to how they should behave? I don't. You give me powers I haven't taken on myself.

If you could talk with those I love, they'd tell you that unconditional love is at the core of my spirit. Unconditional love includes protecting those one loves, Abjay.

love, Heather

Sorry, Abhay, for mispelling your name in my last sentence.

This second reply to you lets me share a thought I'd just had. Mother Teresa has been used as an example of perfect love here recently.

If Mother Teresa had seen a man in a frenzy, beating a woman in the street in front of her, do you think she would have smiled her love at the two of them, and walked on her way? Would she have gone to the two of them, put her hands on both their heads and blessed them, then walked on her way? What would she have done, do you think?

love, Heather

“Unconditional love includes protecting those one loves”

So you protect those who you love. While you may not protect those you don’t love. By all means you can attack those who you believe is a threat to YOUR loved ones. Practical, quiet practical, self sustaining philosophy. What are we talking? Is it not unconditional love? Do whatever pleases you but don’t use lofty terms so as to disgrace the meaning of true love.

Pleae don't use the word "love" so liberally.

If you're unaware of India's water crisis, here's an article about how even middle-class New Delhites can't get enough clean water each day.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/29/world/asia/29water.html

A water deficit is affecting many areas of the world already, and is continuing to worsen globally.

Cleaning up the Yamuna can be done, with will, money and time. It was just a few decades ago that the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, OH, USA was so polluted with industrial waste that it caught fire. Now the river is clean, though not yet pristine, and its water quality is improving every year. If reversal of industrial riverine pollution can be achieved in commerce and greed driven America, it can be achieved elsewhere.

But the water deficit is an enormous problem. It will affect future generations profoundly.

love, Heather

Mother Teresa would love both of them equally. She would shower more love and compassion upon on the attacker than the victim to lead him out of his evil ways and make him realize the path to true love. He is the one who needs love of the Mother, than the victim of hate who hasn’t really lost touch with the ways of love.

Deaer Abhay

I have not told you what words you should use, though you have attempted to do that with me. I did not say the things you attributed to me in your third comment.

Have you given any thought as to what Mother Teresa might do if she encountered a frenzied man beating his wife in the street?

love, Heather

Sorry, Abhay, it looks as if our comments crossed.

Yes, of course she would do that, and you are too right as to the deeper needs of the man beating his wife, for unconditional love.

But how would Mother Teresa achieve it? What physical actions would she take? And if the man were not healed of his hurt, hatred and need to strike at others at her first prayers and touch, and he continued to beat his wife, what would happen next?

love, Heather

Mother Teresa offers unconditional love. There are countless examples of people who are touched by her love, who had changed their evil ways to spread more love to others. Of course, those people who are physically touched by her and are momentarily mesmerized to have felt the divine hand as if they are blessed, may not all be really touched at the level of soul to actually follow her teachings in their real lives. Those people may go to their home, beat their wives, deceive their friends, manipulate others, indulge in negative thinking, or may hate others or hate themselves. Still, Mother Teresa only gives unconditional love at all cost and there are countless people more who are touched by her teachings who did not physically visit her. She is a symbol of love, unconditional love.

Dear Abhay

Everything you say is right.

If a man were so uncontrolled as to beat his wife in front of Mother Teresa in the street, what do you think she would have done?

Would she have blessed them from a distance, would she have fallen to her knees in prayer?

Or would she have intervened, to come between them to stop the immediate violence, so she could bless them in hopes that healing might begin?

love, Heather

I have Miekes Birthday card all finished, I am having some problems accessing my web space at the moment...tried publishing it to the web yesterday all day but couldn't get it on... :-(

I will try again today and then post the URL..

Love Simon xx

For a more practical answer:

If she sees a person beating his wife, she would try to stop him physically if she were capable but since you say that he is frenzied and the mother is a frail woman, she would call for help from the passer-bys, I believe in India any passer-by would try and stop such heinous abuse with out being called upon by the Mother to do so. She may call the police as any Good Samaritan would do.

But, SHE WOULD NEVER GET FRENZIED TO STOP THE FRENZIED MAN. Or hate him to stop the hate. She would love him unconditionally. She would be friends with him if he acted like one at least for a moment in his acquaintance with her. She would see a son in him and stop him as any mother would do to his own son. Just because his son goes frenzied she doesn’t go frenzied and talk to him in his own language so that he may understand her. Her language is only that of love, that of unconditional love and it never changes in any circumstances.

Then, she would go to the prison if he were arrested and offer her blessings and love so that when he comes out he could be more useful to the society.

Did you have your coffee?

Dear Abhay

Thanks for such a complete answer. You are 100% right, in my humble personal opinion.

She would call for others' help to intervene, and when she was young and stronger, might have physically intervened herself. So, through action, she begins the process of sharing her conditional love and healing.

There are times when an intevention is neccessary to stop a pattern of violence. There are times when words must be spoken to stop evil. There are times when a hand must be laid on another's arm to stop that person from harming another. There are even times when more than one person must be called upon to restrain an angry person from hurting others.

Action in opposition to a moment of evil is not incompatible with unconditional love, but rather an expression of it. To take no action at such would be morally reprehensible. Thus, as you say, "I believe in India any passer-by would try and stop such heinous abuse with out being called upon by the Mother to do so. She may call the police as any Good Samaritan would do."

I did not have coffee, I only drink it sometimes, the same with chai and tea. It's very early here, in any case, too early for caffeine.

love, Heather

Oh, so sorry, I mean to type "So, through action, she begins the process of sharing her UNconditional love and healing."

You write "She would be friends with him if he acted like one at least for a moment in his acquaintance with her."

That sounds like conditional love to me! I think she might have tried to be friends with him, no matter what his attitude was.

love, Heather

Friendship is a two way relation. It needs an act of sharing to first form that relation. Love can be one directional and therefore unconditional. There is a difference there.

What violence are we talking here? If a husband beats a wife, it is a crime. If a person says that you are a dimwit and stupid, it is not a crime.

Dear Abhay

We were not talking about friendship, but about love. Love, especially of the unconditonal variety, was the subject you chose. But since you've brought it up...

Friendship is harder to achieve than love. Friendship is more vulnerable, and, as you say, requires communication between two people. It's delicate, and needs great sensitivity and patience. Love is not only a one-way thing, it's also extraordinarly strong and resilient. Friendship becomes strong and resilient over time, once love has entered the picture. Friendship can be supported by love, but it's something altogether different. It requires a desire for both people to refrain from betrayal, and a willingness to forgive unconditionally when betrayal does occur, as it always will, since we are all imperfect in our humanity. When friendship and love are combined, there is a love that can last forever. But it's hard to find, and hard to keep alive, because the friendship part brings imperfection to the mix. Yet the reason friendship combined with love makes a great love, is that friendship adds unpredictability and mutability to the relationship, and keeps it ever-changing, keeps both people ever curious. And that means the love is very dynamic and profound.

I once wrote Ravi a note about friendship, love, betrayal and recovery from betrayal's damage. It's called The Virtue of Friends, and you can read it here:

http://heatherquinn.blogspot.com/2006/05/virtues-of-friends.html

Violence that's emotional or verbal can be far more wounding than physical violence. I object to people hurting others with their words.

We are not talking about any words Ravi has used against me, by the way. I hope you understand that. Though he has used many negative words against me, in many languages, I have learned not to take them personally.

love, Heather

I was talking about “friendship” as seen by Mother Teresa. Of course you are not Mother Teresa when it comes to friendship. So I say you are not Mother Teresa when it comes to Love. There is nothing wrong in accepting that.

Are you trying to justify your actions by comparing yourself to Mother Teresa and assuming what she would do the same in your situation? What hypocrisy is this, the likes of which I haven’t heard before? Trying to confirm the unconditional love of mother Teresa with your frenzied response to frenzied actions?

No one is a victimized here so that they are in desperate need of help. They are more than capable of defending themselves. They don’t need your Mother Teresa like advice or your Mohammed Ali like counter punches. The whole situation is your imagination. Other people have the weapons of love, compassion and kindness and humility to take on any ridicule or a curse statement or verbal abuse. You need to learn to not react emotionally or counter attack when others are hurt, give them advice not to take it seriously so to take hurt. You can help them with more of the weapons of love, not granites or nukes which creates more ill-will. It also depends on how you interpret a statement and it is up to you how you choose to react. Your reaction defines the attack itself. It is not the actions but reactions which show your true self. You can learn a lot from Geeta, Donatella and Kate. They can tell you how they love Ravi. Ask them.

Dear Friends,

I came to know a story of a little child's level of giving... I could not keep it only with me... So, let me share the same with you.
-------------------------------------------------
Many years ago, a little girl named Liz who was suffering from a rare and serious disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness.

The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the little boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister. I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, "Yes I'll do it if it will save her."

As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing the color returning to her cheek. Then his face grew pale and his smile faded. He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, "Will I start to die right away?"

Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood in order to save her.
-------------------------------------------------
Would you do it for your sister if you were going to die in her place?....

Sanjeev

Sanjeev, This story is one of those do good all times, you will be rewarded in surprising ways, stories. They are many stories of this kind. What they intend to preach is that, “do good because you will be rewarded” The actual message should be “do good and don’t expect any reward”

Dear Abhay

Once you had answered my questions fully, you saw that you had argued yourself over to agree with my position.

Your most recent comment to me is an attempt to shake yourself away from having agreed with me. In it, you paint me with colors that aren't true to my being. The resulting mask is one you've created, and it is not me.

I said Mother Teresa would have offered her friendship to the man. This would have been an act of unconditional love, not friendship. It would have changed to include friendship only if the man had reciprocated. But my point was that she would not have waited for the man to show he was ready to receive friendship, she would have tried to offer it first.

I consider Geeta, Donatella and Kate to be my friends. We learn from each other, and we support each other. And this is precisely why I am continuing to speak here.

love, Heather

Hi Abhay,

The little boy did not expect any reward for giving his blood to his sister. He thought he was going to die; still he agreed. I wouldn’t have posted this story if the boy had been 25. It’s difficult to give the benefit of the doubt to a 25-year-old. But you can’t question the motives of a 5-year-old.

If this isn’t unconditional, unselfish love, then I don’t know what it is.

Sanjeev

Sanjeev, true enough. Point is that this story is read by 25 year olds. The inherent message is, "you shall be rewarded if you give without expecting a reward" The little boy was rewarded with his life for doing an unconditional charity. I hope you understand the intentions of the story which works at a slightly twisted level.

Heather, If you are not comfortable speaking with me, you don’t have to.Your whole Mother Teresa analogy has a fallacy when you are trying to apply it to your attitude in this blog. Let’s put it this way; how does mother Teresa react if she sees an on going verbal abuse towards a person on a blog?

Let’s say, Ravi towards Geeta or some X towards Y. Do you think, Mother Teresa would protect Geeta by attacking Ravi? Certainly not. She would give words of wisdom to both of them. She would spread love with words, even if Ravi doesn’t change his ways, even if Geeta doesn’t forgive Ravi or stop hating Ravi. But, I am sure her words of compassion would work wonders. It is also true that Ravi and Geeta already have mutual respect and have no ill-will towards each other. Geeta loves Ravi and she did not need any Mother Teresa to have reached that state.

surprising REWARD( of his life) for his UNCONDITIONAL love. See the contradiction?

I did not post this story to preach people to become good Samaritans. I heard it and just felt like sharing it. Whether it’s twisted or not, is a matter of perception.

Sanjeev

UNCONDITIONAL LOVE is not fake. It's real, pure, trust, sincere, and NEVER plays head games with another.

YOU CAN BE real it's your choice.

I'll make a challange for EVERYONE, just like onegirlmanyideas! Today, let's ALL practice UNCONDITIONAL LOVE FOR ONE ANOTHER BY ALL POSTING USING YOUR REAL NAME (and I don't have to CLARIFY what that means cause I TRUST you know exactly what I mean)

LOVE TO ALL

DONNA YOUNG

Dear Heather,
Your "Cornerstone" and 73 are inspiring.
Love,
Donatella
P.S. Mother Teresa never advocated abuse of any kind. She used her love as a vehicle for communication and assistance to the neediest.

Sanjeev, I know you did not post it to preach others, but the story writers intentions are such and it does work on that level. Unconditional charity is paid back with Reward when seen from the 5 year olds point of view in the story. I didn’t point this out to tell people not to give unconditional love or to ridicule the unselfishness and love of the five year old towards his sister. I hope if people understand that point it would be useful in understanding what Unconditional giving is; it doesn’t have to be rewarded at the final analysis. Don’t you think?

BE naked in the world! Expose yourself. FEEL the world around YOU and LOVE IT!

IV, regarding your post of a Rummi poet on the Quietude post~

The SUN IS LOVE. That is the naked truth.
IV, to me, is the initials for intravenius. It's something that occurs within. Without it DONNA YOUNG would just DY~

Heather, so you are speaking with me because Kate, Donatella and Geeta are your friends. You are protecting them from unknown attack which is has/going to befall upon them. You are not speaking for yourself. Mother Teresa never speaks for her own sake, she speaks for the people. I get it.

Dear Sanjeev

There are two people for whom I would give my life without question. I'm not a Mother Teresa, and I don't have perfect love for everyone, but I have it for some people.

Dear Abhay

Have I not been speaking with you? Or do you mean, will I follow you on the new path you've run down, after you've argued yourself into agreeing with my position? No, I won't. It's your intention to prove me wrong, and patronize my intentions, compassion, ethics and morality as you do so. That new path is not mine. You agreed with me once, and that's enough. No need to tussle again, when the outcome will be the same. If you're in India, it's approaching your early evening, and it's a Friday night, and you may have some open-ended time to continue this discussion. But here, it's early Friday morning, and people are on their way to work, and I must leave.

Regarding the relationships between Ravi and the more active women on this blog, you should go back and read all the archives quite throroughly, before you make statements about your perceptions on that front.

Dear Donna Young

Your challenge is a worthy goal for every day.

Dear Donatella

It's good to see you this early morning. Thanks for your remark about Mother Teresa, and your kind words about my comments.

love, Heather

"Regarding the relationships between Ravi and the more active women on this blog, you should go back and read all the archives quite throroughly, before you make statements about your perceptions on that front."

Your perceptions are not any close to reality as are mine are.

Mark my words: Geeta, Kate, Donatella would give their unconditional love to Ravi at any time. Prove me wrong! You don’t have to dig the archives.

I too don't have time to reply more, early morning rush hour for me too.

it's good to spar
with each other
it reveals
who you are
but
if you write
with intentions to fight
then that isn't right
giving without a condition
is sparing without ammunition

words
not sword
U R the REWARD

nuf fun~

words
not sword
U R the REWARD

'UNCONDITIONAL LOVE is not fake. It's real, pure, trust, sincere, and NEVER plays head games with another'
Donna Young

Beautiful!

Dear Donna Young

In your comments, you are living your challenge for today.

love, Heather

Finally,

Mieke to view your birthday card please click on my name Simon_freejohn below.

Hope you like it

Love Simon xx

ps: There is Sound on the Birthday Presentation so put your speakers on :-)

Peace

@Simon--this is absolutely beautiful!! It completely reflects Mieke's essence as I have come to know her as well. As pure-to-ggodness a person, as I've ever met....

the song, is so wonderful.... serene, pristine with intent to calm, and hold in celebration.

The happy birthday page of balloons and cake, and the beautiful words on behalf of all of us at Intentblog, truly also.... touched my heart Simon!!

Thankyou from me to you!

North

Abhay, the fearless one!

“Unconditional giving is; it doesn’t have to be rewarded at the final analysis. Don’t you think”?

Pray, where in the whole story do you see any desire for reward in the young kid? The kid was not going to be rewarded in anyway. Still—maybe in his great naivete’--he put his life on the line for his sister. Of course the doctors weren’t going to suck the entire blood out of him. But he thought it so. It's like Guru Gobind Singh throwing a challenge to his throng of devotees: The guru wanted five men to come forward and sacrifice their lives for the sake of the panth (faith). The crowd started melting away. Five brave men stood their ground, and offered themselves.

The guru took them inside a tent; he returned a few moments later with his sword dripping with blood. Everyone thought he’d gone mad. Then he called out for the men. The men came all out dressed as great warriors heralding the birth of the Khalsa panth!

This is the point. Of course the only difference between the five men and the five-year-old kid is that the kid misunderstood the doctors. But both the kids and the five men were equally brave! Unconditionally selflessly (and rewardlessly!) giving the most precious thing they had.

Of course if you want to read something into their motives, you are free to do so. Their reward is that their stories are being discussed in blogs even after 400 years! Mother Teresa, I think I am right in presuming, never got into what she did to win a Nobel Prize. Nobel Prize was her “award” and not a “reward”. Reward is the promise of 72 virgins in heaven if you blow yourself up wearing a belt laden with explosives! Those guys are also sacrificing themselves, but in their case you can clearly see a sacrifice-reward nexus. Reward in the after-life may be, but still a reward!

Post # 98 is simply a factual anecdote. It is not meant to give a message. In the end it simply poses a question: Would you do it for your sister? There is no undercurrent of holier-than-thou presumptuousness in the question. In no way does the writer assume the mantle of a compulsive do-gooder who proselytizes everyone to be like the boy.

Sanjeev

Dear Sanjeev

In this life, I've come to value hard tests, like the one faced in the the story of Guru Gobind Singh and the birth of the Khalsa panth warriors. That story was thrilling to read.

The five-year-old kid's story was too moving for me to comment on earlier. By saying thanks for the Khalsa panth story, I'm also saying thanks for the story of the five-year-old kid. And for your humanity in sharing it.

Thank you.

love, Heather

"Pray, where in the whole story do you see any desire for reward in the young kid?" ~ Sanjeev

I stated it clearly, this story is for adults. Similar stories are time and again used by Christian preachers to sermon others so that they be touched by God and do good deeds.(The bait is the surprising reward which is a common point in all the stories. They are many of these nature and involve adults but have the same drama and underlying message.). I don't see any motive in young child, or in you by posting the story. I see motive in the story telling. I hope I am clear on that.

See the story telling, they tell you as if it had really happened as a fact. Many years ago.. and then they take specific names. These stories have ulterior motives, to preach.

"Post # 98 is simply a factual anecdote" ~ Sanjeev

BS. That's what the impression the person spreading the story or the one who tells the story gives. It is called fooling people by suggesting false facts. Give me your sources. Certainly, if this story is a fact and really happened, it should be covered in world media.

Rehan, what's there in a name? I see a fearless person in you too. I shall talk with you later.

Dear Abhay

If you ever read the archives -- especially open threads from mid-May forward -- please let me know.

love, Heather

weatherthestorms team:

Your Plucking the Rushes poem is a beautiful thing to read. Where did you find it?

If I answered In Former Days' question, I'd reply like this: Space, enrichment, fulfilment, joy, rebirth, peace.

Interestingly, I found these comments here in Intentblog while I was searching for the source of the story posted by Sanjeev.

Five (5) lessons to make you think about the way we treat people.

1 - First Important Lesson - Cleaning Lady.

During my second month of college, our professor gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions until I read the last one:
"What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?"
Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times. She was tall, dark-haired and in her 50s, but how I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank. Just before class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our quiz grade.
"Absolutely," said the professor. "In your careers, you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say"hello."
I've never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her name was Dorothy.

2. - Second Important Lesson - Pickup in the Rain
One night, at 11:30 P.M., an older African American woman was standing on the side of an Alabama highway trying to endure a lashing rainstorm. Her car had broken down and she desperately needed a ride. Soaking wet, she decided to flag down the next car.
A young white man stopped to help her, generally unheard of in those conflict-filled 1960s. The man took her to safety, helped her get assistance and put her into a taxicab. She seemed to be in a big hurry, but wrote down his address and thanked him. Seven days went by and a knock came on the man's door. To his surprise, a giant console
color TV was delivered to his home. A special note was attached..It read:
"Thank you so much for assisting me on the highway the other night. The rain drenched not only my clothes, but also my spirits.Then you came along. Because of you, I was able to make it to my dying husband's bedside just before he passed away... God bless you for helping me and unselfishly serving others."
Sincerely, Mrs. Nat King Cole.

3 - Third Important Lesson - Always remember those who serve.
In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10-year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him. "How much is an ice cream sundae?" he asked. "Fifty cents," replied the waitress.
The little boy pulled is hand out of his pocket and studied the coins in it. "Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?" he inquired. By now more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing impatient. "Thirty-five cents," she brusquely replied. The little boy again counted his coins. "I'll have the plain ice cream," he said. The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left. When the waitress came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five pennies…. You see, he couldn't have the sundae, because he had to have enough left to leave her a tip.

4 - Fourth Important Lesson. - The obstacle in Our Path.
In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the king's wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it.
Many loudly blamed the King for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the stone out of the way.
Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. After the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the King indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The peasant learned what many of us never understand!
Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition.

5 - Fifth Important Lesson - Giving When it Counts...
Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at a hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz who was suffering from a rare & serious disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness. The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the little boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister.I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying,
"Yes I'll do it if it will save her." As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing the color returning to her cheek. Then his face grew pale and his smile faded. He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, "Will I start to die right away?".
Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood in order to save her.
Now most importantly.................
"Work like you don't need the money, love like you've never been hurt, and dance like you do when nobody's watching."
Time to git.. taking my son to an internist-for results of past month's kidney tests. May 26th-he sees an Nephrologist-to have my son's name put on a kidney transplant list.
Have a great day everyone-one never knows, when it could be a last..
what kind of impression does one prefer to leave, if that were so.... such as perhaps today?
what would you change, do or not do-if today were your last...
North

30. Posted by North on May 18, 2006 10:22 AM

The authorship of "Five important lessons" wasn't easy to find.
But, I found out that it is a made of stories from some popular Glurges(with less of religious overtones and hidden meanings) in circulation by email and compiled by someone into a single source and being circulated without an author since atleast 2001 AD( After 9/11)(The circulation of Glurges increased after 9/11 and again after KATRINA...)
Glurge is a neologism describing a certain kind of melodramatic, saccharine story. The defining characteristic of glurge is that, while its purpose is to make the reader happy, the feel-good aspect is so overdone that it is more likely to nauseate rather than to inspire. It often has a religious theme and is most commonly circulated via e-mail in the form of a chain letter. The term was coined in 1998 by regular Urban Legends Reference Pages forum contributor Pat Chapin as an onomatopoeia to communicate the feeling evoked by reading these missives. According to the Urban Legends Reference Pages, glurge is "the sending of inspirational (often supposedly 'true') tales that conceal much darker meanings than the uplifting moral lessons they purport to offer, and that undermine their messages by fabricating and distorting historical fact in the guise of offering a 'true story.'"

42. Posted by UG on May 18, 2006 09:31 PM

http://www.intentblog.com/archives/2006/05/may_22nd_2006_f.html

we do not love anyone

we do not love anyone,
only the idea we love someone.
what we really love are our own selves -
our concepts, our perceptions of selves.

in sexual love we seek
pleasures through the lover's body.
in non-sexual love we seek
pleasures through mere concepts.

the masturbator though seemingly abject,
is the best lover to express love for himself,
he never feigns, never fools himself.

in shared words and gestures of lovers,
deceptive are the expressions of love.
meeting in love is really a non-meeting,
for love is but an abstraction after all.

in abstraction we think not the same.
when you say, ‘I love you’ to someone,
it’s the soul’s sum activity with flavors and
fragrances different for every one.

***
Rendering of a page in prose from
Fernando Pessoa’s ‘Livro do Desassossego’

~White Wings

WW

Dear Abhay

Thanks for pasting that poem here -- I wanted to comment on it when the storm team pasted it elsewhere, but that setting wasn't right for what I wanted to say, which was...

In my personal experience, love is real, not abstract, though it's hard to grasp and understand. What's abstract are the words we use about it, the way we try to use symbols to represent it.

I agree with Pessoa that the words used between lovers are always something like a lie, they are attempts to render the ineffable sense of love into something more tangible, to offer as a gift to the lover, and to see in one's own hand, as another try to define love satisfactorily.

In my experience, love is so big and beyond us, that a real definition will always be impossible, We can only try to live within it.

love, Heather

(p.s.: this note is dedicated to the man I love.)

Heather who are you?

Oye, all you BW / India popular music fans!

I've been listening to a list of newish stuff on Raaga.com as I work, and was all of a sudden hit by a realization of how much richer a selection of music seems to be available in India, in part because of the film industry, and also because of India's ancient traditions of music and poetry. My God, the US entertainment industry should be really scared of this stuff ever getting better known in the US. Because there are always new products coming out of the pipeline, the variety is amazing, and there's a lot of good stuff in the mix. It's hard to get bored. The fact that there's a big market for new stuff seems to keep trends shifting every 3 months, instead of every 3 years or so, as in the US.

love, Heather

heather's Profile Page

A little about me:

Tell Abhay to calm down for his own good. Tell him to reveal his ID. He may listen to you. If he doesn't I shall teach him a lesson he shall not forget. He will see fear face to face. Remmember AJ?

Oye, 'heather -- I've been waiting to hit by you. -- how're ya doin'?? I'm most delighted and honored to serve as your signboard for the moment.

I am. Aur tum?

About your message: First, I doubt he will listen to me, I'll need to lead him down a long path for two hours again as I did this morning. Second, why isn't he you? Third, if he isn't you, isn't he that other tag that rhymes with his current one, the one who has felt fear face to face? Nice alliteration, btw.

love, Heather

Dear 'heather

I must confess, I am in awe of your cleverness and perservereance. A big bear hug to you. I did not have my tongue in cheek when I said I was honored to have my profile hit by you. It's almost a red badge of courage. Thank you very much.

How are Keyser and Kobayashi doing?

love, Heather

Oye, everyone

Please forgive my typos today, they're even more out of hand than usual.

love, Heather

I did not post #133, #137. It is the imposter-hacker. I am not afraid no one.

Scandalous, abberitional, war-mongering Republicans are at it, again!

They have just begun to launch a disingenous, self-serving strategy of relentlessly bombarding ignorant, ill-informed, naive Americans as to how bad the Democrats are and how good they are at protecting them from terrorists as we near the November 7th min-term elections, a tried and tested Carl Rovian sinister ploy!

They have also begun to revive the old blame game that President Clinton is the reason for all the hatred and ill-will directed against America since the end of Desert Storm; not the first president Bush!

They will overplay this perceived threat to the nth degree before the elections with the hope of retaining control of power in Washington!

I will have more to say on this crucial subject matter in the days ahead!

Regards...

Thanks, Hacker, for doing what I'd wanted to do myself, but did not have permission to do, which was to put a copy of the Pessoa trans here, so I could write my comment in a neutral space.

I assume you know me well enough to know I would be likely to bite that baited hook. Too right, good assessment.

Btw, whoever-posted-the-denial-of-133, that line about not being afraid is very similar to my favorite line from Shekhar's Elizabeth.

love, Heather

(If this thead continues along this line and I seem to disappear, it's only cause I have to go home soon. I'd rather stay and play, but living beings are waiting at home for their caretaker, me.)

Dear Hacker

Saw your msg about 135. Now, who is to know what to believe? I'm just enjoying the show. I wish I were ghostly sprite perched on your shoulder, to see how you're doing it. Or a musca domestica on your wall.

love, Heather

Heather, are you being protected by the Hacker? If you think that I too would leave this blog like AJ, for exposing your hypocrisy, then you are mistaken. You seem to be good friends with the hacker. Is that you?

Dear Abhay

No, I'm not being protected by the Hacker, nor am I him/her.

My Durga-like presence yesterday, and my overly-busy presence today, were the bait on my own hook, set just for the Hacker. I love puzzles, and I wanted to see if I could flush him/her out. (Patting my own back and grinning broadly.)

I am not afraid of the Hacker. If he/she should turn mean to me in his/her texts, I will wrap him/her in unconditional, perfect love, like a dark rose-colored, soft, cashmere blanket -- not too heavy, not too light, just there enough to keep him/her aware that the love is there if he/she needs it, and letting him/her forget it, if other things are pending, which they probably are, given the busy intelligence, wit and sense of fun that belongs to IB's own Resident Hacker.

After reading the above, he/she may decide to do other things to do with his/her time. Or maybe not -- after all, you must admit, this is pretty entertaining.

Now, is all the above an attempt to rile the Hacker? Slightly. But it's pretty sincere, too.

love, Heather

Dear IBRH (IB's Resident Hacker, our often friendly ghost):

I've left you a message on my profile. You can leave it or kill it, whichever you prefer.

Hasta mañana pr la mañana, señor.

love, Heather

I suspect Sachin is in some way involved with the hacker. He approached Navin to support him and he was also involved in attacking AJ. He should stop using his aliases which are now, too many to even count.

nan d

nan d, who are you? are you my little sis?

Hey Heather, I have gone soft for a few days and you haven't changed at all. I thought you are the only woman around here who has some brains and can understand me. I am mistaken.

Sachin, who is nan d? is she heather?

Guys, this is getting funny! I am thouroughly enjoying it.

Rehan my friend, I support you with full co-operation. Please cool down.

Heather my friend please stop accusing Sachin.

Hacker- Keyser Soze, please forgive me for not following your orders.

Cheers!

Navin

Abhay,

Thanks for your post # 132. I liked it.

I did receive this story in my mailbox. I liked it, felt like sharing it and posted it. When I said it was a factual anecdote, I did believe it to be so. But now—particularly in view of the fact that North had posted an exact same one a few months back—I do realize the story may well have been apocryphal.

But if you dismiss such stories as saccharine, sugary, feel-good stuff, what do you think of Advaita, Buddha’s four noble truths, the eight-fold path and other such moralistic stuff posted by DK? Those things haven’t been corroborated; just handed down from one generation to another. People, it seems, find great solace reading them, considering the comments posted on DK’s blogs. But if we apply the same yardstick to them as we apply to the Glurge stories, most of that stuff would be BS too, wouldn’t it?

Karl Marx was very right when he said that religion is the opium of the masses. We need religious BS as desperately as a drug addict needs his snuff, it seems!

Sanjeev

#152 is not posted by me. It is the hacker. Nirav/Mallika, Pls do the needful.

Cheers!
Navin

Keyser,

You must be dreaming. Navin does not follow anyone's orders. Get a life.

After comment 147. where I say "until tomorrow morning, sir," to the Hacker (in Spanish), I didn't make any comments until this one, which should end up as ...155(?). 148 and 149 are from the Hacker.

I'm not nan_d who commented yesterday elsewhere for the first time.

I think the Hacker is referencing one of my sisters, nan d (she signs that way, but if you mouse over her TypeKey ID, it doesn't say nan_d as the new nan_d's does), but she hasn't been on IB for months.

It may be that the new nan_d ID was bait for me set by the Hacker, because of my sister using a similar tag. I almost bit on that one yesterday, which was posted much earlier than the Pessoa poem bait here that I did take.

It's likely that 150 and 151 are from the Hacker, not from Sachin.

And now for what I really came here to say:

Dear Abhay...

Did you write 145, which says:

"Heather, are you being protected by the Hacker? If you think that I too would leave this blog like AJ, for exposing your hypocrisy, then you are mistaken. You seem to be good friends with the hacker. Is that you?"

If so, I find it very cuious that you'd ask if I'm being protected by anyone. It would mean you're sensitive to how vulnerable I am.

But maybe 145 is from the Hacker. Maybe Ron's 142 is from the Hacker.

What say you to the 145 issue?

Dear Hacker.

Good morning (my time) and good whatever (your time). I felt a little like a child's painted tortoise yesterday, with your messages painted on my Typekey ID. How is Keyser? Can I help you about the messages he wants? I laughed all the way home last night, from the fun you injected into my day.

The original 155, signed by Abhay but from you, has now gone, Nirav on patrol, I assume. I hope he leaves your other comments there, the playfulness you bring to IB's OT is lots of fun.

love, Heather

Good morning, IB people.

I just wanted to share my love of the Sting song "Whenever I Say Your Name" -- especially these lines:

"Whenever I say your name,
whenever I call to mind your face
whatever bread's in my mouth,
whatever the sweetest wine that I taste
whenever your memory feeds my soul,
whatever got broken becomes whole
whenever I'm filled with doubts
that we will be together..."

and

"...Whenever I say your name,
I'm already praying, I'm already praying
I'm already filled with a joy that I can't explain..."

full lyrics here:

http://heatherquinn-ads.blogspot.com/2006/03/whenever-i-say-your-name.html

and elsewhere on the web.

love, Heather

Dear Abhay,
Thanks for re-posting those stories -- and to Sanjeev for bringing one of them back.
I don't think that only idealists find those stories inspiring. I liked them.

Dear Heather,
I have always thought that Sting is an evolved man, and I think that is why his music and lyrics are so beautiful. Thanks for sharing that song.
Love,
Donatella

I am getting closer to the hacker. Have to go to a party now. Will checkout IB after I'm back.

Cheers!
Navin

Sanjeev, there is a difference between stories which fall into glurge categories and Mythological stories from ancient cultures.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythology

"Many of us, it seems, cannot overcome the urge to glurge."

You may find many inspirational stories at http://glurge.com/, which you might want to share with the bloggers at intent.

I shall post one here:

Taxi ride.

Twenty years ago, I drove a cab for a living. It was a cowboy's life, a life for someone who wanted no boss. What I didn't realize was that it was also a ministry. Because I drove the night shift, my cab became a moving confessional. Passengers climbed in, sat behind me in total anonymity, and told me about their lives. I encountered people whose lives amazed me, ennobled me, made me laugh and weep.

But none touched me more than a woman I picked up late one August night. I was responding to a call from a small brick four-plex in a quiet part of town. I assumed I was being sent to pick up some party people, or someone who had just had a fight with a lover, or a worker heading to an early shift at some factory in the industrial part of town.

When I arrived at 2:30 a.m., the building was dark except for a single light in a ground floor window. Under such circumstances, many drivers just honk once or twice, wait a minute, then drive away. But I had seen too many impoverished people who depended on taxis as their only means of transportation. Unless a situation smelled of danger, I always went to the door. This passenger might be someone who needs my assistance, I reasoned to myself. So I walked to the door and knocked.

"Just a minute," answered a frail, elderly voice. I could hear something being dragged across the floor. After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her 80's stood before me. She was wearing a print dress and a pillbox hat with a veil pinned on it, like somebody out of a 1940s movie. By her side was a small nylon suitcase. The apartment looked as if no one had lived in it for years. All the furniture was covered with sheets. There were no clocks on the walls, no knickknacks or utensils on the counters. In the corner was a cardboard box filled with photos and glassware.

"Would you carry my bag out to the car?" she asked.

I took the suitcase to the cab, then returned to assist the woman. She took my arm and we walked slowly toward the curb. She kept thanking me for my kindness.

"It's nothing," I told her. "I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother treated."

"Oh, you're such a good boy," she said.

When we got in the cab, she gave me an address, then asked, "Can you drive through downtown?"

"It's not the shortest way," I answered quickly.

"Oh, I don't mind," she said. "I'm in no hurry. I'm on my way to a hospice."

I looked in the rearview mirror. Her eyes were glistening. "I don't have any family left," she continued. "The doctor says I don't have very long."

I quietly reached over and shut off the meter. "What route would you like me to take?" I asked.

For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked as an elevator operator. We drove through the neighborhood where she and her husband had lived when they were newlyweds. She had me pull up in front of a furniture warehouse that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl. Sometimes she'd ask me to slow in front of a particular building or corner and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.

As the first hint of sun was creasing the horizon, she suddenly said, "I'm tired. Let's go now."

We drove in silence to the address she had given me. It was a low building, like a small convalescent home, with a driveway that passed under a portico. Two orderlies came out to the cab as soon as we pulled up. They were solicitous and intent, watching her every move. They must have been expecting her.

I opened the trunk and took the small suitcase to the door. The woman was already seated in a wheelchair.

"How much do I owe you?" she asked, reaching into her purse.

"Nothing," I said.

"You have to make a living," she answered.

"There are other passengers," I responded.

Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug. She held onto me tightly.
"You gave an old woman a little moment of joy," she said. "Thank you."

I squeezed her hand, then walked into the dim morning light. Behind me, a door shut. It was the sound of the closing of a life.

I didn't pick up any more passengers that shift. I drove aimlessly, lost in thought. For the rest of that day, I could hardly talk. What if that woman had gotten an angry driver, or one who was impatient to end his shift? What if I had refused to take the run, or had honked once, then driven away?

On a quick review, I don't think that I have done anything more important in my life. We're conditioned to think that our lives revolve around great moments. But great moments often catch us unaware . . . beautifully wrapped in what others may consider a small one.

Author: Anonymous

Sanjeev, Abhay and others, the story in post #98 doesn’t fit the psychology of a 5 year old and sends wrong messages about the sensibilities of young kids. It is a story for adults and some of those who read this story MAY force their kids to behave as such or set high standards for their kids which in the long run may have a psychological impact on their tender minds.

Re: Post 153
There is a difference between Mythology, urban myths or legends and Glurges. Please visit urban legends refrence page at snopes to see the glurge gallery. Where they have the story “Transfusion Confusion” which you have posted.
http://www.snopes.com/glurge/glurge.asp#fleming
•
•
•
• Myth vs. Legend

Though these two terms are often used interchangably, they have separate and specific meanings to folklorists. Both myths and legends are stories with casts of characters and plotlines followed to their conclusions, yet their core elements are different. Myths are tales about the acts of godlike or supernatural beings and/or magical animals which serve to explain the creation of the world or how certain elements of our world came to be (e.g., how the raccoon got its mask) and take place in the far reaches of time (often expressed as "In the days when the world was new"). By contrast, legends are accounts of purported incidents involving ordinary people in more recent times. Although both types of stories are told as true, they are not necessarily believed to be literal truth by either the tellers or their audiences.

•
• Urban legend

Urban legends are a specific class of legend, differentiated from "ordinary" legends by their being provided and believed as accounts of actual incidents that befell or were witnessed by someone the teller almost knows (e.g., his sister's hairdresser's mechanic). These tales are told as true, local, and recent occurrences, and often contain names of places or entities located within the teller's neighborhood or surrounding region.

Urban legends are narratives which put our fears and concerns into the form of stories or are tales which we use to confirm the rightness of our world view. As cautionary tales they warn us against engaging in risky behaviors by pointing out what has supposedly happened to others who did what we might be tempted to try. Other legends confirm our belief that it's a big, bad world out there, one awash with crazed killers, lurking terrorists, unscrupulous companies out to make a buck at any cost, and a government that doesn't give a damn.

Folks commonly equate 'urban legend' with 'false' (i.e., "Oh, that's an urban legend!"). Though the vast majority of such tales are pure invention, a handful do turn out to be based on real incidents, and whether or not something actually happened has no bearing on its status as an urban legend. What lifts true tales of this type out of the world of news and into the genre of contemporary lore is the blurring of details and multiplicity of claims that the events happened locally, alterations which take place as the stories are passed through countless hands. Though there might indeed have been an original actual event, it clearly did not happen to as many people or in as many places as the various recountings of it would have us believe.

Glurge

Glurge is a term specific to snopes.com, coined in 1998. Already in its short lifespan it has reached across the Internet and has appeared in the print media a number of times, and it may well soon make the final breakthrough by appearing in dictionaries as a bona fide entry. The word was invented by Patricia Chapin, a member of the urban legends discussion mailing list run in conjunction with this site. At a loss for words to describe the retching sensation this then-unnamed category of stories subjected her to, she fashioned a word that simultaneously named the genre and described its effect.

Glurge (a term which can be used to describe one story or applied to the genre as a whole) is the body of inspirational tales which conceal much darker meanings than the uplifting moral lessons they purport to offer, and which undermine their messages by fabricating and distorting historical fact in the guise of offering "true stories." Glurge often contains such heart-tugging elements as sad-eyed puppies, sweet-faced children, angels, dying mothers, or miraculous rescues brought about by prayer. These stories are meant to be parables for modern times but fall far short of the mark. Our Glurge Gallery links to all the glurge any human could stand.

Ref Post # 98

Transfusion Confusion

Glurge: A brave little boy agrees to transfuse his ailing little sister, thinking the procedure will kill him even as it saves her life.
Example: [Collected on the Internet, 1998]

Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at Stanford Hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liza who was suffering from a rare and serious disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her five-year-old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness. The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister. I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, "Yes, I'll do it if it will save Liza."
As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing the color returning to her cheeks. Then his face grew pale and his smile faded. He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, "Will I start to die right away?"
Being young, the boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give her all his blood.
Origins: This

tear-jerking tale of brotherly self-sacrifice appears to have begun its online life in June 1998 (although the core story is much older, as you soon will find out). The text is lifted word for word from the 1993 best seller, Chicken Soup for the Soul, the first book in what was to become a veritable downpour of Chicken Soup drenchings.
Whoever transcribed the tale for inclusion in a "Life's Lessons" compilation mailing trimmed off the opening as given in Chicken Soup for the Soul:
"So you think I'm courageous?" she asked.
"Yes, I do."
"Perhaps I am. But that's because I've had some inspiring teachers. I'll tell you about one of them."
Why that bit was excised is anybody's guess. Possibly its unsung cyber-editor felt those opening paragraphs positioned the tale as one of courage in general, whereas snipping that part out better presented it as an inspirational tale of the self-sacrificing love of one innocent tot for another.
Chicken Soup for the Soul lists the source for this tale (which it calls "On Courage") as Dan Millman. Interestingly, a remarkably similar story pops up in a book published a year later.
[Lamott, 1994]
Here is the best true story on giving I know, and it was told by Jack Kornfield of the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre. An eight-year-old boy had a younger sister who was dying of leukemia, and he was told that without a blood transfusion she would die. His parents explained to him that his blood was probably compatible with hers, and if so, he could be the blood donor. They asked him if they could test his blood. He said sure. So they did and it was a good match. Then they asked if he would give his sister a pint of blood, that it could be her only chance of living. He said he would have to think about it overnight.
The next day he went to his parents and said he was willing to donate the blood. So they took him to the hospital where he was put on a gurney beside his six-year-old sister. Both of them were hooked up to IVs. A nurse withdrew a pint of blood from the boy, which was then put in the girl's IV. The boy lay on his gurney in silence while the blood dripped into his sister, until the doctor came over to see how he was doing. Then the boy opened his eyes and asked, "How soon until I start to die?"
Did Kornfield (Lamott's source) get the story from Chicken Soup for the Soul? Or from another fount?
Just as interestingly, a 1974 issue of a magazine distributed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints contained the following unattributed item:
[Friends, 1974]
A little girl was critically ill. She needed a special kind of blood for a transfusion to save her life.
Her brother had the same type of blood. The doctors asked him if he would be willing to give his blood so his sister might live. Without hesitating, the young boy answered, "Sure!"
After the blood transfusion was completed, the brother turned to the doctor and asked softly, "Now, sir, when will I die?"
It took only a moment for the doctor to realize the young boy had thought that giving blood to his sister would kill him. But he was willing to die for her.
LDS high school students of the 1970s recall viewing in class a short film that used the same storyline even though it swapped the genders of the dying and rescuing children, making the little girl the heroine.
Another reader recalls reading the story set in a Vietnamese village just leveled by U.S. ground forces. An American medic is tending two just-orphaned children, the one desperately in need of a battlefield transfusion if she's to pull through. The little boy submits to having his blood taken to put into his sibling even though he believes this will kill him. In this version, some plausibility is gained from the presence of a language barrier, forcing the critical exchanges to take place in pidgin.
Undeniably, however, the oldest sighting surfaces in a 1925 Mary Pickford film, Little Annie Rooney. Upon hearing her beloved brother has been shot in a gun battle, Annabelle Rooney (32-year-old Mary Pickford playing the part of a 12-year-old) rushes to the hospital to offer herself up for a life-saving transfusion, even though she thinks the procedure will kill her.
This "touching yet true life" offering has been kicking around in popular culture for about 80 years, which means it has already enjoyed a longer life than most of the people who repeat it will. No chicken soup keeps that well, and the astute should by now be ruling out the likelihood of so many critical-condition youngsters brought back from the brink of death by transfusion from siblings who were convinced they were submitting to having all their blood drained off.
Whatever the online story's source, it is typical of many glurgerific offerings: the sticky-sweet surface message masks a darker reading of the same tale. What should we make of the idea that a little boy believed his parents loved his sister far more than they loved him, and would happily throw away his life for hers?
Barbara "the loved one" Mikkelson
Sources:

Canfield, Jack and Mark Victor Hansen. Chicken Soup for the Soul.
Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications, 1993. ISBN 1-55874-291-3 (pp. 27-28).
Friends. "Loving Friends."
February 1974.
Lamott, Anne. Bird By Bird : Some Instructions on Writing and Life.
New York: Pantheon Books, 1994.

http://www.snopes.com/glurge/transfus.htm

Dear Abhay, Sanjeev and InnocentVictim,
You all have some good points. Urban legends aside, I'd like to share what a Platonic philosopher had to say about myths.

“Myths are things that never happened, but always are." (Greer, 45)
Synesius of Cyrene

Love,
Donatella

InnocentVictim,

Thanks for sharing your vast knowledge.

Sanjeev

Heather, I did post # 145. It is not the hacker. I still believe you are in some way involved in the recent incidents.

Rehan, I am more of a bookie than a player. I would rather enjoy fixing cricket matches than getting fame playing the game!

Navin, I hope you get to know the hacker, then people like Heather can be exposed and people like AJ can finally find some peace.

Donatella, Joseph Campbell has many interesting things to say about myths, religion and spirituality. I remember seeing “The Power of Myth” by Campbell on PBS network.

Innocentvictim, thanks for sharing that information.

Dear Abhay

Thanks for your answer. Now I ask you this:

Why do you think I need protection from you?

love, Heather

Dear Donatella

I'm glad you approve of Sting's music.

As I've been painting, I've had a long loop of music playing. It starts with "Whenever I Say Your Name". As I was finalizing my comment above, the loop came back to that song.

love, Heather

To have some semblance of balance let me post an anti-glurge. I hope you would be informed and equally inspired, and touched by it.

Anti-glurge:

The pervasiveness of such stories has spawned a backlash of "anti-glurge", which is either old glurge edited to convey a much more cynical point of view or completely new glurge written with the intent of creating a parody of the style.

glurge.com

Emma's Story

Many years ago, a new family moved into our neighborhood, little six-year-old Emma and her mom and dad. They were a fine and upstanding Christian family. The first Christmas they were there, her parents bought Emma a fluffy white little bunny which she called Buster. Emma loved Buster with all her heart, and it brought such joy to me to watch Buster and Emma playing happily in their garden.

One day, Buster fell ill, and Emma and her parents carefully carried him to the car and drove off to the vet's. But on the way, a drunk driver drove through a red light and crashed into Emma's car. Her dad and the bunny died instantly, and Emma's mom died three days later in the hospital, never having come out of a coma.

Emma was alone in the world, a scared, sad little girl. Looking at her, I could hardly believe it was the same child who'd played with with such delight with Buster in their garden. I learned from the police that they couldn't find any other members of Emma's family, and that she was indeed alone in the world. Emma would in all likelihood go to an orphanage.

I prayed to Jesus to help me find a way to help little Emma. And He spoke to me deep in my heart and told me what to do. Jesus told her that my husband and I--who had not been blessed with a child of our own--must adopt her. He said it would be a hard road, I would have to fight for her, but that little Emma needed a new mommy and that I had been chosen. Suddenly, my spirit filled with His love and goodness, and weeping, I knew He was right.

On Christmas Eve, the final adoption approval was given, and Emma moved into our home.

Slowly, with help from the Lord, Emma came to love us as her own parents. Every night, I'd pray with her, thanking Jesus for His love and for all our blessings and our happy family. Once again, Emma became the contented little girl I'd known before tragedy had descended on her.

But then, one night as we were praying, she asked the question I'd been half-expecting, half-dreading. She looked up at me with her big, blue, innocent eyes, and said, "Mommy, if God loves us all, why does He let bad things happen? Why did He let my first mommy and daddy and Buster die?"

I smiled sadly and prayed silently for a moment to Jesus to help me find the words. But just as I was about to answer, Emma interrupted me.

"See, if God is omnipotent, then he cannot be omnibenevolent given that evil exists in the world. It's not logically consistent. And don't give me that crap about 'free will' because that's not compatible with God's omniscience, which must surely extend into the future."

Taken aback, I prayed silently again to Jesus to help me find the words. And He gave them to me. But before I could speak, Emma, seeming to read my mind, smiled softly and shook her head.

"And no, that garbage about 'God moves in mysterious ways' won't cut it either. Don't you think it's incredibly convenient that Christians have no problem giving credit to God for the good stuff, but anything bad that happens is just pushed into the too-hard basket? And you've got to admit, it's strangely self-serving to believe that the entire, majestic cosmos was made just to be wallpaper for a single species of primate on an insignificant planet on a spiral of a rather average galaxy, isn't it?"

As those questioning eyes gazed up at me, I realized she was right. And that night, I became an atheist. What a relief.

If you love cute, fluffy, white bunnies and little girls with big blue eyes, and really hate drunk drivers, please pass this email on. Jesus wants you to.

Dear Abhay

Emma's words don't fit the profile of a contented little girl. That's a strangely self-serving story to post. It fits your profile very well.

Now come on, aren't you AJ? Isn't that why you think I need to be protected from you?

(Oh dear IBRH, if you are reading, and you were protecting me and others on IB, I send you another bear hug.)

love, Heather

Heather, why do you ask so many questions? You would find an answer if you had pondered yourself! Are you trying to size me up or is it in your nature, these questions? You had a problem with AJ when he criticized you and your favorite author and who bailed you out then, It was the keyser or whoever it was. I had an argument with you and again he got involved and threatened me. So, what should I make out of it?

Dear Abhay

Are you refusing to say if you are AJ or not? Are presenting me with a list of accusatory questions instead, to get me to respond to those, attempting to deflect attention from yourself?

love, Heather

Dear India

I love your language of the north, Hindustani. Even in its sounds alone, it contains poetry. In these lines from the song Aaj Ki Raat (in the upcoming film Don - The Chase Begins)...

shaam hai, jaam hai, aur hai nasha
tan bhi hai man bhi hai pighla hua
chhayi hai rangeeliyan
phir bhi hain betabiyaan
kyun dhadakta hai dil, kyun yeh kehta hai dil
deewana ko ab tak nahin hai yeh pata
aaj ki raat
hona hai kya, paana hai kya, khona hai kya
aaj ki raat

...I particularly love the sound of "kyun dhadakta hai dil, kyun yeh kehta hai dil".

(the lines mean:
The evening is redolent with wine and seduction,
body and heart are molten
the atmosphere is colorful and addictive.
Yet there’s a restlessness.
Why does the heart beat so, why does the heart say,
the crazy lover has no idea yet?
Tonight,
what will happen, what will be gained, what will be lost,
tonight?

-- translation found on Bollywhat lyrics forum)

love, Heather

Dear Abhay

So quick to respond before, so slow when asked the question again? (It's been more than half an hour, since I re-asked my question.)

And now I will address your attempts to say I am the Hacker, or am involved with him/her:

First: Again, I'm not the Hacker, and I'm not involved with him/her.

Second: I would like to know the Hacker. I respect his/her wit, charm, cleverness, humor, sense of fun, and attempts to rebalance the IB universe by adding some lighthearted unpredictability to it. This is a fantastic contrast, to my mind, to the heavy-handed stuff that often comes from Ravi in various guises. The Hacker has annoyed a few people, but he has never hurt anyone here, from what I have seen. Again, this is a stark contrast to the sometimes vitriolic quality of Ravi's writings here.

If there were a vote here, Ravi versus the Hacker, I would certainly vote to keep the Hacker. He appears to be a very friendly ghost.

Dear IBRH

If you're around, I wish you a great Saturday remaining. Saturday night is in front of you wherever you are. Have bahut fun, aaj ki raat.

love, Heather

Are you accusing me? I thought he left the blog, please get that out of your head. You thing my name sounds like his and conclude that I am him! (Speakers of Hindi, not the beginners or pretenders would know that the two names sound completely different. There is a heavy stress on the syllable “bha” in my name) you think you know something, don't you? You think you're the clever wise girl in this blog and your small world who knows something about every one. There is so much you don’t know, so much ignorance. In fact, what do you know? You're just an ordinary god fearing woman, living in an ordinary neighborhood of your city. You wake up every morning of your god given life and you know perfectly well that there is nothing in this just world to trouble your spiritual life. You go through your ordinary god fearing day, with your ordinary job, converse on a spiritual blog, and then sleep your unworried sleep, filled with peaceful stupid dreams imagining things. And I brought you nightmares by not confirming to your beliefs and conclusions and have I stood like road bump in your road to enlightenment. Or did I? Or was it a make-belief, clumsy willful blame shifting accusation or an attempt to divert the subject? You live in a state of dream. You are a sleepwalker, blind sighted. How do you know what the world is like and who is who in it? Do you know the world is a fetid sty? Do you know, if you rip off the masks of safe houses of make-belief aliases, you would find swine? This world is dark, selfish and isn’t spiritual. What does it matter what happens in it? Wake up, Heather. Use your wits. Learn something.

Dear Abhay!

You have now answered my question for today, as to why you thought I needed to be protected from you.

I slept very well last night, no road bumps.

I dreamt about a big salmon, that was caught but was still alive. It fed all people, and it blessed all who ate of it.

Was this the Hacker? He does have somewhat Christ-like qualities, but I certainly hope he's not caught and crucified.

By the way, if you knew my history at all, you'd make no accusations that I don't know the fallabilities and evils of this world. You make assumptions about me based on what you think you see of me, but all you see are some of my thoughts, written politely (usually) on this blog.

love, Heather

Dear Abhay

I'd like now to speak to your inner heart, as I see it from your comment 174.

The sense of you I get from your writings is of a man with a lot of depth, standing bravely in the face of his sense of the evils of the world.

There is a place beyhond those evils, and you will get there some day, because of your energy, passion and intelligence. There, you'll find the world is spiritual. Maybe we'll see each other there some day.

Here's a story from my life:

For the past decade, in my travels on the NYC subway system, I have often encountered beggers. Many of them are cons, who fake a limp, or so on. You can sense their hostility, anger, arrogance, through their ragged guise. Amongst those who are not cons, there is a woman... She is tall, maybe my height (5'9"), middle-aged, missing all her teeth, very skinny, dark-skinned, reserved and dignified in her demeanor. She hardly asks for a thing. Often you can see her hands and forearms are puffed up and swollen, a sure sign of heroin addiction with use of shared, dirty needles. Whenever I see her, we smile at each other, we clasp hands, I give her everything I have on me that she can turn to good use for food, shelter -- or even heroin, if she is using. She is free, that's her right. I give to her because I am impelled to respond to her that way. I give to her to acknowledge the beauty of her to herself. I give to her to tell her she is as good, if not better, than I am. She has survived despite the world's denial of her beauty. She is as pure as a snowmelt brook, though she's a homeless heroin addict, and has been for years. I have vowed the next time I see her, I will hug her, which I've always wanted to do, but thought she might think was patronizing. Now that we have known each other for 10 years, I think she will understand a hug as a statement of sisterhood and love. This woman is one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen. Her inner soul shines out at everyone. Every time I meet her, she lifts my spirit to the heavens. I love her very much. I don't know her name. She's afraid to speak at all, because doesn't like to show she has no teeth.

love, Heather

Abhay,

If you wish to consultant some one for mind, body or spiritual healing, I can suggest you a few people from this blog. For starters we have Geeta Jayaram who is a medical practitioner and can also treat you with mere blessings. Then we have Reiki counselors like Aurora and Donatella who can send medications telepathically from Europe. Also, if you have some severe mental problems you can be advised by Sachin who is a professional doctor and is known to be quiet effective in these matters, although he has a habit of prescribing overdoses. Last but not least you have Deepak Chopra who can treat your secular view of the world in stages, with a prescription of easy to use ladders to help you climb from one level to other.

Dear IBRH

Oye, smiles and cheers to you.

love, Heather

Dear Rehan

Thanks for seeing some of the real me. I've always known you have laser-like vision. A bear hug to you.

love, Heather

Dear Abhay,
I like Joseph Campbell, but I have only read excerpts of his books.

Among the American scholars, I also like Robert Johnson, and his books on myths. I especially liked his theories about the ancient myth of Dionysus. He is well known for saying that we cannot kill a god -- or did Jung say it first? -- meaning that we cannot destroy a myth because as a psychic entity its power will simply go 'underground' -- in the subconscious -- coming back through the expression of darkness, or shadow.

Love,
Donatella

Dear Rehan or IBRH

Well, I'm here to drink in the words and thoughts and spirits of... Shekhar, Rahul Pandita, Mallika and all other Chopras, yourself, Sachin, Donatella, Geeta, DK Matai, Craig, Ron, Dave, Rahul Bose, Richard, Arsenio, Aurora, the Mastersons, LBT, Swear, North, Abhay, AJ, and many many others (even Ravi).

My parents beat me up. I inherited intelligence from them and learned compassion by trying to live opposed to their ways. As for the rest, love gives me everything else.

But in the short term, I'm taking a break from painting, and watching out here, trying to catch a brief glimpse of IBRH.

Sometimes where people think we belong, or where we think we belong, is simple hogwash. When we let our bare feet touch the ground, we are in contact with all creation. We belong everywhere.

love and hugs back, Heather

Dear Abhay,
Sorry, but I am very fond of white rabbits.
Love,
Donatella

Dear Heather,
I have to agree with Rehan,
You have a lot to offer with your creativity and beautiful energy.
Love,
Donatella

Dear Hacker,

I know you are using a Tor network, but that ain't foolproof, so you can be found.

You know as well as I do that 3-4 bloggers here derive pleasure out of engaging in psychological games with each other, including you. So let me play some games with you too. My turn to counter attack. :)

[pamx Mathias]

Cheers & Goodnight,
Navin

Heather, I wrote that comment in the heat of the moment. Your open support to IBRH is embarrassing to see especially when you showed your preference of IBRH as against Ravi. One should be cautious that IBRH could be Ravi himself unless the hacker is working for you, which seems to be the case more and more.

The story from your life is a welcome relief especially in the face of glurges and anti-glurges posted in this forum.

I shall make only one remark about your story; I am reminded of Nicolas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas when you talked about her heroin addiction and how you gave her money. It is humane of you to help her. Other than that I have talked myself out of not posting anymore comments regarding your story. Thanks for sharing it.

Rehan, I am not AJ

Donatella, Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Navin, all talk and no action makes you a dull man, a bull-shitter.

Would thy be kane and kill thy brother!

What does that mean to you?

is it simply a line of text with a biblical reference?

or do you read and see something within that line?

maybe it means thy should not kill another human being..so you should not kill anyone then right???

pretty good advice

do not kill people....

for me it means more than that...........

would thy be kane and kill thy brother....
for me means would you destroy yourself quite simply...

Thy brother is not only fellow mankind...but it is the earth and all things upon it is our brethren.

to be Kane is to be quite human as the world is..... to eat and kill thy brothers in the form of eating meat from the supermarket....to kill a Bee or a wasp because it bothers you..is to be Kane....

Would thy be kane and kill thy brother!

A fly, a Cow, A donkey, a wasp, a mosquito, a Goat

are thy brothers and thy sisters.. for they are divine in thier very own right as you and I are..

they live and exist as the sun rises and falls in the sky the same as you and I do....

If you take thier life and eat thier flesh..then you are Kane....

taking the life of another....

a beautiful creature that is filled with the fullness of the divine lord... is to be Kane

Next time you want a serloin steak...take the time to go and visit a field of young Bullocks somewhere near you on a farmers land and spend an hour amongst these creatures afterwards...be close to them....

and remind yourself that you eat this beautiful thing that lives and exists as a sentient being

I know because I grew up om a farm and I have even killed animals, mostly because they were suffering but I know because of that, I know all life forms are a conscious and physical representation of a force that is interconnected..with our own self and our own soul and the very essence of our being is connected to this one force.

Next time you meet a snail...know it is the divine you have just met in all it's majesty

I ask you again

Would thy be kane and kill thy brother!

Thy brother is the very life that you are

Love Simon xx xx

Dear Simon,

You ask: Would thy be kane and kill thy brother!

Yes, if it means my survival or the survival of my specie.

“A fly, a Cow, A donkey, a wasp, a mosquito, a Goat
are thy brothers and thy sisters.. for they are divine in thier very own right as you and I are..
they live and exist as the sun rises and falls in the sky the same as you and I do....
If you take thier life and eat thier flesh..then you are Kane....”

What about plants, mushroom, and so many bacteria which get digested with the rest of your food? Are you not torturing them, killing them? What about consuming the resources of the wild life, which lead to their death and extinction? Isn’t that a bigger crime than selectively breeding and eating some animals on a farm?

love, Heather

Dear Abhay

I don't believe IBRH is Ravi, Ravi is not that consistently intelligent. If I look foolish in admiring IBRH, so be it. But to look foolish for admiring IBRH over Ravi? I think not. I'd look foolish if I felt the reverse. IBRH working for me? I wish it were so, but too bad for me, it's not.

Dear IBRH

To correctly imitate my style, please pay attention to things big and small.

Some small things: I never use a comma after an address -- I would write "Dear Simon", not "Dear Simon,". If I were angry with Simon, I would use quotes around and (sic) after Simon's misspelling of kane, like this -- "kane"(sic). But since I'm not angry with Simon, I would have asked him if he's watching the film Citizen Kane right now, and did he mean Cain, not kane? When I use a structure to highlight something someone else has written, like this -- Words: Quoted phrase -- if the quoted phrase is a direct quote, I would always place it within double quotes, like this -- Words: "Quoted phrase."

Big things are things such as: Would I challenge Simon on this at all? Could the view in 192 possibly be my view? If the view in 192 were mine, would I be that dramatic in stating it? I rarely use sequences of questions in a row, as they can convey pressure. So I would not have questioned Simon like that, even if 192 did represent my view and I was feeling dramatic. I did not mean to do it here, either, it just came out that way. Since we're talking woman to man/woman here, I know you'll understand, and you won't feel any pressure from me.

Finally, you need to find a way to get within the creative ferment of my mind, so you, too, will make amazing numbers of typos, and miss them. The pattern of typos keeps shifting. This week, it's spelling "Dear" as "Daer", and leaving words completely. [out]

However, all that said, 192 is very well-observed and crafted. I'm bursting its skilled bubble, though, because I like Simon and respect his heart and views very much, and I don't want Simon to have an image of me as a glass-shard-handed woman running down the streets of Newcastle ranting at him to shut up and eat his bacteria.

Now that that's out of the way, I hope you had a great Saturday night, and I offer you a deep bow of respect and appreciation.

love, Heath

Dear Simon

If 194 was not clear, it was meant to say I did not write 192.

Dear IBRH

Sorry, when I wrote 192 in the second-to-last paragraph in in 194, I meant 193. A perfect example of the creative ferment in my brain -- I meant to clarify things, and made them more confused.

love, Heath

Dear Simon!

I did not refute the views you wrote in 192, it was our dear IBRH who wrote that. I am having a problem keeping comment numbers straight tonight, please forgive me, the number in my 195 above should be 193, not 192.

love, Heather

Dear Everyone

I will prpbably make this even worse, but I want to emphasize: I did not write 193, but I did write 194, 195, 196, and this comment, 197.

love, Heather

p.s. Arghhh, IBRH -- I'm kinda digging an even deeper hole for myself, am I not? Well, a hug to you, anyway, IBRH.

Dear Rehan,

My message #187 to the hacker was meant only for his consumption and not for yours. Only he can understand the code. He knows that I know who he is. Although I'm only about 90% certain about his identity, I may or may not disclose his name in public even when I have 100% proof. That will depend solely upon my discretion. Other authorities who may also share this knowledge may or may not make this information public, solely upon their discretion. And that's their prerogative.

You were correct about the "hogwash" thing you mentioned in an earlier comment of yours. I will tell you my observation of life. People who have money don't talk about it. People who know the meaning of love and friendship don't talk about it. You know why? Because talk is cheap. People who have plenty of something, be it money, love or friendship, go beyond it. They don't remain obsessed with it and give sermons about it. People who give sermons about friendship are the most likely to betray. So beware and don't allow yourself to be used by such people. That was a sincere piece of advice for you. Start reading between the lines.

Cheers and have a great weekend all,
Navin

“They don't remain obsessed with it and give sermons about it. People who give sermons about friendship are the most likely to betray. So beware and don't allow yourself to be used by such people. That was a sincere piece of advice for you. Start reading between the lines.”

“They don't remain obsessed with it and give sermons about it. People who give sermons about friendship are the most likely to betray. So beware and don't allow yourself to be used by such people. That was a sincere piece of advice for you. Start reading between the lines.”

You are right about those sermons. You are spot on! I profoundly appreciate your courage in saying that. In that extraordinary courage or gullibility you have inexpertly set an example of yourself. I like people who act on their words rather than those who like to lecture others. There is something called naive thinking and then there is wishful thinking.

Dear Rehan,

Here is another clue for you. Abhay is not your enemy. Neither is he the hacker. I'm always more careful with those who flatter me needlessly than those who criticize me.

Cheers!
Navin

Dear Rehan,

I appreciate your thoughts about me even without your saying. I will let everyone know as soon as I spot a fake post in my name, don't worry. So you will always know which posts are from me and which from the hacker. All the posts, so far, on this OT are from me, with the exception of #152 which has already been pointed out by me in my #154.

The hacker is powerful, yes. I have thought about his motives and it has to be one of the two theories that I've already specified earlier. I only hope that he is doing this just for fun and there is nothing more serious to it. Whether he likes me or not....I don't know. It's irrelevant anyway.

I have also suggested to the admin to consider using some other Login Authentication site if Typekey has bugs in it which the hacker is continuously exploiting.

Cheers!
Navin

Dear Navin

Since I have nothing to do with politics, on this blog or elsewhere, and the hacker changed my Typekey ID for a while, it can only be for fun.

Fun on IB is a good thing, as it is everywhere. Laughter is healing, even more than meditation, it is said.

love, Heather

p.s. here is a simple puzzle for you: [12hrs@0+(tutor(3+ hrs)@same)>?]. the answer provides a contrast for a way of thinking.

I am Ayyashi, I work for Kobayashi.

We received only one message from a person in response to the offer of Kobayashi on behalf of Mr. Söze. Mr Söze has categorically agreed to personally respond to all messages if the conditions were met. This offer is valid for one more week starting today. You can address any questions, concerns or complains.

We also found some indirect references to his employees and some Coded Message(s) which don’t qualify, to meet the conditions of the offer. Let me share my embarrassment when I imprudently brought the Coded Message(s) to the notice of Kobayashi; he glanced for a moment and then dismissed it out of hand and the look in his eyes couldn’t hide the extolment of my stupidity.

Let me also inform you that the employee to Mr. Söze who has hurt a kindhearted soul by posting a message has found the most gruesome fate at the hands of Mr. Söze.

Mr. Soze is vacationing in the Mediterranean island of Crete. He has other priorities elsewhere and his team is ever ready for bigger challenges. My vast experience in these matters tells me that this type key thing is more secure than other toys in the market, which in comparison is a child’s play to our not to be mentioned, highly trained and focused team which has amazing capabilities.

Kobayashi sends his regards.

From the escritoire of the offices of Kobayashi,

Ayyashi

Dear Ayyashi,

Give my shaabashi (kudos in Urdu) to Kobayashi for giving you such a meaningful name as Ayyashi (over-indulgence in Urdu).

I heard that Keyser is rich(He must be if he's vacationing in the island of Crete). I need Ten Million US dollars immediately for financing my trip to the Vegas. I promise to give him 50% of any winnings that I might make there. Pls let me know whether he wants to send me a check or will transfer the money online.

Thanks & Cheers!
Navin

Dear Rehan

I was in the midst of writing you a very cool response, but was interrupted by a visitor who needed my immediate attention. I had to kill the note, and I don't have time to rewrite it.

The short version is: I'd been doing art since 5 AM, which puts me into a non-verbal mood, but the heart is still there, just quiet. Thanks for noticing my mood, Rehan.

I'll try to find a way to see that film, but it's currently not playing here, so I'll probably need to wait for a DVD release of it.

love, Heather

Dear Rehan

Love will always prevail in my life. It's my only justification for living, and that's always been so. When my words are quiet, and seem not to express love with bouyancy, it's just a phase, like the dark of the moon -- the moon turns again.

I will watch Woh Lamhe. I had already been listening to the music. When I see it, I will tell you.

love, Heather

Dear Rehan

The love is constant. Its outward expression is not. I am a mutable person. I am not fixed in stone, I am more like a tree, that changes with each moment and each season. But until I die, I will always be the same tree, though constantly changing in my outward expression. I don't see writing something like this, or the moon simile, to be defensive. I see it as explaining what you might otherwise be able to see, if I were there or you were here. I see it as caring about your understanding of me.

love, Heather

We have messages from two people and we are thankful to both of them. We shall be watching the developments.

Let me assure you this, no one even the people who work for Mr. Söze knows his identity, except Kobayashi. It is a highly impossible to trace me. Even if you did it will take another lifetime to get a hint of Kobayashi. If you are lucky, you can find the tell-tales signs of Mr. Söze where ever he moves. You would never know his identity. You can only dream of finding the evidence in your afterlife if you believe in those concepts. It is a grave mistake to presume to know the identity of Mr. Söze and give lectures in that regard. People who made that mistake have found the most gruesome fate at the hands of Mr. Söze. Kobayashi is a serious man, he conveys his warning.

From the escritoire of the offices of Kobayashi,
Ayyashi

Dear Ambasteve, I hope you have the maturity to understand my comment in Aresnio’s thread!

Rehan, are you in love or flirting?
Ayyashi, I like the movie your boss starred in.

If you love me

Whenever I ask
If you love me,
You never say yes
You never say no,
You say perhaps, perhaps…

My love is for you
And will always be,
But you have to tell me first
If you really love me…

If you love someone else
Why not confess,
I will not be happy
I will let you go…

Tell me if you love me
Say no or say yes,
I cannot hear no more
Perhaps, perhaps…

~WW

Above is from the real nan d, my sis, who was intrigued that the hacker remembered her from so many months ago.

I'm intrigued that the hacker remembered an itty-bitty comment I made a long time ago, that she was my sis, and I didn't even ref her tag, nan d, in the comment. Dear Hacker, you have a long memory, are attentive to details, and can put together a whole picture from a few puzzle pieces. Impressive.

Rehan, it's OK, we all get tired. You said, "I feel bad for you, that you get stuck in such situations." That's been puzzling me all evening -- what did you mean?

love, Heather (the real one)

See that? My sis had signed out of Typekey, and I had signed in, but IB still picked up my sister's Typekey ID. I had to go in, sign out again, then clear the Typekey cookie, then sign back in, to get my own ID back.

Dear Hacker, you're also very careful when you're working. That is even more impressive.

love, Heather

weatherthestorms team:

Are you back from a weekend away? Your verse above is more gentle than usual, so I trust you're feeling happy and relaxed. Not too tired.

love, Heather

This is based on a poem fresportra wrote a while ago, that he called Love. We've been talking about love on OT for a couple of days now. I remembered it, and half-cribbed it for my second stanza. Thank you, fresportra, I hope you won't mind. Notice how much better that stanza is than the rest of what I wrote. Dear fresportra, it's kinda hard to spell your name correctly. Hope I got it right each time.

Love Like the Sun

I know what love is.
It's like sun.
It's friendship,
multiplied.

I love
the earth, that touched your feet
the air, that kissed your mouth
the light, that gilds you every day
the forest glens, wherein I hear your voice.

If you need warmth
need peace
when winds are biting
crows are flying overhead,
this autumn time,

I'm walking here with you,
hands in pockets,
whistling your song
(though I don't whistle well,
I can do that song).

Like friendship,
multiplied,
is love.
It's like the sun,
and so's my love for you.

love, Heather

Dear Craig/Agni/अग्नि Not many would have a problem had Arsenio’s latest thread been a few days old and a few posts old. You started your conversations in the very first post! If you have a problem with OT, I can suggest you to post in the weekly intent of Joanie Reisfeld in the home page. It is quiet an old thread and it had been a long time since any posted there lately. You have always a better option of posting in one of the archived threads where no one posts anymore. You can have a single stream of conversation where no one would interrupt it, like I did. If you feel that your friends would not take a notice of your posts and you can get their attention only in the HOT latest threads, then you can leave a message on OT with the link where you left your comments. It would be much better if you can choose an old OT rather than ask for another OT to have your discussions with others. My sincere hope is that you would become a team player and get involved in the regular OT. By demeaning the OT by posting OT material in the regular threads and by suggesting to create another OT, you are creating a problem which spreads like a tumor if it isn’t addressed.

I apologize for interrupting the flow of thoughts, words, conversations here, and changing the subject. M.K. Gandhi was born today. I would like to wish him a HAPPY BIRTHDAY where ever he may be. Popularly known as Gandhiji, he is also a MAHATMA(great soul), BAPU( father). Thank you BAPUJI for everything you did for India, for S.Africa, and for Mankind. You took Hinduism to a greater level. You did it with TRUTH and NONVIOLENCE.

Dear friends, who are familiar with Gandhiji's life story, did you know that his mother was not a Hindu?? His father had four wives. The first two died. The third wife was very ill. So Karamachand Gandhi married Putalibai. She belonged to a sect called Pranami. This sect combined the elements of both Hinduism and Islam. The temple had both Hindu scriptures and Quran. Both Hindu scriptures and Quran were read every day. I thought those of you who were not aware of this may find it interesting.

Gandhiji also studied Bible regularly.

Thank you dear friends. Dear God please bless my friends.

It is sad to see someone using Arnab’s name and his disease to obtain celebrity autographs. These autographs have a good value on eBay.

This news of a seventh standard boy from Calcutta appeared in Indian media in July 2004. These acts should not be encouraged out of respect for Arnab Ghosh who, God forbid may have died of his disease by now.

I hear by file a formal Protest and Request Shekar Kapur and the Intentblog to remove this post out of respect for Arnab Ghosh
-------

The tribune online edition, Saturday, July 10, 2004, Chandigarh, India

Hanif Mohammed to meet ailing fan in Kolkata
Lahore, July 9
Overwhelmed by the letter of a young cancer-stricken boy from Kolkata, Pakistan cricket legend Hanif Mohammed has decided to visit India to meet his ailing fan. Touched by the e-mail from an ailing Arnab Ghosh, a class VII student at a Kolkata school who is suffering from acute leukemia, the legendary cricketer is planning to meet the youngster in India.

tribuneindia.com/2004/20040710/sports.htm

Hindu online edition, Saturday, Jul 10, 2004
Hanif Mohammed's gesture
Lahore: Overwhelmed by the letter of a young cancer-stricken boy from Kolkata, Pakistan cricket legend Hanif Mohammed has decided to visit India to meet his ailing fan.
Touched by an e-mail from an ailing Arnab Ghosh, a class seven student at a Kolkata school who is suffering from acute leukaemia, the legendary cricketer is planning to meet the youngster in India. In the e-mail, the teenager had requested for an autograph from the little champion and regretted that he could not meet the cricket legend because of his illness and other reasons.
Subsequently, an overwhelmed Hanif Mohammed announced it was his social obligation to meet his young fan and boost his morale in the fight against the disease. He also wished Arnab an early recovery and long life in his reply with his autograph. According to Arnab's mail, the doctors had already announced that his days were virtually numbered. — UNI
hindu.com/2004/07/10/stories/2004071004572100.htm

Apparently, the address given the person requesting celebrity autographs in forums and guestbooks is a business dealing in mural paintings. If anyone including Shekar Kapur is interested they can contact the business to know the identity of the person sending requests.

Adrienne Turcotte
About Murals
5-101 Connaught Avenue South
Hamiliton, Ontario
L8M 3C4

905-746-1551
adrienne@aboutmurals.ca
http://www.aboutmurals.ca/

http://www.muralroutes.com/memberdirectory.htm

Reddy

PS: I am happy to see that Intenblog has removed the concerned post. Thank You.

Good job, InnocentVictim (Reddy)! One must always stay vigilant against such frauds on the internet. Don't believe anyone on the net untill you've met them personally or are sure about them through some other means.

"Do not cast your pearls before swine."

Cheers!
Navin

Dear Rehan

Did you like my poem?

love, Heather

Great news guys, breaking news, our brother Arsenio doesn’t mind others using his space in his threads say our brother Keith. Let us all go and “sing” there, converse there since this OT it seems doesn’t have enough spare space! I missed the count, did we reach 500 or 1000 comments already?

Rehan, I suggest you read some good poetry and I am sure you won't find most of it straight-forward either, otherwise what is the difference between poetry and sequential thought in prose? Each time you read a great poem you find new meanings in it, not just one straight forward message. That’s what makes it art and to appreciate it one need to be exposed to good poetry, ancient, modern and contemporary.

Dear Rehan

I'm real. My poem is straightforward, just as my emotions are. I don't usually share my feelings publically, and sometimes not privately, either. Though I'm private person, my feelings are genuine and strong. I think that's true of many people besides me.

You'd been teasing me about not having my heart open and full of love. When I'd written my question to you, I saw WW's poem (which he wrote in Jan 2005, you can find it here: http://whitewings.sulekha.com/blogs/blogdisplay.aspx?cid=28397).

So I thought I'd share my poem, especially because the second verse is based on fresportra's Love poem. I wrote my poem several days ago. This version is almost the same as my original, I just changed a few words about the song for this space.

The lines I changed were:

whistling, best I can,
the tune of Ab mere paas tum aayee ho

(http://heatherquinn.blogspot.com/2006/09/love-like-sun.html)

I'm sharing all this here because there are cultural differences between US and India. When someone in the US is not publically open about their feelings, it does not mean they're cold or have no feelings, it means they're being discreet.

While I'm wearing my teacher's hat: discreet is defined as prudent, self-restrained, modest. (There's another word that's pronounced the same, but is spelled differently: discrete, which means separate, distinct, which is used most often in math and statistics.)

love, Heather

Heather, as you might have known, you are in my list of my favorite bloggers which I posted some weeks back, if I am not wrong that was in my very first comment. I absolutely loved your poem and my gratitude for you for sharing it with all of us here at intent. I was wondering about the rest of my favorite bloggers who are not active since my return after a break. What happened to North, Ravi Kopra, Sachin(I share the same initials with Sachin), and AJ? I can only see you and Navin from my list. Did the rest get in trouble with the sheriff?

PS: As I am writing this comment I just saw North’s comments. A Hello to you North! Glad to see you back alive and kickin'!

Greetings back, from north country, dude! Did you make the rain stop today; as it's been rampaging the north for almost 2 weeks steady! If so, merci bon coup in buckets!

To clarify, I never died; and when I do, is when I'll stop kicking; and even then, I am reborn kicking and screaming, so how can I fight the inevitable at all, at all?

May the sun, which shines today for the first time in weeks, rekindle heat to not only my bones, but set ablaze, a fire of love in my heart; for it tends to doubt, at times...

North

Heather,

That is quite confusing..

I managed to work out that you did not write the immediate reply and that someone else did using your name.

well in response to who ever that was who wrote that response....

Killing in some circumstances, especially in past times when we were hunter gatherers and lived in caves and had limited capabilities as far as finding food was concerned, then yes killing was a necessity, That is pertinent to the fact of how the human species became the most powerful of all creatures on earth, we are deadly leathal as far as hunting and killing is concerned.

If we look at the history of our planet, the evidence shows us that it is exremely dynamic and there is and has been constant evolutionary changes effecting all of the creatures that have ever existed here, we humans are now the greatest predator and killer this planet has ever spawned and also history shows us that predators eventually cause their own extinction. Mankind has even evolved in some cases to a level where by they can progress onto a new stage of evolution that is not physical evolution any longer but spiritual evolution and a new level of intelligence.

There are many ways that mankind can sustain his/her body without killing or rearing living creatures and then murdering them. Fruit and Vegtables are not conscious beings, they are organic yes, but not sentient beings, I would define a sentient being by the circumstance of that being having awareness, having present awareness of themself and others, it is that awareness that is God, If you go and sit with a cat and stroke it and look into it's eyes and then after that go and speak to a person and look into their eyes it is the same awareness you are experiencing, the physical forms are of no relevence on that level, the divine is the energy that is here in the present moment and is the consciousness of the present moment.

Thats what I define as a sentient being, something that is the divine in physical form like a sheep or a cow or a pig or a human being and to take that life is a crime against your soul.

If you dont belive me or disagree then that is totaly ok....but I would like to ask you....Have you ever killed an Animal for food yourself? (I Have)

Have you ever visited a Slaughterhouse and was it an enjoyable experience for you..... (I have and no it was awful...one of the worst places you could possibly ever visit)

saying that eating meat is important to sustaining your species is a very flimbsy argument.... there are many alternative food types to meat that can sustain the human species...such as Fruit and Veg, Fibre, Natural protiens found in plants such as Mushrooms, and many many more, Google for them there are hundreds you will see.

Dear Rehan

Thanks for clarifying. I still love the Hacker. I want him/her to stay safe, and I'm trying to keep quiet so he/she can do whatever he/she wants to do without tripping over me in some way.

My consistency in love is what my poem is about. That's why I posted it.

Dear dude

I recall you being a bit of a deputy. I don't like law enforcement all that much. I respect its necessity, but I dislike its practice, unless there are real crises. I appreciate your liking my poem very much. I'd love to read something you've written that's not about coralling people. Are you a writer?

love, Heather

Dear Simon

I'm glad you worked it out. Even though I knew what was going on, it confused me, too. :)

love, Heather

Dear dude

So, yaar, where do you go when you're on break?

love, Heather

Speaking of breaks, Abhay, are you now on break?

Where is Curious these days? And fresportra? Where are the good old mystery guys, like hypocrite, ., mse, and so on?

(I wonder how AJ is taking his separation from IB?)

Oh IBRH, do you know where any of these guys are now? If you're in touch with any of them, please tell them hi from me, when you talk to them next.

love, Heather

Dear Rehan

I am confused. You know I love the Hacker. Yet you say he/she paralyzed people yest.? When? And my loving presence was needed? For who, the Hacker or for others?

I see comments from me about the Hacker having hacked my ID to write 193. Then a conversation between you and Navin. Then me to Navin. Then you to me. Then Keyser Söze made an appearance using Ayyashi as a go-between, and Navin answered him. Then I came back and told you I'd been interrupted. Were posts made by the Hacker and deleted by Nirav and I missed that?

I am fully aware of fetid sties. I don't ignore them.

love, Heather

Dear Simon

Thanks for your views in this issue. I have a few questions about your explanation to the comment which was made (although not by me, which I had already clarified).

Your point is that to take the life of a sentient being is a crime against the soul in the present times when man has a power to evolve spiritually at a new level of intelligence.

I believe this new level of intelligence may incorporate all beings big and small even those which don’t have eyes, or cat like, horse like, dog like, cow like etc…

Your definition may not include bacteria including mushroom, blind animals with physical disiability? , cockroaches? snakes?, insects?(people do eat these in many parts of the world)

“Mankind has even evolved in some cases to a level where by they can progress onto a new stage of evolution that is not physical evolution any longer but spiritual evolution and a new level of intelligence.”

You Definition of Sentient Being:

“Fruit and Vegtables are not conscious beings, they are organic yes, but not sentient beings, I would define a sentient being by the circumstance of that being having awareness, having present awareness of themself and others, it is that awareness that is God, If you go and sit with a cat and stroke it and look into it's eyes and then after that go and speak to a person and look into their eyes it is the same awareness you are experiencing, the physical forms are of no relevence on that level, the divine is the energy that is here in the present moment and is the consciousness of the present moment.

thats what I define as a sentient being, something that is the divine in physical form like a sheep or a cow or a pig or a human being”

Jainism:

“In Jainism, all the matter is endowed with sentience; there are six degress of sentience, from one to six. Water, for example, is a sentient being of first order, as it is considered to possess one only sense, that of touch. Man is considered to be sentient being of the sixth order.”

If you agree with the definition of Jainism, are we not applying different moral values to different orders (one to six) of sentient beings and bringing harm to some which we don’t consider to be sentient like the humans?

I wonder why this new intelligence and spiritual evolution of the humans perceive all humans and non-humans as the extension of the one spiritual soul.

I WONDER WHY THIS NEW INTELLIGENCE AND SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION OF HUIMANS CANNOT ENCOMPASS ALL HUMANS AND NON-HUMANS AS AN EXTENSION OF THE ONE SPIRITUAL SOUL BOTH IN PERCEPTION, DEEP INSIGHT AND ACTION.
( I hate using bold letters and loud statements but do excuse me for this one instance.)

Killing the animals in a slaughter house is disgusting to see but it may not affect the world environment at large, which can be seen in the destruction of environment which leads to the extinction of many animals. If we grow more vegetables, are we also not consuming the land and resources of the wild which may lead to the extinction of animals (small or big) in the long run (not in the immediate future)? I believe that nature has created extraordinary number of life forms, humans, cats, dogs, cows, goat are only a few among them. It is important that we preserve this diversity by all means possible. To kill an animal whose specie is well preserved doesn’t have much effect on the environment than to indirectly assist the extinction of other non-sentient beings as seen by some humans.

This is comparable to the war in Iraq, where many people are dead in attacks, and it is a crime which raises people heads. The indirect death of people in Africa and other poor nations due to disease and the lack of proper resources don’t catch the eyes. It isn’t crime (except for the rare genocides) because no one is killing anyone.

Simon, please reply soon as this is a topic which intrigues me. I would like to share more of your great understanding in these spiritual matters.

Love, Heath

It has now become more common for me to refer wikipedia to understand the meaning of words used in Intentblog. I would like to share some of the information I found about sentient beings with you all:

Philosophy and sentience
Many philosophers, notably Colin McGinn, believe that sentience cannot ever be understood, no matter how much progress is made by neuroscience in understanding the brain. Holders of this position are called New Mysterians. They do not deny that most other aspects of consciousness are subject to scientific investigation, from creativity to sapience, to self-awareness. New Mysterians believe that only sentience cannot be comprehensively understood by science. There continues to be much debate among philosophers, with many adamant that there is no really hard problem with sentience whatsoever.

Non-human animal rights and sentience
In the philosophy of animal rights, sentience is commonly seen as the ability to experience suffering. The 18th century philosopher Jeremy Bentham raised the issue of non-human suffering and sadism in An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation:


The French have already discovered that the blackness of the skin is no reason why a human being should be abandoned without redress to the caprice of a tormentor... What else is it that should trace the insuperable line? Is it the faculty of reason, or, perhaps, the faculty of discourse? But a full-grown horse or dog is beyond comparison a more rational, as well as a more conversable animal, than an infant of a day, or a week, or even a month, old. But suppose the case were otherwise, what would it avail? The question is not, "Can they reason?" nor, "Can they talk?" but, "Can they suffer?"

In terms of deductive argument, the case is as follows:
1. Human and some non-human animals are sentient.
2. All sentient beings have the ability to suffer.
3. (We hold that) it's wrong to cause unnecessary suffering.
Therefore: (We should hold that) it is wrong to cause unnecessary suffering to human and some non-human animals.
As Peter Singer argues, this is often dismissed by appeal to a distinction that condemns humans suffering but allows non-human suffering. However, as many of the suggested distinguishing features of humanity - extreme intelligence; highly complex language; etc. are not present in marginal cases such as young or mentally disabled humans, it appears that the only distinction is an irrational prejudice on the basis of species alone, which non-human animal rights supporters call speciesism - that is, differentiating humans from other animals purely on the grounds that they are human.
Eastern religion
Eastern religions including Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism recognize nonhumans as sentient beings. In Jainism and Hinduism, this is closely related to the concept of ahimsa, nonviolence toward other beings. In Jainism, all the matter is endowed with sentience; there are six degress of sentience, from one to six. Water, for example, is a sentient being of first order, as it is considered to possess one only sense, that of touch. Man is considered to be sentient being of the sixth order. According to Buddhism, sentient beings made of pure consciousness are possible. In Mahayana Buddhism, which includes Zen and Tibetan Buddhism, the concept is related to the Bodhisattva, an enlightened being devoted to the liberation of others. The first vow of a Bodhisattva states: "Sentient beings are numberless; I vow to free them."

Dear Rehan, I had to post this as a token of my appreciation to simon before I can get back to you. What do you think about this issue?

Dear Rehan

Well, thanks for replying, anyway. I don't know the Hacker personally, and guessing can only tell me so much.

peace & love, Heather

Dear IBRH

When you say:

"If we grow more vegetables, are we also not consuming the land and resources of the wild which may lead to the extinction of animals (small or big) in the long run (not in the immediate future)? I believe that nature has created extraordinary number of life forms, humans, cats, dogs, cows, goat are only a few among them. It is important that we preserve this diversity by all means possible. To kill an animal whose specie is well preserved doesn’t have much effect on the environment than to indirectly assist the extinction of other non-sentient beings as seen by some humans."

...this is brilliant, you are right on target. It's all about balance.

And thank you for writing:

"This is comparable to the war in Iraq, where many people are dead in attacks, and it is a crime which raises people heads. The indirect death of people in Africa and other poor nations due to disease and the lack of proper resources don’t catch the eyes. It isn’t crime (except for the rare genocides) because no one is killing anyone."

Thank you most of all for this:

"The question is not, "Can they reason?" nor, "Can they talk?" but, "Can they suffer?""

I send deep respect, a really big hug, and love, Heath

Dear Simon and Rehan

243 isn't me. It attests to the brilliant perceptions and sensitive heart of IBRH, IB's Resident Hacker. He has honored us by writing it (imho). May God protect him every day.

love, Heather

Dear Geeta,

Thanks for the reminder. I know that you are fond of both Gandhiji and Yoganandaji. Below are two quotes by Paramahansa Yogananda:

"Gandhi is bringing a paradise of peace and brotherhood into the hearts of the people of all nations... Mahatma Gandhi is the modern spiritual mystery. His life will show the way to solve the complicated problem of the East and West."

This second quote is from a memorial conducted by Yoganandaji in honor of Gandhi after his death.

"Bless the soul of Gandhi, and bless us all, that we may remember his spirit. May Gandhi live forever in our hearts...and in the hearts of all nations."
Love,
Donatella

hieee everyone...happy dusherra.......

Dear Rehan

I do love you, for your heart, clear vision, sensitivity, intelligence, tenacity. If I had to chose one, though, it would be for your heart. You are a wonder with that.

Yes, I understand about all those minds you mentioned. And so you know why I love the Hacker, then. Did you read his 243 above? It's masterful, and so bighearted at every damned level.

love, Heather

This is hillarious.

Can I get on the "Guy that smokes to much" s hit list.

I'm even afraid to say the word.

Hey Heather. I would like to contact you directly but I'm afraid that if I put my email adress in this post my computer will self distruct. Got any ideas?

Dear waylay

Read this OT, and you'll know about as much as I do.

When I was a kid, before Christmas day, we (2 sisters, 1 brother) would wait until the dark of early mornings, then search the house from top to bottom, to see if we could find disturbances in the placement of things. Where we found disturbances, we'd often find traces of Christmas presents-to-be. The thrill of those finds is what I feel when I find a trace of the Hacker (IBRH).

I don't feel anger with the Hacker, because he/she has never caused harm, he/she is smart and funny, and he/she gives me no sense of danger or threat. It's my opinion that the Hacker is a beneficent presence to IB, over all, a kind of balancer, a friendly ghost.

love, Heather

Dear LPB

My Typekey profile has my email addie on it.

love, Heather

Heather,

Sent,

Dear LPB

Did not receive. (Did you use the addie where it says Email Me? That's the one to use. The ones assocated with my sites are very long-standing, and now get too much spam, so I check them only a couple of times a week.)

love, Heather

I got this message in my private email from an unknown source. I am posting it here:

Please post this message for me:

I HEREBY DECLARE THAT I WILL REFRAIN FROM FURTHER IMPOSTURING OF ANY ID AT INTENTBLOG.

HAVE NO FEAR ENJOY THE SHOW. THIS IS A PROMISE.

Time starts now.

xxxX

Rehan

Dear Rehan

I hope that message was a hoax, and didn't come to you from IBRH. I would miss his presence :(.

love, Heather

Dear Rehan

Oh, my friend, what would I do without you here? You understand me, the Hacker, yourself, and everyone else, it seems.

love, Heather

Donatella, thanks for #247. Love and God bless.

Dear Heather and heather,

It seems you have a split personality LOL,

What I find a lot of people do is that they label and cattegorise things like this for example "Eastern religions including Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism"

For me there is just Understanding regardless of who or where they may or may not have been understood. It is all understanding of the divine.

You say Jainism I would say Understanding.

First of all in reply to what you are wondering is that, This is not a NEW form of evolution it is how ever becoming more realised by many. Of course there is negative forces in the world and there are a lot of horrificly bad things going on but we tend to focus on that and sensationalise it, if the news stations spent 2 weeks going around the world reporting on all of the positive things and all the very bright and beautiful people there are in the world then we would think the world was a heavenly place all of a sudden, instead of us being totaly influenced by the negativity in the world.

So the evolution as in spiritual evolution is not a new phenomina and it is becoming more and more recognised and understood

This very Intentblog is testimony to that....

The Vast majority of the people in the world, do not want killing, violence and negative action.... it is a very tiny amount of the species who are totaly negative and want for war and destruction and all of the negativity we see on the news.

Like when you visited the slaughterhouse or see a person or an animal being tortured or suffering...it makes you sick to your inner core! and it does for most people.

Interesting:

Like we can walk around in the physical universe from point A to point B, in the parallel universe, it is possible to walk from one time to the next time
India Daily Technology Team
Sep. 11, 2006

Like we can walk around in the physical universe from point A to point B, in the parallel universe, it is possible to walk from one time to the next time. Even it is possible to travel to negative reference value in time.

Parallel Universes are strange but can be fun to live in.

the parallel universes have the concept of no time dimension and time can become negative in that environment. The time dimension that allows time as negative value makes strange things happen. One can literally fabricate the future in that environment from the past and them come to the present. A spatial with no time concept built in is not a point of singularity.

What really happens in the parallel universe, the lack of time as a dimension or presence of time dimension that allows negative time makes living through that environment very different form the physical universe. Space becomes finite and time becomes non-existent or retraceable factor.

The best way the negative time factor or value can be expressed is when an entity crosses the physical universe to a parallel universe through a specific wormhole. The moment the point of singularity is crossed, the entity enters the time zone marked as negative in physical universe and null or non-existent in the parallel universe.

TECHNOLOGY ARTICLES

Dear Simon

Thanks for your reply. It made me think and investigate in ways unknown and I have grown by this experience.

Dear All

I was thinking about this since yesterday... remmeber I said I would right an essay on aliases and imposters a few days back? This morning, as I read this post at http://penmaiden.blogspot.com/ I couldn’t stop myself from sharing it with you. We can learn so much from the experiences of this blogger. He has got so many interesting things to say which are relevant to Intentblog. Please read:

There's a Coterie!!
Aug 27, 2006

When you get to know people through a virtual medium, do you get to know them better? Do truer pictures of who they really are emerge more rapidly, as on Polaroid film, rather than on film that needs to be turned in for dark room development and is seen at a later date?

Perhaps you do. Over the past few years I have befriended many people through contact established on the Internet. Mostly by virtue of running a network of writers on a social and business networking site – Ryze Business Networking. Many of these connections feel strong and binding, the friendships established, unshakeable, come hell or high water. Then there are the others, oh so many others, who appeared normal and sane at the outset. They presented themselves as people who had something substantially larger than a pea knocking around within the confines of their skulls.

The writers’ network is flourishing and the quality of writing remains high. I can, at the very least, vouch for the quality of prose that we get to read on this network and for the most part I am proud of what my friend and I created in one moment of disenchantment with another network. I am not in a position to say much about the poetry. I certainly enjoy reading and analyzing poetry and have even attempted verse. But I express myself better in prose. Most poetry I read on this network and others is either incomprehensible to me or inconsequential. It has always amazed me to see how poetic people can get about love and angst.

But, I digress; poets have always been as welcome on Shakespeare and Company as have prose writers. Humor is also an integral part of how we write and an underlying subtext in how the network wants to progress and grow. So things should be hunky-dory, shouldn’t they? Well, I don’t know if it is jealousy or the affinity for disequilibrium that members of our species show. They get tired of seeing a good thing; they get tired of things running on an even keel and are always on the look out for creative ways to summon chaos. They want to unsettle things, they set out with a wrecking ball; the idea of breaking, damaging and later settling down to analyze the results of the destruction they wrought, like erudite scholars, is of immense appeal to them.

I have a fairly healthy self image. I have a strict sense of fairness, my objectivity knows no equals (not amidst my contacts), I treat people with respect believing that is the only way to get respect and, most importantly, I am consistent in my behavior. I don’t present myself as someone one day and as an evil, alien twin of this someone the next day. It is precisely this trait in people that I don’t understand, and in fact abhor. I have no patience for inconsistency even if the excuses offered are:

“I had a bad day”
“I don’t know what I was thinking”
“I was off my Prozac”
“I suffer from bipolar disorder”

I just don’t have the genes that it takes to understand inconsistent people or to sympathize with their condition. I don’t change from day to day, so do not change on me.

So back to the original question, do you learn about two-faced, inconsistent people sooner online than you do in a real interaction? In a virtual interaction, other than the ubiquitous Yahoo emoticons, there is no way to observe body language, no way to read between the lines or to collate and compile subtleties of communication from that which is left unsaid. But perhaps one could see a cyber connection as one where the message is pure, from brain to fingers, to high speed cables to the screen of the person you’re addressing; messages that are not disguised by the aforementioned non-verbal cues. So maybe the masks drop sooner. In my experience they have and every time a new ugliness is revealed in all its glory, it takes my breath away. An analogy would be an unsuspecting victim of a house on fire who decides to make an exit through a door and turns the knob only to be blasted into nothingness by lashing tongues of fire.

People are often adamant on the stances they choose to adapt. Calling a truce, talking things through, trying to be objective and seeing things from other perspectives is out of the question, although these ideals of human behavior often get significant lip service, in all quarters. They are given names like “healthy discussions”, “agreeing to disagree”, while getting even more firmly entrenched in dogma and a belief that one is always correct no matter what.

Running a network, occasionally two, has been quite the learning experience. Shakespeare and Company – a network of writers on Ryze - is nothing more than what it says it is – a network of people who enjoy writing English correctly and derive pleasure out of having their work read as well as from reading what others write. We never said we would train people to write well. We are not professional literary critics. We don’t have contacts in the publishing world and we exist as a network only because I pay Ryze $100 per year for us to exist. C’est tout. But people never cease to amaze me with the expectations they have. Some causes of dissatisfaction, accumulated over a year and a half, are summarized below [these are paraphrased and said in context, not direct quotes]:
1. I was staging a play and Shakespeare and Company ignored my requests for the provision of a ‘corpus’ for my audience. They also ignored my pleas for an army of photographers and videographers.
2. Some of us are merely tolerated and unfairly “critted” while others garner favorable feedback. I thought I would learn at this network but I am mostly ignored.
3. No one reads my poetry.
4. I am just here to post; I don’t care what others are writing.
5. I only read Individual A. Others are not worth my time.
6. No one comments on what I write.
7. I thought this was a network of serious writers so how come I see so many humorous posts?
8. Why are so many people using pseudonyms? There are fake people on the network.
9. Individual A = Individual B, believe you me.
10. If I can’t use obscenities while commenting on others works then I feel my freedom of expression is being violated. The moderator is a Nazi.
11. I want the freedom to call the members of the board morons. I want to make personal verbal attacks on people and if you stop me I will draw the conclusion that your network is a front for transforming Indians into Americans, especially since you work in the finance industry.
12. I will offer one word feedback to people and say “nice work”, “wonderful”. I won’t acknowledge or thank people for their praise of my work. Yet when others do the same I will once again repeat that the network is full of morons.
13. I can’t bear this network, but I’ll continue to lurk, use it as free advertisement for my stories.
14. I will greet people’s posts by typing up “YAAAAAAAAAWN” as a response.
15. I will write bad English, clichéd stories and pathetic love poems and if you don’t respond I’ll tell the world through my blog that the network does not appreciate good work.
16. Oh and the poem someone wrote, about the ‘love poetry’ genre the other day? Well, that was a nasty personal attack on me. I won’t post here anymore and I will sever ties with any friends who post here as well. They will have to choose between me and this network.
17. There’s a coterie! A nefarious ring!

This last often has me wondering if I should employ a private investigator to unearth this conspiratorial coterie. How dare there flourish a coterie on a network I moderate that doesn’t include me!!

Despite these provocations my stance has usually been one of leaving things alone and letting them resolve or die out by themselves. Reacting only aggravates matters. But perhaps I can say a few words that express my astonishment at what people feel they have a right to tell me, or the libelous remarks they feel they have a right to spew just because they think the Internet is largely standards-free. They fail to realize how lax my standards are on the network as opposed to the behavior I would expect from people who cross the threshold of my home. There is a code of conduct in my home. You can’t enter unless you are invited. If you litter, if you verbally abuse people, if you generally behave deplorably then chances are you will be thrown out. Or perhaps your presence will be tolerated once but you will never be invited again. Also, the people who accept my invitation, I would assume, would be people who share a fondness for me and my family. If that is not the case, I expect they would either turn down the invitation or wouldn’t have been invited in the first place. But if you wreak havoc within my boundaries you will certainly be paid in kind. Not so on the network; there are considerable freedoms on the network.

Before getting a driver’s license in the United States one is told driving ones car on the roads of this country is a privilege not a right. And so it should be with network participation, with being a guest in someone’s home, it should be seen as a privilege and not a right. And one certainly does not have the right to stop being a civilized human being simply because one is a member of a cyber community.

I hope you liked the post. The feelings expressed are strikingly similar to those of many of us, intent bloggers. I would be happy to read the comments from all my friends and fellow bloggers in this regard.

Love, Heather

Hey smarty!

That's not me, in any respect. I'm not commenting today cause I'm having a miserable day, if I had any Prozac, I'd take some. :)

love, Heath

The author of the blog I shared with you is Pragya Thakur, mother of a five year old from New Jersey.

Let me share with you a poem written by her which I liked:

An Interview

He was doused in Obsession,
he had done his very best.
The suit had the fraying sheen
Of age at the elbows,
and around the pockets,
But the pin stripes were still intact
And the wing-tipped shoes
were gleaming.
But I saw it.
Nothing could hide what I was
alone in seeing;
the bilious green of desperation.

I tried to put him at ease
and offered him a drink of water
As I enveloped myself in a
cocoon of small talk. But I
couldn't escape the relentless
waves of red hot, unreleased
anger that were directed
at me and sought to vaporize
my very existence.

And finally the smell, the
rotting odor of ingratiation,
of wilted, trampled pride,
in a soul, unstarched, crumpled,
begging for soulless work that could
get him back on his aching feet.

A victim's feet carrying him
out of the room trailing wisps
of bilious green desperation,
receding heat waves of unspent anger
and the unmistakable odor of defeat.

Pragya Thakur

Dear IBRH

You're an agent provocateur on behalf of the wit/fun/in-depth-thought brigade.

I won't pay you too many compliments today. As you know, I've fallen in love with you, and I'm blushing as I write even this.

I bid you adieu for now, after sending you a hug and a kiss. Thanks for making my otherwise crappy day a little lighter. Thanks for educating us all, and making us think.

love, Heath

Dear Rehan

Yes, he's very sharp, he keeps me on my toes all the time. (By now, I'm assuming he's a guy, I'll be so embarrassed if he's not, since love has entered the picture)

Dear IBRH

You're welcome to use my ID whenever, no questions asked, no comments made.

love, Heath

Dear Heather,
I wish I could offer words to soothe and inspire, but I am stunned by the death of the children yesterday in the Amish school.

Growing up with my family, and taking weekend trips to the Amish country in Pennsylvania, I remember the simplicity and beauty of the land and their ways of life.

Will the time ever come, for abuse and killing to stop? That collectively, humanity will find the way to communicate without the need to hurt and abuse another.

Love,
~ Kate

Dear Kate

Your warm heart and compassionate soul, your caring for others, these soothe and inspire us all here, and beyond. If there were more such as you, who would ever get so angry as to kill children, or anyone else, for that matter?

love, Heather

Dear Kate and Heather,
Thinking of you and sending you a smile.
Love,
Donatella

Dear Donatella

And one back to you.

love, Heather

Dear Geeta

What do you think of the madness here, the past few days? Yes, I know, I took part, there were reasons for that. If you would you send me your blessings, I would be most grateful.

I send you mine now, and my love, as well.

love, Heather

Dear IBRH

I'm saving your posts, as souvenirs of the fun, wit, brains and heart you seem to embody. I send blessings, a hug, and best wishes for your continued safety and fun.

love, Heath

I'm Nobody! Who are you?

I'm Nobody! Who are you?
Are you -- Nobody -- Too?
Then there's a pair of us!
Don't tell! they'd advertise -- you know!

How dreary -- to be -- Somebody!
How public -- like a Frog --
To tell one's name -- the livelong June --
To an admiring Bog!

Emily Dickinson

Dear Heather, I have been reading with interest the goings on here. My love and good wishes are always there for you. May Durgamatha bless you always. Love and God bless.

#282 is not me. Can I kid with you friendly ghost?:) Listen, if this goes for long, I'll send Durgamathas at you. There are lot of born gifted Durgas here. You don't have an idea. LOL! Badi champi karenge vho tumari. Ravi is out on a vacation, will be back in about 10days. Me too, have to head towards the Ocean soon. It's due.

Heather, Just two lines for you. Smallness in any form generally is something I can't stand. You're like an Ocean. Big heart. Keep it up.

Love!

Dear Geeta

Thank you so much. I like your choice of words -- goings on here.

Do yo like animals (pets, wild, farm)? If so, what animals do you like best?

"Hand in hand, with fairy grace, will we sing, and bless this place." (Shakespeare, A Midsummer-Night Dream)

love, Heather

Dear June and June

One of wit with heart,
One of heart with wit.

Since DK has opened IB to Shakespeare, here is some for you:

June of wit with heart:
"Search out thy wit for secret policies" (King Henry the Sixth)
"O! Never say that I was false of heart though absence seem'd my flame to qualify" (Sonnet 109)

June of heart with wit:
"And you must put me in your heart for friend" (Hamlet)
"They never meet, but there is a skirmish of wit between them" (Much Ado About Nothing)

love, Heather

Whta's kicking people? Above, I'm lost with 'to be or not to be a hacker that is the question?' LOl Hilarious..I'm even questioning my own identity now!!!!

Anyway, don't see an OT for today-so posting this here:

2 Americans Win Nobel Prize in Medicine

- - - - - - - - - - - -

By MATT MOORE and KARL RITTER Associated Press Writers

October 03,2006 | STOCKHOLM, Sweden --

Americans Andrew Z. Fire and Craig C. Mello won the Nobel Prize in medicine Monday for discovering a powerful way to turn off the effect of specific genes, opening a potential new avenue for fighting diseases as diverse as cancer and AIDS.

Fascinating, and revolutionary science....this is now going to allow leaps and bounds to be made in clinical medicine, to combat disease. God I miss my science! :-)

Dear IBRH

Where are you this morning / evening? Are you away? Lost in deep thoughts? Slumbering from exhaustion? Preparing for a jaunt somewhere? Drinking and singing songs? Mezmerized by Saira's beauty, and wanting to write more?

Best wishes for your continuing safety and fun.

lots of love, Heath

p.s. If you find thorns amongst my words, they're just the shadows of your worries, there's nothing in my heart for you but honey, sir.

Good morning Dear Heather, Sometimes in the rapid talk, we forget to thank. I would like to Thank you for everything, every post you wrote to me!:) You're a thing of beauty joy forever. I liked normy's "Imagine" too. LOL!

Dear IBRH, I love humor. I wasn't serious at all, I was just kidding. Standard of sense of humor is really poor here. Like Heather, I would be terribly disappointed to see you going, rt now I'm here only because of you. Plz Plz stay. We both have loved you. It's ok with me too like Heather, just make sure (mera naam kahin miti me na mila dho)don't screw around too much with my name. I'll trust you on this and go ahead. I love your funny side, just like your serious one. You're all in one. Keep it up!

Peace&Love!

Dear June

Your words mean a lot to me, maybe more than you can imagine. I think you most gratefully, and return the compliment.

And thanks for loving IBRH, too.

love, Heath

Heather: I do know you take my words seriously. Coz of my sincerity and sharpness I guess. So you do think I'm a beauty and a joy eh? :-)

Well, just a little talk about love. It's giving as well as receiving. Not many spend a serious thought on receiving. It's a wonderful topic for discussion. Do you know lot of people in this world are not good receivers of love? They do not know how to receive love or to extract more from the giver. A Lot others because of certain complexes in them do not receive it well. Leos!! Are one of the best from what I've seen. They are like mighty sponges! You give them tonnes and they will just sweetly thank you and are not quenched, ask for more. I've had my best chemistry with leos. However, Ego is the major drawback in their dark side, but over a period of time once that is negotiated, it's wonderful. They are really big like Sun, they are not into small things. They just go Bang and Boom! not the small sissy type. Oh well, lot about them. They are Passion personified.

So, yeah receiving too is a very important part in love which makes others give you more. Leos are awesome receivers, good givers too.

When his is next visit?LOL!

Ji haan, dear one. :)

That is a good observation about receiving love. I'm very bad at it, myself. I want to run away and stay at the same time. I'm a Leo, but with Venus and Mars in Virgo; I think these make my ability to accept love somewhat constrained. Usually, my Taurus ascendant keeps that fearfulness under control, but sometimes it takes me over.

Do you think he's sleeping to recover from a very strenous effort of the past week or so? He's so good, he could be any one of us -- Jean-Francois, for example. You. Donatella. Me. Rehan. DK. Mallika. Nirav!! (he's in the perfect position to do this stuff, of course -- but hey, Nirav, I know it's not you, right?) ROFL ;) -- who knows?? Dum-de-dum, the mystery continues... :)

love, Heath

Heather, you're Very funny Heather LOL! I think he may be sleeping because he got tired or maybe he really got scared of durgamathas like you and your friends:-) People are dead scared of durgas. Hey, you know something, durgas have become very popular nowadays. They are catching up with the Ganesh festival. I just saw one pic, where women are dancing uninhibitedly on the road on the Immersion of durga idol. I'm too scared of Durgas Heather:) Saraswati is my favorite goddess. Full of knowledge and humbleness, all white with lotus. Vidya is name I love. I don't have a daughter in my destiny. If I had, I would have given that name to her. Vidya! Divya too. Such a rhyme. Divine knowledge.

Dear Dr Deepak Chopra,
I have a mind boggling question to ask, may be you have an answer.
According to Vedanta and other Hindu scriptures it is said that " Good health and sickness is reward and punishment of our past karmas", however even serious illnesses if diagnosed well in time can be prevented or cured without much suffering. This poses a question can the result of karmas be nullified by a competent doctor?

Dear Dr Deepak Chopra,
I have a mind boggling question to ask, may be you have an answer.
According to Vedanta and other Hindu scriptures it is said that " Good health and sickness is reward and punishment of our past karmas", however even serious illnesses if diagnosed well in time can be prevented or cured without much suffering. This poses a question can the result of karmas be nullified or reduced by a competent doctor?

Heather, reg 285, I love many animals. I love zebras, swans, dolphins, and my pets, a sheltie and two cats. Do you have any pets dear Heather?? Love and God bless.

avm: May I try to answer your most complex question??

All of us have "Sanchita Karma", which is the sum total of all the Karma of all our life times. We have,"Prarabdha Karma", the kerma we have brought to this life time to work through.

Let us take my example. My prarabdha karma in health is Asthma, Allergies, and High blood pressure. That can not be changed. In other words what I am going to suffer from is predestined. How I am going to suffer these diseases is free will. I could, smoke cigarettes, eat salty, fried, junk, get a stressful job, and make my diseases worse. I could avoid cigarette smoke like the Plague, eat food in its raw natural form, like fruits and vegetables, meditate, do Pranayama, keep my weight where it is supposed to be, exercise, do Yoga, and minimise the problems with the diseases or atleast decrease the complications from them.

I could also choose one or more of the paths to Moksha and get rid of my SANCHITA KARMA. The paths are, 1. Bhakti, or Love and Devotion. 2. Karma, or Selfless service. 3. Raja, or Meditation. 4. Jnana, or Knowledge of God, and Higher Self or Atman.

So in short what we are going to suffer from is predestined, how we are going to suffer is free will.

I believe, God is a Loving God, He gives us choices, He has given us the thinking faculty, and discrimination. We have to use those faculties. We have to make conscious choices as to how we will take care of our ailments.

Thank you for asking a challenging question.

Dear June

It has been a pleasure interacting with you. You seem to have a good knowledge of Indian culture. If you may know reading many of my posts that I am fond of Hindi music. I got introduced to it during the time a low point in my life and have found much solitude in it. I am interested Hindi movies, language and culture. I am making an attempt to learn Hindi. My knowledge so far is meager at best. I can use words in my English sentences but, I am no where near to form complete sentences.
I have a favor to ask you. You seem to have a good knowledge of Hindi language and Indian culture. Did you learn it out of interest like me or else are you born into that culture? (Which I don’t think you are. Of course I am usually wrong at guess work)

Guessing again, you are a middle aged woman somewhere in the west coast may be in California. You may have some physical and medical ailments. You find Deepak Chopra’s teachings as a comfort apart from other spiritual masters. Forget about my guessing…I am also surprised that you haven’t contributed much at the intent although you were following the developments here.

I am really curious to know that you know Ravi. Is he a family friend? Or virtual friends like me? I would like to share with you your experiences of Ravi. You know I had many debates with him in the past. Much appreciation to you again and thank you in anticipation.

love, heath

Dear Geeta

I am so impressed with that incredible write-up on karma and medicine! Thank you for sharing your wisdom, dear one!

I love all animals except cockroaches, on which I'm neutral, and centipedes and millepedes, of which I have a real horror -- they have the right to live, but I'd prefer it if they'd live somewhere I don't live. I currently have two dogs -- brothers, a mix of lab, Siberian husky, beagle and black-and-tan hound. I usually have cats, as well. A cat passed away a few weeks ago. I will get a new cat once I'm over my sadness at missing her. She was blind, and very dear to me. I adore Shelties.

I had an idea about animals and stories. I'll send you a private note later tonight, if that's OK with you.

Dear June

I was just joking, of course -- being modest in that US way I have. Actually, my guess-work is top-notch.

I forgot to add, I need more practice with native speakers of Hindustani, as my part-time tutor's been letting me down recently.

I learn non-linearly -- I get immersed at this or that small point of something, learn that small point deeply, then jump to another small point. It's frustrating to learn that way, but that's how my brain works.

(No snickering, June or IBRH, I was a preemie and was O2-deprived during birthing, and it took me several years to recover from that -- imagine, had I been born without that problem, you'd be talking to the first female Einstein, nahi? ;-) -- this method is apparently my mind's work-around for whatever permanent damage I suffered.)

Anyway... at some point in time, I accumulate enough deep single points to allow a full body of knowledge to coalesce, and I am good with the subject.

I don't dazzle when I learn -- people observing me don't realize I'm learning. I was in an advanced physics course in my last year in high school. All the other students were boys -- all honor students, the top male students in the school. They didn't know how I'd made it into the class. They ignored me the entire year. The teacher did, too. The boys assumed I would fail the course. It was a slightly cool moment when we were at our graduation rehearsal, and the top boy in the course found I was seated 9th in the first row, and he was 10th - the first row was reserved for the 20 top students in the class. I was in the top 2% of about 400 students in my year. Am I boasting? No, I'm trying to shake off feeling bad about IBRH's apparent perception of my progress in Hindi. I think he patronizes me. I hope he will think about this episode in my life, a little. Maybe he knows of a native speaker of Hindustani I could work with a little. What about it, IBRH -- NYC area??

In language, I do best when I can speak with native speakers. Barring that, I use whatever words I can whenever I can, and hope to be corrected if I'm doing it wrong. And from that I learn, too, of course.

You can skip the feedback on Ravi, btw -- I had pretty much had enough of him months ago, and although he's apologized for a recent insult to a dear sweet person, his cruetly still rankles in my heart. I'm done with him for good, now. I don't even know why I wrote that last paragraph, please just avoid it.

love, Heath

Dear IBRH

Well, you haven't showed up today, so far. I hope to find some of your wonderful writings later. Wherever you are, whatever you'd doing, I hope your day has been good, and your night will be, too. The full moon approaches...

Listen, I wanted to say just one small thing -- if you borrow my ID, I said no questions asked, no comments made -- but I know you'll forgive me my human imperfections, and will allow me to make exceptions once in a while. Except for an exception here or there, I will stand by my word.

love, Heath

p.s. -- "love, Heath" is reserved for only my closest friends, and you, because I love you. So please use that sig wisely, or you'll arouse suspicion.

Heather: It was very interesting to know how your Brain works!:-) nonlinearly. I could see that actually the way you picked up words. Oxygen deprived? Oh no. You would have been a top notch physicist by now. Sometimes here on IB, it did look like your brain was Oxygen deprived, and after a while it started functioning again.:-)

Dear June

And so I was wise to say to you last night (using Shakespeare as my mask):

"And you must put me in your heart for friend" (Hamlet)
"They never meet, but there is a skirmish of wit between them" (Much Ado About Nothing)

You are my friend in truth: In truth confronting me as a friend does, and truly being my friend.

love to you, Heath

Dear Rehan

You are so kind to me, and that's why I value you as a friend.

About trauma and suffering -- I had a lot of trauma when I was a kid. It made me very sensitive to everything. It took me a long time to learn to deal with things. I'm still learning -- for example, I still run away, sometimes. (Didn't I run away from proper friendship with you for a while? And we had a couple of fights, too.)

Rehan, I've wanted to say that your expectations are high of your friends. I understand and deeply appreciate that aspect of your character. It keeps me on my toes, and I'm a better person for it. You've taught me a lot, and I really treasure your friendship, and that aspect of it in particular. Only when people really care about each other, do they care enough to issue loving challenges when they see their friends going down a path that's harmful or foolish.

love, Heath

... I ate in the morning what I would digest in the evening; I swallowed as a boy what I would ruminate upon as a man.

... These writings I have so thoroughly absorbed and fixed, not only in my memory but in my very marrow, these have become so much a part of myself that even though I should never read them again they would cling in my spirit, deep-rooted in its inmost recesses.

—Petrarca, Letters,
XXII, 2

Dear Kate

Wow!!

love, Heath

Dear Heather,
It is to you
I bow
With love,
~ Kate

Dear Kate,
Petrarca is my favorite of the Italian 'Trecentisti' (14th century poets, Dante, Boccaccio and Petrarca).
It was interesting to read him in English for the first time :)
Thanks.
Love,

Thank you HEATHER for 300. I abhor cockroaches too, they make me ill. I love to hear from you.

My sheltie is sitting next to me as I am blogging. She is scared of thunder, and we are in the middle of a thunder storm.

I learnt about Karma from swami Brahmaroopananda, and swami Vidyadishananda Giri. I have two great sages to thank for what I know about karma. They both have clear insight into scriptures. love and God bless.

Donatella, reference to your post in another thread, June is not Sachin. June is too classy a lady to be Sachin. She is truly inspiring unlike others who show their meanness. This fella never learned anything even after his extended stay in this blog. Changing the names doesn’t hide the ignominy accrued by his pseudonyms! His friend was kicked out of this blog but long they didn’t know who the real pest is. Why do some people try to even respond to the ill of this mind! The joker has already burned his fingers and the stalker is digging his own pit.

Dear . thanks for writing.
Love,
Donatella

Dear geetajayarama,
I admire your knowledge about Hindu philosophy in regard to karmas.
So far as my understanding is that we are free to act in this life to sow the seeds of karmas to be reaped in our next life. We do not have any control over our prarabdha karmas or our destiny.
It is written before birth of body to undergo 6 things namely , wealth & poverty,health & sickness,happiness & sadness. Our free will can not over rule these 6 predestined things of life.
If one is deprived of best medical facility due to cost or location or otherwise then despite having will to survive an individual may not be able to have it and therefore has to suffer per his destiny. On the other hand if one is born in well developed society and land where all facilities are free , one may be able to suffer less , this again is due to his better destiny.
My question was in case one is in developed country and perhaps destined to suffer say with cancer but by luck gets diagnosed well in time and is cured. Does the competent doctor intervene and alter one's destiny (result of past karmas)?

Sachin,
I have nothing to hide. You are an expert at mental and verbal abuse and at lying, which is recognized by all. I don't know why you are doing this, but may God forgive you. This kind of behavior has already earned you an FBI file in your name. Stop this harassment now.

Dear Mallika, please take care of Sachin’s nuisance. If you allow this emotional blackmail to continue, this will only bring disrepute to intentblog. I also kindly suggest Heather and any one else who are still encouraging this abuse by Sachin who goes by many names including Harley, Rehan and Sachin, to avoid doing such. Heather not seeing his verbal abuse is detestable at best.

Why don't we enjoy the Autumn?:)

Why don't we spring from the fall?:)

Zen Koan

True Friends

A long time ago in China there were two friends, one who played the harp skillfully and one who listened skillfully.

When the one played or sang about a mountain, the other would say: "I can see the mountain before us."

When the other played about water, the listener would exclaim: "Here is the running stream!"

But the listener fell sick and died. The first friend cut the strings of his harp and never played again. Since that time the cutting of harp strings has always been a sign of intimate friendship.

Manny you sound like ibrh. You're known to do such things. Good misconstruing. Are you ibrh manny?