it is a very sad day in journalism and politics...a great voice has gone silent forever...condolences to his famliy!

I liked the guy's energy.

We will miss Tim Russert immensely. My condolences to his friends and his family. It is a shock for one so young to go so abruptyly. I wish you godspeed, dear friend.

We will miss Tim Russert immensely. My condolences to his friends and his family. It is a shock for one so young to go so abruptly. I wish you godspeed, dear friend.

Dear Mallika,

I, too, am very sorry to learn that Tim Russert is no longer with us. He always represented the voice of reason in his coverage of political events. He was always a pleasure to listen to. We need more reporters like him in our news media.

Best Wishes,

"Betsy" S.

Tim Russert was a good journalist, not simply a talking head for the powers that be. He will be missed.

Condolences to his family and friends.

Bonnie

Bill Harnsberger:

CHEERS to Tim Russert.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25145431/

May I be blunt? F---...58!

Look, I didn't like his "gotcha" questions when they were pointless (but a lot of 'em were as brilliant as they were unexpected), nor his proclivity for booking substantially more conservative guests and pundits than liberal ones on Meet the Press (Dick Cheney even admitted once that MTP was a great venue for spreading White House propaganda). But his election analysis was second-to-none, and it was 'always', 'always' apparent that he loved every second of his journalism career and put his heart and soul into it every day. And 'damn' if he didn't make it look easy. We should all be so fortunate. Russert's absence will be felt mightily especially between now and November 4, and I will miss throwing my shoe at him every Sunday morning. Our condolences go out to his family, including his colleagues at NBC. And memo to St. Peter: before you let him through the gates, do me a favor and ask him this:

___________________________________________________

Mr. Russert, when you were five years old you said this---I'll put it up on the screen:

"Yes, Mom, I ate all my peas. Now I can have cookies and pie!"

--Source: Secret Godcam, 11/3/55

In fact, you had given the peas to the dog and you accepted the cookies and pie under false pretenses. Your response?
___________________________________________________

Gotcha.

From Cheers and Jeers: Rum and Coke FRIDAY!
by Bill in Portland Maine
Daily Kos

This is a bit of a paraphrase to what I heard from Tim Russert's doctor who was interviewed on MSNBC about two hours ago:

Russert: "Tomorrow, Doc. I know what I have to do. I'm starting tomorrow."

They are haunting words to me, because unfortunately I hear this from other patients in my health care field (physical therapy) all the time, including a patient who recently passed away from a heart attack as well.

I've also just recently found out that my grandmother and father-in-law both have congestive heart failure, which isn't the same as the heart problem Mr. Russert passed away from, but is still a heart disease problem nonetheless. What's more, many of the complications that result from their disease can be reduced if not eliminated if they were to simply follow a few better healthy guidelines - better eating and a little exercise (yes, even my 89 year old grandmother can do a little, as prescribed by her doctor).

Most everyone has likely lost a friend or loved one due to cardiac disease. I'm not here to wag my finger at everyone about this, including the late Mr. Russert, nor am I about to lecture anyone on the consequences of failing to address your health. I won't go into detail about the statistics of obesity and cholesterol levels. If you're interested in that you can examine it further here:

http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml

http://www.americanheart.org/downloadable/heart/1197994908531FS16OVR08.pdf

Suffice it to say, the numbers are staggering, and they are only moving upward at an alarming rate.

According to Mr. Russert's doctor, he passed away from a thrombus in the left Anterior Descending Artery, a very common artery for myocardial infarction (in class they called it the "widow-maker"). An autopsy by his doctor confirmed these issues today. His blood pressure was good, and he was exercising on most days, however he did have a weight issue according to his doctor, and Tim knew he had to address it. And unfortunately for us men, that weight issue tends to be in the abdominal area, which has a very high correlation to heart disease and risk for infarctions.

I realize in today's society that speaking about regular exercise and a healthy diet is almost like speaking a foreign language to most. What's worse, we're inundated with quick-fix diet plans that guarantee immediate results but eventually lose flavor in the long-term, only to have that weight and unhealthiness return with a vengeance (and then some). We are also very much a fast food and dine out nation where the plates served are now as big as the tables themselves (if you're not in a buffet line already). I also know we're a nation with no time to lose: we have kids to pick up, appointments to make, 50 hr workweeks, etc. etc., so who has time to exercise and eat right?

It is a lifestyle change, meaning we have to actually CHANGE our lives. Heck, it's a society change since we're really talking about an epidemic here. I know I'm leaving out other major influential issues including our current healthcare system and so on, but the primary issue is us. WE have to make the change first. The primary responsibility to change our lifestyle to a more healthier one rests first and foremost in our hands, and no one else's.

So my point is to take what the late, great Mr. Russert had told his doctor time and again, and to let it be a wakeup call to the rest of us:

there simply is no tomorrow.

Unfortunately, you just don't know what fate may bring you tomorrow. The change has to start today. Again, I don't want to sound like I'm passing judgment on Mr. Russert himself, and I sincerely apologize to anyone if I am coming across that way. I do believe, however, that it's important to take away from this tragic event a good message of better health and prevention.

There simply is no tomorrow to start with that.

Rest in peace, Mr. Russert. My thoughts and prayers to his family and friends.

I know today's news has been discussed from seemingly all possible angles, and as far as I know, this point has already been made---but I think it's the most significant one (from a media standpoint), and wanted to say some words in his honor. It's the reason we'll all miss Tim Russert.

Try to picture Tim Russert interviewing Britney Spears.

Or, imagine him devoting a segment of Meet the Press to who fathered Anna Nicole's baby.

You can't, can you?

That's why Tim Russert's death leaves a massive void in American journalism---in an era when the country seems to be suffering from a massive case of ADD, or, more charitably, at least is easily distractable---Russert was never distracted. When he appeared on television, literally every single time, one knew that whatever he would say would be important, and carry the gravity of our last real "news man". Tim Russert wasn't "pretty"; he didn't win any jobs because of his looks, his haircuts, or his suits. Anyone who's worked in television knows that means he must have been damn good.

He was.

When Tim Russert spoke, the country listened; close to five million people on Sunday mornings alone. But they listened not because he covered the popular stories; they listened because they knew that he didn't. Who else in the media could be so consistently trusted to tackle only really, truly important issues? Not a single network anchor. Not Larry King. Not Bill O'Reilly, Anderson Cooper, Shepherd Smith, or Keith Olbermann. Not that there's anything wrong with giving voice to the occasional "light" story---but there IS something missing when there's no one left who brings the conversation back to what actually matters.

Tim Russert was a media giant, and he did it without flash in a society that's blinded by it.

The next time you watch a newscast that keeps veering into the tabloids, remember Tim Russert...and just once, in his honor, change the channel.

Russert always used to piss me off... but you're exactly right, Freyja. He kept the focus on what a journalist is supposed to do. He may not have always asked the questions I wanted asked, but he was a news man and those are few and far between these days.

Think about this:

How many incriminating clips of Bush / McCain / Cheney do we have because of Tim Russert?

My implication, if it wasn't clear,

was, "a lot."

Walter Cronkite and Barak Obama were the only two I heard on MSNBC this pm who started their respects by talking about his 'standards'.

A moving tribute to Tim Russert from Barack Obama per MSNBC:

"I've known Tim Russert since I first spoke at the convention in 2004. He's somebody who over time I came to consider not only a journalist but a friend. There wasn't a better interviewer in television, not a more thoughtful analyst of our politics and he was also one of the finest men I knew, somebody who cared about America, cared about the issues, cared about family. I am grief-stricken with the loss and my thoughts and prayers go out to his family and I hope that even though Tim is irreplaceable that the standard that he set in his professional life and with his family life are standards that we all carry with us in our own lives."

Freyja, Thank you..for writing the comment I was contemplating.

I think the massive outpouring of grief over Tim's death illustrates, among other things, what a huge void he leaves in the fabric of our society. We are down now to a handful of major TV journalists who are worth of the name. Most who masquerade under that moniker now are mere entertainers, NOT journalists. They are the ones who play the videotaped gaffe over and over, trying to extract the last drop of scandal out of it. The are the ones who ask the easy, superficial questions, never the hard, well-researched ones. They are the ones who titillate rather than inform.

I fear we are in deep trouble unless the journalism profession takes a long hard look at what it has become. Maybe, just maybe, Tim's death will be the wake-up call they so desperately need...

Rest in peace, big guy.

Everyone knew, I think, that Russert was a big deal. But this might also be one of those cases where people didn't realize quite how big a deal until after his passing. In particular, the institution of Meet The Press -- precisely because it asked such tough questions and presented such real risks for candidates -- also gave them the opportunity to shift the national media narrative in a way no other news program could.

#9
Freyja, you've said it all...and better than most of the tributes I've seen and read.
Thank you

There is a lot of talk on Intentblog today about people who have died and how we should be mourning for these people.

Actually, No.... I will not mourn for these people or for anyone who has died and that includes my closest family members.

I will rejoice in the life of Tim Russert that includes his death.

I will rejoice in the Life of Stewart Mott.

I rejoice in you and also in me.

I have not lost anything by their deaths, I am no less without them nor or they any less because they are no longer living.

Nothing is to be sad about here; this is a temporary state of being that me, you and these guys are experiencing. For the spirit a lifetime is only a millisecond within a minute of countless lifetimes.

Love every minute of the tempory state and never mourn a second that has gone.

Only by knowing this understanding profoundly will your state and the state of all things become permenant.

Permenantly fused with love and devoid of mourning.

Nothing has any authority over me to make me a mourner; absoloutly nothing.

Love

Simon xx

The tragedy, is the information that would have allowed him to be alive today did not come into his awareness or that of his doctors. It is just a mouse click away but requires study time, unless one has one of the smaller group self educated doctors that are aware.

Most medical doctors lack the technical knowledge required to maintain health and ameliorate disease conditions because the optimum approach is not the most profitable to the service providers.

Collectively people in the media (there are individual exceptions) are simply suffering the consequences of not bringing to light and putting attention on the holistic approaches and bringing change though awareness.

For example many people in the media may encounter violence during the next year, had they promoted awareness regarding the prevalent magnesium deficiency which causes violence and depression, or had worked to promote surface soil remineralization such that the produce would contain proper nutrient levels, they would have eliminated this encounter from their experience.

Perhaps the collective media will become wise understanding that in their propagation of ignorance and failure to do proper investigative journalism, which means a lot of reading and understanding using unbiased or alterante sources, they will suffer the unfortunate consequences of doing so.

It is the desire for the short term benefit that obscures the ability to see the future detriment in supporting the collective fictions.

Mini,

Part of the problem is the disinformation put out by the medical industry and their agents such as the American Heart Association.

Back a decade ago related to the topic of "cholesterol" I had to point out to doctors on radio talk shows that were propagating ignorance regarding cholesterol, which is produced by the body, normally about 70% and more if none is obtained in the diet, and that it was essential to life. To stop eating eggs was a joke.

What many people do not realize is that the body uses cholesterol patch cracks in the arterial walls. Guess what happens when one interrupts this with drugs, arterial wall failure.

The holistic solution is to maintain the flexibility of arterial walls and this information is available, but do we see it being promoted or the doctors being educated to this approach?

The truth is collectively the doctors do not understand how the human body works, especially at the molecular level so they are not really qualified to be practitioners of health as they have been trained but need new training.

The medical schools and universities get a big cut from disease profits and this corrupts them and causes their attention and focus to be in the wrong place, exceptions noted. They get money to do research but they are tasked with finding a drug to eliminate a symptom rather than the understanding the cause and correcting the imbalance.

There are individual exceptions to all what I have said and is why I speak collectively because what I say is the most the predominant reality.

We can see the general public is becoming more aware and simply ignoring the bogus information this industry puts out and taking it into their own hands because they seek health not profit like their service providers.

Also I am speaking of the area of medicine focused on chronic disease not the other areas like physical injury repair where we find a lot of miracle workers.

All that being said who then is at fault? Well for sure it is a collective fault too complex to articulate here, yet ultimately it is the fault of the individual, the information exists and it is not being locked away and kept secret, it is simply not promoted by the mainstream or status quo because it is not profitable and there is no incentive to do so. There is actually disincentive to promote it.

The individual needs to discern between the old consciousness doctors and the new consciousness doctors and choose accordingly. Eventually due to a lack of business the old consciousness doctors will embrace the new approach.

I am playing with the idea of creating a group of health practitioners where they are paid to keep people healthy and this health care could become very cheap as a result of economies of scale, then again something like this almost seems to be happening naturally. Not totally sure if it would work though because the individuals share the biggest responsibility in maintaining their own health.

If you or your family want to become self informed click my name there are numerous articles that contain the insight and information that many doctors are lacking.

or consult the Oracle Google and query it for "the end of disease".

He is beyond tragedy now Richard.

Death is only sad from that point of view. From the emotional point of view. From the condensed point of view.

if you look at this condensed point of view carefully it is easy to see that it is not really you.

How do I know this?

Ok, Consider how you felt and thought about the world and the people around you when you were sixteen years old?

Do you still feel the same about the world now as when you were sixteen?

I doubt it...

Yet the one who is aware of the world when you were sixteen is the same one as is aware of it now. That has not changed at all.It still you.

So our thoughts, Feelings, Emotions, Conceptions, Ideas, Desires and attachments are all transient. They come and stay for a while and then they are gone or are supplanted by different/new ones.

So this guy who feels sad today, whats that all about?

This one who notices all these things will be exactly the same at the moment of death and it will remain that thing when the body returns back to the dust where it has been borrowed from.

People genuinley believed that something has been lost when someone dies.

I ask them to sit still with the eyes closed and sense the inner being that is totaly present.

Feel the core of your being now.

that ladies and gentelmen is something that transcends the end of your body.

Now consider the core of Tim Russert's being...

now what has been lost?

A few molecules?

some material?

The material that made up Tims body were here when the dinosaurs roamed the planet. Now they may even be making up part of my body and yours.

Am I Tim Russert now because I have some of the molecules that made up his body?

Are you?

You see Death will always be here as long as there is living. It will come either sooner or later.

You and I have survived countless deaths and they were so meaningless to your core being that it does not even recall them.

Love

Simon xx

#19 Death is a blind spot to our life, Simon.
If meaningless, so, too, our life.(suicide)
Jesus wept for Lazarus.
Why? (If what followed be true)

jesus did weep for laz... But not for his loss. I have wept for many things but not because i am less without them because of the energy that there people and these things have touched my soul with x x

The thing about the Bible is that it is not written in a literal sense at all. That is how it is very misunderstood.

The Information contained in the Bible is almost infinate. In order to put this much information into book format then it can not be achieved solely by words alone.

The Bible is written by Metaphor or encrypted stories that symbolise truths. Jesus raising the dead and turning water into wine tend to have a more metaphorical meaning rather than being directly literal.

A lot of people use sayings or qoutes that Jesus was meant to have said as if that is some sort of authority over what is the truth.

The first thing I understand before I contemplate the truth is that all that is written comes from the mind of man. God does not write books or dream up philosophy you see?

So I know the thing that created all these stories about Jesus and I am fully aware of what that is capable of.

So once you really understand that, what is written down about Jesus or any Philosophy becomes totaly pointless to you, to the point were you stop believing in the written word and believe in the love energy of Jesus Christ and what that means rather than anything that is written about him in the Bible or anywhere else.

Love

Simon xx

#20

#19 Death is a blind spot to our life, Simon

That really depends on the looking depending on the blindness. I guess you mean that people can't know what is waiting for them when their life is over.

Life has evolved you see. Not just human beings, but Life has evolved. If we for a moment introduce a beginning for life time. Then it would just be pure spirit in a basic form. The form would eventully fall away when the spirit had been that form for long enough. Then the spirit will become the next form untill that has been exhausted and so it will continue. In this spirit form Identity does not have any place. It is only when the form takes place that individuality is apparent.

When you go home or walk around your home you are not constantly looking at everything in your home and trying to understand it all...you are just home. You know where the light switch is, you know where the stairs are, The kitchen. You will walk around your home some what oblivious to your sorroundings because you know it so well. This is what it is like for the spirit. It does not need to enquire to its existence because it is existence itself. Death to the spirit is negligable because it is just always home whether the body is alive or dead.

Love

Simon xx

#23 'Death is a blind spot to our life,'(perhaps it should have been equates to...... the blind spot OF our 'mode of living.')

What I really meant, Simon, was that we all live our lives 'suicidally.' The blind spot, I suggest, is revealed in and by our dying. Dying represents the shortfall of our human relationships.....of our whole self realisation. This is not to say we would remain in such a body if wholeness were attained. I think we would be totally aligned to this Spirit you describe and thus have Its fulness of choice.

Ref #24

" if wholeness were attained "

Wholeness is already the case with you. It is the idea of none wholeness that must be strangled out of your idiom.

The process of dying is enlightenment, for some people it is only the moment before death when they realise all of their sins and think Ahha!

Dying is a cleansing process where we return back to the essence of our being and all of the other stuff falls away.

I call it a process but really there is no processes there is just the possibility.

Have you ever walked in the country year after year?

You see all the animals in the fields, The Grass, the flowers by the side of the road and the birds singing in the hedges.

For most people they see these things and love and appreciate them things the same each year, year after year after year.

The thing is though...... Those animals in the fields are not the same ones that were there when you first came to that place.

The birds singing are not the same birds that were there when you first came to that place.

The Grass in the fields is not the same blades of green grass that was there when you first came to that place.

They are all dead.

Is it any less beautiful than the first time you came here?

The world is constantly eating itself and reporducing itself. Our body is a part of this world and so it will be eaten by the world and then it will be replaced.

Something remains here though and that things is what we see when we contemplate love without knowing that one thing is any less or not whole from another.

Love

Simon xx

I think I'll go ask Deepak what he thinks......I wonder what sign he is ;)

#26

I know of someone better to ask than Deepak Chopra

Yourself