Doing what 's right...

Faced with what is right, to leave it undone shows a lack of courage.

Words...

The purpose of a fish trap is to catch fish, and when the fish are caught, the trap is forgotten. The purpose of a rabbit snare is to catch rabbits. When the rabbits are caught, the snare is forgotten. The purpose of words is to convey ideas. When the ideas are grasped, the words are forgotten. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words? He is the one I would like to talk to. -Chuang Tzu

The Superior Man

What the superior man seeks is in himself; what the small man seeks is in others.

48 Laws of Power

• Law 1 Never Outshine the Master
• Law 2 Never put too Much Trust in Friends, Learn how to use Enemies
• Law 3 Conceal your Intentions
• Law 4 Always Say Less than Necessary
• Law 5 So Much Depends on Reputation – Guard it with your Life
• Law 6 Court Attention at all Cost
• Law 7 Get others to do the Work for you, but Always Take the Credit
• Law 8 Make other People come to you – use Bait if Necessary
• Law 9 Win through your Actions, Never through Argument
• Law 10 Infection: Avoid the Unhappy and Unlucky
• Law 11 Learn to Keep People Dependent on You
• Law 12 Use Selective Honesty and Generosity to Disarm your Victim
• Law 13 When Asking for Help, Appeal to People’s Self-Interest, Never to their Mercy or Gratitude
• Law 14 Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy
• Law 15 Crush your Enemy Totally
• Law 16 Use Absence to Increase Respect and Honor
• Law 17 Keep Others in Suspended Terror: Cultivate an Air of Unpredictability
• Law 18 Do Not Build Fortresses to Protect Yourself – Isolation is Dangerous
• Law 19 Know Who You’re Dealing with – Do Not Offend the Wrong Person
• Law 20 Do Not Commit to Anyone
• Law 21 Play a Sucker to Catch a Sucker – Seem Dumber than your Mark
• Law 22 Use the Surrender Tactic: Transform Weakness into Power
• Law 23 Concentrate Your Forces
• Law 24 Play the Perfect Courtier
• Law 25 Re-Create Yourself
• Law 26 Keep Your Hands Clean
• Law 27 Play on People’s Need to Believe to Create a Cultlike Following
• Law 28 Enter Action with Boldness
• Law 29 Plan All the Way to the End
• Law 30 Make your Accomplishments Seem Effortless
• Law 31 Control the Options: Get Others to Play with the Cards you Deal
• Law 32 Play to People’s Fantasies
• Law 33 Discover Each Man’s Thumbscrew
• Law 34 Be Royal in your Own Fashion: Act like a King to be treated like one
• Law 35 Master the Art of Timing
• Law 36 Disdain Things you cannot have: Ignoring them is the best Revenge
• Law 37 Create Compelling Spectacles
• Law 38 Think as you like but Behave like others
• Law 39 Stir up Waters to Catch Fish
• Law 40 Despise the Free Lunch
• Law 41 Avoid Stepping into a Great Man’s Shoes
• Law 42 Strike the Shepherd and the Sheep will Scatter
• Law 43 Work on the Hearts and Minds of Others
• Law 44 Disarm and Infuriate with the Mirror Effect
• Law 45 Preach the Need for Change, but Never Reform too much at Once
• Law 46 Never appear too Perfect
• Law 47 Do not go Past the Mark you Aimed for; In Victory, Learn when to Stop
• Law 48 Assume Formlessness

Albert E. - good quote

He who finds a thought that enables him to obtain a slightly deeper glimpse into the eternal secrets of nature has been given great grace. - Albert Einstein

Emotions

It is important to recognize the power of our emotions--and to take responsibility for them by creating a light and positive atmosphere around ourselves. This attitude of joy that we create helps alleviate states of hopelessness, loneliness, and despair. Our relationships with others thus naturally improve, and little by little the whole of society becomes more positive and balanced. - Tarthang Tulku

The Greatest...

The greatest achievement is selflessness. The greatest worth is self-mastery. The greatest quality is seeking to serve others. The greatest precept is continual awareness. The greatest medicine is the emptiness of everything. The greatest action is not conforming with the worlds ways. The greatest magic is transmuting the passions. The greatest generosity is non-attachment. The greatest goodness is a peaceful mind. The greatest patience is humility. The greatest effort is not concerned with results. The greatest meditation is a mind that lets go. The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances. - Atisha

"American President " good words...

For the last couple of months, Senator Rumson has suggested that being president of this country was, to a certain extent, about character, and although I have not been willing to engage in his attacks on me, I've been here three years and three days, and I can tell you without hesitation: Being President of this country is entirely about character. For the record: yes, I am a card-carrying member of the ACLU. But the more important question is why aren't you, Bob? Now, this is an organization whose sole purpose is to defend the Bill of Rights, so it naturally begs the question: Why would a senator, his party's most powerful spokesman and a candidate for President, choose to reject upholding the Constitution? If you can answer that question, folks, then you're smarter than I am, because I didn't understand it until a few hours ago. America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country can't just be a flag; the symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then, you can stand up and sing about the "land of the free". I've known Bob Rumson for years, and I've been operating under the assumption that the reason Bob devotes so much time and energy to shouting at the rain was that he simply didn't get it. Well, I was wrong. Bob's problem isn't that he doesn't get it. Bob's problem is that he can't sell it! We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you, Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things and two things only: making you afraid of it and telling you who's to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections. You gather a group of middle-aged, middle-class, middle-income voters who remember with longing an easier time, and you talk to them about family and American values and character. And wave an old photo of the President's girlfriend and you scream about patriotism and you tell them, she's to blame for their lot in life, and you go on television and you call her a whore. Sydney Ellen Wade has done nothing to you, Bob. She has done nothing but put herself through school, represent the interests of public school teachers, and lobby for the safety of our natural resources. You want a character debate, Bob? You better stick with me, 'cause Sydney Ellen Wade is way out of your league.
[pauses]
I've loved two women in my life. I lost one to cancer, and I lost the other 'cause I was so busy keeping my job I forgot to do my job. Well, that ends right now. Tomorrow morning, the White House is sending a bill to Congress for its consideration. It's White House Resolution 455, an energy bill requiring a 20 percent reduction of the emission of fossil fuels over the next ten years. It is by far the most aggressive stride ever taken in the fight to reverse the effects of global warming. The other piece of legislation is the crime bill. As of today, it no longer exists. I'm throwing it out. I'm throwing it out writing a law that makes sense. You cannot address crime prevention without getting rid of assault weapons and handguns. I consider them a threat to national security, and I will go door to door if I have to, but I'm gonna convince Americans that I'm right, and I'm gonna get the guns. We've got serious problems, and we need serious people, and if you want to talk about character, Bob, you'd better come at me with more than a burning flag and a membership card. If you want to talk about character and American values, fine. Just tell me where and when, and I'll show up. This is a time for serious people, Bob, and your fifteen minutes are up. My name is Andrew Shepherd, and I *am* the President.

Voltaire - Smart guy, and brief too...

Men argue, nature acts.
- Voltaire.

Endurance - Buddha

Endurance is one of the most difficult disciplines, but it is to the one who endures that the final victory comes.

MLK on refusing to stand up for a cause you believe in..

Good words from a good man...

I say to you, this morning, that if you have never found something so dear and precious to you that you will die for it, then you aren’t fit to live.

You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be, and one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls upon you to stand for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And you refuse to do it because you are afraid.

You refuse to do it because you want to live longer. You’re afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you’re afraid that somebody will stab or shoot or bomb your house. So you refuse to take a stand.

Well, you may go on and live until you are ninety, but you are just as dead at 38 as you would be at ninety.

And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit.

You died when you refused to stand up for right.

You died when you refused to stand up for truth.

You died when you refused to stand up for justice.”

Another good Buddha teaching...

All that we are is the result of what we have thought. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.

Let your love flow...

Let your love flow outward through the universe, To its height, its depth, its broad extent, A limitless love, without hatred or enmity. Then as you stand or walk, Sit or lie down, As long as you are awake, Strive for this with a one-pointed mind; Your life will bring heaven to earth. - Sutta Nipata

Preamble to the U.S. Constitution

If your candidate is not following these rules, they are not the right person to run this country.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

JPC

Keep the people of S. TX in your thoughts and prayers.

They are going to need it.

Wise Buddha saying...

Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. - Buddha

Iran attack coming because of the Dutch?

From Debkafile (pro-Isreali website / usually has good reliable info):

A Dutch AIVD Secret Service ultra-secret operation underway in Iran in recent years has been halted and an agent recalled in view of “impending US plans to attack Iran,” within weeks, writes Joost de Haas, known for his good intelligence contacts, in the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.

The AIVD operation aimed to infiltrate and sabotage the weapons [and nuclear] industry in the Islamic Republic.

According to intelligence sources in the Netherlands, the US [or Israel] was expected to make a decision within weeks to attack nuclear plants with unmanned aircraft, used to avoid risking the lives of air crews and warplanes.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report this would be the first time drones operated by remote control were used against major strategic targets, necessary in Israel’s case to hold its air fleet and flight crews ready to defend the country against reprisal from Iran’s allies. Syria and the Lebanese Hizballah have stockpiled thousands of rockets for this purpose.

The Iranian targets to be bombed would include also military installations brought to light partly by the Dutch espionage operation, described by De Telegraaf as extremely successful. “One of the agents was able to infiltrate the Iranian industry” and for years shared information with the American CIA. “Various supplies could also be sabotaged and stopped. These were parts for missiles and launching equipment.”

According to DEBKAfile’s sources, the expectation disclosed by the Dutch newspaper would explain the fresh spate of threats from Iran.

Thursday, Aug. 28, Iranian sources told the London-based Arabic al Quds that Tehran had recently transferred to Hizballah new long-range rockets capable of hitting every inch of Israeli soil with great accuracy.

They were to be fired if Israel or the United States attacked Iran.

Dep. Chief of General Staff Masus Jazairi said Saturday, Aug. 30, that any attack on Iran would mean the beginning of a new world war. He said the “greed of the US and Zionists” is gradually leading the world to collapse as demonstrated in Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan and the Caucasus.

DEBKAfile’s Iran sources report a shakeup is in progress in the Islamic Republic’s top military command.

Amir (Maj. Gen.) Seyed Abdollrahim Mousavi was named acting chief of staff

of the armed forces – a new post created as backup in case the army chief comes to harm in combat.

Amir Mohamad Hosseyn Dadras becomes deputy chief of staff for coordination.

Amir Reza Pourdastan is the new commander of the army’s ground corps.

Freakin' Dutch hippies...

Sarah Palin & Ron Paul

I think McCain may have not hit a home run on this one. too much negative buzz on this from Republicans even. Keep an eye on Ron Paul. He may be the Nader of this election and decide it.

Hurricane

Say a prayer for all the people down in LA, MS, and TX. They will need it.

Richard, Richard, where are you?

Mace in Yo Face...

Dude with the mace looks like he is killing a wasp. The other dude looks like he is going destroy the guy with his bare hands.

Reality Vs. Drunkenness

He's back...

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/08/14/farting-preacher-bac.html

William O. Douglas - Smart Guy who said a lot of smart things...

The following is an article from Uncle John's Supremely Satisfying Bathroom Reader William O. "Wild Bill" Douglas (1898 - 1980) was the longest-serving justice in the history of the U.S. Supreme Court. Here's what he has to say about free speech, freedom, and the government: "The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom." "It was against a background poignant with memories of evil procedures that our Constitution was drawn." "As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we must be most aware of change in the air - however slight - lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness." "An arrest is not justified by what the subsequent search discloses." "The framers of the Constitution knew human nature as well as we do. They had lived in dangerous days; they knew the suffocating influence of orthodoxy and standardized thought. They weighed the compulsions for restrained speech and thought against the abuses of liberty. They chose liberty." "Those who won our independence believed ... liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty." "Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us." "Whatever the reason, words mean what they say." "What a man thinks is of no concern to government." "A requirement that literature or act conform to some norm prescribed by an official smacks of an ideology foreign to our system." "Words uttered under coercion are proof of loyalty to nothing but self-interest." "Common sense often makes good law." "When a man knows how to live dangerously, he is not afraid to die. When he is not afraid to die, he is, strangely, free to live."

Misc. Ramblings

Olympics always bring out the pride in my country. I am not the best citizen - not voting, etc. However, that is a freedom I have here.

Obama better get down to specifics about how he is going to run our country. Change is great, be more specific. People want to vote for you, but you need to put McCain down now, not later.

My dog is needy, just like me. He is like a mirror sometimes, very weird.

Go Royals and Chiefs.

Love the Nike commercial with the Killers song - with the lyric, "I got soul, but I am not a soldier.

We need to help the Georgians any way we can. They helped us in Iraq.

That is all for now, carry on...

Buddha - Good words

Let us live in joy, free of hatred, among the spiteful; among the spiteful let us live without hatred. - Buddha

More pics

Websites I like

Fark
CNN
Drudge
K.C. Star
Break
Urban Dictionary
The Onion
Bits & Pieces
My Confined Space
Get Fuzzy
someecards
The Raw Story
The Washington Note
Debkafile
Gizmodo
Engadget
Kevin Kelly - Cool Tools
Uncrate

Some pics....

When I die, this is how I want to be put to rest..

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/07/a_royal_farewell_in_bali.html

Way over the top, but I would not want it any other way.

Why am I here?

I need to find my path. I need to get shit off of my chest. I need to spread the word. I need to make people laugh. I need to make people cry. I need to be needed. Most of all, I need.