Random Observations

It is a wild ride, this flurry of thoughts and experiences that I experience subjectively as life. The more I let myself get carried along by the current the more I understand the perpetually unfolding phenomenon we call history. In the grand scheme of things, human history is basically a short story about how some primates when ape shit and have been struggling to find themselves ever since. Occasionally a few will poke their heads out of the demented debates and endless conflict to find the serenity that can come if you just 'let it be'. Sounds simple enough, but nothing could be further from the truth. A thoroughly esoteric strain in mankind makes us simultaneously some of the most hive minded and yet independent of all creatures. This dichotomy seems to be played out in each successive day of this life. Part of me wants to "tear this motherfucker up and put it back together" and the other half just wants it all to be over soon. Confucius once said that: "When the state follows the Way, speak boldly and act boldly. When the state has lost the Way, speak softly and act boldly". So here I sit, speaking softly via the internet and awaiting the time when fearless people step up as one to act boldly.

Fire to Fallbrook

My former home in San Diego county looks as though it might burn up. Luckily I got out of that cultural cesspool and am now chillin' in wet, sparsely populated Northern California. Anyway, these are some bitchin' pictures of the purifying fire in action
Bet they wish they had saved some of that water to fight the fires instead of rapaciously using it for golf courses and lawns... Sometimes the natural world comes with its awesome force and all we can do is cower like the misguided mammals that we are.

Poem Written in Geography Class

Just carbon floating majestically through space
just trying to be in harmony with our place
over 6,000 years of sanguinary glory
we're all part of that amazing story
but now we humans begin to change
no more down home on the range
got this proclivity for economic activity
so people all moving to the city
millions of primates in close proximity
no surprise we feel like we're in captivity
or the fact that Capitalism and crimes
has been crowned King of these times
Only one planet, so only one true vision
ti's the end of the arbitrary division
that was always the rich mans mission
and so does the might battle rage
over what shall reign in the next stage
like the days of old, people bought and people sold
but with all the monkeys in the jungle of concrete
seems impossible to ever control the street
what once was just another creature
has now become the dominating feature
Not a matter of right nor wrong
or wine, women and song
but if we'll ever stop to calm down
and once more share the ground
the small spark is now a raging fire
Is it a forge, or just a funeral pyre?

Dick Retorts

Vice President Dick Cheney issued a pointed warning to Iran on Sunday, calling the government in Tehran “a growing obstacle to peace in the Middle East” and promising “serious consequences” if the government there does not abandon its nuclear program. Mr. Cheney reserved his harshest language for Iran. Calling it “the world’s most active state sponsor of terrorism,” he said, “our country, and the entire international community, cannot stand by as a terror-supporting state fulfills its most aggressive ambitions.” source

Dispatch from the front

AFP
Sunday October 21, 2007

Iran warned on Saturday it would fire off 11,000 rockets at enemy bases within the space of a minute if the United States launched military action against the Islamic republic.

"In the first minute of an invasion by the enemy, 11,000 rockets and cannons would be fired at enemy bases," said a brigadier general in the elite Revolutionary Guards, Mahmoud Chaharbaghi.

"This volume and speed of firing would continue," added Chaharbaghi, who is commander of artillery and missiles of the Guards' ground forces, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

Bewußtsein

"Constant revolutionizing of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeosis epoch from all earlier ones."
So here sits a young man trying to put words to the flurry of thoughts, feelings and actions that make up my little trip through the world. Regardless of the 'everlasting uncertainty' I still maintain that the planet is spinning in synchronization with the rest of the matter in the universe, and thus is everything as it should be. The intricate web of people that makes up the society all around me seems to follow similar natural laws, every bit as complicated as astrophysics, but just as flawless. Who are we to pick at the food we are served, complaining about this or that minuscule aspect of existence as if it constituted more than a minor irritation. So much of human suffering comes from expectations that one wonders why anyone has such arrogance, or more importantly, why do we never seem to learn the folly of our ways? I'm beginning to think that all truly free individuals will always have to fight tooth and nail to escape the gravitational pull of other minds. So no matter how much you ever push back at this ingrained ignorance, you will always just get pulled that much harder into the madness you oppose. You could be born into 2,700 BC Sumeria, Japan of the 1580's or Southern California last year; regardless of local, the drive to conform in body and mind is omnipresent in human social structures. Which gets me back to my particular experience. I am more than eager to learn from the rest, probably more enthusiastic than most, but I also want to be able to say my piece, add my ideas. Therein lay the rub. Like most things in my country, education is a commodity. A money making machine thats purpose is purely economic and cares little for the cattle that is herded through those hallowed halls of higher learning. I for one get a feeling of impending doom every time I am told by a fellow student about how they are going to major in such and such then go on to make lots of money. Why do people care so much about status, wealth and appearances?
Nicht das Bewußtsein bestimmt das Leben, sondern das Leben bestimmt das Bewußtsein.
"It is in fact not the consciousness dominating life but the very life dominating consciousness."

My Horoscope

Leo (Jul 23 - Aug 22)

It's hard for others to get a clear idea about your intentions now, for your feelings may be slightly different from your actions. It's not likely to bother you, though, for your powers of rationalization are strong. Don't use logic to explain yourself, for the rest of the world may not see things the same way that you do.