Complaints

---

In the last couple years I’d taken to complaining about someone. He had not been listening to me. This was a great bother. I began to make so much noise about it that it took quite awhile for me to see (hear?) that it was me that was not listening to him.

He had been clear from the start. He had been focused, persistent and apparently successful in his mission. It was my fault. I just didn’t listen to what he was saying. Apparently, my input was off-mission for him and I had not been paying attention to that simple fact.

We’ve finally got it all worked out. We don’t really talk any more.
I feel much better now and I hope I have learned my lesson.


---

Local wind and sun

...

I've mentioned these projects a couple of times in the last year and a half. We were down to the farm in September during the Midwest Renewable Energy Association tour of homes. Here's a recent write-up in the Racine Journal about Tom's wind and solar power.

Link

#

Military pays for news

-

If you google this line - military pays for news - you get stories about our military paying Iraqi newspapers to publish good news about the war.

Didn't we recently have a Department of Disinformation in the Homeland that, when its existence was dicovered, was supposed to have been closed?

That's what I remembering them saying anyway.

Let's google Department of Disinformation and see what happens.
(Well, certainly there are historical precedents for this behavior. What I meant was the departmentalization and subsequent un-departmentalization of this process).

Another fine example of our tax dollars at work.

-

Six Degrees of Separation

Some talk of separation and some talk of unity.

Some talk of past lives.

I haven’t felt any particular pull to explore in that direction. Past lives does lend itself easily to the idea of future lives. The life we are now living may become someone else’s past life. Forgetful. Ours.

And, if we collapse the notion of time, we will be all those people simultaneously.

Maybe that’s what the unity people are talking about. All is one.

Apples and Wine

Women are like apples on trees. The best ones are at the top of the tree. Most men don't want to reach for the good ones because they are afraid of falling and getting hurt. Instead, they just take the rotten apples from the ground that aren't as good, but easy. The apples at the top think something is wrong with them, when in reality, they're amazing. They just have to wait for the right man to come along, the one who's brave enough to climb all the way to the top of the tree. Share this with other women who are good apples, even those who have already been picked.

Now men ... men are like a fine wine. They begin as grapes, and it's up to women to stomp the crap out of them until they turn into something acceptable to have dinner with.

A few more quotes

There are two ways to look at life. One is as though nothing is a miracle; the other is as though everything is.

Albert Einstein

-----


"Little progress can be made by merely attempting to repress what is evil; our great hope lies in developing what is good." --Calvin Coolidge

-----


Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. ~ Philip Dick


-----

"I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars - the rest I just squandered."
Footballer George Best, RIP

Cell Phone Protocol

In these days of lost connections we would all benefit from knowing that it would be the person who originated the call that would be calling back. That way both parties are not trying to call back at the same time and being shunted to each other’s voice mail box. A particularly insidious game of phone tag.

This game makes the cell companies unnecessary money. I wonder if they don’t randomize weak signals just to get more minutes from all of us.

So, if you call me and we get lost, it will be you that calls back. Simple.
And, just like every other good rule, there are exceptions.

Toilet Seat Problem

If everyone would put all parts to the toilet seat in the down position when they are finished using it no one would have to raise any more than what was needed for each particular operation.

I see this as an end to the argument. However, the logic and simplicity will keep it from reaching critical mass. Most people will never hear of it. Doomed. Another good idea down the shitter. Now that's a toilet seat problem.

Gig of RAM

Early last Monday morning, very late in November, electrical thunderstorms moved through. The power went out so briefly that not all our clocks reset to 12:00. Two computers went down. One powered up slowly. The other requires a PAV board. Power & Video.

Fortunately most of the critical data had been recently backed up. Among other things, I was able to continue my work on the square dance club newsletter. I’d have been quicker about the repair/replacement except the car had been getting quite rachety. We held off on the unnecessary driving while waiting for a water pump.

Amazing what five year old iMacs are going for on eBay and how many of them a person could buy for the price of a Apple branded PAV board.

So, I am replacing that cpu with a PowerBook thanks to homeowners insurance. This afternoon, along with placing the order for the laptop, I ordered an additional gig of RAM.

It’s been an interesting week. Old computer diagnosed and RIP'd. New computer’s ordered. Water pump is pumping. Club newsletter is written and printed. Time for some shiny shoes and dancing with the missus. It's Christmas Party night.


A gig of RAM. Dear God, that's hot.

Doyle & Big Oil

The governor of Wisconsin called Big Oil to the state table to account for the rise in prices, record profits and apparent gouging. They did a slick tap dance and slithered on their way.

I wonder how it is that we subsidize corn growers, insist on 10% in our gas (in the five county metro Milwaukee area) and then charge more per gallon.

Supply and demand. I can almost here them say it.

Currently we’re at $2.10/gal. It’s been below $1.85 in neighboring states for weeks.

Who and what are we supporting around here?

Fewer factories, fewer emissions

Some conservative Republicans are crowing about the lowering of carbon emissions in these United States while forgetting to mention that there are fewer factories than the last time we checked.

GM and now Ford just to mention a couple in the big news.

Now what?

I am sensing the herd moving to the middle of the wide trail once again.
People are beginning to ask questions. I remain somewhat hopeful.

Still, the fear mongers have been saying it a long time
“Be afraid. Be very, very afraid.”

The fear mongers have had a relatively large success with me.
I am nearly incapacitated. Under the spell.

I am afraid. Now what?

Voodoo dogs.

Iraq: Center of Gravity

A very grave situation indeed.

Complete Victory the President says.

Can we get some bullet points on this?


I mean, some people, like BRUCE HOFFMAN, a terrorism expert, on the insurgency in Iraq are saying, "There is no center of gravity, no leadership, no hierarchy; they are more a constellation than an organization." How can you win against that?

Retraction

After three attempts, on Thanksgiving morning, to heat a cup of water for tea, I mis-reported the demise of our microwave.

Alas, it was nothing more than the very first intermittent failure.

My favorite sort of problem; the moving target.

Happy Holidays!

Giving thanks

DATELINE: KITCHEN
Thanksgiving Morning

Our long suffering microwave
passed in its sleep last night.

There is nothing to do now but this.

Today I am thankful that we are not having people in for dinner.

Define: Mistake

Less than 40 percent in an AP-Ipsos poll taken in October said they approved of the way Bush was handling Iraq. Just over half of the public now say the Iraq war was a mistake.

Hmmm ..... Please define mistake.

Here's one definition that may not be particularly applicable but I like it anyway.

"He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice."

- Albert Einstein

Interview with poet David White

I'd promised this some time ago. This is for those readers that did not make it to the pdf. (Well, hmmm, I can't find it myself at the moment.)



On Jun 9, 2005, at 12:08 PM, George Lottermoser began an email interview with David White:

GL: Good morning David. We've known each other for close to 15 years. Our first conversations occured between a graphic designer (me) and a printer (you). As time went on I came to know you as a publisher of "Good Work" foreign language products, poetry chap books, the AZML Knews Review, a poet, and a guitar picking singer. You seem passionate about and fascinated by spoken, printed and sung words. In this age of huge amounts of verbal and visual information what keeps you rearranging letters and words?

DLW: It is not about seeking a singular perfection, but about experiencing the diversity. It's not as if I will make the perfect poem, song, or article and then quit. That would be like thinking I could make a perfect grocery list and then stop eating. Life goes on. We could use a hunting or fishing metaphor to answer the question. Why do people hunt for sport? For sport. It's the hunt. The catch. I personally don't hunt animals. I would be content fishing with some of the simple, traditional gear except the hook. Pole, line, bobber, sinker, period. As a poet I want to get out, sit on the dock, feel the breeze, dangle my feet in the water, and catch a mess of words and phrases. To be able to describe that bit of reality as the sun stands on the water. That is why I fish.

GL: OK. Let's stick with this metaphor. Where have you been dangling your feet lately? Where are the hot fishing spots?

DLW: The hot spots for me are probably similar to the hot spots for many. It's the hot spots themselves in the culture and the world. How do we describe to ourselves and amongst ourselves what's going on? How do we maintain a grip on it? The fishing metaphor moves easily into a cooking metaphor. To catch a mess of words and phrases with the intention of being nourished by them is the bigger picture. If I am not interested in 'watching my diet' then I must eat what mercury gets put in my metaphysical tuna.

GL: Wonderful. However, while you've answered in a way that lets us know the type of spots you like to fish and an awareness for the quality of your catch in relationship to nourishment and possible effects; can you be more specific as to where you've actually been lately? What you've caught? How did you prepare the catch? How did they taste?

DLW: We were up in central Wisconsin the first weekend in June. Marathon county. Ginseng country. The piney woods for this Milwaukee boy. I'd seen a piece on public TV about the Hmong population in Wausau and had a chance to talk at length to someone that lived in Wausau. Out of this came a few lines about the local flavor of a Hmong family diner and my willingness to try the braised bamboo shoots and the Sunday dog.

This is innocent ignorace at it's finest. And the principal reason to continue one's own investigations. I'm sorry to say that we were not able to take the time to actually locate a Hmong family diner. Next time.

And, we were so far from the non-stop beat of the humdrum, that I was able to put together a special piece for a young friend. A lovely and timely gift about not being in two places at once.

Grandpa used to say, "Don't talk. You'll scare the fish." The same thing working with words. Too many get in the way. A person needs a little space and quiet to figure out the difference.

GL: Well, the fishing metaphor, including the spot, the catch, the cooking and the consumption seems to have a lot of life. You recently shared with me an early draft of a poem which I found quiet profound. I've asked you to share it with this audience; to which you've generously agreed. The title of the poem is "Back in the Garden Again." Could you tell us a bit about where you were fishing when you caught its words and phrases?


DLW: Among the religions, I fish the Bible a bit. The NRSV specifically, and there's no better hole there than Genesis. I get stuck there time after time. I've lost a lot of lures. I don't know if I'm catching it or it's catching me. And right now, I'm up to my hip waders out in the river of that elusive old poem. I can tell I've got a lunker on the line.

You said it was an early draft and I think we should stay with that thought. Some things get revised and this will be one of those things. I might consider this Garden v.2.1. The thing that is so attractive for me about this is the bigger picture issues.

-=-=-=--=-=-
Back in the Garden Again v.2.1

I was walking with my Lord
in the cool of the evening
naked, not naked,
who even knew?

We were back in the garden
coming home, starting over,
with nothing, but everything
something old, something blue.

"You know", the Lord started,
a grin on his face,
"you left so quick when
I mentioned that tree

that I could not say
what you would not see,
I do not eat of it either,
in that, please believe."

The downside of good
is better than bad
but the worst of the evil
is in being had

by the fermented fruit,
on that tree in the glade.
Give the forgiveness.
It is judgement forbade.




= = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Michael Ventura, Letters at 3AM

Here, in the Austin Chronicle, is the archive for his syndicated columns. Perhaps he is a regular in your local alternative weekly. I found him years ago in the Shepherd Express in Milwaukee. After he was dropped from the local role I found him at austinchronicle.com

I like the way he writes. Perhaps you will, too.

If New Orleans were dry

If New Orleans were dry has to do with our unsatiable and unsustainable demand for energy and resources.

In it he says " We've chosen not to face the facts, and that only makes the facts meaner. The facts are about to face us."

Here

Things to come: part I

Another thought provoking column by Michael Ventura.
link

Bill Moyers on Caring for Creation 10/7/05

Here

freecycle.org

Need to give something away?

Try freecycle.org.

Locking Gas Caps

What with rising gasoline prices, this is a possible hot stock tip.

Who makes locking gas caps - AND - where else might we see a need for
the purchase
of more personal security items prompted by the paranoia of these
high-cost energy times?

Getting on with our lives

Recent polls suggest that the current president has sunk in the polls. Few notice. We're moving on with our lives.

I know it's not a definitive article. I don't care. I'm getting on with my life.
People gotta realize there's life to be lived. We just can't wait, for some pronouncement from on high, in the grip of fear, of what will come next.


Sing it with me people.
Free at last, free at last.
Thank God Almighty I'm free at last.

P.S. I wonder if approval ratings should be called disapproval ratings when they get below fifty percent as they did eons ago.

Why don't we say the disapproval ratings are up this week?

Bitty Browser for RSS display

This post represents a curiosity not an endorsement.
Apparently a window within a window and designed for news feeds.
I'll look into it. You?
Bitty

Qubits

Remember when God told Noah to build an ark so many cubits by so many cubits? What if qubits were the cubits He was talking about?

Now that would be an ark.
Capturing light

Rule by Secrecy

Rule by Secrecy by Jim Marrs.

My take on this is Power, Money and History. After reading this book I wondered who the Nephilim were as referenced in the book of Genesis. And who were the Sumerians who were not mentioned at all in the Bible?

After a little searching I came upon this wonderful place that has offered hours of education and entertainment. www.halexandria.org/

I think you'll have to go and see for yourself. It's good exercise to hike through the site and stretch one's mind. Whether these views provide a peek into alternate realities depends a lot on how you got to where you are now.

Bushisms, a collection

At this point I don't care who said these things.
They're just funny.

Deep Thought Generator

Here

Compendium

Think you've seen all the odd bits of humor that floats across the web?

Check out Mental Soup. HERE

Resolute

To be resolute in the Way means
from the beginning never to
lose sight of it, whether in a
place of calm or in a place of strife;
to not cling to quiet places nor
shun places where there is disturbance.

= = = = = = = = = = =

Hmmm .... lost the author name ......

Triumph of Evil

"Today, America is confronting another disaster that has caused destruction and loss of life. This time the devastation resulted not from the malice of evil men, but from the fury of water and wind," President George W Bush said. Radio Address 9/10/05

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing”
(Edmund Burke).

Good, as in good men, is a relative term of course. The water and wind certainly played their part, but the malice of evil men was in doing nothing.
Fixing the levees for instance.

9-11 Jazz Funeral

New Orleans in Manhattan

Bill Moyers 9/9/05

Good reading. Fundamentalist futures. Long, but worth it.

Cajun Creole

And in the ongoing spirit on New Orleans
here's some good eats. A Confederacy of Lunches - on Slate
http://slate.msn.com/id/2125824/fr/rss/

This was worth saying twice.

Revolution of evolution

I hate sending those time sensitive, good luck, email things.
Do this, that, and the other in the next five minutes, or else.
Sometimes I break down and do it anyway. I hate myself for that.*

However, maybe 'we' could learn to send wishes that were not dependent on the recipient actually doing anything. Hmmmmm ......


I wish you good luck and good livin' and it ain't time sensitive.

And in the ongoing spirit on New Orleans
here's some good eats. A Confederacy of Lunches - on Slate
http://slate.msn.com/id/2125824/fr/rss/



* Not really.

NOLA slideshow

Downtown and the French Quarter, before, during and after. Eerie.
I wish we have made more of a point to get down there before this.
here

Waters Rise - Polls Drop

Do we need to expand on that idea?

Port of New Orleans & Geopolitical Strategy

This is what we're talking about. This national disaster.

Katrina Google Maps Bulletin Board

this technology

http://www.scipionus.com/

No intelligent design here

Worse than a failure of imagination in anticipating the breadth and depth of destruction and need for coordinated and adequate response in New Orleans, there is another failure to gather and analyze the intelligence.

The people reporting from the ground have been ignored for years. No matter the hopes we have for intelligent design doing things our way, the natural order, or evolution kicks in and sometimes shit happens.

Four Leaf Clover

If you need a little time to space, try this.

Gas Shortage?

Here in the Milwaukee Chicago area we have one of the many specialty ethanol fuel blends across the USA. There was a shortage recently and I do not remember when at the moment. (There are too many links to follow or my search parameters are too broad. I'll figure it out.)

However, I'd like to think that during this Katrina Krunch, we will be able to use the most commonly available blend rather than go without.

To tell people of an impending shortage will cause panic, hoarding, shooting, stealing, nearly everything we are seeing at ground zero can easily happen here.

Or will they wait and surprise us with an outage?

Who will oversee this? Does it take the mayor of Milwaukee? The Governor of Wisconsin? Does the President Himself have to step in an approve the sale of that nasty old-style fuel?

It's just weird that the he tells us not to buy gas we don't need. On a holiday weekend. What do you mean gas we don't need? Who buys gas they don't need?

Well, this starts to get into the area where actual thinking is required.

Beware.

Another Failure of Imagination

Looks like preparations for the National New Orleans disaster is
another failure of imagination. The word another is a reference to 911,
9/11, 9-11, September 11th, or however we write it.

The hurricane - Ponchartrain - NOLA disaster has been in my
imagination since I visited relatives there twenty five years ago.

Some will blame insufficient Federal budget resources particularly by
the current administration. The research into the truth of that is
something most of us will not do. And facts aren't much good anyway
when we've already got our minds made up.

http://vivisimo.com/search?
tb=homepage&query=911+Failure+of+Imagination&v%3Asources=Web

Horse's Mouth

Here is the RSS link to the White House. There are several feeds. There are the feeds from other government agencies, as well. Might as well get it from the horse's mouth.






http://www.whitehouse.gov/rss/

Snap News

I stumbled across this promising news feed aggregator while reading about Katrina.

Snap News

Tricky

The impossible is always tricky.
Once it has been accomplished,
people are full of logic.

- Jonathan Cainer

Presidential Performance

Seven time Tour de France winner, Lance Armstrong,
alleged performance enhancement user, could not
pull ahead of the President in the one-on-one
mountain bike race at the 2005 Prairie Chapel Pharm-Off.

“No matter how much training I’ve done,” the retired biker said,
“the president seems to train more.”

Asked if he was worried about Secret Service snipers if he
'accidently' pulled ahead, Lance said he just hoped the
President wouldn’t crash again.

__________________________________________________

Coverage of the 2005 Prairie Chapel Pharm-Off is sponsored by,
AIL*MINT, the only Artificial Intelligence Lozenge that is mint
flavored.

AIL*MINT (tm) by Creationist Candy Company, Intl.
Artificial Intelligence is still intelligence by design. God Bless
America.
Offices outsourced to Beruit, Burundi & Bombay

Any references to Camp Casey and Cindy Sheehan are totally inadvertent.
As well as the possibility that Willie Nelson might drive his Bio-Willie
diesel Family band bus up there to do a concert with Joan Baez.
Dateline: Crawford Texas • AIL*MINT Patent Punding

FINE PRINT: This material is copyrighted and we have
heat seeking lasers aimed at your retinas. Stop reading now.
And definitely NO copying, recording, reporpoising -eek eek.

Fun Place

http://www.realtechnews.com/

The World is Still Flat

I started reading the reviews of this book at Amazon. I am happy I have requested it from the library rather than rushed out and paid for it.

Read some here.

Google This!

Sometimes I mean Google.
And, sometimes I mean google.

Lots of times I use the Vivisimo meta search engine. It categorizes the results.

Speeds things up.

Just what we need.

More speed.

The World Is Flat

LINK

The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century, a newish book by Thomas Friedman, seems to be coming out of the woodwork at me. I've got a request in at the library and then checked out a few of the 258 (and counting) reviews at Amazon. That's the link above - reader reviews. Lots of them. Looks like a good read.

Global trade, the recent past and the near future, all researched and documented.

Stagger on, weary titan

The End of Empire

Correlations with end of the British Empire and the USA today.

Funny ...

My recent post was about showing up
and then I don't.

Funny.

I call it yard work and late spring cleaning.

But, it's not happening at the keyboard.

Happy Motoring

An email note from an old friend. That was the whole of it. And I have questions.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Hey,

Just a quick note to tell you that we blew up our lives and scooted out of the burbs and are in Twin, for now, the P.O.Box addy is still good for one year. We are looking at mountains. I am doing this at the library, the one last vestige of regular life.

Talk when we land.


- - - - - - - - - - - -


She, the author and artist in multiple media.
She, the anonymous blogger.

He, a poet that continues to scribe on a typewriter.
He, that introduced me to Ginzberg and Kerouac

Now they are on the road. It's a good time.
There is some road left.

She mentions the mountains and the library.
I am surprised they didn't snag a laptop for the wifi
when they left the Bayview property.

Are they in a motor home or a station wagon?
And where the hell is Twin?

Happy Motoring you two.

Google This - Bullshit Protector

The phrase to Google is Bullshit Protector and the photo was shot in a group of war vets at the president's, um, speech in Idaho.

I get quite a hoot out of an old VFW guy playing a little prank like this.
I mean, who would think he would need one of those at a, um, speech by the president?

I don't want to rip a guys photo when there are some many around.

Link Here

Showing up in the KnewsRoom

The Woody Allen quote is that 80 or 90% of success is just showing up.
In the past several months I've been at the keyboard a little more
often. I've started showing up in the KnewsRoom.

Usually, when we think of the success thing, we think we got it or not.
I say we are already at the other shore. We are already successful.

If the place you are showing up is an angry, fearful place then you are successful at exactly that. If you are showing up in a failure place, then you are a 90% success at that.
If you are showing up in an upbeat place, you are successful at that.

If you'd like to show up elsewhere, start packing.
You'll be a success. I know it.

For a few dollars more

Last night (8/17/05) there was a report of an FBI breakup of a second
9-11 terror plot that had been fomented by al Qaeda in a US maximum
security prison on California.

Young black men, already marginalized products of society and now
converts to fundamentalist Islam, were and are plotting terrorist
attacks inside the good old U.S. of A.

The way that this plot was hijacked was by catching the perps during
fundraising missions.
They were trying to rob gas stations to fund their efforts and got
busted.

For a few dollars more ........

Los Compadres

We were coming home from a weekend in Appleton and decided to stop at Los Compadres in Oshkosh. It's a bright, festive atmosphere with quality food at a good price. They put out warm tortilla chips with salsa and a warm frijole dip that was very tasty.

On the wall behind my wife was this picture. A copy of a print by some notable artist who's name I could not read. After looking at it awhile other figures became apparent. And later she said that she thought it was us. Los Compadres.

Podcasting poems

The surge in podcasting and talk about podcasting has reminded me to
get a safari together to look for those poems of mine I promised.

Podcast: 'broadcasting' in MP3 format. Made popularly possible by the
advance of that expensive little music player from Apple. There was
recently a comment in the Utne about the promise of togetherness and
connectedness when the fact is the opposite. The use of the thing
actually leads to isolation. I think the article was called Hell is
Other People's iPods.

Oddly enough, and we do find it surprising, we don't listen to music
around here.

Anyway, several of us were involved in a poetry reading at the
Coffeehouse. It was Food Pantry night. We burned my selections to disk.
Now, where is that rascal?

Interview with poet David White

In an earlier post I made mention of an editorial role I play in a new publication.
There's an interview in there and I'd actually like you to read it.
Being There

Phones

We got a couple new phones. With cameras.
It's more work to find a phone without a camera.
Sort of like looking for a coffee maker that doesn't have a clock in it.

Anyway, I messaged a headshot to photoshop on the laptop,
twiddled it to neon and emailed it back to the phone.



Now I'm a screensaver.

Fresh Breeze

Tom sent me some recent photos on the progress of his wind tower.
In about a month he will nearly double his capacity for generating electricty.
And all without burning coal.

Wind

Solar Barn

Stonehouse

I live far off in the wild
Where moss and woods are thick and plants perfumed
I can see mountains rain or shine
And never hear market noise
I light a few leaves in my stove to heat tea
To patch my robe I cut off a cloud
Lifetimes seldom fill a hundred years
Why suffer for profit and fame?

- Stonehouse

New hobby for budding terrorists

On the Greenfield Hobby outdoor sign -

Pick up a hobby. It will do you good.
Water balloon launchers are in.

Not everyone

I fellow I know started a new publication.
In it there was a feature with photos of a
local artisan.

The fellow I know showed the finished piece
with the photos of the artisan.

The artisan looked at it awhile and said,
“What is it?”

He did not asked “What is it for?”
He asked “What is it?”

Where do you start to answer that question?
The publication doesn’t look like Cosmo or Esquire,
but it’s still words and pictures. It’s for reading.
And looking at. And thinking about.
Apparently not everyone does that.

I am easily amazed.

It is a first issue of a pdf publication. I have taken on some editorial role and the first issue has an interview with me in it.
It's called Being There

Proverb from Nepal

"Conduct short rituals for minor gods."

Evolved

I was in a conversation with a guy that was pretty direct about his
views on evolution.

“I sure didn’t evolve from no monkey,” he said.

Noting the truth in what he said I just nodded.
He might still have a ways to go.

Boiler plate copyright?

In reading the actual fine print, I came across this from, you guessed
it,
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

© 2005 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.

May not be rewritten? Rewritten?

Of course it may be rewritten. It's usually just facts, right?

In Case of Emergency, Think ICE

This good idea is going around. Here's my little part.

In Case of Emergency, Think ICE

In response to the recent terrorist attacks in London and elsewhere,
the ICE (In Case of Emergency) campaign is gaining momentum around the
world.

ICE encourages people to enter an emergency contact phone number in
their mobile phone memory and label it ICE.

Originally established as a nationwide campaign in the United Kingdom,
ICE allowed paramedics or police to easily access contact information
for a designated relative/next-of-kin in an emergency situation.

The idea is the brainchild of paramedic, Bob Brotchie.  "I was
reflecting on some of the calls I've attended at the roadside where I
had to look through the mobile phone contacts struggling for
information on a shocked or injured person," said Bob.  The idea for
ICE was born.

"Almost everyone carries a mobile phone now, and with ICE we know
immediately who to contact and what number to ring. The person [ICE
contact] may even know of the [the injured person's] medical history."

By adopting the ICE advice, your mobile could help rescue workers
quickly contact a friend or relative, vital in a life or death
situation. It takes only a few seconds to do, and it could easily help
save your life. Why not put ICE in your phone now?

For more than one contact name, use ICE1, ICE2, ICE3, etc.

Always?

Jesus always "lifted his eyes toward heaven" when he prayed, so why do
we always bow our heads and close our eyes?
Roy H. Williams

Help yourself?

"Three quarters of Americans believe the Bible teaches that 'God helps
those who help themselves.' That is, three out of four Americans
believe that this uber-American idea, a notion at the core of our
current individualist politics and culture, which was in fact uttered
by Ben Franklin, actually appears in Holy Scripture. The thing is, not
only is Franklin's wisdom not biblical; it's counter-biblical. Few
ideas could be further from the gospel message, with its radical
summons to love of neighbor."

- Author Bill McKibben, in his Harper's magazine essay, "The Christian
Paradox"

Source: Harper's Magazine

Naturally

If your ears see,
And eyes hear,
Not a doubt you’ll cherish
How naturally the rain drips
From the eaves!

- Daito Kokushi

Vigil in Crawford

We are not hearing much on the nightly news about the president going for a bike ride and getting on with his life when he could just as easily put this story to rest by visiting with Cindy Sheehan.

Can't he ride his bike down to the mail box at the roadside?
Here

When Patriotism Fails

With a headline like 'When Patriotism Fails'
we may be expecting an argument; a debate.
I don't have one right now.

I do like the way the long 'A' sounds in the phrase.

There might be a time when such a thing happens.
I like that you might ..... consider it, too.

Just a thought.

light, sweet crude links

this BBC link

naturally remote

My hut settled among neighbors,
I ignore the noise of horses and carts.
You ask how I get along—
My mind remains wide,
So my place is naturally remote.

- Tao Yuan Ming ( 365–427)

Of all the things

Of all the things
I can choose to say,
why this?

Dateline: Kitchen Table

Can ya hear me now?