Puzzled

I've long wondered what I would do to while away the hours in the old-folks home.  What I would be doing in between soft food and drooling. Today I found the answer. Hanging out in Barnes and Noble. Jigsaw puzzles of famous rock albums from the sixties and seventies.  I bet you I can put together that Let It Bleed cake likkety split.

Heroes

Let me see if I have this straight.
Men and women join the U.S. military.  They are not drafted, nor do they volunteer. It is in fact a career choice.  They are paid for their service. They receive benefits for their service. They swear to defend the country from enemies foreign and domestic.
They then get on planes and travel to the other side of the world, invade a country that has done absolutely nothing to the United States, and was in fact incapable of doing any harm to us, and occupy it for nine years. They hang its leader, and kill, by the Pentagon's own estimates, over one hundred thousand innocent men, women and children.
Now after all that time they come home, and I am to cheer them as heroes?  I have to be subjected every night to scenes on television of their triumphant return, with tears flowing as they reunite with their families?  I am expected to thank them for what they have done?
They were mercenaries. They knew from the beginning they would be playing offense, not defense, as no country in the world is a threat to the United States.  Instead they knew they would be fighting an imperialist war, inflicting mass casualties on a populace that had already known, after decades of being our proxy against Iran, the horrors of war.
I was so naive when I was young. I actually believed that after Vietnam, and the staggering cost to both this country, and the near genocidal cost to the Vietnamese, that we would have learned a lesson.  That individuals would finally say no more. No more will I allow myself to be a part of this madness the feeds the machine. Never again would I as an American allow myself to fight proxy wars on behalf of war criminals in Washington, for the benefit of corporations such as Halliburton. Never again I thought.
My spiritual beliefs require compassion, and I do feel that for those who's misguided intentions resulted in such awful damage to their bodies, souls, and families. But at some point individuals have to stand up and say not me, not this time, not ever again.  If this country should ever be attacked I will be the first to support anyone who chooses to defend me.  In the meantime I will save my sympathy for the countless dead spread over the decades of my life. The dead slain in my name. 

Twitter

I steal from here, steal from there, but steal a lot from Buddhist practices.  The path to a clear, uncluttered mind is a lifelong journey, with the end of the path never to be reached.

So can someone explain why the Dalai Lama, of all people, is on twitter?

It's high school all over again

Does anyone else ever feel that Facebook, Twitter, etc. mimics high school?  I mean, there are the same players, just on a different field, or medium if you will.
The very popular, as evidenced by their astonishing number of friends, and the enormous number of postings on their wall.
The school slut, who will put out for anyone in order to have a few thousand friends.
The shy kid, tentative in his postings, with only a few so called friends, desperate to crack into the clique of cool people with their travel pictures and self promotion.
And the rebel, who may very well create a completely fake persona just to see what happens and who he or she might meet.
Social media may in fact be the phenomenon it is being made out to be.  I myself would never join a social media site that would have me as a member.

Sentimental Mood

What's more cliche than reflection on a Holiday spent alone...Sometimes it's permissable to indulge.

Meet me by the sea again
Past the point the shoreline bends
Where the sand is soft and warm
And hangs upon your golden arm
And time won’t move at all
We were once the only ones
Who knew of the secret sun
Shining down where no one goes
In a place that no one knows
And time won’t move at all
And time won’t move at all
Many lives have come between
You and me, the secret scene
But back there in the orange light
There’ll be no fear of the night
And time won’t move at all
And time won’t move at all

Memory loss or just the flu

Like so many others of our age I occasionally worry about memory lapses.  For instance yesterday I got in my car to go to work, started her up, put her in reverse, hit the gas, and demolished the garage door.  Seems I forgot to open it first.  Now, in my defense, I am battling a severe flu attack and subsequent brain fog, but really. So a very Merry Christmas, for the garage door company at least.

It's MY money after all

The arcane law restricting the amount one can earn while collecting Social Security prior to full retirement age is possibly going to be changed.  A bill in Congress, H.R. 322, introduced by Representative Gene Green, would repeal the limitation on the amount of outside income beneficiaries under full retirement age may earn without penalty.
This bill is now pending before the House Committee on Ways and Means, and the huge number of people now forced to take early Social Security benefits should be made aware, and organized, in support of this bill.
Why those of us who work should have our earnings limited to an amount which keeps us near the poverty line is a question with no logical answer.  If we were allowed to earn more, we would pay the Government more in taxes, and would have more to spend, thus helping this economy in two ways.
Plus, after all, these benefits are not handouts but OUR money. 
Spread the word to your representatives in Congress, as well as AARP and any other organization whose support might move this forward.