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Bush: War skeptics 'proposing nothing' "To oppose everything while proposing nothing is irresponsible," Bush said. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070114/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush Editor's Note: The writer, Mike Ferner, is a Vietnam vet who was arrested last year for wearing a peace tee-shirt while drinking a cup of coffee inside the Veteran's Administration Hospital cafeteria. The charges were later dropped. I met him after sending fan mail. -ef Dear George, Here is a response from a certified "war skeptic." FUCK YOU! Go to Iraq, get out of the Green Zone, and see what life is like for people in Iraq and for the soldiers you've sent there. Stay a few days--no quick photo op and back home. Be sure you drink the water. Then go to Walter Reed Army Hospital and visit the ortho ward. Not just a quick little photo op, but stay there for a week. You can do it. You stay in Crawford for a week or more and the government keeps going. So go to Walter Reed--or better yet, go to a burn unit at a military hospital. Don't do the glad-handing politician bullshit. Go around and empty urine bags. Learn how to check IVs See if their pain meds are enough. Hear the moans. See the disgusting sights. Smell the smell. Then when you're done, go to a V.A. hospital and ask to visit a "back ward." No photo op, here either, prez. Spend another week. See the guys from Nam and Gulf War I, and back from who knows where else their government sent them. No photos. No talking. Just listen. And tend to them. Turn them in their beds to keep them from getting bed sores. Check their feeding tubes. Empty their colostomy bags. THEN come back and say this war is worth one more person's life or health or family. Come back and tell us that if you can. If you can't, get the hell out of here. Mike Ferner US Navy Hospital Corpsman 69-73 mike.ferner@sbcglobal.net http://www.mikeferner.org/ Permalink Dear Readers: It's my long-standing position to oppose the death penalty in any and all cases, regardless of the specifics. This is both a religious and political point of view. Presumably, the death penalty's message is that it's wrong to take life, which is contradicted by the penalty itself. As this is not a widely held view in the United States, I am posting response from leaders of European countries, including the EU itself, which show that it's not an isolated viewpoint. This series of quotes is extracted from an MSNBC article compiled from various wire service reports. e http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11497279/ Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, whose country currently holds the rotating European Union presidency, reiterated the bloc’s opposition to the death penalty. “The European Union has a very consistent stand...opposing the death penalty and it should not have been applied in this case either, even though there is no doubt about Saddam Hussein’s guilt over serious violations against human rights,” Tuomioja said in Helsinki. He also said that the court case against Saddam “gave cause for some serious objections,” but did not elaborate. The Vatican’s spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, called the execution “tragic and reason for sadness.” Speaking on Vatican Radio, Lombardi said Saddam’s death “will not help efforts aimed at justice and reconciliation” and “risks increasing violence.” He also reiterated the Vatican’s opposition to the death penalty. The former Iraqi dictator was executed before dawn on Saturday morning in Baghdad. The hanging took place near the beginning of the festival of Eid al-Adha, one of the two most important holidays in Islam. Russia said it regretted former the execution and was worried his death could trigger a new spiral of violence in Iraq. “Regrettably, repeated calls by representatives of various nations and international organisations to the Iraqi authorities to refrain from capital punishment were not heard,” a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said. “Saddam Hussein’s execution can lead to further aggravation of the military and political situation and the growth of ethnic and sectarian tensions.” Russia imposed a moratorium on the death penalty in 1996. Permalink Saddam Hussein Executed, with Half Brother Saddam Hussein's lawyer has confirmed the hanging. Saddam's half-brother [and enforcer] was also hanged, along with the former Chief Judge of the Revolutionary Court. Reports are that after the execution, witnesses cheered and danced around the body singing Shiia chants. The White House has attempted to distance itself from this -- but Saddam was housed in the Green Zone, and given over to the Iraqi's for execution this evening. We can't get our fingerprint off of it -- certainly not in the minds of Iraqi's; and the first report, below, shows that our own judiciary had some hand in it as well. Videotape and still photos will be released shortly but, to correct the first report, haven't been shown yet; this is being judged necessary in order for Iraqi's to believe it. CNN will show some clips with warnings to viewers. Iraqi ex-pat's in America are celebrating; and there are reports of celebratory gunfire, undoubtedly Shiite, in the Iraqi Capital. Anderson Cooper is discussing the difficulty of know what is celebratory and what is hostile gunfire now -- and that's a judgment call I wouldn't want to have to make. Judith Gayle News Editor, Planet Waves ======================================= Iraqi TV says Saddam Hussein executed CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, AP 13 minutes ago http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061230/ap_on_re_mi_ea/saddam_24 BAGHDAD, Iraq - Saddam Hussein, the shotgun-waving dictator who ruled Iraq with a remorseless brutality for a quarter-century and was driven from power by a U.S.-led war that left his country in shambles, was taken to the gallows and executed Saturday, Iraqi state-run television reported. "Criminal Saddam was hanged to death," Iraqiya television said in an announcement. The station played patriotic music and showed images of national monuments and other landmarks. It was a grim end for the 69-year-old leader who had vexed three U.S. presidents. Despite his ouster, Washington, its allies and the new Iraqi leaders remain mired in a fight to quell a stubborn insurgency by Saddam loyalists and a vicious sectarian conflict. A U.S. judge on Friday refused to stop Saddam's execution, rejecting a last-minute court challenge. The execution came 56 days after a court convicted Saddam and sentenced him to death for his role in the killings of 148 Shiite Muslims from a town where assassins tried to kill the dictator in 1982. Iraq's highest court rejected Saddam's appeal Monday and ordered him executed within 30 days. ++ What's right and good doesn't come naturally. You have to stand up and fight for it - as if the cause depends on you, because it does. Allow yourself that conceit - to believe that the flame of Democracy will never go out as long as there's one candle in your hand. ~ Bill Moyers (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.) Permalink Hello Readers! Are there any hardcore fans of Xena, the Warrior Princess in the reading audience? I have some questions and would love to speak with you. Please email me at francis@planetwaves.net. Please include your number, time zone, and good times to call, if you would like to assist. Thank you! e Permalink A Holiday Message from Planet Waves by Judith Gayle Dear Readers: The day that I made my gingerpersons and other holiday goodies, I invited my son's new girlfriend over. She wanted to help. She is a very sharp cookie [no pun] spiritually, despite the fact that she's surrounded by Fundamentalist relatives and, due to her living circumstance, is forced to participate in Evangelical church-going. I admire her ability to cheerfully keep a foot in both worlds ... it's harder now than it used to be. Which is the topic of this message. When I gave up "drama queen-ness," which is a [sometimes subtle, sometimes not] bid for attention, I gave up telling my personal history unless to illustrate some point. What I learned, and quickly, is that without that tell-all tale you become enigmatic to others, or semi-invisible. Boring to some, I'd suppose -- mysterious, though. The "story" that you tell are the lessons you took away with you, not how you got them -- and you tell them by living them. But in new relationships, some historical exchange is required. So -- cutting out cookies and listening to Christmas carols, my new friend said that the one thing she'd never done, but would like to, is to go caroling. She asked if I had. With an effort [these things fade] I recalled my childhood -- my 18 years in the [not Southern] Baptist church, my musical family: my Mother's expert touch on the piano and her rich alto, my Father's hearty baritone and my bright, shiny soprano [ahhh ... youth!]. I told her about the churches we visited across California to perform gospel music, the choir rehearsals every Wednesday night at our big Berkeley church, the oratorios and cantatas we'd participated in, the solos that came up for one or another of us on a weekly basis -- and yes, the caroling. Sometimes memory is a good thing. I recalled the majik of all that, the pure, sweet joy of it. I could see her confusion at the warmness of my recollection. That is not who she knows me to be. "Religion then wasn't like it is today," I assured her. She was startled. "No?" And that's when I had to really work at the conversation. How do you give a person an experience they haven't had; one so at odds with their own that they can't get a grip on it? I had to tell her what church wasn't, in the middle of the 20th century. "No," I said. "When I was a child, Pentecostalism hadn't infected the churches yet. I wasn't taught fear or hatred and I wasn't given a concept of my "specialness" as a Christian. I wasn't told that Satan was staring back at me from my cereal bowl each morning, waiting to choke me, or that End Times were upon us. I wasn't militarized to believe that saving souls was my purpose in life, or feel superior to others." "I didn't leave the church because it was a hateful experience," I finished. "I left because it had taught me that Love was unconditional ... I left because I knew there had to be more. I went looking for it." I do remember when that all started though, that first step toward trouble. I was about ten -- because of my Mother's extraordinary musical ability, she was invited to participate in the newly-formed outreach of a young [Scorpio] Billy Graham. Whenever Billy came to the Bay Area, which was often, we would make the trek into San Francisco and participate in what had the feel of an old fashioned revival, only a lot bigger and much slicker. The music was superb, the message mesmerizing ... and I was introduced to a sudden sense of evangelical urgency. I watched in amazement as hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people flooded the aisles of an over-packed Cow Palace for an alter call -- and even at so tender an age, I remember being a little nervous about the whole thing. Graham was, personally, as intense a man as he was a preacher -- I believed him sincere then, as I do now. He has mellowed over the years but his stridency and passion to "save souls" has produced his son, Franklin, who continues in his fathers footsteps with a thunderous message of Heaven and Hell, homophobia, women-in-their-place and fear of Islam. One of the great sorrows of these last years has been, for me, the morphing of the Christian church into a great hulking assault on the consciousness of the world -- and the thing that has been "Left Behind" in all this is the actual message of the Christ. I don't hear it, these days ... maybe that's because it's a softer song than the Fundy's sing. The churches who attempt to live it get nailed as "Lefty" movements ... and that proves a point that most Christocrats don't want to hear -- Jesus [if he was an actual person and not several persons, as is historically speculated] was a liberal ... a pacifist ... a realist ... a radical ... a bloodless revolutionary ... and the message he brought us is the very one we wrestle today -- will we love, no matter the circumstances ... or will we hate because of them? The one thing I knew about myself early on was that I came into this incarnation with an anti-authoritarian streak a mile wide. And in the church I knew as a child, I was not uncomfortable ... I was questioning, but I wasn't kicking and screaming, and I didn't leave it throwing the baby out with the bathwater. If the church has become a hateful thing, it's because it's people have become full of hate. If it's become a fearful movement, it's because it's people have been taught to fear. When I was in California earlier in the month, my family and I were following an erratic driver who had a fish-sticker on his bumper. As we commented on it, my seven-year-old grandson piped up, a tone of disapproval in his voice, "Well ... he's a Christian." That hit me like a sledgehammer -- us, them. [Turns out various of Wyatt's little friends at school won't play with him because he's not "one of them." The church's in his area are organized, militant and highly visible. He's too young for a nuanced explanation -- that these children are being taught separation, exclusiveness and nothing of the Christ.] All I could say at that moment was, "So am I, darlin' ... and Christ taught love." I didn't lie -- I'm a Christian ... and a Buddhist ... and a Muslim ... and a Wiccan ... and a Mystic. We are all the philosophies that have contributed to our understanding -- we are All .. we are One. And after all these years, I'm not a cynic, even though I've stood witness to some of the worst of man's deeds ... maybe that's because I've seen some of their best, as well. I believe in God and Goddess and the Mystery of that ... I believe in Nature and Divine Order and the organizing Principal of the Universe. I believe that all of this is a part of me ... and part of you -- happening WITHIN us and asking to out-picture in our daily words and deeds. I believe that the Higher Angels of mankind are just a choice away ... and that Angelic presence can only speak to us if we're willing to listen to the still, small Voice and not the loud, mindless Groupspeak of the world. I believe that if we stand in our power, be discerning with our thoughts and process them through our hearts, we can move the dense energy of a hateful, flawed religious signal into a dynamic spiritual understanding ... raise a callous, self-obsessed mankind into a collaborative, respectful world-wide community. In fact, I count on it. My faith is in the Love that holds the Universe together like glue, the essential goodness within each of us and our ability to inhabit that. That's Christ consciousness. But we live in the Chinese curse, presently: interesting times. I wish they weren't so damned interesting, sometimes, and I find myself left wishing, too often. I wish we could still go out caroling and people would appreciate the music, the intent, even if they didn't resonate to the message ... or weren't so lost in television and computer games that an actual event coming to their doorstep might be worth getting up for. Mostly, I wish we still felt safe to do it ... and inclined. I wish the Fundamentalist churches would return to their senses instead of making so many of us just plain miserable, day in, day out -- that for once the Spirit of the message that was birthed in the Middle East all those many years ago would infuse those who say they follow it -- and I wish my grandson didn't think all Christians were wingnuts. I wish that the Wiccans, should they choose, could put up a lighted pentacle in their front yard with as much freedom and pleasure as my son-in-law gave his children when he strung a gazillion lights on his house and plunked the illuminated reindeer in his front yard. I wish we had as much respect for each persons belief as we do our own. And I wish Santa Claus didn't have a credit card under each arm; that the Holidays held a little more spiritual impact and a lot less consumer angst. I wish humankind had a better grasp on what we WANT rather than what we don't want ... and I wish we could just talk to one another, rather than scream at one another over the chasm that we've created to separate us. I wish we'd collectively intuit the difference between offering a hand or raising a fist ... and understand that one is powerful for peace, the other murders opportunity. Interesting times: they make it harder for us to find that still, small Voice that tells us we're ok ... That we're all in the right place at the right time ... and what we want so desperately will come to us eventually. And there's some of us ... the one's that remember ... that are heartened by the new direction of many Christian churches who are policing their own attitudes and those of their brothers. It IS a matter of "values," just not the restrictive, punitive ones that the Loudest of our brothers think it is. There is a populist movement birthing in this country, picking up speed ... you'll hear about it in many pulpits this year, as the old notions of charity and compassion and equality begin their ascent out of the darkness. I would like to see that happen ... for Wyatt, and for us all. I don't know what spiritual tradition you embrace, if any -- what your experience of religion has been -- or what you think about all this, except that if you're reading this you're aware of the political implications of our current religious "wars." I expect that you would agree with me that the institutions of religion have about broken this world apart ... but the philosophies that prompted them are seldom served. Whatever your traditions, I hope you FEEL them this year ... a little heart-expansion to take you into the New Year ... a moment of Lightness that brings you encouragement and hopefulness ... a tenderness toward yourself and others as we plow through the heaviness of religious prejudice and judgment and bias, in order, I suppose, to firmly grasp what is NOT helpful and all that is, in fact, harmful. We will not progress unless we strip away the cynicism that prevents us from fully feeling -- we will not usher in the Light until we open our hearts to receive it. And so today, from a cold, bright Pea Patch, please accept my wish for your happy holiday and a Merry Christmas ... and I hope it comes to you with a little music. The thing that's pure and sweet and majikal about music is that the Heart hears ... perhaps that's why tears welled the other day when I heard this one. << http://www.gocomics.com/bensargent/2006/12/21/ >> I wish for the world what, according to those who penned the New Testament, Angels proclaimed for a world awaiting a new understanding of themselves -- Peace on Earth, Good Will to men. We will have it when it's more important to us than anything else ... maybe that's where these Interesting Times are designed to take us. But first we need to stop telling the story ... and begin to live it. May your days be merry and bright -- and may all your Christmases be Light. Jude Permalink A Holiday Message from Planet Waves by Judith Gayle Dear Readers: The day that I made my gingerpersons and other holiday goodies, I invited my son's new girlfriend over. She wanted to help. She is a very sharp cookie [no pun] spiritually, despite the fact that she's surrounded by Fundamentalist relatives and, due to her living circumstance, is forced to participate in Evangelical church-going. I admire her ability to cheerfully keep a foot in both worlds ... it's harder now than it used to be. Which is the topic of this message. When I gave up "drama queen-ness," which is a [sometimes subtle, sometimes not] bid for attention, I gave up telling my personal history unless to illustrate some point. What I learned, and quickly, is that without that tell-all tale you become enigmatic to others, or semi-invisible. Boring to some, I'd suppose -- mysterious, though. The "story" that you tell are the lessons you took away with you, not how you got them -- and you tell them by living them. But in new relationships, some historical exchange is required. So -- cutting out cookies and listening to Christmas carols, my new friend said that the one thing she'd never done, but would like to, is to go caroling. She asked if I had. With an effort [these things fade] I recalled my childhood -- my 18 years in the [not Southern] Baptist church, my musical family: my Mother's expert touch on the piano and her rich alto, my Father's hearty baritone and my bright, shiny soprano [ahhh ... youth!]. I told her about the churches we visited across California to perform gospel music, the choir rehearsals every Wednesday night at our big Berkeley church, the oratorios and cantatas we'd participated in, the solos that came up for one or another of us on a weekly basis -- and yes, the caroling. Sometimes memory is a good thing. I recalled the majik of all that, the pure, sweet joy of it. I could see her confusion at the warmness of my recollection. That is not who she knows me to be. "Religion then wasn't like it is today," I assured her. She was startled. "No?" And that's when I had to really work at the conversation. How do you give a person an experience they haven't had; one so at odds with their own that they can't get a grip on it? I had to tell her what church wasn't, in the middle of the 20th century. "No," I said. "When I was a child, Pentecostalism hadn't infected the churches yet. I wasn't taught fear or hatred and I wasn't given a concept of my "specialness" as a Christian. I wasn't told that Satan was staring back at me from my cereal bowl each morning, waiting to choke me, or that End Times were upon us. I wasn't militarized to believe that saving souls was my purpose in life, or feel superior to others." "I didn't leave the church because it was a hateful experience," I finished. "I left because it had taught me that Love was unconditional ... I left because I knew there had to be more. I went looking for it." I do remember when that all started though, that first step toward trouble. I was about ten -- because of my Mother's extraordinary musical ability, she was invited to participate in the newly-formed outreach of a young [Scorpio] Billy Graham. Whenever Billy came to the Bay Area, which was often, we would make the trek into San Francisco and participate in what had the feel of an old fashioned revival, only a lot bigger and much slicker. The music was superb, the message mesmerizing ... and I was introduced to a sudden sense of evangelical urgency. I watched in amazement as hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people flooded the aisles of an over-packed Cow Palace for an alter call -- and even at so tender an age, I remember being a little nervous about the whole thing. Graham was, personally, as intense a man as he was a preacher -- I believed him sincere then, as I do now. He has mellowed over the years but his stridency and passion to "save souls" has produced his son, Franklin, who continues in his fathers footsteps with a thunderous message of Heaven and Hell, homophobia, women-in-their-place and fear of Islam. One of the great sorrows of these last years has been, for me, the morphing of the Christian church into a great hulking assault on the consciousness of the world -- and the thing that has been "Left Behind" in all this is the actual message of the Christ. I don't hear it, these days ... maybe that's because it's a softer song than the Fundy's sing. The churches who attempt to live it get nailed as "Lefty" movements ... and that proves a point that most Christocrats don't want to hear -- Jesus [if he was an actual person and not several persons, as is historically speculated] was a liberal ... a pacifist ... a realist ... a radical ... a bloodless revolutionary ... and the message he brought us is the very one we wrestle today -- will we love, no matter the circumstances ... or will we hate because of them? The one thing I knew about myself early on was that I came into this incarnation with an anti-authoritarian streak a mile wide. And in the church I knew as a child, I was not uncomfortable ... I was questioning, but I wasn't kicking and screaming, and I didn't leave it throwing the baby out with the bathwater. If the church has become a hateful thing, it's because it's people have become full of hate. If it's become a fearful movement, it's because it's people have been taught to fear. When I was in California earlier in the month, my family and I were following an erratic driver who had a fish-sticker on his bumper. As we commented on it, my seven-year-old grandson piped up, a tone of disapproval in his voice, "Well ... he's a Christian." That hit me like a sledgehammer -- us, them. [Turns out various of Wyatt's little friends at school won't play with him because he's not "one of them." The church's in his area are organized, militant and highly visible. He's too young for a nuanced explanation -- that these children are being taught separation, exclusiveness and nothing of the Christ.] All I could say at that moment was, "So am I, darlin' ... and Christ taught love." I didn't lie -- I'm a Christian ... and a Buddhist ... and a Muslim ... and a Wiccan ... and a Mystic. We are all the philosophies that have contributed to our understanding -- we are All .. we are One. And after all these years, I'm not a cynic, even though I've stood witness to some of the worst of man's deeds ... maybe that's because I've seen some of their best, as well. I believe in God and Goddess and the Mystery of that ... I believe in Nature and Divine Order and the organizing Principal of the Universe. I believe that all of this is a part of me ... and part of you -- happening WITHIN us and asking to out-picture in our daily words and deeds. I believe that the Higher Angels of mankind are just a choice away ... and that Angelic presence can only speak to us if we're willing to listen to the still, small Voice and not the loud, mindless Groupspeak of the world. I believe that if we stand in our power, be discerning with our thoughts and process them through our hearts, we can move the dense energy of a hateful, flawed religious signal into a dynamic spiritual understanding ... raise a callous, self-obsessed mankind into a collaborative, respectful world-wide community. In fact, I count on it. My faith is in the Love that holds the Universe together like glue, the essential goodness within each of us and our ability to inhabit that. That's Christ consciousness. But we live in the Chinese curse, presently: interesting times. I wish they weren't so damned interesting, sometimes, and I find myself left wishing, too often. I wish we could still go out caroling and people would appreciate the music, the intent, even if they didn't resonate to the message ... or weren't so lost in television and computer games that an actual event coming to their doorstep might be worth getting up for. Mostly, I wish we still felt safe to do it ... and inclined. I wish the Fundamentalist churches would return to their senses instead of making so many of us just plain miserable, day in, day out -- that for once the Spirit of the message that was birthed in the Middle East all those many years ago would infuse those who say they follow it -- and I wish my grandson didn't think all Christians were wingnuts. I wish that the Wiccans, should they choose, could put up a lighted pentacle in their front yard with as much freedom and pleasure as my son-in-law gave his children when he strung a gazillion lights on his house and plunked the illuminated reindeer in his front yard. I wish we had as much respect for each persons belief as we do our own. And I wish Santa Claus didn't have a credit card under each arm; that the Holidays held a little more spiritual impact and a lot less consumer angst. I wish humankind had a better grasp on what we WANT rather than what we don't want ... and I wish we could just talk to one another, rather than scream at one another over the chasm that we've created to separate us. I wish we'd collectively intuit the difference between offering a hand or raising a fist ... and understand that one is powerful for peace, the other murders opportunity. Interesting times: they make it harder for us to find that still, small Voice that tells us we're ok ... That we're all in the right place at the right time ... and what we want so desperately will come to us eventually. And there's some of us ... the one's that remember ... that are heartened by the new direction of many Christian churches who are policing their own attitudes and those of their brothers. It IS a matter of "values," just not the restrictive, punitive ones that the Loudest of our brothers think it is. There is a populist movement birthing in this country, picking up speed ... you'll hear about it in many pulpits this year, as the old notions of charity and compassion and equality begin their ascent out of the darkness. I would like to see that happen ... for Wyatt, and for us all. I don't know what spiritual tradition you embrace, if any -- what your experience of religion has been -- or what you think about all this, except that if you're reading this you're aware of the political implications of our current religious "wars." I expect that you would agree with me that the institutions of religion have about broken this world apart ... but the philosophies that prompted them are seldom served. Whatever your traditions, I hope you FEEL them this year ... a little heart-expansion to take you into the New Year ... a moment of Lightness that brings you encouragement and hopefulness ... a tenderness toward yourself and others as we plow through the heaviness of religious prejudice and judgment and bias, in order, I suppose, to firmly grasp what is NOT helpful and all that is, in fact, harmful. We will not progress unless we strip away the cynicism that prevents us from fully feeling -- we will not usher in the Light until we open our hearts to receive it. And so today, from a cold, bright Pea Patch, please accept my wish for your happy holiday and a Merry Christmas ... and I hope it comes to you with a little music. The thing that's pure and sweet and majikal about music is that the Heart hears ... perhaps that's why tears welled the other day when I heard this one. << http://www.gocomics.com/bensargent/2006/12/21/ >> I wish for the world what, according to those who penned the New Testament, Angels proclaimed for a world awaiting a new understanding of themselves -- Peace on Earth, Good Will to men. We will have it when it's more important to us than anything else ... maybe that's where these Interesting Times are designed to take us. But first we need to stop telling the story ... and begin to live it. May your days be merry and bright -- and may all your Christmases be Light. Jude Permalink Friday is Global Orgasm Day. CAN ORGASM create world peace? Is it worth trying? In our strange-but-true country known as the Internet, the word is out on the streets that Dec. 22 is Global Orgasm Day. Being someone who thinks "every day is Global Orgasm Day," it took some time (and a few reader emails) for me to figure out this is actually a really good idea, and right up my alley: an experiment in the use of collective orgasm to shift the energy field of the planet in the direction of peace, love and understanding. The plan is this: sometime Dec. 22, experience an orgasm, alone, with another person, or with others, with the intention of creating world peace and harmony. The creators of the event are calling this an experiment in the effects of synchronized orgasm as a means of healing the planet. I think (from looking at their Website) that the organizers, Donna Sheehan and Paul Reffell, have a clue about astrology. With the Sun aspecting the Aries Point, we have a great day to create a ripple effect in the world, where individual choices reach out into collective consciousness and vice versa. Not everyone has a lover. Many people are their own lover, some by choice, and others because that's all that's available. I have a feeling that a lot of these global orgasms are going to be solitary orgasms. For a long time I've been tossing pebbles into the pond about the idea of getting together with others and experimenting with witnessed masturbation, and sharing masturbation among both lovers and friends, and in small groups. This is less outrageous than it may sound. I could theorize about why, and will not, at this point, but these experiences have a way of being brilliantly liberating, transcending ordinary partnersex, opening up a new kind of intimacy, and transmuting shame and guilt into pleasure and love. Here's another facet of the story. A lot of people who are alone don't give it to themselves. Maybe they don't turn themselves on enough, or maybe it's something else; some just don't think about sexual pleasure between relationships. However, in case anyone simply needs permission, I'm here to offer it, and say that the wave of energy we're creating will be coming through the neighborhood soon. Anyone can come surfing. Now, can this stop a war? That would be cool. Using pleasure as a means to peace works great with individuals. You can almost see on people's faces who's had a good orgasm that day (generally, in the form of a smile). Orgasm is a physical, mental and emotional experience that lets go of tension and floods the brain with pleasure-inducing chemicals called endorphins that really do make you happier. Happier people generally want the same for others. This is an experience of pleasurable surrender that helps us in a world where so much surrender (of various other kinds) is necessary. As for the multi-level aspect, consider that there are many times we have a mental experience that gets stuck in the head; an emotional experience that yearns for physical expression; a physical experience that begs for closer emotional contact or expression. Often, we get trapped on one layer or another and slowly start to go nuts in the process. Orgasm reaches right through the different levels, and has a way of unifying our experience of existence. People who are in harmony with themselves tend to be more peaceful and get on better with others. Though it takes some inner freedom to get there, the last few minutes before orgasm tend to be an exceptionally uninhibited time, where we can experience images, feelings, needs and desires -- and do extremely pleasant things to ourselves and others -- that waking consciousness might otherwise hold down or deny. Stuffing things into the unconscious is a great way to create chaos, which usually surfaces as shadow material like fear and hostility. These things add up, then we find ourselves living in a world where rage and pain are normal, and where pleasure is bad. However, when you shift in the other direction even a little bit, pain and hostility tend to lose their appeal. There is a spectrum, and it goes not from red to violet, but rather from control to pleasure. People who tend toward one dependably migrate away from the other. Orgasm also transcends differences of gender, sexual orientation, social identity, language, nationality, economic status, house or trance, rock or disco. It can be experienced by people of nearly any age. Most important, relationship status is orgasm-neutral. But what is this beautiful and mysterious thing? The mind goes blotto and we come about as close as we can to feeling what it's like beyond ego-consciousness in this life. It can be a profound moment of inner freedom that (if you're paying attention) is really a deep cosmic joining. It seems plausible enough to try focusing this on world peace -- and at the very worst, it's hot that a whole bunch of people around the world are planning to get off at the same time, thinking about one another doing it. I have noticed lately that sexual rules are starting to relax. Who knows, maybe the whole phenomenon is a creature of my mind, and I'm projecting it onto the world. But the existence of Global Orgasm Day says something. It used to be you would round people up, or network around the world, only to pray. During the Harmonic Convergence era of 1987, something like this would have been an unmentionable act. This was part of a larger trend. It should come as no wonder that the people who keep dragging us into wars are the same ones who spend billions on "abstinence education" that turns people (starting with young children) against themselves. Global Orgasm Day is an experiment running this so-called logic in reverse. Maybe if we open up (and are open about it), we will find ourselves living in a world where love is seen as natural and where getting along is considered a wholesome purpose of living. Getting good at anything, including being open, takes practice, and this is a fine start: all the people sending out Global Orgasm Day emails are in effect admitting to their friends that they plan to masturbate or have sex that day, as part of a world movement. This alone is not only progress, it's cosmically kinky. Permalink Global Orgasm Day: Knockin' on Heaven's Door Planet Waves By Eric Francis CAN ORGASM create world peace? Is it worth trying? In our strange-but-true country known as the Internet, the word is out on the streets that Dec. 22 is Global Orgasm Day. Being someone who thinks "every day is Global Orgasm Day," it took some time (and a few reader emails) for me to figure out this is actually a really good idea, and right up my alley: an experiment in the use of collective orgasm to shift the energy field of the planet in the direction of peace, love and understanding. The plan is this: sometime Dec. 22, experience an orgasm, alone, with another person, or with others, with the intention of creating world peace and harmony. The creators of the event are calling this an experiment in the effects of synchronized orgasm as a means of healing the planet. I think (from looking at their Website) that the organizers, Donna Sheehan and Paul Reffell, have a clue about astrology. With the Sun aspecting the Aries Point, we have a great day to create a ripple effect in the world, where individual choices reach out into collective consciousness and vice versa. Not everyone has a lover. Many people are their own lover, some by choice, and others because that's all that's available. I have a feeling that a lot of these global orgasms are going to be solitary orgasms. For a long time I've been tossing pebbles into the pond about the idea of getting together with others and experimenting with witnessed masturbation, and sharing masturbation among both lovers and friends, and in small groups. This is less outrageous than it may sound. I could theorize about why, and will not, at this point, but these experiences have a way of being brilliantly liberating, transcending ordinary partnersex, opening up a new kind of intimacy, and transmuting shame and guilt into pleasure and love. Here's another facet of the story. A lot of people who are alone don't give it to themselves. Maybe they don't turn themselves on enough, or maybe it's something else; some just don't think about sexual pleasure between relationships. However, in case anyone simply needs permission, I'm here to offer it, and say that the wave of energy we're creating will be coming through the neighborhood soon. Anyone can come surfing. Now, can this stop a war? That would be cool. Using pleasure as a means to peace works great with individuals. You can almost see on people's faces who's had a good orgasm that day (generally, in the form of a smile). Orgasm is a physical, mental and emotional experience that lets go of tension and floods the brain with pleasure-inducing chemicals called endorphins that really do make you happier. Happier people generally want the same for others. This is an experience of pleasurable surrender that helps us in a world where so much surrender (of various other kinds) is necessary. As for the multi-level aspect, consider that there are many times we have a mental experience that gets stuck in the head; an emotional experience that yearns for physical expression; a physical experience that begs for closer emotional contact or expression. Often, we get trapped on one layer or another and slowly start to go nuts in the process. Orgasm reaches right through the different levels, and has a way of unifying our experience of existence. People who are in harmony with themselves tend to be more peaceful and get on better with others. Though it takes some inner freedom to get there, the last few minutes before orgasm tend to be an exceptionally uninhibited time, where we can experience images, feelings, needs and desires -- and do extremely pleasant things to ourselves and others -- that waking consciousness might otherwise hold down or deny. Stuffing things into the unconscious is a great way to create chaos, which usually surfaces as shadow material like fear and hostility. These things add up, then we find ourselves living in a world where rage and pain are normal, and where pleasure is bad. However, when you shift in the other direction even a little bit, pain and hostility tend to lose their appeal. There is a spectrum, and it goes not from red to violet, but rather from control to pleasure. People who tend toward one dependably migrate away from the other. Orgasm also transcends differences of gender, sexual orientation, social identity, language, nationality, house or trance, rock or disco. It can be a profound moment of inner freedom that (if you're paying attention) is really a deep cosmic joining. It seems plausible enough to try focusing this on world peace -- and at the very worst, it's hot that a whole bunch of people around the world are planning to get off at the same time, thinking about one another doing it. Granted, nothing is 100% true. Sometimes expressing sexual energy makes (or seems to make) people more hostile, for which there are a number of causes. One is repression itself, another is guilt (a specific form of repression, in the form of self-attack that tends to get projected outward). Another is a conditioned mixing of violence and eroticism that is shot at us constantly, and to which some people are extremely sensitive (potentially because of previous traumas). Violent treatment tends to breed violent feelings, and keep the cycle going. There are ways to heal these things, if we really want. It's amazing how freeing opening up to erotic energy can be. Given the choice, I would rather live and work among sexually expressive people; in a house where people are affectionate with one another; where there is freedom to speak freely about pleasure and desire, and where different strokes are not the subject of judgment, but rather encouraged and explored. I would rather live in a community where people feel safe to feel and express themselves. I would rather live in a country where the culture is tolerant and where people strive for equality, which can only come through communication. I have noticed lately that sexual rules are starting to relax. Who knows, maybe the whole phenomenon is a creature of my mind, and I'm projecting it onto the world. But the existence of Global Orgasm Day says something. It used to be you would round people up, or network around the world, only to pray. During the Harmonic Convergence era of 1987, something like this would have been an unmentionable act. This was part of a larger trend. It should come as no wonder that the people who keep dragging us into wars are the same ones who spend billions on "abstinence education" that turns people (starting with young children) against themselves. Global Orgasm Day is an experiment running this so-called logic in reverse. Maybe if we open up (and are open about it), we will find ourselves living in a world where love is seen as natural and where getting along is considered a wholesome purpose of living. Getting good at anything, including being open, takes practice, and this is a fine start: all the people sending out Global Orgasm Day emails are in effect admitting to their friends that they plan to masturbate or have sex that day, as part of a world movement. This alone is not only progress, it's cosmically kinky. I get that the real idea behind this experiment is metaphysical. It's about minds joining, it's about opening up a dimension, it's about tipping a certain balance -- or at least sliding the weights on the scale. But we don't really know the effects of a focused experiment like this until we try. And whatever happens as a result of lots of people getting off together and writing to one another about it along the way, I do suggest that we make every day Global Orgasm Day.++ http://planetwaves.net/ Permalink Special Comment: The Death of Pinochet Jara sang, his song a weapon, in the hands of love You know his blood still cries from the ground --U2, "One Tree Hill" from The Joshua Tree By Eric Francis THERE IS a story that former US President Gerald R. Ford, a devoutly religious man, once said he knows he is going to hell, because he pardoned Richard Nixon. He of all people knows what Nixon did. He took over that disgusting presidency and before that he sat on the Warren Commission that investigated and covered up facts surrounding the murder of John F. Kennedy. For the next couple of days you're going to be hearing the name Pinochet a lot. He is something of the pinnacle of American hypocrisy when our government claims to help make the world safe for freedom or democracy. Pinochet was one of the most vicious dictators of our lifetimes; his rule represented the very essence of cruelty. He was, by all indications, one of the anchor points for negativity, violence, deception and terror on our planet. The world is a better place without him, and there are many people tonight who regret that they did not get to personally kill him; many as well who longed only for him to be brought to justice for his crimes. I do not suggest that we rejoice in his death. Rather, I think there is a place and time for anger, and this is it, but that anger need only take us so far as recognizing, feeling, the need for justice. Pinochet escaped both assassination and trial to the enviable age of 91. No doubt, he had a lot of help. Two of his most valued accomplices, indeed, his sponsors, were Richard Nixon and his partner Henry Kissinger (the former US secretary of state, who presided over the worst phase of the Vietnam War), whose salaries we paid. On the real Sept. 11 -- the one in 1973 -- Nixon and Kissinger were in office and, as Steve Bergstein explains in today's edition of Psychsound (please see Front Page or Page Two), both are deeply implicated in the coup that left a democratically elected leader, Salvador Allende, dead (by most accounts, he killed himself before he could be killed by Pinochet). This coup led to the summary executions and torture of tens of thousands of Chilean people over many years that followed. Watch as the mainstream press tries to talk its way around just who Pinochet was. Watch the sick dance of trying to maintain "balance" because they are the ones who so dutifully covered up who he was over all the years he was in power, and the involvement of the United States, through five presidencies -- from Nixon to Ford to Carter to Reagan to Bush the First. Note how they go out of their way to tell you that some people are sad he's dead, and that he did a few "good things" (for example, helped the Chilean economy), which is the approximate equivalent of telling us that Charles Manson accomplished a lot because he used to feed stray cats. Here we have one of the core issues: this kind of thing can only go on if a lot of people go into denial. On one level, the press is correct to point out that Pinochet had some support. But it would be wise of them to point out that all dictators do, and none could stay in power without at least some support, often that hovering around what we have seen through the past six years in the United States. Popularity, however, does not make a murderer into a saint. It is as immoral to knowingly believe a lie as it is to perpetrate one. Pinochet became the prototype for numerous Latin American dictatorships that thrived not merely on violence and fear, but on pure sadism. In many ways these dictatorships, from Pinochet forward, make the Nazis (many of whom fled to South America) look like an orderly bunch of people who had a comprehensible agenda and who at least did what they did for a reason, disgusting as that reason was. When you learn about the events of the 1970s and 1980s in Latin America (Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala and many others come to mind), all sponsored by the CIA, you get the feeling of a nonstop free-for-all for death and torture, so senselessly cruel that it exceeded any explainable agenda or useful purpose, and existed merely for its own sake. And so few Americans or Brits have a clue what was going on. Often, it is up to artists to bring us the news. Have you ever wondered who Jara is, the one that Bono sings about in the song "One Tree Hill," on the CD The Joshua Tree? Victor Jara was a Chilean folk singer and theater director who brought the messages of revolution, dignity and freedom into his creative work. The "New Song," Jara's own phrase, was a kind of song wherein one was free to take a political stand, to speak from one's heart or guts, and to remind people that the struggle for freedom must continue every day. In doing so, be broke a taboo, which is that art must somehow remain neutral. The New Song freed art to exist as a mode for communicating the messages of liberation, and encouraged the uprising of the spirit, that is to say, of love, as the true power behind political progress. When asked what love meant to him four days before the US-backed military coup that put Pinochet into power, Jara responded: Love of my home, my wife and my children. Love for the earth that helps me live. Love for education and of work. Love of others who work for the common good. Love of justice as the instrument that provides equilibrium for human dignity. Science fiction author Frank Herbert (the Dune series, among others) once wrote, "Who do you despise? By that you are truly known." Here is an excerpt from Jara's Wikipedia page that tells you all you need to know about about Pinochet, based on one of those he despised the very most: On the morning of September 12, Jara was taken, along with thousands others, as a prisoner to the Chile Stadium (renamed the Estadio Victor Jara in September 2003). In the hours and days that followed, many of those detained in the stadum were tortured and killed there by the military forces. Jara was repeatedly beaten and tortured, the bones in his hands were broken as were the bones of his ribs. Fellow political prisoners have testified that his captors mockingly suggested that he play guitar for them as he lay on the ground. Jara's Wiki Page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%ADctor_Jara Pinochet's Wiki Page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusto_Pinochet Photo of Jara's Grave http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8f/VictorJaraTomb.jpg Permalink More Notes from Down Under G'day Eric, Thank you for your interesting reading on the gaseous nature of this time of the celestial year. Down under in the Land of Oz, our entry into Sagittarius feels like the cork blowing out of a bottle of fermenting homemade ginger (or hops) beer. We've been holding on like crazy through Scorpio: it's the time of year when students are doing exams, businesses and institutions are preparing for the Festive Holiday season, (whether that means you will be busy or closing down - there's lots to be organised), and the climate/earth itself is triggering kundalini rushes everywhere/when. Then the Solar king enters Sagittarius and the cork is flying across the room and heading for any authority figure, control freak, or perceived blocking agent that has held us back. The fizz is fun, then that's it. The whole of month of December feels like that: Thoughts, ideas, inspirations come and go so fast I sometimes wonder if it was really me that was here last night thinking up those plans, making copious notes on bits of paper. The BIG picture is so clear that whatever we have to do in the 3D carbon based material world is reduced to trivial and is therefore a) rushed b) expedient c) boring as soon as it is actualised. Meanwhile, the external world is heating up. Bushfires start raging, the plant kingdom retreats into itself, the blue tongue lizards and echidnas seem like sensible creatures after all. The climatic/earth changes are magnifying what our environment has always delivered at this time of year: dry hot winds, searing sun, late nights and a natural longing to head for the beach/river/lake/shower or nearest pub. Oh yes, the festive season. Carols at night may be whipped by sudden storms, or provide the family with a delightful evening languishing with the community out there in the local footy ovals/parks, thirsty gardens and beaches. Choosing the day/night for local activities challenges the most eminent probability mathameticians. Philsophically and conceptually, we are in a very strange place. Australia is currently THE most multi-Faith island nation on this planet. So a public festive activity embraces the candles and symbolism of Light, songs about sleighs riding through the snow, pine trees that smell good in the lounge room until about mid January, tinsel and fairy lights celebrating the fact that we don't sleep until midnight, gratitude that we've made it through another year, goodwill to all with whom we have shared the year's journey, and just a spicy touch of hope and faith for the year ahead. It all gets rolled into one long holiday time. In fact, sanity does not return with an organised, business-like, or even societal focus until March when the Sun in Pisces soothes our suntanned hides and we can sleep at night and enjoy the gentleness of nature once again. We live in the Dreamtime all year round here - it is in the land itself as our indigenous caretakers will tell you. It is an ancient, ancient land with much to tell. And because of that, our short lifetimes, our petty concerns and bursts of enthusiasm for "something new", fade into the infinte sky and the endless sea that "girts us". The archetypal world holds our interest only briefly. It is the human spirit and the spirit of nature, of life itself, on which we must depend. Oh yes, and the Light , the blazing, glaring, burning Light! Give up with the vanity and the Mr/Miss Prissy trip folks - this is a hard yakka survival land. Rinse the salt, sand and dust out of your hair and give it a scrunch or two quickly before it dries in 2 minutes. Intellectually, we have been seeded here by Father Europe, nurtured and diligently guided by Mother England, and now, exploited and conned, by a jealous Big Brother America. [Sucker Johnnie Howard - didn't you learn from your own brother/s ?] But oh yes, we do so love the Families from which we have ascended. We love the histories, the stories, the legends, myths and fables, the books, films, sciences and archives. So we listen to our Northern Hemisphere extended family chatting about the symbolism of the Galactical Constellations. We are forced, naturally enough, to figure out the essence of astrology and reapply it in a different setting. As for the Galactic Core - and 2012, and about entering the Age of Light, the Golden 1000 years, the New World, the New Age - the next act in the Grand Circus of this mansion world, whatever...those of us learning discernment, listen to the spirits and sometimes, we even discuss,debate and argue with them. After all, we ARE in the physical, on the Front Line doing it for real, aren't we? Do you have any idea what this is like? Can you imagine being so personally and figuratively transparent? The Galactic Spotlight initiates this each and every year. We discover what it feels like to NOT KNOW. Or to not even care that we may NOT KNOW ... ?! As an astrologer I have pondered upon the nature of this Land of Oz for some 30 years. Methinks the land itself is Sagittarian with a human Capricorn overlay. Aligning with the Galactic Core means we test ourselves - no, not pitting ourselves against each other or the greater world, but rather, finding out how we are going/coming or just being - in accordance with the Grand Plan for an estimated so far, 21 million year evolutionary project. The Capricorn January is our 'out-of-time' zone when we quite seriously consider our own growth, maturity and personal well being. It is a reclusive and chill out phase of the Galactic Clock. Even those working in tourism, hospitality and holiday localities, reflect this detachment right through until March. Perhaps all this just feeds our natural cycnism born of an everchanging climatic and social world. But if you're ever in real strife, from these old and testy elements weaving around and in us, 'she'll be right mate'. We're here for each other - but only if it's for real. So there's no crying wolf, or false gift giving, tinsel smiles through gritted teeth or sociel niceties in the name of a very much confused status quo. Sagittarius shoots its Centaur arrows through the spiral target of the Galactic Core. In this land we need to be sure enough of our aim, 'cos it is very likely to boomerang back on us. We give out and share, generously, but oh so often, the arrows fall on infertile ground. Yet we are incessantly, a nation of people who love spilling forth those creative ideas. We are Children of the Universe after all, growing in a Nursery Galaxy. How's that, Cuz up there in Lapland? Give you something to laugh about? Good. Blessings of the FULL pregnant Moon. A cheerful Happy festive season to ye Eric - love reading your work and enjoying the tango. Hilary www.dawnings.blogspot.com <http://www.dawnings.blogspot.com> Permalink |