~ Meeting Place by an old Live Oak *** ~

CafeGroundZero Banned from Somepoetry.con

2007-04-14T06:05:00.000-04:00

ha ha! A so called moderator on a site I'll just call Somepoetry has banned me for three days.

In honor of the would be regulator and leech who goes by the user name symitar, I have decomposed the following of her message:

site Ban

* A moderator, with approval
from a manager,
found that someone
broke the rules enough
for us to refuse
access to the site
to them for a time.

* This ban was placed on: cafegroundzero

"All hail "caf? ground zer0 !!!"

* This ban started on 2 hours prior to 5:40 a.m.

* This ban will last until Apr 17 2:01 AM

* If this (manifestation on the web page,
this person looking at the screen,
was not caf?, please contact
the pompous assholes and bitches

at bans@somepoetry.con

The poet who goes by caf? has earned 3 days off--

--oh joy! oh la dee dah! oh whoop tee doo!

the site so not celebrated for its amateurs,
sycophants, and narcissists.
His clarity of thought,
honesty,
and courage to call the hypocrisy
and stupidity
of a moderator named symitar
was not taken well by the peons
and ass kissers.
The moderator called "symitar" begged caf? to try
to have a better attitude if he ever returned
-she threatened him with "next time it will be longer."

"I hope you will rethink your behavior" she had typed to me...

"ha ha!" sez I. "Ha ha!'

Friday the 13th, April 2007 -- my nth F13

2007-04-13T15:44:00.000-04:00

Here I sit at the writing desk
Realizing once again the test.

Here I sit and here I type
hoping for just more than tripe.

Here I sit a tapping out
metaphorical fisherman hoping
for that metaphorical trout.

Here I sit, sucking in my gut,
wondering how and if and when--but

would you consider reading more
of what for you I have in store?

Enter the Sabbath!

2007-04-13T15:31:00.000-04:00

The Sabbath approaches fast, winging quietly like a bird gliding.

I am not ready.

Alas!

Today has been very odd, not to mention this being 13th of April (my birth month too).

Lad's sitting on the orange chair behind me. My lad. My son. A toddler, blondi man-child. He's talking to me while eating strawberries he, the mother, and his sister picked earlier today.

If you're looking to hire a poet, a scribe, or a tutor, try the links I've embedded.

Leila, who stole my love & crushed it like a wet toad on an asphalt road

2007-04-09T15:32:00.000-04:00

Leila, I loved you lightly,
liking your luscious lips,loose hair,
and left-handed Southern charm.
Leila, I loved you with lunacy,
laughing loftily, loving lustily,
while we looped the loop,
metaphorically speaking,
while freaking on benches
and downtown bars.

Leila! you low-down liar!
You went out and lay with another.
You larked and parked in darkened cars,
while I studied all night long
at libraries and coffeehouses,
hoping some day to be a writer,
trying not to turn a blighter,
denying my parents' vision
of doctor, barrister, priest.

Leila, you lecherous lesbian,
why didn't you just tell me the truth
of who you were or who you thought you'd be?
You left me lonely, lying on hardened lava,
cold as a clock that stops tick tock-
ing in the lounge where western lizards
lick salt and lime lysergic juices.

Lynx! You left me fixing sinks,
when I dropped out of law school.
I couldn't cogitate worth a sheet
of legal yellow!
After my crisis
was past at last I got mellow, called you
and said, "Hellow, Leila! It's me
who loves you huskily and
longs for you lustily."

You did the sane thing and laughed
while I thrashed out my inner demons
praying to the lyrical lemurs
who led me to temptation
on the other side of night,
down to the lower side of Basin Street,
on the saddest afternoon
of the rest of my life.

Republicans use underhanded tactics to discourage Liberal voters

2006-11-07T17:26:00.000-05:00

This just in from Ben Brandzel, organizer for Move On "dot org":

We're getting reliable reports of recorded messages sent by Republican groups to progressive voters in cities like Memphis, telling them they'll face prosecution if they try to vote.

It's outrageous. And we need to fight back, fast and hard, to turn the tide. The best way to do that is to make sure every Democrat and progressive knows to where, when, how and why to vote today.

Please make some calls right now to get progressive voters to the polls:

http://pol.moveon.org/nov06/eday/index.html?id=9460-7673097-4kqftbQ79h_8uP2WmwHAwQ&t=2

In the last few days, the GOP has even been calling progressive voters at 2:00 in the morning—pretending to be calling from the Democratic campaign in a despicable gambit to suppress the vote.

Calls from machines meant to threaten and confuse can do great harm. But calls from real people meant to inform and empower can do great good.

We must not allow these desperate Republican tricks to rob voters of their voice. We have a few more hours to cut through the lies, remind these folks of their right to vote and give them the information they need to exercise it.

We have a few more hours to win. Right now we're making 30 calls per second, but we need to step it up even more. Please hit the phones!

Keep calling, folks, keep calling.

–Ben Brandzel, MoveOn.org Political Action
Tuesday, November 7th, 2006

P.S. You can follow our progress together throughout the day tomorrow at this link:

http://pol.moveon.org/nov06/finalpush/dashboard.html?id=9460-7673097-4kqftbQ79h_8uP2WmwHAwQ&t=3

What's happening in Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia

2006-09-26T17:20:00.000-04:00

Headlines 26 September, Savannah Morning News, "8 hours. 5 shootings. 6 injured. 2 dead."

If you thought that cooler weather would bring an end to the spate of murders, robberies, and car-jackings, you are given a reality check by today's SMN headline. Once again, Megan Matteucci, intrepid crime reporter, regales us with more violence and mayhem,, including two homicides, one 18 year old, one 37 year old, both of Savannah.

Competing with this for attention is a sidebar article, "3rd ID soldiers ordered to Iraq." We saw it coming. So this is the third rotation.

"US relaxes ban on liquids in airline cabins," by Leslie Miller. What a relief. Does this mean mothers can bring sippy cups for their toddlers?

Far and near, the local scenes:

2006-09-26T16:40:00.000-04:00

First off, our condolences to the family and friends of the reverend Dr. Kermit Petersen, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Galesburg, Illinois, for four and thirty years. He served also on the United Way Board, FISH steering committee, and the Rotary Club. (Obituary printed in Register Mail of 16 Sept. 2006).

Now there are two big criminal trials going on in Western Illinois that got in the front page of the Register Mail on the 16th September: a jury found Derrick Williams, 39 years young, guilty of trying to murder an old man, John "Gary" Budd, 71 years of age, during a robbery at the old man's house. This in Warren County.
Then there's the murder of Patrick Thomas-Lynch. Antony Bell is on trial here, at the Ninth Circuit Court. The Honorable Judge Stephen Mathers presides here. The judge has granted a motion to continue. A detail of interest here is the case number, 06-CF-241.

On the cultural front, New Generation Dance Group performed at Cooke School Mexican Fiesta Friday the 15th September. The next day LULAC of Galesburg held a carnival at their centre at 1045 W. Second St, in the old Irish Quarter of Galesburg.

Good thing mother sent me this newspaper, because otherwise I don't know if and when I would have found out about the death of Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci, dead at 76. She had struggled against breast cancer, written about it too. People may remember her for her interviews of such famous individuals as the Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini and Henry Kissinger. I did not find mention in the brief AP report about her journalism during the student and labor protests of Mexico 1968, and the subsequent massacre by security and military forces.1

Of interest is this paragraph:

"Virtually all of the literary energy and passion of her final years were consumed in vehement attacks on a Muslim world she judged to be the enemy of Western civilization.
"After a decade-long absence from the publishing scene, Fallaci burst into the spotlight after the September 11 attacks with a series of blistering essays in which she argued that Muslems were carrying out a crusade against the Christian West."

Why is it that this is the first time I read about this? I didn't read about it in Harper's, nor did I hear about it on NPR. Maybe I should subscribe to Time or The New Republic, or Atlantic.

Two last items of local interest for Galesburgers: Cleanup Days are 25-29 September, that's going on now. Household hazardous waste will be picked up 28 October in Monmouth Park, north on 11th street off US 34. Call (309)345-3638 to the Community Development Council offices for further information.

1. The Register Mail, p A11, 16 September 2006.

??????? ??????

2006-09-21T03:01:00.000-04:00

Never stop learning.

Athichoodi.

Second day of September 2006

2006-09-02T12:11:00.000-04:00

The writer has gotten out of the house promptly at ten, as agreed with the wife today. They worked diligently at transferring the row of logs and wood to the back, lined up along the fence on the north side of the lot. The wire fence is overgrown with honeysuckle, which the writer has reminded himself has to come down, specially that which has begun to twine and twist about the slender branches of the live oak.

As the writer blogs, his almost four year old son has climbed onto the office chair, and is sitting, back to his papa's back, legs dangling over the seat, quietly eating a banana. He seems content; a few smacking sounds faintly make themselves heard.

The writer sees his wife come in with his daughter, hears her tell the daughter they have to wash hands first (before eating, presumably), and turns his head back toward the monitor. The two small plastic containers, one palm-sized one of omeprazole, the other smaller and of a translucent orange, scarcely filled with fluoxetine capsules, remind him to take the medication now.

The dream for peace in Africa: Uganda's civil war

2006-09-01T10:04:00.000-04:00

I signed a petition asking for cessation of violence in Uganda. I had thought I read something about a treaty signifying the end of the civil war. Isn't this happening?

Robin E. sends me this in an email:

Emergency relief organizations say that living conditions in Northern Uganda are the harshest they've ever seen. Consider the following:
30,000 children have been abducted as sexual slaves, porters, or fighters over the past 20 years.
More than 1.5 million people are crammed into 200 crowded camps.
There is an estimated weekly death toll of 900 civilians due to disease.
20 people die each day due to violence.
Sexual abuse is a daily occurrence in camps.
For over 20 years the rebel group Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has waged a brutal war against the Government of Uganda. The ruthless fighters in this conflict have resorted to barbaric tactics of murder, mutilation, burning of villages, sexual enslavement, and abduction of civilians – especially children – to be forced to fight.

What can we do? We must tell our elected officials to work for a conflict resolution at the peace talks in Juba, Southern Sudan and to increase humanitarian aid to this war-torn area! Please take action by going to: http://go.care2.com/e/Ma0/qL/QczY

Now my attention is distracted by news of bomb attacks in Baghdad. Iraq's Ministry of Health is releasing figures which show the number of violent deaths diminished in August.

DNC effects interesting change in primary calendar

2006-08-31T10:13:00.000-04:00

David Broder has broke the news that now, Nevada will hold its primary five days after the Iowa caucus. So Iowa holds the caucus on Monday 14 Jan. 2007, and Nevada has theirs Saturday 19 January. New Hampshire then will be on Tuesday 22 Jan., and SC a week later on the 29th January.

Broder seems to think this is a problem. Why? He doesn't seem to clearly indicate that. He does write that "what was lost in all this was tany sense of public deliberation about the choice of the next president. In the general election, people have two months or more to evaluate two or maybe three candidates. In the early primaries, eight or 10 people may be vying. What is morst needed is time -- and a place -- for them to be carefully examined.

"Historically, New Hampshire has fulfilled that responsibility." Broder fills in with some history on this, and then adds "New Hampshire voters don't need - or particularly want - guidance from Iowa and frequently they ignore the Iowa results."

This seems to be more about Broder's discomfort with the break from the New Hampshire tradition than any real problem with voter awareness or participation. The columnist from Mother Jones seems to agree with me, or I with her. But try to find the essay quickly. Good luck. I dont' have time this morning.

A little search for the essay, which also appears in today's Savannah Morning News, shows that David Broder is fond of using the word muddling. But back to the NH issue, I wonder if he's just beefing because he doesn't like the East Coast losing their influence. Where are you from again, Mr. Broder?

Cow Whisperers Against the (Iraq) War

2006-08-31T10:05:00.000-04:00

Mollie Ivins writes another brilliant piece on the anti-war movement, "Mooove on: Time to sign up with 'Cow Whisperers Against the War' ." The link preceding goes to AlterNet. This is also in today's Savannah Morning News, .

If you haven't heard of Mollie Ivins, and no I won't jab you with snide comments like what rock were you hiding under-- certainly it's a big world, and you might be from some other place in the world, more familiar with say, the South African press than ours-- I'll let you know she is a long-time political reporter who got her start with the Dallas and Fort Worth newspapers.

In a nutshell, Mollie believes that persistence and gentle persuasion will win where bickering and forcefullness have failed, to convince our populatce & leadership that the war in Iraq (what about Afghanistan?) needs to be minus at least one participant, the USA.

Good morning, afternoon, evening, night O World

2006-08-31T10:01:00.000-04:00

Bonjour.

I wonder who you will be, you who read this web log. Will you be idly scanning blogs, looking for something of interest to you? Or will you be searching for certain key phrases, words, information? Will you be working for a government, for a corporation, or for a smaller concern?

Are you married? Do you have children? Are you a fellow blogger? Are you left-handed? Are you hearing impaired?

With all this connectivity, why are people still feeling so very alone? How are you feeling today? What are your dreams? Where are you? What is life like for you? What message do you have to share with the world at large? What do you want to share with someone in private, and who would that someone be?

What ever happened to cash discounts at the pump?

2006-08-26T18:31:00.000-04:00

Yes, I know I'm behind the times a bit, but I am catching up. The other day I noticed we don't get those discounts at Enmark for paying cash for our gas.

So what happened with that?

I found a fact sheet from about nine months ago or so, which states:

* "The total cost of credit/debit fees to the gasolene convenience industry was $3.3 billion in 2004." So what was it in 2005?

* In the US, the largest component of credit/debit card fees -intechange (what the banks charge the retailer to acept Visa, Mastercard, Debit Cards, etc.) - accounts for roughly 2/3 of the fee. Interchange fees also fund the costs of rewards programs (cash back, sky miles, no annual fees, no late fees, etc), all designed to get sonsumers to use credit or debit instead of cash, which "serves as a hidden tax... and raises the cost of all products regardless of the form of pamyment," so says Hank Armor, CEO of the National Association of Convenience Stores.

Red Wheelbarrow

2006-08-12T18:27:00.000-04:00

Red Wheelbarrow

So I got to the Red Wheelbarrow as a result of following a link to another blogger from "I want to connect with others who are trying to improve the world."

Today I'm going to start another long haul push

2006-08-07T08:35:00.000-04:00

By the above headline, I mean I'll really try to make a success of this blog, I'll try to develop it into a journal and review that is well above the common standard. What will I have to do to achieve this? This is one question I'll have to answer as I work daily and nightly, not only on this but on the poetry and short story submissions which I hope to make part of my career development and achievement.

Resting to my left is a guide to London. Sooner or later we'll be passing through there, very likely looking for work as well as abode. I'd prefer to live in Wales or North Ireland, maybe Donegal. But we'll see.

On our vocabulary today we've got

Names of pecan varieties:

Moreland
Forkert
Ivy
Pignuts

I had thought of applying for work to Tim Tarver, at the place south side of town with the Scottish terrier logos.

Arabic word for today is "leemadha," "why?"

If someone would be willing to trade their back issues of the Three Penny Review, say, with my old issues of Harper's, this would be helpful. I can't afford all these literary and poetry journals.

Passing B Matthiew's Bakery and Eatery the other day, I saw it was open again. It had been closed down early one other day, late winter. I'm glad to see it open.

I'm making a push also to finish Cancer Ward, by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. It's been on my "to read" list for a few years, I think since returning from Iraq in July 2003.

We go Dutch at home

2006-07-26T22:21:00.000-04:00

Several weeks ago, while driving on Habersham, I found a small bookshop on the shady side in evening, that is the west side of H. Av. I stopped and went in. I was rewarded by finding "The English Pennsylvania Ducth Dictionary," by Howard Snader, complete with lovely illustrations and photographs.

Here is an example of some of the jewels contained therein:

accidently - OOM g'for lich

afterbiryth - NOCH komm as

anxious - Eye fer lich

There is also a compilation , illustrated, of many unique and fascinating facets of the Pennsylvania German (Dutch) People and their historical background, such as a photograph of an inked and calligraphed birth certificate from 1829, or a farm auction in rural Pennsylvania.

You can order this book from the Culinary Arts Press, PO Box 1182, Reading, PA 19603

Post-midsummer's restarting

2006-06-23T14:14:00.000-04:00

What new beginning is without both its grace and its awkwardness? As I listen to Science Friday, I begin to cobble together my notes. The shuttle will be lost if NASA's proposed change comes through. Nell Boyce, technology reporter, spoke on this for a little less than ten minutes.
And in today's mail I got an invitation to peruse this:

"Discovering the Globalization of Medicine"
Mehmet Oz is one of the most respected and dynamic of a new generation
of doctors who are taking medicine to new spiritual as well as
technological frontiers. As Director of the Cardiovascular Institute at
Columbia University, he has innovated ...(go to the website)

Upcoming issues of "Speaking of Faith" will focus on Benedictine nun, Sister Joan Chittister, and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel.

A bit of bio, revisited

2006-05-18T23:33:00.000-04:00

Some of my friends, including my wife, call me jean-pierre, a name I took in my Memphis days. I had tried to be a writer, and met with little success thus far. I did get some recognition as a poet, artist, anarchist, and Progressive organizer in Midtown Memphis during the late 1980's and early 1990's.
I was homeless for about a dozen years, beginning with an eviction from a fraternity house after a fly by night insurance company bilked me out of three months of earnings. Eventually I ended up at a vegetarian coffee house, The Babylon Cafe', owned and managed by Mimi Hohenburg. She was following the Diamond Path of Buddhism. Some of her friends and co-religionists gathered at the coffee house, which was in an old servants' quarters behind a grocery store, and a stone's throw from where lived Joe Walsh' of the rock group, the Eagles.
I took some of my dishwasher savings,bought a train pass, travelled to Illinois to visit my parents and brother, then to New York City, then Boston, then by bus to Waterville, Maine, where I visited a writer friend from Oxford, Mississippi. She and her friends gave me a lift to Hwy. 1 on the way to Bar Harbor. I hitch-hiked to Cherryfield to get work raking blueberries. First, I met Raker X, Elaine, who led me to Solar Energy Awareness and Demonstrations Seminars, called S.E.A.D.S., or that hippy commune, maybe, by some of the less accepting locals. At SEADS, I became acquainted with some ecological and political activists and outsiders. The leader was a Navy vet named Charlie, whose partner John had left some time earlier. I think he had died.
At a clinic for migrant workers nearby, I met a wonderful young woman doctor whom I'll call Hoosier Zoe. She and I fell in love at first sight. We became pen pals after I returned to Memphis. After several months I returned from Memphis to live with her at her cottage near Augusta, Maine. Later, we moved to a town on the tundra in Alaska, some 500 miles from Anchorage, and not connected by any roads to Anchorage or the Outside. There, I learned Yup'ik Eskimo, became a volunteer radio announcer, volunteer EMT, and continued to develop my art, writing, contributing to zines, the local newspaper, and supplementing our income at the local Quickie Mart.

Sad to say, we broke up after three years. Broken hearted but determined to get over this loss, and also determined not to go back to washing dishes or being homeless, I joined the National Guard, and within a year joined the Army, was sent to Fort Campbell where I was given Air Assault training, and began a new chapter in my life, as a clerk with the 101st Airborne Division.

During this time I married, settled with my wife in a township among the Amish, took up exploring rivers by canoe, and caves by flashlight. I re-enlisted as a combat engineer, and was sent to Fort Stewart and the Third Infantry Division.

Today we reside, my wife Wilma, my daughter Annie Franck, and my son Altgeld, in a small town at a crossroads where trucks play their way to Florida and back north or west, mostly. I still try my hand at writing, although these days I'm involved in a global agribusiness, where I'm learning to operate a packing system.
Am trying to teach my children Spanish, Irish, mathematics, and science.

My blogs are cafegroundzero.blogspot.com/, plazacomunal.blogspot.com. I also am a regular contributer to bulletin boards at Yahoo Current Events, Literature, and the Savannah Morning News bulletin boards, as hajgora7 or teacher-artist.

"Mendelssohn was a jew, and Karl Marx and Mercadane and Spinoza. And the Saviour was a jew and his father was a jew. Your God." --Bloom to Alf p.336 Ulysses (Random House 1946 ed.).

Andy's letter to Dave, just received Friday 28th April

2006-04-28T00:25:00.000-04:00

Dave

---------------------------- Original Message
----------------------------
Subject: Stop Cuts for Native Med Ed Programs
From: "jody hassel"
Date: Thu, April 27, 2006 11:47 am
To: "jody"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Below is a letter from an Alaska Native medical student whose education
is
funded by Federal Title VII programs. Most Alaska Native students in
all
medical fields are almost entirely dependent upon these funds to
continue
their education. Title VII also supports federal loan forgiveness
programs to encourage doctors and nurses to work in under-served Native
hospitals and clinics. Loss of these funds will almost certainly mean
the
end of education for thousands of Alaska Native and Native American
students in many fields of medicine. Please contact your congressional
representatives and ask them to support Title VII funding.

Please read and forward the following from Alaska med student Andy
Elsberg:

Funding for medical programs such as OMCA (Office of Multicultural
Affairs) and NACOE (Native American Center of Excellence) is under
attack!

The last round of letters from students didn't work and things are
looking
rough.

The Bush Administration has proposed elimination of Title VII funding
for
health professional training, which mostly funds progams for
recruitment
and retention of under-represented people into the health professions,
encouragement of primary care, and support of work in under-served
areas.
At UW School of Medicine these funds comprise a large proportion of the
OMCA (Office of Multicultural Affairs) and NACOE (Native American
Center
of Excellence) budgets. The conventional wisdom was they would be
reinstated...but last I heard they were not.

The programs at Univ of Washington (which is Alaska's med school) are
now
temporarily funded but at risk. The multicultural affairs office at UW
med
school includes the Native American Center of Excellence which supports
Native American and Alaska Native students and runs a training program
for
anyone interested in working in Native communities. It also helps
direct
students towards research in Native relevant health topics. Federal
money
is these programs' primary source of funding.

So we need letters to Uncle Ted (Sen. Ted Stevens, R-AK), Sen. Lisa
Murkowski (R-AK), Rep. Don Young (R-AK), and other representatives to
get
it funded again. Lots of Native and non-Native Alaskan students have
been
supported by title VII programs.

Also at risk is the ENTIRE budget for Urban Indian health care....a
program
that gets chopped and reinstated every year which is a slap in the face
to
the urban community and their health care providers. There is always
the
risk it won't get reinstated.

Make some noise..

thanks,
Andy

Thor'sday, seven days till my 45th Birthday

2006-04-27T21:09:00.000-04:00

Just the other evening (written Thor's Day about an evening two or three nights prior): — 10 minutes ago

I had just got done “jumping” my lad; this is a game where I assist him in bouncing on the bed. I held him, he bounced, and he went extra high. He loves this game, and asks me to do it every day. We are careful, and we have fun. I was sweaty, I was. Soon I’d take a shower, and indeed I did, a hot one, luxurious with the papaya shampoo my wife got. I had thought “maybe a bath, sitting in the tub in cold water with a red wine.” But that, perhaps, is for Friday, a Sabbath treat.

Tonight is Thor’s Day still, the eve of Freya’s Day. I’ve been working hard, not hardly working, and thank the Holy Name I’m making good money for my family. Now I enjoy a cold 211 Steel malted export beverage. (Can you call this a beer then?)

My children are now waiting for a bedtime story. Time now 21:09

Reawakening

2006-04-19T04:59:00.000-04:00

I'm up, awake, again. I'ts three minutes till five ante meridiam by the computer clock. Note: I've not posted any blog since 24 February. So what's been going on since then? Many things: substitute teaching, editing and trying to write more poetry, raising my children, applying for vocational rehabilitation, getting hired on at an agribusiness with a local warehouse. And more. Yet I feel there is a coherent theme to the absence of my writing, aside from the confusion and fear involved in writers' block, or my writing activities elsewhere.

B.R. (also known as X to family and friends) called me again yesterday. He only calls me once in a while, when he needs a favour. But I consider him almost a friend, and a man of some integrity. X, I'll call him, is a husband and father of three or four little ones. He and his family live in a trailer in Blocker's Trailer Park. B called me this time to get some interpreting assistance because an IRS agent told him "this is America and he needs to speak English." I tried to get him to set up a three way conference on the phone, so I could interpret from my house. I mean, I had been working all day at the warehouse, and I was tired.
But to no avail. X. doesn't have three way already set up, and he's never done it before. The Alltel representative's number answered to a machine that seemed to tell X. to call during "normal business hours." So I advised X. to call the lady at the community centre who had set him up with a lawyer last time he called, because some soldier at HAAF had hit him, assaulting him because they were involved in a minor traffic accident. And THAT's another story, with results so far just as frustrating to X and myself.
Am reading from Heather King's Paradise Found, and article about recovery and personal salvation, from the Sun magazine of July last year. This one strikes chords with me. And I'll get back to this entry. You all, be well.

Let me remind you that I do post quite a lot at both www.43things.com/ as both cafegroundzero and tarik. I also post poetry, essays, and short stories at www.allpoetry.com and its affiliate sites.

On the problems of youth in our schools today

2006-02-24T11:05:00.000-05:00

Sommige jonge of onrijpe mensen proberen om vlucht van hun dagelijkse problemen in alcohol, drugs, geslacht te vinden, zelfs in gevaarlijke achtervolgingen zoals belemmering die, troep het vechten, of de kwelling van homosexuelen en etnische of godsdienstige minderheden rennen. Het geluk dat men zou kunnen denken krijgt van alcohol of de drugs is zeer overgangs, zelfs denkbeeldig. De studenten vandaag leren niet de eenvoudige stille discipline van het houden, het luisteren en het denken over wat zij hebben gehoord, denkend over de gevolgen van een actie alvorens zij, in het kort handelen, gebruikend hun betekenissen om informatie te verzamelen, en hun meningen om te verwerken wat zij ontvangen. De verplichting schijnt te zijn zijn ego te delen alvorens het zelfs zich volledig heeft gevormd. Dergelijke concepten zoals zitting omhoog rechtstreeks als zijn niet de ellebogen op de lijst zet, en zelfs voorzitter, aan klasse komt die met pen wordt voorbereid, potlood, en document schijnen zich om, zelfs op de hogere niveaus van openbaar onderwijs te eigen maken niet.

Some young or immature people try to escape of their daily problems in alcohol, drugs, even in dangerous pursuits such as obstruction which, gang fighting, or the torment of gays and ethnic or religious minorities run.
The students today do not learn the simple quiet discipline of keeping, listening and thinking concerning what they have heard, thinking about the impact of an action before they, in short acting, using their newly-found information, and their collect opinions process what they receive. The obligation seems its its share ego before it even has entirely formed himself. Such concepts as sitting up straight in one's chair, not putting the elbows on the table, and even coming to class prepared with pen, pencil, and paper seem not to be internalized, even at the upper levels of public education.

Pondering and inquiring about endemic illnesses

2006-02-24T09:23:00.000-05:00

A family practice physician recently addressed a leadership training seminar in our county in Georgia, introducing the relatively new East Georgia Medical Centre or clinic which is on the eastern edge of the county seat. One of his observations about our county was that our part of the country experienced more viral infections than the New England to which he had been accustomed.
Why is this? He could only suggest that our people needed more "health education." I have considered what he said; but ever since we've moved to this town I've considered the problem of contagion and illness in these communities. I've also observed and noted sources of contagion and contamination. Of these we have quite a few: industrial discharges into the air and water, illegal dumping by truckers and others in the mechanical services, burning of pine woods and organic matter, effluent from petrol-fueled engines, as well as agricultural applications of chemical herbicides, fertilizers, and pesticides.

I'm currently experiencing a respiratory tract and nasal infection. Actually, today I started to think about trying to get the equipment, training, and knowledge to better manage our family and community's health. We have a simple microscope, which is of course not adequate for the examination of viral material, but it could serve as a teaching tool for the introduction to microbiology.

All is quiet now. I'm awaiting the next class. I'll try to work on a short story synopsis now, at the Allpoetry site. I invite any of you who are reading this to check out the poetry, story, and philosophy developing tools and networks at these sites.

Yeh, I'm still sick

2006-02-23T14:43:00.000-05:00

"To treat the sick, you must have a good knowledge of the healthy. But it is even better to know something about the disease. If the writer means to fight for the best possible use of language, he must be forever on his guard against the elements the words a prone to." Konstantin Fedin, "Notebook," in Maxim Gorky, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Alexei Tolstoy, and Konstantin Fedin on the Art and Craft of Writing 256, 261 (Alex Miller trans., 1972).

The Buzz

2006-02-23T13:53:00.000-05:00

Imposter

Sick and unemployed; on the phone

2006-02-23T13:40:00.000-05:00

"I've made it a rule never to drink by daylight and never to refuse a
drink after dark."
H.L. MENCKEN

Terrorists effect dramatic escape from Yemen prison

2006-02-06T11:57:00.000-05:00

A radio report Sunday afternoon briefly mentioned the escape of what seems to be about 16 prisoners from a facility near San'aa, the capital of Yemen. Among them is purportedly the mastermind of the Cole bombing.

Way past time, but let's call for a Truth and Reconciliation

2006-02-02T09:01:00.000-05:00

Ethan Velely-Flad has written a powerful editorial essay, which appears on the third page of the January-February issue of Fellowship magazine. In "Calling the Shots," he writes about recent instances of tragic racism, in one case ending in a NY police officer shooting a suspect in a counterfeit media network, allegedly because the victim was African (Black). Another incident, which seems to have been lost in the media oceans, is that American military troops allegedly had an infant in the scope of a laser sight on an automatic weapon.

What I find both appropriate and necessary is Fellowship's call for a national Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This seems to me to be the best and most comprehensive step toward healing, one which will not be immediate; however this step should not be delayed. We must do everything in our power to stop the deception, the division, the procrastination, and face each other, as difficult as it may feel or seem.

The nth fresh start: Ground Hog Day 2006

2006-02-02T08:50:00.000-05:00

Good day, I'm jean-pierre, your old servant and roving poet. I started to write "blogger," but that's not quite true, if you look at the desultory posting, which is rather pathetic. So I have felt. Time to stop feeling sorry for myself, to be dwelling in post-traumatic misery, and really take charge of my recovery. To the extent that I can, realizing, of course, that I'm powerless over my addictions, my disease, the aging process, in short so many things which are part of life. As the character in Jurassic Park said, "Life will find a way."

My own memory of Step One of the Twelve Steps, I will try to recite: I come to understand and accept that I am totally powerless to my alcoholism (addiction). Now there is something else, but I don't remember it. Time to check, so I open another tab on my browser and use a search engine. O.K. alcoholism.about.com/ reads thusly:

When we became members of A.A., we admitted that we were powerless over alcohol and that our lives had become unmanageable.

Iraqi War: OIF, Operation Enduring Freedom, and Celtic Blessings

2006-01-04T16:00:00.000-05:00

As we emerge from the Saturnalic holy daze toward the Epiphany, I issue for all good people, a Blessing of Protection:

To Christ the Seed,
__To Christ th harvest:
____To the barn of Christ
_____May we be brought.

______To Christ the Sea,
________To Chris the fish:
______In the nets of Christ:
_____________May we be caught.

______________From birth to age,
_________________From age to death:
______________Your two arms, Christ,
______________About us safe.

________________From death to ending
__________________Not ended but regrown:
________________In the paradise of grace
____________________May we be transplanted.

Excerpted from a Traditional Irish Hymn translated by Caitlin Matthews. The Little Book of Celtic Blessings. 1994. Shaftesbury, Dorset, England: Element Books Limited

War Resistors' League: 2005 Annual Report

2006-01-04T15:48:00.000-05:00

We did think twice about mentioning the War Resistors' League in light of the recent news of illegal if still authorized wiretaps by the NSA and other shadowy governmental or contracted spies, by Americans upon Americans.

Yet after sleeping on the idea of just leaving it out, thus contributing to self-censorship so prevalent in the many media of the USA, we decided, after a hard morning of slacking and poetry, and our "tea-time Milwaukee's Best," to usher in the day before the eve of the Epiphany for Christ, with the WRL Annual Report. Sure, they do want donations, they need cash to operate like any NGO. But hey, it's all for peace, right? What I would like to know is when we're going to be printing pamphlets directed at the jihadists and Baathists, the Taliban and other tribe-serving militias. If we all think about peace, maybe we can talk peace. Otherwise, we're just eroding our national security and stabbing ourselves.

Year's Fiscal Report, 1 April 2004 to 31 March 2005

Literature/Calendar Sales -----------------------------------69,922

Entered well into the New Year, 2006: Thor's, 2^? Ist Monat

2006-01-04T15:33:00.000-05:00

"A Beacon of Hope in a Troubled World"

2005 Year in Review

We get a brief from William F. Schulz, Executive Director, Amnesty International USA

"Bill" Schulz has a short editorial on the inside cover of the Amnesty Annual Report pamphlet

*Abolish the Death Penalty

*Oppose Abuses related to our Wars on Terror

*Denounce all Torture: Dream and Act to Stop it!

*Stop Violence against Womyn

*End the Proliferation and Misuse of Arms

*Encourage Change in Multinational Corporations

Learn more about these at www.amnesty.org

Interview with Andrea Cruz, of Southeast Georgia Community Center — 1 hour ago

2005-12-13T00:48:00.000-05:00

cafegroundzero went to Lyons, Toombs County, to meet and interview the director of this centre, where immigrants can find out where to get health care, education, food, clothing, and find a place to meet others.

cafegroundzero: As you may have heard, Homeland Intelligence and the Immigration and Naturalization Service has announced some policy changes recently. What news has filtered down to the Hispanic or indigenous Latin American immigrants here in this (southeastern)part of Georgia?

A. Cruz: Very few people understand this… We have a radio show which puts out the word. It’s depressing. (The U.S. governement and the state of Georgia) is making it very hard to allow these people to come together, to come out—to become more identifiable—into the communities…It’s like they’re going underground.

Q. Does this new policy really grant an immigrant a possibility to enter into a permanent legal status? A. Cruz: There’s no form. They’re not giving them any options. It’s basically a joke. We’re supposed to have intelligent people in the country, but they don’t see beyond their (finite) vision.

Q. So what does the Guest Worker program do for Hispanic immigrants? A. I think it’s a way to trap these people. Six years (they work in this country), and you’re out. They’re able to detect that you left the country. What are they (then) going to do in Mexico? Starve? Because that’s what they’re doing in Mexico.

Q. Has there been any other program put forward?

A. Cruz: We need to have a program which will offer them permanent legal status. We all have dreams. We live in a country of dreams. We want to see our people salir adelante, move forward. Another thing, we’re a country of immigrants. So it’s really hard to go home in the evenings, and think what my country—the USA—is doing to (Hispanic immigrants). These people are the hands that feed us, that plant, sew, harvest, butcher… that make all these wonderful carpets for our homes. cafegroundzero: Many Americans are saying that the undocumented aliens are taking away jobs, are depressing the wages. What do you say to that?

...As advocates we need to be proven wrong. We need to be shown that they are NOT needed. That they’re taking away jobs from other Americans—that’s a big lie. I personally don’t practice politics. I practice policy. (I provide) low level information that can be shared with real people who need to hear it. Information that they can use is what we offer.

cafegroundzero: Are there any people going to other parties or institutions to try to get solutions, to say “THIS is what we need?”

A. Cruz: The National Council of La Raza, MALDEF, LULAC, they’re taking these issues higher. There are a lot of things that need to be done. I’m in the right place to see that these people are educated at a local level.

cafegroundzero: To you all, what is a local level?

A. Cruz: At a local level—county, city, town… At the state level the leadership are blind to reality. They need to tackle these issues that eare confronting the people locally.

Dec 12, 08:34PM PST 1 cheer | Edit | Delete | 0 comments

One quote to share before I turn to sleep

2005-12-09T01:02:00.000-05:00

"I am resolved to die in a tavern, so that wine will be very near to my
dying mouth. Then the bands of angels will chant with greater joy 'May
God forgive this drinker.'"
ARCHPOET OF COLOGNE

Back to the blogging, never giving up! ! !

2005-12-06T06:57:00.000-05:00

I cannot lie to you, my reading public, gentle readers, wild spies, though beloved as brethren: i have been experiencing depression, previously and preferentially to myself known as melancholia. However, I'm O.K. Are you O.K.?

Semir Osmanagic, an archaelogist based out of Texas, has found, he believes, a pyramid in Bosnia. Meanwhile, a jet airliner has crashed in Tehran, Iran. Newly elected German Prime Minister Angela Merkle is in a hard position having to host her American allies just at the time when the CIA prisoner shuttle flights and Gulag is being exposed, allegedly.

A story told through in i.m.: The SWAT bust

2005-11-29T20:22:00.000-05:00

Something like that did happen once to me, when i was visiting some friends in a public housing unit. They had another friend, a local guy, visiting them. (These were poor white people, outside of Bangor). While I was relaxing and talking with the oldest son, in a lawn chair in front of the house, the SWAT Team moved in. They had me on my stomach, face to the concrete, for a while, with a German shepherd guarding me while the rest of the team moved in. They really scared the children. The guy, it turned out, was a street distributor, but the family claimed not to know. I kind of believed them. I was not taken in, since the SWAT guys liked my Alaska driver licence (it was real--I was just visiting from out of town).

Happy Thanksgiving, people of the world-earth!

2005-11-24T08:52:00.000-05:00

Today is Thanksgiving 2005 C.E. (A.D.)at 08:04 EST. Good morning to my fellow Americans; good evening to our neighbours across the pond, not excluding all our African and Asian immigrant sisters and brothers in Europe. Halloa and peace to our African sisters and brothers! Many of our Asian and some of our European and African fellow human beings are still asleep or about to go to sleep. Good morning to our South and Central American fellow humans! To all other hello and good morning too!

I’m sipping some cold coffee and cream; yeah well i COULD put it in the microwave, but I don’t need to, it’s ok, and with the cream, this good coffee tastes great! It’s not too cold now here; we live in coastal Georgia, not too far north of the great Okefenokee and the other Floridian and South Georgian swamps where the Creek and Seminole alliance resisted the United States Army and Anglo-Georgian settlers and militia for over three wars, in the most expensive war in American history until this war on terrorism. I say this, rating the dollar amount for what it could buy in those days, I forget what the economists call it—real money cost—anyway this is a war that’s buried deep in our national archives or long forgotten and faded from our collective memory. [There is a place not too far from here named after a battle between the Anglo-Georgians and Americans, and the Creeks, Seminoles, and run-away African-American slaves. No one around here can say anything about it, for our teachers have failed to teach, till the violence of the past is almost nothing to remind us of the evil within us].

But I digress. Perhaps misanthropy will become fashionable again, and all its little off-shoots: misogyny, racism, nationalism, bigotry, and any other thinking and behaviour which allows human beings to commit harm, and this includes ignoring when others are in urgent need, to other human beings. After all, our planet is getting more and more crowded, we are toxifying it, sending it into imbalance… (I’m not entirely confident that the earth will balance itself without wiping out most or at least a great part of the human and animal populations, but for now I’m content to trust our Creator, the Almighty Force of Life, God if you want to use that name).

Now, if you’ll pardon the change, I’d like to change the topic to “Being Greatful for Family,” perhaps a topic which we take so much for granted that we don’t even think to open up this topic, because why? it sounds too folksy? not intellectual enough? or is it that the philosophy bulletin boards draw the malcontents?

Anyhow, it’s Thanksgiving, and I’m deeply greatful for our little nuclear family, and grateful for my mother and father, who are still alive and relatively well, thank God. I’m grateful for my brother and my sisters, even my sister who is autistic and mentally so retarded that she cannot speak any words. I am greatful for my uncles and aunts, my cousins and their families. I rejoice that we have life and love and wealth and are consious enough to share it with others.

My father is Irish; I am Sean son of Pete son of Walter of Atlantic City. Where Walter came from I don’t know. I sometimes think he came from the Ulster Scots though these days Dad seems to be leaning to the more Southern Irish, maybe Cork, but who cares? But that’s for another thread of essays.

My mother is the eldest daughter of a scion of Mexican Creole family, I say Creole in the original sense, descended exclusively from peninsular stock, our Castillian and Basque geneology does not claim any indigenous Mexican, African, nor Jewish ancestors. We did this by maintaining a rigid code of race consciousness—call it racism, anti-semetism, even white supremacy if you will, but I had no hand in this, or did I? I’ve married a Prussian, so I suppose I’ve continued along in this tradition, though I don’t encourage anybody to exclude someone just because their skin is dark or they are Semitic, African, etc. However, I’m grateful in a sense, because I’m albe to approach other white supremacists without them turning off their listening mind, just because they might perceive me as a “mud-person.” So, am I a “nigger lover?” “jew lover?” Yes, I am, because I love all that reflects life, I love humanity, I even love animal and plant life.

You might think I’m off in la la land, saying this about loving all people. However, allow me to support my expression of fondness for people by saying that the good that the few does outshines the evil that others do. I prefer to cherish the good, to encourage it by praising, much as pa and ma would do as I grew from a wee bairn (babe) through a lad (boy) into a man. Today we try to encourage our lad and lassie to do well, rather than do badly, and to do good rather than evil. Just so should our World Bank, our G-8, our alliances such as the NATO, the U.N., the O.A.S., S.E.A.T.O. O.P.E.C. and Islamic networks, encourage the doing of good, the healing rather than the tearing apart, the violence, the annihilation of guerrilla, of terrorism, of war, of serial killing…

As the old sagamore said, “I have spoken.”

Reading the entire dictionary, systematically

2005-11-22T22:34:00.000-05:00

(AuAg)Te4 sylvanite, a silvery yellowish ore mineral.

Gabe Prosser's (1800) and Nat Turner's revolts (1831) — 3 minutes ago

2005-11-18T00:05:00.000-05:00

Gabe Prosser's (1800) and Nat Turner's revolts (1831) — 1 minute ago

In the 1800 Census there were counted one million two thousand thirty seven Negroes, who represented
by cafegroundzero on Nov 17 copyrighted Please do not sell, trade or reproduce any part thereof without express permission from the author.

In the 1800 Census there were counted one million two thousand thirty seven Negroes, who represented eighteen point nine per cent of the total human population. Of these Africans and Americans, eight hundred ninety three thousand, six hundred two were slaves and one hundred eight thousand, four hundred thirty five or ten and eight tenths per cent were Free People. The Northern states had thirty six thousand five hundred five slaves. Most of these were in New York and New Jersey.

Gabe Prosser,
a Black male who might have been born in 1775,
from Henrico County, Virginia,
with his wife and two brothers planned a revolt.
Outside Richmond city, they organized other slaves.
They made swords, though crude, and bayonets.
They made five hundred bullets.
While they did this, they studied
the location of Richmond’s armories and ammo caches.
Prosser wanted to end all slavery.
His plan was simple: capture Richmond, killing all whites
except the French, Methodists, and Quakers.
Eventually, his troops would attack other towns
and he would be made King of Virginia.

James Monroe,
Governor of Virginia,
wrote that the plans included most of the slaves
of the city and surrounding plantations.
‘Knowledge of such a project,’ he wrote,’pervaded other parts,
if not the whole, of the state.’

On Saturday night, 30 August,
over a thousand angry slaves,
some armed with scythes, others with bayonets,
a few with guns, met outside of Richmond.
They then discovered that a storm had taken out a bridge
which they needed to make their advance. Spooked,
many of them gave up the project. But two slaves betrayed
the conspiracy, and the Governor called out the militia.
Numerous arrests were made, and Gabriel Prosser,
with a couple dozen to five times seven more,
were, with proper compensation to the owners,
tried and hung till they died by the noose.

‘From what he said to me,’ said Governor Monroe,
he seemed to have made up his mind to die
and to have resolved to say but little of the subject
of the conspiracy.’

In November of that year,1800, continued unrest
resulted in the arrests of dozens of suspected rebel
slaves. Rebel slaves.

Nat Turner was born to Nancy that year, 1800.
Nancy had been brought from Africa, sold to the plantation
of Benjamin Turner, in Southampton, Virgina.
Nat Turner was the property of Samuel Turner,
then sold or won by Thomas Moore, then Putnam Moore,
and in eighteen three was hired out to Joseph Travis.
Turner had been a genius. One of Ben Turner’s sons taught him.

Nat Turner turned a preacher,
and a zealous preacher was he.
Among the Negroes on the Travis plantation
Nat Turner gained in respect,
and felt convicted to lead his brothers and sisters
to freedom. On the Fourth of July, 1831,
Nat and four slaves plotted an uprising, but last minute
aborted. And 21 August 1831 with the unlucky seven
he attacked the Travis Plantation, killing them all.
They got arms, horses, enlisted other slaves,
and out they galloped, murdering and burning all around them.

In one long hot day and one long bloody night,
they killed one and fifty of the white;
but the revolt failed in four days.
Turner hid for six weeks,
but was found, tried, and hanged.
The trial and execution were held in Jerusalem,
Virginia, that is.

Between the years of 1800 and 1900
(my grandmother was born in 1889),
approximately 4 million slaves were brought to Latin America.
Cuba alone, between 1800 and 1865, the year in which
General Lee surrendered to General Grant at Appomatox,
between 1800 and 1865, imported 386,437 slaves.

Nov 17, 09:02PM PST |

If you only had one year left

2005-11-09T20:41:00.000-05:00

of your life, if you had some way of knowing you were definitely going to die within one year, what would you do with the time remaining? What kind of work would you do? Would you change your will? Would you write one? Would you travel? Where?

Would you make amends to anyone? What would you say to your loved ones? What would you say to the people you can’t stand, but whom you have to see every day? Which projects would you finish, if any?

What are the priorities in your life today? What should they be? How can you begin to change that now? What can you do tomorrow?

Can we ever outlaw War?

2005-11-08T07:26:00.000-05:00

Pacifism is becoming fashionable again, I think more as a reaction to American and European involvement in foreign wars. Pacifism is something which works when your own land is free to foster your opposition to involvement in someone else's war or civil unrest.

What do you all think? What do YOU think?

2005-11-01T08:18:00.000-05:00

Halloween
Posted: 31 Oct 2005 10:14 AM
We've got two developments of interest in this regard, two at least I say: one is the revival of the celebrations in the old style, the "pagan" or "wiccan" style. This is gaining many adherents in the United States. I don't know about Canada.

The other is the backlash against Halloween, and all things which hint of witches, worlocks, magic, or witchcraft by the Christian right wing. I suspect the more they rant against it, the more the young folk take to the Wicca, Satanism, and other odd cults.
robear

Re: Halloween
Posted: 01 Nov 2005 06:03 AM
What a pity that people seem to continually align Christianity and Right Wing.

At the risk of offending politically inept contributors I would say that Jesus would have been a politically "socially conscious" person - thus he would have been all for many concepts traditionally anathema to right wingers.

Anyways back to Halloween - the new agers, witches etc have tried repeatedly to get this happening in Australia but it just doesn't rate a mention.
jean-pierre

Re: Halloween
Posted: 01 Nov 2005 12:56 PM

In the United States it is the conservative and reactionary Christians who themselves align or declare to be right wing. Conservatives really prefer the term conservative, Christian, or Moral Majority. There is also the term neo-Con, which is, I gather, the "enlightened" conservatives, or so-called centrists realigning themselves with the right or conservative.

The "New Agers" have lost much ground in North America, in the US in particular. They are now considered to be active mostly in Southern California, San Francisco, Seattle, Anchorage, some cultural "islands" in southern Florida and along the East Coast. Oh, I forgot Chicago, Minneapolis, and Memphis. In other words, the "New Agers" and other "Liberal" or humanists are fragmented, isolated, disorganized... or so it would seem.

I suspect there is more activity than is noted by the various media, including the internet, which is over-rated. There is a vast "underground" which has yet gone unrecognized by much or most of the media. This includes but is not restricted to certain churches, college and university organizations, ad hoc groupings of individuals, the Rainbow circuit (no, I am NOT referring to 'the homosexual conspiracy'). Within the last 30-40 years, the FBI, police, and other governmental agencies and institutions have succeeded in either rendering ineffective or coopting various dissenters, including the radical environmentalists, anti-war activists, labor, student, and feminist groups. For a good read on this, I recommend Bell and Lasch.

Samhain
Posted: 31 Oct 2005 10:16 AM
It's so hard to hold a bonfire around here, unless you own a great lot of land, and can find a spot shielded from the road, from curious onlookers.

Several years ago, some angry Christians rode into the forests of Fort Campbell and burned the Wiccan community house to the ground. Around this town in Georgia, folk recoil in horror if you say you like Harry Potter.
Victoria

Re: Samhain
Posted: 31 Oct 2005 03:13 PM
And yet I bet they allow their children to go trick-and-treating. Or is Halloween also a no-no?
robear

Re: Samhain
Posted: 01 Nov 2005 06:00 AM
certainly in Australia the Christians I know do not align themselves with any pro-Harry Potter or Pro-Halloween stance.

In the case of Halloween I have never seen any "trick or treating" in regional Queensland which is where I have lived most of my life.
Victoria

Re: Samhain
Posted: 01 Nov 2005 11:41 AM
My trick-or-treat comment was aimed at J-P, in whose country I believe children are encouraged to indulge in this sort of thing. Here in SA, we have enough sangomas, shamans, iyangas, tokoloshes and so forth to keep us busy, without bothering about Haloween.

determination noun
1. the act or an instance of making a decision
2. the condition of being determined; resoluteness
3. the act or an instance of ending an argument by the opinion or decision of an authority
4. the act or an instance of fixing or settling the quality, limit, position, etc., of something
5. a decision or opinion reached, rendered, or settled upon
6. a resolute movement towards some object or end
7. the termination of an estate or interest
8. the decision reached by a court of justice on a disputed matter
9. (a) the process of qualifying or limiting a proposition or concept (b) the qualifications or limitations used in this process
10. the condition of embryonic tissues of being able to develop into only one particular tissue or organ in the adult

jean-pierre

determination
Posted: 01 Nov 2005 01:02 PM
At the risk of offending certain smug reactionaries and fascists, I suggest that one may consider that there is a mood, an air, a movement about, that is not confined within national borders. Some people are tired of being stereotyped as Liberal, Conservative, Radical, Fascist, Christian, Jewish, Moslem, Buddhis, pagan, humanist, atheist, agnostic. Concepts of self and group thinking and action are being re-examined, put to the test once more, restructured.

determination noun
1. the act or an instance of making a decision
2. the condition of being determined; resoluteness

I think we have entered into a very interesting time in history. We shall see what happens.

Perhaps the gauntlet has already been thrown. Hmmm... time to examine those words. Yet again.

gauntlet 1 or gantlet noun
1. Arms & Armour a medieval armoured leather glove
2. a heavy glove with a long cuff
3. take up (or throw down) the gauntlet to accept (or offer) a challenge
History: C15: from Old French gantelet, diminutive of gant glove, of Germanic origin

gauntlet 2 noun
1. a punishment in which the victim is forced to run between two rows of men who strike at him as he passes: formerly a military punishment
2. run the gauntlet (a) to suffer this punishment (b) to endure an onslaught or ordeal, as of criticism
3. a testing ordeal; trial
4. a variant spelling of: gantlet 1:(sense 1)
History: C15: changed (through influence of gauntlet1) from earlier gantlope; see gantlet1

jean-pierre

gauntlet
Posted: 01 Nov 2005 01:05 PM

3. take up (or throw down) the gauntlet to accept (or offer) a challenge
History: C15: from Old French gantelet, diminutive of gant glove, of Germanic origin.

In the US, there are a few movements about, one of which is moveon.org. Another phenomenon of note is "the Nov. 3 theses." This involves, I think, both an organized and re-invigorated effort to reform, perhaps radically, the Democratic Party. I think too, there is reform being considered within the Republican Party. I'm not sure what's going on with the Greens.

As I wrote above, we shall see. Consider then, that the gauntlet has been thrown down.

07:00 Flag's up, Exies playing, lass' gets ready for bus

2005-11-01T07:28:00.000-05:00

On me second cup of java. Cafe' au lait. Wilma's cleaning up a broken candle. Altgeld's napping on the golden sofa. The Exies playing on an audio file imported via the connection. Was recommended by moonshine, a poetess from across the pond.

Oh, I took me fluoxetine. Good ta go. Got a full day ahead. Time for stomach med, caps form. Pop. Swig. Swallow. Polish glasses on shirt.

Time to check the news...

Second case of fragging recorded in war (OIF )

2005-11-01T04:50:00.000-05:00

An infantry soldier is found guilty for killing officers with claymore and grenades, while at base camp in palace in Tikrit.

More on this later.

Babies' Dreams

2005-11-01T04:49:00.000-05:00

"You know what, papa? I dreamed
I found a toad!" she says, still lying
on her back in the middle; mama's gone
and in the kitchen. Twilight tones
mute the details, and I smile as I reach
for my glasses. "So you did? What colour
was it?" She smiles, "All colours!
Green, and red, and yellow, and white!"

Weeks, maybe months, have passed,
and the daughter's growing up,
right now in her own bed, sleeping.

My son's voice is like a cartoon
"I got a digger! and a fire engine,
and a load truck, and an ambulance!"
He slept with his miniatures, until
not long ago, but now leaves them
on his favourite arm chair, or in box.
He's asleep, now in that same middle,
and mama's gone in the o'dark pre-dawn,
driving the pickup to distribute papers.

In the year after coming home,
the lass would wake us crying,
and I would try to take her,
but she said,"I want my mama!"
and there was not much more
I could do then; mama'd get her.
Later at breakfast, after a while
she'd smile and joke.

Every night, just about, for two years
she'd wake crying. Now no more, she's five
and she sometimes walks quietly out, squinting
and stands silently, accusing, or waiting,
as I turn around to get her to the sofa
or over to "the big bed," where she'll lie
now in my place--her brother's in the middle.
Mama would be on the other side, sleeping?

Now the lad wakes, crying, or calling
his composure is much more sure.
"Mama! Papa!" he sometimes rushes out
clutching a firetruck or a dinosaur.
I used to wonder what they dream
when their eyes would move under the lids.
One night at bedtime stories my daughter
stopped me, saying, "Papa, we cannot go

"to sleep until we figure what to do
for the war in Iraq!" We sit quietly
her attention on me, my stunned silence.
She is not quite five. I clear my throat,
"Well, what do you think we should do?"

"We should send a big airplane
and drop a bomb on the terrorists!"

"Annie, what if the bomb killed mamas
and babies, and papas who are not bad guys?"
She pauses for a second, concentrating,
but rejoins with, "Well, then we must
send a fast big airplane with a hundred
soldiers, and each soldier with two guns!
They will kill the terrorists! That's what
we should do, papa!" her voice is urgent.

Inside I've stepped between mines,
and am frozen in time and space. I smile,
and very carefully ask her,"When did you
think this?" She is calm, and sure of herself.
She is no longer a baby, but she is a baby,
and she sits planning public policy.
Where is the little girl? There she is!
Yet I both fear and mourn the loss.

I'm feeling choice, mates. Shrimps on the barby!

2005-10-29T07:33:00.000-04:00

Courtesy of "Zed Zero"

An' tha wallaby's on grouse. I.e. I'm feelin' fine.

"Strueth bluey, that was the bees knees! = I like that very much.

Scarlet bleeding leaves

2005-10-27T22:13:00.000-04:00

by cafegroundzero on Oct 27, 1983

The maple leaves lie strewn
across the sidewalk, frost-coated.
The November gust like a torch
rushes burning over us and the plains
laying an ash of cold and white on all.

Youth? Old man is left now with wrinkles
remembering his lost manly beauty.
He walks upon the stubbled furrows
trodding on a withered smut-stained stalk.
Force: and though he dreams when he was tough
now he lies curled in a fetal on sweat soaked sheets.

Come back! I screamed in silence as a teen.
Wake up! I told myself as I trod the walks
of brick, of concrete block, to myself I talk.
My girlfriend's eyes of frozen ocean blue
seemed even then to be so cold,
made me even then feel old.
And when I tried to find her warmth I felt ice
and could imagine her further under and receding
sinking into the black black pond.

I shouted! but in vain, agonized,
and I pounded the ice with chapp'd red fists
lifting my arms to strike but no use...

I wanted then to join the dream
to come out of the cold.
But in my dream her corpse was wrinkled,
and I was numb, so I retold
the dream in which I had foretold
our breaking up, way back in 1984,
in 1984 the year of Winston's tragedy,
a tale that left me sad for months when I first read it,
even riding the streets stealing peaks from the book.

In that dream again, she -- you, I wrote her then
--receded into the mirk which swirled and distantly
she seemed so pale,
even then as I woke I remembered her eyes sapphire,
even in my premonitions of her death her hair flamed red.

Comment? All rights reserved, cafegroundzero. Copying without permission for non-personal use is forbidden.

Every day, Mum recites these prayers

2005-10-26T09:36:00.000-04:00

I often call her Mami. She now has said the children can call her Mamita, the term of affection, or title, I used to call my own maternal grandmother who lived in La Barca.

Every morning, as soon as her feet touch the floor, she starts these prayers:

Gracias os doy,
Gran Senyor,
pues me has sacado
de las tinieblas de la noche
a la Luz del Dia,
hacer lo que gastes
en obras
de vuestro santo servicio
por Jesus Cristo
Nuestro Senyor.
Ame’n.

A second prayer goes like this:

En este nuevo dia
gracias te tributamos
O Dios immenso
Senyor de lo creado.
Tu divina clemencia
se ha dignado acarnos
del horror de la noche
a la luz del sol claro.
Todo vasto teatro
del mundo cuanto existe
es obra de tu mano.
Por ti, reverdecen los prados.
En el agua los peces cantan
tu Nombre Santo.
Dirigienos
y guia nuestros pasos
para que eternamente
tus santas leyes sigamos.
Amen.

I have kept these prayers in my memory since childhood. I have now two squared and two score years, and two children. Today is my dear wife’ birthday. She is about the same age as I.

The death toll for our own troops in Iraq has reached 2000. The 2000th soldier died over the weekend from a bomb blast. I am one of the veterans of this war. For surviving with my limbs, body, and mind intact I give thanks. For suffering from depression, I give thanks too, for I know I am human. My suffering is a blessing for by this I know I am human, and I accept my suffering in atonement for my sins and the sins of others as well.

Learning from Poke'mon

2005-10-25T16:51:00.000-04:00

Here's a great line,

__________"Evolution is what Pokemons are about!"

_____________________________Declared by one of Mikey's brothers in the "It's Edie!"

Query: do nuclear arms and facilities pose a threat?

2005-10-23T17:04:00.000-04:00

I am going back to the roots of the problems and solutions posed in the seventy-first volume, numbers seven and eight, of Fellowship, a monthly published by the Fellowship of Reconciliation. The headline is titled "Changing Course: Reframing the Nuclear World."

Rabia Terri Harris, the Interim Editor, makes the introduction with an essay titled "Judgement Call," in which she opens with the thesis "We are, and we are not, our governments."

"The destructive power of nuclear weapons is well known," according to 'a prominent statesman' in the May/June issue of Foreign Policy."

...given the United States' continued reliance on (nuclear weapons) it's worth remembering the dangers they presnet. A 2000 report by the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War describes the likely effects of a single 1 megaton weapon-- dozens of which are contained in the Russian and US inventories..."

The Chronological History of the Negro in America

2005-10-23T15:25:00.000-04:00

I haven't written a post dedicated soley to a book in a long time, but this one quite deserved the time, and enough time to read the whole book and then compose a review. The brothers Peter and Mort composed this compendium of history and biographies of African Americans in the Americas since colonial times till the December 1969.

For instance, now I'm in the year 1798, in which, on the 16th of March, Secretary of War James McHenry wrote to a Marine lieutenant on the frigate Constitution,

"No Negro, mulatto, or Indian to be enlisted, nor any description of men except natives of fair conduct, or foreigners of unequivocal character for sobriety and fidelity."

I've learned ot the existence of such men as James P. Beckwourth (1798 -1867) explorer, mountain man, and fur trader, who was born in Virginia. His father was a white man and his mother an African American slave woman. His father was also an officer in the Revolutionary Army.
In the early years of the 19th century, the Beckwourths, who had 13 children, relocated to a settlement near what is today Saint Louis. In 1816, James Beckwourth was apprenticed to a blacksmith. He ran away to New Orleans, then signed up with General Henry Ashley's Rocky Mountain expedition, to be a scout. The Bergmans report that one of the reasons for Beckwourth's nomadic existance was his determination not to be trapped in the accepted role of the Negro in white society.
In the 1820's and '30's, in the heyday of the scouts, hunters, and Indian fighters, Beckwourth became legendary, along with Jim Bridger and Kit Carson. The Blackfeet and Crow Nations accepted him into their communities. In 1848, Beckwourth became the chief scout for Fremont's expedition in the Rockies. He discovered the pass between the Feather and Truckee Rivers in California. Today this pass is called Beckwourth Pass.

Procrastination

2005-10-15T11:10:00.000-04:00

People talk about procrastination as if it's always a bad thing. They can't get things done, they can't accomplish, they don't succeed, whatever. But what if one started something, even with the best of intentions, and it got him (or her) in a load of trouble?

Introducing Benjiman Angwin, and "Gladyss's Clock"

2005-10-15T10:51:00.000-04:00

Hey, it's a very pleasant autumn morning here in Glennville, Tattnall County, Georgia. Sun shining, birds singing, neighbour's cat skulking in the shade across the street. Wilma's running another porch book sale, and it seems to be going well. The lass just finished watching a Poke'mon animation.

I'm pleased to announce that we have another contributor, a writer who comes to us via 43things.com/. I don't know much about him, but my first impression is that he's a hard charger, is driven in his work to finish a novel. I noticed on his postings that he was steadily working, and seemed inspired. Without further ado, I present Benjiman and an excerpt from his novel, Gladyss's Clock.

My name is Benjiman Angwin, and the name of the book is "Gladyss's Clock". This bit is from Chapter 10. And hey, good luck on your web journal.... here you go!

Gladyss had gone to bed late, about midnight. Niel had waited even more impatiently than Dylan had. Tonight was special for him in a way that he could not let Gladyss know about. He saw this girl named Britney about twice a week. Tonight was the night they had agreed upon. Once Gladyss was asleep he waited until about one, that is when the television snapped off. The change of constant sound to silence woke Dylan from his light and daydream like sleep. He had nodded off, laying on the floor looking at postcards sent from friends and family in Texas, talking to the people in them as if they were in the room with him, vivid and touchable. In the haze of his semi-sleep state, Dylan did not notice what had woken him, and rose up and fell into his bed recovering his lost sleep. Then the front door opened and shut. This caught his attention immediatly. Steps followed, and they were faster than Gladyss', more jubilant.
"That has to be him." Dylan whispered in the lit room. He turned off the ceiling light then to see better, having had his eyes closed for a while. The stairs echoed Niel's progress down them.
Niel was already upset he had to call Britney from the back porch to tell her he would be late, because Gladyss had stayed up later than usual. He waited another hour to make sure the woman was asleep before leaving. Now the door, with three panes of glass in it shut behind him and his breath came to life, forming its shape in the cold. Joe sat at the bottom of the steps, smoking a cigarette and drinking a cup full of Jack Daniels. He had on a hat and a t-shirt.
"Damn, arn't chya' cold Joe?" Niel said coming down to the sidewalk. Joe didn't say anything, and in fact he wasn't cold. He had grown up at the northern tip of Minnisota near Canada. Niel noticed his cigarette, and remembered he had only three left.
"Hey, chya' got a cigarette I'm all out."
Joe gulped from the plastic cup and and reached in his pocket feeling his full pack of cigarettes. "No, I'm all out, but if I give you the money for a pack and you run to the corner store for me I'll give you one."
"How 'bout I get you a pack of cigarettes on my way back home. I'll give ya the pack when I get back." Niel wiped his nose, running from the chill of the dropping temperature.
Joe would not fall for such things. He had let a friend borrow his truck once, on the promise that the truck would be returned with a full tank of gas. His friend had lied and they were no longer friends. The truck had returned with a thousand extra miles on it, next to no gas, and french fries scattered over the passenger seat. When Joe took his friend up on the state of the car, she had gone up to northern Michigan to see family.
"Did you know Niel, that Minnisota means sky colored water." Joe's random string of words out of sync with conversation was intended that way.
"What?" Niel said.
Joe drank from his cup, and took a puff from his cigarette. The he looked up at the starless, moon dominated sky and said nothing.
"Well I see ya later, gotta go about now." Niel said walking away. Joe was relieved.
Down the block, his shoes crushed browning leaves and he thought of Britney. He had met her over a month ago from a chat room online. Since then he sneaked out as often as he could. He would do anything not to have to share the bed with his wife. Reaching the corner he came to the suburban and once inside rubbed his hands together and started the engine. The start up seemed a little rougher than usual, but not worrisomely so. Niel turned on the heater and waited as the cold air blowing on him turned cool and then faintly warm. Peeling out, Niel sped past the church. Then, a block away the car stalled and the gas pedal felt stiffer then usual. After that the car completely died, shutting down.
"Out of all times it could of done so!" Niel yelled and hit the steering wheel. He turned the ignition and the colossal truck broke down as soon as it roared to life. The third time it could not even chug a few feet, and Niel realized it was futile to fight with the truck, though he tried again and again to revive the automobile. Now he banged on the dashboard and yelled in spurts of broken English and dirty language. He put the car in park.
"Dang." He said slamming the door, as a car honked and went around him. Niel looked under the hood and found nothing out of the ordinary, all the fluids in proper place and amounts. Jumping back in the truck, he shut out the cold. He tried once more, the rough start shook the engine and shut it down in the same moment. Niel knew his only choice, was to put the truck in to neutral and push it a block to his parking space right behind the fire hydrant, where no one else liked to park for fear of tickets or the yellow boot.
So he did that, hopping out of the truck, and guiding him self arduously with the steering wheel. Sweat formed in beads under his blonde hair and fell across his face, darkening the white cigarette in his mouth. A driver yelled out his window, "Hey dumbass, what the fuck are you doing? It's a one way not a push way the otherway!"
"Yeah, Yeah." Niel yelled back. The driver was twenty feet away already. Smoke spit out in balls from his thin lips, and the firey tip of the cigarette kept his nose warm as it could be in the night's low. It was five below freezing out now, the coldest night yet of the season. Niel had to work for each turn of the wheels, and they did not come easy. They grinded against the uneven pavement and crushed pebbles in their path. Finally relief came. After the first few rotations, the tires moved faster until the inertia of the previous push fueled half of the next. Crossing Seminary Street, Niel hopped in and applied pressure to the break. The truck stopped only with much effort, softly bumping the tiny, dent covered Ford focus behind it
Niel was extremely agitated, but he could do nothing to help the situation now. He called Britney, and she said he could take the "L" up to the Argyle stop. She lived in Little China Town. She'd be waiting for him there, in a bright green jacket. Niel despised public transportation, and felt it was disgusting and below his level of living. Stubborn as Niel is, the promise of a woman other than Gladyss persuaded him over. He shoved his phone in his pocket, and lacking enthusiasm for riding the train, walked to the Belmont station to wait under the ethereal lights.

Benjiman Angwin. Copyright 2005. Please do not reprint nor sell any portion of this without permission of the author. You may place a link to this website, and we would thank you for the courtesy.

Friday into Saturday night: a marathon of web writing

2005-10-15T01:18:00.000-04:00

Saturday, October 15, 2005 01:12:20

The following are some notes I took, some composition of my own, and some quotes. This was done in the span of sixteen

Venice is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs in one go.
- Truman Capote
Glennville is like getting a whiff of some good barbecue, then remembering that you still got to pay the mortgage, you don’t have any medical insurance, and you forgot to change the oil for the last two months. And your vehicle needs new tires. But you go ahead and buy one order, take it home, and split it among two adults and two preschoolers.
- John-Peter Creighton

Questions and answers: from 43things.com:

How do you actually (make friends)? I think all through my life people have always wanted to be MY friend and they approached me. I honestly don't feel that I even know how I would go about it. Sad, but true!! — 3 hours ago 1:10 pm Friday, October 14, 2005

Many people are slow to be what is called proactive. Are you one of these people? You may fear taking risks. This may be part of your nature. On the other hand, you may have a potential to take a risk for friendship, to offer to share your self, to listen, to speak about your own experience. What sri kalki and cathi beth said are true, and as you follow their advice, you may also realize in your self that there are skills you didn’t know you could develop. Just give yourself a chance to learn something new.
Just because you’ve been say, for instance, shy, all you life, or not strong enough, or not brave enough—I’m just giving examples, I don’t really know you—this doesn’t mean that you couldn’t start to practice in small ways being bold, being the first one to say hello, being able to endure someone whom you might not have given the time of day to, or sticking your neck out to defend someone else.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how many friends you have. What matters is that you can say you honestly tried to live by your principles. And when you are more satisfied by this, you may find that it doesn’t matter how you make friends. There will be enough of what you really need.
Are your chances of winning greater if you pick your own numbers or get quick picks? — 11 weeks ago Friday, October 14, 2005 minus 11 weeks

Regarding whether it is better to guess your own numbers, or go with a random pick:

Probability theory. Hmmm… I think I can find a mathematical explanation of what Laura said. But right now, I’m about to scratch off the numbers on my Jumbo Bucks “Giant”ticket! I bought the ticket during the lunch hour, down the block and across the highway. My numbers are…
1 11 12 22
Let’s see what we have. Ready? (Drum roll)....
1st scratch…”Eighteen.” ($5,000)
2nd scratch…”Twenty-four” ($25)
3rd scratch…”Six. ($1.00) ...hmmm so far no luck… and scratch
4th … “three.” ( $1000)
5th… “twenty and nine. Nope” ($$100.00
6th…36-8-28-5-37-20-33-40-39. naaahhhh
7th and last, final drum roll “Four.”
So this one’s a bust. (musical notes…Wah wah wah wah waaaaaahhhh.”)

From Garrison Keillor, we could learn
that yesterday was the birthday
of the poet and novelist Sherman Alexie
http://mail.publicradio.org/site/R?i=G0o29TvuSuXYsd5eageGOQ..

, born near Spokane, Washington (1966) on an Indian reservation. His
first big success was his collection of short stories The Lone Ranger
and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. It was one of the first works of
fiction to portray Indians as Americans who watch all the same TV
programs as everybody else and eat the same breakfast cereal.

Sherman Alexie said, "All too often Indian writers write about the
kind of Indian they wish they were. So I try to write about the kind
of Indian I am. I'm just as much a product of The Brady Bunch as I am
of my grandmother."

On the long way home, I found

2005-10-12T18:41:00.000-04:00

I took the old road which connects Dublin, in Laurens County, with Macon.

Among other things, I had thought that I found the site where the Creek Treaty was signed, giving away most of the Western Creek Lands. It seems I may be wrong, according to the editors of Roadside Georgia, in this web document;

For 20 years the Creek struggled to regain the land taken by Georgia and only the able handling of the situation by Indian Superintendent Benjamin Hawkins kept the radical factions of the Creek Nation from revolting. After Hawkins got an additional cession from the chiefs in 1805 the fort was built to protect the settlers. Hawkins personally selected the site for the fort that would bear his name.(1)

If I am wrong, I don't feel too bad, for several individuals, including neighbouring residents, business folk, and law enforcement all seemed to know nothing of the history of the fort. It was amusing for me to find that 3/4 of a mile downhill, the road teed out on an avenue, directly onto the Popeye's Fried Chicken opposite. How very much like an American military base!

Here's what I had actually been trying to place, the site of The Treaty of Indian Springs.

Chief McIntosh, Gov. Troup's first cousin, agreed to cede all Lower Creek land to Georgia in the Treaty of Indian Springs in 1825. He had been manipulated by both the federal and state governments to sign the treaty. McIntosh also had no clear mandate from his people. After signing the treaty, and prior to the removal, McIntosh and several other leaders were murdered by angry members of the tribe. The Treaty of Indian Springs was ratified in the U.S. Congress by a single vote.(2)

Another tragedy, albeit more recent than the defeat and loss of the Creek nation, was the apparent abandonment of a recreation facility by Fort Hawkins. It may have been for the soldiers, and it could be for the community now, but the pool is filled in with earth, and the four basketball courts lie in ruin, the hoops a pitiful remnant, devoid of the bouncing of balls and the shouts and grunts of hard and fast court play.
The surrounding neighbourhood seems to be struggling, midway between sinking into further poverty and decay, or reviving with its tire, auto sound system shops, and other workshops and retail businesses.

Somewhere on my other long way home I managed to make my way to S.R. 46, where I found a marker(3) indicating the proximity of Governor Troup's Tomb. Governor George Michael Troup is reputed to have announced to the federal government "We have exhausted the argument. We stand by our arms"." The plaque sums up the consequent history with these three words: "The Indians were removed."

I wonder if this is the same governor who refused Worcester v. Georgia (4) in 1832?) First the Creeks, and later the Cherokees were forced out of their rights and their lands. But there's so much more to that story, which I hope to examine in future posts.

bibliography:
1. http://roadsidegeorgia.com/site/fort_hawkins.html
2. http://ngeorgia.com/history/creekhistory.html
3. http://www.cviog.uga.edu/Projects/gainfo/gahistmarkers/govtrouphomehistmarker.htm
4. Worcester v. Georgia, 6 Pet (31 US) 515 (1832)

History of The Creek Nation - American Indians in North Georgia

Kalinka

2005-10-12T01:22:00.000-04:00

Калинка, калинка, калинка моя,
В саду ягода малинка, малинка моя,

Под сосною под зеленою
Спать положите вы меня.

Ах! Сосенушка ты зеленая,
Не шуми же надо мной!

Ах! Красавица, душа девица,
Полюби же ты меня!

"I met you" lyrics by Fedor Tyutchev

2005-10-12T01:18:00.000-04:00

Я встретил вас – и все былое
В отжившем сердце ожило;
Я вспомнил время, время золотое -
И сердцу стало так тепло…

Как поздней осени порою
Бывают дни, бывает час,
Когда повеет вдруг весною,
И что-то встрепенется в нас, -

Как после вековой разлуки,
Гляжу на вас, как бы во сне, -
И вот – слышнее стали звуки,
Не умолкавшие во мне…

Тут не одно воспоминанье,
Тут жизнь заговорила вновь, -
И то же в вас очарованье,
И та ж в душе моей любовь

On horses of all different colours, striped and not

2005-10-10T03:35:00.000-04:00

This one's for my daughter. I hope maybe something will coalesce into a comic book for her, or a childrens' book. I will be the author, God willing.

Indictments against Rove and gang?

2005-10-10T03:30:00.000-04:00

In the news from Washington, our not quite so venerable capital, come more hints of corruption, skullduggery, skulduddery, and what not -- this time regarding Karl Rove, the whispering adviser reminiscent of Wormtongue of Rohan ill-fame, adviser to Eomer? was it? oh well, if I'm wrong, I can come back and edit this post. O.K. here, from Newsweek reporter Michael Isikoff;

"The White House's handling of a potentially crucial e-mail sent by senior aide Karl Rove two years ago set off a chain of events that has led special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to summon Rove for a fourth grand jury appearance this week. His return has created heightened concern among White House officials and their allies that Fitzgerald may be preparing..."

(read more)

The MSNBC story goes on to give some clue as to what the indictments may be about:

In Cooper's account, Rove told him the wife of White House critic Joseph Wilson worked at the "agency" on WMD issues and was responsible for sending Wilson on a trip to Niger to check out claims that Iraq was trying to buy uranium. But Rove did not disclose this conversation to the FBI when he was first interviewed by agents in the fall of 2003—nor did he mention it during his first grand jury appearance, says one of the lawyers familiar with Rove's account. (He did not tell President George W. Bush about it either, assuring him that fall only that he was not part of any "scheme" to discredit Wilson by outing his wife, the lawyer says.) But after he testified, Luskin discovered an e-mail Rove had sent that same day—July 11—alerting deputy national-security adviser Stephen Hadley that he had just talked to Cooper, the lawyer says. In the e-mail, Rove said Cooper pushed him on whether the president was being hurt by the Niger controversy. "I didn't take the bait," Rove wrote Hadley, adding that he warned Cooper not to get "far out in front on this." After reviewing the e-mail, Rove then returned to the grand jury last year and reported the Cooper conversation. He testified that the talk was initially about "welfare reform"—a topic mentioned in the e-mail—and that Cooper then changed the subject. Cooper has written that he doesn't recall a discussion of welfare reform. [bold type and italics added by cafegroundzero to highlight key points]

Vertigo, by an unknown womyn poetess

2005-10-10T02:32:00.000-04:00

What have we here? (Pastes) Hmmmm... a poem! Wow! Well go see for yourself, I don't have permission to publish it here.

Thing is, I'm amazed at those who persevere and do get published, who do go out and speak at the slams.

travelling at warp speed, the mighty cyberspace

2005-10-10T01:53:00.000-04:00

While plunged deep into the depths of the cyberia, in the fertile forests of blogovia, i found some gems, among them a poem by a womyn who calls her blog Mighty Girl; the author calls herself maggie. She may or may not be Maggie Mason. What I'm sure of is that she is a promising blogger, maybe even a promising writer. No, I take that back no maybe. Definitely is. Check out her poem, posted on 15 September, the day before one of my favourite holidays:

One Egg

do not think me twisted
when, despite the world's galactic
ricochet of violence, i prefer, these days,
the retreat of breakfast.

Having fun with another con job

2005-10-09T18:28:00.000-04:00

"Now you can also be published on The Poets' Workshop for FREE - where, within hours, you can receive feedback from other poets and writers on the quality and character of your work. Honest, forthright and helpful reviews that will help you hone your craft, and will quickly move you into the ranks of world class emerging poets with solid critiques behind their works."

Here's a copy of jean-pierre's poem so you can read how I expressed my self after I got a second offer to buy a book with my own poetry in it, and buy a plaque, bla bla bla...

Dear Poetry Dot Con

You send me another notice
of a poem which you say
has won an award, say you!
Then I wonder who else knows?
You have a business,
You want to make a profit,
isn''t that right?/
Now don''t deny it!
doing such would be a lie.
Don''t even try it!
Now I''m not a great poet,
don''t I know it!
But I ain''t no fool
and I been to school./
So I says, you pay me
for the publication of a poem,
at least send me some free editions,
at the very least just one.
Is it a deal?
Can you make me a better offer?

"Get started for FREE! (it takes about 10 seconds - just three questions" Yeah, give your identity away, open yourself up to a whole 'nother wave of punishment by spammers).

2005-10-07T20:50:00.000-04:00

What are we to think of this poll? Of course, it was not a professionally conducted poll, done by statistical standards, but by whoever wanted to participate, who was a customer of gasbuddy.com

Selected Poll
Do you think the federal government should or should not allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska? (Discuss)
Should 59%
Should Not 31%
Unsure 8%
Total votes: 21923

FBI warns of renewed threat to subways, NYC Mayor says

2005-10-07T09:51:00.000-04:00

As I start to peruse the news pages on MSNBC, mine eyes catch this ominous news item:

Officials in New York revealed the threat Thursday, saying an FBI source warned that terrorists had plotted to bomb the subway in coming days. But Homeland Security officials in Washington downplayed the threat, saying it’s of “doubtful credibility.”

Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Thursday called it the most specific terrorist threat that New York officials had received to date, and promised to flood the subway system with uniformed and undercover officers.

“We have done and will continue to do everything we can to protect this city,” Bloomberg said at a nationally televised news conference. “We will spare no resource, we will spare no expense.”

Those of us outside the NYC metro subway system must realize that it would be too easy for some terrorists to feint a threat there and then attack another site. I hope that our Homeland Defense keeps this in mind as they deploy resources.

Another day, how to live it? To the max!

2005-10-06T09:52:00.000-04:00

And yet I sense that so much is wrong with the way I live, some of my choices. This blog has gone for weeks, even months without hardly a comment. I wnat to upgrade this blog, get some more photos, get sound bytes in, but I have to get out and look for work!

Let's face it, blogging, if you're going to do it right, is hard work.

Well, let's see what we have from Writers' Almanac:

On this day in 1930, William Faulkner's novel As I Lay Dying was
published. It's the story of the Bundren family and the journey they
take to bury their mother Addie in the family cemetery. They go
through a storm and a flood and there's a flock of vultures following
their wagon. Falkner wrote the book while he was working the night
shift at a power plant. He said he wrote it in six weeks without
changing a word. And he said that of all his books, he liked As I Lay
Dying the best.

Well, if Faulkner could do it working night shift, I could write my own novel , couldn't I? Why not? Oh, I know I'm no Faulkner. I'm myself.

Is there anything to this story at all, folks?

2005-10-04T15:26:00.000-04:00

In the beginning, I always spoke of my political problems thinking this is where most of the problems were coming from. However, since the file was badly carried out, we realized it was sabotage by someone in the highest level of the CIA, either a spy or a corrupted person. In the end, you can understand that the political problems never interested them but it was especially the children they wanted to destine for sexually perverted people.

Also, keep in mind that when we use the term "Secret Service" or "Secret Service Agencies", what we really mean is Intelligence Agencies such as the CIA, KGB, DST, etc... This is the term used in Europe. Unfortunately, here in the United States the Secret Service has nothing to do with intelligence operations, they simply... (read more)

Teaching amidst chaos

2005-09-29T11:05:00.000-04:00

____Second hour was a surprise: during my planning period, the principal had directed some one else's history class to come in and sit with me. No problem, I can do that.
____Five or six students hadn't even brought their books. I tried teaching them the old fashioned way, in a group, in discussion, or having them listen, but that didn't fly. These high school students were either just going to try having a field day, or they were just one of the most undisciplined, lazy, rude students I have met.

____But no problem. I got their names, I got their attention, and maybe they learned at least a little something about pre-Christianity, the rise and fall of the Greek and Roman Empires.

____Now it's quiet again, the lit class is back. This is an open book test.

What's long, hard, and full of_____?

2005-09-29T08:43:00.000-04:00

Answer: a sub.

Today I'm a sub. The topic is English literature. Some classes are taking an open book test on Farley Mowat's Never Cry Wolf. Others will be either doing some other book, or Homer's Illiad and Oddyssy.

Wow! It's actually quiet for a change. I've become used to teaching middle grade classes.

SEYM Newsletter Summer and Fall 2005 arrives

2005-09-28T16:36:00.000-04:00

We got this in our mail box today, I believe. Some details of the 43rd Annual Session of Southeastern Yearly Meeting were released. It was held during the third month (March) of this year, the 23rd through the 27th, at the United Methodist Life Enrichment Center, in Leesburg Florida.

The focus of this meeting was "Living in the World as Quakers."

There is a concern about the FUM minute 88-GB-52, which supports a personnel policy that is discriminatory toward Gays and Lesbians.The following three queries were shared by the St. Petersburg Meeting:

#1 What does it mean to be affiliated with the Friends' United Meeting?
#2 What has been the real level of our activity as members of FUM?
#3 Are we viable members of FUM or members in name only?

I will consider these queries, just as I'm considering the "Adult Guide for Going to Confession" that has been distributed to our local Catholic church, Saint Jude's of Glennville.

Spike Lee lectures at SCAD's Trustee Theatre

2005-09-26T23:25:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I'm blessed. Got to hear Spike Lee talk about these troubled times, the war, the aftermath of the hurricane, racism, and his career in film.

Post meridiem, I recommence the work day

2005-09-26T13:50:00.000-04:00

Am still tasting the mid-day meal, boneless ribs and fried rice, a lunch special from one of our local Chinese restaurants, where I'm trying in small ways to practice my Chinese Mandarin. Alas! but my efforts are still weak.

I delivered a copy of the article on bookcrossing below to one of our local newspapers, posted a copy of the November 3 Theses on the door of a local Democratic Party committee head, who happens to be a judge, and I dropped off for bookcrossing at one of the local fast food places. So the day has been somewhat productive.

Can I do the same article in Spanish? Here's a chance to try out one of the translation programs, which I've used but only for isolated words, maybe a phrase once or twice. I'll try to shop this to some other newspapers. No real hurry here, but while I'm on a roll, I'll work on the translation and free-lancing it.

Book sharing program comes to town

2005-09-26T12:32:00.000-04:00

You may have noticed, while going about your daily rounds or errands, a book lying, seemingly forgotten or misplaced, in a place maybe where you don’t normally see books. Or it may have posted on it a yellow sticky note, reading “I’m FREE! I’m not lost! Please pick me up, read me, and help me with my journey!” If you do find this, then you have come across a “bookcrossing”, a practice for which a word has been coined, even entered into the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, back in August of 2004:

bookcrossing
n. the practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise.

As a matter of fact, a fact which is registered and updated constantly, as new members join the growing movement, there are now, as of the time this is being written, about 402,920 members and 2,400,032 books registered on a web site founded by a group of book lovers and internet technology professionals, among whom stands Ron Hornbaker, who describes himself as “one of the founders of BookCrossing, an incorrigible serial entrepreneur.”

“We've always liked sites like Where's George? ( This site tracks U.S. currency by serial number)…PhotoTag.org (which releases disposable cameras then tracks their whereabouts and displays the pictures taken along the way), and GeoCaching.com (where you can stash and search for items with GPS technology), …so we thought to ourselves, "okay, what's something else that people would have fun releasing and then tracking?" …we thought of books, which made perfect sense, since everyone (well, almost everyone) loves books. Twenty-eight mostly sleepless nights later, on April 17, 2001, BookCrossing.com was launched.”
In the time that it took to compose the last paragraph, the global membership grew by a baker’s dozen. In Georgia alone, there are about 4,294 members, including 769 in Atlanta, 145 in Savannah, 15 in Statesboro, 2 in Fort Stewart, and 3 in Glennville.
Bookcrossing, as noted above, is a grass roots activity, and what Mr. Hornbaker likes to call a real example of how to ‘think globally – act locally.’
Mr. Hornbaker adds, “The real credit for this site should go to my parents. Both school teachers, they taught me the joys of reading and learning at a very early age.”

If you do find a book which has been registered with Bookcrossing, you may have also found its number, which may be written somewhere on the inside of the front cover, or on the fly page. You may, if you wish, read the book, then send it again on its journey, by recording a journal entry on that book. Enter the URL, the web address of the journal entry page, then enter the BCID number, and leave a brief note so that others will know what's happened to the book. Maybe you're not even interested in the book, and don't plan to read it, that's okay too... you can still express that in the journal entry, along with your intentions concerning the book. Should you finish the book, or get tired of reading it, you are encouraged to pass it along to a friend, or release it into the wild for someone else to enjoy!

Supposing you do release a book, how would you know when someone finds a book I've released? The bookcrossing system will send you an email notification whenever someone makes a journal entry on a book you've released. You could also check your “Bookshelf” page on a regular basis to see all the journal entries on your books.
The percentage of books released which have been caught is a minority so far – about 20-25%, depending on where you release the book, and how well you label it. Mr. Hornbaker reminds us that “we're still very early into this project, and books travel slowly,” since it takes time to read them. He also notes that not everyone has internet access. Although Glennville now has internet access, not everyone may feel that he or she has the time or energy to get to the library, school, community center, or an internet caf? in a neighboring city where they can get online. But he reminds us, “The world is still a better place due to your generosity.
“Think about this: you may get an email notification 5 years from now, letting you know someone has made a journal entry on one of your books. And that someone might be halfway around the world. Imagine how excited you'll be that day, and how much you'll wish you had seeded the world with even more books over that 5 year period. Every released book, just like every message in a bottle and every note in a helium balloon, won't get caught - but the ones that do have the opportunity to brighten a day, initiate a friendship, or even change a life.”

http://www.bookcrossing.com/home This is the portal, or home page, for the Book Crossing website.

The following are the web pages for local bookcrossing groups in Georgia and the Low Country area:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bookcrossing_georgia/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jaxbookxing/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/brunswickbookcrossing/

Back in the saddle again

2005-09-21T06:34:00.000-04:00

I'm the cowboy of my life, riding my horse Destiny toward a lovely glowing sunrise.

I started a short story, based on thoughts and memories which pranced and gamboled about the pastures of my mind in the early morning hours.

I may also work on the application to the Cafe' for which I'll look for a location to start the Coffee House and Book Shop.

But it's time to get dressed to ride out, pick up my buddy, and drive to teach.

Substitute teaching

2005-09-19T10:59:00.000-04:00

Oh my Gawd! That last class -- life science, with today's topic being genetics -- was not very nice.

And I see that keeping the students to the assigned seating chart makes a WHOLE lot of difference. Man did these kids act up.

But this is not going to be setting the tone for the rest of the day. No siree.

Satuday, Constitution Day, 17 September 2005

2005-09-17T12:06:00.000-04:00

Just got off the phone with F. from S.C., just across the river. Nice morning conversation.
Have in mind to do attempt some writing. Have already done a response to Jeremy Butterfield's weekly essay on words in the English language. Checked in on a couple of the Sacramento bloggers for the first time since early summer, it seems. Did some writing in 43things.com/ Cleaned out some of my mailbox.

I’ll get into my running things within the hour.

First, to finish my web logging:

http://cafegroundzero.blogspot.com

http://tattnallcounty.blogspot.com

http://plazacomunal.blogspot.com

Whazzup? Ain't much happenin' hee-uh

2005-09-11T22:38:00.000-04:00

Frybaby released "Silence of the Lambs" at a newspaper box on King George and Wild Heron Road in South Side Savannah.

I considered for a few minutes whether I wanted to change my itinerary to include Savannah, tonight or tomorrow. Hmmm... Some one's bound to find that book sometime by the o'dark hours before tomorrow morning. Naaahhh... I've already read that. But for me to even consider the 1.5 hr. drive makes me realize how much I'm getting into this Book Crossing scavenger's hunt thing.

Am listening to a concert broadcast to honor Otis Redding. Pre-recorded in Macon some time ago, on the occasion of his birthday. McKnight was the radio host.

That ended some six minutes ago. Been talking with my wife, who recalled an incident which our children's godmother told her earlier this weekend. Seems that the computer tech guy brought his wife or lady friend with him on a home consultation. The companion was annoying our friend and neighbor, not letting her listen to the computer man's explanation.

Soft classical piano now. No other sound but the whir of the computer fans and the high pitched sound in my right ear, a little louder than usual. Almost drowns out the high pitched sound in my left ear, ha ha.

This week's operation in Iraq: Tal Afar

2005-09-11T12:13:00.000-04:00

We wish everyone well. May God bless you all.

Looking for a friend or relative missing after Katrina?

2005-09-05T09:58:00.000-04:00

Here are some links that may prove helpful to those who either wish to help, need help, or are looking for survivors:

http://katrinasurvivor.net/

http://www.redcross.org/

http://www.secondharvest.org/default2.asp

http://www.braf.org/

http://www.catholiccharitiesusa.org/news/katrina.cfm

http://www.jewishcommunalfund.org/

http://www.irw.org/katrina/

If you are a student who has been displaced by Katrina, you may find assistance here:

http://www.thelutheran.org/article/article.cfm?article_id=5445

Picayune editorial voices peoples' anger

2005-09-05T09:53:00.000-04:00

I'm sipping cafe au lait, listening to Johann Strauss, Jr, and otherwise just typing in little commentaries and other thoughts this American Labour Day, Monday. I'm still looking for the link directly to the excerpt below, but if you read the articles in the MSNBC sites, you'll come across it:

“We’re angry, Mr. President, and we’ll be angry long after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry,” the editorial said. “Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That’s to the government’s shame.”

“Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially,” the letter said. “No expense should have been spared. No excuses should have been voiced.”

"The US is independent" --Treaty of Paris., 1783

2005-09-04T21:43:00.000-04:00

My depression raised up its ugly head today again. Cause this time? Maybe the drinking last night at my buddy's birthday party. I had a Foster's in the large can, and most of a pint of Dewar's with Coke.

The result was a lame work day at the Family Garden Restaurant. Oh, yeah, they hadn't been treating me all to well either, so I'm sure that has something to do with it.

Anyway, from Garrison Keillor, we have this:

The U.S. War of Independence officially ended on this day in 1783 with
the signing of the Treaty of Paris.
http://mail.publicradio.org/site/R?i=cvOnUvYnM2otkfuSaGqnGQ..

The war, which began at Lexington and Concord in the spring of 1775,
had more or less been over for two years (after Cornwallis surrendered
his army at Yorktown), but the American navy continued harassing the
British, and by the time the treaty was signed the American fleet had
captured dozens of British ships. The treaty required Britain to
recognize the independence of the United States and to cede all lands
east of the Mississippi to former colonies.

Fancy hotel's guests given priority

2005-09-03T11:18:00.000-04:00

As I read what's going on in New Orleans, the news of inequities and more tragedy never ceases to amaze, shock, and sadden me. Here, from MSNBC, comes the age old story of privelege of the upper classes, including the middle class tourists:

"At one point Friday, the evacuation was interrupted briefly when school buses rolled up so some 700 guests and employees from the (name deleted so as not to give them free publicity) Hotel could move to the head of the evacuation line — much to the amazement of those who had been crammed in the stinking Superdome since last Sunday.

" “How does this work? They (are) clean, they are dry, they get out ahead of us?” exclaimed Howard Blue, 22, who tried to get in their line. The National Guard blocked him as other guardsmen helped the well-dressed guests with their luggage.

"The 700 had been trapped in the hotel, next to the Superdome, but conditions were considerably cleaner, even without running water, than the unsanitary crush inside the dome. The (Blank Hotel) was severely damaged by the storm. Every pane of glass on the riverside wall was blown out."

Declaration of independence of Vietnam, Hanoi's Ba Dinh Square

2005-09-02T09:49:00.000-04:00

Garrison Keillor tells us that "It's the anniversary of the independence of Vietnam in 1945. The region had been a French colony for decades, but during WWII, Japan
conquered the French forces there and took control. In August, 1945,
though, when the Allies defeated Japan, there was a sudden power
vacuum in Vietnam, and the Communist Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh
moved to fill it. He'd fought alongside the US during the war, and on
September 2, the day WWII officially ended, he appeared in front of a
crowd in Hanoi's Ba Dinh Square and used lines lifted from the
American Declaration of Independence--and proclaimed Vietnam a
free state: He said, 'All men are born equal: the Creator has given us
inviolable rights of life, liberty, and happiness...' "

Message in a Bottle

2005-09-02T09:15:00.000-04:00

I have enclosed a screen shot of some individuals throughout the world who have made sending a message in a bottle a goal. Of course, there’s no telling who’s going to find it, and what that person is going to do with it.

Dear stranger

I wonder what sort of day are you having.
Have you been fishing?
Travelling the river in the canoe or in a motor boat?
Are you born and raised here?
Your families have been here for generations?
transplanted from Kentucky here by the military.
I’m trying an experiment to get
ways for folks to stop being such strangers,
and share their stories and thoughts with each other.
and if a body was in trouble, folks would help ‘em out,
‘less that person was a complete pariah.
Maybe we can start to practice some
of this Christianity or whatever faith
we profess to have in our hearts, and on our minds.
Write your local newspaper and express yourself!

Cheers! cafegroundzero

Georgia’s “Abysmal” SATs “at Home in the Cellar”

2005-09-01T16:29:00.000-04:00

(Atlanta) The bad news is in: Georgia is last in SAT scores. Today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s editorial “At home in the cellar” and Columbus Ledger-Enquirer’s “We’re back on the bottom" wrote of Georgia’s decline.

As the AJC notes in their editorial:

“In his 2002 gubernatorial campaign, Sonny Perdue promised Georgia voters he would boost SAT scores.

‘We're dead last in the nation in SAT scores. If that doesn't convince you we need to try something new, nothing will,’ said Perdue in a TV commercial.

Well, Georgia is ‘dead last’ again in the SAT, based on the scores released Tuesday by the College Board. Perdue probably hopes that voters have forgotten that TV spot. It's obvious the governor himself hasn't given it much thought since the election.

He's done little to fulfill his pledge to "try something new" in either overhauling SAT scores or education in general. He devoted his first term to rolling back the education reforms and class size reductions set in motion by his predecessor. There has been barely any perceptible change in what or how students in Georgia are taught.” [emphasis added]

Governor Perdue argues that the Governor’s Cup has been put in place to improve scores. But the hard reality is that trophies don’t help much without the resources to teach our children.

“Gimmicks don’t cut it when you slash school funding by nearly $1 billion dollars and you pack more and more children in the classroom,” said Bobby Kahn, Chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia.

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

Working Families Devastated

2005-09-01T16:18:00.000-04:00

Please Help

Hurricane Katrina
has devastated
working families in
Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

Please help.

Click on the link below to make a
tax-deductible contribute to the Union Community Fund's special Hurricane Relief Fund. Donations will be targeted to meet the most critical needs among working families.

(Click here.)

Brian Moore (24 August 1921 --11 January 1999)

2005-08-25T03:46:00.000-04:00

Och! I missed 'is birthday!

It's the birthday of the novelist Brian Moore, born in Belfast (1921). You may read Robert Fulford's essay,"A writer who never fails..." on him from the Globe and Mail.

Happy belated Birthday, Mr. Moore. May you be a muse to those of us who wish to carry on the writer's mission. Cheers!

Petition For A United Ireland

2005-08-25T02:37:00.000-04:00

Whereas, the objective of Irish Unity is based on the principle of self-determination, social and economic justice, and political and cultural equality; and

Whereas, the small island of Ireland, having two sovereign governments with different currencies, different policies and bureaucracies for justice, education, agriculture, commerce, culture, and health is essentially unworkable; and

Whereas, Britain has proven itself incapable of fairly governing any part of Ireland and surveys confirm the British people do not support union with the north; and

Whereas, the partition of Ireland by the British government only postponed the solution of a centuries old political quagmire that has been a disaster for both parts of Ireland and for the British people as well; and

Whereas, partition was forced upon the Irish people under threat of "terrible war" and the last time the people voted in an All-Ireland elections, 1918 and 1920, they voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence and sovereignty; and

Whereas, Ireland is a sovereign entity in international law, in the long and short view of history, and the geographic island and its people are without confusion recognized as Irish, regardless of tradition; and

Whereas, the liberation of Ireland can be achieved through democratic means through the Good Friday Agreement; and

Whereas, an Ireland of Equals, governed for the people by the people, is the best guarantor of justice and civil prosperity and the best solution to centuries of injustice and bloodshed;

We, the undersigned, call upon the Irish Government to issue a Green Paper on Irish Unity to prepare for a 32 County, Irish Republic.

The Ossurary in Sedlec

2005-08-23T23:19:00.000-04:00

O.K. I've been convinced that it's real, and it's cool too! I want to go there.

Educate Wal-Mart: Pledge to Buy Back-to-School Supplies Somewhere Else

2005-08-23T01:39:00.000-04:00

"Wal-Mart is the world’s largest retailer, setting the standard for America’s workplaces—and it’s a standard of low wages, poor benefits and worker abuse that working families cannot accept .Together, we have to stop the Wal-Marting of America’s jobs.

"Let’s educate Wal-Mart about how a rich company should treat its workers by pledging to buy back-to-school supplies at other stores this year.

"Please sign this pledge and we’ll make sure Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott hears you."

[ Learn More from peoplepower@aflcio.org ]

Send this pledge to: Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott

* Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott

I pledge to educate Wal-Mart about how a rich company should treat its workers by buying back-to-school supplies somewhere other than Wal-Mart this year.

Signed by:
jean-pierre abu gareth

cafegroundzero started participating in this campaign on 08/23/2005

isocracy

2005-08-23T01:08:00.000-04:00

Erin McKean from verbatimmag.com shares this old definition with us:

[eye-SAH-kruh-see]

a system of government in which all the people possess equal political power. The citation in the OED from 1652 shows that we have always been cynical about the practicality of this idea: "It remaineth doubtfull, whether people who live together, may lawfully retain an Isocracie among them." An isocrat is an advocate of isocracy; to isocratize is to practice isocracy. The equality of people before the law, or the equality of political rights among the citizens of a state, is isonomy.

Why Cindy Sheehan, Gold Star mother, wants to meet again with Mr. Bush

2005-08-23T00:24:00.000-04:00

"June of 2004 is a lot different than August of 2005. For one thing, in June of 2004, I had buried my son nine weeks before the meeting. I was a woman in a deep state of shock, in a deep state of grief. And you know what? I am still in a deep state of grief. And thanks to George Bush, I will be in a deep state of grief for the rest of my life.

But I'm not in shock anymore. The Duelfer weapons of mass destruction report came out, the 9/11 commission report came out, the Downing Street memos came out, the Senate Intelligence Committee report came out. These have all come out since my son was killed. They show categorically that my son, his murder was premeditated, that there was no reason to invade Iraq.

And that's what I want the answers to today, in August of 2005."

[from interview with MSNBC Anchor Keith Olberman]

Open Letter to Cindy Sheehan

2005-08-22T06:39:00.000-04:00

Dear Mrs. Cindy Sheehan:
First of all, may I express my deep sorrow and condolences for the loss of your son. I hope that we will be able to read more what he was like. May he rest in peace.

I was in Iraq, starting with the first day of the invasion, back in March of 2003. I was a Specialist in the Combat Engineers. I drove my lieutenant in our non-armoured Humvee, along with our Assault and Operations platoon, following our line platoons which were in company with the infantry which had rushed in the openings which we blasted for them in the berm.

I would like to communicate to you some of my mixed feelings and my thoughts on this war and what peace we must be able to win.

From the very beginning, I felt the war was a mistake to begin. I had a conviction that Mr. Bush did not know or did not admit to us the extent of what we were getting into. However, you know that we soldiers and the rest of the military are not supposed to be getting into politics, not questioning our Commander in Chief. Perhaps this is part of the intrinsic evil of any organization which depends on violence to solve problems.

Mr. Bush was wrong not to have met with you again outside the ranch in Crawford. That he has not done this, in my eyes, is another sign that he has advanced in a spiralling downward path of disaster. I regret that he has treated you and other family members who have lost service people in this war.

However, now that we are engaged in this terrible, horrible war, to announce a pullout would allow the enemy to plan around what we are doing. I hope you realize this.

I'm sorry that we had to meet this way, but it is an honour to meet you. I think you are a hero, and I thank you for what you are doing. God bless you and your son, and those people who are brave enough to stand up and speak out, in peace and with clarity, for the truth.

Sincerely,
jean-pierre tarik abu gareth
http://cafegroundzero.blogspot.com/

Monday morning, Iraq war still with us

2005-08-22T06:16:00.000-04:00

Good morning, folks. Coffee, anyone? Please, come in and join me. We're in the front space, what I call our living room, since I think you can be living in any one of many rooms. Anyhow, come on in.

Radio's on, lady's talking about the public reactions to Cindy Sheehan.

Chuck Hagel, a Republican Senator, thinks the war in Iraq is like Viet Nam, and thinks we should not be planning to be there so very long as four years. He also thinks we shouldn't increase our troop strength.

I'm going to teach today, and I've got to figure out how to catch up with my unfinished articles.

Excuse me please, while I go meet this Cindy Sheehan. Help yourselves to the coffee and whatever is in the fridge.

Be Good, Creole Girl!

2005-08-21T19:59:00.000-04:00

The Be Good Tanyas rule!

For a sheet on the Creole Girl from Ponchartrain, you may read http://www.kinglaoghaire.com/site/lyrics/song_583.html/

Dad and I discuss the war, again

2005-08-20T06:22:00.000-04:00

We talk about the war in Iraq, the war against terrorism, and sometimes the war in Afghanistan. Usually we do this by telephone. I often think or imagine that the line changes as we begin to talk about this, that sound behind and around the voices is more expansive, thus we hear the echo effect, as if some switch had been automatically turned on, and the lines are being tapped. I never mention this to Dad. For what? We are not doing anything illegal. We're just conversing about these troubled times.

Dad thinks I'm trying to sit on the fence, play both sides, support both sides on the war. ( Both? There are only two sides? ) He says this, rather vehemently, perhaps because I have expressed my doubts about the wisdom of starting these escapades overseas, yet I also say, as adamantly as I can, that I support Bush in proceeding with this war we've started, that I support him as my Commander-in-Chief. Yet I support the right of the anti-war activists to protest the war. And yet I would like to say to those such as the grieving mothers and kinfolk, that one needs to remember that when we had taken the oath or affirmation to serve our country, Constitution, and President, that we and our families know our lives are on the line.

As Sergeant Major Norman says, "Lady, your son died fighting a war. He was a soldier." Hard to sound hard hearted. I mean, I commiserate, but I don't support her undermining our effort to defeat the enemy. And I think that's what much of this protest does. What to do? I think dialogue, what we're doing, is good. Protest is good. But we need to unite also, unite and defeat the terrorists, defeat the jihadists.

Gaza settlers going now!

2005-08-18T07:13:00.000-04:00

It is hard to contain my excitement. And yet I do feel for the settlers, who are, after all, leaving what they consider their home. Alas, for this world, that we form attachments and ideas which make it difficult for us to get along, to get along with others, to get along in our journey.

I'm listening to an Israeli colonel, Col Wolfe, who sounds like very intellectual, being interviewed about what is happening, how the the soldiers may be feeling as they effect the removal.

I need to post some gas prices on gasbuddy.com/ L'be back.

We've got an outpost on MSN

2005-08-17T09:46:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was my last day at the warehouse. I'm in another stage of recovery today. I've got custody of the lad while the lady goes on business down the coast.

Oboe and other horns play a gentle melody on the radio from the bathroom. Elmo is acting out a story for the lad here in the frontspace ( I eschew the phrase "living room," as I consider most of our house quite suitable for living).

Here's our latest project, just beginning via another portal.

A message to one thinking of killing herself, himself

2005-08-08T22:11:00.000-04:00

I am concerned for your life

from several of the things I’ve read, heard, or seen, I feel that you might benefit from sound counseling on life planning. I hope that you do not take this the wrong way, that I am criticizing you in a negative way, or meddling.

Well perhaps I am meddling,(wry smile here) but I would like to offer any help I could reasonably provide, starting in terms of answering any questions you might have on avoiding suicide.

I am a survivor of suicidal behaviour, if not actual attempts. I have tried to get myself killed in order to avoid the pain and sorrow I thought I was experiencing. I considered jumping off bridges, stabbing myself, jumping in front of trucks or trains… a good friend from Yokohama talked me out of it.

I then tried to get killed by walking through very dangerous neighbourhoods, such as Barcelona’s port and red light district—el Barrio Chino, Chicago’s Cabrini Green, New York’s Harlem, Flatbush, Kenner, New Orlean’s cemeteries, Vieux Carre’, Canal Street, various “projects,” rural areas where no one knew me, such as the Ozarks…

I joined the military, and joined the combat engineers. We went to Iraq. I went to Baghdad and back.

By the time I got through most of this, I had a better “feel” for what is life, and I think that for the most part, I am a survivor, if not entirely out of the woods. Today, I take Prozac, get counselling, and otherwise strive to improve myself, to “be there” for my wife and two children, my aging parents, my younger brother and sisters, one of whom is incapable of taking care of herself.

If there is any way I can help any of you who are thinking of committing suicide, well, helping you to seriously consider your choices, carefully, well, then please communicate with me via this site or my web logs.

Just remember, for now: once you actually commit suicide, there’s no coming back to try your life again.

Saturday, 6 August: I felt numb all this day

2005-08-06T09:21:00.000-04:00

It was on this day in 1945 that the United States dropped an atomic
bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan
http://mail.publicradio.org/site/R?i=dS6iA0SoC0d8GVEYWM-_dw...

It was the first time that a nuclear weapon was used in combat, only
the second time that one had been exploded. It was an attack which led
to the end of World War II.

I have been thinking that the only way to win the war in Iraq is to use these weapons, on carefully selected sites, to destroy the jihadists by draining the sea to kill the fish.

Either this, or we must recognize the prisoners as lawful combatants, and start negotiations to find out what Zarqawi and Bin Ladin want, and what we're willing to allow them.