So Nato, in all their martial excellence, managed to bomb some rebels in Libya presumably quite by accident or perhaps in a case of mistaken identity, since the rebels are using acquired Libyan army vehicles. Anyway, the rebels are now angry and have been recorded yelling "Down with Nato. We don't want Nato anymore!"
Is there a clearer case of biting the hand that feeds?
Sadly, I think it was a mistake of majestic grandeur and import for the US to turn over the no-fly zone to Nato.
If you want something done right do it yourself or so says the wisdom. This seems to be the case since after the US launched the very first strike it decimated approximately 30% of the Libyan military.
I'm passionately anti-war but if you must...why not just do it right and be done with it?
Friday, April 8, 2011
And even stranger aeons..
So, we see that according to the masters of the last several millennium - Christ, Buddha, Nagarjuna, Milarepa, Abraham the Jew, The Ari, The Baal Shem Tov and so many, many others - we are only several steps removed from the Most High and can retrace our steps back to the presence of Divinity. However, some of us who see ALL as an aspect of Divinity ("turn over a rock and I will be there, roll away a log and there you will find me") there is no separation. That rock is God. You are God, I am God. This is not to insinuate that there is not something greater, nor to insinuate that we (as "God") are the end-all and be-all of Creation and the sustaining force that keeps it in motion, not to say that there is no absolute or ineffable. Only that we are Its children and so too are we divine by birthright.
Once, as theory has it, we discover the spark of divinity within, the HGA, we no longer need worry about getting lost in the world, doing the wrong thing, giving into base desires, or living in chaos and confusion. The HGA is our guide and our companion, eager to teach, accompany, and protect.
However, adversely, this connection can render us ineffectual in the world. There are those who get so caught up in the pursuit, in the journey, that they have a difficult time holding a job, functioning within society's confines and are often labeled as "nuts" or "lunatic". Life and existence become incredibly expansive and the things we used to ground ourselves and define our precarious position in the world of matter become very much irrelevant. Almost like a drug, enlightenment and wisdom become the only goal considered worthwhile and the only thing towards which energy and effort is projected.
This would render a person somewhat incapable of some of the more worldly pursuits. Like work. Like mundane conversation. This is where the seeker's path leads to undesired results and hence the many dire warnings found in almost all books on the subject. The Sufi's "Drunk on God" and the Kabbalist's "Divine Madness" fall into this category and should be guarded against.
Why am I writing this? I don't know.
Once, as theory has it, we discover the spark of divinity within, the HGA, we no longer need worry about getting lost in the world, doing the wrong thing, giving into base desires, or living in chaos and confusion. The HGA is our guide and our companion, eager to teach, accompany, and protect.
However, adversely, this connection can render us ineffectual in the world. There are those who get so caught up in the pursuit, in the journey, that they have a difficult time holding a job, functioning within society's confines and are often labeled as "nuts" or "lunatic". Life and existence become incredibly expansive and the things we used to ground ourselves and define our precarious position in the world of matter become very much irrelevant. Almost like a drug, enlightenment and wisdom become the only goal considered worthwhile and the only thing towards which energy and effort is projected.
This would render a person somewhat incapable of some of the more worldly pursuits. Like work. Like mundane conversation. This is where the seeker's path leads to undesired results and hence the many dire warnings found in almost all books on the subject. The Sufi's "Drunk on God" and the Kabbalist's "Divine Madness" fall into this category and should be guarded against.
Why am I writing this? I don't know.
Stange Aeons
If you're like many, you've dabbled in various new-age versions of so-called "magick" from both ancient and modern sources. Alternative spiritualities are all the rage in this new millennium and cover the gamut from witchcraft to NLP, from Medieval grimoires to Positive Thinking.
Neo-pagans notwithstanding, it has been my experience that there are a great many different ways to the same destination, some more perilous than others and all worthy of at least a look.
The idea of all of these systems is built around the concept of a middle spiritual agency between Gods and men and women. Know variously as the agathosdaimon, the Higher Self, and the Holy Guardian Angel, this being serves as a middle man between us and the Absolute and once the acquaintance is made it renews us and guides us gently but firmly down the path of knowing our own True Will, our purpose in this life.
While many have attained, few have achieved and I am one of these. While my journey has not entailed the "Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel", it has left me - in many ways - wise.
As Crowley stated, "the purpose of the operation is to raise up the complete man in a vertical line. All other operations tend to black magick." What he meant is that every young dabbler who tries to enchant another, or get revenge, or magickally cram for finals, or make themselves beautiful through the art of Glamoury, it is all out of balance with the will of the All, and therefore is black magick.
to be continued......
Neo-pagans notwithstanding, it has been my experience that there are a great many different ways to the same destination, some more perilous than others and all worthy of at least a look.
The idea of all of these systems is built around the concept of a middle spiritual agency between Gods and men and women. Know variously as the agathosdaimon, the Higher Self, and the Holy Guardian Angel, this being serves as a middle man between us and the Absolute and once the acquaintance is made it renews us and guides us gently but firmly down the path of knowing our own True Will, our purpose in this life.
While many have attained, few have achieved and I am one of these. While my journey has not entailed the "Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel", it has left me - in many ways - wise.
As Crowley stated, "the purpose of the operation is to raise up the complete man in a vertical line. All other operations tend to black magick." What he meant is that every young dabbler who tries to enchant another, or get revenge, or magickally cram for finals, or make themselves beautiful through the art of Glamoury, it is all out of balance with the will of the All, and therefore is black magick.
to be continued......
Makes me mad...no, sad...no, mad....no, sad....
A year ago, I received a diagnosis of aggressive bladder cancer. Since then and three surgeries later, I think I'm probably going to live. However, I'm a bit livid that people I've know for over 40 years don't seem to have a lot to do with me anymore. It could be that they don't know what to say or they feel uncomfortable. It could be that they've bought into the idea that cancer is contagious. I really don't know. I only know that after all these years, real-life friends seem few and far between.
Then I think more about it. These friends and I, despite knowing each other for decades, have very little in common. They love sports. I was a wimpy kid and didn't participate in scholastic sports. As I got older and became less wimpy, I got into sports like MMA and downhill racing (via skiis) and never had the time of day for football, basketball or baseball. That makes me sort of an odd man out. They don't know or like my sports and I don't know or like theirs.
They are adept at fixing engines of any type. Car engines, lawn mower motors, bike motors. I am not.
The empty space between my view of life and theirs is an insurmountable abyss. But I still liked the company and the interaction. It kind of hurts my feeling that they aren't there for me. However, on hindsight, perhaps I don't have enough time to spend on counter-productive friendships and need to seek out kindred souls and kindred spirits.
Anyway, it makes me sad and a little mad.
Then I think more about it. These friends and I, despite knowing each other for decades, have very little in common. They love sports. I was a wimpy kid and didn't participate in scholastic sports. As I got older and became less wimpy, I got into sports like MMA and downhill racing (via skiis) and never had the time of day for football, basketball or baseball. That makes me sort of an odd man out. They don't know or like my sports and I don't know or like theirs.
They are adept at fixing engines of any type. Car engines, lawn mower motors, bike motors. I am not.
The empty space between my view of life and theirs is an insurmountable abyss. But I still liked the company and the interaction. It kind of hurts my feeling that they aren't there for me. However, on hindsight, perhaps I don't have enough time to spend on counter-productive friendships and need to seek out kindred souls and kindred spirits.
Anyway, it makes me sad and a little mad.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Life as I know it
What's it really all about, anyway? We do not ask to be born, to be labeled with a number or to spend our lives in subservient obeisance to the powers-that-be, yet we are daily told what a gift life is, how lucky we are to exist and have consciousness.
I love the phrase "well, at least in America we're free." Not a one of us has been free since we squirted out onto the birthing table. Even the freedom of childhood, with all its innocence and wonder, is slowly indoctrinated out of us by the time we reach school age. By the age of five or six, the magic is gone.
Freedom is just that...the freedom to do as you choose, when you choose in the manner that you choose. By being born into a society in which the only measure of success is the 40 (or more) hour per week we are born into a form of slavery, no matter how nicely we re-arrange the circumstances. By living in a society in which the "good" things of life come at a premium cost, we deny those things to the majority who do not have the ways and means for things such as health insurance, fancy cell-phones, vacations, and nice clothing and cars. I at least had a period of my life where I could afford what I wanted and my heart bleeds for people who will never know the feeling of being absolutely secure or able to live as they would like to.
Western society has based everything on the almighty dollar, the omnipotent euro, and we have estranged our fellow people, divided the masses into those who are "worthy" and those who are not, decided who lives and who dies based on income and affluence. I read about a cancer patient who is being treated at City of Hope Cancer Treatment Centers and I hear about many alternative therapies and drugs that are not available to me by going through the Veteran's Administration. I am so thankful that they were there for me, but tell me this...is my life not every bit as precious as another, or is my life somehow worth less because I do not hold an exalted position in the community or in the financial world?
This obsession with money and power, combined with the iron fist of a morality based on the two-thousand year old ramblings of a bunch of desert primitives is a life-destroying combination. None of us knows if there is anything after, so all we really know for sure is that we have this one life. What right does any group of people have to dictate the parameters of this one life? So you decided we should live in a democracy because by your reckoning, democracy is the "right" way, but maybe I don't agree. You've decided marijuana should be illegal based on your misguided understanding brought about by anti-drug propaganda from the 20's and 30's. Did you know cocaine is illegal because the fat-cats in the suits were afraid of the ramifications of the "drug-crazed negro?" How ridiculous is that one?!
Bottom line is this...they decide for us and we comply or face the music. Like Bush, they are the "deciders" and our only task lies in acceptance and compliance with their view of the world and their concept of society.
We are slaves and they are our masters.
I love the phrase "well, at least in America we're free." Not a one of us has been free since we squirted out onto the birthing table. Even the freedom of childhood, with all its innocence and wonder, is slowly indoctrinated out of us by the time we reach school age. By the age of five or six, the magic is gone.
Freedom is just that...the freedom to do as you choose, when you choose in the manner that you choose. By being born into a society in which the only measure of success is the 40 (or more) hour per week we are born into a form of slavery, no matter how nicely we re-arrange the circumstances. By living in a society in which the "good" things of life come at a premium cost, we deny those things to the majority who do not have the ways and means for things such as health insurance, fancy cell-phones, vacations, and nice clothing and cars. I at least had a period of my life where I could afford what I wanted and my heart bleeds for people who will never know the feeling of being absolutely secure or able to live as they would like to.
Western society has based everything on the almighty dollar, the omnipotent euro, and we have estranged our fellow people, divided the masses into those who are "worthy" and those who are not, decided who lives and who dies based on income and affluence. I read about a cancer patient who is being treated at City of Hope Cancer Treatment Centers and I hear about many alternative therapies and drugs that are not available to me by going through the Veteran's Administration. I am so thankful that they were there for me, but tell me this...is my life not every bit as precious as another, or is my life somehow worth less because I do not hold an exalted position in the community or in the financial world?
This obsession with money and power, combined with the iron fist of a morality based on the two-thousand year old ramblings of a bunch of desert primitives is a life-destroying combination. None of us knows if there is anything after, so all we really know for sure is that we have this one life. What right does any group of people have to dictate the parameters of this one life? So you decided we should live in a democracy because by your reckoning, democracy is the "right" way, but maybe I don't agree. You've decided marijuana should be illegal based on your misguided understanding brought about by anti-drug propaganda from the 20's and 30's. Did you know cocaine is illegal because the fat-cats in the suits were afraid of the ramifications of the "drug-crazed negro?" How ridiculous is that one?!
Bottom line is this...they decide for us and we comply or face the music. Like Bush, they are the "deciders" and our only task lies in acceptance and compliance with their view of the world and their concept of society.
We are slaves and they are our masters.
Get Real.
Get real. No, really.
Forty years on the job in one form or another.
Three years as a high-speed Army commando type.
Four years as a private investigator doing undercover, surveillance, and interviewing.
Six years in upper management in the production industry of Southern California.
Six years of customer service and tech support for Worldnet, Netchannel, Earthlink, Comcast, and Nextel.
and somewhere around another 20 years doing graphic arts, database management, writing, product acquisition and a variety of other things.
Oh, I'm sorry. I'm not trying to disrespect you. After all, you ARE my supervisor. However, since this is your first job and given the vast experience you've not accrued in your 19 years of life on Earth, please understand that when you speak, I don't always listen. I don't need you to tell me how to speak to people or how to conduct myself in a corporate environment. You came along a few years to late to be able to do that.
Forty years on the job in one form or another.
Three years as a high-speed Army commando type.
Four years as a private investigator doing undercover, surveillance, and interviewing.
Six years in upper management in the production industry of Southern California.
Six years of customer service and tech support for Worldnet, Netchannel, Earthlink, Comcast, and Nextel.
and somewhere around another 20 years doing graphic arts, database management, writing, product acquisition and a variety of other things.
Oh, I'm sorry. I'm not trying to disrespect you. After all, you ARE my supervisor. However, since this is your first job and given the vast experience you've not accrued in your 19 years of life on Earth, please understand that when you speak, I don't always listen. I don't need you to tell me how to speak to people or how to conduct myself in a corporate environment. You came along a few years to late to be able to do that.
Oh, to Hell with you....
Here I am again, getting warned about my impending termination unless I "get with the program" and start selling a bunch of garbage to an unsuspecting public. Yes, telephone service, DSL internet and Direct TV, three items I should be more than happy to shove down everybody's throat and if my moral character kicks in, if I hesitate to take money out of the pockets of those who can scarcely afford food and put it in the pockets of the corporate hoi-polloi, I stand the chance of being fired. Let us not concentrate on the fact that I deliver world-class customer service and exceptional trouble-shooting, but let us only consider that if my "revenue per call" is only $37, I am only making the company $37 for each and every of the 30 or 40 calls I take each day. If one wishes to see corruption and the very worst of human nature, one only need look at the telecommunications industry and observe how they treat their "valued" customers.
We work on an internal system that is so slow it can take 3 minutes to get from one webpage to another, that crashes on a regular basis, and that cripples us in every interaction. The call center is louder than a packed bar on Friday night and often we cannot even hear what the people on the other end of the line are saying. At least 95% of our calls are based on issues such as billing complaints, service outages, and unfulfilled promises. And our company promises 99.9% network reliability but I can tell you for a fact that this number is nonsense. We get a huge amount of calls for non-working internet and phone lines.
The company pays us between $7 an hour and $8.25 an hour, so lets do the math. In an eight hour shift, if I take 30 calls that is one call every 16 minutes. I get about $2 for each call and the company gets $37 for that call. Quite a profit considering most the time I'm just answering questions.
Sorry guys. I was trained at Tele-Tech in Los Angeles, one of the premier international customer service call-centers in the world. If they tell me that customer relations and support are more important than sales, I have to agree with them.
I just got a call from a guy who received an unexpected $400 bill. I was unable to help him and any department that IS able to help is presently closed. Should I have been able to sell him something? I don't know. He got screwed the first time around, so why would he make a purchase while holding a bill that he claims is in error?!
This place just flies in the face of everything I believe in. So fire me. Do me a favor.
We work on an internal system that is so slow it can take 3 minutes to get from one webpage to another, that crashes on a regular basis, and that cripples us in every interaction. The call center is louder than a packed bar on Friday night and often we cannot even hear what the people on the other end of the line are saying. At least 95% of our calls are based on issues such as billing complaints, service outages, and unfulfilled promises. And our company promises 99.9% network reliability but I can tell you for a fact that this number is nonsense. We get a huge amount of calls for non-working internet and phone lines.
The company pays us between $7 an hour and $8.25 an hour, so lets do the math. In an eight hour shift, if I take 30 calls that is one call every 16 minutes. I get about $2 for each call and the company gets $37 for that call. Quite a profit considering most the time I'm just answering questions.
Sorry guys. I was trained at Tele-Tech in Los Angeles, one of the premier international customer service call-centers in the world. If they tell me that customer relations and support are more important than sales, I have to agree with them.
I just got a call from a guy who received an unexpected $400 bill. I was unable to help him and any department that IS able to help is presently closed. Should I have been able to sell him something? I don't know. He got screwed the first time around, so why would he make a purchase while holding a bill that he claims is in error?!
This place just flies in the face of everything I believe in. So fire me. Do me a favor.
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