michael the redbear’s blog

Through truth justice.

Through justice peace.

rb

67

paragraph 2

"I have just three things to teach:

simplicity , patience, compassion.

These three are your greatest treasures.

Simple in actions and in thoughts,

you return to the source of being.

Patient with both friends and enemies,

you accord with the way thihngs are.

Compassionate toward yourself,

you reconcile all beings in the world."

Lao-tzu bwo S.M.

"Certitude is seized by some minds, not because there is any philosophical justification for it, but because such minds have an emotional need for certitude."

      -R.A. Wilson from The New Inquisition; Irrational Rationalism and the Citadel of Science

Yours in questioning, rb

Empty your mind of all thoughts.

Let your heart be at peace.

Watch the turmoil of beings

but contemplate their return.

Each separate being in the universe

returns to the common source.

Returning to the source is serenity.

If you don't realize the source,

you stumble in confusion and sorrow.

When you realize where you come from,

you naturally become tolerant,

disinterested, amused,

kindhearted as a grandmother,

dignified as a king.

Immersed in the wonder of the Tao,

you can deal with whatever life brings you,

and when death comes, you are ready.

LT-SM

Peace, rb.

This is my take on Chriss' rant, sliced from my reply to his post

I'm all for more deversity, gender and race representation in our government and even more so for class which is, in my opinion, much less likely.  There seems to be a generaly held view in our society that poverty is a sign of some essential defect, much like race and gender have been in the past and, to a certain extent, still are in some minds and more hearts (used in this case as a synonym for the subconcious.)

It seems sad to me that many Women in politics have risen to high position because they have exposed the same values as the ruling RWM.  Such individuals as Madeleine Albright, Hillary Clinton and Condaleza Rice some to mind.  I know, I know It's sexist of me to believe that women don't have the same propensity to be plutocratic scum bags as guys but there it is.  Of course there are examples from the other end of the spectrum, Carol Mosley Braun (sp?) and Barbara Boxer come to mind.  Hell I might have even voted Democratic in the last Presidential election if they had nominated Braun but they didn't (She was running, wasn't she?  It was so long ago.)

As for this country returning to its' greatness...  I will freely acknowledge that this is the greatest country on the planet today and possibly of all time.  That having been said I'll put some perspective on the word great by making what I believe is another accurate statement; the attacks that took place on September 11th of 2001 were the greatest terrorist attack of all time.  The point being that what is great is not necessarily good or desirable.  I think I know what you mean though.

The best moments of this nation have come not from the ruling class and government but rather from those who have stood against them in the struggle to advance the cause of justice.  In the late 18th century the United States represented the cutting edge of democratization.  Unfortunetly those who led the revolution quickly became the rulers and have, ever since, opposed any further advance of democracy.  They have, however, done an excellent job of conflating themselves with the larger body of the nation particularly in the minds of the people of the nation.  Thus if any sub group in the nation (the poor (orginally defined as those who could not meet property qualifications for voting), women, blacks to name a few) have agetated for there rights the established powers have resisted until it became evident that it was a lost cause at which point they accept the group (grudgingly) as Jr. partners and then pretended that it was their idea all along.

Well duty calls, more later, maybe. RB

...and TV watched.

When last we left our hero he was sitting in a fine coffee shop waiting for his friend to return;

Well I sat a read for a brief time.

The Best War Ever: America and World War II (The American Moment)

An intersting book that discusses WWII and many of the myths that have risen up around it.  Basically it says that the only good war is one you don't participate in, very good perspective for our time.  The only complaint I have is that Adams subscribes to the generally held theory that the U.S. government is generally benign in its motives.  Facts not in evidence. He does have a great line, or actually he quotes, or paraphrases, Garry Wills biography of Ronald Regan; "...believes that a key to Regan's success is that he entered into a mute conspiracy with his public to ingnore those aspects of reality that are unpleasant or disturbing."-pg. 16, this in his discussion of Regan's dellusions of participating in the war in any capacity other than a propgandist.  If you are interested in a more hard core treatment of the same subject matter try

Saving Private Power: The Hidden History of "the Good War"

this, but be warned that the guy is a commie and as such can't be trusted, we all know that people who have no bias are those who subscribe to the capitalist republican (note the small 'r') theory of economic governance.  If you are inclined to read either please consider buying them through your local independent bookstore or through the ABE books web site, a used bookstore listing service.  Or go to Amazon, its your soul.

Anyway, the first was what I read on this trip and back to it.

Chris showed up in relatively short order, I had just started my second cup.  We went back to his place and he gave me the tour, finishing up in the garden.  The place is great, particularly the garden, which Chris seemed to be a bit, not embaressed but sorry it was not at its best.  I thought it looked great but I know he was seeing what wasn't there, it being December and all.  A nice, geen spot in the city.

The visit was a bunch of eating out, watching TV, hanging out and some talking, all of which is fine by me.  I'm not a big traveler, usually only doing so to see people I love.  If I want to see the beutiful scenery all I have to do is look out the window.  Chris is great as  a friend for many reasons including his ability to sift through the mass of crap out there in TV land to find a few gems, like The Office (British version) which we watched in its entirety, painfully humorous.  Beth cooked a couple of great meals but most of our eating was of the out and in variety.  What was that great diner?  Anyway it was great.  It was good to see everyone (Chris, Tom, Beth, Rachel, Curt and anyone I've forgotten (Its not you, its the drugs)) and to meet everyone else (Diana, Mingus, Millo, ditto).  We did do a little wandering. I got harassed (lightly) by one of the local nuts (damn, the Seattle crazy people just aren't up to the SF standard) and got to see some pretty plants and murals.

I left on Saturday night with Curt and Tom.  I had forgotten to figure out just where the E-ville train station was  befoe we left so we had to figure it out on the fly which we did with little trouble with Tom on map, me on cell phone (Curts) and Curt  driving and dirrecting.  They dropped me off at 9:27 pm, 3 minutes before my goal and 43 minutes before the train was due.  I went in and called Jullie (TM) your automated Amtrak agent and recieved the welcome news that the train was running on time.  I sat down and waited not knowing that the ADVENTURE HAD ONLY BEGUN!

But that will have to wait for Chapter 3, The Trip Home or ARE YOU (seven letter word for the act of fornication)KIDDING ME?

Well I've been and am back.  It was, all in all, a good trip, the only down side was the return leg.  Heading down via Amtrak was nice.  We pulled out on time, no it's not a given, and I settled into my seat to watch Puget sound roll by.  The countryside looked significantly different from my summer trip, gray and bleak.  I guess this is only to be expected in midwinter (Celtic reckoning). Picked up a seat mate in Tacoma but lost her when we got to Eugene so I had a double to myself greatly increasing my ability to sleep.  Woke up in time to arrive in Sacramento, 45 minutes early!   Getting my single cup of train coffee (yuck!) I was informed by the attendent that Amtrak sued Union Pacific for 350 million over the cronic lateness of their trains and won, accounting for the increased probability of arriving on time.  The Sacramento to Emeryville leg was foggy, forshadowing the rest of my time in the Bay area.  We got in to E-ville about 10 minutes late and I got on the shuttle to San Francisco.  Got off at my stop and followed Beths instructions (perfect) to the Mission and their apartment.  B was at work and C was at breakfast so I went to the coffee shop on the corner near their place and waited while enjoying a cuppa that was significantly better than my first of the day and  enjoyed the environs, a nice, local, independent (BUCK FAR-SUCKS!) coffee shop while I waited, briefly, for Chris to return.

End, act 1

and in the end, is there anything wrong with that?  Well I do feel like I'm kind of letting CB down since he invited me to join and expressed a fondness for my 'rants' (Rants?  Please, every statement I make is well reasoned, concise and delivered in a rational fasion.  NO, REALLY, THEY ARE!)  The main reason being that my rants are often fueled by the consumption of certain substances, all of which are legal (as far as you know) and since I do my posting at work, having no connection at home, where I don't consume said substances (as far as my boss knows), there is naturally a smaller chance of a rant emerging to be put down on ether.  So sorry Chris and anyone else who have been waiting for me to rant.

Well, whats been going on for the last two mnths or so?  The Soak and Sulk (see previous rants) was enjoyable but sub par.  Just a few days before we left the resort called to say that the swiming pool would be closed.  This was disapointing but not deal breaking.  It's nice to dip in the pool occasionally to refresh yourself but obviously the hot, soaking pools are the real attraction.  Well when we got there we discovered that the situation was more complex.  The swiming pool is heated (it dosent feel like it when you get into it, at 70, when you've just been in a 100 degree pool, but it is) through a heat exchange that is tied into the other pools.  So the hot pool was at it's normal 104 but the large pool that is normally around 100 degrees was coming in at around 107.  Not an ideal situation.  My brother was worse off since the 104 pool is just about as high as he can handel, and even then for short periods.  He spent alot of time in the 'kiddie' pool that was a resonable 98 or so.  Luckily he is thin enough that he could submerge his torso in it.  Other than the pool situation all was grand, gorgeous scenerey (sp?) good friends, good food, good booze, good etcetera.

Since then, not much in my life.  I had the vague urge to post around election time inspired by yet another great line from The Coup; "You're voting which you're hoping will stop the guns from smoking.  Is someone fucking joking?  They're bankers in sheeps clothing."  It is my inclination to simply no longer participate but I gave in a voted this time due to the large number of ballot initiatives that I was interested and the fact that there was a Black Panther running here on the Green Party ticket.  I mean an election where I got the chance to vote to support a Black Panther, strippers and estate taxes and against over the top property rights? How could I resist.  By and large, however, it is my feeling that the main function of elections is to give the populace the illusion that they have some control of the situation.  In any event the Federal government has, to my mind, lost whatever minimal legitemacy it may have had at one time.  Hey, this is kind of rant like.  There you go.

Now I'm getting ready to head down the SF to see the afore mentioned CB (not to mention TB and the ever wonderful LBM) and anyone else I might run across.  Oh, I hear the city is pretty nice as well.  My train leaves tomorrow morning at about 10 and is due into SF at 9ish the following day.  Of course it is Amtrak running on the Union Pacific line so it would be more of a surprise if it were on time.  Last time it was 6 hours late, which include the memorable 45 minutes or so we were stopped in a tunnel.  It would not have been that bad except I got in a 2 in the morning (buses stop being useful at about 10 and had to be at work the next morning at 11 after 3 weeks on the road.  My own fault for poor schedualing.

Well thats all the rant for now.  Stay tunned for more ranting in another two months or so. Maybe.

best, rb

Eh-hum!  Is this on?  Can you hear Me?  What?  I know I'm a freak, do you think that you would surprise me with that observation?  Like somehow I'd made it through almost, but not quite, 42 years without realising that I was one? Come on, try to keep it in your mind that just because somthing is a great epihphany to you dosen't mean it is to everyone.  So there.

So anyway...

My father has been sucesfully dilivered to the airport and I have sucesfully made it to work and the day is begun.  Driving the rented car a round Seattle I was again struck by the fact that driving turns people into assholes.  No, it's a fact.  You will note that I did not say it turns all people into complete assholes but I most definetly believe that it exerts an influence that drives people in the direction of being an asshole.  Of course if you were an asshole to start off then the effect is that much greater. So, lets say on a scale of 0 (not really any kind of asshole) to 100 (biggest asshole you ever met in your life)  someone (not you, don't worry (probably) let us call them subject 'A') is a '12' or so.  They get in the car and quickly become '18's' or even '24's'.  But lets say someone else (Subject 'B') is an '80' right out of the shute.  Well that person might shoot right up into the mid or even late '100's' (yes, i realise that I've gone beyond my originally postulated maximum of 100 but this is my rant so I can do what ever I want.  Neener(Sp?)-neener(Sp?)!)  entering the mythical relm of the 'supper asshole' leaving we normal, human, assholes behind.  You may notice that the increase is significantly greater in the case of subject B than in subject A, both in real terms and when expressed as a percentage of the original whole.  This might be explained by the hypothosis; that the further you go down the road to being an asshole the easier it is to go even further down said road.  As supporting evidencefor thsi sub-hypothosis I would direct you to the actions of Western 'Civilization' over the last, oh 6000 years or so. (See the following book

Endgame: Volume 1: The Problem of Civilization

Derrick Jensen

which is good but depressing as hell, unlike the rest of Jensens stuff Ha!)  Best ways to get book: 1)BOrrow book from the library 2)Buy the book from your local independent used bookstore 3)Buy the book at your local independent new bookstore 4)Buy/Steal book at your local chain used bookstore 5)Buy/Steal book from local chain bookstore. My inclination to buy from independents and, hypothetically, steal from chains is based on two things; My belief that independents do a better job of stimulating debate, or at least thought in people and offer a broader range of voices and, as I've long held, make money so they can sell books as opposed to the chains the sell books to make money.  My second point is that generally speaking security is more likely to be more intense and commited at an independent than it is at a chain.  For an interesting analysis of the ethics of shop lifting please see

Pick a Bigger Weapon

The Coup

an excellent radical hip-hop (I think) CD (or whatever) that came out this year.  Some of the best political music I've heard, this year or any other.  The germaine cut is "I Love Boosters" but they are all great.  "War ain't about one land against the next  It's po people dyin' so the rich cash checks" from Head (of State).  My ethical position on the question of if you should steal stuff from chain stores or from where or who ever is this; none.  What am I, your mother?  (I can offer substanative, possibly irrefutable evidence that I am, in fact, not your mother.)  You're an adult, make up your own mind and if your not an adult I'm not your role model and besides what are you doing on the internet?  Don't you know how much evil and danger there is on the internet?  Go outside and play or somthing, there's no evil or danger out there.

So anyway, back to my point (you had hoped I'd forgotten, hadn't you?) driving makes assholes.  I'm driving along and need to get over to exit and this guy woudn't let me in.  That in and of itself doesn't make the guy an asshole it's the rude gesture that makes him an asshole.  I mean really, don't let me in, that's reasonable but to make a gesture too?  Thats just gratuitous.  So I made a gesture, blew off that exit and went to the next.  Fuck that guy, he can eat dogshit. So, yeah, I'm an asshole as well and that's my point.  Driving made me more of an asshole than I already am.  Don't know the guy, maybe he's is a flamming asshole at home and a sweet little buttercup on the road but somehow I doubt it.

So my dad is presumbably on his way and I'm off tomorrow for the Soak and Sulk.  Possibly the most relaxing mini vacation I could imagine, except for having to drive to it but even that isn't to bad as far as driving goes, the general trend being a progression from more asshole drivers to fewer asshole drivers followed by parking and sitting in hot water for a good portion of the following four days.  Mmmmmm...

So anyway, if you are reading this and know me and wanted to be there sorry you can't make it, hope to see you next year if can.  If you don't know me I'm not sure how I feel. 

CB, keep up the healing man, you remain in my thoughts and heart.

l, rb

Here we are, Wednesday the 27th of September.  Another day in the paradise of Seattle Washington.  The sun is shining and the temperatures are unseasonably warm, 65 right now with a projected high of 78.  It's been like that for a couple of days.  I, being the contrarian crank that I am,  find myself disputing the conventional wisdom.  Most people seem to enjoy this weather but myself, I like the cool rain.  A week ago it was doing just that but then the sun came back.  Don't get me wrong, I like a bright sunny day but that is pretty much what we have here July through September so at this point in the year I'm ready for the rains to come back.

Ah the joys of retail.  Do you treat the retail workers you encounter like human beings?  Many people don't.  A youn man just walked in and asked for a book.  This seems like a reasonable thing to do since I work in a bookstore but there are certain social conventions that we generally follow in our interactions with each other that people often feel they don't need to follow when interacting with people in the service industry.  A simple 'hello' or 'good morning' goes a long way to making the person you are interacting with feel like you don't consider them the equivilant of a vending machine.  It also may lead to an increase in the level of service you recieve.  I am significantly more likely to put forth an extra effort to get you what you want if you at least make an attempt to acknowledge my humanity.  I've perused a few books by Miss Manners and other etiquite experts and their main concern seems to be that retail workers often fail to treat customers with the deference they (the customers) feel they are due.  I've never seen the expert suggest that the customers might treat the workers as anything other than door mats.  I have no doubt that Judith (Martin, the affor mentioned Miss Manners) would say that the humane treatment is implied in the larger context of the need to be polite to eveyone but it is my feeling that this could do with a bit more emphasis since it seems that many people feel entitled to treat retail workers poorly because they are potential customers, 'I might buy a $2 book from you so you are required to kiss my ass' is the attitude often evidenced by people, somthing I'm tempted to call 'The Nordstrom Way syndrome'  based on the Nordstroms policy of giving superior service to anyone that looks rich enough and white enough.  If you look poor, 'ethnic' or, god forbid, poor and ethnic you get to expierience the superior work of their security department.  Of course the middle managment pimps who form these ass kissing policies seldom have to do the ass kissing themselves (how could they find the time with all the effort they put into kissing the asses of upper managment) except when they have to sooth the temper of the customers who feel that their asses were not sufficiently smooched.  The soothing generally involves telling the customer how horrible and worthless the employee in question is, or at least implying the same.  BUT I'M NOT BITTER!   Well, maybe a little.  Enough of that. (Moral of the story; be nice to the people who serve you, you are more likely to get what you want and less likely to get spit in you food.)

My dad is visiting which by and large is a good thing but he likes to listen to the NPR news programs.  Once upon a time I was and NPR head but I kiked the habbit.  The break was percipitated by their report on the occasion of the first time the U.S. bombed Iraq during the Clinton administration.  Listening to the broadcast, which was the typical cheerleading with no questioning of the legitimacy or need of the action, made me think 'this isn't any different than what I would have heard on Armed Forces broadcasting'.  During the intervining 13 or so years I don't know if they have gotten worse (more mindless in their reporting and support of the status quo) although I suspect that they have.  I know that I've gotten more radical (Bill Bradley (the Portland wobbly, not the NJ politician and former basketball dude) once told me that the deffinition of a radical was 'a liberal who has been to jail'.  We happened to be in jail at the time.)  Many of my liberal friends ('hey, some of my best friends are liberals!') contend that it is better than the alternatives, which I don't agree with.  The news on the local station 91.3 fm, KBCS, (Democracy Now!, etc.) is significantly better than what NPR has to offer.  It is, however, interesting to me that things which are 'better', for example NPR versus the major T.V. networks, actually piss me off more than the things that they are 'better' than.  It seems that they are getting part of the picture but stopping short of admitting the whole thing.

Well I guess I should do some work now, god damn protestant work ethic, try as I might I can't kill the thing off.  I'll close with and observation on the limited utility of a spell checker that tells you the word is miss-spelled but does not give you any alternatives.  Geeze what a lazy, spoiled bastard I am.  Oh well, don't want to take away any fun from all those amature editors out there.

Best to all, redbear