i'm not good with political things. seriously...i can be talked into just about anything when it comes to politics... for or against al gore. i've heard both sides and somehow agree with both sides all all things until the other reminds me about their position then i flip again lol.
as far as the words being changed (political correctly using words)... you can change the name of something but it still means the same.
all that stuff going on in mexico is kind of freaky. spring break looked the same though but i guess it was in another section away from the killing and fighting?

Well, first you have to follow the advice of John Prine and blow up your TV and eat a lot of peaches.

Second, this is a very good post, although likely to place you on some list. Though not a Ron Paul & company supporter, I did find this ARTICLE most interesting and somewhat in the vein of your very real concerns here.

I had written a post in a similar vein only last week, but took it down. I think a lot of people have difficulty with the reality in lieu of New-Age-feel-good theosophy as opposed to a slightly more pro-active awareness in sacred activism as put forth by Andrew Harvey.

Things are never as simple as they appear, and other things are more simple than they appear. Such is the paradox of things. I just read a brief story about a man who travels the country with a pocketful of tiny crystals, which is gives away or buries beneath tree roots as he is called. If New Age gurus would get off their divans and stop charging the centric masses to hear them pontificate on their narcissistic emptiness, perhaps more awareness could be spread among the people. To charge for even a grain of the truth is as much a blasphemy as anything and just as ego centric in keeping the people ego centric. Nothing will come from a book. Nothing will come from a lecture. Within is an extension of Divine Mind. Spiritual laziness is as great a culprit as the wisdom that is only a parrot speaking on center stage for the intoxication of the masses, just as any political dream machine. Peace Pilgrim travelled the country on foot like an old Mother Theresa in the cause of Peace Awareness and how many even remember who Peace Pilgrim was?

It is good to be a pilgrim soul, my Friend.

I babble.

Blessings~

you are the most brave person in xanga I ever know...where is going spirit of unti-war at that time of Veitnum war....It was militaly conscription so young people against that..but after, it changed business soldier...everything pay by money...society system become crazy...we don't give up to dream to peace world...and don't make a military-industrial complexat fat and make only five percent capitalist rich more and more....good post..

Well, here is an article I hope will copy and paste in full, and one I thought you might be interested in reading. It falls into the general category of expressed dismay over the peril of political correctness as we see having risen in these current times.


POLITICAL CORRECTNESS: THE SCOURGE OF OUR TIMES

by Agustin Blazquez with the collaboration of Jaums Sutton

Does anyone know of the origins of Political Correctness? Who originally developed it and what was its purpose?

I looked it up. It was developed at the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt, Germany, which was founded in 1923 and came to be known as the "Frankfurt School". It was a group of thinkers who pulled together to find a solution to the biggest problem facing the implementers of communism in Russia.

The problem? Why wasn’t communism spreading? The "answer"? Because Western Civilization was in its way. What was the problem with Western Civilization? Its belief in the individual - that an individual could develop a valid idea. At the root of communism was the theory that all valid ideas come from the effect of the social group of the masses. The individual is nothing. And they believed that the only way for communism to advance was to help (or force, if necessary) Western Civilization to destroy itself. How to do that? Undermine its foundations by chipping away at the rights of those annoying individuals.

One way to do that? Change their speech and thought patterns by spreading the idea that vocalizing your beliefs is disrespectful of others and must be avoided to make up for past inequities and injustices. And call it something that sounds positive: "Political Correctness."

Inspired by the brand new communist technique, Mao, in the 1930s, wrote an article on the "correct" handling of contradictions among the people. "Sensitive training" – sound familiar? – and speech codes were born.

After Hitler, in 1935, the Frankfurt School moved to New York City where they continued their work by translating Marxism from economic to cultural terms by using Sigmund Freud’s psychological conditioning mechanisms to get Americans to buy into Political Correctness. In 1941, they moved to California to spread their wings.

But Political Correctness remains just what it was intended to be: a sophisticated and dangerous form of censorship and oppression imposed upon the citizenry with the ultimate goal of manipulating, brainwashing and destroying our society.

My first conscious exposure to Political Correctness was in 1959 - the first year of Castro’s revolution in Cuba - while attending an indoctrination session at a neighborhood elementary school in Havana. There I learned for the first time of the claimed superiority of life in the Soviet Union vs. the U.S. There I also learned that the word "compañero" (filtered version of the communist "comrade" - Fidel was denying his communist preferences) was the correct way to refer to the other members of the new Cuban society-in-the-making.

Mr., Mrs. or Miss was no longer acceptable, and their further use could reveal that you were not a Fidelista. Since repression and violations of human rights came roaring in right behind Castro’s sweep down from the mountains in 1959, objection or rejection of Fidel Castro’s revolution would (still will) land you in a lot of trouble or you could easily lose your life in those summary executions at La Cabaña prison under the direction of Che Guevara.

But don’t worry about Che. Che was later transformed and cleansed by the masters of Political Correctness. His likeness became a revered icon of the far-left with T-shirts and posters still adorning the campuses of America. The same techniques were used to clean today’s "hero" (even if he was convicted of killing a cop due to overwhelming evidence), Mumia Abu-Jamal.

And under the pervasive guidance of Political Correctness that took hold from elementary school to university, from the media to the arts, from the country fields to factories and offices, Cubans learned to say what it was safe to say. Always in line with the overpowering state. Always following the dictums of the only political party left: the Communist Party. The self-censorship resulting from Political Correctness easily trampled freedom of speech. Political Correctness has succeeded in Cuba by creating a uniform political discourse that has lasted for 43 years.

Political Correctness has given the state (Castro) complete control of speech. That is the main reason why the U.S. media cannot extract the truth of what Cubans really feel when they interview regular citizens and deceptively present their comments as valid to the American public. The same was true in the former Soviet Union and the former satellite countries. The same continues in the remaining communist world.

It’s nothing new. The U.S. media must know that, so, why don’t they openly report that fact in stead of misleading the public? Perhaps that is the reason why the American people are so uneducated about the Cuban tragedy and acted regrettably during the Elian Gonzalez affair.

With profound dismay, I have seen how the scourge of Political Correctness has taken hold in the U.S. It is very well entrenched in our educational system, at scientific, religious and community levels, the media, the workplace and even our government.

It is changing the American society from within and the citizens of this nation are increasingly censoring themselves and losing their freedom of speech out of fear of Political Correctness repression. It is the nature of the Western Civilization to be civilized – respectful of others and concerned to correct injustices. We don’t need Political Correctness to make us think we are not civilized on our own and restrict our thoughts and words.

In December 2001, in Kensington, Maryland, an annual firefighters’ Santa Claus festivity to light the Christmas tree was objected to by two families. The City Council, in the name of Political Correctness, voted to ban Santa from the parade. Fortunately, due to citizen outcry, the decision was reversed at the end and many people protested by dressing up as Santa.

Logically and respectfully, how can one person’s benign icon be objectionable to the point of banishment? Offer to add other people’s icons. Make it a broader celebration. That’s the Perfectly Correct American way.

The rulers of Political Correctness reach absurd levels when they even refer to the betrayal of America by the spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg – executed in 1953 – as "non-traditional patriotism"!

We see shameful situations created in our schools and universities in America that have fallen prey to Political Correctness. Some professors, students and publications are being attacked for expressing a point of view that differs from that imposed by a fanatical far-left under the guise of Political Correctness.

In the educational and work place, we see that "diversity" has degenerated into reverse discrimination, where often the less qualified are admitted and the incompetent cannot be fired. We have seen characters like Rev. Jesse Jackson shamelessly blackmailing and threatening to boycott entire corporations if they don’t hire those selected by him or simply make "donations" to his organizations.

Our Constitution requires the separation of church and state, which has always discouraged our public education system from teaching religion. However, in December 2001, while Christmas cards, symbols and decorations were being objected to for the first time in American public schools in Georgia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Oregon, in an elementary school in Texas, a girl was allowed to give to her classmates an overview and show a video about her Muslim religion.

And in January 2002, a public middle school in San Luis Obispo in California, had its students pretend to be warriors fighting for Islam. Another school near Oakland, California also encouraged 125 seventh grade students to dress up in Muslim robes for a three-week course on Islam. This arbitrary double standard was applied in the name of Political Correctness following the September 11, 2001 attacks.

According to Ellen Sorokin’s No Founding Fathers? published by The Washington Times on its front page on January 28, 2002, even our Founding Fathers have fallen victim of the travesty. The article says of the New Jersey Department of Education’s history standards, "The latest revisions to the state standards have disappointed educators across the country, who said the board’s exclusion of the Founding Fathers’ names is ‘Political Correctness at the end of the nth degree.’"

Sorokin points out that "the standards specifically note that students should identify slavery, the Holocaust and modern Iraq as examples ‘in which people have behave in cruel and inhumane ways.’" However, conveniently, communism is absent.

In another article by Sorokin published by The Washington Times on March 10, pg. A2, Report blames anti-Americanism on college teachers, she presents two examples of upcoming courses for next spring and fall. They are, "’The Sexuality of Terrorism’ at University of California at Hayward; and ‘Terrorism and the Politics of Knowledge’ at UCLA, a class that, according to its course description, examines ‘America’s record of imperialistic adventurism.’"

Recently, a historic photograph of the New York firefighters rising the American flag over the ruins of the World Trade Center was going to be made into a sculpture as a memorial. But history’s revisionists used Political Correctness to dictate that other minority faces replace some of the faces in the historical photograph! Fortunately, in the end that didn’t fly either due to the outcry of firefighters and the public.

For people with a background and firsthand experience living inside a totalitarian communist society it is obvious the tilt and the goal of the dictators of Political Correctness in America. The beneficiaries in the end will be the fanatic believers in the totalitarian state, who, in spite of the dismal failure of communism and the 100 million people exterminated pursuing that criminal system, have not given up.

Political or religious fanatics, as demonstrated by the September 11, 2001 attacks, and the subsequent war in Afghanistan, are extremely dangerous in today’s world.

All citizens who cherish liberty must reject the scourge of Political Correctness. Freedom of speech must be preserved in America if we are to continue to be free.

Let’s say it: Castro is not a "president" as the U.S. media’s Political Correctness calls him. Castro has not been democratically elected to anything in Cuba. The correct word to define him is: tyrant. He is not just a "leader" as the U.S. media also calls him. He is more of a criminal Mafioso-type character.

Why criminal? Because he has caused the death of more than 100,000 Cubans. Thousands have died through his supported guerillas in Central and South America. Thousands of blacks were killed by Castro’s soldiers in Africa. Castro in the 1980s introduced the use of bacteriological weapons to kill blacks in Angola. How many thousands have died in America as a result of his drug-trafficking into the U.S.? How many thousands have died all over the world due to terrorists trained in Castro’s Cuba?

Former Soviet colonel Ken Alibek, who defected to America, was once in charge of the Soviet Union’s production of biological weapons. In Alibek’s 1999 book, Biohazard, he reveals that with the help of the Soviet Union, Cuba, in the 1980s, created laboratories to produce chemical and bacteriological weapons of mass destruction – just 90 miles from U.S. shores. The information of Castro’s involvement with bacteriological weapons comes also from various independent sources. We must not forget either that Cuba is in the U.S. State Department’s list of terrorist nations.

Why Mafioso? Well, Castro is like an untouchable godfather, surrounded by bodyguards and thugs and a private army of about 40,000 soldiers for his personal protection (roughly the size of the entire army of Cuba prior to 1959). He stole foreign and national properties in Cuba. He has become one of the richest men in the world according to Forbes Magazine. He has created a despotic and corrupt elite to exploit the Cuban people and keep himself in power. He has made the Cuban people hostages and slaves of his corrupt regime.

The U.S. media does not call Al Capone "the former leader" of the Italian Mafia. Why the double standard with Fidel and other far-left regimes? The answer can be traced to where the sympathies lie inside the elite dictating Political Correctness in America.

It’s one thing is to be educated, considerate and polite, and have good manners, and another is to be forced to self-censor and to say things that are totally incorrect in order to comply with the arbitrary dictums of a deceiving and fanatical far-left agenda. Let’s preserve our freedom and say NO to the scourge of Political Correctness

END

I find Ayahuasca to be an effective deprogrammer.  At one moment I felt as though I was breaking out of the Matrix, whatever that is.  At other times after a strong jurema/rue analogue purge, I've found myself weeping over the consequences of America's actions throughout the world, intended or otherwise.

It's too bad people believe we live in a federal democracy.  People don't know their rights and so they eagerly give them away because it's as you say, they're put into an unwarranted state of panic.  I hate politics.

Social security is going away, too.  I guess FDR couldn't have possibly foreseen the mess we'd be in after all of the boomers retire.  And medicare is about to become unviable within the next decade.

There seems to be something coming though.  I don't know what it is but it could be big.  We might, collectively as a human race, miss an opportunity.  Actually, I think that's a dream.

Peace, Mr. S

Thinking of you tonight.  Your words are always inspiring.  Some optimism is expressed in a speech reprinted at my blog.  The speech was a commencement address given to the graduating class of the University of Portland.  The speaker:  Paul Hawken. 

I am Ketja, Kathlain. I worry that our friend in Hollanse is too ill to write back. Sometimes the immune system crashes
and the Hague is the proving ground for viral virulence. It is very humiliating to approach people you havn't
written for years and try to explain a process you don't understand.

Have you heard from her? :coolman:

I forgive.

And I love.

And I love you...GFW

I'm pretty sure your birthday is sometime soon (although i'm not sure what day it is) So I just wish you a happy early, late, or near birthday and hope you are doing well.