Category: Meta

…

there’s no place like home!

ha!

One night, a few months or so ago, I went scavenging through some of the earliest essays of DD. I forget what I was hunting for, or maybe I was just trying to get a better feel of the place, I don’t know. But, oh! what gems I found! (see the “ha!” link above, a great one from On The Bus!!)  Alas, I did not bookmark them other than in my own brain, so I’ll have to see what else I come across anew, as I meander through my day today.

If any of you have fun ones you’d like to add, please linky-winky in a comment and I’ll update.. (Rusty, I know you’ve got a goldmine hidden!)

I encourage anyone new-ish to go see On The Bus’ original Blog Blessing posted (before the launch) on AUG 18, 2007.

DD Greatest Hits…

Here’s a couple that were dug up by On The Bus:

from Buhdy, May 1, 2008, Writing in the Raw, Meat

from Rusty, Feb 14, 2009, Valentine Confessions 2009

very funny, OTB. 😉

Okay, from me, here’s one of Rusty’s, from Feb 17 2009, that I think suits this day:  A New Voice Was Heard

OH! Okay okay, I promise not to get carried away, but this is The Shit right here: Rusty, “Blogging The Future”.

Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 07:00:00 PDT

Fri Sep 12, 2008 at 07:00:00 PDT

Welcome New Users to DocuDharma.  We expect there will be a lot of you today.

Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 05:00:00 PDT

Fri Sep 12, 2008 at 05:00:00 PDT

Time to start making our marks.

We look sharp, time to be sharp.

Greetings from Mexico, where I am holed up in my secret undisclosed location finishing the first draft of my second novel.  I have been here for two weeks.  The book is coming along very nicely, thank you.  I will try to sell it to you on some other occasion when it is more finished.

I’ve been taking breaks from writing by swimming, going for long walks, snorkeling, kayaking, chatting with the neighbors.  I take a break whenever my neck and shoulders start to get stiff from sitting in my chair and typing or whenever I need an idea to move the story forward.  I also have been taking breaks by furtively reading this blog and commenting occasionally.  Which brings me to what I wanted to say to you, my fellow Dharmaniacs.

Have you noticed how very sad, how very down, how very depressed we are these days?  Every day seems to bring another reason for sustained depression.  Yes, we’re still angry about some things, but forgive me if I say so, mostly we’re depressed and sad and beaten down.  We feel, if I may characterize it so, as if we were thrown under a bus. It’s easy to understand why.  Is there a public option? Will the uninsured ever be insured?  Is there a prosecution of torturers?  Is there an end to the hate spewed by various commentators?  Is there more and more war in Afghanistan, Iraq?  Is there peace anywhere?  Can the President tell kids to stay in school?  Can the Congresspeople throw off their reptilian bodies and speak the truth?  About anything?  Forgive me for not finishing the list.  It’s too extensive.  And far, far too depressing for a detailed enumeration.

If I were in the US, maybe our rhetoric would still seem normal to me.  Maybe it would be more of the same, what happens to progressives when, having elected the president, they are unable to get his ear.  And why can’t progressives get his ear?  Let’s not unwind that all over again.  From here, in Mexico, what I am reading seems to be our lingering despair.  And under that, perhaps some seething anger.  But mostly, what I’m reading imo is our collective sadness.

I have no idea what the remedy for this pervasive malaise might be.  As Gurdjieff once wrote (pardon ugly paraphrasing), “This first step to breaking out of prison is to recognize that you’re confined.” So I think the first step might be to acknowledge how very deeply disappointed we are.  Maybe that’s a first step.

I didn’t want to be the canary in this particular coal mine.  But I did want to tell you about the fumes.

Holy cow! I am moving slow this morning. Er… afternoon. Better (a relative term) in my ongoing bout with Unicorn flu, a little – actually, a lot – slow on the uptake. So it’s taken me all day to get through the diaries and sub-diaries and associated diaries on DKos about the Un-Americans, the Kos Un-American Activities Committee, and the Anti-Un-Amerikan free-for-all. LOL!!! Something to brighten a sunny Sunday recovery day of total loafing.

Sheesh! For the first time since I was summarily banned for posting a diary back in April suggesting that CDC’s very odd classification of the Mexico flu as a novel chimera might have something to say about its origin, I am very glad I no longer count myself “Kossack.” Or, they no longer count me. Whatever, I’m appreciating the glaring absurdity.

     I write today to honor the loss of those who came before us, and not only the greatest among us but also the names we will never know, those who were dear to only a few, but just as important to what our nation is today, and what it should be in the future.

    So I ask you, my fellow Dharma Bums, what is it you hope for?

    And by that I not only mean what you seek to accomplish through blogging or in politics, but also what you hope to achieve in your personal lives, what you hope the world becomes through your work here on earth, and what you hope to leave after you are gone.

   I have always been a political creature. Myu mother’s brother was a self proclaimed socialist, and under his guidance I began to read voraciously the works of the greats, Orwell, Thoreau, Knut Hamsen, J.R.R. Tolkien, Chaucer, Dumas, more names than I can recall. Reading has never been a hobby for me, it has been part of my life’s work. It has shaped the man I am today, and while reading the work of the many talented writers here I have found much to be joyful for, and much food for thought.

   I always wanted to be a writer, or a teacher, or a journalist. That is my hope.

   Now I find myself settling at times, and simply hoping to find decent work that can earn a decent wage.

   But I do not lose hope. I am a fool, in that regard.

   In my writing/blogging, what have you, I hope share ideas, to learn, and to teach. I hope to meet like minded people and people who disagree with my views, in order to learn more, for, if we never hear that which we diod not think ourselves, how are we to learn?

   With that in mind I have read many things I disagree with, vehemently at times, passively at others. I have read Ayn Rand, Mein Kampf, Machiavelli and Newt Gingrich.

   Often I have read work that I thought I would disagree with at the end, only to find myself em[powered by what I thought I would not agree with, such as the works of Karl Marx, Adam Smith, barry Goldwater and others who I thought I would certainly oppose, only to find that I agreed more than I would have believed I would.

   Politically, my issue is Accountability. Accountability for the class war, the super rich and the Corporations they serve.

   Accountability for the power elite, the Cheney’s and Rumsfeld’s, the Sanford’s and Ensign’s, the Baucus’s and Ross’s and the others of their ilk.

   I champion the powerless and disenfranchised, the fight for equality and civil rights, not because they effect me so personally, often they do not, but because I see how many people they do effect, and the injustice that is borne when it should not be so.

   I have been accused of siding with the unpopular decision for the sole sake of doing so. I admit freely to it. It is the unpopular speech that needs the most protection, the minority that must be fully protected if we are to pretend to be a nation of equality under the law, and not equality under who has the most dollars.

   I hope.

   I hope to create a better world. I see a nation of so many opportunities, and yet so much injustice. I see a people of such brilliance and grace, and yet we are mired in povery and division, and in hate, when we should be in love, united, and not divided.

   I hope to help create such a world, a world of peace and love, a world of equality, both legally and economically, where none go sick or hungry, where all my have a home and a hope and a dream they can work towards achieving.

   I am a champion of many issues because there are many issues that need someone to fight for.

   This nation and it’s people are worth fighting for, worth dying for.

   Many people can be divided into two groups, those that see others as less than they, and those who hope to see equality in all of us.

   That is the fight we see today. Hate vs Love. Empathy vs Disdain. Hope vs. Fear.

   I have much that I fight for, because there is much worth fighting for.

   So, I sk you, my dearest comrades, my fellow Dharma Bums, what do you hope for, what do you fight for, and what do you think is worth dying for.

   I am eager to learn as much as I can, and to share whatever you will have of me.

If you heard this on the TV, would you sit and think, interesting Opinions?

“The facts are simple,” says Charles K. Johnson, president of the International Flat Earth Research Society. “The earth is flat.”

“Nobody knows anything about the true shape of the world,” he contends. “The known, inhabited world is flat.

[…]

the stars are about as far as San Francisco is from Boston.”

As shown in a map published by Johnson, the known world is as circular and as flat as a phonograph record. The North Pole is at the center.

 

http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/…

Or if you heard this loudly stated Opinion, would you think, “Well, They have a Right to their Opinions”

Mr. Johnson, who called himself the last iconoclast, regarded scientists as witch doctors pulling off a gigantic hoax so as to replace religion with science. He based his own ideas on the Old Testament references to a flat earth

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03…

Bullying is the act of intentionally causing harm to others, through verbal harassment, physical assault, or other more subtle methods of coercion such as manipulation.

[…]

In colloquial speech, bullying often describes a form of harassment perpetrated by an abuser who possesses more physical and/or social power and dominance than the victim.

[…]

The harassment can be verbal, physical and/or emotional.

[…]

Bullies hurt people verbally and physically.

[…]

There are many reasons for that. One of them is because the bullies themselves are or have been the victim of bullying.

[…]

Bullying can occur in any setting where human beings interact with each other.

[…]

Bullying can exist between social groups, social classes and even between countries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B…

If you’re lucky enough to still have Insurance —

1 in 7 Americans Don’t have that Luxury, by the way —

Well you might not feel so Lucky, after learning how much more of the Insurance Premium tab, you have been picking up, over the last several years.

Health Insurance is a “Benefit” of Employment — yeah Right!

A Benefit to the Employer, to keep you locked in your lousy Job.

A Benefit to the Insurer, who has a guaranteed source of Income, every time you get a paycheck!

That “Lucky Insurance Policy” has been to costing you more and more, each year, while promising you less and less, in terms of coverage … this squeeze has been happening for years!

Something is seriously wrong with this Nation’s Broken Health Insurance system …

As I like to remind people from time to time, here on DocuDharma we encourage creative writing, fiction, and silliness (as well as advanced HTML, pretty pictures, and videos).

This is why we allow the virtually limitless amount of 3 essays a day (I can hardly come up with one most days), but if that stifles your creativity let me know and I’ll lobby for raising it.

I particularly like to feature them on Sunday mornings when you can be relaxed and easy going, and late at night when us insomniacs are desperate for something new and entertaining.

Today I’d like to highlight the latest installments of two running fictional features-

and…

The rest of you slackers-

GET WRITING!

We the Lobbyists of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Profit, establish Pay-to-Play, ignore domestic Tranquility, provide for the common Media, promote the general lack of Welfare, and secure the Extractions of Payments to ourselves and our Clients, do now usurp and re-establish this Constitution for the United Elites of America.