Soon we will all be gone. All of us die. There is a comfort in that I think.

Blackhawk helicopters flew low over my house this morning. Our Appointed Executive is visiting to stump for the governor of Florida. It is reassuring that they have such powerful weapons to back up their campaign. I'm sure that the election will go well for the younger Bush. Even if he lost, the Appointed one would give him a nice appointment as Reagan did for Bob Martinez.

But we all die. Too soon for many, like the brothers Bush who have a purpose to serve, or Paul Wellstone who died in another freak accident. It was too soon for my friend Monica Joseph, who died in 1998 just before Halloween, and too soon also for my son Owen Wheeler who died the week of thanks giving.

Monica never reached her goal. She studied jewelry at Pinellas Voc-Tech. Even after surgeries and chemotherapy she did not give up on her goal. I have some of her tools now. Just the old worn rawhide hammer and a few other battered implements left after her other friends snapped up the gems, the precious metals and the power tools. I made twelve bracelets this summer, pounding the metal hard with that old hammer.

Monica used to hate Michael Moore because she grew up in Flint, Michigan. She thought he portrayed the poverty in order to mock the residents. "It's not fair," she would say, "Those people lost their jobs."

But we will all die soon. Not because we want to or because we mixed arsenic with our drinking water or because so many people want us dead. We will die because that is what life does; it ends. The Buddhists and the Christians and the Muslims, with their visions of paradise and rebirth have something to hold onto for strength, but all those faiths admit one truth; we die. Was it Emily Dickinson who said "Parting is all we Know of Heaven and all we need of Hell?"

Please drive safely, and for God's sake PUT THOSE GUNS AWAY! It will all be over soon enough. Thanks for listening.

Tuesday, 29 October, 2002, 09:01 GMT
Southern Thailand hit by attacks


Monday, 21 October, 2002, 12:24 GMT 13:24 UK
SE Asia's 'mastermind bomber'
Monday, 21 October, 2002, 12:24 GMT 13:24 UK
SE Asia's 'mastermind bomber'

Dozens killed in Vietnam blaze
Tuesday, 29 October, 2002, 15:11 GMT
A major fire has engulfed a building housing offices of foreign companies, shops and a disco in Ho Chi Minh City, killing at least 54 people, Vietnamese officials and media say.
At least one unidentified foreign man was among the fatalities, officials said.
This probably upset Denny and others who were in the war over there.

Is hard for me to help but think that if my parents had treated me to a little more of their wealth and influence I might be a senator, a governor, or an administrator at some important university. Too bad that there is is the love which I alone cannot understand.

The awful thing of it is that i can't read the news. All that i see any
where is some one else's biased opinion. And I dont trust a lot of it. On the other hand i think that most bloggers and most newspersons (shaded P.C creeping in,) think that they are doing their job and reproducing the truth as they recieved it. most of the time politics seems to overwhelm my Sense of self worth, and I feel like I don't really have a right to my own opinion.With so many well informed opinions how could I possibly know anything about the world. This must be that Orwellian dis-information effect.

On the other hand when I search the news, I find things that I never would have believed were real. If the Idiotarian principle applies to both right and left-wing, the propagation of new ideas in the new media runs faster than anyone thought. We have gone far beyond ditto-heads, but Dawkins' meme concept still holds true. And Rushkoff's media virus concept also applies however hysterical he might have sounded in that book....

What exactly does Jeb Bush do for a living?


His corporate ties are a web of more than two dozen companies, including obscure, privately held ventures called Uno, Uno Dos and Oriental Trading, and bigger public companies such as SunTrust, Anchor Glass, Ideon and American Heritage Life Insurance

From: St Petersburg Times

:: LibertyThink Weblog :: One Coincidence Too Many
Coincidence? Bombs Found During U.S. Senator's Colombia Visit, But Officials Deny Assassination Plot
(12/1/01) - U.S. and Colombian officials today denied reports that U.S. officials visiting a remote Colombian town had been targeted in an assassination attempt. Local police had discovered land mines near the airport in the town of Barrancabermeja where Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., and U.S. Ambassador to Colombia Anne Patterson were scheduled to visit on Thursday. Police Col. José Miguel Villar had said Wellstone and Patterson were the likely targets but could not absolutely confirm it. But State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said during a briefing today in Washington: “We have no evidence to suggest that anybody was trying to assassinate anybody.”
Also see: Senator Wellstone Assassinated
In my May 25th Article of 2001, I laid out an explicit warning that a Democratic Senator would meet an untimely death by either an Anthrax hit or in a plane crash. (Click here for the article which predicted Wellstone's assassination) This article was written four months prior to the Sept 11th attacks and six months before the anthrax letters to Daschle and Foley.
Also see: AP: Eerie Parallels in Wellstone Crash

This is rather spooky
While I greive the passing of another good man and i hesitatate to become a sensationalist fear monger, I know that the Bush administration wants no opposition at all.

:: LibertyThink Weblog :: America's most controversial writer Gore Vidal has launched the most scathing attack to date on George W Bush's Presidency, calling for an investigation into the events of 9/11 to discover whether the Bush administration deliberately chose not to act on warnings of Al-Qaeda's plans.

Vidal's highly controversial 7000 word polemic titled 'The Enemy Within' - published in the print edition of The Observer today - argues that what he calls a 'Bush junta' used the terrorist attacks as a pretext to enact a pre-existing agenda to invade Afghanistan and crack down on civil liberties at home.

Vidal writes: 'We still don't know by whom we were struck that infamous Tuesday, or for what true purpose. But it is fairly plain to many civil libertarians that 9/11 put paid not only to much of our fragile Bill of Rights but also to our once-envied system of government which had taken a mortal blow the previous year when the Supreme Court did a little dance in 5/4 time and replaced a popularly elected President with the oil and gas Bush-Cheney junta.'

I was wondering about this. Also therse a very strange anomally in the west palm beach census 2000...lots mof anomalies here in Florida. Any one listening?

Wellstone's death rocks Minnesota
Wellstone's death rocks Minnesota
Paul McEnroe, Pat Doyle and Mark Brunswick
Star Tribune

Published Oct. 26, 2002CRAS26

EVELETH, MINN. -- U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone, the populist Democrat who was known for his impassioned work on behalf of the underdog, died Friday morning when his plane crashed in frosty woods on Minnesota's Iron Range.

Everything the government touches turns to crap. -- Ringo Starr

No one that I know really has it in them to protest against the war. People do but it's like a re-enactment of the Anti War movement in the sixties and seventies. Or just private wise-acreing A friend of mine, a veteran of The Vietnam war, was against the whole conflict, he thought we' have Won (in Vietnam) if the Order came through, but instead the joint chiefs of staff screwed around and ultimately blamed their failures on the peace movement. Now-a-days, everyone that questions Bushes authority gets labeled a Hippie, commies or even terrorist. My friend actually joined the peace movement and marched on Washington with thousands of other vets(thats his picture among the thousands in life magazine). The Veterans had legitimate cause for concern; the war was out of hand and men were dying for no apparent reason. After the march My Friend dropped out of the movement. The peaceniks had their own agenda and they were exploiting the former soldiers whom they used as a cover and later spat on. The SDS and other "peace" groups were entirely infiltrated by 'agents provocateur' probably from both the right and the left, with the left trying to steamroller the protest into a larger conflict and the right trying to discredit the Peace movement.

The same exists today, every time a peaceful demonstration gets staged, anarchists show up with their own agenda, and the media show that. what about the masses who showed up here in Florida threatening the lives of the poll workers engaged in the 2000 ballot recount? dont they count as terrorists?
War on terror means war on Violence itself. people are willing to die in this conflict but they will not strike a blow. Other activists protest the Ogliarchy of the Bush family. With their ties to the royals of Europe, this all looks a bit like old grudges dating back to the crusades.

Paul Reynolds
BBC News Online World Affairs correspondent
The CIA Director George Tenet has become the unlikely source of embarrassment to President George W Bush, undermining Mr Bush's warning of catastrophic threats from Saddam Hussein and exposing disagreements within the intelligence world about the nature of the danger.
In a letter to Congress, Mr Tenet said: "Baghdad for now appears to be drawing a line short of conducting terrorist attacks with conventional or chemical and biological warfare against the United States."

GOP.com - Republican National Committee

The President's Economic Security Agenda
Our Nation is on track for sustained economic growth because of the resiliency and determination of the American people. However, the President and Republicans in Congress won’t be satisfied until every American who wants a job can find a job, and all Americans have economic security.
President Bush believes that economic freedom is the foundation for individual success and prosperity. The President’s economic agenda invests in individuals by:
Creating jobs;
Expanding opportunities to save and invest;
Providing a good education; and
Helping each American own part of the American dream.

Here is how "The President" established this new prosperity.

Replacing the current tax rates of 15, 28, 31, 36, and 39.6 percent with a simplified rate structure of 10, 15, 25, and 33 percent (see Appendix for rate schedule);

Doubling the child tax credit to $1,000 per child and applying the credit to the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT);

Reducing the marriage penalty by reinstating the 10 percent deduction for two-earner couples;

Eliminating the death tax;

Expanding the charitable deduction to non-itemizers; and
Making the Research and Experimentation (R&D) tax credit permanent. White house

The Tax Cut passed the house March 8 and Bush signed the bill June 7 In 2001.

Presidential Appointee Initiative - Appointee Watch The St. Petersburg Times reports that Peter Armacost, former president of Eckerd College, is under consideration to become assistant secretary of Education for post-secondary education.(may 21) Brookings Now we hear that he has taken a job with Forman Christian College in Pakistan, according to the St Petersburg Times

First Proof of Jesus Found? -- Discovery Channel --

Oct. 21 — The first archaeological evidence of Jesus' existence has come to light, literally written in stone, according to one of the top world experts in deciphering ancient Near East inscriptions.

I'm not sure what to make of this. Biblical Archaeological Review says its true...that brings the number if verified artifacts up to about three (not including the Shroud of Turin) The ossuary is in Jerusalem... perhaps it raises the holy war stakes.

Economist.com | Contemporary art
When they say contemporary, what do they mean? Henry moore and Man Ray are dead. It Isn't as though my humble work will sell any better now. Middle class folks just dont have the cash. None the less, with the recent build up of downtown St Petersburg we have an onslaught of art galleries. I suppose that all the new high rent rowhomes and the newly renovated old northeast have to be decorated

Israeli Government

The Official Website of the Palestinian National Authority

I worked on a face made of copper at FSG last night. After dapping out the sesame seed shape, I rubbed a nose into it. Then turned it over to make the eyes, gently supporting the metal from behind with my fingers while circling the tool inside an eliptical stencil. After pressing out the lips, raising the cheekbones and the occipital crest, I torched it lightly till the metal oxidized blue.
I went down to the studio a little early, and got there at half past five, When it started to rain, just as a policeman was chasing a homeless man from a niche he had found. There was only one car in the lot and I remember smiling plesantly at a woman whom I do not kmow as she came out and drove away. Kathy R. had arrived and was parked closer to the street. She got out of her car when Denny and Masha arrived. Then we discovered that the building was all locked up. she was the intended monitor for the evening. We waited and debated what to do until Ken W. showed up. Ken went to the Meeting over in Hyde park and told us that he had spent the day shopping for chairs apparently FSG makes a lot of money from workshops and decided to spend it on chairs and a new flexibe shaft rotary tools. He made no comment about the workshop-demo that Jim T. gave on lost wax casting.
Wednesday is the deadline for Florida Craftsmans holiday show and saturday is last day for delivering to the Arts Center for their show.I have three pieces to put in each show and a few more to back it up. All told I've made about ten forged bracelets this summer.

Tough Pigs News Extra -- The GOP vs. Sesame Street The GOP vs. Sesame

Aparently the story was made up. That is according to the muppet people themselves.

The more we know about this, the scarier it gets. The U.S.A has been such a freind to the SaudisWorld Tribune.com--Front Page
U.S.: Al Qaida funded by only 12 individuals, most Saudis
On Friday, the Washington Post said Al Qaida has relied on human couriers to fly cash from Saudi Arabia to agents around the world. The newspaper said U.S. intelligence followed the couriers and helped identify the money trail.

VNN World - NASA Images Discover Ancient Bridge Between India & Lanka USA, Oct 7 (VNN) — (Courtesy: NASA Digital Image Collection) Space images taken by NASA reveal a mysterious ancient bridge in the Palk Strait between India and Sri Lanka. The recently discovered bridge currently named as Adam?s Bridge is made of chain of shoals, c.18 mi (30 km) long.

Interesting dialog on this at http://www.dialognow.org/story/2002/10/9/132835/339/

Who gets money from Oil? What do they do with it? The Republican party members ar masters at the multi-pronged assault on their opponents. They are not above encouraging Riots like the ones that stopped the 2000 recount or the riots around Elian Gonzalez. Al Quaida might be a good model for the loyal opposition.

I ceratinly get the impression that republicans dont want us around, but Imagine prefering them! Perhaps Bush and Bin Lden are in the same boat after all. Disenfrachised young men are easir to motivate to violent action. Hitler used them. Arafat used them. Tim Mc Veigh was one. If the worlds economies continue to sink princes like the Bushes and the Saudi willhave plenty of desparate youn men to throw at the rest of us.
Remember; Power Kills; Absolute Power Kills Absolutely. Turn off the lights and take a walk. Let the Power Fall.

Worldandnation: Armey takes heat for al-Qaida comparison Retiring House Majority Leader Dick Armey's remarks last week praising Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network as better organized than the Democratic-led Senate led to some predictable tut-tutting from the loyal opposition.

Hsiao Hsien to day gave me a set of red coral beads to match with the larger turquoise in one of my bracelets. She also gave me a Sacajawea dollar to give to Cherokee. and a small pot of Home made Tiger balm for Masha.
The treatment included a Blood letting which shocked me even though she warned (the back of my knees is quite sensitive.) On the second leg she used a seven pointed hammer to repeatedly prick the meridian point.
When she gave me the dollar she told me that a client had been giving them to her for several years. The reason she likes the coin is that it looks like her and the boy in papoose like her son who is now nineteen. I have always liked it since the woman is real and not an Idealized 'Liberty.' Also both her Eyes and those of the child face you. Coins usually show a profile...One eyed men, but this coin shows the future.

What lies in the dreaming heart of sleep?
Last night was our last casting class. Yesterday was the anniversary of Monica Joseph’s death. Wednesday, missed jewelry. Masha told me that the whole room was full. At least ten people from looking at the signup sheet. Phil London was there, I'm sorry I missed him. John brown and Monica both taught me that you don’t always get a second chance. No matter how many times I said it over in my mind or told myself that life is short, I didn’t get it probably never will. Was it Emily Dickinson who said "Parting is all we Know of Heaven, and all we need of Hell."
Last week I met a beautiful Young woman named Vicky, she was a nurse practitioner who examined me for Dr. Shay. She did tell me that she was forty years old and that I should schedule my next appointment for Tuesday if I wanted to see her again. Perhaps she just wants patient loyalty. All in all I seem to be in perfectly good health. From their point of view. I Really Liked Her, maybe it's just because she listened to all my problems. I feel so low sometimes I don’t believe I could ever be with some one like her. But look at Laurie and Tom, they are both my age and they have each other and they respect me although I think I don't deserve friends like that.
I'm going to see Hsiao-Hsein today for my needle work (accupuncture.) She is a friend. Last week Phil L. told me about the three kinds of people you meet in your life. Some are there for a moment or a day and some for a season. Others that you meet stay with you for a lifetime. Phil L. said that he thought He and I had started one of those latter cycles. I told Hsiao Hsien and she said that she was comfortable with that. I think she thought I was reading more into her relationship with me. She seemed tired that day. Perhaps she will find time to take some class at the Art Center and return to that creative work. Chris gave me good advice about work on one of the bracelets.
Last week we all went over to Teamoh's house to see his cousin Barbara before she returned to New York. They were out side. And after greeting her I noticed that Cherokee had not said anything and that Teamoh had said very little when I went over to Cherokee He looked at the ground and tugged uselessly at some wedelia that had strayed into the path. Tears clogged his eyes. I asked what was wrong and he said “Him.” We went for a walk and talked about why he was mad at his father. We also saw an owl some bats and two toads, one dead in the road the other hidden in the oak leaves and sand. Then Sunday Tom had horrible back pain. He kept Cherokee home from school to look after him. We looked after Cherokee then, after Masha talked him into going to the VA hospital.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Russian census reveals unusual data
So Russia now is full of hobbits and elves.
I have often thought that Middle earth was a reference to wartime Europe. Perhaps Tolkien started out like Homer, telling stories which people in turn perpetuated. Today I think the average over thirty educated person would assert that the Ancient greeks Believed in their Myths. The same of the Mayan culture, but did they believe any more than we today, when we discuss Movies or novels? Or was this a kind of Surplus Reality allowing minds to create their own metaphores?

Good Morning.excuse the subject.

Made With Notepad Campaign

Sodium Party

I guess the Options for Action Hero are limited these days

Which Action Star Are You? Find out @ She's Crafty

At last.... a chance to blog again. I'm not certain what this column is any more. Just repeat news, just me and my ego?At last.... a chance to blog again. I'm not certain what this column is any more. Just repeat news, just me and my ego?
What ever it is , I hope some one reads it. The first blog I read was dervala.net, an Irish lady (young) living in New York (gasp) and trying to keep her life alive. Her guiding metaphor seemed to be mountain climbing, but she quoted Seamus Heaney, and wrote about hanging out in Pubs in NYC. I sort of envy her life. But she pointed out the DEATHCLOCK, and had a lot of morbid Buddhism… which I liked. When I wrote to her she thanked me and said Blogging was like standing on a soapbox in some NYC park where they do that. The whole I-net was collapsing then and still is. I was born in 1962 and put up for adoption. Growing up I assumed that my father went to Vietnam and my mother went to college. I was told that. Pretty myth. Really my [bio]mom (Masha,) was a civil rights activist from a long line of doctors, civil servants and democratic pioneers. There were only two slaves ever named in family records, husband and wife both freed, and with the Irish in our history, some of our people were probably indentured to people like the Camerons.
I wrote to Margaret Wheeler via e-mail…. No response. I’m still afraid of Alice. I wish I had the guts to ask about Horace Cecil Fisher’s trust that he left me. I think the Wheelers spent it all on their trip around the world….or on Alice… she has kids…they must be grown by now, and needing college funds. I went on a PELL grant. And help from Masha.
Now I’m a silversmith and I still need a degree in story telling to be the teacher that I am.
I should be crying the British (Bushes) are coming but all of us know that by now. Saint George and the Saracen dragon….another pretty myth. With the elections rigged as they have been, I doubt that McBride has a chance, but at least he is a Veteran with combat unlike the rich kid we have now.
Now we are in WW3
Who’d a thunk it?

BBC NEWS | Business | US blocks TV merger US regulators have blocked EchoStar Communication's proposed acquisition of its rival satellite television operator Hughes Electronics.

BBC NEWS | Business | Bush urged to reveal business dealings President Bush is facing calls to reveal details of his own business dealings.
"No boardroom in America is above or beyond the law," he said.

Get Serious By Michael Kinsley
According to kinsley
Iraq could decide on any given day" to give biological or chemical weapons to terrorists for use against the United States, Bush said Monday night.

http://www.deathclock.com/

Not all of the things I've hoped for have come to pass. I heard from old freind this week. He sent Photos of his year old son and his wife. I have not gotten to the pictures of the 8' godzilla suit. I kind of wonder what I've been up to.
Both florida craftsman and the Art Center sent their Inventory forms for the holiday show. these are due this month by the twenty third. Masha has suggested that I am Angry all the time at her. She demands an explanation. then she holds it against me. Denny has been drinking a lot and he and Masha Prohibit me from going over to his house. This is the only place that I can work on my thesis... online somewhere. I hope I can still get it together by the end of the year. I think I have enough work to show at the galleries, the argument will be over pricing. I doubt that I can "work with Masha" on the price for my work. She was telling Sally B. to charge $600 for a bought watch with two coral bezels and six inches of solderless chain. Everyone in the studio laughed but me.

www.smartbotanics.com

AMAZING NATURE, psychoactive herbs, seeds, mushrooms and cacti

Congratulations on the Marriage and Fatherhood. You sound happy. Young kids from one to three have this open ended view of the world; some times it seems you can see the larger person they will become around them like an invisible godzilla suit, especially when they are first walking.

What should we be doing to prepare our selves against war, the combative impulses we have and the violence of others?

Yoga and Oriental Medicine
By Alex Berks

Spiritual Humanism What is the "Scientific Method"? The Scientific Method is the best way yet discovered for winnowing the truth from lies and delusion. The simple version looks something like this:
1. Observe some aspect of the universe.
2. Invent a theory that is consistent with what you have observed.
3. Use the theory to make predictions.
4. Test those predictions by experiments or further observations.
5. Modify the theory in the light of your results.
6. Go to step 3 and make new predictions.

Spiritual Humanism recognizes that any religion not based on the Scientific Method can never fully reveal truth to its members.

Today is my third accupuncture treatment. Why am I not Sleeping?