things i'm thinkin' about this week ~
expand the post to see what
- ok. so the dollar's reached parity. big FAT deal. i mean, it's spent decades as an undervalued currency ... now its going to spend some time as an overvalued one. c'mon, let's not fool ourselves into thinking that the strength of the dollar has as much to do with the soundness of canada's economy, as it does with the weakness of america's economy.
- why does the usa call itself america? i never understood that. aren't canada and mexico part of north america, too? does calling itself america intend to assert some conceited notion as being the most important ingredient of NA?
- amadinejed is visiting nyc this week. and there are lame asses all over the place with placards saying stupid sh1t like 'we don't support terrorism' ... ! lies! y'all do ~ them's some terrorist-like behaviour in israel, ain't it? and the usa is funding those terrorist that i will call zionists. heck, i guess that makes the usa zionist, doesn't it? so ~ how is it that a country that supports the most blatant example of terrorism this era has seen ... likes to tell itself we don't support terrorists ... of course you do! silly americans ~ tricks are for kids. and ~ if you disagree ... please tell me how that's different. maybe canadians should hold similar protests when dubya comes to visit ...?
- if we legalized heroine, we would steal some serious thunder from the taliban, who apparent have funded their resurgence/come-back with poppy money. doesn't it just make sense? legalize all the illicits ~ and you will instantly remove all the crime from that trade ... look to history if you think i'm full it sh1t on that one. how well has prohibition really worked for humanity in the past?
- i've thought about truth ~ whether its absolute or relative ... or ... what. i reject the notion of absolute truth. the universe expands, time passes, knowledge evolves. we seek truth via knowledge, which we acquire through our senses. perception ~ that's the source of living truth for each of us. however, something must bind the matter and energy of the universe to itself. yes ~ universal truth. a realm to which, i suppose God belongs. and the immutable laws of the universe. and we, humanity, reside at the intersection of universal truth and that relative, personal truth which our perceptual senses have conjured.
- how many times has the creator unfolded and folded up the world? there's a theory out there that says the expansion of the universe has begun slowing ... that one day in the future it will stop and that will mean time will stop ... the universe will end ~ collapse into itself and become another black hole, from which ... eventually, another big bang will emerge. i imagine, then ... that we aren't the first of our kind ... that there have been other universes and humanities ...
- i got a beautiful, handmade scarf from cora last evening. i love it so much, i fell asleep with it on! i will post a picture in the coming days.
- aside from the scarf, i allow myself one luxurious indulgence ~ estee lauder's pleasures exotic perfume. yes, i got a guy that brings me perfume ... just because he loves me.
- i find myself struggling with tolerance of the intolerant ... tolerance of the rude. oh dear! its so very challenging ... like playing tug of war with a giant bull mastiff (my ego being the giant mastiff) and sometimes not winning. awareness ~ the most efficacious weapon against intolerance.
This means challenging my self to compassionate, encouraging, genuine and hostile-free exchanges. It also means contemplating my reaction to the thoughts, feelings and expressions of others, prior to acting upon them. 
15 comments:
In an uncharacteristic and somewhat unsettling deviation from his usual style, Ardlair visited a site, commented, left, and created barely a ripple.
As a feather might land in a highland loch.
One should not of course take that as meaning that he agrees or disagrees with something, anything, or everything written on the aforesaid site.
For if there is no truth, what can there possibly be to disagree about?
oh dear ... i can create a ripple ~ a provocative one ~ if you really, really want one, ardlair ~ hee hee.
ardlair ~ have you ever been to http://thecruelvirgin.blogspot.com ...? visit. its the most worthy blog in this blogosphere. the girl that writes that blog rocks and rolls. and she's got a mind like no one else i know. seriously. check it.
comments left here in no way assumed to equate with agreement. just acknowledgement ~ as in ... just 'hallo, i wuz here...' that said, however i will refrain from pinning any dissenters to the wall and flogging their egos until they bleed. dissenters welcome, too. even badly behaved, rude, poorly mannered ones. they challenge me, as long as they don't completely pierce my throat with their stones and insults.
i ~ unlike some others, perhaps, do not see blogging as a team sport, a contact sport, or any activity in which a power struggle must ensue.
in fact, i do not see blogging as a sport at all ~ no winners, no losers, just humans entitled to respect. the blogger who dies with the most points, power, comments, and popularity still dies. y'know?
so ~ let that feather land. its all good.
truth. ah ... truth. indeed, it exists. just, its so nebulous. we all talk about it like we're talking about the same thing. but ... me wonders ~ are we, indeed? the more i ponder it ... the less i believe so.
so ... what is truth? is it a synonym for reality ~ is in the transaction of existence, as it occurs?
perhaps this seems like a suitable definition for most ... but ... me thinks its too narrow, that's all. absolute to me means constant, fixed in time. nothing that exists in this realm, IMHO, is absolute.
truth is a tradeable, debateable commodity because we all view the world thru such different lenses. separating the lens from the camera means you can't capture any pictures, doesn't it? if your picture and my picture (of the same object) do not seem similar ... does that mean one of us is wrong? just wondering.
oh yeah ... hey ~ to anyone out there who may still read this crazy blog ~ despite my opposing views on what ever may bug your bonnets ~ PLEASE HELP ME OUT. i need to make a decision ~ so click the link and you decide, okay?
A lot of people don't thik that much in a year, let alone a week.
1. True. The US's dollar is shrinking everywhere. The current war spending has a lot to do with that.
2. We in the US call ourselves Americans because it sounds better than Statesians.
No doubt, some of my countrymen call it that too for the reason you cite.
3. You expect me to argue against the notion that the US funds, equips and trains terrorism? That's what USAID and Ft. Benning are all about.
US support has no boundaries. In addition to Israel, the CIA also supported Saddam Hussein and the Mujahadeen that became Al Qaeda.
(4) Good distinction between truth and absolute truth. That works for me.
(5) Cora does make excellent scarves. I got one too (so there!--)
With respect to your previous post, that's an odd way to put it. If the coroner's there, could it be much of an emergency, really?
Tolerating the intolerant - that one can be a challenge all right! But I think the president of Columbia U just proved how useless being equally rude is with his introduction of the president of Iran. Made the guy come off looking way better than he should have - as a sort of bogus champion of free speech!
So even in purely strategic terms, tolerating the intolerant generally makes sense. They make themselves look bad but you have to give them that chance!
x-dell ~ i wonder why more americans don't know the things their gov't has really been up to. like ... why don't the media there seem more interested in uncovering that stuff (i mean, mainstream ... not just guys like michael moore).
its like the american media behaves like a rabid bull mastiff, or some sleeping toy poodle. completely ineffective @ informing the public. not to sound arrogant, but, i think, we, here in canada, get more genuine and brilliantly reported/uncovered fact about the usa and its various escapades than does the us public.
people always complain that stupid sh1t fills the news ~ well, that's the sh1t people want to eat, so its served to them, right? we here in canada have people like george stromboulopolos, rick mercer, and the folks at this hour has 22 minutes ... to keep us from losing our heads up our asses, y'know? you guys just have jon stewart and his sidekick colbert.
i dunno ~ i think the american public maybe ignorant because it wants to be ... it would rather know the answer to the question "are you smarter than a 5th grader?" than know the answer to the question "what the hell has my gov't been up to?"
the coroner thing ~ yeah, weird. i read somewhere that the papers/media here will simply not mention suicides in their reports. i only found out because some angry bus driver was spewing venom at some woman who complained the bus was a half-hour late ... "tell the woman that committed suicide on the tracks ..." (not that sensitive, eh? can't blame him, tho .... on that day 4 separate, unrelated events all conspired to make the subway unrideable ... grrrrrr our transit system has no capacity without its subway).
~ i wuv my scarf ~
paul ~ hahaha. that's funny in a way ... how things backfire like that. makes me think of that old adage involving honey and vinegar. and yeah, when i took a media relations workshop once, they said, if you get rude, or pissy ... you become the story ... indeed.
i have not seen the news coverage of the speech yet. i will look at it though. mr. mantissa did not come home until weeeeeeeee late ... had me out lookin for him, callin his employer, called the police to file a police report. grrrrrr ~ men! any women out there thinking they want a husband ... just get a airdale or a giant poodle. you can tie them up without violating their rights. haha.
ohhhhhhhhh immmmmmmmmmmmm sooooooooooo tiiiiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrred.
ok. 'nuff whining. back to work!
I loved the cover for the book Needle Cafe- just my 2 cents too-
Glad you liked the scarf...every stitch was made with you in mind- and I wore it for about 10 minutes in the house to make sure it was "right"...but this is something I do with all my scarves.
Sorry if you find a long blonde strand in it :)
Hugs :)
mayden ~ hee hee ~ my all time love-of-my-life dog was a blond afghan hound named gypsy. blond hair was on evvvvverrryyyything of mine ~ he was everywhere i was ... even followed me to the bathroom. he's been dead for nearly 7 years now ... and when i find a blond hair i often joke to mr. mantissa .... 'gypsy came by again.'
thanx for your input re: book covers.
mr. mantissa was a bad boy last night ~ stayed out til 0300 hours! that scarf just about got used as a noose ~ grrrrrhereherherhahaha! oh well, he returned to me safe and sound ... just waaaaaay late.
Part of what you're referring to has to do with the long history of US telecommunication law, most specifically the Broadcast Act of 1927 which requires telecommunications to operate in the public interest, and the Broadcast Act of 1934 which essentially defined public interest as that which interests the public. So, if a broadcaster can maintain that interest of the public, it can claim to be operating within these specifications. Thus other corproations began buying up blocks of time to promote their products. To maintain interest, they offered entertainment from the likes of Edgar Bergen, Jack Benny, and Fred Allen. In this model, there are no public subsidies, with the very partial exception of PBS, which for over a decade has accepted corporate sponsorship for programming to supplement funding by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and viewers like us.
Of course, broadcasters realized that the term could have a public service interpretation, and so formed news divisions that were minimal. When I was a child, for example, the eening news was only fifteen minutes long. During the 1970s, however, that changed along the lines of the sponsorship model. News suddenly had to turn a profit. To do that, it needed corporate sponsorship. Sponsors will not advertise in climates that they feel are "unfriendly" or "hostile environments." Thus, a lot of the news we gets (a) promotes buisness, and (b) refrains from criticizing it too harshly.
Sometimes, when a broadcaster presents something critical of a major corporation, the corporation will control the broadcasting by buying advertising time. Case in point: Air America devoted a whole day of (actually good) programming about the devastating effect WalMart was having upon small towns. So, WalMart started advertising on Air America. You heard nothing about the company after that. When "60 Minutes" did a segment on a safety problem with Ford trucks, Ford poured a lot of advertising revenue into CBS, and the problems raised by the network were never followed through.
With more pressure from the suits and ties to make news profitable, producers have to bend over backwards sometimes to maintain that "friendly atmosphere" to pay the bills. Part of maintaining that atmosphere requires blurring the distinction between news and entertainment.
A lot of the local news today isn't even produced by local stations, but rather by PR firms, who create pre-packaged endorsements of products (e.g. medicine, new inventions) or political views. They give these things out with copy, that's read by one of the local reporters, and that makes it look as though the audience is receiving an unbiased piece done by the local news division.
Canada, the UK and other English-speaking nations have a partial-commercial model, and that makes a big difference in what constitutes news, and how information is presented. It's not imagination or chauvinism that leads to your observation. Your observation is quite correct. In fact, as I've actually mentioned on my blog, I've begun to turn a lot more to Canadian newspapers, radio shows, and the CBC for informaion that I know I'll never find in the US press. When I lived in Ann Arbor (Michigan), I got CBC broadcasts all the time from Windsor (ON), and right away I could tell substantial differences in the nature of news coverage. Those differences are probably much greater now.
to all ~ thanx to those who have made your choices re: book covers. i added one, and edited another and also, added my two cents worth ... so please take another look.
x-dell ~ when we used to have a satellite dish (when we lived in the friggin-middle-of-nowhere rural manitoba) we had CNN, BBC, and CBC newsworld. my favourite pasttime was watching some particular coverage on all three news casts and comparing coverage. i found the BBC was my favourite ... loved their katrina coverage, strangely. i find american tv, in general, too sensationalist ... like, so flashy and all that says 'i'm full of shit' to me when i watch it ... y'know?
interestingly, a few of our newest sitcom-type shows have made great in-roads in the usa ~ little mosque on the prairie ... corner gas. lol ~ check out little mosque on the prairie ~ they have a website, you might find clips or episodes on youtube. i doubt, seriously, that we'd ever see something like that coming out of the usa ... hee hee. and no, no backlash about the show. people really think its smart and funny and tasteful.
I've actually caught a few episodes of Little Mosque on the Prairie. It's funny. I love the feminist woman who wears the hajib.
isn't it a riot? the stars of the show appeared in vancouver a few months ago, on robson street, with a 'pet goat' ... people here just love that show. i love the ironic juxtaposition the show presents ... and that they show the modern muslim women grappling with the more traditional men ... and its all done in good taste. its really quite brilliant.
patriotism a la the bush
version can ruin a country.
other than that x.dell took the words out of my mouth.
about bush ~ you're right, i fear.
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