• Clinton/Obama get the Democratic Party Nomination.
• Clinton/Obama clobber two white guys to win the back the Presidency in 2008.
• A woman and an African American, two historic firsts.
• You got Clinton's experience having being married to commander in chief, and a few terms under her belt at the Senate. A career politician no doubt but capable enough, and a woman, and intense, intelligent but green Obama, perhaps putting him in a good position for 2016
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Joe Rossi's 2008 Prediction
Clinton/Obama get the Democratic Party Nomination.
Clinton/Obama clobber two white guys to win the back the Presidency in 2008.
Clinton/Obama clobber two white guys to win the back the Presidency in 2008.
Friday, June 08, 2007
Ambient Music Drifting Down the Grand Canyon
Those who have read Double Down, know how much the Southwest and the Grand Canyon figure in the plot. Watch this video of the Grand Canyon, from the YouTube channel Ambient Music. I love this music, the mood & feel as you go soaring down the canyon!
Smooth & cool
Wind in your hair
Sandstone, rocks, moods.
Smooth & cool
Wind in your hair
Sandstone, rocks, moods.
Kozmic Avenues: A Online Tribal Community
This was the site begun by Skye when the Doors shut down their off topic message board, The Severed Garden. Just a growing community of hipsters, classic rock fans, and artist/spiritual types. Come on over and say hello.
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Mrs. Atomic US3000 Mystery Science Theater
I'm still not sure what's going on here, but this woman is one of a kind. She spins her stuff on YouTube, but this woman is seriously funny. We mean like: Lucy Ball, Carol Burnett, Tracy Ullman type genius. And those eyes!
Here is I'm Watching You --from Karlaland
Here is I'm Watching You --from Karlaland
I see dead people (messages from God)
I get messages from God. Yep. You heard right. On my way to work, or throughout the day, I drive past the marquees of quite a few churches. Often times it just may be a nugget of wisdom that could easily be at home in any faith or scripture. Scraps of New Testament wisdom that could be home in the Tao Te Ching, or vice versa.
Or there’s the local mosque with its never changing assertion: Humans were created to worship God. When you at first contemplate that idea it seems kind of strange, because we assume a perfect being would not need to be worshipped. But that assumes that the worshipping is done for the benefit of God, and not vice versa. Much how Jesus asks rhetorically if the Sabbath was made for man, or man for the Sabbath.
So let’s rephrase that statement so we can understand it better or more to the point you can understand how I interpret it. Humans were created to have reverence and respect and to venerate the Ideal of LOVE. And in such reverence and regard we would seek to emulate or become like that which we worship, which are the ideals of love, compassion, forgiveness, mercy and patience. All that is GOOD, then is what we as humans were created to worship and honor.
But getting back to the idea that I get messages from God, well what is he or she trying to tell me. To be a Christian, a Baptist, or a Muslim? Or maybe God is just saying his truth is abundant in many shapes, sizes and forms, and the prevailing wisdom of all religions rings true throughout out the ages. Not only do I drive past Churches, but also Buddhist Temples and Hindu shrines.
I believe for the most part the essential truth of all religions, but in a Joseph Campbell style understanding about the importance of mythology in human history, and the underlying truth that most myths point to, the Ultimate Ground of Being.
Or there’s the local mosque with its never changing assertion: Humans were created to worship God. When you at first contemplate that idea it seems kind of strange, because we assume a perfect being would not need to be worshipped. But that assumes that the worshipping is done for the benefit of God, and not vice versa. Much how Jesus asks rhetorically if the Sabbath was made for man, or man for the Sabbath.
So let’s rephrase that statement so we can understand it better or more to the point you can understand how I interpret it. Humans were created to have reverence and respect and to venerate the Ideal of LOVE. And in such reverence and regard we would seek to emulate or become like that which we worship, which are the ideals of love, compassion, forgiveness, mercy and patience. All that is GOOD, then is what we as humans were created to worship and honor.
But getting back to the idea that I get messages from God, well what is he or she trying to tell me. To be a Christian, a Baptist, or a Muslim? Or maybe God is just saying his truth is abundant in many shapes, sizes and forms, and the prevailing wisdom of all religions rings true throughout out the ages. Not only do I drive past Churches, but also Buddhist Temples and Hindu shrines.
I believe for the most part the essential truth of all religions, but in a Joseph Campbell style understanding about the importance of mythology in human history, and the underlying truth that most myths point to, the Ultimate Ground of Being.
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
The Why of Violence in the Mideast and here in America
What kind of person beheads another man like Daniel Pearl or Nick Berg?
What kind of person blows himself up killing countless innocent strangers as well?
What kind of person kills fellow students before turning the gun on themselves?
Surely they must come from so cold a world where such actions and reactions are nothing out of the ordinary and viewed as cathartic justifiable in light of their own “victimization.” This eye for an eye, cut throat universe of karmic boomerangs as violence begets bloodbath and cycles of vengeance whirs endlessly towards more of the same.
As for suicide bombers we must conclude that life had become so meaningless so devoid of love and purpose and genuine joy that the only out they can see is to do what they do. It always strikes me as so overwhelmingly a simple issue as having to ask yourself, why would somebody kill themselves and be willing to in the process kill untold innocent others, but one who hates not only their own life, but the lives of others, many whom they envy. They basically do not experience love. They are without love and therefore without hope.
The problem in the Middle East is religious, for nobody can be happy that is hostile towards own his own human nature, for as they read their scriptures, they believe the normal and natural longings of their physical bodies will lead them to destruction, and even further away from love Thus, they are in conflict with themselves and the extremely oppressive posture they take towards their own sexuality creates an ongoing tension with the inevitable violence and aggression we know so well. Other conditions in the Middle East only serve to aggravate this already “joyless” state.
Ask yourself the next time you’re upset, or feel like snapping at someone, or think to yourself that someone is an asshole for some innocuous offense such as driving a tad too slow in front of you. “Doesn’t that asshole know I am in a hurry?!” Think about how preposterous that sounds!
Back to my point, if you take a deep breath the next time you find yourself upset, ask yourself: are you tired? Is it the end of a really long day? Did you get enough sleep last night? Are you hungry? Do you need to go the bathroom? Is it hot and muggy and the A/C is broken? Are you trying to juggle many demanding situations such as work, kids and personal chores? All of these activities will increase your stress level.
It’s also part of being alive. Hunger, pain, tension, fear, and anger, worry: all these emotions and physical events are unpleasant but necessary in life. If we didn’t get hungry we wouldn’t know when to eat, or to eat at all. If we didn’t feel pain we wouldn’t know to take our hand of the fire, or deal with the symptoms of an illness. They are messages.
Problem then in places like the Middle East, where the ongoing and prevalent antipathy towards the physical needs of the body, such as for sex, is aggravated by a scarcity in the country’s ability to meet basic needs. Imagine being a twenty-something in Iraq, your family’s been killed, it’s hot, good meals are few and rare. There is not much reason to have much hope. Basically, your miserable and your life feels worthless as though you’d been forsaken.
There really is not much difference in the mindset of the Virginia Tech student who killed scores before turning the gun on himself and the Muslim militant who blows himself up taking countless people of his own kind with him. Sure, there may be political motives on the part of the Jihadist, a concept of martyrdom for the sake of some future Islamic state tilting the scales in favor of such drastic measures, whereas with Virginia Tech, no clear political agenda being promoted, but rather the lone savage and desperate act of a miscreant bent on self-destruction. The personal and immediate goal in both cases is the end of their own suffering and the infliction of suffering upon those whom they bear ill will, whom they perceive as being happy and enjoying things they themselves seem fated to be denied.
The VA Tech shooter is an interesting case. When I found out he was probably autistic it made sense. Imagine having the same normal needs as anybody, but crippled emotionally with fear, insecurities, and an inability to communicate effectively to meet your needs. Imagine the cycle of self-hatred, and self-loathing you would subject yourself too, the utter alienation and desperation that would be your world, as you find yourself lonely in a world of seemingly happy people, and completely unskilled socially and so destined to be marooned forever lonely in a world full of happy people.
This is not to justify the horrible things that occurred but perhaps to try and get inside the head so we can understand why these kinds of things happen and why circumstances and psychological bearings can push people with little to nothing to lose to the breaking point, from which there is no return.
What kind of person blows himself up killing countless innocent strangers as well?
What kind of person kills fellow students before turning the gun on themselves?
Surely they must come from so cold a world where such actions and reactions are nothing out of the ordinary and viewed as cathartic justifiable in light of their own “victimization.” This eye for an eye, cut throat universe of karmic boomerangs as violence begets bloodbath and cycles of vengeance whirs endlessly towards more of the same.
As for suicide bombers we must conclude that life had become so meaningless so devoid of love and purpose and genuine joy that the only out they can see is to do what they do. It always strikes me as so overwhelmingly a simple issue as having to ask yourself, why would somebody kill themselves and be willing to in the process kill untold innocent others, but one who hates not only their own life, but the lives of others, many whom they envy. They basically do not experience love. They are without love and therefore without hope.
The problem in the Middle East is religious, for nobody can be happy that is hostile towards own his own human nature, for as they read their scriptures, they believe the normal and natural longings of their physical bodies will lead them to destruction, and even further away from love Thus, they are in conflict with themselves and the extremely oppressive posture they take towards their own sexuality creates an ongoing tension with the inevitable violence and aggression we know so well. Other conditions in the Middle East only serve to aggravate this already “joyless” state.
Ask yourself the next time you’re upset, or feel like snapping at someone, or think to yourself that someone is an asshole for some innocuous offense such as driving a tad too slow in front of you. “Doesn’t that asshole know I am in a hurry?!” Think about how preposterous that sounds!
Back to my point, if you take a deep breath the next time you find yourself upset, ask yourself: are you tired? Is it the end of a really long day? Did you get enough sleep last night? Are you hungry? Do you need to go the bathroom? Is it hot and muggy and the A/C is broken? Are you trying to juggle many demanding situations such as work, kids and personal chores? All of these activities will increase your stress level.
It’s also part of being alive. Hunger, pain, tension, fear, and anger, worry: all these emotions and physical events are unpleasant but necessary in life. If we didn’t get hungry we wouldn’t know when to eat, or to eat at all. If we didn’t feel pain we wouldn’t know to take our hand of the fire, or deal with the symptoms of an illness. They are messages.
Problem then in places like the Middle East, where the ongoing and prevalent antipathy towards the physical needs of the body, such as for sex, is aggravated by a scarcity in the country’s ability to meet basic needs. Imagine being a twenty-something in Iraq, your family’s been killed, it’s hot, good meals are few and rare. There is not much reason to have much hope. Basically, your miserable and your life feels worthless as though you’d been forsaken.
There really is not much difference in the mindset of the Virginia Tech student who killed scores before turning the gun on himself and the Muslim militant who blows himself up taking countless people of his own kind with him. Sure, there may be political motives on the part of the Jihadist, a concept of martyrdom for the sake of some future Islamic state tilting the scales in favor of such drastic measures, whereas with Virginia Tech, no clear political agenda being promoted, but rather the lone savage and desperate act of a miscreant bent on self-destruction. The personal and immediate goal in both cases is the end of their own suffering and the infliction of suffering upon those whom they bear ill will, whom they perceive as being happy and enjoying things they themselves seem fated to be denied.
The VA Tech shooter is an interesting case. When I found out he was probably autistic it made sense. Imagine having the same normal needs as anybody, but crippled emotionally with fear, insecurities, and an inability to communicate effectively to meet your needs. Imagine the cycle of self-hatred, and self-loathing you would subject yourself too, the utter alienation and desperation that would be your world, as you find yourself lonely in a world of seemingly happy people, and completely unskilled socially and so destined to be marooned forever lonely in a world full of happy people.
This is not to justify the horrible things that occurred but perhaps to try and get inside the head so we can understand why these kinds of things happen and why circumstances and psychological bearings can push people with little to nothing to lose to the breaking point, from which there is no return.
Monday, June 04, 2007
Possible Road Trip Summer 2007
Road Trip Summer of 2007
Tentative plans to road trip August 3rd through August 12th the Midwest and Rust Belt on into East via Pennsylvania to NYC. With our GPS and a rental car, laptop and an acoustic guitar, we plan to visit
• St. Louis
• Chicago
• Cincinnati
• Philadelphia
• New York City
So stay tuned!
Tentative plans to road trip August 3rd through August 12th the Midwest and Rust Belt on into East via Pennsylvania to NYC. With our GPS and a rental car, laptop and an acoustic guitar, we plan to visit
• St. Louis
• Chicago
• Cincinnati
• Philadelphia
• New York City
So stay tuned!
Get Together Summer 2007
Get together in the summer of 2007
Joseph Campbell emphasizes the importance of ritual and ceremony. By participating in everything from church or temple to rock concerts, Halloween parties, marathons, sporting events we are participating in myths, and doing something to enhance and define our social connections with each other and with the cosmos. To that end, I intend to start doing something on a weekly basis, at the same time, same place perhaps or a variety of places in and around Austin that involved picnicking by the water, playing music, getting together, meeting each other, having fun, participating in rituals and myths and celebrating love & life. Tune into our myspace page at myspace.com/mjoerossi for the calendar of where we’ll be this summer.
Joseph Campbell emphasizes the importance of ritual and ceremony. By participating in everything from church or temple to rock concerts, Halloween parties, marathons, sporting events we are participating in myths, and doing something to enhance and define our social connections with each other and with the cosmos. To that end, I intend to start doing something on a weekly basis, at the same time, same place perhaps or a variety of places in and around Austin that involved picnicking by the water, playing music, getting together, meeting each other, having fun, participating in rituals and myths and celebrating love & life. Tune into our myspace page at myspace.com/mjoerossi for the calendar of where we’ll be this summer.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)