The AIG bonus diversion

The bailout money that AIG give out in bonuses amounts to one one thousanth of a percent of their total bailout package. All the MSM outlets are going on and on about the "outrage" of the American people while back at the Fed the printing presses punched out another 1.25 TRILLION sending the dollar down 3 plus percent.
.....AIGs bonuses were $160,000,000. The Fed printed $1,250,000,000,000. This is the true outrage. The more there is of a thing the less valuable those things become; economics 101. The Fed picked your pocket yesterday.
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http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Paul_Bill_to_tax_bonuses_unconstitutional_0319.html

UN panel says world should scrap US dollars

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE52H2CY20090318
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and...
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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=aLczKs0963FU&refer=australia

Thomas Paine

"The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from it's government."
..........Thomas Paine

Commercial real estate

Commercial real estate is supposedly the next domino to fall in this unfolding crisis. Here is a relevant article:
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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aVyOvEG8AoZw&refer=home

A different approach:

I'm changing the emphasis of this blog. World events are too chaotic and my personnal focus has clearly shifted toward following them and trying to put the word out to people. I'll be posting a lot of videos and related articles. Enjoy?

trees

Adaptable

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”
..........................Charles Darwin

Good and Evil

"The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either--but right through every human heart."
.........................Alexander Solzhenitsyn

imbalance

"An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics."
..................Plutarch

the monk

Renunciation and all-wanting
Happiness ‘midst tasks too daunting.
Shallow depths and lows uplifted
Contradictions are truths to the gifted.
Echoes reflecting in the snows
Listen, then listen harder to the crows.
A forest speaks to the waiting ear
As paths unwind bringing you near.
Easy and true a friend when in need
Pliant and gracious an ear that gives heed.
Stillness breaths the open wind
Sleeping hearts now stir again.

one thoughtful viewing...

_____Death is like a film or painting that requires more than one thoughtful viewing to appreciate and understand.

the Dream

Wake up. I want to tell you that you are living a dream but I know you will not listen. You will not listen for the same reason I did not listen. You don’t give a shit.
-----No one wants to be roused from a pleasant dream of self-indulgence and ease. No one wants to know at what cost their luxury was acquired. How many treaties or laws or lives or backs were broken in the process.
-----The dream is a parasite feeding on our complacency, devouring our wills and moral footings; betrothing us to lives of servitude to an abyss of material desire all the while shouting into our ears all the lies that we have grown so accustomed to.
-----We have become deaf to truth. We hear only the noise of the machines that bind us to the dream. A dream that consumes the dreamer.

-----Until....

-----Until enough falseness and contradiction and hypocrisy and injustice has seeped from the pores of this nightmare, and its putrid odor can no longer be ignored. This is when you'll wake up. This is when you'll realize the depth and degree of your addiction to the fairy tale you've been living. This is what some might call, a moment of clarity.
-----This is also when the parasite, this dream, will itself go to sleep. It will sleep in your heart and in the hearts of others and it will slumber more and more deeply as more and more wake up... as more and more can no longer stand the stench of its lies. It will sleep until enough time has past that the lessons it taught will have been forgotten again and it tempts us toward another deafening, intoxicated, mad ride past the boundaries of our common sense and reason.
-----This then is when the old beast will rise again to blind mens eyes to the darker side of their nature. Once more men will fight and kill for possession of what should be freely accessible to all. Once more power and greed will become virtues; injustice the law; and fear, the means of control.
-----The dream is strong... and it dwells with us all.

Claires dancing trees

Wake up

.....One of truths attributes is its continual push for recognition, understanding and acceptance. Truths which are ignored remain truths. You are the lesser for not acknowledging them. Truth is empowering and carries moral authority. Truth is pliable in that it is not ridged and can be seemingly "bent" by reason of perspective.
.....Truths become self-evident over time. Sadly this "truth" is not realized in the same ways and at the same time by all peoples. Each has their own capacity for the absorption of truths; their own pace at which they can tolerate the change of perspective that a new understanding demands. Agility is not only a physical attribute, but a mental one as well.
.....A change of perspective will not tolerate passivity. Effort is required when ones mind changes; when ones outlook, preconceived notions and trivial habits of thought are challenged by something wider and deeper. Looking out into the bright daylight can be a bit overwhelming when one has been in a dark room sleeping.
.....I want you to wake up.

Phaelenopsis

Chance

snow falls
upon what
it cares not-

though don't believe
that chance
rides its decent.

pile o' logs

Ice storm 2