Friends, this photograph shows Jessica Watson, a sixteen year old Australian ending her solo, non-stop voyage around the world unassisted on her yacht Ella’s Pink Lady.

The journey took close to seven months (210 days) and she traveled 23,000 miles. When she docked at the Sydney Opera House she was greeted by her parents and hundreds of thousands of people who were obviously impressed by what this young girl achieved.

She was understandably in tears. After all she battled storms, huge waves, loneliness, gear failure, lack of sleep, a number of knockdowns, lack of fresh food yet, somehow, she overcame them, them and her own fears.  She had sailed past the two capes: at the bottom of Africa and South America, probably the most dangerous locations in the world. Yet she soon regained her composure and showed how much her endeavor had matured her, had made her self-reliant.

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Friends, enlightenment is ours when we:

accept what we are, warts and all,

accept what life is and, importantly, what it’s not,

accept that the human world is deeply flawed and unchangeable;

accept that people will disappoint and reject us,

accept that nature is generous and deserves respect,

accept that a happy meal with music, wine and friends is priceless;

accept that we will get sick sometimes,

accept that more of everything is not better,

accept that simplicity, humility and honesty are worthwhile values;

accept that giving is better than taking,

accept that, one day, we will grow old and die,

and accept that death brings with it perfect, eternal peace.

In the search for truth, surely we must start with ourselves.

The images above reveal a picture of ourselves that we never see. For that we may be thankful. Imagine if that was the view you got each time you stepped from the shower.

The images show what is inside us: the bones, the organs, the guts, the bowel, the arteries, etc. What a mess! Interestingly, the external genitals are missing I assume because of modesty. But the truth is that our genitals show clearly our close animal origins.

I used to be involved with raising cattle and I can assure you, when it comes to procreation, there is no difference between a bull inseminating a cow and a male inseminating a woman. Of course a bull doesn’t try the 64 positions outlined in the Karma Sutra. He just does the job in a minute or two.

Regarding birth, women give birth in exactly the same way as a cow does except women do not eat the afterbirth as cows do. Apparently it’s very good for them and they are programmed by nature to devour it even though they are herbivores.

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I looked at the world, its doom-laden headlines.

Then something inside me said,

“Push it away.”

SORRY. WE’RE CLOSED. PERMANENTLY!

Reuters reports that Hilary Clinton has said following the Time Square Non-bombing: “We’ve made it very clear that if — heaven-forbid — an attack like this that we can trace back to Pakistan were to have been successful, there would be very severe consequences.“

Now, I don’t know about you but given the track record of the U.S. over the last decade which involved the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and the deaths of, well no one knows, but it’s well over a million men, women and children AND the fact that American drones fly non-stop over Pakistan and rain missiles down on all and sundry (as well as a few terrorists), what severe consequences could she be referring to?

My mind, ever busy, has come up with a few possibilities that America might try given that invasion, occupation, mass killing and drones don’t seem to be getting rid of the ‘terrists.’

1. America might threaten to stop bringing peace and democracy to foreign countries. I know that this will bring screams of protest from those who anxiously await the champions of human rights arriving on their shores bringing with them SHOCK AND AWE and a gazillion heavily-armed, trigger-happy marines who carry chocolate bars in one pocket and hand-grenades in the other.

2. America might threaten to close down all overseas MacDonalds restaurants, Starbucks coffee shops, and stop the supply of Coco Cola. Could you imagine the panic around the world if this happened? Half the people in the world would commit suicide immediately.

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Greece is consumed by civil unrest. The rest of Europe watches uneasily.

Greece is an economic basket case. It has huge debts which may cause it to default. It has been offered huge amounts of money ($146 billion) by the E.U. and the IMF  but on the condition that it stops its profligate spending.

This it has done  but the belt-tightening and austerity measures have not been appreciated by the Greek people who have been protesting and rioting. Three people were killed when a bank was set on fire.

But it’s not just the rioting that is causing concern. There are other nations in the E.U. that are suffering from similar financial problems, nations like Portugal and Spain and even Italy. The contagion has already spread but how bad and how far remains to be seen.

As well, the Euro itself is under threat and speculators are blamed for the falling price. If the Euro collapses, so does the foundation upon which the E.U. is based.

Friends, we have had to deal with the Global Financial Crisis and that issue is not yet over. Having to deal with this new problem in Europe is not what the world needs.

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Does this look like a weapon of mass destruction to you?

Friends, the use of the term Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD) to me signifies something capable of mass destruction. A nuclear bomb or a biological or chemical agent that could potentially kill hundreds of thousands of people is the kind of image that comes into my mind, Hiroshima too.

You will remember that Saddam was accused of possessing WMDs and that led to the American invasion and occupation of Iraq during which more than a million  Iraqis were killed yet, ironically, no WMDs were found. I can’t recall anyone apologizing for the mistake.

As you would know, in Times Square in New York, a vehicle was found with smoke coming from it. The area was quickly cleared and the bomb squad was called in. Eventually the vehicle was stripped of the crude bomb which was inside it, a bomb which is shown in the image above.

Now I’m no expert in explosives, but looking at the image and noting what was inside the vehicle (which included fireworks), it’s hard to imagine that it qualifies to be called a weapon of mass destruction which is what the American citizen of Pakistani ethnicity is being charged with making.

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Does she want to seduce him or kill him?

Friends, these two are expected to do battle at the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty meeting organized by the U.N. The meeting lasts from May 3 to the 28th.

According to Reuters, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said over the weekend that more progress needs to be made in ridding the world of the more than 25,000 atomic weapons still on the planet. Can you get your mind around such a figure as that? Can you imagine the force that would be unleashed if they all went off which would happen in an all-out nuclear war?

Now I know that looks can be deceiving but, although the Iranian President Ahmadinejad has ‘mad’ in his name, it is Hilary Clinton who looks as though she’s insane. I hope she never gets near the red button in the Oval Office! There could be hell to pay.

Of course, the meeting, which is held every five years, is to be attended by the 189 signatories to the Treaty which, at its inception in 1970, was supposed to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and lead to the destruction of all existing weapons.

That’s 40 years ago and nothing much has been achieved.

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A  volcano might’ve interrupted the dinosaur’s travel plans

Friends, for millions of years dinosaurs roamed the earth and dominated all other forms of life. They were so massive and so aggressive that they had total power.  Then they disappeared and their remains are found all over the world.

Scientists have come up with two explanations for their demise. One is that a huge volcanic eruption brought about  the equivalent of a prolonged nuclear winter. Because ash covered the sun, little would grow and dinosaurs, which were carnivores, required a large amount of food which they generally got from hunting and eating plant-eating animals. No food = no survival!

The other explanation is that the earth was hit by a giant asteroid and that the impact was equivalent to thousands of atomic bombs exploding simultaneously. The effect was to devastate the fragile earth and that brought about the demise of said dinosaurs.

Of course, no one knows exactly what happened but one thing is for sure: dominance does not guarantee survival!

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A serious face. A serious message.

Friends, this provocative photograph was taken during protests in New York when a few thousand, union organized protesters marched through the financial district including Wall Street.

According to Reuters, one group at the rally dubbed itself “The Other 98 Percent” and called for policies that focus on “the rest of us” instead of the wealthy.

The protest was directed at the control of the U.S. and the world by the big banks, the big financial institutions, and the wealthy, control that is slanted towards making the rich richer and screwing the poor and those in what’s left of the middle classes.

I just hope that this means that the peasants are starting to wake up to the fact that they are being exploited so that a few can have it all. I hope that they see the obscene lifestyle that the rich enjoy and are sickened and angered by it.

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