Woman (laughing): “Get your paws off me tits, you big ape!
Son: “Are they real, Dad?”
Father: “Course not! I told you, nothing about humans is ever real!”
Son: “Can I have a feel, Dad?”
Dad: “No way! You might get silicosis.”
Son: “What’s that?”
Dad: “Shortness of breath! Heart pounding! I’ve got it already! He, he, he!”
Friends, it’s that time of the year again when I must put on my turban and peer desperately into my crystal ball hoping to catch a glimpse of what next year might hold for you and I. It is with fear that I do this.
But this year I am prepared to guarantee that my predictions will come to pass. Yes, you read it correctly! That clearly puts me ahead of Nostradamus. Let me see now, mmmm:
1. Humans, collectively, will become even more greedy and brain-dead.
2. Americans will elect a dickhead as their President.
3. Workers across the world will continue to lose more wages and conditions so that banks and billionaires can be bailed out.
4. The ultra-rich will increase their ill-gotten wealth helped by Conservative Governments.
5. Fossil fuels, thanks to the Corporate Lobby, will continue to be used despite the reality of global warming.
6. The U.S., led by Israel, will attack Iran using low-yield nukes.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the world. I’d like you to meet Mr Plum…(full name not given).
Mr Plum… is currently in jail in the U.S. on a variety of charges.
It seems that he confessed to police that he’d killed a little nine year old girl who’d been staying with him over the Xmas weekend by bashing her head in with a brick.
Then he cut her up with a hacksaw, and disposed of most of her body in a nearby dumpster.
Other body parts were later discovered in his refrigerator.
Now Mr Plum… is one of us. He is a human being like us. You say, “He’s no human being, he’s a monster, a sadistic animal…” The fact is that, biologically, he is a human, probably one that was once a lovely baby.
In Haiti, people are joining together to oppose their leaders!
Even in America, some people are aware of the problems and are protesting!
Well, the warm and fuzzy feeling of Xmas has gone and, if you’re like me, you’ll be feeling a bit deflated. Reading the articles on ICH and Anti-War this morning didn’t help much and there are many dire forecasts for next year which starts in a few days time.
Many things seem to be inevitable, things like a world recession and/or depression; an attack on Iran by the U.S., Israel and NATO; more wars in other parts of the Middle East as NATO and the U.S. seek control of scarce resources and strategic locations; the implosion of the EuroZone, etc. etc. Isn’t it great to be alive?
The thing that is missing in most of the dialogue is that the world doesn’t have to be this way. Just because Predators and Parasites are currently running things doesn’t mean that it has to continue to be that way. They may be powerful and wealthy but the truth is that they are few in number while we, the common people, are many. There are billions of us and a few hundred thousand of them.
If only the people of the world could grasp the extent of the power they could wield, if they were united and properly led, then it would be the Predators and the Parasites and their acolytes who would be shaking in their shoes at this time instead of us.
When Kim died, because North Koreans believe him to be part-God, they cried hysterically!
When believers are not weeping, they’re wailing. A scene at the Jerusalem Wailing Wall.
Muslim believers flagellate themselves until the blood runs believing it cleanses them of their sins.
Some Christians partly crucify themselves thinking it will guarantee that Heaven awaits them.
These two wonderful photographs of beautiful young women show very different life choices.
One woman has clearly decided that having space is important. She has also decided to eschew pace realizing that with that comes stress, crowds, noise and pollution. Not for her an hour or two traveling to work, the rushed lunch, the office pressures, the commercialism, the endless competition for promotion, the ever-present risk of being fired.
For her, life has a slow rhythm, a clear logic, an association with the seasons and with life and death. She knows that nature cannot be hurried, that, at times, it is spiteful and mean. But some mornings, when the dew is on the flowers and there is a mist over the valleys, she knows that she lives in a peaceful world of ageless beauty.
The Israeli Defense Force shows its deep love for the Palestinians!
An Afghan child injured in an American bombing raid!
A Somali women awaiting burial, a victim of tribal animosity.
Egyptian soldiers beat a woman protesting against Military Regime!
EVEN AT XMAS, THE KILLING AND BRUTALITY GOES ON AND ON.
Here we see some British troops sending some Xmas Cheer to the Taliban.
Surely there is no greater bastardization of the message of Xmas than this.
And the British aren’t the only ones who are engaged in this murderous hypocrisy.
‘They know not what they do,’ you say! They know full well and feel no remorse.
Killing other humans is their job. They do it with gusto, with panache, with pride!
Soldiers carry out orders given by politicians and the rich. Cannon fodder for hire.
Xmas as a kid is still a time I remember very clearly. We didn’t get much in the way of presents and we didn’t sleep much on Xmas Eve but there was a magic during that time and the world seemed special and non-frightening.
Of course, we children grew up and what we thought the world was changed. The magic seemed to disappear but the memory of it remained and brought a smile. Of course, with our own children we made Xmas special and, through them, we relived our own happy experiences.
I hope that during this Xmas period you can experience some of the joys that Xmas should bring, perhaps a nice dinner with friends and relatives, a glass of wine and laughter, even an exchange of simple presents that show real thought rather than just commercialism.
Joy and Peace and Love to you and yours wherever you are, dear Friends.
HAPPY XMAS!
Will this be the scene across America? Will invasion and occupation RESTORE America?
There is no doubt that the U.S., when it finally entered WW2 (after waiting for nearly two years while it sat on its hands), by the end of the war had great credibility in the eyes of the world. The feeling in the West was that it had saved the world from tyranny.
Immediately, as if hubris had scrambled its brains, it entered into a competition with Russia and an arms race ensued. It was an arms race that America won although questions remain about whether its moon landing was a product of Hollywood rather than a real accomplishment. Keep in mind that American astronauts now go to the Space Station in Russian rockets!
Once Russia was neutralized, then America, seizing the moment, decided, unilaterally, it was the contender for the most powerful nation on Earth award and it began to spend huge amounts of money on its armed forces, money some of which had to be borrowed.
It also nurtured the idea that it was an exceptional nation, the greatest nation in the history of the world in fact, that it was a Beacon on a Hill, that it was born to lead (rule) the world, all fantasy stuff.
FIrst Korea saw the start of American imperialism, then Vietnam and Cambodia, then…if you Google ‘America’s wars’, you can refresh your mind about American warmongering ever since it became a nation, one steeped in oceans of blood.
Since 2,000 and 9/11, we have seen Iraq (oil) and Afghanistan (access to scarce resources) on the world radar as well as Abu Graib. We have also seen America lose the admiration that many nations felt towards it. Why? The reasons are many: