My Imagination Is Power

In a car you're always in a compartment, and because you're used to it you don't realize that through that car window everything you see is just more TV. You're a passive observer and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame.

On a cycle the frame is gone. You're completely in contact with it all. You're in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming. That concrete whizzing by five inches below your foot is the real thing, the same stuff you walk on, it's right there, so blurred you can't focus on it, yet you can put your foot down and touch it anytime, and the whole thing, the whole experience, is never removed from immediate consciousness.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, p.12

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.

Women who eat healthy breakfasts like Special K, weight less.

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

"I've seen you around with another one like you," [the snake] said to Adam. "But instead of the dead legless snake between the legs, she has chaos there."

And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (she chuckled)--this is working very well for them.

That's the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty, even if they're not much to look at, or even if they're sort of stupid, you fall half in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are. Girls. Jesus Christ. They can drive you crazy. They really can.

Randall Terry, a protest organizer:

If Gov. Bush wants to be the man that his brother is, he needs to step up to the plate like President Bush did when the United Nations told him not to go into Iraq. Be a man. Put politics aside.

Protest signs:

Barbara Bush: Are you proud of your sons now?

Stop the American Holocaust!

Send in the National Guard!

Keep on dreaming boy, cause when you stop dreamin’ it’s time to die.

Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government's purposes are beneficent . . . The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.

She made me do it.

stalwart trusty friend to kittens and enemy evil little troll

"If there is a bedrock principle of the First Amendment, it is that they government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable."

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Liz, after getting made fun of in a clever way:

"Oh, I get it. It's very clever. How's that working out for you?"

"What?"

"Being clever."

Now, religion used to be essentially viral-a piece of information that replicated inside the human mind, jumping from one person to the next. That's the way it used to be, and unfortunately, that's the way it's headed right now. But there have been several efforts to deliver us from the hands of primitive, irrational religion. The first was made by someone named Enki about four thousand years ago. The second was made by Hebrew scholars in the eighth century B.C., driven out of their homeland by the invasion of Sargon II, but eventually it just devolved into empty legalism. Another attempt was made by Jesus-that one was hijacked by viral influences within fifty days of his death. The virus was suppressed by the Catholic Church, but we're in the middle of a big epidemic that started in Kansas in 1900 and has been gathering momentum ever since.

Those who have the privilege to know have the duty to act.

In recent months . . . some activist judges and local officials have made an aggressive attempt to redefine marriage. In Massachusetts, four judges on the highest court have indicated they will order the issuance of marriage licenses to mixed race couples in May of this year. In San Francisco, city officials have issued thousands of marriage licenses to couples of differing colors. A county in New Mexico has also issued marriage licenses to applicants of different colors. And unless action is taken, we can expect more arbitrary court decisions, more litigation, more defiance of the law by local officials, all of which adds to uncertainty.

Dude, highschool's not the end of...You can move out, cut your hair. You're done. It's amazing how fast you lose touch with all these people. the dorks in highschool go onto do great things and all the really cool guys are living in Littleton as insurance agents.

Here is my theory: As we dream we release deep forgotten emotion. Then you wake up in the morning and you need a mate to be close to. I think dreams make us want to cuddle in the morning, and this may have helped keep the structure of the family across the millenium.

I don't always know what the right thing to do is, my Lord, but I think the fact that I want to please you pleases you.

It isn't humility unless you're good enough at something to be humble about.

You have to laugh at yourself because you'd...cry your eyes out if you didn't.

Real soldiers are dying in their Hummers, so you can play soldier in yours. 10 Miles Per Gallon 2 Soldiers Per Day

Everyone's asking why are we in Iraq? We were sold a bill of goods. This is a show of strength to scare the rest of the world-go after the obvious bad guy. It's like Batman going after the Penguin because he can't find the real villain, the Joker. Batman would never do that just for show-that kind of thing only works for lone justice anyway, not with countries.

We shot a deer! In the woods near Lake Mattatuck on the second day. There was a special vest they had me wear so they could distinguish me from things they wanted to shoot, and I was pretty greatful for that. Almost the whole day had gone by, they hadn't gotten anything. Eddie was getting frustrated, Bob Schumaker was getting embarassed. The camera needed to be reloaded so I told everybody to take a ten minute break.

There was a stream nearby and I walked over to it with this care package Natalie made me. Sat down...and when I looked up there were three of them. Small, bigger, biggest. Recognizable to any species on the face of the planet as a child, a mother, and a father.

Now, the trick in shooting deer is that you have to get them out in the open, and it's tough with deer because these are clever, cagey animals with an intuitive sense of danger. You know what it takes to get a deer in the open? You hold out a Twinkie. That animal clopped up to me like we were at a party. She seemed pretty interested in the Twinkie, so I gave it to her. Looking back, she would've been better off if I'd've given her the damned vest. And Bob whispered "move away!"

The camera'd been reloaded and it looked like the day wouldn't be a washout after all. So I backed away, couple of steps at a time, and I closed my eyes when I heard the shot. Look, I know these are animals and they don't play bridge or go to the prom, but you can't tell me that the little one didn't know who his MOTHER was! That's gotta MEAN something!

And later, at the hospital, Bob was telling me about the tradition and nobility of hunting to the Native Americans, and I nodded, and I said that was interesting, while the entire time I was thinking about what a load of crap it was! Hunting was a part of Native American CULTURE, it was food and it was clothing and it was shelter. They sang and danced and offered prayers to the GODS for a successful hunt so they could survive just one more unimaginably brutal winter. The things they had to kill held the highest place of respect for them, and to kill for fun was a sin. And they knew the gods wouldn't be so generous next time. What we didn't wasn't food and it wasn't shelter and sure wasn't sports! It was just MEAN!

It's election night, what do you say about a government that goes out of its way to protect even citizens who try to destroy it?

God bless America.

Would that we still had the even more tangible reminders that appeared as early as the night of the attacks: the homemade posters of the “missing” from The Trade Center. As they covered seemingly every available space in the city, they defined desperation: A plea from the family of each depicted; a collective, communal act of desperate hope that the missing were merely that — missing. Injured, hospitalized, unconscious. Victims of amnesia. Or even trapped in the rubble.

Anything that was better than the unspeakable horror.

As days passed, hope should have ebbed but instead it grew. Not only were new posters of the missing still going up across the city, but good Samaritans began papering the town with pictures of people they did not personally know. The posters resonated in an almost unspeakable way. It was the rare and fortunate New Yorker who is not halted in the streets by one of them.

The resonance, perhaps, was in the smiles shown on nearly every photograph on nearly every poster.

Amid the unutterable grief, the people in the posters did not stare out at us in pain, or fear or sadness. They smiled.

It was not a spaceship from another planet, just another time. A long since abandoned Soviet satellite, one of its booster rockets didnt fire and it couldn't escape the earths orbit--a sad reminder of a time when two powerful nations challenged each other and then boldly raced into outer space.

What will be the next thing that challenges us . . . ? That makes us work harder and go farther? . . . Surely, we can do it again. As we did in the time when our eyes looked toward the heavens, and with outstretched fingers, we touched the face of God.

After O'Reilly goes off on how children are picking up bad language from rap videos (paraphrased):

O'REILLY: They both said to me we now have 10-year-old boys calling 10-year-old girls bitches and hos. GREEN: That's kind of fun, to be able to say "bitches" and "'hos" on the Fox News Channel. Can I -- I can just say that on the Fox News Channel? O'REILLY: You bet you can. GREEN: Really? Well, we should be careful. There could be kids watching. O'REILLY: Well, listen, this is a news program, and it's in context to what's happening, OK?

I always felt sorry for Satan. The guy never seemed to have much of a chance. I mean, one day he's God's right-hand man, his best buddy, chief angel and all that, but then these tall monkeys come along and suddenly he's out of the picture. Now, the funny thing is, God made him with the capacity to feel jealousy. He wasn't born, like a human. He was MADE by God, and God made him so that when God got a new best friend, Lucifer was going to get jealous.

So, Lucifer raises up his army, and he gets a fair bunch of the other angels on his side as well, and he makes his war on God. But poor guys got to lose, because it's war on God! I mean, God! You make a war on God and you're going to lose, its simple as that. So Lucifer loses and gets cast down and stuff. This is all pretty convenient for God, 'cos now he's got a bogeyman to scare the tall monkeys with.

I mean, the existence of Satan and Hell is a pretty fundamental part of the whole thing God's got going on, so you've got to wonder, was it a big set up? Was Lucifer just God's patsy? Created as an angel but always destined to become the Devil? And if he was, God must have made him that way on purpose. Seems like a bit of a bum deal for the poor dude.

On the other hand, if God did not make him like that on purpose, that means that God chose as his most trusted assistant, a guy who became the most evil thing in existence which, you've got to admit, means that God is a fairly poor judge of character. That's kind of scary if he's the guy who decides whether you get to Heaven or not. It also means that God's not omniscient, and if he's not omniscient, he's not a God, he's just a really, reallly powerful entity. One day, a more powerful entity might come along and defeat him. Hulk Hogan maybe. "I am the one true God, brother."

i've had quite a few people point out to me their beliefs in why the religion of islam is experiencing so much turmoil...they say they are still in the middle of their dark ages...islam is about 600 years behind christianity...chronologically...which in the expanse of everything is nothing...but with the time period of a culture...it could be the majority factor...where were we 600 years ago..or even 300...christians were still burning people at the stake...witch craft was still a very real problem...the inquisitions...the crusades...and don't even get me started on 'excommunication'...holy crap balls...

now look at a religion that is ancient in comparison to mainstream christianity...or funda 'mental' ist islam...like shinto...or tibetian buddhism...religions that are at peace with all and everything...i'm not preaching here...but these are things that i've noticed...i'm sure that my view is quite different from yours...but then again i won't attack you with a poisonous snake because of it...

For me, Buddhism remains the most precious path. It corresponds best with my personality. But that does not mean I believe it to be the best religion for everyone any more than I believe it necessary for everyone to be a religous believer.

My meetings with many different sorts of people the world over have, however, helped me realize that there are other faiths, and other cultures, no less capable than mine of enabling individuals to live constructive and satisfying lives. What is more, I have come to the conclusion that whether or not a person is a religious believer does not matter much. Far more important is that they be a good human being.

Here I am, internet. Rock me like an e-Hurricane.

I have given the pain in my knee a name. I call him, "Kreigh."

For the average person, music is seperated into categories, but not for me. To me, music is food, and I don't have to say 'These are apples and these are pears.' I can say 'This is music and it tastes good.'

There's nary an animal that can outrun a greased Scotsman!

If there's the often imagined bearded god in the sky who made us in his image, he's an incredibly cruel bastard.