Talk about anything else: your pets, your car, movies, celebrities, or other things you like. As a reminder, political and religious discussions do not belong in here, nor any other topics that may incite a heated debate! As always keep it clean, please.
Marda wrote:~
Copy From AOL Online Music News (AP)
Music Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2004
Conservative Crooners Push Vote Campaign
HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A group of politically conservative country music stars launched a get-out-the-vote project Tuesday, saying everyone has a responsibility to vote in November regardless of political affiliation.
/Marda
The “Vote for Change Tour,” which seeks to help defeat George W Bush, will include Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Dave Matthews Band, The Dixie Chicks, Pearl Jam, Bonnie Raitt, John Mellencamp, R.E.M. and others. On either musical or political grounds, I would rate this tour far above the Ricky Skaggs tour. With all due respect to Skaggs, his biggest selling single, “Uncle Pen,” is not in the same league with Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A” or the Dixie Chicks’ “Wide Open Spaces.” But to each their own, I guess.
I thought this passage from Thus spake Zarathustra fit well with the tone of this thread...
XI. The New Idol.
Somewhere there are still peoples and herds, but not with us, my brethren: here there are states.
A state? What is that? Well! open now your ears unto me, for now will I say unto you my word concerning the death of peoples.
A state, is called the coldest of all cold monsters. Coldly lieth it also; and this lie creepeth from its mouth: “I, the state, am the people.”
It is a lie! Creators were they who created peoples, and hung a faith and a love over them: thus they served life.
Destroyers, are they who lay snares for many, and call it the state: they hang a sword and a hundred cravings over them.
Where there is still a people, there the state is not understood, but hated as the evil eye, and as sin against laws and customs.
This sign I give unto you: every people speaketh its language of good and evil: this its neighbour understandeth not. Its language hath it devised for itself in laws and customs.
But the state lieth in all languages of good and evil; and whatever it saith it lieth; and whatever it hath it hath stolen.
False is everything in it; with stolen teeth it biteth, the biting one. False are even its bowels.
Confusion of language of good and evil; this sign I give unto you as the sign of the state. Verily, the will to death, indicateth this sign! Verily, it beckoneth unto the preachers of death!
Many too many are born: for the superfluous ones was the state devised!
See just how it enticeth them to it, the many-too-many! How it swalloweth and cheweth and recheweth them!
“On earth there is nothing greater than I: it is I who am the regulating finger of God”—thus roareth the monster. And not only the long-eared and short-sighted fall upon their knees!
Ah! even in your ears, ye great souls, it whispereth its gloomy lies! Ah! it findeth out the rich hearts which willingly lavish themselves!
Yea, it findeth you out too, ye conquerors of the old God! Weary ye became of the conflict, and now your weariness serveth the new idol!
Heroes and honourable ones, it would fain set up around it, the new idol! Gladly it basketh in the sunshine of good consciences,--the cold monster!
Everything will it give YOU, if YE worship it, the new idol: thus it purchaseth the lustre of your virtue, and the glance of your proud eyes.
It seeketh to allure by means of you, the many-too-many! Yea, a hellish artifice hath here been devised, a death-horse jingling with the trappings of divine honours!
Yea, a dying for many hath here been devised, which glorifieth itself as life: verily, a hearty service unto all preachers of death!
The state, I call it, where all are poison-drinkers, the good and the bad: the state, where all lose themselves, the good and the bad: the state, where the slow suicide of all—is called “life.”
Just see these superfluous ones! They steal the works of the inventors and the treasures of the wise. Culture, they call their theft—and everything becometh sickness and trouble unto them!
Just see these superfluous ones! Sick are they always; they vomit their bile and call it a newspaper. They devour one another, and cannot even digest themselves.
Just see these superfluous ones! Wealth they acquire and become poorer thereby. Power they seek for, and above all, the lever of power, much money—these impotent ones!
See them clamber, these nimble apes! They clamber over one another, and thus scuffle into the mud and the abyss.
Towards the throne they all strive: it is their madness—as if happiness sat on the throne! Ofttimes sitteth filth on the throne.—and ofttimes also the throne on filth.
Madmen they all seem to me, and clambering apes, and too eager. Badly smelleth their idol to me, the cold monster: badly they all smell to me, these idolaters.
My brethren, will ye suffocate in the fumes of their maws and appetites! Better break the windows and jump into the open air!
Do go out of the way of the bad odour! Withdraw from the idolatry of the superfluous!
Do go out of the way of the bad odour! Withdraw from the steam of these human sacrifices!
Open still remaineth the earth for great souls. Empty are still many sites for lone ones and twain ones, around which floateth the odour of tranquil seas.
Open still remaineth a free life for great souls. Verily, he who possesseth little is so much the less possessed: blessed be moderate poverty!
There, where the state ceaseth—there only commenceth the man who is not superfluous: there commenceth the song of the necessary ones, the single and irreplaceable melody.
There, where the state CEASETH—pray look thither, my brethren! Do ye not see it, the rainbow and the bridges of the Superman?--
Thus spake Zarathustra
Whatever you accomplish in life is a manifestation not so much of what you do, as of what you believe deeply within yourself that you deserve. - Les Brown
Hi TGirls
~
Hopefully I'm in time to post this News item before the CyberBorder is Shutdown & Locked ...
*Free_Just_&_Democratic_American_People* *Can't Be Too Careful* about the *Ever Present Threat* from those *WildEyed_CanuckSkiIte_Extremists* ... there's all those *Under Priced Prescription Drugs* ... all that *Under Priced High Alcohol Content Beer* ... all those *Under Priced Slow Burning Cigarettes* ... all that *HiGrade Whacky Tabacky* ... all those *Dangerous Liberal Human Values* ... that *Dangerous National Health Concept* ... all those *Dangerous Wide Open Spaces* ... all that *Dangerous Softwood Lumber* ... all those *Dangerous Cattle Beasts* and *Feathery Chickens* ... not to mention the *EverDangerous Fresh Air and Water* ... never mind all those *Weapons of Mass Destruction Factories* those *Dangerous Russian Immigrants, Hippies and Other Communists* have hidden in the *Rockie Mountains* ... and of course you never know what could be hiding in a pound of *Canadian Cheddar Cheese* or *Canadian Back Bacon* just waiting for an opportunity to *Attack* you right at your very own *Dinner Table* !!!
***
copy CBC News Online staff Thu, 19 Aug 2004 07:15:11 EDT
" U.S. boosts Canadian border security
VANCOUVER - To counter potential threats from Canada, U.S. officials are beefing up security and surveillance along the U.S.-Canada border, known as the longest undefended border in the world.
In response to the Sept. 11 attacks, a new command centre, a new plane with sensor equipment, marine units and a Black Hawk helicopter will be deployed to the border between British Columbia and Washington state by the U.S. Office of Air and Marine Operations.
Gary Bracken, a spokesman for Air and Marine Operations, said U.S intelligence shows there's enough of a threat to warrant an increased presence along the border.
"Along the [Canadian] border we are also faced with the smuggling of migrants, weapons, currency in both directions, as well as the ability of terrorists or weapons of mass destruction crossing the border using traditional smuggling routes."
Bracken said the new equipment will be based at Bellingham, Wash., just 25 kilometres south of Vancouver.
It will be used to patrol an area within a 400 kilometre radius.
Bracken said U.S. planes and helicopters will not routinely enter Canadian airspace.
"Not on a normal basis, no. We will be flying along the border in U.S. airspace as part of a course of normal operations. But we will be working closely with our Canadian counterparts."
He also said the new security measures will not change the
relationship with Canada or the claim about the undefended border.
RCMP spokesperson John Ward said both countries are involved in ongoing consultations about border security. He said Canadians were well aware of the redeployment of U.S. assets.
Ward said the move doesn't really change much along the border.
"It's not an increased scrutiny. These are assets we've used in the past. They've just decided to move them closer."
Another command centre will open by the end of the year in Plattsburg, N.Y. Over the next couple of years, more centres are expected to be put in place in Montana, North Dakota and Michigan. "
***
~
Love / Marda
~ Some drink at the fountain of knowledge - Others just gargle ~
NOMINATE, v. To designate for the heaviest political assessment. To
put forward a suitable person to incur the mudgobbling and deadcatting
of the opposition.
NOMINEE, n. A modest gentleman shrinking from the distinction of
private life and diligently seeking the honorable obscurity of public
office.
Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
Whatever you accomplish in life is a manifestation not so much of what you do, as of what you believe deeply within yourself that you deserve. - Les Brown
Skagg said:
I think the heartland of America is Nashville, Tennessee, or Kansas City or St. Louis or Denver, Colorado - that's the real heartland of America.
and his point is?
the "heartland" of America doesn't get to decide who our president is, EVERYBODY does -- from the poorest of the poor in Detroit, the leftist of the left in New York, and the angry of the angriest in south central LA -- we're all Americans and we vote.
Alexandra wrote:Skagg said:
I think the heartland of America is Nashville, Tennessee, or Kansas City or St. Louis or Denver, Colorado - that's the real heartland of America.
and his point is?
the "heartland" of America doesn't get to decide who our president is, EVERYBODY does -- from the poorest of the poor in Detroit, the leftist of the left in New York, and the angry of the angriest in south central LA -- we're all Americans and we vote.
Here here, sister!!!
The heartland exists wherever people feel deeply about this beautiful country of ours, the good ol' US of A. In my opinion, the heartland stretches from coast to coast.
As per Nietzsche (thanks for that, Kathy), it can be a very dangerous thing to confuse "love of nation" with "love of homeland." Nations are abstract entities; homelands (countries, in the deepest sense of the word) aren't. I just picked up a used 12-volume set of National Geographic 100th Anniversary Special books on the natural beauty and the culture of the United States. What a rich and gorgeous homeland you all have down there--it's the geography and the people that make it up, not the head of state (who, regardless of what he may say, often has only his own best interest at heart or that of his party--Republican OR Democrat). The heartland is not in Nashville... it's in the very spirit of each and everyone one of you who deeply cares for and loves the beauty she finds in both people and terrain, from Nome to Orlando.
As per Nietzsche (thanks for that, Kathy), it can be a very dangerous thing to confuse "love of nation" with "love of homeland." Nations are abstract entities; homelands (countries, in the deepest sense of the word) aren't. I just picked up a used 12-volume set of National Geographic 100th Anniversary Special books on the natural beauty and the culture of the United States. What a rich and gorgeous homeland you all have down there--it's the geography and the people that make it up, not the head of state (who, regardless of what he may say, often has only his own best interest at heart or that of his party--Republican OR Democrat). The heartland is not in Nashville... it's in the very spirit of each and everyone one of you who deeply cares for and loves the beauty she finds in both people and terrain, from Nome to Orlando.
Good luck y'all in November!
Love,
CJ
Right on!!
*Hugs & Love*
Blessings Eternal, Jassmine
"Love is unconditional acceptance. That quality is also our essential nature, who we really are."
--Peter Shepherd
Right on!! 
