Friday, Friday

As I mentioned in an earlier post this has been a tough week all around but I have finished my training and while I resent having to absorb about 10 days worth of material in 4 I am glad I got a chance to spend some time exploring the new product. It is definitely cutting edge and even though it is "technically" not GA(not officially released) we are already implementing at two very large 'marquee' type clients. One of these clients was in the middle of implementing a competitor's product(one that has been in the space for 12 years or more) when we announced we were entering the market and demoed the prototype. It is always nice to replace the competition...especially in a highly visible account and potentially global account. Our new product is really slick technically with integrations to Google Earth and some other internet services like traffic and weather. With all the maps and other stuff it is impressive. I am going to have to readjust my thinking to 'real-time' instead of batch which might be tough.

Anyhow, going to take the afternoon off and do something besides work. We are moving our office this weekend and the network and all associated stuff like email is down. I might even leave my 'Crackberry' at home! See you guys later.

Zen Joke

It's Friday and it has been a busy week. It has also been a bad week for humans rights with our failure to restore Habeas Corpus and an even worse week for our soldiers with the failure of the Webb amendment. Therefore it is time for a Zen joke.

Q. What did the Zen master say to the hotdog vendor?
A. "Make me one with everything."

Have a good Friday.

Stingy inTeaching

A young physician in Tokyo named Kusuda met a college friend who had been studying Zen. The young doctor asked him what Zen was.

"I cannot tell you what it is," the friend replied, "but one thing is certain. If you understand Zen, you will not be afraid to die."

"That's fine," said Kusuda. "I will try it. Where can I find a teacher?"

"Go to the master Nan-in," the friend told him.

So Kusuda went to call on Nan-in. He carried a dagger nine and a half inches long to determine whether or not the teacher was afraid to die.

When Nan-in saw Kusuda he exclaimed: "Hello, friend. How are you? We haven't seen each other for a long time!"

This perplexed Kusuda, who replied: "We have never met before."

"That's right," answered Nan-in. "I mistook you for another physician who is receiving instruction here."

With such a begining, Kusuda lost his chance to test the master, so reluctantly he asked if he might receive instruction.

Nan-in said: "Zen is not a difficult task. If you are a physician, treat your patients with kindness. That is Zen."

Kusuda visited Nan-in three times. Each time Nan-in told him the same thing. "A phsisician should not waste time around here. Go home and take care of your patients."

It was not clear to Kusuda how such teaching could remove the fear of death. So on the forth visit he complained: "My friend told me that when one learns Zen one loses his fear of death. Each time I come here you tell me to take care of my patients. I know that much. If that is your so-called Zen, I am not going to visit you anymore."

Nan-in smiled and patted the doctor. "I have been too strict with you. Let me give you a koan." He presented Kusuda with Joshu's Mu to work over, which is the first mind-enlightening problem in the book called The Gateless Gate.

Kusuda pondered this problem of Mu (No-Thing) for two years. At length he thought he had reached certainty of mind. But his teacher commented: "You are not in yet."

Kusuda continued in concentration for another year and a half. His mind became placid. Problems dissolved. No-Thing became the truth. He served his patients well and, without even knowing it, he was free from concern of life and death.

Then he visited Nan-in, his old teacher just smiled.

Just One

Why didn't just one Senator(Dem or GOP) stand up yesterday and object to allowing the Webb amendment to fail even though it had a majority? All it would have taken would be one objection to force the Republicans to actually have to stand up and filibuster. Today we would have read in the papers that the GOP filibustered the amendment instead of that it failed. Why are the Democrats allowing the GOP all of these painless filibusters? Why are the Democrats not forcing the Republicans to go on record not supporting the troops?

Makes me very mad.

Here is a more detailed discussion by KagroX at KOS

National Day of Mourning

This Friday, tomorrow September 21, tens of thousands of people, perhaps hundreds of thousands, will participate in the first Iraq Moratorium, a national day of locally organized opposition to the disastrous war and occupation of Iraq.

It is modeled after the great Vietnam Moratorium of October 15, 1969, when individuals in small groups and large, in cities small and large, joined millions of their fellow Americans across the nation to challenge a government policy of lies and delusion that had brought devastation and slaughter to Southeast Asia and the greatest turmoil at home since the Civil War.

You can do a much or as little as you feel necessary from civil disobedience to writing your local newspaper or posting something on your blog. If you do nothing else, wear a black armband to school, to work or wherever you go on Friday as silent testimony to your opposition to the war and occupation, to your mourning of its consequences and to your determination to help end it.

Friday the 21st is also the International Day of Peace which makes it doubly important that we do something positive to mark our opposition to the unjust war in Iraq.

If you have any good ideas for Friday please note them in the comments and regardless let us all know in the comments how you plan to join in the Iraq Moratorium and the International Day of Peace.

New Paul Krugman Blog

Someplace that might be worth checking in on periodically. Paul Krugman introduces his blog: The Conscience of a Liberal. Another voice and a good one. Welcome to the pool Paul.

Not Far From Buddhahood

One of my favorites...

A university student while visiting Gasan asked him: "Have you ever read the Christian Bible?"

"No, read it to me," said Gasan.

The student opened the Bible and read from St. Matthew: "And why take ye thought for rainment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin, and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these... Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself."

Gasan said: "Whoever uttered those words I consider an enlightened man."

The student continued reading: "Ask and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened."

Gasan remarked: "That is excellent. Whoever said that is not far from Buddhahood."

John Answers Hillary

Here is what John Edwards has to say about Hillary's healthcare plan.

The lesson Senator Clinton seems to have learned from her experience with health care is, ‘If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.’ I learned a very different lesson from decades of fighting powerful interests - you can never join ‘em, you just have to beat ‘em.

If you’re going to negotiate universal health care with the same powerful interests that killed it before, your proposal isn’t a plan, it’s a starting point. I’d like to know what a principled compromise looks like on universal health care. When you cut the deal on universal, who gets left out? And if you don’t compromise on the universal part, does that mean you compromise on the health care part? Lower quality? Higher costs? I don’t believe in it.

In the America I believe in, we don’t compromise our principles. I will not compromise on universal health care - not on coverage, not on quality, not on cost. I’ll fight for it with everything I’ve got.

And to show Congress just how serious I am, on the first day of my administration, I will submit legislation that ends health care coverage for the president, all members of Congress, and all senior political appointees in both branches of government on July 20th, 2009 - unless we have passed universal health care reform.

There are four principles that have to be met: it must be truly universal. Anyone who has health care must be able to keep it, but they should pay less for it. Anyone who doesn’t have health care must get it, with help if they can’t afford it. Doctors and patients, not insurance companies and HMOs, must have control of health care decisions.

The American people have waited long enough. Six months will be hard, but we can do it. Six months to universal health care. Six months to real change. Without compromise.

Millions of Americans live without health care every day. It’s time for Washington to understand that health care reform isn’t a political issue - it’s a moral issue. If they do, we’ll finally have universal health care.

Ditto

Daily Bread

First it was corn prices moving up because of the demand caused by ethanol and some shortages due to weather. Now it looks like wheat is the next victim. For a lot of us a few pennies here and there on the cost of a "Twinkie" or a bagel is no big deal but for people already pinched by gas prices and other food prices going up this is going to hurt.

Wheat futures hit a record of $8.87 a bushel in Chicago trading last week before retreating to $8.75 on Monday. Still, that's a huge jump from $3.95 a year ago.

Oh, and never mind that Global Warming thing Bush.

Free Stuff

This should be interesting....

Resuming an old rivalry, International Business Machines Corp. is launching a software giveaway that takes aim at Microsoft Corp. on the office desktop.

Today, IBM plans to post on the Internet a package of its own software with applications that square off against components of Microsoft's ubiquitous Office suite -- a word processor to rival Word, a spreadsheet to go up against Excel and business-presentation software as an alternative to PowerPoint.

Never have been much of a fan of Symphony and I absolutely hate Lotus Notes but for some this might be better than shelling out the price for MS Home Office. There will, of course, be loads of compatibility issues.

Not Universal Health Care Hillary

Traffic wasn't as bad as usual so I have a few minutes to comment on Hillary's so called Universal Health Care Plan unveiled yesterday. It should properly be labeled Universal Health Insurance and is a long cry from an actual proposal for Universal Health Care.

Universal Health care means a single payer health care system where everybody as free access to healthcare...end of discussion. It is like the systems in most of the other civilized countries of the world. This is not it.

I can see the fingerprints of the greed driven health insurance companies and big pharma all over this proposal and I for one don't like it. Yes, I know I haven't been able to study it in depth but I have seen enough of it to know it stinks.

I don't think I will be alone in this assessment.

Shoun and His Mother

Running behind this morning so I just have time for this morning's koan. Off to face the Atlanta traffic and another day in the classroom. Everyone have a great day.

Shoun became a teacher of Soto Zen. When he was still a student his father passed away, leaving him to care for his old mother.

Whenever Shoun went to a meditation hall he always took his mother with him. Since she accompanied him, when he visited monasteries he could not live with the monks. So he would built a little house and cared for her there. He would copy sutras, Buddhist verses, and in this manner receive a few coins for food.

When Shoun bought fish for his mother, the people would scoff at him, for a monk is not supposed to eat fish. But Shoun did not mind. His mother, however, was hurt to see others laugh at her son. Finally she told Shoun: "I think I will become a nun. I can be vegetarian too." She did, and they studied together.

Shoun was fond of music and was a master of the harp, which his mother also played. On full-moon nights they used to play together. One night a young lady passed by their house and heard music. Deeply touched, she invited Shoun to visit her the next evening and play. He accepted the invitation. A few days later he met the young lady on the street and thanked her for her hospitality. Others laughed at him. He had visited the house of a woman of the streets.

One day Shoun left for a distant temple to deliver a lecture. A few months afterwards he returned home to find his mother dead. Friends had not known where to reach him, so the funeral was in progress.

Shoun walked up and hit the coffin with his staff. "Mother, your son has returned," he said.

"I am glad to see you have returned, son," he answered for his mother.

"Yes, I am glad too," Shoun responded. Then he announced to the people about him: "The funeral ceremony is over. You may bury the body."

When Shoun was old he knew his end was approaching. He asked his disciples to gather around him in the morning, telling them he was going to pass on at noon. Burning incense before the picture of his mother and his old teacher, he wrote a poem:

For fifty-six years I lived as best I could,
Making my way in this world.
Now the rain has ended, the clouds are clearing,
The blue sky has a full moon.

His disciples gathered around him, reciting sutra, and Shoun passed on during the invocation.

Training This Week

May be a little quiet around here this week. I was informed over the weekend that I am going to be trained in a new product this week. Should be interesting as the new product is fully integrated with Google maps, internet weather and traffic information. All of this is used to schedule and route service technicians the most efficient way and still keep them within the limits imposed by service contracts. It integrates with the old product in helping bring a needed replacement part to the appropriate technician so it really an extension of what I already do. It runs of the same database and even uses the same UI just with additional screens. Looking forward to learning some the new geeky web stuff.

Probably won't hear much from me except at lunch or in the evening. Yes, I have to fight traffic as well this week. Arrgh! I do like getting up and walking down the hall to work.

Muddy Road

More about Tanzan .

Tanzan and Ekido were once traveling together down a muddy road. A heavy rain was still falling.

Coming around a bend, they met a lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash, unable to cross the intersection.

"Come on, girl" said Tanzan at once. Lifting her in his arms, he carried her over the mud.

Ekido did not speak again until that night when they reached a lodging temple. Then he no longer could restrain himself. "We monks don't go near females," he told Tanzan, "especially not young and lovely ones. It is dangerous. Why did you do that?"

"I left the girl there," said Tanzan. "Are you still carrying her?"

Instilling Failure

This is really interesting from the Washington Post in what it doesn't say.

WaPo:

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday he would recommend a veto of a Senate proposal that would give troops more rest between deployments in Iraq, branding it a dangerous "backdoor way" to draw down forces.

Democrats pledged to push ahead with the plan by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., and expressed confidence they could round up the votes to pass it, although perhaps not by the margin to override a veto.

Gates was asked in broadcast interviews about recommending a veto to Bush should the proposal pass. "Yes I would," the Pentagon chief said.

"If it were enacted, we would have force management problems that would be extremely difficult and, in fact, affect combat effectiveness and perhaps pose greater risk to our troops," he said.

I really don't have a problem with that. It's always been understood that Bush would oppose operating within the realistic framework military commanders thought necessary and that made the Webb proposal the preferred minimum requirements. Giving service members the rest and training time the military command thinks they need outside of combat zones would limit Bush's ability to kill troops as fast as the politics demanded and not take credit for it.

Bush will veto any measure with even the suggestion that service men and women will end up spending equal time in and out of combat. Goddess forbid! They simply must spend more time under fire...I mean Christ, we are paying them for combat!

What I do have a problem with is the subtle idea implied in the article that, all of a sudden, 60 out of a hundred is the "new" majority in the Senate.

Supporters of Webb's proposal say it has at least 57 of the 60 votes needed for passage. It would need 67 votes to override a veto.

This is not sloppy writing, this is intentional. The "60 votes needed for passage" actually refers to the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture on a Republican filibuster, so that the Senate can vote on the measure. The reality is that you still need only 51 votes to pass a a measure in the Senate. It is only when the minority party pulls the filibuster gag that you need 60 votes.

This isn't just bad writing or poor reporting...this is intentionally framing the notion that everything brought to a vote in the Senate will automatically be subject to a filibuster. Why is this important? It is important because it makes Republican obstructionism less obvious.

This is wrong on several levels but most importantly the Senate has been creating unanimous consent agreements that actually codify the process of filibuster. By agreeing with both sides ahead of time that 60 votes actually will be required to pass certain legislation the Democrats are codifying failure into everything they do. In case you don't want to think this through...what this does is allow the minority to build a pain-free filibuster into almost any bill. If I were a Democrat( I am) I might find this a little self defeating. Allowing a "pain free filibuster" especially on funding the Iraq disaster should be very painful for the Republicans. In the current process they get a free ride since people are led to believe that 60 votes are the rule and not the exception. The Democrats need to make sure that they are not letting an "invisible filibuster" take away the pain for the Republicans(and Smoking Joe).

Come on guys, we accept the occasional failure and we recognize the difficulties but Jeebus H Christ quit reloading so fast and don't hand your loaded weapons to the other guys.

No Slack

Alan Greenspan comes out with his book tomorrow but already the guts are on the street. What I want to know is how a major enabler of Bush and of everything that has gone wrong in the last 6 years gets off writing a book that blames everyone else? Greenspan enabled the tax cuts that sent the economy into a deficit of historic dimensions. Greenspan remained silent when the war for Iraqi oil was started. Greenspan had a mighty pulpit, he could move the global financial markets with a whisper and he could have alerted the American people to the financial disaster that Bush was creating. Greenspan should be jeered for his complicity in the nightmare we find ourselves in now, not cheered.

Granted he is evidently not kind to the Bush cabal in the book but he should take some responsibility for what he hath wrought.

Liberal vs Conservative..It's Genetic

I always wondered whether being a Republican/Conservative was a choice or genetic. Now I see that it's genetic... they're born that way. Looks like we are going to have to go after them in the womb or else keep them from breeding in the first place.

From the LA Times:

In a simple experiment reported today in the journal Nature Neuroscience, scientists at New York University and UCLA show that political orientation is related to differences in how the brain processes information.

Previous psychological studies have found that conservatives tend to be more structured and persistent in their judgments whereas liberals are more open to new experiences. The latest study found those traits are not confined to political situations but also influence everyday decisions.

The results show "there are two cognitive styles -- a liberal style and a conservative style," said UCLA neurologist Dr. Marco Iacoboni, who was not connected to the latest research.

Participants were college students whose politics ranged from "very liberal" to "very conservative." They were instructed to tap a keyboard when an M appeared on a computer monitor and to refrain from tapping when they saw a W.

M appeared four times more frequently than W, conditioning participants to press a key in knee-jerk fashion whenever they saw a letter.

Each participant was wired to an electroencephalograph that recorded activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, the part of the brain that detects conflicts between a habitual tendency (pressing a key) and a more appropriate response (not pressing the key). Liberals had more brain activity and made fewer mistakes than conservatives when they saw a W, researchers said.

A Buddha

In Tokyo in the Meiji era there lived two prominent teachers of opposite characteristics. One, Unsho, an instructor in Shingon, kept Buddha's precepts scrupulously. He never drank intoxicants, nor did he eat after eleven o'clock in the morning. The other teacher, Tanzan, a professor of philosophy at the Imperial University, never observed the precepts. Whenever he felt like eating, he ate, and when he felt like sleeping in the daytime he slept.

One day Unsho visited Tanzan, who was drinking wine at the time, not even a drop of which is suppposed to touch the tongue of a Buddhist.

"Hello, brother," Tanzan greeted him. "Won't you have a drink?"

"I never drink!" exclaimed Unsho solemnly.

"One who does not drink is not even human," said Tanzan.

"Do you mean to call me inhuman just because I do not indulge in intoxicating liquids!" exclaimed Unsho in anger. "Then if I am not human, what am I?"

"A Buddha," answered Tanzan.

Trying Mexican

Updated below:

I hope everyone's weekend is charging right along. Don't forget that today starts a weeklong series of events protesting the war in Iraq. Big march scheduled for Washington, DC and a "die in" as well. Probably going to be some arrests for that. It will be interesting to see what the MSM does with it. Enigma4ever at Watergate Summer suggests a light in a window to show support and that seems like a good idea.

I decided yesterday that one area of my cooking skills that was lacking was in traditional Mexican so I am going to do something about it. We have quite a large Hispanic population here in Roswell (something that is driving all the wingnut Republicans here absolutely insane BTW) and as such we are lucky enough to have a big grocery market that is basically completely Mexican. Mercado Del Pueblo is in an ex Publix spot and it is packed with everything Mexican.
I scored a very nice tortilla press for 14 bucks, a big bag of Masa harina (corn flour), lard, canned chipotles in adobo sauce and a few other essentials like corn husks and I am going to get some good Mexican fundamentals under my belt before the weekend is out. We are catching the tail end of Humberto here so there is not going to be much outdoor stuff happening.

Last night was homemade corn tortilla time and while the first few were shaky I began to get the hang of it. At first my dough was too wet and I couldn't get the tortillas to separate from the plastic after pressing and I was also pressing them too thin. The end result was good enough for Madam and I to have some fajitas. Fresh tortillas definitely make a difference. A few more batches and I will have the hang of it. It is surprising quick. Two cups of Masa harina and a dash of salt mixed with a cup and a quarter of water. Mix the dough and then roll golf ball size balls and press them between two plastic sheets in the tortilla press to make 6 inch tortillas. Cook them on an ungreased medium hot griddle or cast iron pan for about a minute on each side and voila!

Today is tomales day. I have a chuck roast stewing away right now to make the chili con carne filling and the corn husks soaking. I am also going to make some just stuffed with a roasted red pepper mixture. Later today we will see if I can master the batter/dough and the formation process. I have seen it done but actually making the tomales may be the challenge. Steam them for a couple of hours and we shall see. I adore tomales and will be very happy if I can learn to make a big batch that can be frozen for later. It's a lot of work but I am expecting a might reward.

I haven't decided on tomorrow's challenge but I am leaning toward refried beans and/or maybe some enchiladas with homemade tortillas.

You'd think being married to a Texas girl would save me from the trial and error method here but no...her excuse is she left too early to learn and besides she is German. You can bet, however, she will be the first to tell me if my efforts are up to snuff. Tomales report forthcoming.

Update on the tamales: Taste was good but not visually very pretty though not awful. It is clear however that I need a lesson on exactly the best way to form them.

Saturday Reading

The boys over at Adgitadiaries MandT have an excellent post up today that is a nice read. Go on over and say hi! They don't publish something everyday but when they do it is always rewarding. By the way there are a couple of good jokes to be had today as well.

Not A Good Sign

FRANKFURT Finance ministers and central bankers have long fretted that at some point, the rest of the world would lose its willingness to finance the United States' proclivity to consume far more than it produces - and that a potentially disastrous free-fall in the dollar's value would result.

But for longer than most economists would have been willing to predict a decade ago, the world has been a willing partner in American excess - until a new and home-grown financial crisis this summer rattled confidence in the country, the world's largest economy.

On Thursday, the dollar briefly fell to another low against the euro of $1.3927, as a slow decline that has been under way for months picked up steam this past week.

"This is all pointing to a greatly increased risk of a fast unwinding of the U.S. current account deficit and a serious decline of the dollar," said Kenneth Rogoff, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund and an expert on exchange rates. "We could finally see the big kahuna hit."

Return On Success?

I am too disgusted with Bush's speech(stretching a description) to even comment on the content. All I can say is that it is obvious the "sloganeers" on the Bush team are getting as tired as the rest of us over the war in Iraq. They have gone from "Operation Together Forward" to the "New Way Forward," and now we’ve gotten "Return on Success."

I think I'll go back to "Fight them over there so we don't have to fight them here." It at least carried some veiled threat.

I should mention that I did like John Edward's two minute ad. "No Timeline. No Funding. No Excuses."

Happy Chinaman

Anyone walking about Chinatowns in America will observe statues of a stout fellow carrying a linen sack. Chinese merchants call him Happy Chinaman or Laughing Buddha.

This Hotei lived in the T'ang dynasty. He had no desire to call himself a Zen master or to gather many disciples about him. Instead he walked the streets with a big sack into which he would put gifts of candy, fruit, or doughnuts. These he would give to children who gathered around him in play. He established a kindergarten of the streets.

Whenever he met a Zen devotee he would extend his hand and say: "Give me one penny." And if anyone asked him to return to a temple to teach others, again he would reply: "Give me one penny."

Once he was about his play-work another Zen master happened along and inquired: "What is the significance of Zen?"

Hotei immediately plopped his sack down on the ground in silent answer.

"Then," asked the other, "what is the actualization of Zen?"

At once the Happy Chinaman swung the sack over his shoulder and continued on his way.

MIA

Sorry been MIA today. I had a last minute gift of a premium ticket to the Tour Championship today at Eastlake CC in Atlanta. Premium meant access to the corporate tents and the buffets and open bars. Who am I to say no? Nice while it lasted but the thunderstorms shut it down about half past two and while I waited around and enjoyed some of the hospitality for a while I bailed about 330p and headed home. Even though I only live 35 miles from downtown Atlanta it took me 2 hours to make it home. I spent more time in the car today than actually watching professional golf. It was worth the try though and I would do it again tomorrow if I had another $150 ticket.

Ass-kissing Little Chickenshit

Admiral Fallon seems like my kind of guy...

In sharp contrast to the lionization of Gen. David Petraeus by members of the U.S. Congress during his testimony this week, Petraeus's superior, Admiral William Fallon, chief of the Central Command (CENTCOM), derided Petraeus as a sycophant during their first meeting in Baghdad last March, according to Pentagon sources familiar with reports of the meeting.

Fallon told Petraeus that he considered him to be "an ass-kissing little chickenshit" and added, "I hate people like that", the sources say. That remark reportedly came after Petraeus began the meeting by making remarks that Fallon interpreted as trying to ingratiate himself with a superior.

That extraordinarily contentious start of Fallon's mission to Baghdad led to more meetings marked by acute tension between the two commanders. Fallon went on develop his own alternative to Petraeus's recommendation for continued high levels of U.S. troops in Iraq during the summer.

The enmity between the two commanders became public knowledge when the Washington Post reported Sep. 9 on intense conflict within the administration over Iraq. The story quoted a senior official as saying that referring to "bad relations" between them is "the understatement of the century"

When someone like Admiral Fallon calls you a "an ass-kissing little chickenshit" to your face you can pretty much be assured that your only option is to increase the level of ass kissing and try and protect your retirement as best you can. Kissing Bush's ass is the only upside Patraeus has and we should recognize that.

The Story of Shunkai

The exquisite Shunkai whose other name was Suzu was compelled to marry against her wishes when she was quite young. Later, after this marriage had ended, she attended the university, where she studied philosophy.

To see Shunkai was to fall in love with her. Moreover, wherever she went, she herself fell in love with others. Love was with her at the university, and afterwards when philosophy did not satisfy her and she visited the temple to learn about Zen, the Zen students fell in love with her. Shunkai's whole life was saturated with love.

At last in Kyoto she became a real student of Zen. Her brothers in the sub-temple of Kennin praised her sincerity. One of them proved to be a congenial spirit and assisted her in the mastery of Zen.

The abbot of Kennin, Mokurai, Silent Thunder, was severe. He kept the precepts himself and expected the priests to do so. In modern Japan whatever zeal these priests have lost for Buddhism they seemed to have gained for having wives. Mokurai used to take a broom and chase the women away when he found them in any of his temples, but the more wives he swept out, the more seemed to come back.

In this particular temple the wife of the head priest had become jealous of Shunkai's earnestness and beauty. Hearing the students praise her serious Zen made this wife squirm and itch. Finally she spread a rumor about that Shunkai and the young man who was her friend. As a consequence he was expelled and Shunkai was removed from the temple.

"I may have made the mistake of love," thought Shunkai, "but the priest's wife shall not remain in the temple either if my friend is to be treated so unjustly."

Shunkai the same night with a can of kerosene set fire to the five-hundred-year-old temple and burned it to the ground. In the morning she found herself in the hands of the police.

A young lawyer became interested in her and endeavoured to make her sentance lighter. "Do not help me." she told him. "I might decide to do something else which will only imprison me again."

At last a sentance of seven years was completed, and Shunkai was released from the prison, where the sixty-year-old warden also had become enamored of her.

But now everyone looked upon her as a "jailbird". No one would associate with her. Even the Zen people, who are supposed to believe in enlightenment in this life and with this body, shunned her. Zen, Shunkai found, was one thing and the followers of Zen quite another. Her relatives would have nothing to do with her. She grew sick, poor, and weak.

She met a Shinshu priest who taught her the name of the Buddha of Love, and in this Shunkai found some solace and peace of mind. She passed away when she was still exquisitely beautiful and hardly thirty years old.

She wrote her own story in a futile endeavour to support herself and some of it she told to a women writer. So it reached the Japanese people. Those who rejected Shunkai, those who slandered and hated her, now read of her life with tears of remorse.

What Troop Reduction?

Updated below

In the following extract from the NY SUN note that the media is already parroting the lie that Patraeus and Bush are going to draw down troops by next year. This is a lie. The troops that made up the surge are and have always been due to rotate out next spring and we don't have the resources to replace them. The media is allowing the White House to scam the public with this lie...shameful.

Democratic leaders this month have hinted that they will not seek a withdrawal date as a condition of the temporary funding bills that expire this month. This may be in part because the White House already has agreed to withdraw some 30,000 soldiers by next summer, leaving 130,000, or the pre-surge troop levels, for the height of next year's political season. President Bush will address the nation tomorrow and is expected to endorse the withdrawal strategy previewed this week by General Petraeus on Capitol Hill.

Update: Even the Associated Press is help foster the lie.

WASHINGTON — President Bush will tell the nation Thursday evening that he plans to reduce the American troop presence in Iraq by as many as 30,000 by next summer but will condition those and further cuts on continued progress, The Associated Press has learned.

At least Anderson Cooper and CNN are telling it straight:

CNN's Anderson Cooper is in Iraq, reporting live from there this week as the Iraq debate here at home intensifies. This exchange is from yesterday's show:

COOPER: Michael Ware, Petraeus said that as many as 30,000 troops could leave by the beginning of next summer. It was sort of presented as though that was an operational decision.

In truth, it is really an operational necessity. The U.S. can't maintain these current troop levels, without putting even more strain on the -- on our already strained troops. Is that correct?

WARE: Yes, that is correct, Anderson. In fact, I'm struck by the way people are regarding General Petraeus' discussion of -- of those troop levels until July of next year. People are acting like he has just announced some sort of phased withdrawal. Well, no, not at all. That was the timeline for the so-called surge in the beginning.

Indeed, it wasn't a surge. It was a one-year escalation of U.S. forces. And the clock was due to run out on that escalation in the summer of next year anyway. So, that is not a revelation at all.

The Last Poem of Hoshin

The Zen Master Hoshin lived in China many years. Then he returned to the northeastern part of Japan, where he taught his disciples. When he was getting very old, he told them a story he had heard in China. This is the story:

One year on the twenty-fifth of December, Tokufu, who was very old, said to his disciples: "I am not going to be alive next year so you fellows should treat me well this year."

The pupils thought he was joking, but since he was a great-hearted teacher each of them in turn treated him to a feast on succeeding days of the departing year.

On the eve of the new year, Tokufu concluded: "You have been good to me. I shall leave tomorrow afternoon when the snow has stopped."

The disciples laughed, thinking he was aging and talking nonsense since the night was clear and without snow. But at midnight snow began to fall, and the next day they did not find their teacher about. They went to the meditation hall. There he had passed on.

Hoshin, who related this story, told his disciples: "It is not necessary for a Zen master to predict his passing, but if he really wishes to do so, he can."

"Can you?" someone asked.

"Yes," answered Hoshin. "I will show you what I can do seven days from now."

None of the disciples believed him, and most of them had even forgotten the conversation when Hoshin called them together.

"Seven days ago," he remarked, "I said I was going to leave you. It is customary to write a farewell poem, but I am neither a poet or a calligrapher. Let one of you inscribe my last words."

His followers thought he was joking, but one of them started to write.

"Are you ready?" Hoshin asked.

"Yes sir," replied the writer.

Then Hoshin dictated:

I came from brillancy
And return to brillancy.
What is this?

This line was one line short of the customary four, so the disciple said: "Master, we are one line short."

Hoshin, with the roar of a conquering lion, shouted "Kaa!" and was gone.

Could Have Done Better

Gary Kamiya has a very good article today in Salon about 9/11, and how America has responded, it is worth the read . Here is how it ends:

Like a vibration that causes a bridge to collapse, the 9/11 attacks exposed grave weaknesses in our nation's defenses, our national institutions and ultimately our national character. Many more Americans have now died in a needless war in Iraq than were killed in the terror attacks, and tens of thousands more grievously wounded. Billions of dollars have been wasted. America's moral authority, more precious than gold, has been tarnished by torture and lies and the erosion of our liberties. The world despises us to an unprecedented degree. An entire country has been wrecked. The Middle East is ready to explode. And the threat of terrorism, which the war was intended to remove, is much greater than it was.

All of this flowed from our response to 9/11. And so, six years later, we need to do more than mourn the dead. We need to acknowledge the blindness and bigotry that drove our response. Until we do, not only will the stalemate over Iraq persist, but our entire Middle Eastern policy will continue down the road to ruin.

Exit Strategy

Watching all the "kibuki" with Patraeus and Crocker I can't help but conclude that the White House has somehow managed to fight the "withdraw now crowd" to some kind of draw and a draw at this point in the game means that Bush will see his "exit strategy" through to the end. His strategy is, of course, to kick the ball down the field and keep a large military presence in Iraq through the end of his term and let the next and Democratic president suffer the what will be a painful and bloody withdrawal.

Sooner or later we are going to have to leave, if for no other reason than we run out of bullets and soldiers. When we do the violence will escalate and a lot of people will die and something will happen to the country we now know as Iraq. Most likely it will devolve into three or four sub countries controlled by a single religious sect. Bush doesn't want to admit his mistake and defeat and will leave the onerous chore to his successor.

Unless something big happens to push a lot of congress persons over the "get out now line' I am not seeing the political will to do anything but to keep funding this mess. I hope I am wrong but it looks more and more like more death for Americans and Iraqis.

Of course, it goes without saying that the longer we sustain the violence in Iraq with our presence the entire region is at risk of breaking out into war and the risk of us doing something in Iran gets more and more likely. We are at the point where we are being left with nothing but bad options and having to chose what we hope will be the least bad. Not a good position to be in.

Back At the Ranch

While you were listening to Patraeus and Crocker pump sunshine up your kilt...

BAGHDAD - Nine American soldiers died in Iraq on Monday — all but one killed in vehicle accidents in and around Baghdad, the military said.

The deadliest of the vehicle accidents, in western Baghdad, killed seven Multi-National Division — Baghdad soldiers and wounded 11, and left two detainees dead and a third injured. The cause of the accident was under investigation, the military said.

In a separate accident, east of Baghdad, an American soldier was killed and two injured when their vehicle flipped and caught fire. A ninth soldier died of injuries sustained Sunday while on patrol in the Kirkuk area of northern Iraq....

In the north, a suicide car bomber killed eight people and injured 20 others in an attack near an Iraqi army headquarters near Tal Afar, 260 miles northwest of Baghdad, the local mayor Najim Abdullah said.

Also Monday, U.S. and Iraqi troops killed three civilians during a raid in Baghdad's Shiite slum of Sadr City, police and residents said.

One FU To Go...Hold The Lies

I have been trying to catch some of the Patraeus "testimony" before Congress this afternoon between actually trying to accomplish something constructive. I as far as I have been able to tell the gist of what he is saying is...

"The greatest military force in the world is sort of winning against a disorganized rabble of low life scum of the earth and while, yes, it has taken us over four years to be able to report perceptible progress (even though some would argue about progress at all) I really need another six months and 100 billion dollars and 600 or 700 more American lives and another 10,000 or so Iraqi lives to be able to decide how many more years and thousand of lives it will take to extricate ourselves from this clusterfuck created by Mr. Mission Accomplished Bring 'em On." (Mr. MABEO)

In other words...bend over and kiss your asses good bye 'cause we are in hell to stay and the Democratic Congress hasn't got enough balls to do anything about it. Pa-dum-pum!

The Moon Cannot Be Stolen

Number Nine...Very appropriate on a day when another thief will attempt to steal some more of our future.

Ryokan, a Zen master, lived the simplest kind of life in a little hut at the foot of a mountain. One evening a thief visited the hut only to discover there was nothing to steal.

Ryokan returned and caught him. "You have come a long way to visit me," he told the prowler, "and you should not return empty-handed. Please take my clothes as a gift."

The thief was bewildered. He took the clothes and slunk away.

Ryoken sat naked, watching the moon. "Poor fellow," he mused, "I wish I could have given him this beautiful moon."

Not A Milestone

Updated below:

It's not a milestone birthday but today I turn 58. Nothing big planned. Looking back to 1967 when I turned 18 I never thought the world would be what it is today and I surely didn't think America would be where it is today. I and my peers were facing Viet Nam and even then I was thinking that this surely would be the last time young Americans would be faced with dying in a foreign land for nothing. I thought that the spiritual awakening I was experiencing personally and seeing in my generation would carry through and become a permanent part of the world. I guess I am still trying to figure out exactly where we went wrong. I suppose there is always the possibility that a turn toward compassion and love on a global scale will happen but it surely does try one's faith when we look at the world around us today. Nothing to do but to keep on trying to light the flame. There are some positive signs.

Peace.

Update: Had a very nice birthday dinner at my daughter's house in Gainesville. Son in law did his usual good job with the grilled fish and veggies and we had some lovely tiny yellow potatoes roasted in the oven. I contributed a rustic apple tart in lieu of a cake and it too was pretty good. A very nice birthday indeed. Madam even surprised me with two stemless Riedel wine glasses which are exquisitely thin and sensuous. I even bought myself a birthday present in an antique shop near my daughter...a hand carved hardwood wooden dough bowl which I will christen tomorrow morning with buttermilk biscuits. All in all a good birthday.

Great Waves

Number Eight

In the early days of the Meiji era there lived a well-known wrestler called O-nami, Great Waves.

O-nami was immensely strong and knew the art of wrestling. In his private bouts he defeated even his teacher, but in public he was so bashful that his own pupils threw him.

O-nami felt he should go to a Zen master for help. Hakuju, a wandering teacher, was stopping in a little temple nearby, so O-nami went to see him and told him of his trouble.

"Great Waves is your name," the teacher advised, "so stay in this temple tonight. Imagine that you are those billows. You are no longer a wrestler who is afraid. You are those huge waves sweeping everything before them, swallowing all in their path. Do this and you will be the greatest wrestler in the land."

The teacher retired. O-nami sat in meditation trying to imagine himself as waves. He thought of many different things. Then gradually he turned more and more to the feeling of the waves. As the night advanced the waves became larger and larger. They swept away the flowers in their vases. Even the Buddha in the shrine was inundated. Before dawn the temple was nothing but the ebb and flow of an immense sea.

In the morning the teacher found O-nami meditating, a faint smile on his face. He patted the wrestler's shoulder. "Now nothing can disturb you," he said. "You are those waves. You will sweep everything before you."

The same day O-nami entered the wrestling contests and won. After that, no one in Japan was able to defeat him.

Whole Wheat Bread

Cook's Illustrated recently did a taste taste of commercially available Whole Wheat Breads and since I pay the annual fee for the subscription I thought I would share the top three brands they tested. If you don't bake your own whole wheat bread, he said smugly, then you might use these recommendations to save having to try some less than stellar product especially those with High Fructose Corn Syrup which is poison. ( I actually went through all my cabinets and fridge last week and threw out anything with HFCS.) If I am traveling and don't have time to bake, I usually buy the Rudi's(it is organic) which is available at Whole Foods...I can't remember trying the Pepperidge Farm but I will just for comparison sake(though it is not organic). My homemade bread is not technically organic either since I don't use organic yeast or honey.

Many manufacturers add chemical preservatives that inhibit the growth of microbes and mold. The six lowest-rated brands all contain preservatives; the three winners do not-instead they rely on vinegar to perform this function. According to our science editor, the preservatives can lend a slight off-flavor to the breads, which our tasters detected in several of the low-rated brands.

To mask those off-flavors, most of these low-rated breads use high-fructose corn syrup as their primary sweetener; the corn syrup is powerfully sweet and can make off-flavors-as well as desirable wheat flavor-less apparent. Our top three brands do not contain high-fructose corn syrup (instead they rely on white and brown sugars, raisin juice, honey, and molasses), and tasters praised them for stronger wheat flavor.

As for texture, our tasters liked breads that were heartier, chewier, and more dense than white bread. The breads are listed below, with tasters' comments, in order of preference.

Highly Recommended

1. PEPPERIDGE FARM 100% Natural Whole Wheat Bread $3.39 for 24 ounces
Comments: This bread, which had a low level of sugars and no corn syrup,
was praised for its "whole-grain, earthy flavor" and "nuttiness." The
"dense, chewy" texture was lauded as being "grainy but moist."

Recommended

2. RUDI'S ORGANIC BAKERY Honey Sweet Whole Wheat Bread $3.79 for 22 ounces
Comments: This bread earned high marks for its "dense and wholesome" texture. It also had the lowest total sugars of any brand in the lineup. "Closest to traditional wheat bread in taste and texture," said one taster.

3. ARNOLD Natural 100% Whole Wheat Bread $2.50 for 20 ounces
Comments: "Nutty and wheaty," said tasters, who appreciated this bread's "complex" and "strong, healthy" flavor. Its texture was praised as "hearty." A few panelists complained about a "bitter" aftertaste.

Whistle a Happpy Tune

Don't fall for all the happy talk coming later this month...

(Fortune Magazine) -- There will be lots of celebrating in Washington next month when the Treasury announces that the federal budget deficit for fiscal 2007, which ends September 30, will have dropped to a mere $158 billion, give or take a few bucks.

That will be $90 billion below the reported 2006 deficit and will be toasted by the White House and Treasury as a great accomplishment.

[snip]

We'll start with Social Security, which will take in about $78 billion more in payroll and income taxes than it shells out. The Treasury takes that cash, gives the trust fund IOUs for it, and spends it. That $78 billion isn't in the stated deficit.

Wait, there's more. The Treasury will fork over $108 billion of interest on the trust fund's $2.2 trillion of Treasurys - but will give the trust fund IOUs, not cash. They won't count in the deficit either. Add that $186 billion to the stated budget deficit, and it more than doubles, to $344 billion.

[snip]

Now, let's move on. We end up with a total deficit of more than $400 billion by undoing another piece of WAAP ledger-demain: the $97 billion increase in Treasury securities held by "other government accounts," such as federal employee pension funds.

You can see the details if you want at the web link above.

Come On Dems, Get With the Program

I could paraphrase but it would lose something.

Krugman:

Here’s what will definitely happen when Gen. David Petraeus testifies before Congress next week: he’ll assert that the surge has reduced violence in Iraq — as long as you don’t count Sunnis killed by Sunnis, Shiites killed by Shiites, Iraqis killed by car bombs and people shot in the front of the head.

Here’s what I’m afraid will happen: Democrats will look at Gen. Petraeus’s uniform and medals and fall into their usual cringe. They won’t ask hard questions out of fear that someone might accuse them of attacking the military. After the testimony, they’ll desperately try to get Republicans to agree to a resolution that politely asks President Bush to maybe, possibly, withdraw some troops, if he feels like it.

There are five things I hope Democrats in Congress will remember.

First, no independent assessment has concluded that violence in Iraq is down. On the contrary, estimates based on morgue, hospital and police records suggest that the daily number of civilian deaths is almost twice its average pace from last year. And a recent assessment by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office found no decline in the average number of daily attacks.

So how can the military be claiming otherwise? Apparently, the Pentagon has a double super secret formula that it uses to distinguish sectarian killings (bad) from other deaths (not important); according to press reports, all deaths from car bombs are excluded, and one intelligence analyst told The Washington Post that “if a bullet went through the back of the head, it’s sectarian. If it went through the front, it’s criminal.” So the number of dead is down, as long as you only count certain kinds of dead people.

Oh, and by the way: Baghdad is undergoing ethnic cleansing, with Shiite militias driving Sunnis out of much of the city. And guess what? When a Sunni enclave is eliminated and the death toll in that district falls because there’s nobody left to kill, that counts as progress by the Pentagon’s metric.

Second, Gen. Petraeus has a history of making wildly overoptimistic assessments of progress in Iraq that happen to be convenient for his political masters.

I’ve written before about the op-ed article Gen. Petraeus published six weeks before the 2004 election, claiming “tangible progress” in Iraq. Specifically, he declared that “Iraqi security elements are being rebuilt,” that “Iraqi leaders are stepping forward” and that “there has been progress in the effort to enable Iraqis to shoulder more of the load for their own security.” A year later, he declared that “there has been enormous progress with the Iraqi security forces.”

But now two more years have passed, and the independent commission of retired military officers appointed by Congress to assess Iraqi security forces has recommended that the national police force, which is riddled with corruption and sectarian influence, be disbanded, while Iraqi military forces “will be unable to fulfill their essential security responsibilities independently over the next 12-18 months.”

Third, any plan that depends on the White House recognizing reality is an idle fantasy. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, on Tuesday Mr. Bush told Australia’s deputy prime minister that “we’re kicking ass” in Iraq. Enough said.

Fourth, the lesson of the past six years is that Republicans will accuse Democrats of being unpatriotic no matter what the Democrats do. Democrats gave Mr. Bush everything he wanted in 2002; their reward was an ad attacking Max Cleland, who lost both legs and an arm in Vietnam, that featured images of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.

Finally, the public hates this war and wants to see it ended. Voters are exasperated with the Democrats, not because they think Congressional leaders are too liberal, but because they don’t see Congress doing anything to stop the war.

In light of all this, you have to wonder what Democrats, who according to The New York Times are considering a compromise that sets a “goal” for withdrawal rather than a timetable, are thinking. All such a compromise would accomplish would be to give Republicans who like to sound moderate — but who always vote with the Bush administration when it matters — political cover.

And six or seven months from now it will be the same thing all over again. Mr. Bush will stage another photo op at Camp Cupcake, the Marine nickname for the giant air base he never left on his recent visit to Iraq. The administration will move the goal posts again, and the military will come up with new ways to cook the books and claim success.

One thing is for sure: like 2004, 2008 will be a “khaki election” in which Republicans insist that a vote for the Democrats is a vote against the troops. The only question is whether they can also, once again, claim that the Democrats are flip-floppers who can’t make up their minds.

Leadership

The more I see the more I like. Now is not the time to stand back and let the Democrats "chicken dance" around some half-assed compromise on the way forward. John Edwards is stepping out and putting his position in clear terms. Other than Dodd none of the other Democratic candidates have made their position crystal clear.

John Edwards:

In 2006, the American people elected a Democratic Congress to change course and end this war. It's the whole reason the American people voted for change. Yet, 10 months after the election, we still have the status quo and Congress has still failed to do the people's will. That might be the way they do it inside the Beltway, but it's not the American way. It's time to stand up for the American people and against President Bush's failed, stubborn policy. Without a firm deadline, a small withdrawal of only some of the surge troops won't cut it—that's not a solution, it's an excuse. Congress must not send President Bush any funding bill without a timeline to end this war. No timeline, no funding. No excuses.

How long will it take Obama and Clinton to step out of the shadows and show some leadership and help craft a real solution to this disastrous war?

Announcement

Lucky 7

Tanzan wrote sixty postal cards on the last day of his life, and asked an attendant to mail them. Then he passed away.

The cards read:

I am departing from this world.

This is my last announcement.

Tanzan

July 27, 1892

Bush Knew There Were No WMD in Iraq

Sidney Blumenthal's latest article in Salon confirms what many of us suspected and or inferred. Bush was briefed that Saddam did not have WMD well before we invaded by George Tenet and that this information was deliberately kept from Congress.

On Sept. 18, 2002, CIA director George Tenet briefed President Bush in the Oval Office on top-secret intelligence that Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction, according to two former senior CIA officers. Bush dismissed as worthless this information from the Iraqi foreign minister, a member of Saddam's inner circle, although it turned out to be accurate in every detail. Tenet never brought it up again.

It is interesting to note the timing of Blumenthal's piece. It is released just after Bush biographer Robert Draper reports that Bush still claims to have believed--in April 2006--that Iraq had WMD. It is also interesting that it comes on the eve of General Pratraeus' presentation to Congress where we already know he will be lying.

It says a lot about the type of person George Tenet is. Letting our country go to war knowing that it was all based on lies. We already know that Bush is a liar and that he and Cheney were going to "kick Saddam's ass" no matter what the intelligence said but it takes a real bastard like Tenet to let it happen when he could have so easily stopped it all. There is an eternity of blood on his hands just as there is on Bush and Cheney's.

I just hop some the information coming out will finally convince enough of Congress to pull the plug on this misbegotten war once and for all and to quash any possibility that Bush and Cheney can pull the same stunt with Iran.

A Great Voice Gone

RIP to a great voice, Lucianno Pavarotti has passed away. While I am not his biggest fan no one can argue that his wasn't a great voice and this performance from Puccini’s Nessun Dorma (YouTube) is an example of why the world of music has suffered another great loss this year after losing Beverly Sills earlier.

While very commercial the "Three Tenors" is one of my favorite CD's and another is Pavorotti's CD of his favorite pieces from a couple of dozen operas.

23 Years-An Ice Free Arctic

This is not "cheery" news. This is another of those "Oh Shit!" things.
From The Guardian:

The Arctic ice cap has collapsed at an unprecedented rate this summer and levels of sea ice in the region now stand at a record low, scientists said last night. Experts said they were "stunned" by the loss of ice, with an area almost twice as big as Britain disappearing in the last week alone. So much ice has melted this summer that the north-west passage across the top of Canada is fully navigable, and observers say the north-east passage along Russia's Arctic coast could open later this month. If the increased rate of melting continues, the summertime Arctic could be totally free of ice by 2030.

Mark Serreze, an Arctic specialist at the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre at Colorado University in Denver which released the figures, said: "It's amazing. It's simply fallen off a cliff and we're still losing ice." The Arctic has now lost about a third of its ice since satellite measurements began 30 years ago, and the rate of loss has accelerated sharply since 2002.

No Loving-Kindness

Number Six

There was an old woman in China who had supported a monk for over twenty years. She had built a little hut for him and fed him while he was meditating. Finally she wondered just what progress he had made in all this time.

To find out, she obtained the help of a girl rich in desire. "Go and embrace him," she told her, "and then ask him suddenly: 'What now?'"

The girl called upon the monk and without much ado caressed him, asking him what he was going to do about it.

"An old tree grows on a cold rock in winter," replied the monk somewhat poetically. "Nowhere is there any warmth."

The girl returned and related what he had said.

"To think I fed that fellow for twenty years!" exclaimed the old woman in anger. "He showed no consideration for your needs, no disposition to explain your condition. He need not have responded to passion, but at least he should have evidenced some compassion."

She at once went to the hut of the monk and burned it down.

Battle Tomato

I lost the battle today. The 8 tomato plants I have in the back finally, in the last week, produced more tomatoes than I could consume before they went bad. I had to break down this morning and can some. I peeled and seeded a pile and they are now cooling in jars. Though not the same as fresh I will still get to enjoy them later when all the fresh tomatoes are nothing but a memory.

The evolution did bring back some memories of my grandmother putting up quart after quart of tomatoes, peaches, beans, jellies and jams and all of her glorious pickles. There were always bread&butter, dills, sweet relish, chow-chow, pickled okra, dill green beans, pickled hot peppers and her famous icicle pickles. Some years there was also pickled water melon rind. By the end of the season there were hundreds of jars lined up in the basement all carefully labeled and ready for winter. I can still see her in the kitchen surrounded by jars and produce with the steam rolling out of the water bath canner and the pressure canner whistling away.

Not only did my grandfather put in a big garden every year but Mrs. LaRue would show up in her old Chevy pick-up with bushel baskets of garden truck on a regular basis. She and her family had a small farm up the creek and put the rich bottom land to good use. In addition, she would bring a few dozen fresh eggs that had just been gathered, fresh country butter and the occasional jar of honey from her bees. The people up in the hills of Virginia didn't eat fancy but what they had was fresh and plentiful and many times organic because they didn't have the money for expensive fertilizer and pesticides. Most of them had lived through the depression and made sure to preserve everything they could for leaner times plus they were frugal as well.

You can still eat close to the land in most of Europe or for that matter the rest of the world, but it is a big challenge here in the U.S. to do so and we are the poorer for it.

Neil Young:Heart of Gold

If you missed the Neil Young concert from Ryman Auditorium tonight on HBO then I am sorry. Look for a repeat some time in the near future. Absolutely enthralling. Also on stage were his wife Pegi and EmmyLou Harris. I know not everyone is a Neil Young fan but this was some great music. It made me happy.

If You Love, Love Openly

Here is number 5...short but sweet.

Twenty monks and one nun, who was named Eshun, were practicing meditation with a certain Zen master.

Eshun was very pretty even though her head was shaved and her dress plain. Several monks secretly fell in love with her. One of them wrote her a love letter, insisting upon a private meeting.

Eshun did not reply. The following day the master gave a lecture to the group, and when it was over, Eshun arose. Addressing the one who had written to her, she said: "If you really love me so much, come and embrace me now."

The Sharks Circle

Remember that onerous bankruptcy bill that our GOP friends forced through the Congress a while back? You know, the one that was passed to protect the poor credit card companies and make it harder for us regular folks to declare bankruptcy. Well, it seems that with all the trouble in the subprime mortgage market the big credit card issuers are seeing an opportunity.

As subprime borrowers began to default on their mortgages in rapidly growing numbers this year, credit card issuers increased their efforts to sign up such customers with tarnished financial histories, according to a market research firm.

Direct mail credit card offers to subprime customers in the United States jumped 41 percent in the first half of this year, compared with the first half in 2006, according to Mintel International Group. Direct mail offers targeted at customers with the best credit fell more than 13 percent.

Yet, during this same period, defaults on subprime mortgages, which charge higher interest rates because the borrowers' blemished credit makes them bigger risks, rose significantly. In June, nearly 1 in 5 subprime mortgages were at least 60 days past due, and more than 1 in 20 were in foreclo sure, according to First American LoanPerformance, a San Francisco firm that collects and analyzes mortgage data.

Though it seems counterintuitive to extend credit to households already struggling with debt, the meltdown in housing and mortgage markets probably led credit card issuers to boost their marketing to subprime customers, said Julie Lizer, Mintel's manager of custom research.

Ones initial thought is "Why would these big companies want to extend credit to people who are already in financial trouble and are, in fact, poor credit risks?". If you reflect upon the current bankruptcy law you'll see why.

These companies can extend a very small credit line to these people, say $250 - $500. Chances are that these people, being desperate, will use whatever credit they have to just try and get by. They, of course, will not be able to make the payments in many cases and the credit card companies will begin tacking on late fees and interest and interest on the late fees and it will snow ball into a mountain of debt in very short order. Now that is so much harder to find relief from debt in the courts these people will just drown. The credit card companies, for a modest investment, have created vast accounts receivable that they can use just like cash in the bank. This kind of thinking is the same root cause of the melt down in the mortgage market and just another card in our house of cards economy.

These folks are real bastards and it might be time to have a rethink on the bankruptcy law as well. The credit card issuers have way too much power and don't deserve protection when they they pull off crap like this.

White Flour

If you have read Digby this weekend here is a very funny and truly inspirational story out of Knoxville.

Via Perlstein, here's a hilarious story about a Klan rally. For real.

Saturday May 26th the VNN Vanguard Nazi/KKK group attempted to host a hate rally to try to take advantage of the brutal murder of a white couple for media and recruitment purposes.

Unfortunately for them the 100th ARA (Anti Racist Action) clown block came and handed them their asses by making them appear like the asses they were.

Alex Linder the founder of VNN and the lead organizer of the rally kicked off events by rushing the clowns in a fit of rage, and was promptly arrested by 4 Knoxville police officers who dropped him to the ground when he resisted and dragged him off past the red shiny shoes of the clowns.

“White Power!” the Nazi’s shouted, “White Flour?” the clowns yelled back running in circles throwing flour in the air and raising separate letters which spelt “White Flour”.

“White Power!” the Nazi’s angrily shouted once more, “White flowers?” the clowns cheers and threw white flowers in the air and danced about merrily.

“White Power!” the Nazi’s tried once again in a doomed and somewhat funny attempt to clarify their message, “ohhhhhh!” the clowns yelled “Tight Shower!” and held a solar shower in the air and all tried to crowd under to get clean as per the Klan’s directions.

At this point several of the Nazi’s and Klan members began clutching their hearts as if they were about to have a heart attack. Their beady eyes bulged, and the veins in their tiny narrow foreheads beat in rage. One last time they screamed “White Power!”

The clown women thought they finally understood what the Klan was trying to say. “Ohhhhh…” the women clowns said. “Now we understand…”, “WIFE POWER!” they lifted the letters up in the air, grabbed the nearest male clowns and lifted them in their arms and ran about merrily chanting “WIFE POWER! WIFE POWER! WIFE POWER!”

The icing on the cake...as it were, is the following...

After the VNNers left in their shiny SUVs to go back to Alabama and all the other states that they were from the clowns and counter demonstrators began to march out of the area chanting ‘WHOSE STREETS? OUR STREETS!”

But the cops stopped the clowns and counter protestors. “Hey, do you want an escort” an African-American police officer on a motorcycle asked. “Yes” a clown replied. “We are walking to Market Square in the center of town to celebrate.”

The police officers got in front of the now anti racist parade and blocked the entire road for the march through the heart of Knoxville. An event called imagination station was taking place and over 15,000 thousand students and their parents were in town that weekend. Many of them cheered as the clowns, Knoxvillians and counter protestors marched through the heart of Knoxville singing and laughing at the end of the Nazi’s first attempt at having a rally in Knoxville.

He Needs to be In Jail

Jim DeRosa over at DeRosaWorld reminds us this morning that we still don't have any answers to why George W. Bush is not in jail at this very moment. There is a litany of lies that have gone unchallenged that led us and the Congress to allow the Iraq disaster to happen. This from Jim.

Who took the pictures? Who verified the pictures. Who authorized the pictures as evidence? Pretty easy questions to ask.

"In a town hall meeting in Bloomsburg, Pa., this week, Rep. Paul Kanjorski, a 12-term congressman, said that shortly before Congress was scheduled to vote on authorizing military force against Iraq, top officials of the CIA showed select members of Congress three photographs it alleged were Iraqi Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), better known as drones. Kanjorski said he was told that the drones were capable of carrying nuclear, biological, or chemical agents, and could strike 1,000 miles inland of east coast or west coast cities."

"In October 2002, President Bush said in Cincinnati that “Iraq has a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to disperse chemical or biological; weapons across broad areas.” He said that he was concerned “that Iraq is exploring ways of using these UAVs for missions targeting the United States.” In that same speech, he claimed, “Iraq possesses ballistic missiles with a likely range of hundreds of miles—far enough to strike Saudi Arabia, Israel, Turkey, and other nations—in a region where more than 135,000 American civilians and service members live and work.” Bush further claimed, “Surveillance photos reveal that the regime is rebuilding facilities that it had used to produce chemical and biological weapons.” Those claims were later proven false."

Why is he still President?

Mission Accomplished

No mention of the increasing civilian death toll.
No mention of the fact that the Iraqi government is all but collapsed.
No mention of the possibility of a coup.
No mention of the 725 additional American deaths.
No mention the Bush had to fly in on the QT because of the chaos.
No mention that Bush didn't dare go anywhere near Baghdad.

During Bush's "surprise" visit to Iraq yesterday, he said:

...if the kind of success we are now seeing continues, it will be possible to maintain the same level of security with fewer American forces.

But what are the headlines this morning?

• Bush: More Gains in Iraq Could Lead to Drawdown ...Washington Post
• Bush, In Iraq, Says Troop Reduction Is Possible...New York Times
• Bush Hints at Troop Reductions...Atlanta Journal-Constitution
• Bush Hints at Iraq Drawdown if Gains Continue...Chicago Tribune

Those headlines tell you the whole story of the media in this country. If the White House says it then it must be repeated without modification or question. No facts Mam...just more lies and half truths.

Obedience

While I indulge my primitive carnivore instincts and slowly smoke ribs. It is Labor Day after all! I will give the 4th koan. I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday and gets to enjoy some primitive food cooked over an open fire and maybe a liquid refreshment or two or whatever else makes you happy. My choice today is Blue Moon Belgian White and the first one is mighty nice. Anyhow, here is Obedience.

The master Bankei's talks were attended not only by Zen students but by persons of all ranks and sects. He never quoted sutras nor indulged in scholastic dissertations. Instead, his words were spoken directly from his heart to the hearts of his listeners.

His large audience angered a priest of the Nichiren sect because the adherents had left to hear about Zen. The self-centered Nichiren priest came to the temple, determined to have a debate with Bankei.

"Hey, Zen teacher!" he called out. "Wait a minute. Whoever respects you will obey what you say, but a man like myself does not respect you. Can you make me obey you?"

"Come up beside me and I will show you," said Bankei.

Proudly the priest pushed his way through the crowd to the teacher.

Bankei smiled. "Come over to my left side."

The priest obeyed.

"No," said Bankei, "we may talk better if you are on the right side. Step over here."

The priest proudly stepped over to the right.

"You see," observed Bankei, "you are obeying me and I think you are a very gentle person. Now sit down and listen."

Terrorist Whales?

Whales lose this one because we are so concerned with Al-Qaida submarines sneaking into the Gulf of California and launching an attack on Hollywood from the south. If we don't kill the whales how are going to stop the terrorists? This is a really stupid decision and I mean really, really stupid.

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- The Navy can use high-power sonar during exercises off the Southern California coast, despite the technology's threat to whales and other marine mammals, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.

National security interests outweigh the possible harm to marine life, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals determined in overturning a judge's order banning the practice.

"The public does indeed have a very considerable interest in preserving our natural environment and especially relatively scarce whales," Judge Andrew Kleinfeld wrote for the majority. "But it also has an interest in national defense. We are currently engaged in war, in two countries."

Necessary Conspiracy

There is an article over at CommonDreams.org that is really worth reading. It is by Robert Shetterly and is titled The Necessary Embrace of Conspiracy. Here is just a sample...

As Richard Grossman puts it, “Isn’t it an old story? People create what looks to be a nifty machine, a robot, called the corporation. Over time, the robots get together and overpower the people. … For a century, the robots propagandize and indoctrinate each generation of people so they grow up believing that robots are people too, gifts from God and Mother Nature; that they are inevitable and the source of all that is good. How odd that we have been so gullible, so docile, obedient.”

It is obvious to say that we have been engineered into a culture that values competitive consumption and consumers instead of community cooperation and citizenship. Capitalism with its obsessive and necessary appetite for consumption, expanding markets, resource depletion, and increasing profits has consumed democracy. Have you ever watched a small snake swallow a large frog? The snake’s hinged jaw stretches wider and wider, squeezing the frog millimeter by millimeter into its gullet until finally the snake looks like the Holland Tunnel might if it had devoured the Titanic. Then the acids and enzymes do their corrosive work. The frog becomes the snake. And the snake claims it is the frog. Capitalism has gulped down democracy and claimed it is democracy. When, immediately after 9/11, President Bush advised Americans to demonstrate their love of freedom and their resistance to terrorism by courageously, selflessly, hurrying to the mall to buy something, he was speaking as the snake that identifies itself as a frog. He was asking us to play a little game with our brains’ synapses, replace the snake icon with the frog’s. Sadly, he may also have been speaking about democracy in the only way that he can understand or recognize it. And, for him, Christianity has been another tidy meal for the snake.

Holiday Dinner

I hope everyone is having a nice holiday. I am doing what I love to do and that is putting together a dinner party for tonight. Actually, I have been getting the early stuff done since yesterday. Today is the last minute stuff. Seeding tomatoes, making the dessert, toasting polenta cakes and the like. I just finished putting my bread to rise and it will be ready to form into batards in an hour or two.

You don't have to bring anything unless you have special beverage requirements(Bud, Bud Lite, Miller Lite, etc.) otherwise there are the typical wines and beers(Belgian, English, German, Atlantan) you will find at my house
In case you are wondering the menu is:

Herbed shrimp and garden tomatoes on grilled polenta cakes for a starter. Lots of fresh basil, mint, and parsley from the garden makes a wonderful vinaigrette.

Broiled cod filets marinated in lemon, dill, tarragon and olive oil is the main served with cubed roasted sweet potatoes dressed with just a hint of cumin and butter. Also on the plate will be a small dash of fresh mango salsa for a nice contrast and color. With the main course we will have an inexpensive but very good Rothschild White Bordeaux that will hold up to the herbs on the fish.

Of course there will be small green salad of butter lettuce and with a red wine vinaigrette and a fresh batard of homemade French bread which is rising as I write.

Oh, for dessert we are having a fresh crostada of peaches, plums and blueberries with a nice creme anglais for those like to gild the lily. I made the pate brise last night and it all ready to roll out. I don't want to make it too far ahead as I want it just cooled to room temp when it is time to eat. Besides, no sense heating up the oven twice and the the bread will come out in plenty of time to cook the crostada.

Dinner is at seven but there will be some light snacks out so come early enough to have a glass of wine before dinner.

Is That So?

As Promised here is Number 3.

The Zen master Hakuin was praised by his neighbours as one living a pure life.

A beautiful Japanese girl whose parents owned a food store lived near him. Suddenly, without any warning, her parents discovered she was with child.

This made her parents angry. She would not confess who the man was, but after much harassment at last named Hakuin.

In great anger the parent went to the master. "Is that so?" was all he would say.

After the child was born it was brought to Hakuin. By this time he had lost his reputation, which did not trouble him, but he took very good care of the child. He obtained milk from his neighbours and everything else he needed.

A year later the girl-mother could stand it no longer. She told her parents the truth - the real father of the child was a young man who worked in the fishmarket.

The mother and father of the girl at once went to Hakuin to ask forgiveness, to apologize at length, and to get the child back.

Hakuin was willing. In yielding the child, all he said was: "Is that so?"

Coup for What Ails You

According to this article in the Chicago Tribune the U.S. is plotting or at least condoning a 'coup' in Iraq that would install former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi as a new PM. How bad an idea is this really? Remember this is the administration that fails at everything except looting the treasury and stealing elections. Not only is it hypocritical in light of the purported mission of "installing a democratic government" in Iraq but it will fail like everything else.

To give you an idea of how totally bizarre the whole idea is... note that we are reading about this before the fact and so are the Iraqis. We are planning a completely 'public coup' and the world will see us with our fingers pulling all the strings. For some strange reason nobody seems to be worried about this fueling more terrorism. It actually seems as if the administration wants the world to see that we are pulling the strings. Somehow they have gotten through their heads the idea that, in spite of our abject failures at occupying and reconstructing Iraq and Afghanistan, that it is a really swell idea for the U.S. to be throwing its weight around even more in the middle east.

Not only does it appear that Bush and Cheney are going to install their own puppet dictator in Iraq but while they are at it they are going to shoot the moon and go for broke with Iran at the same time.

They [the source's institution] have "instructions" (yes, that was the word used) from the Office of the Vice-President to roll out a campaign for war with Iran in the week after Labor Day; it will be coordinated with the American Enterprise Institute, the Wall Street Journal, the Weekly Standard, Commentary, Fox, and the usual suspects. It will be heavy sustained assault on the airwaves, designed to knock public sentiment into a position from which a war can be maintained. Evidently they don't think they'll ever get majority support for this--they want something like 35-40 percent support, which in their book is "plenty."

It will be interesting to watch the news over the next two weeks and see if this comes to fruition. This is not the only place I have seen warnings about an imminent attack on Iran. Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse we get things like this from the Times Online.

THE Pentagon has drawn up plans for massive airstrikes against 1,200 targets in Iran, designed to annihilate the Iranians’ military capability in three days, according to a national security expert.

Alexis Debat, director of terrorism and national security at the Nixon Center, said last week that US military planners were not preparing for “pinprick strikes” against Iran’s nuclear facilities. “They’re about taking out the entire Iranian military,” he said.

And also here at dKOS

I have a friend who is an LSO on a carrier attack group that is planning and staging a strike group deployment into the Gulf of Hormuz. (LSO: Landing Signal Officer- she directs carrier aircraft while landing) She told me we are going to attack Iran. She said that all the Air Operation Planning and Asset Tasking are finished. That means that all the targets have been chosen, prioritized, and tasked to specific aircraft, bases, carriers, missile cruisers and so forth.

Could be quite a September.

Finding a Diamond on a Muddy Road

Here is number two.

Gudo was the emperor's teacher of his time. Nevertheless, he used to travel alone as a wandering mendicant. Once when he was on his way to Edo, the cultural and political center of the shogunate, he approached a little village named Takenaka. It was evening and a heavy rain was falling. Gudo was thoroughly wet. His straw sandals were in pieces. At a farmhouse near the village he noticed four or five pairs of sandals in the window and decided to buy some dry ones.

The woman who offered him the sandals, seeing how wet he was, invited him in to remain for the night in her home. Gudo accepted, thanking her. He entered and recited a sutra before the family shrine. He was then introduced to the women's mother, and to her children. Observing that the entire family was depressed, Gudo asked what was wrong.

"My husband is a gambler and a drunkard," the housewife told him. "When he happens to win he drinks and becomes abusive. When he loses he borrows money from others. Sometimes when he becomes thoroughly drunk he does not come home at all. What can I do?"

"I will help him," said Gudo. "Here is some money. Get me a gallon of fine wine and something good to eat. Then you may retire. I will meditate before the shrine."

When the man of the house returned about midnight, quite drunk, he bellowed: "Hey, wife, I am home. Have you something for me to eat?"

I have something for you," said Gudo. "I happened to be caught in the rain and your wife kindly asked me to remain here for the night. In return I have bought some wine and fish, so you might as well have them."

The man was delighted. He drank the wine at once and laid himself down on the floor. Gudo sat in meditation beside him.

In the morning when the husband awoke he had forgotten about the previous night. "Who are you? Where do you come from?" he asked Gudo, who was still meditating.

"I am Gudo of Kyoto and I am going on to Edo," replied the Zen master.

The man was utterly ashamed. He apologized profusely to the teacher of his emperor.

Gudo smiled. "Everything in this life is impermanent," he explained. "Life is very brief. If you keep on gambling and drinking, you will have no time left to accomplish anything else, and you will cause your family to suffer too."

The perception of the husband awoke as if from a dream. "You are right," he declared. "How can I ever repay you for this wonderful teaching! Let me see you off and carry your things a little way."

"If you wish," assented Gudo.

The two started out. After they had gone three miles Gudo told him to return. "Just another five miles," he begged Gudo. They continued on.

"You may return now," suggested Gudo.

"After another ten miles," the man replied.

"Return now," said Gudo, when the ten miles had been passed.

"I am going to follow you all the rest of my life," declared the man.

Modern Zen teachings in Japan spring from the lineage of a famous master who was the successor of Gudo. His name was Mu-nan, the man who never turned back.

Update: inserted missing line, 415 pm 9/1