September

What shall I do with these magazines, sell them on eBay? They have been collecting dust for some years. I wonder what their value would be - and to whom!

Which reminds me to tell you that I will fly to Europe in a few weeks. Will be a sober flight, not even a water bottle allowed as carry on, thanks to our beloved muslim adolescent wannabe freaks. By them all fun to fly in an airplane has been positively eradicated. Why can't those guys ever come up with something better or more effective to voice their discontent? I mean for Christ's sake, even Mohammed wasn't trying to conquer Mecca in a day and instead retracted to Medina at his convenience to catch some breath while converting everything around him with the mighty threat of the sword.

Dhimmitude (compliance) of the so called Western world will never be gained by highjacking airplanes and/or using them as projectiles of destruction. Subordination (dhimmitude) of the "West" towards the "East" will never happen, especially not towards countries who adopted Islam in such a way that law, state, culture and religion are ruled as one and the same, namely by the Qua'ran.

I remember the first time I visited the US, I was still a kid then, just about seventeen. The stewardess came up to me and asked me: "Would you like to come to the cockpit and see how they fly a 747?" - "Sure!!!" So I went and got my portion of excitement. Those were the days!

Nowadays you can't even cough loudly, that might end up of your plain getting send back to the originating airport, escorted by two F-16 fighter jets.

My Arab friends, you must understand that you took away all the pleasures of flying. For that I despise you very much and also for your accompanied resistance and arrogance that "Mohamedanism" as represented by many Arab countries, is still an issue to be pushed forward in the 21st century.
It's destructive, a waste of time, it's retardation - and it only makes flying miserable.
Think about it.
For those who haven't followed my blog might assume that I unjustly wish to lash out against Arabs and Muslims. If you have payed attention, you must have noticed that I criticized Israel, the Anglo-Saxon empire and all others who impose the law of "dhimmitude", intentionally or unintentionally. The laws, rules and privileges of the superior to the lesser must find an end so slavery can be abolished for good . Any philosophy or religion contrary to such a move must either be tranquilized or eradicated .

I had it with "word verification"

It takes less time to sift through and delete unwanted and unsolicited comments than bother with this "wordverification stuff" - at least I am going to try it out for a while. We'll see ...

Cold Water Street Project

Second Chance

In my dream I return
to the place I went
wrong, and given this
chance to change
things, I go on
down the way I went
before. Even in sleep
I know there is only one go—
and it went well
the first time. Where
it didn't- well, it will
be good to see her again.

by Louis McKee

With the obvious danger to bore you to death, I still dared to put up some pictures of the place I'm working on right now. It's my friends place down in Hillsdale. The images are supposed to convert to you that I actually work on something sometimes... Don't know if that will suffice. but hey - it's a try!
(PS the place used to be a dump not long ago, now I even dare to take a nap there once in a while)

immigrant punk

"WE, THE PEOPLE..."

was the rallying cry for the constitution of the United States of America. That was way back then. The last amendment to the constitution was not so much about "PEOPLE" - but more about power and money. It reads like this:

Amendment XXVII (1992)
No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.

This is the last amendment folks, fourteen years ago or so. Previous additions to the constitution took up topics like the abolishment of slavery (1865), the inauguration of income tax (1913), and the woman's right to vote (1920).

I believe we need a new amendment! It would have to go along these lines:

Amendement XXVII (2006 by Zee)
If governance in the United States ceases to have less than two political parties representing the constituency and the people of all states, the House of Representatives in Washington will have to be disassembled followed by new elections; in the order of townships, counties, then States.

We are there right now, seriously! The "duocracy" of previous decades has been replaced by a "monocracy" - or shall I just say as it is: Monarchy! The concept of DEMOCRACY has become a lofty concept you read about in history text books alongside with Marx and Engel's convoluted and abstract concepts of communism that never worked out in real life (both of them being representatives of the bourgeois middle class at that time, one of them being the son of a wealthy industrialist ). Pipe dreams of the past gone astray ...
Today we face the encroaching imagery of globalization in the name of Money, Power and Greed. Instead of being more united, the disconnection between people around the world is forced upon us by big cooperations who give a flying fuck about "collateral damage", the people like you and me!
Both, the Republican and the Democratic party in the United States of America are "niggers" towards sucking dick of these cooperations. Therefore they are both the same

I declare that the US has ceased to exist as we knew it.

... unless we incorporate the Zee amendment. No, perhaps not that drastic, but please you all, - fight for a multiparty system that has a resemblance of representing the people:

We the people!!!

... otherwise stay and remain to be anIMIGRANT PUNK!!! and tend to your hair due, or the lack of it.
And if you wish to listen to a cool tune along the lines, upload

IMMIGRANT PUNK from Gogol Bordello, a symphonic treat :)

As usual, click on FREE user when you get to Rapidshare from the link above...

not my turn tonight...

... to wash the dishes.
(that's my kitchen window by all means, my daughter doing the dirty works, tomorrow is my turn again...)
(( whatch out, I might slash out political nastiness tomorrow again if I find the time))

you better run for your life little girl...

... hide your head in the sand little girl - catch you with an other man, that's the end of, little girl.

Public bus sign posted in Provincetown, Cape Cod MA - USA.
I should live there, they got the story right, and they got the ocean, they got writers, poets, painters and drag queens. They got cozy restaurants and gay bars with leather, chains and smelly semen lingering in the air. They got seagulls and sailboats, sand and laughter. Music and the history of the first settlers still clouded in the mist of innocence ...
I could build castles in the sand everyday and keep dreaming upon endless dunes of off-white.
What a breeze!

you ungrateful bunch you!

So I give away something for free and you don't even bother - this would be like if McDonald's gives warm, steamed, face-cloth tissues to any potential customer at the door before they even superzised their BigMac and you pick it up and throw it into the trash - and you hardly even touched it! Shame on you ...
Sure you can upload songs at iTunes for $ .99 a pop - I never did, probably never will. But suit yourself, throw your money into the dragons mouth and feel content ever after like the princess who got saved while you could have gotten this song for free! even without the support of the mighty sword of a fairy tale prince.
Amarisi is a cool song. I still challenge you to listen to it ...
Gosh, the worst scenario in my book is that you will delete it right away - and I will not even be mad! :)))

do I need to read this book?

It starts like this:
Renowed curator Jaques Sauniere staggered through the vaulted archway of the museum's Grand Gallery. He lunged for the nearest painting he could see, a Caravaggio. Grabbing the gilded frame, the seventy-six-year old man heaved the masterpiece toward himself until it tore from the wall and Sauniere collapsed backward in a heap beneath the canvas.
As he anticipated, a thundering gate fell nearby ...

Do I?
Come on, there is a movie - would be so much easier, one and a half hour and all is sucked in.
Do you know the book I'm talking about? If you do, tell me about it.

OK, I give you a hint - the book has nothing to do with Michelangelo. Can you guess it now?

this tune (Amarisi)

This is a cool song I uploaded for Nazli but you can download it at your own leisure and enjoy it as well. Just follow the steps within Rapidshare and you will be alright. I know 30Megs are a "load", but just wait until you hear that gypsy sing, you will not regret it :)))

Ok, hold on ... wait - you have choices!!!

The above link is CD quality (aif format) but LARGE (over 30megs)
HERE is a compressed version (mp3) that only takes up 4 megs and is just as fine!
Once you are at Rapidshare click on FREE user. You might have to use the password "zee" - I don't know.
Enjoy and tell me what language they use for this song, Hungarian?????
---------------
And Yes, the artist of this picture is Pollock, that Pollock who dribbled paint out of buckets all over a huge canvas spread out on the floor, beginning the movement of American abstract expressionism. Hard to believe, I know.
---------------
For your immediate listening pleasure you might like to listen to BUSH - a real "ear opener". I still think Goebbels had more style though ...

Peaches from heaven and a prayer

Not everyone has the ambition or time to tend to a garden of their own, may it be small and tiny like the tomatoes or basil in a pot, or more ambitious and actually grow vegetables and lovely flowers to be enjoyed long into winter months. Not everybody can do this...
But everybody can plant a tree, a fruit tree perhaps and relax, go away for weeks and come back to a bounty of treasures. It is easy to do, you really don't have to work or pay attention, you can remain sloppy and careless. Perhaps every other year you cut the branches back, a thing of ten minutes tops!
So why haven't you planted a tree yet?
The rewards are immeasurable!

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace:
Where there is hatred, let me sew love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is dispair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

O, Divine Master, grant that I may seek not so much to be consoled, as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
(Francis of Assisi)

P.S. may I add "eternal life" already exists right here on earth since we actually do incarnate again and again - and "now" is just a stage, a small piece of the mosaic of that what we are inclined to call present - or presence... the fragment of an image in making since the beginning of time.

will money buy unity?

Here you go again, more trouble in the making!
Hezbollah has set up 12 centers to organise the hand-out of cash for families who's homes were destroyed.
Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, promised the money in his first speech after the truce took hold this week.
He said 15,000 dwellings had been completely destroyed in the Israeli bombardment but the islamic guerrilla group, which also runs a large network of health, education and social programs, would pay for the repairs of houses that are still standing plus reimburse people who lost their dwelling.
The problem with this scenario is, that again Hezbollah and not the Lebanese government takes the lead!
Of course the people in need will gladly take the average $12,000 handouts, (source Reuters) that is only human... But please do the math, 15,000 times $12,000 - it's a lot of cash, I don't even want to know where all that money came from ...
You see, Hezbollah has taken over the role of "GOD" and "RULER" in Lebanon: "It can take (destroy) - and it can giveth again!"
The official government, a mandated pluralistic mix of different religious makeups in the mean time stands in the shadow of things to come, powerless, weak and fragile. The only hope I see is that the educated middle-class people will rise up and stand on their hind legs and shout: Enough is enough! This action of course can't be the task of those who live in the south, understandably.
Lebanese people - will you stand by and watch your dream of a country in making get sold out to a Sheikh , or will you stand up and demand your country to be free of religious mingling in politics.
I'm watching ...intensively!

An other kind of beach

So yes, I was fortunate enough to enjoy pristine waters and superb dunes and costal vistas in Cape Cod last week. In the mean time up to 30,000 tonnes of oil flooded into the sea at the coast in Lebanon after Israeli jets had attacked storage tanks at the Jiyyeh power plant south of Beirut on July 13 and 15. That amounts to about two thirds of the Lebanese coast. That coast now is useles for years to come and the marine life and the ecosystem there is dead and unsuitable for fishing. Let me put this in context. In the US this would equal to a complete shutdown of the coast from Maine to Florida plus the coast from Mexico to about Los Angeles. Exxon's "Valdez" was nothing compared to this disaster.
Yes, it is one way to look at the immediate death counts in a crisis of war - but those are "silly numbers" compared to the long term implications.
If it wasn't such a sad and painful story, a cynic might sum up the present crisis in the Middle East as such:

no regard for life on earth by Israel and Hezbollah alike

Both have lost in the battle of humanity.
Both stink to heavens and above.
Both are criminals of earth existence.
Both have lost moral ground.
In the mean time the US is supporting blindly one of them and curses the other. That is not naive, that is a recipe for destruction - self destruction.
A nation on moral grounds would declare: BOTH OF YOU ARE WRONG!!!

OK, I'm back

After breathing salty air, swimming in the ocean, camping under good smelling pine trees, visiting daily the crazy and beautiful gay capital of the world, Provincetown MA - I am back!

Sure, world affairs still touch me, they couldn't be washed away completely. But my perspective has shifted a bit. Harshness of attitudes rubbed of in the sand...

It sounds delirious, but sometimes I believe the whole world needs a vacation, breathe out and regain new perspectives.

Perhaps we need to have the courage to jump over the "dunes of misconception", land on new grounds - despite the risk of thistles that might be hiding in the sand...
What is a prickle in your foot when you still can walk and stand upright as a human being?!

the dog made me change my mind

I will put the temporarily vanished "Israel" post up again. After all, it is part of my evolving journey. Why not stick to what I have done and experienced on my path. It's part of the mosaic into the future ... why censor some of the stones that are part of the picture, even though they might be inappropriate for some.
I have no hatred against Israel, don't get me wrong. I play violin, and Israel has produced the finest violinists in the world...
My grunt is with the political establishment who groans and moans and refers to the Holocaust whenever convenient. My problem is also with Judaism where I sense no development arising out of the old. (As is the case also with Islam...)

For goodness sake, religion should be a private matter and choice - not some kind of state sanctioned behaviorism. It makes no sense in our present world to have crusades on the basis of religious beliefs.

It is interesting to note in that context, that Saddam Hussein was a non secular tyrant who managed, with the inclusion of many atrocities, to keep Iraq together as a country (Tito in former Yugoslavia comes to mind).
No, I do not adore the kinds of Saddam or Tito. But looking at the present parallel reality of the "US Green Zone Occupation" I wonder who of them was the lesser evil, Saddam or Bush? There is no doubt in my mind that Iraq will continue it's spiraling decay into a full blast civil war, slicing the country into several entities, just like the days in Yugoslavia after Tito passed away.

As for the dog in this post, I will have my "dog-days" next week, go to the beach, enjoy the ocean and recuperate.
I hope that you all find moments of replenishement this summer.
See you in a week or so...
Cheers, Zee

NEW YORK

America Can Stop the Bloodshed
WHAT: Silent candlelight vigil
WHEN: Thursday, August 3rd, 7:30pm
WHERE: South side of Union Square Park, New York City
This event might happen every week until...

And now a question:
If in the future there will be such a thing as a "buffer zone" between Israel and Lebanon, controlled by an international presence, would it not be correct to create such a zone taking space equally from both countries?
Let's say for example 15 miles into Lebanon and 15 miles into Israel?

Israel

Oh, you don't like nudes - look away!
Oh, you don't like to use your brain and follow truthful strands, sway away.
Oh, you think the empire of deception will prevail - it's your illusion.
In the end, that who does destruct will end in self destruction. Doesn't Israel know?
It has always been that way, since the beginning of time.
Humanity presently is a ship of fools, despite it's intelligence.
Maybe some day there will be people untouched by the fallacies of nation-states, race and religion. I am getting old, so I can only hope for a change of course in the coming generations, the "old guard" has failed miserably.
And while I anticipate my slow death, I still wish to imbue the seed for a new area... the time when peace is not an abstract concept but instead manifests itself and becomes reality.
I owe it to all children of this world!

gourmet challenge

This is not a challenge to you, but for me!
So here are the guidelines:
1. You post the recipe of your favorite dish or appetizer
2. I'll prepare it, taste it ... and leave my comments, and you leave yours in response.

Since I don't eat seven times a day it might take some days to try it all out. But beware - I'm going to follow up and do it!
Why would I suggest this right now, pretending that all is peaceful and fine in our world?
Simply, when you are at the border of collapse and exhaustion with bad news - you need to find the simple joys in life again, just to save your sanity. Please encounter this contest in this spirit, for your own well being.

Survey

Banksy (born 1974) the creator of above telephone booth is also and foremost a prolific graffiti artist from Bristol, UK, whose artwork has appeared throughout London and other locations around the world.
Banksy uses different techniques to communicate a message, which is often political and/or humorous. His original street art form, which combines graffiti with a distinctive stencilling technique, has achieved a certain underground notoriety and widespread coverage in the mainstream media. Despite this attention, he carefully manages to keep his real identity hidden.

Four United Nations peacekeepers have been killed in an Israeli air strike on an observation post in south Lebanon today.
The UN in Lebanon says the Israeli air force destroyed the observer post where the military observers tried to find shelter.
It said the four, from Austria, Canada, China and Finland, had been hiding in a bunker under the post after it was earlier shelled 14 times by Israeli artillery.
Now this might not strike a nerve with our Lebanese friends since their country has already lost over 385 people and close to a million people are displaced or refugees . They might think why whine about those four... But it has a symbolic magnitude. It might pull in the international community and place broader resentment on present Israeli procedures.

forgive me Frost, I mutulated your poem ... couldn't help it

SOME say the world will end in Bush's fire,
Some say in Rice's ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if I had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction Rice,
Is also great
And would suffice.
________________________________________

(the original by Robert Frost, around 1920 called "Fire and Ice")
SOME say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

Bye, bye New York...

Driving in the subway towards Grand Central where an other train will carry me northward bound, I keep musing about this city and its future.
There was once a time when I could have imagined living there, amongst the hectic movements of millions of people trying to find their ways... now I am not so sure anymore. Tranquility has its merits.
Actually I like both, the buzz and serenity of silence.
What strikes me though about New York is, that if you make an effort to be receptive, you meet all kinds of people and they open up towards you, telling stories, their passions and their struggles. The threads of multiple biographies intwine and form themselves to a picture-book to be easily written - if you just would care to pick up the strands and make the effort to pencil it down.


New York is a kaleidoscope of pleasure and pain, architectural marvels, museums of grandeur, music and shows abound, intellectual fidelity, emotional depth and also blatant blanks - and the people are from everywhere around this globe.
How can you not love this scenario?
You can't help it but love New York!

watch your step

Israel is a dying moth attracted by it's own fireworks. None can prevent this.
Lebanon is a mushed caterpillar that never managed to start chrysalis in time. Maybe next century if god will have it.
Iraq has become the pet bug of the US government, but hated by the people on either side ... they both dislike to be or see bugs.
Afghanistan ... a lot of sand and a lot of poppies. I see only red.
At the end of the day, the press rather likes to show how moths play with fire in the backyard of mushed caterpillars.
Pet bugs get boring after a while cause they only run in circles ... until they die.
And poppies are only good for heroin that we import ... until we die.
And the US? There is absolutely nothing to report - that country is in an induced coma.
Did you have enough of politics by now? I sure do!

The guy in the picture dismantling the scaffold in New York city right outside the window where I stayed. He is a Mexican immigrant and has bravery of a different kind. Would any US Caucasian person trade with him?
Ah, politics again ... can't help it.
But just so you know.
I'm still into art.
And you will
See some
updates
soon!

Break

I need to rest and focus on what is asked from me in the present -
My presence on this and other blogs will continue when I have gained enough "extra" energies again.
Be well, till then.
Zee

not only Beirut, but all of Lebanon under siege

Well, you follow the news, don't you?

Well if you didn't, you are obliged to acknowledge a few facts in a nutshell.
Lebanon has been crippled in a few days in many instances worse than the Israeli invasion managed in 1982 and in its consecutive years of occupation.
All major exit roads are ruined, the air port is done for, historic sites of beauty blown away - and of course there are the dead and the lamed and wounded. The structural physical damage is immense, as is the grief of the common folks.
I might be not completely correct with my figures, because I pull them out of my crackly memory. But I believe Lebanon has not even a population of 4 mill. And now as we speak, over a million people are driven away from their homes and displaced. That kind of exodus would compare in the US of having 60 million people flee their homes from the southern states towards the North, and besides that misery - it would be a logistical nightmare, especially if you take in consideration that every major Interstate highway previously had been blown apart to dust.
Tomorrow I will attend the rally in-front of UN headquarters and I will be reporting back on how that went.
And what might also follow is a critique of the situation in the Middle East in general. I still have to think about it though. You se, it is kind of easier for me to voice my mind because I am not directly involved in this present nightmare, But every nation bears some kind of responsibility in shaping their present and their future. And Lebanon is not excluded. I will not go into details now, but some of the issues of "bad karma" reside often from our own negligence not to act when the door is open ... and enter. One of those "karma doors" with rusty hinges is this:

Lebanon's President Emile Lahoud has vowed to stand by Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
"Rest assured Lebanon will not remove Sayyed Nasrallah," he told a crowd. "... the resistance and the national army achieved liberation for Lebanon. (in 1982)We will not forget that." This is of course not a pragmatic approach to serve the present goal to make Lebanon a peacful and unhurt nation. His thoughts seem to live in the past - not in the present.

Can I leave it at that for now without getting too specific?
Some things are complicated,
but working hard to avoid violence is not!
Take care -
Zee.

distracted minded perhaps (updated) Sorry, my blend of thoughtful - shaby -artistic - sexy - political - personal comments are out of commission these days.I am trying to keep up with what is happening in Lebanon, in case you didn't know ... a massacre. My thoughts about this are a bit in disarray. I try to keep in touch with Lebanese friends and perhaps they will be helpful to clear my mind.Be well, Zee.... my mind is clearer now (Monday, 17th) and here is what is going to happen - spread the word and thanks to Mirvat for organizing this demonstration:Dear all, I was able to organize a peaceful protest in New York. Please inform your friends and loved ones in the area. I asked Rabih from Lebanonexpats to post it on their site and he will also post it on several other sites, so will Ziad from Lebworld.com. I am also working on getting the permit right now and I have contacted friends at the embassy. We're getting the Lebanese Consul General to sponsor it and we will send the information to all the Lebanese community here and i will contact the LBCI office in New York and a friend will contact the abc channel and we are also working on a press release and trying to get as much coverage as possible (i want to thank Agnel Sfeir, Tamara Zaytouni, Anessa Bazouzi, Janelle Hraiki and Rabih Mogharbel for all their help). The place will be: The UN headquarters First Ave between 42nd St. and 48th StThe Time: Tuesday July 18, 4:00-6:00 p.m. PS. Thanks Granny for the link - yes a bit biased, nevertheless valuable since it comes directly out of Beirut.And here is an interesting comment from the BBC which tries to weigh both sides from a military/political point of view. ------------------------It is hard to keep up with the news - so many changes so fast ... but I would like to post this excerpt from an Australian newspaper that describes some aspects in a fair handed way: "...In the worst incident so far, 20 people - nine of them children - were killed when an Israeli missile hit their fleeing convoy. Israeli loudspeakers had flushed them out of their border village, Marwaheen, warning of a raid. Israeli defence is investigating.The attack that took place in Beirut at 6.30pm on Saturday was far less bloody but it was brutally symbolic. Two Israeli helicopters circled high out over the Bay of Beirut and carefully dispatched salvoes of rockets at the civilian harbours in Jounieh and Beirut.Their last two missiles singled out the lighthouse at the end of Beirut's world-famous corniche, sending the few last hardy promenaders dashing for cover.Israel's onslaught has achieved the impossible: it has taken the light out of Beirut. By day a trickle of cars pass through the usually teeming streets. In both the Muslim west and Christian east, businesses are closed and families who have not fled keep close to their homes."

Sorry, my blend of thoughtful - shaby -artistic - sexy - political - personal comments are out of commission these days.
I am trying to keep up with what is happening in Lebanon, in case you didn't know ... a massacre.
My thoughts about this are a bit in disarray. I try to keep in touch with Lebanese friends and perhaps they will be helpful to clear my mind.
Be well, Zee.

... my mind is clearer now (Monday, 17th) and here is what is going to happen - spread the word and thanks to Mirvat for organizing this demonstration:
Dear all,
I was able to organize a peaceful protest in New York. Please inform your friends and loved ones in the area. I asked Rabih from Lebanonexpats to post it on their site and he will also post it on several other sites, so will Ziad from Lebworld.com. I am also working on getting the permit right now and I have contacted friends at the embassy. We're getting the Lebanese Consul General to sponsor it and we will send the information to all the Lebanese community here and i will contact the LBCI office in New York and a friend will contact the abc channel and we are also working on a press release and trying to get as much coverage as possible (i want to thank Agnel Sfeir, Tamara Zaytouni, Anessa Bazouzi, Janelle Hraiki and Rabih Mogharbel for all their help).

The place will be: The UN headquarters First Ave between 42nd St. and 48th St
The Time: Tuesday July 18, 4:00-6:00 p.m.



PS. Thanks Granny for the link - yes a bit biased, nevertheless valuable since it comes directly out of Beirut.
And here is an interesting comment from the BBC which tries to weigh both sides from a military/political point of view.
------------------------
It is hard to keep up with the news - so many changes so fast ... but I would like to post this excerpt from an Australian newspaper that describes some aspects in a fair handed way:
"...In the worst incident so far, 20 people - nine of them children - were killed when an Israeli missile hit their fleeing convoy. Israeli loudspeakers had flushed them out of their border village, Marwaheen, warning of a raid. Israeli defence is investigating.
The attack that took place in Beirut at 6.30pm on Saturday was far less bloody but it was brutally symbolic. Two Israeli helicopters circled high out over the Bay of Beirut and carefully dispatched salvoes of rockets at the civilian harbours in Jounieh and Beirut.
Their last two missiles singled out the lighthouse at the end of Beirut's world-famous corniche, sending the few last hardy promenaders dashing for cover.
Israel's onslaught has achieved the impossible: it has taken the light out of Beirut. By day a trickle of cars pass through the usually teeming streets. In both the Muslim west and Christian east, businesses are closed and families who have not fled keep close to their homes."

a thing I ponder upon at times

Why is it that the US from all developed countries still use technology and methods that are remnants from 1910!?
Goodness me, all European countries, Japan and Russia (even Cuba) have managed to put all their wires down into the ground by now, in cities and suburban areas and most of the urban places as well. But in the US, except for major metropolitan sites, most of all the electricity supply, cable, telephone and other "wire supplies" are still mounted on wooden posts and are strung from here to there through the air. How backward is that? From the porch of a fine Mexican Restaurant I visited the other day, I took this picture which might be graphically charming, but as an afterthought disturbing.
How come that the nation who boosts itself to be the leader of innovation can't manage to simply keep up with the times!
It's so funny; all winter long crews with orange painted trucks buzz around and repair the broken wires that have been damaged by broken limbs from the last snow storm - an army of little orange trucks, out there each day to mend those strings. It seems that America is all about continuously mending things at home while trying to fix things abroad.
More specifically, the US is the only industrial nation that still has 110 Volt running through their grid (I don't know about Canada, they might be codependent suckers as well). Every other country of speaking has 220 volts. Why are these numbers of any kind of importance? Simple - energy loss! The lower the voltage, the higher the energy loss in transporting electricity around the grid. This is not an idle number game, it will become an acute issue in days to come when our energy supplies dwindle and also become enormously costly. I believe the math goes like this: If the US would be able to switch to 220 volts the savings would be close to 15%. This might not sound much to you, but compounded by 250 million people it does make a difference.
Next time this year oil will be at a minimum of $120 a barrel and electricity prices will soar accordingly. Americas primal elderly home (Florida) will swelter and elderly people will die like flies because they will not be able to afford air conditioning anymore. Oh well. Maybe the land of innovation will finally have to learn to invest in it's future - maybe starting by putting them damn wires underground like any other decent developed country,,,, and, ah yes - switching to 220 volts.
Dream on Zee - it's never going to happen ... before it's too late.

Keyboard is drunk

... but we have pictures of hands, hands of the future, taken last evening.
And then a friendly spilled Vodka over the keyboard made everything come to a virtual standstill in coomputerland, certain letters are still ...issing, hope it will dry out soon enough, so I can write again ...

The Creepy Truth (my bi-weekly audio letter)

Is it possible that Bush himself brainstormed with Rove about the latest "Terrorist Aspirational Scare"?
The first "reports" coming from the Rovian propaganda machine claimed that a vague group of suspected terrorists were planning to flood lower Manhattan by blowing up the Holland or Lincoln Tunnels.
There was just one major problem with this latest "scare them into voting Republican for a third time" tactic: it defied the laws of gravity and basic physics.
You see, Manhattan is ABOVE sea level. A body of water, such as the Hudson River, won't rise UP without a rather sophisticated plumbing system. In short, bombing the Holland or Lincoln Tunnels could not possibly, according to the law of physics, flood lower Manhattan and "ruin the American economy by destroying Wall Street."
There might be some basement flooding, but that's about it.
It's an idea so contrary to reality and the laws of physics that only Bush himself could have come up with it.
Some first media reports even dutifully noted that government sources told them that the alleged "aspirational" terrorists got their idea of blowing up the tunnels from the Katrina disaster and the flooding of New Orleans. This is a sure sign that the idea came from the man who completely bungled Hurricane Katrina: George W. Bush. Only Bush could fail to realize that New Orleans is situated BELOW sea level, while Manhattan is ABOVE sea level.
How else do you explain the second-in-a-row crack-head scheme (after the Miami clown posse "plot") that is so ludicrous, it couldn't make it past peer review in a class of idiots?
Do we REALLY need to by into this scheme of perpetual fear?

(partial credit BuzzFlash)

Theodore Roosevelt said: "... we have nothing to fear, but fear itself"
Bush & Cheney say: " ... we have nothing left to sell, but fear itself"

Just A Poll

... and for all our fine US patriots: Have a great 4th of July celebration!
Let's hope next year same time there will be even more reason for jubilations when the present cronies are out of office.

pictures of an exhibition

Went to a gallery opening this afternoon... in a beautifully renovated horse barn.
The artist standing tall and proud, the pictures flawless still lifes. But what are the guests doing?

...rubbing and munching away.

"when it rains it pours"

So it is drying up now, the worst flood since 1913 in upstate New York, or so the story goes. 200,000 people evacuated, some deaths, damage in the 300 millions, Erie canal closed, Interstate Highways closed, hmmm....
I suppose I can call myself lucky! My pool collapsed in a mud slide after having spend ours cleaning it. Now I have to rip it out completely. A branch the size of a tree fell down on my garden, spend ours cleaning it up.
The good thing is, the sun is shining now and the plants in the garden are hardly damaged.

Could have been much worse. But a word of caution. Global warming is not so much about a few degrees in statistical increments over the years, it is about the eco-system becoming more and more disturbed. Severe weather phenomena are only one of many indications.

after the dismantling, a mud hole. But alas, I will rebuild, this time with sturdy walls!