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Subject: EMOTION


Author:
Anthony
[Edit]
Date Posted: 07:54:01 05/18/01 Fri
“Anger is a gift.” – Zack De Le Rocha

It seems like many of the college-educated people I meet seem to equate being philosophical with emotional neutrality. Is this belief a remnant of Greek Stoicism? A product of the rationalism espoused by the Age of Reason? A combination of these factors and others?

The stereotypical Western vision of disciples of Zen, for example, conjures up images of the stoic person, displaying no emotion in the face of all things. I am not so sure that this is so accurate a picture. I agree that the tenets of most Eastern philosophies center around balance, but I don’t think we were meant to suppress or ignore emotion. I DO believe that we can maintain strict control over the emotions, and not let them rule us. To suppress emotion brings on stagnation of the self (Freud by way of the East, you ask?). Supression of emotion can lead to inaction. Inactivity in Eastern thought is a prime evil. The Yin and Yang, for example, is not really about perfect stasis. The two forces interact dynamically, swirling around each other, both exerting equal force.

I consider emotion the instinct of humanity. Whether you believe that we evolved from the primates (and thus emotion is the remnant of animal instinct in us, and that it predates human consciousness/self-awareness) or that we were spontaneously created by a God or Gods (and that emotion was given to us as a blessing or a curse or both), or whether you believe in a combination of these two ideas, you cannot deny the power of emotion. After all, there WERE warrior monks in Asia that, I’m sure, got VERY emotional when fighting. But did they suppress their emotions? They more likely controlled it, channeled it, using it as energy in a fight. But that’s my interpretation.

I do not believe that the term “philosophical” is or should be synonymous with being “stoic.” In SOME philosophies, this may be the case. But I believe that it is perfectly natural to express emotion, and it is perfectly possible to be philosophical and emotional. The emotions give us a powerful means to accomplish things in life. For example, when my Web site was being plagued by some unknown person or persons that were attacking me via my Guestbook and Forum, I obviously got very angry. I credit my anger with the eventual flushing out of the person/persons responsible (turns out this unknown element, who I thought at first might be some strangers, turned out to be a person or more probably PERSONS that I used to work with). My anger drove me to find out the truth.

Now, concerning the tough guys out there sporting any of the variations of the “NO FEAR” decals on their cars/clothes. A man named Gavin De Becker wrote a book called “The Gift of Fear” a few years back. De Becker says that “victims of violent behavior usually feel a sense of fear before any threat or violence takes place. They may distrust the fear, or it may impel them to some action that saves their lives.” He believes that “we can all learn to recognize these signals of the ‘universal code of violence,’ and use them as tools to help us survive.” His book teaches “how to identify the warning signals of a potential attacker and recommends strategies for dealing with the problem before it becomes life threatening.”

As far as I am concerned, I believe the adage that states that we cannot know something without its opposite. So without fear, there is no courage. Courage is overcoming fear, not the absence of fear.

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Subject: The Great Ganga Debate


Author:
Anthony
[Edit]
Date Posted: 07:01:15 05/15/01 Tue
Well, the fight for the legalization of marijuana took a blow this week, as the Supreme Court ruled against medical use of the plant. Check this out:

High Court Says No Medical Marijuana Exception Photos

By James Vicini

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a defeat for the medical marijuana movement, the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) ruled on Monday that California cannabis clubs may not legally distribute marijuana as a ``medical necessity'' for seriously ill patients.

The nation's highest court unanimously refused to carve out a ``medical necessity'' exception from the federal law that prohibits the distribution of marijuana as an illegal drug.

The closely watched case marked a watershed for the U.S. medical marijuana movement, which has been mired in legal battles since California in 1996 approved the nation's first initiative legalizing medicinal use of the drug.

The case pitted the cannabis clubs, which say marijuana should be used to alleviate pain and suffering for illnesses such as AIDS (news - web sites), cancer and glaucoma, against the U.S. government, which had warned against creation of ``marijuana pharmacies.''

Medical marijuana proponents bitterly denounced the ruling, saying the justices showed no compassion for tens of thousands of seriously ill and dying patients.

Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites) described the ruling as a victory for U.S. drug enforcement laws and said it clearly ''reaffirms the federal government's preeminent role in regulating controlled substances.''

Saying the case raised ``significant questions'' about the government's ability to enforce the nation's drug laws, Justice Clarence Thomas (news - web sites) wrote for the court that federal law classified marijuana as a controlled substance.

He said the law only provided one exception -- government-approved research projects.

CONGRESS: NO MARIJUANA MEDICAL BENEFITS

``It is clear from the text of the act that Congress has made a determination that marijuana has no medical benefits worthy of an exception,'' he wrote in the 15-page ruling.

Thomas said a U.S. appeals court had been wrong in ruling that marijuana clubs in California may distribute the drug to those seriously ill patients who prove cannabis was medically necessary.

The California initiative allowed seriously ill patients to use marijuana for pain relief as long as they have a doctor's recommendation. Similar measures have been adopted in a number of other states.

Joining Thomas in the opinion were Chief Justice William Rehnquist (news - web sites) and Justices Sandra Day O'Connor (news - web sites), Antonin Scalia (news - web sites) and Anthony Kennedy (news - web sites). The five make up the court's conservative majority.

Justice John Paul Stevens (news - web sites), joined by the Justices David Souter (news - web sites) and Ruth Bader Ginsburg (news - web sites), issued a separate opinion concurring in the judgement. They are among the court's more moderate-liberal members.

Photos

Reuters Photo


Stevens emphasized the ruling was narrow, only applying to the clubs as distributors of marijuana to their members.

``Most notably, whether the (medical necessity) defense might be available to a seriously ill patient for whom there is no alternative means of avoiding starvation or extraordinary suffering is a difficult issue that is not presented here,'' he said.

Stevens said California voters decided seriously ill patients and their primary caregivers should be exempt from prosecution under state laws for cultivating and possessing marijuana if the patient's doctor recommends it for treatment.

``This case does not call upon the court to deprive all such patients of the benefit of the necessity defense to federal prosecution,'' he said.

Justice Stephen Breyer (news - web sites) did not participate in the ruling. His brother, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco, initially presided over the dispute.

CANADA ALLOWS MEDICAL MARIJUANA

While the U.S. government argued against the use of medical marijuana, Canada last month said it plans to make it easier to possess and cultivate marijuana for medical purposes.

In Los Angeles, Bill Zimmerman, director of a group called Americans for Medical Rights, which sponsored the initiative, said ``tens of thousands of seriously ill Americans are going to be shaken by today's news.''

``It is appalling to see the insensitivity of our government in the face of so much real human suffering,'' he said.

Robert Raich, an attorney for the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative, the club at issue in the ruling, called the decision a ``travesty of justice.''

He compared it to another ``wrongly decided case,'' the Supreme Court's infamous Dred Scott ruling which upheld slavery in the South before the Civil War.

In Washington, Kevin Zeese of the group Common Sense for Drug Policy, predicted the federal government will have trouble enforcing the drug laws before juries. ``The federal government is likely to lose when they try to enforce this decision.''

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Subject: GAS PRICES


Author:
Anthony
[Edit]
Date Posted: 11:15:58 05/10/01 Thu
Today I got the latest email claiming to have yet another solution to the high gas prices we are suffering under at the moment. And it made me think about the damned prices again. Does anyone remember prices of like 89 cents in Jersey last year? Now, I spoke to someone yesterday that swore up and down that anytime gas prices rise they are NEVER low like they were ever again. Now, someone tell me if I am wrong, but before the gas prices under a dollar last year, weren't the prices up around $1.30? So in late 1999, let's say, I thought prices for gase were about $1.30 or so, then by about Springtime in 2000 they were under a dollar. Then they went back up over a dollar as the year went on. They were at about $1.25-35 since the beginning of this year, and now you know what is going on at the moment. The guy I talked to yesterday, a coworker in his early fifties, said that gas prices are never again going to go below around $1.50 ever again. He said this was because once the big oil companies raise the prices they get the people used to them and thus keep them that way. I find that hard to believe. I think he's a bit of the government conspiracy type. Anyway, I guess I have three questions:

What do you think of my co-worker's claims?

What does everyone think is causing the price hike? There are a lot of articles and news reports spouting causes, but which do you think are the real deal? I am sure a combination of factors is at work here, but which are the most feasible?

Can we, the public, do anything about the prices (a la the emails about only getting gas every other day or on a certain day, etcetera...the one I got today said not to get gas from the big name stations, Exxon and Mobil, and that should do the trick)?

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Subject: I got your Zen right here!


Author:
King Mob
[Edit]
Date Posted: 12:17:04 04/20/01 Fri
Hey, you want a Zen lesson for the day? Okay. Here ya go:

Don't be a dick!

There's your Zen lesson. As in, don't be a dick to other people. Do what thou will, but do not violate the existance of another. Just be a nice person. It's easier than you think. Do not try, just do. There is no "try". There is no spoon. Blah blah blah.

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Subject: All your White Home are belong to us


Author:
Rodney "Long Duck Dong" Reel
[Edit]
Date Posted: 08:49:54 05/07/01 Mon
Who Hacked the White House?
By Lori Patel
(The Industry Standard)
The hackers who broke into the White House Web site remained unidentified, as reporters made very clear - right before they went on to discuss recent attacks by Chinese hackers on U.S. sites.
In fact, Chinese hackers had specifically threatened to infiltrate the White House site on Friday, as several outlets reported. U.S. and Chinese hackers have been battling each other since a U.S. spy plane collided with a Chinese fighter pilot off the coast of China. Last week alone, Chinese hackers defaced more than 660 U.S. sites, according to a security firm expert who spoke to the BBC.

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Subject: What, is China the new Big Bad Red Superpower?!


Author:
Anthony
[Edit]
Date Posted: 08:26:16 05/04/01 Fri
FBI: Lucent Workers Stole Secrets

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - Three scientists accused of stealing Lucent Technologies software and sharing it with a Chinese company made plans to take their venture public and bragged it would become an Internet equipment giant in China, authorities say.

The two Lucent employees and another man, all Chinese born, were arrested Thursday by the FBI (news - web sites) for allegedly stealing trade secrets from Lucent. They were ready to roll out their ``rip-off'' product in September, U.S. Attorney Robert Cleary said.

Cleary said there are no allegations that the Chinese company, Datang Telecom Technology Co. of Beijing, was aware of the theft.

It is unclear if the Chinese company, which is run largely by the government, obtained enough data to replicate Lucent's PathStar system.

The Lucent scientists, Hai Lin, 30, and Kai Xu, 33, were arrested at their New Jersey homes. They are Chinese nationals in the United States on business visas, Christie said.

``They came to Lucent as scholars, but in reality, they were no more than sleuths,'' Cleary said.

The third suspect, Yong-Qing Cheng, 37, was arrested at his work place at Village Networks, an optical networking vendor.

THE SPY PLANE, THE POSSIBLE OLYMPIC DEBACLE, AND NOW THIS! What the hell is going on with us and the Chinese?!

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Subject: What fools we mortals be...


Author:
Anthony
[Edit]
Date Posted: 05:07:58 05/04/01 Fri
WHAT? What the HELL are we DOING? No, scratch that. What the HELL is our GOVERNMENT doing, supposedly on our behalf?! They're going to mess with the OLYMPICS? WHAT? "You hurt our feelings and shot down our planey-waney, so now we are going to tell everyone not to play in your country." C'mon, people! The Olympics are supposed to be a substitute for bloody war! Get out those nationalistic aggressions via sport! What are we, babies throwing a temper tantrum?!

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Subject: The Chinese


Author:
Rodney Reel
[Edit]
Date Posted: 13:40:12 05/03/01 Thu
"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said on Thursday the United States was still deciding whether to adopt a stance on Beijing's bid for the 2008 Olympic Games (news - web sites) but made clear he was sensitive to the idea of not mixing politics with sport.

`In response to questions at a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing about the impact of a dispute with China over a downed U.S. spy plane, Powell reassured senators that the administration was being very careful with its reaction."

Yo, are we just TRYING to antagonize them into a fight? What the FUCK is that bozo we call the President doing? Or I guess I should say what the FUCK are those people that run the country for that bozo we call the President doing? We cut off military ties yesterday, the army said it is going to destroy the millions of berets that we outfit our soliders with because they are made in China, and now we're going to oppose the Olympics? What other irrelevant things can we use to protest our spy plane? How about we boycot Chinese eateries out of protest? Boycot the color red? I usually don't think myself as a political person, but DAMN this administration is driving me nuts.

F- everyone.

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Subject: Don't like your grades? Shoot the teacher!


Author:
Rodney Reel
[Edit]
Date Posted: 09:09:06 05/01/01 Tue
Let's talk guns and the little f-ing turds that are shooting up schools. Question: when was the last time the BBC ran a story about some little Johnny shooting up his school because he teacher wouldn't give him his puddin' ("how can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat!?"). And you know why? Because they don't f-ing have guns! They may drink Boddingtons (warm swill) and eat blood pudding (shit-filled sausage casing), but those damn dirty wankers may be on to something here. Is there a correlation between no guns and a lack of violence? I think its hard to argue that there isn't. Do those limeys have violent television shows and access to video games and Eminem CDs? Probably. So whasa whasa whats tha scenario? I say outlaw guns. And if you want to commit a crime with a gun, you get the f-ing death penalty. And before you get Ted Nugent up in his pretentious holier-than-though ivory hunting stand, let me ask that you spare me the Bill of Rights rhetoric. The simple fact is that the rights to bear arms was derived during the revolution. You know, that thing that happened 225 YEARS ago!? Times change, kiddies. And if you want me to get historical on your ass, I'll tell you that your average farmer turd back in those days didn't even HAVE guns, and if they did, they hardly worked. The image of every schmo keeping a musket over the fireplace is a misconception. Charlton Heston says people will have to pry his rifle from his "cold, dead hands," but if society keeps going the way that it is, that's exactly what we'll be doing because someone will bock him down.
Cheers,
Rodney

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Subject: So much for that...


Author:
Sir Peter Wafflemuffin, Lord of Assberry
[Edit]
Date Posted: 12:47:54 05/01/01 Tue
"Supermodel Niki Taylor is in critical condition in an Atlanta hospital after suffering severe internal injuries in a weekend car crash, her agent said on Tuesday.
Taylor, 26, was a passenger in a car that crashed in Atlanta early on Sunday, said Lou Taylor of TriStar Management agency. In a brief statement, the agent said the driver, who was not identified, lost control of the car and struck a pole. No other vehicles were involved."

I declare, who shall I wank to when I'm lounging around in the yard in my knickers? The Queen Mum? "Dutchess" Fergie?

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Subject: Zen Moments


Author:
Rodney Reel
[Edit]
Date Posted: 13:41:54 04/25/01 Wed
The Zen moment sounds an awful lot like Me-ism.

Crescent Fresh
Angry man say dangity-dang
He go to the park to hangity-hang, but
He's not CRESCENT FRESH!
His whole life's a mess!
Angry dude with many tattoos
He's living his life so crudity-rude, and
He's not CRESCENT FRESH!
His short life's a mess!
Nice-ity guy goes flying a kite
and nice-ity girl, she like-ity likes him, and
They're so CRESCENT FRESH!
Super cres at best!
Hippity dude likes hackity-sack,
Don't eat-a the meat, or smoke-a the crack, and
He's so CRESCENT FRESH!
Super cres at best!
He's CRESCENT FRESH!!!

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Subject: Get ready


Author:
Rodney Reel
[Edit]
Date Posted: 06:48:23 04/26/01 Thu
I hope all you draft-age mo-fos out there like Chinese food, cuz you're gonna be eating it when Dubya ships your asses over there to defend Taiwan. WTF! Will someone please tell me if we're following a foreign policy of isolationism or a policy of international po' po'?

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Subject: I ain't no fortunate son...


Author:
Anthony
[Edit]
Date Posted: 12:46:57 04/17/01 Tue
As far as Derek's essay series concerning how many Americans have a resentment for those that are rich and "successful", I have a few thoughts. For my own part, I was raised in what I consider to be a lower middle class family. Most of my close relatives work in trades such as masonry, carpentry, baking, carpet laying, etc.

Now, growing up in this way, I saw among my relatives a disdain for the well off, the highly educated, the just plain rich. Now, I think that a certain amount of this comes from plain old envy, you know? I mean, who would not want to have the easy life that pleny of money affords?

So I ask Derek, hasn't it always been this way? There have always been haves and have nots, correct? The plebians and the particians? So I posit that this resentment of the successful is nothing new, and the only reason it is growing is because there is a corresponding decrease in the number of people holding the majority of the wealth in this country.

Now, I don't particularly like percentages. I think they are more often than not inaccurate and far from all-inclusive measures of reality. But can anyone tell me how much truth is in the infamous statistic that claims there is a wealthy 3-5% that controls 80-95% of the wealth in America? (NOTE: I gave ranges to those percentages because I have heard varying numbers). If this IS the case, I think it is no mystery as to why there is such a resentment for the rich.

In my opinion, the major beef of those that occupy the lesser economic ranges is toward the very fact that the rich are rich, and NOT about whether the rich are taxed accordingly. The taxation thing is salt in the wound, if you will, insult to injury.

Don't know if this makes any solid points or not. Just wanted to respond with my initial thoughts after rereading Derek's latest Rant.

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Subject: Thomas Kuhn


Author:
HDT
[Edit]
Date Posted: 13:15:19 04/11/01 Wed
I've been reading up on Thomas Kuhn. I was wondering, is there anything out there that might point out current paradigm shifts. Like examples of societal changes?

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Subject: In Memory of Joey Ramone


Author:
Anthony
[Edit]
Date Posted: 05:17:32 04/16/01 Mon
Please join me in a moment of silence for Joey Ramone. He died Sunday at the age of 49 of lymphatic cancer. They say he and his band were punk pioneers. They say a lot about the Ramones, especially the people that hated their music. But I always got a kick outta them. Here's to you, Joey!

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Subject: Moving forward


Author:
Blue Rubber Butt
[Edit]
Date Posted: 10:15:41 04/03/01 Tue
Thanks for taking care of that digression, Anthony. All I'm saying is if things turn into eighth grade in here again, I'm out. But anyway, let's talk current events. What's everyone's opinion on our spy plane landing in China. The Big Red Machine thinks that we should apologize and let them sort through our stuff on the plane. They say we shouldn't be playing I Spy with them. This harkens back to the cold war times. So we refuse to apologize. Chine refuses to give us back our toys. What next? Economic sanctions? Military attacks? Go in there and get our plane and airmen back like we went into the Iranian embassy a few decades ago? Your thoughts?

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Subject: For Whom the Bell Tolls


Author:
Anthony
[Edit]
Date Posted: 13:02:35 04/06/01 Fri
It's Friday, April 6th, 2001. And a man decides to take a hammer to the Liberty Bell. Hmmm. Is there a metaphor to be found somewhere in this event? Of course. There always is. The creative spawn fiction, and the creative often suffer from overactive imaginations. They see symbolism everywhere. Perhaps they see it too much. I myself have been said to be guilty of this. To all of you creative souls, I salute you.

But what can be said of the actual event, all metaphors aside? Who knows? We'll have to delve into the motives of the man with the hammer. They say that he wasn't politically motivated. I heard that on the radio. Supposedly he described himself as a "wanderer" from Nebraska. Hmph. Go bust up a monument in Nebraska then! I just say it was another fellow American citizen that succumbed to some sort of stresses inherent in our society. Indeed, I bet his actions were not that well-thought out. In other words, he didn't have any deep philosophical reason for it. And THAT'S what scares me. There can be people who do things that may seem, on the surface, to be motivated by strong feelings and intense mental conviction and whatnot.

But here it was probably just some half-crazed man with no real reason for hitting the Bell with a hammer other than JUST GETTING NOTICED in a very desperate way. Thoreau said "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation" or something like that, right? Well, I think America is especially full of people grown or growing desperate because they feel like they are forced into quietude. They are frustrated because their pleas and their worries and their fears are not addressed. Are not listened to by others, peers and superiors alike.

The point of this rambling? Well, the above word-wandering touches on one of the recurring themes I happen to see in American life. Again, perhaps I suffer from over-symbolization of life. Perhaps, as I have been told countless times, I overanalyze things. But meaningless events are always the scariest things. This guy with the hammer could quite possibly be ASOCIAL, something perhaps far more frightening than anti-social. The fact that he was heard screaming "GOD LIVES ON!" could mean nothing or everything. That's the recurring thing I see in my observations of the admittedly tiny slice of American life I see everyday: the disturbing way I see people becoming asocial, not right or left or what have you, but JUST NOT CARING! They just want to get noticed, to be the extremely lonely individual, to achieve some sort of Existential ideal within their own lives.

Again, I have always thought America a place with the potential for becoming the nation that balances the wonders and horrors of the whole planet. But most often we suffer from the Western need to go to extremes. I believe we have taken the concept of "rugged individualism" to too much of an extreme. Thus the lone nut phenomenon. The unabomber and the man with the hammer hitting the Liberty Bell. Maybe they'll be cell mates.

ACS

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Subject: Kill Osama bin Laden!!!


Author:
kill
[Edit]
Date Posted: 07:54:40 04/04/01 Wed
Okay, I AM serious about this one!

Kill the his men we have on trial!

Wanna bomb our embassies and our military bases?

YOU DIE!

This bin Laden must be like al-Kalim, the supposed founder of the hashishin, the doped-up assassins! This al-Kalim guy would whip his minions into a frenzy, dope them up (thus the word hashish comes from them, or maybe it's the other way around), then claim to be this immortal that could show them the way to heaven! This "way to heaven" would be to serve al-Kalim, who was in some way connected to heaven, and to kill for al-Kalim! His servants were told to kill even in broad daylight in front of observers. When they were caught and killed for thier crimes, al-Kalim told them, they would be sent to heaven for their service!

Dispense with the pleasantries! Kill them and then hunt down bin Laden!

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