What in the world you thinking of laughing in the face of Love?
What on earth you tryin’ to do?
It’s up to you. Yeah, you…
Ad Astra per Ardua
💜😢💋
It’s up to us. Yeah, us.
We have to save the world, each other.
If not us, then who? Who? Who?
Don’t laugh in the face of Love, Love.
Don’t let another day go by, my Love.
❤❤❤
How hard can it be
Why fight and disagree
When I hurt you
It hurts me
And vice versa
Can’t you see
It’s not that hard
Elementary
We could turn the world around
You and me
If we really wanted to
It should be that easy
💜💜💜
Demonstrations in Idlib. These are the people being slaughtered.
💜💜💜
I don’t think you’re going to like this but it needs saying…
Sorry. But I’m genuinely choked.
• • •
I know I’m a ‘grown-up’ and I should be able to wrap my head around things such as war, political unrest, poverty, inequities…
Sigh…
But, I can’t. I won’t. I don’t understand. I refuse to accept that this is just the way things are, have to be.
I don’t have anything to say except: Why?
Why? Why? Why?
Huh?
*shrug*
Why?
Just when I thought Syria could not possibly get any worse? It has descended into complete, total, utter madness and chaos. I mean, you have got to be kidding me, right? What gives? This isn’t really going on is it? And no one is doing anything? Humanity is letting itself down again. Selling itself short. Again? Yeah. Just like we let down Rwanda and Roméo Dallaire. Darfur…
Do you see a pattern emerging?
We keep failing ourselves, each other.
💜💜💜
When I was teenager I worked at the mall. One of the shopkeepers was Syrian. He confided in me stories of the horrors of a dark, shadowy land in the clutches of oppression. He said that he missed it, the land. It was his home. But, he was very grateful to be free of the oppression. There was no mistaking the look in his eyes when he told me Syria was a very bad place. I believed him then. I believe him now. The evidence has become irrefutable. These things don’t just happen overnight. They simmer under the surface before they boil over. And this one had been stewing in a crockpot forever. I’m surprised it hasn’t just evaporated the heat has been on so long.
Yeah.
This has been going on for a long time, people. Decades. Fifty years. It just wasn’t newsworthy. I’m not blaming the ‘liberal’ media here, there are many other factors at play. It’s been blown wide-open now. Those in the ‘know’ saw this one coming and chose to look away. Chose to do nothing while they dazzled and distracted us with stories of WMD and the like. You know, the usual muddled hodgepodge of obfuscations that would keep us from the issues of the day, the glaring inequities with which we should really concern ourselves.
“If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about answers.”
~ Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow
Dig?
We’ve been asking the wrong questions. We’ve been fooled, are fools.
There’s cataclysmic suffering being endured on a grand scale. Grand. It’s not just Syria, either. It’s global. Universal. It’s in our towns and cities, too, this suffering. These great divides, chasms that prevent us from attaining utopia, Universal Bliss.
We keep telling each other we’re wrong. We keep arguing and warring over what? What?!? That one’s world view should take precedence over another’s? There’s room. There’s plenty of room. Room for us all. For all our perspectives.
• • •
According to the Law of Physics no two people may physically occupy the exact same Space at the exact same Time. Every event that has been ever been witnessed in the entire history of Time and Space, the Universe, has as many versions as spectators present. Because to have an identical perspective would mean you would have to see it from identical physical locations with an identical set of ‘controls’ which we know is impossible. Right, cats and kittens? Even though we may share similar beliefs, ideas, opinions, etc. they are never exactly the same. We have arrived by different paths, means, circumstances. It’s all relative.
• • •
So how can we all adhere to one doctrine, world view, then? We can’t. It’s not going to happen. We’ve got to let go. Stop trying to control one another. It’s not working. It’s not. You know it. You do. And if you don’t, please, take a step back and consider what I propose here today.
“The most important trip you may take in life is meeting someone halfway.”
~ Henry Boye, Publisher
💜💜💜
I’ve been watching the world turn my whole life. At this juncture it would seem the species has done the same things over and over again engaged in a some cyclical insanity anticipating a different outcome? At what point do we say “enough” and try something different? Or, at least stop what we are doing until we figure out how to do it right?
How hard can it be?
Live and let live not Live and Let Die. I don’t wanna give the other fellow hell. I want to Love him, gift him the Heavens. That’s what I wanna do. Please, join me? Let’s gift each other the the Heavens, hey?
💜💜💜
September 11th is the 35th anniversary of the murder of South African anti-apartheid opponent Stephen Biko while in police custody. (But you only know about the other September 11, right? Right.) Pussy Riot has been charged wth hooliganism and detained in Russia? Really? A bunch of girls in a band? And Wikileaks? C’mon. They’re going to kill the messenger? The messenger? Really? Arab Springs across a continent and it’s the Syrian people who must endure the retribution?
Dissent is not disloyalty. Massacring civilians is.
Dissenters are being silenced with impunity and civilians are being massacred while the planet watches from the sidelines. The game, the locations, keep changing but it’s the same story Time and again. The very definition of insanity from where I stand.
In 2012? Tsk.
Nothing ever changes? I swear they’d revisit the Spanish Inquisition if they could and burn the lot of us at the stake — or, at least, me.
I’m discouraged. Disillusioned. I need a Revolution. WE need a Revolution. It has to be us. There’s no one else. It’s our problem. Our’s. Not someone else’s. If we don’t stand for the Syrians, the downtrodden, who will stand when they come for us?
Stand and be counted. Please? Please?
Please?
Now.
My ‘Dads’ will tell you how it is. Revolution. 1968. It’s still relevant today.
It’s gonna be alright, isn’t it? Please, tell me it will?
Or, might there be an underlying $inister human element at work in all of this — undermining our prospects for peace in the name of power and profit — of which we’re all blissfully unaware? Just sayin’ is all.
Related: The Great Song of Indifference
“Joni, you have more class than Richard Nixon, Mick Jagger, and Gomer Pyle combined!”
~ Audience member, recorded on Miles of Aisles
❤❤❤
I received a Versatility Award courtesy of F-stop Fun? Kinda got me thinking. The anniversary of Woodstock got me thinking, too. The song Woodstock got me thinking, yet again, this Time about it’s author, Joni Mitchell…
I grew up on the same Saskatchewan prairie — with the exception of three years in Lotus Land from kindergarten to grade 3, been in and around the Green since I was 14. She’s always been there. All my life. I am unaware of a Universe in exclusion of her, her Music. She’s perennial. Omnipresent. A lot of who I am — who Saskatchewan is/was — is because of her. A lot of who we all of are is because of her even if it isn’t always obvious.
There was a thriving hippie scene in Saskatchewan when I was kid. My uncles even had an ersatz hippie commune on a farm that they rented for $75 a month. Used to spend weekends and Christmases there. I think the Saskatchewan scene might have rivalled ‘Frisco, Haight-Ashbury but was smaller, bucolic, humbler, groovier? Maybe, even more sincere?
Big Yellow Taxi* was a favourite song from THE moment I heard it.
We lived with Nanny and Granddad when I was four in a town that was the birthplace of W.O. Mitchell and home to Tommy Douglas and ‘psychedelic’ Dr. Humphry Osmond. (Saskatchewan is WAY groovier than you might initially suspect.) I thought the ‘old man’ in the song was literally an old man like Granddad. Not the ‘old man’ of sixties slang: your boyfriend. I wondered why a man like Granddad would slam the screen door and take a taxi late at night? Where would he go? What would he do?
I Loved that she laughed at the end. That she mentioned birds, bees, apples and trees…
She has written more songs than you can imagine, she paints, she does everything and she does it all very well. A veritable renaissance woman. She is an icon, in a class — alone — by herself, head and shoulders above the rest.
The Versatility Award really belongs to her.
Joni, you are the cat’s pyjamas, the bee’s knees, baby. I ❤❤❤❤❤ you!
❤❤❤
“That’s the music that I play at home all the time, Joni Mitchell. Court and Spark I love because I’d always hoped that she’d work with the band. But the main thing with Joni is that she’s able to look at something that’s happened to her, draw back and crystallize the whole situation, then write about it. She brings tears to my eyes, what more can I say? It’s bloody eerie. I can relate so much to what she says. ‘Now old friends are acting strange/They shake their heads/They say I’ve changed’ (Both Sides Now).”
~ No less than Jimmy Page in Rolling Stone magazine (March 13, 1975)
In early 1987 I had the opportunity to spend an evening with then-drummer of The Cult, Les Warner. Really nice guy. Les was listening to Joni, too, while touring the prairies? He completely dug her. She Sells Sanctuary. She does. Hey? Who knew?
She’s ubiquitous.
So, hey, here’s Both Sides Now and The Circle Game. (Whether you are 20, are a parent or on your last legs the C-game is for you. It’s SO sweet. Might even make you cry — in a good way.)
Vintage CBC from The Way It Is. I give you Joni, the Magical Prairies… circa 1968.
Dig her. DIG her. She is but lovely.
“She is of course well past the stage of having to prove herself artistically. She is in possession of one of the most extraordinary song catalogs of the past half-century. Her chords break harmonic rules, have no technical names and defy Western musical theory. Her voice is an instrument that has grown sublimely heavier and huskier over the decades… Once you get past the security gates, Ms. Mitchell’s house feels like a pocket of middle-class comfort in the midst of zillionaire Beverly Hills. In some ways life is still as it was in 1974, when she bought the house: She has no computer, no voice mail, no cellphone and no e-mail. At one point, when we tried to remember one of her lyrics, we scrolled through my iPod. She said it was the first time she had listened to one.”
~ The New York Times (February 4, 2007)
You’re So Square. Baby, I don’t care… 💋
❤❤❤
* Support your local Big Yellow Taxi Drivers! Don’t drink and drive, cats and kittens!
Just don’t do it!
Written by that prairie-girl, Joni Mitchell, performed by CSNY… We are stardust, we are golden… Groovy, cats and kittens. Dig it.
You can never get too much John Lennon. Dig the Beatleness of Jade’s blog, cats and kittens! John and the Lads were a monumental influence on me, as well…
I may have Agnostic, Secular Humanist leanings. But, the Dalai and the Buddhists have it going on in a way no one else does. The Dalai has even called for an end to religion — like John in Imagine — because it gets in the way of the True Love we should have for each other.
Nam myoho renge kyo. (‘I devote myself to the Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law.’) 💋
As a young girl growing up listening to Abbey Road, I shared my father’s adoration for the Beatles. My favorite songs were Maxwell’s Silver Hammer and Octopus Garden. These days, I have many more favorites, especially Dear Prudence, Across the Universe, and Strawberry Fields Forever. In these songs, I found love and inspiration, as well as the message of Peace.
Throughout the years, I’ve felt intensely connected to John Lennon and his universal message for Peace. Lennon’s lucky number was 9 and he was born on October 9. I was also born on the 9th of the month in April, and the number has always held a special meaning in my life. I spent the freshman year of high school researching Lennon for a class paper. I became immersed in my findings. Although I had grown up listening to his songs, I rediscovered Lennon’s message in a deeper, more fundamental…
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Ugh.
I’ll try to keep this simple. If you’re interested you’ll look it up. But, I doubt you care. If anyone did we wouldn’t be in this mess to begin with. It’s awfully convoluted, in any case.
Canada is governed by the Multi Party Westminster Parliamentary System. Within the confines of that system we experienced successive conservative minority governments in recent history. That means, the governing party possesses a minority of seats in the House of Commons. The opposition parties combined comprise the majority.
Minority governments are actually a pretty good scenario. All things considered. It’s government by consensus. Everyone must to work together. No one can pull any really hard punches. Some of the best democracy this country has ever witnessed was practiced in that fold. An election may be called through a vote of non-confidence. So, the powers that be usually walk a reasonable middle ground unable to push anything too, terribly radical through.
Then, the minority government was found in contempt of parliament by the Speaker of the House — the ‘ref’ for all intents and purposes. They weren’t playing by the rules? In contempt? Yes. For the VERY first time in the history of the system. Ever. No Commonwealth nation’s government has ever been found in contempt prior to this incident. None. Ever. Not in the WHOLE history of the system, cats and kittens!
The bulk of the public didn’t seem to care? La-di-da…
According to the rules of the parliamentary system it was incumbent upon the majority opposition to move for a vote of non-confidence. They HAD to. It’s just the rules. The rules, people.
They held the non-confidence vote in the House. Non-confidence won the day. An election was called. Another election may not have been what everyone wanted but we arrived there by way of the democratic rules of our parliamentary system. It is what it is. All pretty cut and dried, right?
Wrong?
Somehow the spin doctors and money bags convinced the electorate that the opposition was bad, nay evil. That they’d started the whole debacle. We know it was the Speaker who found them in contempt — it was his job to do so — not the opposition, right? Canada didn’t want this election and it was all their fault. Especially, that egg-head Harvard professor. I mean, who would want a prime minister that had taught at the second best school on the planet? Who was worldly, educated, reasonable? Not us, hey? No way. Not a chance. He didn’t stand a hope in heck.
I find myself wondering if the whole scenario wasn’t orchestrated by the minority government to force the opposition to play the non-confidence card? Forcing an unwanted election they could then blame on the opposition, thus, garnering the votes needed for a majority government so they may advance their totalitarian agendas? Phew!
The fine people of this once great land believed them and saw fit to return the minority government to Parliament Hill with a resounding majority? It was a phenomenal power play, a farce, a game that paid off big time. Big. Time.
Uh, what? You’re kidding, right?
No. Not so much. Wish I was.
This government who had previously proven to the populace they cannot play by the rules was given a free mandate. Carte blanche. They’re the majority. They can do whatever they want. Whatever. They are. And how!
They’re ramming through omnibus legislation — which I believe is unconstitutional, in itself. They have so many bills attached to that ‘bus’ it just makes your head spin. Spin, I tell ya. That’s but the tip of the iceberg… Environment, healthcare, research…
Hmmmmm.
I’m saddened to say I suspect they think it’s all a game. The joke’s on us. I’m not sure they’re even playing their game by any rules, at all. I can’t fathom why people can’t see through them. I fear my countrymen have become sheep. Or, worse yet, blinded by the avarice of the conglomerate ‘Church of Fundamentalism, Free Market Capitalism, The Bottom Line and The Almighty Buck, Ltd’. Oh! And, punish, punish, punish, too!
Shucks.
I’m not sure how it all got this way? It seems like some bad fiction to me. I’m quite rather disillusioned, to say the very least. Politics really is a vicious game. Everyone’s a ‘playa’.
I find that, unfortunately, oftentimes people are incapable of governing themselves accordingly. We need governments. Good, transparent governments with the people’s — both the individual’s and the collective’s — best interests at heart. But, how, Batman? Who? What? Where? Systems are failing us from here to there. It would seem governments can’t govern themselves accordingly, either?
And taxes? Everyone is down on them, but, everything we have together is due to the concerted power of taxpayer dollars. Roads, schools, libraries, hospitals. You name it. The infrastructure we create together brings amenities and opportunities to our communities. We’re just so much better, can accomplish so much more together than apart. United. In this context taxes would appear to be fair and efficient? No? I’m not buying privatisation. I think fair, equitable taxation and administration the far superior, impartial model.
So… ahem… I’m no political scientist or economist by any stretch of the imagination, that is most certain. I’m just sayin’, is all…
I’m just hoping I… Won’t Get Fooled Again…? Oh, by the way, here come my favourite hooligans…
Give it up, cats and kittens! Ummmmm, fracking, I mean. 😉
Could I possibly be any more in ❤❤❤❤❤ with these three? Don’t think so.
❤❤❤❤❤
I live in fairly close proximity to Mordor. They like their fracking there. Love their ‘precious’ a whole heap, too…
A little background on fracking:
Hydraulic fracturing is the propagation of fractures in a rock layer, as a result of the action of a pressurized fluid. Some hydraulic fractures form naturally- certain veins or dikes are examples- and can create conduits along which gas and petroleum from source rocks may migrate to reservoir rocks. Induced hydraulic fracturing or hydrofracking, commonly known as fracking, is a technique used to release petroleum, natural gas (including shale gas, tight gas and coal seam gas), or other substances for extraction. This type of fracturing creates fractures from a wellbore drilled into reservoir rock formations.
The first use of hydraulic fracturing was in 1947 but the modern fracking technique that made the extraction of shale gas economical was first used in 1997 in the Barnett Shale in Texas. The energy from the injection of a highly pressurized fracking fluid creates new channels in the rock, which can increase the extraction rates and ultimate recovery of hydrocarbons.
Proponents of fracking point to the vast amounts of formerly inaccessible hydrocarbons the process can extract. Detractors point to potential environmental impacts, including contamination of ground water, risks to air quality, the migration of gases and hydraulic fracturing chemicals to the surface, surface contamination from spills and flowback and the health effects of these. For these reasons hydraulic fracturing has come under scrutiny internationally, with some countries suspending or even banning it.
~ Wikipedia
Sooooo, yeah. Please, don’t frack my mother? Uh, thanks, baby. 😉 💋
Dizzy yet? 