Which way is Makkah?

A letter to ICNA

Please read this missive in whole before discarding. 

I am given to believe that many of you on this counsel are literate, some even really smart so I bring it to before I publish this to the public. 

Whatever my faith or beliefs I do not claim to be more knowledge than any other. I am only humbled by what I know, what I was given a chance to do in my life. I can speak read and write Arabic, I have read Quran, in Arabic, English and Urdu, Tafsir and Fikah, All volumes of Bukhari. I had the chance to perform Hajj twice and Umrah five times. I am not pious I was just at the right place, don't be overly impressed, I am not. 

Sura Yasin gives the example of peoples to whom two prophets were sent and the people refused to acknowledge, and so on, you know the story, is it you, the Muslims of today?

Then there in sura Bakra, it is told, " it matters not wether you face East or West, it goes on to say that it is not the saying of prayers but the life you live and the deeds you do that are your salvation, but who cares. Right! 

What brings me to write today is this question of which way is Kabba. It boggles the mind not just that after 1400 years, there is a question, but after 1400 years the great Muslim nation is still trying to explain what God intended and still coming up with new and creative BS.

If any of you are educated in basic geometry,  just a joke, I know you all are, then draw a triangle, any shape, now you know that this triangle will stay the same shape anywhere in the universe, the angles at the corner will be the same, unless of course you MOVE one of these points. You can bend it, roll it, tilt it whatever you like the triangle will NOT change unless you physically change it in some way. You can now cut out the triangle and paste it on a ball and roll the ball around, the triangle (the angles between point A, B and C do not change. 

This brings me to the point,  we consider North Pole the starting point, since angle from the US to Kabba can not be determined without an exterior reference point and we have used North pole, we could use any point anywhere in the universe. (I wonder why there ever was even a question, but I digress).

When the earth is tilted then everything on earth gets tilted thus the north pole tilts 22 degrees and everything else also gets tilted and the angle from the US to the Kabba stays the same, when we look at the globe, we are looking at an optical illusion that the Kabba has somehow shifted to the north by 22 degrees when it actually did not, we ignore the FACT that the triangle has remained the same. 

Instead of creating new problems where the problem does not exist, it will be better that we learn something from Islam and then practice it also. When it is said that " do not sell your faith for little value" the Koran admonishes the people against lying, cheating, bribery, or marrying ones sons and daughters for economic benefits or blaming the innocent for your crimes, or abusing your workers, but that is another topic  altogether. 

Do not address me as "brother" I shudder at the thought. 

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Thank you Mr Mandela

http://m.news24.com/news24/SouthAfrica/News/Thank-you-for-the-gift-of-Madiba-20131206

The last century gave us many great leaders, as always and all through the history,  it also gave us really bad ones. There were some that fought for human rights and freedoms, some that wished to oppress humanity for their purposes and some that stood by and watched, only for their own selfish economic ( not to say racist too) interests. Where we go from here? At least Three "terrorists" won the Nobel peace prize in the 20th century. 

Economic oppression of the masses continues. And it is not the other races anymore. Thanks to globalization economic oppression is worldwide with " no nation left behind".  The bankers and the IMF cheer the austerity in the EU countries, in the thirties 25% unemployment was the "Great Depression",  South African blacks rose up against the whites for similar economic injustices. Today the masses in Europe in the Americas, in China and Russia and in Asia are being economically enslaved and their countries economically raped and there are no Mandelas, no Kings and no Gandhis. All we have is the likes of Reagan, Thatcher and Putin, it does not bode well for the future of humanity. While the masses are asleep at their ipads and cell phones the real dangers to the humanity are ignored. 

There are no great voices to warn us of unimpeded " progress", technological or economical,  there are dangers in both. World needs a leader that understands the consequences of our folly.

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Careless Whispers

Careless Whispers

In the dark corners of my mind

Where you were the light once shone

In the dark corners of my life

There you were, a hope once born

Storms of life have come and gone

Feelings get lost, when the feeling's withdrawn

Pretend again, when nothing's there

We fear to walk, where we used to dare

Lies fill the gap

In what we used to feel

We search for love

That we used to steal

No longer welcome, where we used to live

Eyes misty, we didn't forgive 

(M.N.R.)

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Answers???

Answers???

Life gives  you choices

Go ahead, worse or bad

Whatever the future holds

Happy or sad

You seek answers, 

Don't know what to ask

When it is all up to you

You are not up to the task

You don't  like dreaming

But you dream big

Want to row boat of this life here

All you bring is a twig

Love, it is all you have

Love, doesn't mean a thing

Love's bite, it is deadly

Love takes out the sting

What you want to know

And you have always known it all

When it is time to face the music

On your face you fall

(M.N.R.)

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84

Corrections and suggestions only please!

84

Those days when you feel good
About feeling bad
Life can't always be happy
Some days you are happy,
just for being sad
Life it is not always,
about just having it all
You must climb higher and higher
Even just for that great fall
It is eighty four tonight on my mind
And not for the reasons you think
What good life in a bed of roses,
when those roses stink.
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Fwd: WhatsApp video

Get WhatsApp for your iPhone, Android, Nokia, BlackBerry or Windows Phone today: http://www.whatsapp.com/download/

Heroic President Obama Responds to Rep. Pete Sessions' Ugly Insult with Dignity and Grace

http://www.politicususa.com/2013/10/24/heroic-president-obama-responds-rep-pete-sessions-ugly-insult-dignity-grace.html


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CNBC.com Article: Wealthy could lose big if Fed stops money flow

Like I ve been saying the deficits make the rich richer

CNBC.com Article: Wealthy could lose big if Fed stops money flow

While the wealthy don't show any signs of worrying about the effects of tighter money, they should be, according to economist Marc Faber.

Full Story:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101128969

------------------------------------------------
Download the CNBC iPhone app from the App Store for Free and get Streaming Real-Time quotes, breaking news and the latest videos from CNBC.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cnbc/id334125582

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The Great Malala Saga

A few days ago I had posted a link here

https://www.facebook.com/woodrow.guthrie/posts/609617105746273

A post about a new theory about Malala. A friend had asked me for a comment,  and I posted the story here for others to comment. I explained what I thought of the story but not too clearly, here are my comments.

Not everything in my life happens only to please my sensibilities. I have made many easy and simple choices because it is difficult to have peace of mind otherwise.

Man is supposed be valiant, honorable even, yet history is full of examples where people bowed to the powers that be, some mere humans became god like, even Gods, and men accepted, the lords and the masters raped their wives and daughters and "men" knelt before them, took their word as the word of "god".

Not all stories are true, not all fiction is just that, mere fiction. 

I know it is hard to judge what I am saying, it is on purpose, I want you think. Is it not what this page is about?

This story comes on the heels of the rejection of Malala for the Nobel Peace prize, could it be that "they" did not want everyone digging deeper in to the story? But forget that.

Think. Years ago I learnt," life is a game of connect the dots, if you don't connect all the dots, and in the right order, you will never get the picture.

I lived in Mardan, at the gates of Afghanistan and Swat valley, from July 1965 to January 1967. I was 13, I could walk around town with a rifle, sit in a tea shop till 1 a.m., smoke hashish, ( if I wanted to), the whore house was  across the Hotie river. It was free area, no Taliban there. Hindus lived there so did some Christians. So what happened.

After the Soviet invasion, we the US and GB created the Taliban, yes we did, with support of the oil money, they being afraid that a Soviet win will endanger their fiefdoms. We could spend a time here arguing the reasons why we created the Taliban, but all that is important in this story is that we did and so we are a party to the mess they create. 

How many kids have been killed, no names, no mourning, no holidays and no visits with Obama in the Oval office. And not just by the Taliban either, right? 

Malala is a great kid, I wish her the best, the same as I would do for my daughters. Malala is also a pawn in the propaganda wars between the Taliban and the West, what story is true? Who knows, we are used to believing only that what pleases us, if not then it just a conspiracy theory. 

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The Hoax of a Government Shutdown

So you impressed that your favorite Republican politician is threatening to shutdown the government to repeal Obamacare, or may be you are frightened that a shut down will cause the poor to starve or even die, hopeless mother will be throwing their kids out of the windows or may be they will be jumping in front of trains not able to feed their kids.

You are sad or proud that millions will lose their jobs or the government workers will not get paid, Air force will park their planes, and the NSA will not listen to you having phone sex with that other, ( they like that you know). 

Relax, in the US a government shut down is nothing more than a method of grand standing, in other words a whole lot of bull shit. 

Anyone really think that the crock of shit we call government dies anything real for the public beside borrowing money to stick it to the public and enrich the uber rich that own the government and keep the politicians on a dog leash,  a very short dog leash. 

The idea of a government shut down actually means that no one shows up for work and no one actually gets paid, government employees and the contractors and the president and congress do not get a paycheck for the days that the government is closed. That is not going to happen so I call it a bullshit. 

For forty years we have been told about budget cuts by both parties but every year we are deeper in debt, ever wonder how? 

Every time politicians talk about cutting jobs (military or civil service) the jobs are not actually cut they only transferred to some corporation of some buddy of a politician or a defense giant wit lobbyist that buys off you congress person, may they hire ones cousin or nephew or son in law or in many cases just hire the congress person as a consultant or lobbyist. So much for honesty, so think that contractor  will not perform "work" or get paid for the days the government shuts down. 

How do I know? In the great American tradition of survivorship, I am a fellow survivor, from 1976 to 2004, I survived many a shut down, the stars did not fall out of the sky and the earth did not even shake or stop spinning. 

So what will the government shut down do or prove, not a goddamn thing, whether you be a Republican or Democrat don't be impressed by the hot air coming from Washington, more shit will follow it. 

https://www.facebook.com/BetamaxColo/posts/688674181144696

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What US Could Learn

What America (US) Could Learn From Islam 

Soon we will be bombing Syria, it just the matter of when and how much. And why not, there are Islamic countries that are will to pay us the expense, so fighting for freedom is a great business these days. Go and kill some people that may not like you,  may not be your friends, may not even care that you exist,  but the pay is good and it is good business, killing people for money while you are doing good and creating more business for future. 

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2013-09-03/chemical-weapons-hoax?fb_action_ids=10202030004817625&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%5B170560213129883%5D&action_type_map=%5B%22og.likes%22%5D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D

But regardless. Going into Syria, for whatever purpose, and ulterior motives we know two things we must have learned from Iraq and Afghanistan and also from Egypt now, we are not going to stop any bloodshed only increase it, and two we are not going in to promote democracy in the Middle East no matter what BS we spew from our various orifices. 

So whatever the Nobel prize winner Obama and the antiwar Kerry are saying is lies, lies and lies. When did we become humanitarians and anti chemical weapons when we use phosphorous bombs and depleted uranium armaments? Is all about that the powerful make the rules?   Pathetic really is this grandstanding by the US on the dead bodies of the Syrians.

Muslims are fools we know, but the basis of this and all the other on going conflicts is not in Islam per se, but in the simple fact and standards of human history. First, that the powerful and the rich will never have enough power and the riches. We can see it right here at home, our presidents have become no less dictatorial, and power mad than any other two bit president or potentate of a third world country. And as more power and money is concentrated in the hands of a fee the the power their thirst for power increases. We can see it right here at the street level too when local cops kill the innocent without consequences., the grand juries and the juries afraid to convict, it is not unlike any other third world nation. Thats not all, we saw it in Bush and Cheney and we see it now in the bluster of our congresspeople, Bohenor and Pelosi come to mind. Of course I could continue with pages if not books of such examples of corruption of power but you get the  idea.

So what if McCain is bored now, he has been pushing to bomb and kill somebody somewhere for so long that now as he sees his wish come true he is moving on, he is going to watch the bombing on a big screen TV though.

As will the Nobel prize laureate Mr Obama, like that king in the Mel Blanks movie History of the world "it 

Is great to be the king". http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23958312

I empathize with Obama,  even though I know those that start wars don't lose much sleep  over those being killed.

Borger: Obama's irony, McCain's agony

At a personal and philosophical level, I have nothing against death, every one has to die any way. I don't want any heroic efforts to save me, I don't to live in a coma, be a paraplegic or live for years with Parkinson's or Dementia. I know we will all die, my children will to, I am sure I could kill in a fight, in a war, may be even in cold blood too, we don't know till the time comes, it is Obama's time, it dies not bother me.

Far as the middle east is concerned they are killing each other, they will keep doing it, even though US has killed many more than Saddam ever did, the killing still continues even after we brought them peace and democracy, at least we say we did not stir up the shit pot.

And the Syrians will kill each other, after we go and kill some of them for their own benefit. I really don't care they like the rest of them will keep at it for a long while.

That brings me to a question, why we even want to go there? What if the stuff starts in other places in the Arab world, and it will, you know, we know that it will. Why did we stay out of Bahrain when the Sunni government was killing the Shia  population, and what will do by helping those in AlQaeda and the Taliban that want to kill us and our "friends", are we just trying to make more money by keeping the pot stirred up. 

But then, it is always about money, the point I want us to learn. Though we are technically broke, we are so deep in debt that we will never pay it off, and that is not even the problem.

The problem you see is this. As in the Arab lands today, as in throughout the history, it always comes out about money, and funny thing about money is that, "the meek shall inherit the earth". As we brag about our riches, as to how we have created more millionaires and all, we shall not 

Forget the lessons of history, the Bolshevik revolution, the French revolution, the Arab spring, the all got there start when the poor and the oppressed became tired of the abuse by the rich. The colonies revolted against the colonialists, same reason. Islam does not make people go crazy, it is just the rally point of the people tired being oppressed and abused by the governments and the leaders. Tired of the rich usurping the wealth and the resources of the nations and the lands and the countries. One can wish that they are different, one can hope that the people will stay asleep, yet to each brutality imposed upon the masses there is a day of reckoning. In Syria, the people got tired of Assad not because he is an Alawi, or that he is from a minority, the uprising came because of theft of riches by the cronies and the brutality of those in power, all nations take notice.

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The Truth About Egypt | World Affairs Journal

http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/michael-j-totten/truth-about-egypt


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Window Into Palestine: Israel’s booming secretive arms trade

http://windowintopalestine.blogspot.com/2013/08/israels-booming-secretive-arms-trade.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/LkRU+(Window+Into+Palestine)&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail&m=1


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How to Get Away With Murder

How To Do Lousy Police and Prosecutor Work To Let A Murderer Walk Away

First make sure the murderer is white and the "victim" is black

Do not argue that a man with a gun will never allow an unarmed person just walk away .

Do not argue about the angle of the shot, if fired from below the shot would have angled up and away from the heart

Do not talk about the blood droplets drying on the mans head as they would have actually washed off in pouring rain, it was NOT a massive injury and bleeding

Do not argue that " stand your ground" can not apply when you pursue the victim and initiate the confrontation

Get at least one " trophy wife" to be on jury that thinks ALL blacks live in a different world than her own, or one that comes from a different planet

Absolutely fail to mention that in real America if you block some body without authority you will get punched, or worse

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Death of a King's Dream

It was early 1979, we were eating lunch at the Ft.Rucker mess hall, all of sitting at a long table were AIT students. A Jewish friend sitting across from me says, " you know what is the biggest export of Pakistan, its people", everyone laughed, I did too, you know, " if the shoe fits", of course he didn't know why and how I had come to the states.

People generalize, we all do, some times it is called profiling, sometimes racial profiling.

Every time there is a terrorist incident, a large explosion, a bloody accident, I look at the news, hoping it is not a terrorist act, hoping it is not Muslims,, I am not a practicing Muslim, an Islamist, heck  I am not a believer in any religion but, yes I am racially profiling my own self.

I don't want my kids to visit their grand parents in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia because I know it will arouse fear and suspicion in the minds of people with too much time on their hands, such as the FBI and NSA.

I worked hard in my military career as well as I finished a four year degree in four years, at night school, as well as being the first military instructor to receive "Senior Instructor rating" in my division. Each time  I was promoted ahead of my peers, they said it was an equal opportunity promotion.

I raised my children telling them they will have to work three times as hard to be considered half as good, in 2013, it is still a white mans world, here in the south, it is only the white mans world.

I have no complains, i have been successful, I have a decent life, good kids. 

On the second anniversary of 9/11 the local church asked me yo speak at the memorial service in the park.

" I proud that you have asked me to speak here and honored, I am honored that you noticed I am different, that after 25 years of service in the Department of the Army, retiring a Master Sergeant, earning a Meritorious Service Medal among others, I should speak to you about how I felt on that day, when the country I made home was attacked, why? Why me? Because I am not  YOU, I am not LIKE you! Because my name is Mohammed, I am not 

Supposed feel like an "American"."

So what does it all have to do with the death King's dream,  everything really. We are judged by the color of our skin, we are also judged by our character, sometimes, when the people can first get past all the other generalizations. 

Open your eyes, we do not live in a color blind society. 

I am angry about the Zimmerman being found not guilty, I know Treyvon was racially profiled, I know that an armed man followed a person and confronted him for no reason at all and then after initiating a conflict he murdered that person, done, simple, guilty. But this is America, justice is not here, no fairness, and I can quote you case after case where justice was miscarried so badly that it can only be called an abortion of justice, but the six females have no guilt or shame, no remorse, Treyvon was black right, he was dangerous and criminal!

Get over it. When blacks today complain about travesty of justice they need to look, get beyond their Afro thinking, the slave and oppressed mind set, curb the criminal elements, and do something positive for themselves. I am tired of do gooders that are just too happy making excuses for bad behaviors and individual and group short comings. 

We must recognize that the humans are racists, may be a few will ask for exception but yes, humans ARE racists, America is a racist nation, Americans, black, white, hispanics, and the rest we are all racists. We can not change that, but we can help, just a white person with a lot of tattoos and piercings will have a hard time getting job, you will have a  time if the employer can't even spell your name, and that sag, no.

When we cry foul over the injustice in Florida, think how many blacks get away with murdering other blacks everyday, 

As a father of a fifteen year old son, I have no doubt that Zimmerman racially profiled Treyvon, and intentionally and willfully killed Treyvon, but how many black kids are killed each day  and no blacks will step up to provide evidence, if the blood of a black person is cheap you yourself have cheapened it.

Get beyond the psychobabble, beyond the comforting words of the preachers, and false promise of the self anointed gods of politics, do some thing real and positive. 

People can profile all they want, hell "Hampton Inns"  have an Indian kid in their ad, talk about a stereotype, you don't have to try to fit that profile. When I see a Muslim with long beard and high ankle pants, I puke. 

Remember no matter how many white girls Kanye fuck or knocks up, no matter how many white girls blacks have, we are still racists and blacks have to live down some stereotypes and nit live up to them. Get educated, work hard, don't make babies, love and raise your kids. That is for starters. Get off welfare, clean up your neighborhoods, many years ago, like forty, I moved out of dorm for Pakistani and Indian students because it smelled like Indian cooking.

We are racists and we will always be racists, what can you do to help yourself and improve your lot.

Don't cry foul over Zimmerman. That is just in one in ten thousand blacks that will be murdered this year, by other blacks and the police, look around are you guilty, are you helping to bring it on yourself and your kids? 

Many years ago,and  in many of my writings, I have exposed the role  of the society, the law, the politicians, the media, and the helping professions and the justice system to keep the down trodden low, don't fall prey to these, you have to get up and fight, not by routing or beating your chest, but getting up off your knees and staring them in the face.

America's Hypocrisy Problem

The title should be "America's hypocrisy problem".

How is it that we blame China and Russia and the rest fir human rights abuses and spying on their people, when not only we have deals with both and we borrow money from China while turning our back on their human rights problems. 

And all that while standing in the great bastion of freedom " the middle east and may I dare say Israel?

How about our own human rights abuses? Do we not see, everyday, the evidence of police brutality, the mess that our jails and the court system is? How about the supreme court knocking down the voting rights act, have we no shame.

May I remind you of our treatment if Bradley Manning, Aafia Siddiqui and the Guantanamo?

Yes the other countries spy on their populations, they lack freedom of the press, lack human rights, so what makes us any different, what makes us superior? 

We accuse China and Russia and Ecuador of helping an " anti state criminal",  may be someone should also explain how the Chinese dissident Chen  Guangcheng end 

up in the US embassy, smells awful fishy too.

May be if we forget Judith Miller and Lynne Stewart, but then how can Kerry ever forget, " don't tase me bro",  oh yeah, Americans have a short and selective memory only.

http://atimes.com/atimes/World/WOR-01-280613.html

Of Snake Handlers

Of Snake Handlers

O. K. So call me dumb. For the past two years and more, I have complained that Assad is being set up, by the US, Israel and the Gulf States, this just more proof. 

What is in it for the US? We know that the "Al Qaeda",( if such an entity truly exists) , has two main goals, 1/ the destruction of the US and Israel, and 2/ the destruction of the lordships of the Gulf monarchies to establish an Islamic Caliphate. So what the hell are we doing supporting the same Islamist bastards for a temporary gain. 

If there is anything we should have learnt from out recent history, from our loss of credibility in the world, from us losing our ass in Iraq, from our failure, after 12 years in Afghanistan, from our shameful loss of face, from our own shameless lies about BenGhazi, oh it was consulate, oh it was an embassy, it was neither, and now we ARE making deals with the "terrorists" in Qatar.

No one can accuse the US of hypocrisy, it takes brains and clear thinking to be a hypocrite without being caught, so US is just a plain old liar, without guilt, shame or remorse, or may be just may be our our leaders are so dumb and clueless, or so pig headed they can not see the light. 

Like snakes, stabbing at anything that moves, failing and missing but attacking everything, all are enemies, everyone is our enemy, especially all freedom loving Americans are the enemies of the United States.

But going back to the support of the "freedom fighters" in Syria, have we not been down that road before? Did we not invent the "Taliban" and the "Al Qaeda" to fight the Soviets? 

What did that get us? 9/11 and a never ending war on terror. Today again, they are our eternal enemies, 

bent on our destruction, they are our "new best friends", like a dildo,

I assume. 

Once again, most of the US citizenry is asleep at the wheel of the democracy wagon, a rickety wagon it is indeed, too busy being entertained to care,  too busy paying credit card bills to make a living too, busy thumping our chest and saluting the flag of a free country that no longer exists, how about THAT uncle Si.

What did we learn from Bradley Manning? From Edward Snowdon? There are no secrets in the world today, our CIA renditions were exposed too!

There is lesson we could learn here, from the old colonial powers, or just may be the " snake handlers" of Tennessee, snake handlers often get snake bit.

http://nsnbc.me/2013/06/22/qatar-military-officers-supplied-chemical-weapons-to-syria-insurgents-turkey-was-informed/

YOU LIE!

04/17/2013


 YOU LIE!

So the president comes out on a beautiful afternoon, in the beautiful rose garden of the White House to promote and push the latest, among many, lies created by the media for the sole purpose of placating the politicians to disarm the American public.

I try to listen, I always try to listen to the politicians intently so I can spot the lies as they are so frequently uttered. And I sat shaking my head, feeling like the Rep. Joe Wilson, who famously said, "You Lie", a single short phrase that actually sums up all the utterances of all the politicians in just two words, YOU LIE!

What is this about gun control, about ban on assault weapons, about the size of the magazines, and than lastly about back gound checks to include metal illnesses.


LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE

REVELATIONS

04/17/2013

 REVELATIONS

It is strange, just dawned on me how we are changed, so completely and not always for the better, how we allow ourselves to be molded in to things, persons that we did not chose to become, yet we convert, automatically, almost mechanically and without consent or protest, we accept!

No, I have not lost my mind, yet! This is not off the wall, it is my observation of human behavior in the current times.  In my sixty plus years, I have seen many changes, and have gone through many changes also. Some may say then that I am getting old, my son says I AM too old, he is fifteen though. Growing up, I saw Marshall law, grew up under one despot than another, I saw people go crazy over little things, and off the wall slogans. People destroying all they had in the name of change, haven't I heard that somewhere else recently.

 http://tombstone001.blogspot.com/2011/07/list-of-things-in-common.html?showComment=1311138857491#c2203770123146233643

LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE

DOG AND PONY SHOW

04/15/2013

Dog and Pony Show   The continued charade that is the regulation of the financial industry continues with the key culprits left unchecked to act in their own interest. The latest farce comes from the STOCK ACT which was passed in 2012 to prohibit members of Congress and other government employees from trading on insider knowledge. The bill was passed with much fanfare and was well publicized to show how Congress is really acting in all of our “best interest.” Of course, it is downright laughable that until 2012 it was perfectly legal for Congress to trade on inside information. Well, on Friday the House passed a rush bill and eliminated a "key requirement of the insider trading law for most federal employees, passing legislation exempting these workers, including congressional staff, from a rule scheduled to take effect next week that mandated online posting of financial transactions." According to Zero Hedge: The reason why one will have to take Congress at its word that it is not breaking the law? Because apparently posting Congress' financial dealings online would be pose a "national risk" according to the National Academy of Public Administration.  Surely this explains why the bill was rushed and voted in the matter of hours: one can't have a debate over matters of "national security" especially if the financial well-being of Congress is at risk. As Washington Times recaps, "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, introduced the bill on Thursday and had the chamber vote on it late that evening. The House took the bill up on Friday afternoon and passed it by unanimous consent, with no members objecting. Republican leaders did not give lawmakers the traditional three days to read the bill before holding a vote. One GOP aide told The Washington Times the three-day rule did not apply to Friday’s action because the bill came from the Senate, while another said the House moved quickly because of a Monday deadline for the new disclosure mandates to take effect."  In other words, while the STOCK Act passed nearly unanimously in 2012 just to show how "honest" congress is, the follow up legislation that effectively undoes the key reporting requirement of said anti-inside trading law passed just as unanimously, allowing congress to have its shady dealings cake, and eat its non-inside trading reputation too.  More back door dealings, more secrecy, more of the public getting screwed by the insiders in the game. Trade well and follow the trend, not the perma-bull OR perma-bear “experts.”  Behold the age of infinite moral hazard! On April 2nd, 2009 CONgress forced FASB to suspend rule 157 in favor of deceitful accounting for the TBTF banking mafia. ---Larry Levin

LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE