Congratulations Barack Obama!!!

Barack Obama, the son of Barack H. Obama, Sr., a Luo from Nyang’oma Kogelo, Nyanza Province, Kenya, and Ann Dunham, from Wichita, Kansas has been elected the 44th President of the United States of America.

This is truly a special moment for folks like myself who trace their roots back to East Africa - and I’m sure the party in Kenya today will be the biggest and loudest of them all…

Thankfully, the great US of A has finally gotten around to electing an intelligent, sane, sensible, educated, and capable Commander in Chief…

Hopefully the barely literate goofball dubya will now have the time to perfect his ‘choking on pretzels’ trick since he will not be forced to pretend to be running a country anymore…goodbye bush dude, and good riddance to bad rubbish…the clown of the century…

Congratulations to John McCain as well for a battle graciously fought…

Congratulations to the Obama family and to the US on making an intelligent choice - hope is alive again…

- TRD

Sharing a wonderful article posted on www.sikhchic.com titled: “Neither a Shield, Nor a Sword” - reproduced with the kind permission of the author, T. Sher Singh (and with many thanks to Farz for finding and sharing the same with me)…

This is a very well articulated take on what we have reduced the concept of ‘selfless, voluntary service to others‘ to - and how, for the most part, we tend to ‘(mis)use’ the opportunities we get to serve others for our own selfish gain and to feed our greedy egos…

=== QUOTING FROM THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE BY T. SHER SINGH ===

[Note: I have highlighted, colored, and bolded parts of the article and have indented text here and there for emphasis - for the article in its original form, please CLICK HERE]

I have noticed that the concept of seva  -  loosely translated as “selfless, voluntary service“  -  is nowadays increasingly wielded as a weapon and less as what it is meant to be.

The other day, when a community volunteer was asked why she repeatedly failed to do what she had undertaken to do, why she hadn’t met her obligations fully or in a timely fashion, I was flabbergasted by the response I overheard:

“I do seva, bhenji“, she protested. “I’m not getting paid for this. I spend so many hours here, while I could easily be doing something else. I don’t have to listen to this nonsense: if you don’t want me here, say so, and I’m gone!“

It was a deft use of the very essence of seva. As a shield  -  a shield from criticism and from accountability.

On another occasion, I heard a fellow wield the word somewhat differently, but equally effectively.

He was addressing members of a community group.

“I’m the one who can run this organization and ensure that it stays alive. I’ve done seva for three years … day and night, and weekends too. And haven’t taken a single cent for my time. How can you even think that another person should come over and run it. Others will simply run it to the ground. And, you know, I’m not going to let you do this. I’m not going to let you turn all my seva into nought!“

I felt, as I watched him through this performance, that he was wielding his seva quite deftly… as a weapon. A sword, actually. The parry and thrust was working: you could see it in the wounded look in the eyes of the audience.

Is this what seva is all about?

Am I wrong in thinking that the moment you use seva … yes, USE it  … for any ulterior purpose, then it instantly ceases to be seva? If it loses its spiritual core, then all you’re left with is … a clumsy weapon.

The concept of seva, I feel, is simple and uncomplicated in Sikhi.

The very idea of seva begins with a metaphor: that of the milk-pot or vessel. Nanak says:

First, wash the vessel,
Next, disinfect it with incense.
Then, and only then, is it ready to receive the milk.
[GGS, M1, 728:1]

True. What good is the milk once it has been poured into a soiled receptacle? The dirt of the vessel taints everything that is poured into it.

The mind, like the vessel, first needs to be cleansed if one is to prepare it for things spiritual. Otherwise, all effort goes to waste. And this cleansing of the mind, the preparation, is done with the “soap” of humility.

So far, all of this is esoteric and philosophical. But Sikhi brings the exercise down to earth by guiding us how to do it while going about our day-to-day, ordinary lives. In seeking humility, there’s no need to blindly wade through religious tomes. No penances, no fasting, no retreats, no masochism of any kind. No feeding of priests, no pilgrimages, no renunciations, no onerous abstentions.

There’s a simple, direct and effective way: seva.    

No grandiose projects are necessary for this inner cleansing. We don’t have to build monuments, or light bonfires on top of mountains, or even go on far-flung crusades fighting for world peace.

Just serving the basic needs of those who are in need puts us on the right path. At home, with the neighbour, around the corner, in the community we live in … the concentric circles can get as wide or remain as narrow as the situation demands.

Feed the hungry, clothe the destitute, shelter the homeless.

Or even more simple: just wash the dishes at the langar, or serve food, or look after the shoes of those who come to worship.

Anonymity helps. Not wearing a t-shirt or bandana that proclaims SEVADAR, helps.

Doing it without fan-fare, without a shabash or pat on the back, is a definite plus. Doing things that others do not want to, or cannot do, is good. Sweeping the floor, or cleaning the washrooms are therefore bound to be the most rewarding.

One of the most moving sights I have seen in my life is something I witnessed a couple of years ago in Espanola, New Mexico. Singh Sahib Harbhajan Singh Yogi had shed his mortal coil and crowds from around the globe had arrived to celebrate his life. By the thousands. The logistics required to cater to the needs of these visitors from far and wide were stupendous.

And one of them was the need for a platoon of portable toilets which were, I’m sure, leased for the occasion. It would’ve been terribly easy to have also bought the services of a handful of workers who could’ve maintained the facilities and kept them clean at all times.

What touched me deep inside was the vision of our hosts who saw it as an unprecedented opportunity to do seva. Any time of the day or night, if you walked into the facilities, you saw a couple of the Sikhs from the Espanola sangat cleaning the toilets and water basins, or down on their hands and knees, cleaning the floor. It was arguably the cleanest spot within the endless acreage roped in for the events of the week.

And, you know, there was not a sign anywhere proclaiming, e.g., “Seva provided by the Sangat of …..”

Nothing. Not a word, not a peep.

That’s seva.

It’s for the sheer sake of seva. It has no other goal. Even the end result is not important. You don’t need a smile or a nod, a pat on the shoulder, or the gratitude of another to validate it. You simply do it, and you do it to the best of your ability, and nothing else matters.

You don’t go home and note it in your diary. Or tell your family and friends. Or have it published in a newsletter in the “Acknowledgment” section.

And you don’t wave it in the face if you are running for election the next time around.

Here’s what I’ve been taught and what I try to emulate …. though those who know me well could easily cite many a lapse:

Don’t let the right hand know what the left hand does …
It isn’t seva if it is for the purpose of getting a tax-deductible receipt.
It isn’t seva if your heart and soul aren’t in it.
It isn’t seva if it isn’t done with honesty and integrity.
It isn’t seva if you believe that mediocrity is all that is expected of you, and that you needn’t do more. 
It isn’t seva if it’s for building your resume.
It isn’t seva if it is meant to be a stepping stone to bigger and better things.
It isn’t seva if you need to tell others, now or later, that you did it.
It isn’t seva if lack of appreciation by others, or their criticism, drives you away.
It isn’t seva if you believe that it is your right to do it.
It isn’t seva if you have to fight against others to do it.
It isn’t seva if you snatch it away from another, to do it.
It isn’t seva if you begin to believe you’re the best one to do it.
And, it isn’t seva if it distresses you that others take credit for what you’ve done.

Not too long ago, I was blessed with an opportunity to visit the Durbar Sahib in Amritsar, after an absence of more than three decades. There were so many things that added to the joy of being there.

Not the least of it was the timeless sight at all hours of the day or night, literally  -  even in the cold and dark hours before dawn  - of men, women and children behind the counter, tending to the shoes of pilgrims.

Quiet faces, moving in the shadows. Ever-so-slight, barely discernible quivering of the lips, silently accompanying the kirtan playing from the speakers around them. No small-talk. No name-tags. No meeting of the eyes, no searching for acquaintances. Just simple, purposeful, swift, efficient movements … the queues were long.

There’s always a hush around the shoe-stalls outside the main entrance, I’ve noticed. The only words you hear are “satnam, satnam…” and “waheguru, waheguru…” And a lot of “ji…ji…jee-o…ji …”

I don’t know how they do it. But I see them taking each pair of foot-wear as if it is a house-warming gift. Lovingly, gently, softly … if you glance back for a split-second, as you turn away, you may even catch one in the shadows wiping the dirt off your shoes as they are placed on the shelves.

I tell you, it is there, standing on the cold wet marble, looking at this scene, that I experienced the first communion with what I had come searching for, after all these years, at the doors of the Harmander.

It is the epitome of seva.

And, it is most magical when  -  and I borrow from the English Bard  -  it “is not strain’d“…

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath.
It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.

May we all, each one of us, be blessed with this gift.

=== END OF ARTICLE BY T. SHER SINGH ===

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others”
[Mohandas K. (Mahatma) Gandhi]

“Only those who have learned the power of sincere and selfless contribution experience life’s deepest joy: true fulfillment…”
[Anthony Robbins]

- TRD

Sharing an interesting on-going e-mail discussion thread – feel free to participate and share your thoughts…

PS: the video referenced in my comments below can be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYpZmvBlA6E

======= MY COMMENTS =======

From: Rahim [mailto:<undisclosed>]
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2008 15:08
To: ‘<undisclosed>’
Subject: RE: A MUST SEE

I’ve seen this video – I’m a little skeptical about this dude, hence a bit biased about his approach to the issue – not sure if you know anything about him – this Wikipedia article about him is mostly accurate: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hal_Turner

I know about the [on going chatter about the] North American Union and the inevitable coming of the ‘amero’ – much of what he talks about is accurate (though I can’t verify if indeed all those ameros were shipped to China – I wouldn’t be shocked or surprised – but I’m not going to add to the speculation and rumors)…watch the documentary Zeitgeist (www.zeitgeistmovie.com) for a brief overview of North America’s ‘covert’ aspirations of establishing a union like the European one – complete with the amero (like the euro) as the ‘new’ currency…that information is mostly accurate – many credible resources are available to verify the same…[…addendum to original comment: at the same time, there are an equal number of credible resources refuting any ‘work in progress‘ by any government towards the ‘North American Union‘ ideology…]

This push is primarily from the ‘right wing’ (conservative) manipulators – though I don’t think that the ‘liberals’ of North America will have much of a choice in the bigger picture but to adopt something like this given the current global economic scenario…

I don’t agree with the fear-mongering though (where he recommends people scramble to buy bullion (gold/silver) and move massive amounts of cash to foreign banks); there will be fallout from this (if the US declares force majeure), no doubt – some will hurt more than others – but the call for panic is inappropriate…

Sadly, this nonsense that we have created for ourselves has to come to an end – and sadly, mostly the common folk (you and I) will feel the bulk of the pain – the people with ‘connections’ will have secured their interests long before this hits the streets – this has happened in Europe already (with the creation of the EU and the euro); and there have been some very big winners and some very big losers too…but I’d only be a little concerned if I had millions of the greenback in cash lying around, not otherwise – and if I did have that kind of cash in my kitty, I’m confident that I will have enough advance ‘notice’ and ‘help’ from ‘high up there’ and will not feel a thing – not one hiccup in my existence…

Of course, the real impact after this happens (if it does) is not something we can forecast – so we will lose our pension contributions, retirement savings etc. and the loss may actually be much bigger than we could ever imagine – especially if we embark on a period of civil unrest and/or other events (natural or man-made) following this event – this is going to be a very fragile period for everyone – unfortunately, though, something like this is inevitable…and panic is the last thing anyone should do…

Blessed are those, at this time, who have nothing to lose…then again, for all we know, this amero scare could be a hoax…

I’m planning on sleeping well through this crisis – amero or no amero, we’ll survive…it’s not going to be all that bad – we’ll just have to strive to remain informed, aware, united, prudent, and forgiving if we are to weather this storm gracefully…those who will suffer the most will be those who choose to remain ignorant and in denial about the realities of today…

Again, if anyone chooses to stockpile any precious stuff or move huge amounts of cash around – I’d simply recommend they consult a financial expert before doing anything – they must be well educated on what the consequences of their actions would be in the short, medium, and long term – and they must be absolutely certain that they know exactly what it is that they are doing…no one should do anything out of fear or panic…

regards,

Rahim

======= THE ORIGINAL MESSAGE IN THE THREAD =======

From: <undisclosed> [mailto:<undisclosed>]
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2008 13:22
Subject: A MUST SEE

you may want to watch this. any comments?

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1954933468700958565&hl=es

======= END EMAIL THREAD =======

Comments anyone???

- TRD

Okay folks - let’s try and put this to bed…

Stop confusing yourselves with all your home-brewed theories - here’s a high dose of harsh reality - and this is probably my longest rant ever; but worth every line…

First a lesson in general knowledge with a little bit of history:

How do empires operate?

…A nation operates courtesy of the taxation of its own citizens - an empire operates courtesy of the taxation of other nations…

The Greeks, Romans, Ottomans, and British have all historically proven that the ‘power‘ of an empire comes from its taxation of other nations…that’s how they financed (and grew) their military and that’s how they developed their own homeland - by sucking the life out of the nations that were ‘subservient‘ to them - and using the same ‘taxation‘ to build the ‘power‘ required to keep dominating these ‘subject‘ nations…

Empires have historically sucked whatever they could get their hands on from their ‘subject‘ nations - gold, silver, crops, natural resources - even humans in the form of slaves and/or labor and/or knowledge and expertise and/or for military muscle - and by the time these ‘subject‘ nations realized what was happening, they were already at the mercy of their seemingly invincible ‘empire‘ nation and had no choice but to comply with the ‘taxation‘ demands of the empire - regardless of what sugar coating the corrupt puppet politicians of the day gave this taxation…

Early in the twentieth century, the great US of A stumbled upon the fantastic opportunity of positioning itself as ‘taxation-central‘ - setting up a system that would ensure the indefinite taxation of the entire world by itself - indirectly (through inflation) - and here’s how it happened:

Back in the day, most Governments had established their own currencies, or paper money - but were required, if requested, to redeem that paper for gold. This “convertibility” put an upper limit on the amount of paper currency governments could print in order to prevent inflation. This link between paper money and gold was a product of law as well as custom.

During the Second World War, the US had supplied its allies with provisions, demanding gold as payment, thus accumulating significant portions of the world’s gold reserves. By 1945, the US had accumulated 80 percent of the world’s gold, and 40 percent of the world’s production.

With the Great Depression of the 1920s, the great US of A had printed way more paper money (to deal with its own inflation and deficit woes) than it could possibly support by redeeming the paper it had printed for gold it held in its reserves…however, given the situation that most countries found themselves in following the payload of the world war et al, the ‘global’ agreement at Bretton Woods in 1945 saw the establishment of the US dollar as the ‘reserve’ currency of the world - since it ‘owned’ 80 percent of the gold on this planet and controlled 40 percent of its production; it was the only ’standing’ power and was dominating enough at the time (not yet the empire that it eventually became, but a power to reckon with nonetheless) to get away with the top prize…

…From Wikipedia…

After World War II, the international financial system was governed by a formal agreement, the Bretton Woods System. Under this system the US dollar was placed deliberately at the centre of the system, with the US government guaranteeing other central banks that they could sell their US dollar reserves at a fixed rate for gold if they so desired. European countries and Japan deliberately devalued their currencies against the dollar in order to boost exports and development.

A reserve currency (or anchor currency) is a currency which is held in significant quantities by many governments and institutions as part of their foreign exchange reserves. It also tends to be the international pricing currency for products traded on a global market, such as oil, gold, etc.

This permits the issuing country to purchase the commodities at a marginally cheaper rate than other nations, which must exchange their currency with each purchase and pay a transaction cost. (For major currencies, this transaction cost is negligible with respect to the price of the commodity.) It also permits the government issuing the currency to borrow money at a better rate, as there will always be a larger market for that currency than others.

…End of Wikipedia Article…

So basically everything seemed tickety-boo - at least those idiots at Bretton Woods thought that they had ‘saved‘ the planet from an economic crisis - even though the US of A was technically incapable of paying for the paper it printed for its own use with the gold it held, it was granted the position to guarantee the world that they could sell their US dollar reserves for a fixed rate as long as they adopted the greenback (US dollar) as the ‘reserve‘ currency of choice…

And these ‘subject‘ nations started stockpiling the greenback - because all business was transacted in US dollars…anything that any country needed to purchase, anywhere in the world, was priced and paid for in US dollars - and the great US of A happily printed and supplied the necessary paper required for these transactions by consuming from the world in massive quantities, and paying in ‘home-printed‘ US dollars…what a sweet deal…

Then some very goofy policy makers made their entrance in the 1960s - and the US economy raked up a humongous deficit - couple that with the ‘Vietnam‘ fiasco; and the US of A found itself printing way too much paper - and spending much more money in the global marketplace than its gold reserves would ever allow it to pay back…before Vietnam, the US gold reserves were tagged at US $ 30 billion - in the Vietnam war alone, the great US of A had spent $ 500 billion of its dollars in the market…

Europe, and especially Japan, at this time were stable and were well on the road to recovery from their world war losses - their economies were getting stronger by the day - and many foreign central banking institutions started contemplating withdrawing their support for the slipping greenback in favor of the strength that some of these new economies possessed…

In 1970-1971, these foreign central banks demanded the ‘conversion‘ of the US dollars they held in reserve back to gold as ‘promised‘ in 1945 at Bretton Woods…

The US Government of the day, in typical US fashion, defaulted and told the foreigners to go suck their thumbs in a corner - there ain’t no gold y’all getting from us cowboys you suckers…

There was a great story that was spun in the US of A about how they had chosen to ‘severe the link between the dollar and gold‘ - in reality though, this was an act of bankruptcy by the US Government - sadly, by then, the great US of A had extracted a ridiculously enormous amount of economic goods and services from the rest of the world for many years, and had now officially declared its intention of never wanting to pay for any of it with the gold it was squatting on - and even if it did want to pay it back, there wasn’t enough of that shiny metal to even pay back a small portion of what it had consumed - and since it had consumed everything that the suckers had supplied them with, there was nothing of any significant value that could possibly be ‘returned‘ either - the world was taxed by the newest empire on the planet and the world was powerless in response - all they had was tons of paper with, ironically, ‘In God We Trust‘ printed on its face…

To ensure that all the hard work that had gone into printing all the greenback over the years was not wasted, given its newly established image of being the biggest crook on this planet, the great US of A quickly got into bed with the House of Saud (1972-1974) and hammered a bullet-proof, rock-solid deal with the Saudi rulers, offering them protection and continued powers over their people - in exchange for the Saudis to exclusively sell their oil for US dollars only - no other currency could buy Saudi oil…

Other OPEC nations had no choice but to follow suit - some leaders were bribed, some coaxed, some threatened, and some were even killed to prove the point - eventually all Arab oil (the largest source of oil in the world) could only be purchased in US dollars…

With the power of the industrial revolution - and its demands on energy (…primarily oil…) - what choice did the world have? Not much, really…

And so the empire continued its taxation of the world…

US foreign policy now dictated, amongst other things, that oil could never be allowed to be sold in any other denomination - and that meant ensuring that oil-rich countries around the world were never allowed to become strong, educated, stable, or efficient societies - politically or militarily - to be able to demand payment for oil in anything other than the US greenback…

Fast forward to the current era, and intelligent world economies (those not controlled by ‘puppet’ corrupt leadership propped by the US) have essentially been ‘dumping‘ the greenback slowly and progressively over the decades - trying to shake their nations out of the stranglehold without disrupting their own peoples’ growth and progress - data released by the U.S. Federal Reserve showed that between late July and early September 2007 (in a span of just two months), foreign central banks reduced their holdings of U.S. Treasury Bonds by $48 billion.

In March 2005, the Bank for International Settlements in Basle announced that Asian central and commercial banks held only 67 per cent of their deposits in dollars in September 2004, compared with 81 per cent three years earlier; Indian banks were down from 68 to 43 per cent, while Chinese dollar holdings were down from 83 to 68 per cent, with the euro and yen being the most popular alternatives.
[Economic Times, March 11, 2005]

…has anyone bothered thinking about why India and China are on the fast-forward track to inevitable greatness?…and it’s not the chemical contamination in Chinese candy; nor is it courtesy of the sweet Michelle, born Mayawati, at the other end of the line helping you with your stupid questions about that gadget you bought yourself for Christmas - by the way, try reading the manual to figure out where the damn on/off button is…it may save you the time and aggravation of being on hold with Mayawati, sorry Michelle, for 3 hours…I digress…Start thinking about it…think about how they have progressively been working on a plan of becoming less dependent on the greenback as the currency of choice for the goods and services they offer…

So the only ‘gold‘ that the US can have a ‘stranglehold‘ on to continue its taxation of the world is of the black, fluid type…and it has been an amazing battle - everything from alternative fuel sources to intelligent people have had to be eliminated - mass media, the proverbial voice of democracy, has had to be carefully manipulated and controlled - education systems and schools of thought have had to be ‘re-wired‘ - so that as much of the population out there that can be brainwashed and suckered into paying for the empire is doing so without resistance - and people, foolishly, have opted to gratify their own selfish ‘immediate‘ desires instead of standing up for common good, and forcing their policy makers to take a stand against this nonsense…

Welcome - The Axis of Evil

Enemy # 1: The Late Saddam Hussein

This dude, a great personal buddy of the Bush family at one time - and long time CIA beneficiary - reigned supreme for many decades - ruling with an iron fist and sucking his nation dry while building his own personal fortunes.

Buddy boy defiantly abused every human right documented and unleashed terror and atrocities on his people just to keep them subservient and under control…his psychopathic offspring and siblings joined in the party - and no one could touch them…

But that was all cool - after all he was selling his oil in US dollars - he had nothing to fear - if anyone as much as raised an eyebrow at him; his buddies in the CIA made sure that person never saw the next sunrise…

Then this guy overdosed on some Afghan poppy one fine day and came out demanding to be paid in Euros for his oil…

At first, the powerful and corrupt US policy manipulators thought their Arab half-brother was pulling some sort of a prank - the Iraqi rendition of an April Fool’s joke - they took it lightly for a bit - waiting for the poppy to be flushed out of his system - but when they realized that this dude had way too much poppy in his system and meant business; the rest is history…

Saddam was, essentially, supposed to be a lesson to the world - a lesson on whom never to disobey…

This was not primarily about controlling the oil fields in Iraq - of course, that’s a cool bonus - after all, those Iraqis are sitting on the second largest oil reserves on this planet - but not the primary objective - after all, the great US of A could simply just print more of its green paper and get all that oil for virtually nothing - why bother with the headache of running and maintaining oil fields?

As reported by the Scotland Sunday Herald (10/6/02):

“President Bush’s Cabinet agreed in April 2001 that `Iraq remains a destabilising influence to the flow of oil to international markets from the Middle East’ and because this is an unacceptable risk to the US `military intervention’ is necessary…

…Vice-president Dick Cheney, who chairs the White House Energy Policy Development Group, commissioned a report on `energy security’ from the Baker Institute for Public Policy, a think-tank set up by James Baker, the former US secretary of state under George Bush Sr.

…The report, Strategic Energy Policy Challenges For The 21st Century, concludes: `The United States remains a prisoner of its energy dilemma. Iraq remains a de-stabilising influence to … the flow of oil to international markets from the Middle East. Saddam Hussein has also demonstrated a willingness to threaten to use the oil weapon and to use his own export programme to manipulate oil markets. Therefore the US should conduct an immediate policy review toward Iraq including military, energy, economic and political/ diplomatic assessments. `The United States should then develop an integrated strategy with key allies in Europe and Asia, and with key countries in the Middle East, to restate goals with respect to Iraqi policy and to restore a cohesive coalition of key allies.’

…Baker who delivered the recommendations to Cheney, the former chief executive of Texas oil firm Halliburton, was advised by Kenneth Lay, the disgraced former chief executive of Enron, the US energy giant which went bankrupt after carrying out massive accountancy fraud…”

[The Sunday Herald did not mention that the report begins with references to “recent energy price spikes” and “electricity outages in California,” which we now know were engineered by Enron market manipulations for which two Enron energy traders have since pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges (Forbes, 2/5/03)]

Enemy # 2: Iran

Guess what happened here???

Ever hear of the Iranian Oil Bourse???

…From Wikipedia…

The Iranian Oil Bourse is a commodity exchange which opened on February 17, 2008. It was created by cooperation between Iranian ministries and other state and private institutions. The IOB is intended as an oil bourse for petroleum, petrochemicals and gas in various currencies, primarily the euro and Iranian rial and a basket of other major currencies. The geographical location is at the Persian Gulf island of Kish which is designated by Iran as a free trade zone.

During 2007, Iran asked its petroleum customers to pay in non-dollar currencies. By December 8, 2007, Iran reported to have converted all of its oil export payments to non-dollar currencies. The IOB was officially opened in a videoconference ceremony on February 17, 2008, despite last minute disruptions to the internet services to the gulf regions.

…End of Wikipedia Article…

Obviously, the Bush regime tried extremely hard to stop Iran from opening the IOB - labeling them as terrorists with a nuke bomb…and the spinning continues non-stop…whatever it takes to ensure that no one is encouraged to pay for oil in anything other than the greenback…

Chuckle if you will at the last sentence “…despite last minute disruptions to the internet services to the gulf regions…” - but this is the truth - these goons will stoop lower than low in their efforts to ensure that no one is allowed to sell oil in any other currency…

Note that the IOB was scheduled to be launched in 2006 - the Iranians have struggled to make it a reality 2 years later (can anyone guess why???) - and they are well aware of the potential consequences; but did it anyway…

Let’s wait and watch the wag the dog politics that will culminate in Iran somehow paying the price for messing with the great US dollar…it’s a little freaky though…

“…Several cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads were secretly flown across the U.S. in violation of all standard procedures on 29/30 August 2007, and several military personnel who might have known about the incident or been involved in it died under mysterious circumstances shortly before or after it, leading to speculation that the missing nukes incident was connected to U.S. war plans against Iran…”
[Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, ‘Missing Nukes: Treason of the Highest Order,’ Global Research, 29 October 2007]

“The Pentagon, acting under instructions from Vice President Dick Cheney’s office, has tasked the United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM) with drawing up a contingency plan to be employed in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States. The plan includes a large-scale air assault on Iran employing both conventional and tactical nuclear weapons. Within Iran there are more than 450 major strategic targets, including numerous suspected nuclear-weapons-program development sites. Many of the targets are hardened or are deep underground and could not be taken out by conventional weapons, hence the nuclear option. As in the case of Iraq, the response is not conditional on Iran actually being involved in the act of terrorism directed against the United States. Several senior Air Force officers involved in the planning are reportedly appalled at the implications of what they are doing—that Iran is being set up for an unprovoked nuclear attack—but no one is prepared to damage his career by posing any objections.”
[Philip Giraldi, an ex-CIA agent and associate of Vincent Cannistraro (the former head of the CIA’s counter-intelligence operations and former intelligence director at the National Security Council) - August 1, 2005]

…hmmm…now that I think about Iran’s internet woes at the launch of the IOB - every time I’ve bush-bashed in my rants; people have reported not being able to click through to the site for hours, and I’ve been bombarded with volumes of spam comments that take days to clean up - otherwise my blog site is pretty slick and maintenance free - in fact, come to think of it, enormous amounts of spam only hit my site following bush-bashing, otherwise there’s hardly any nonsense coming my way…I wonder if…nah…why would the CIA bother with a ranting nobody…but then again, I don’t pay for this site in US dollars…maybe…hmmm…

Enemy # 3: North Korea

Funny story here…

This country actually possesses ‘weapons of mass destruction‘ - and production continues in full swing at Yongbyon…it has openly declared its hostility towards the US and has proudly showcased the capacity to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of very easily making contact with US soil…

And in 2002, these dudes officially threw the US dollar into the trash bin and demanded to be paid in Euros for all the good stuff they have available for sale…they’re not all that hot from an economic standpoint, small fry relatively speaking, but how dare they???

So why not North Korea first???

Well, actually, these dudes are only threatening the existence of their neighboring puppet nations that buy and sell everything in US dollars…so until they actually carry out some of these threats; the US of A doesn’t really need to worry too much about them - except that the ‘international community‘ of idiots and goats need to be ‘scared‘ to a point that when the US does decide to go after these chumps; it has enough ‘allies‘ in the kitty frightened of being nuked out of existence who would senselessly and very obediently spend more US dollars on their military and join the great US of A in its noble crusade of protecting its green-stuff…

Besides, if all the countries in the Axis of Evil were oil-rich; some intelligent people would start thinking about the ‘real‘ reasons for this war on nonsense…and, obviously, the great politicians of the world wouldn’t want the entire planet to clue in on their scam now, would they?

While Bush (and now Palin) continue entertaining and distracting the world with their song and dance routines, people refuse to stop and think about what is really happening out there…

Venezuela, the world’s 4th largest oil resource, jumped on the Euro bandwagon and decided to hammer out barter deals with its allies for oil - ever since the US greenback lost its status as the ‘currency‘ of choice for Venezuelan oil; Hugo Chavez has been, essentially, painted by world media as the monster of South America - and he continues to fight the many US-backed attacks on his leadership and person (including the incredible 4 days in 2002 where he was removed from power thanks to the CIA, only to be re-instated by his loyal military in a counter-coup)…sad…even the average common-folk in Venezuela have been effectively brainwashed into believing that the enormous profits realized from their oil trading in other currencies are not in their best interests - they have been convinced that their future generations are best served by stockpiling worthless paper from the great US of A…

I call it worthless paper because it has no real value once you remove the hypocrisy and propaganda that keeps it in circulation - and when you do find out how worthless it really is, you can’t even resort to using it to wipe your behind - you risk developing a severe, possibly incurable, rash back there…

…Why do you think the leadership of Cuba is made to look like a monster freak-show??? Try buying Cuban goodies with US dollars…

The list goes on…

The Taliban were armed, trained, financed, and well taken care of by the CIA to resist the Soviets in Afghanistan - because there’s this massive oil pipeline that needed to be completed at the time linking the oil-rich Arab lands to an alternative, friendlier, less ‘police-able‘ route southwards towards the ocean…they had the power, control, reach, and ability to protect the ‘pipeline‘ dream…

Sadly, after the Russians left, instead of providing the US-led oil giants with the protection and security they needed for their pipeline; these ‘terror-mongers‘ decided to go rogue on their big brothers back in the US…

One potential solution: imagine a couple of aging planes somehow navigating their way into some well known landmark scaring the living daylights out of innocent civilians…so, a few million bucks worth of collateral damage…big deal - the insurance policies for the buildings can be upgraded not very long before the ‘day‘ it happens to include ‘acts of terror‘ as included perils - that clarification is absolutely required and must be penned into the paperwork before this happens…and of course, somehow, all the ‘gold‘ that is stored on site should also be systematically moved by its respective owners in bits and pieces long before the ‘day’ - the last thing we can afford to lose is shiny glittery gold - at the time of the event, there should be very little of value within the buildings - human life, unfortunately, does not make that list of ‘valuables‘ that need to be protected - if real people don’t feel the impact, how on earth would we get away with our war cries against an enemy that doesn’t really exist in the context that we want them to exist in so that people blindly, out of fear, comply and serve our hidden agenda without stopping to think about their actions…

Sure the Taliban were a pain in the neck - even for the Afghan people - but the truth about why Afghanistan, then Iraq, and now Iran is viewed as ‘evil‘ has nothing to do with the fanatical zealots who inhabit the middle east possessing Muslim names flying planes into landmarks…nothing whatsoever…it has much more to do with the fanatical zealots who inhabit every corner of this planet possessing all sorts of names (they are Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, and everything in between and beyond) cheating entire civilizations, regardless of religious pursuit or culture or color or creed or caste, out of their future…

…Wake up folks…

I have discovered some really interesting information in my research - maybe if you did some research yourselves, you might be able to help this world shake off the nonsense and start progressively building a truly ‘free‘ and ‘fair‘ planet earth for ALL its citizens - believe me, it will take a few hundred years (at maximum capacity) to get there - now is the time to start if we haven’t already:

“While still wrangling over how to overthrow Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, the Bush administration is already looking for other targets. President Bush has called for the ouster of Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat. Now some in the administration — and allies at D.C. think tanks — are eyeing Iran and even Saudi Arabia. As one senior British official put it: `Everyone wants to go to Baghdad. Real men want to go to Tehran.’”
[Gutman, Roy & Barry, John, “Beyond Baghdad: Expanding Target List: Washington looks at overhauling the Islamic and Arab world,” Newsweek, August 11, 2002]

“Uruguayan EP-FA congressman Jose Nayardi says he has information that far-reaching plan have been put into place by the CIA and other North American intelligence agencies to overthrow Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias within the next 72 hours. . . .

Nayardi says he has received copies of top-secret communications between the Bush administration in Washington and the government of Uruguay requesting the latter’s cooperation to support white collar executives and trade union activists to `break down levels of intransigence within the Chavez Frias administration.‘”
[“USA intelligence agencies revealed in plot to oust Venezuela’s President,” vheadline.com, December 12, 2002]

“Ever since 1971, when US president Richard Nixon took the dollar off the gold standard (at $35 per ounce) that had been agreed to at the Bretton Woods Conference at the end of World War II, the dollar has been a global monetary instrument that the United States, and only the United States, can produce by fiat. The dollar, now a fiat currency, is at a 16-year trade-weighted high despite record US current-account deficits and the status of the US as the leading debtor nation. The US national debt as of April 4 was $6.021 trillion against a gross domestic product (GDP) of $9 trillion.

World trade is now a game in which the US produces dollars and the rest of the world produces things that dollars can buy. The world’s interlinked economies no longer trade to capture a comparative advantage; they compete in exports to capture needed dollars to service dollar-denominated foreign debts and to accumulate dollar reserves to sustain the exchange value of their domestic currencies. To prevent speculative and manipulative attacks on their currencies, the world’s central banks must acquire and hold dollar reserves in corresponding amounts to their currencies in circulation. The higher the market pressure to devalue a particular currency, the more dollar reserves its central bank must hold. This creates a built-in support for a strong dollar that in turn forces the world’s central banks to acquire and hold more dollar reserves, making it stronger. This phenomenon is known as dollar hegemony, which is created by the geopolitically constructed peculiarity that critical commodities, most notably oil, are denominated in dollars. Everyone accepts dollars because dollars can buy oil. The recycling of petro-dollars is the price the US has extracted from oil-producing countries for US tolerance of the oil-exporting cartel since 1973.

By definition, dollar reserves must be invested in US assets, creating a capital-accounts surplus for the US economy. Even after a year of sharp correction, US stock valuation is still at a 25-year high and trading at a 56 percent premium compared with emerging markets.

…The US capital-account surplus in turn finances the US trade deficit. Moreover, any asset, regardless of location, that is denominated in dollars is a US asset in essence. When oil is denominated in dollars through US state action and the dollar is a fiat currency, the US essentially owns the world’s oil for free. And the more the US prints greenbacks, the higher the price of US assets will rise. Thus a strong-dollar policy gives the US a double win.”
[Liu, Henry C K, “US dollar hegemony has got to go,” Asia Times, April 11, 2002]

“...hopefully decent Americans will protest the notion that it is appropriate to rain missiles and bombs upon civilians of another country, who have had little or nothing to do with this (financial) crisis of America’s own making.”
[Scott, Dr. Peter Dale, “Bush Deep Reason’s for the War on Iraq: Oil, Petrodollars, and the OPEC Euro Question,” February 15, 2003]

And here’s a really interesting piece from Nazi history:

“It is the absolute right of the State to supervise the formation of public opinion.”

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”

“The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

[Dr. Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda, and one of Hitler’s most loyal accomplices, 1933-1945]

Now think about how the great US of A is behaving today…

See what’s happening??? Smell the Kahawa yet???

Stop buying the propaganda - and if you must, use some other currency to buy it…then see what happens…

- TRD

(…adapted from a witty lesson originally shared by my friend, Afsara…thanks! - adapted content appears in square brackets, the rest of the content is copied verbatim from the original source…)

Once upon a time in a place overrun with monkeys, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy [the] monkeys for $10 each.

The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10 and as supply started to diminish, they became harder to catch, so the villagers stopped their effort.

The man then announced that he would now pay $20 for each one. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. But soon the supply diminished even further and they were ever harder to catch, so people started going back to their farms and forgot about [the] monkey catching. The man increased his price to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so sparse that it was an effort to even see a monkey, much less catch one.

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys for $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy [the monkeys] on his behalf.

While the man was away the assistant told the villagers. “Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has bought [from you]. I will sell them to you at $35 each and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each.”

The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought all the monkeys [at $ 35 each].

They never saw the man nor his assistant again and once again there were monkeys everywhere.

Now you have a better understanding of how the stock market works [and how your beloved central banking/political goons fundamentally operate].

[…needless to say, the man re-appeared after few years of rest and relaxation and started buying the monkeys again from the villagers, this time at $ 7.50 each - thanks to the ridiculously weak memory of the idiot villagers, the man has successfully bought and sold the same ’stock’ of monkeys (no pun intended) from the same villagers since the early 1900s and has consistently made humungous profits each time - somehow, these villagers have yet to clue in on the scam…]

- TRD

Sharing an intelligent and thought provoking interview with Dhiyaa Al-Musawi - an intellectual and author from Baharain…

Thoughts, comments, feedback - always welcome…

- TRD

Sharing Campbell Brown’s commentary from Monday night:

This content is copied from the CNN.COM website (CLICK HERE for the original content)…

Also, you can watch Campbell’s commentary (CLICK HERE for the CNN Video of this commentary)…

===BEGIN CNN.COM CONTENT===

Campbell Brown anchors CNN’s “Campbell Brown: Election Center” at 8 p.m. ET Mondays through Fridays. She delivered this commentary during the “Cutting through the Bull” segment of Monday night’s broadcast.

NEW YORK (CNN) — You may find it hard to believe that this remains an issue in this campaign, but it does.

The candidates, both candidates, are still getting questions about Barack Obama’s ethnicity and religion. If you are even semi-informed, then by now you already know that of course, Barack Obama is an American.

Of course, Barack Obama is a Christian. Yet just a few days ago, there was a woman at a rally for John McCain incorrectly calling Obama an Arab:

Woman at rally: I don’t trust Obama. I have read about him and he’s an Arab.

Sen. John McCain: No ma’am, no ma’am. He’s a decent family man, citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues. That’s what this campaign is all about. He’s not, thank you.

Now, I commend Sen. McCain for correcting that woman, for setting the record straight. But I do have one question — so what if he was?

So what if Obama was Arab or Muslim? So what if John McCain was Arab or Muslim? Would it matter?

When did that become a disqualifier for higher office in our country? When did Arab and Muslim become dirty words? The equivalent of dishonorable or radical?

Whenever this gets raised, the implication is that there is something wrong with being an Arab-American or a Muslim. And the media is complicit here, too.

We’ve all been too quick to accept the idea that calling someone Muslim is a slur.

I feel like I am stating the obvious here, but apparently it needs to be said: There is a difference between radical Muslims who support jihad against America and Muslims who want to practice their religion freely and have normal lives like anyone else.

iReport.com: iReporter pleads with voters to ’stop the racism’

There are more than 1.2 million Arab-Americans and about 7 million Muslim-Americans, former Cabinet secretaries, members of Congress, successful business people, normal average Americans from all walks of life.

These are the people being maligned here, and we can only imagine how this conversation plays in the Muslim world. We can’t tolerate this ignorance — not in the media, not on the campaign trail.

Of course, he’s not an Arab. Of course, he’s not a Muslim. But honestly, it shouldn’t matter.

===END CNN.COM CONTENT===

Thank you! Campbell Brown, for your intelligent commentary…

- TRD

“There is only one cause of unhappiness: the false beliefs you have in your head, beliefs so widespread, so commonly held, that it never occurs to you to question them.”
- Anthony de Mello (1931-1987)

We insist on wasting our precious time (and lives) chasing after this thing called ‘happiness’ instead of simply choosing to be ‘happy’…

“People spend a lifetime searching for happiness; looking for peace. They chase idle dreams, addictions, religions, even other people, hoping to fill the emptiness that plagues them. The irony is the only place they ever needed to search was within.”
- Ramona Anderson (1887-1949)

Stop it! Stop the nonsense - Stop pursuing happiness, create it!!!…

Easier said than done, TRD…

Not true!

…easily done as well…here’s a very simple take on ‘being’ happy:

1. Believe in yourself: Get in touch with who you really are - don’t waste your life trying to be what others think you should be. Learn to identify with (and respect) your unique, exceptional and distinctive qualities - don’t blindly and thoughtlessly emulate that which ‘popular culture’ propaganda identifies as the ‘in’ thing. Know that being happy is a choice, choose it…

“If you observe a really happy man you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, growing double dahlias in his garden, or looking for dinosaur eggs in the Gobi desert.  He will not be searching for happiness as if it were a collar button that has rolled under the radiator…”
- W. Beran Wolfe (1900-1935)

2. Be open (and in harmony) with yourself - and think beyond your mundane, routine lip-service of an existence: Explore the unknown - don’t run away from something just because you’ve never done it before. Seek out people, places, ideas, and activities that resonate with your perception of happiness, peace, and tranquility. Life is one big exciting mystery that’s been patiently waiting for you to solve it - get on with it…

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
- Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi (1869-1948)

3. Live in the present: The past can’t be altered by sulking, the future can’t be conquered by worrying - the present is yours to experience, live it…

“Listen to the Exhortation of the Dawn!
Look to this Day!
For it is Life, the very Life of Life.
In its brief course lie all the
Verities and Realities of your Existence.
The Bliss of Growth,
The Glory of Action,
The Splendor of Beauty;
For Yesterday is but a Dream,
And To-morrow is only a Vision;
But To-day well lived makes
Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness,
And every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope.
Look well therefore to this Day!
Such is the Salutation of the Dawn!”
- Kalidasa (circa 300-470 AD)

4. Lighten up: To all my fellow rat-race runners out there - stop taking yourselves too seriously all the time…stressing about something is not going to make it better - nor is over analyzing it…

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference.”
- Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971)

“Never take life [too] seriously. Nobody [has been known to] get out of it alive anyways.”
- Author Unknown [adapted]

5. Smile: Like it or not, smiling has been empirically proven to have an immediate (and powerful) positive effect on your mood and emotions…a smile cannot create happiness, but it can (very rapidly and easily) lighten you up to a point where you start naturally ‘feeling’ better…try it!

“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.”
- Thich Nhat Hanh (1926-Present)

6. Accept reality: The good and the bad and everything in between are interdependent phenomena - stop kidding yourself and learn to accept them and seek to learn from (and grow with) them…it’s your life - the good, the bad, and the ugly - in totality, it’s simply amazing and wonderful!!! - experience it…

“What we call the secret of happiness is no more a secret than our willingness to choose life.”
- Leo Buscaglia (1924-1998)

7. Be grateful: The foundation of true happiness is contentment - be very thankful for what you have, and know that what you don’t have is also a blessing…be sincerely happy for others (and what they have) - and you’ll not feel the need to envy or to be jealous…contentment is bliss, practice it…

“We tend to forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.”
- Frederick Keonig (1774-1833)

“I cried because I had no shoes and then I met a man who had no feet.”
- Author Unknown

8. Be yourself: Just be yourself…when you stop ‘measuring’ your own worth against someone or something else, all that ‘discontentment’ in your life simply disappears - like magic!

Be brutally honest with yourself (no compromise there), align your goals and objectives with who you really are (not with who your parents or friends or significant others or your society or culture think you should be), and make that sensible choice of living your life as YOURSELF…that’s it…

“The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet.”
- James Openheim (1882-1932)

9. Develop HEALTHY relationships: Choose who you associate with wisely - don’t just choose to ‘go-with-the-flow’ or to ‘fit-in’ - there is no need for that…none whatsoever…be completely honest and sincere in ALL your relationships - and seek to develop every one of your relationships into meaningful, progressive, and mutually beneficial ones - anything less, and it’s not worth it…

“If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have a paradise in a few years.”
- Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)

10. Choose to GIVE more than you receive: Generosity is much more empowering than we imagine it to be - the essence of the form we exist within is, in all its glory, the epitome of beneficence - just contemplate on your own existence for a bit and you’ll see what I’m trying to illustrate (regardless of whether you believe to have been ‘created’ or whether you fancy yourself as having made a ‘big-fat-bang’ of an entry into the cosmos)…

I don’t know about you, but of all the ‘miserable’ people that I know on this planet, every one of them seem to manifest (at their core) the characteristics of selfishness, greed, and inconsideration - and of all the ‘happy’ folks that I hang out with, every one of them strives to be generous, sharing, and giving…that is the truth (about happiness) as I know it…

“Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.”
- (Prince Gautama Siddharta) Buddha (563-483 BC)

In conclusion, my dearest friends:

“The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase: if you pursue happiness you’ll never find it.”
- Charles Percy Snow (1905-1980)

- TRD

I’ve often been asked why it is that some help desk folks just seem to be so annoyed all the time…

Here’s a little video from the ‘early’ days of help desk that may help you understand why these poor souls are so frustrated all the time…

I should know…I blew many a gasket during my days working the EPS queue at Microsoft…at least we were blessed only having to deal with corporate (enterprise) IT departments…I knew a lady working the ‘consumer-support-curse’ who ended up requiring medical intervention (of the psychi-type) due to the amount of nonsense she had to put up with everyday (true story!)…

Many people call help desk only as a formality - they seem to ‘know’ everything about ‘everything’ - in fact, I’ve had to deal with everyone from that ‘expert’ arguing with me that he would rather have purchased the 50 dollar D-Link router like the one he got for his home that only required a simple ‘plugging-in’ exercise compared to the CISCO ISR that I had recommended for their ‘corporate’ network (currently managing, without a single hiccup, a Canada-wide network of systems that process about 250 million dollars in transactions annually) that took a couple of days to deploy - to that individual who insists on having me get him Bill Gates’ private number so that he can explain to uncle Gates why Microsoft is so ‘defective’ for not allowing his IT guys to ‘reverse-engineer’ their software to suit his ‘needs’ - which includes modifying the Microsoft Office and Microsoft Project user interface to make it more ‘user-friendly’ for his less than savvy, lazy users - needless to say, he wants that whole Gantt Chart nonsense removed from Microsoft Project altogether - he doesn’t understand why people insist on complicating their projects with junk like Gantt Charts (true story folks!)…and, of course, the fact that he needs to license that product per seat also doesn’t sit well with him…damn those defective people at Microsoft!

In my humble experience, 8 out of 10 ‘users’ out there consider themselves the ‘experts’ - throw in the commission-greedy salespeople selling all sorts of nonsensical, unrealistic dreams packaged as ‘ready-to-deploy’ technology, and you have the mess that we know as IT…

…it also doesn’t help when these very ‘experts’ purchase the technological equivalent of a Mini Cooper, hook on a hitch, and start towing a massive couple of hundred tonnes of weight in an environment that requires the machine to run 8-10 hours non-stop every day - then complain when their Mini fails to deliver and/or craps out on them…

…the folks at Mini designed the vehicle to help you transport, at the most, your 300 pound pet gorilla to the vet’s office and back - 20 minutes back and forth - period - you may even get away with letting your mother-in-law tag along for that trip without any dire consequences (to the vehicle, that is) - but that’s the limit - any more, and you’re asking for big trouble…

…it’s no different with the computer or the snow thrower or the lawn mower or the toaster oven - you purchase the device that is APPROPRIATE for the requirement - not the cheapest, or shiniest, or most advertised…just because Future Shop has that laptop advertised for under 500 dollars, doesn’t really mean it’s what you should be getting your entire salesforce who are guaranteed to be putting the machine through all sorts of stress during their 200 days of traveling a year - consult a ‘real’ expert before turning around and blaming the entire IT world for your woes…

Questions for everyone who considers themselves IT experts (sans the required credentials and training):

do you tell your mechanic how to adjust those brakes in your car?

do you argue with your doctor about the merit of one drug over another for your ailment?

do you ever dare give your significant other fashion advice even when you know they look horrible in the outfit they just splurged your entire month’s earnings on?

Then why do you give your IT help desk dude such a hard time?

To this day, I have to deal with this uneducated ‘expertise’ every single working moment…and it’s annoying…very annoying…

We have an acronym for this behavior (yes!, us IT folks have an acronym for everything - including the acronyms themselves) - and it is PEBKAC (pronounced, as written: PEBKAC)

“Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair“

Yes, mi amigos in denial - (The) Problem (Almost-Always) Exists Between Keyboard and Chair - look there every once in a while, and 80% of your technical issues will be resolved…

For all my friends working in tech support - this rant is for you!

- TRD

ADDENDUM to my earlier rant of Oct 01 (CLICK HERE for the original rant)

“…Earlier Wednesday, Ms. Palin had met with Jalal Talabani, the president of Iraq, and other Iraqi officials.

As the meeting began, Ms. Palin made small talk with Hiro Ibrahim Ahmed, the first lady of Iraq. “Plenty to do here, isn’t there?” Ms. Palin remarked, presumably about New York. “Plenty to see.”

With a bit of nationalist pride, or perhaps the irritation of a spouse not thrilled about being dragged along on a business trip, the first lady replied, “I have plenty to do at home, also.”

(From THIS New York Times Article)

Now there’s an intelligent response…witty madam, brilliant! - Hiro Ibrahim Ahmed, I’m a fan…

- TRD

I’m really amused (and equally annoyed), more and more each day, at how easily our ’beloved’ corrupt political pundits manipulate the thoughts and actions of the masses with just a wee-bit of ’spin’ and ‘wag’ here and there…

Harper’s ‘lifting’ of words from the Aussie PM’s (totally misguided and misinformed) speech on Iraq to make a case for Canada to participate in that vicious attack on (mostly innocent) civilians is the latest…(READ ABOUT IT HERE)…and regardless of who was picked by the conservative party’s ‘damage control’ spin-doctors to be the ‘fall’ guy for this humongous goof-up, Harper needs to grow up and take ownership for his mistakes…

Before I open my mouth anywhere, I make sure I know what I’m talking about - and if I do err, in judgment or otherwise, I’m the first to stand up and admit my faux pas (many times, before anyone even realizes that something is awry) - and I am a ‘nobody’ in comparison to the great PM of an even greater nation that the entire planet looks up to as an example of what a civilization should look like…

Stephen, dude: grow up and take OWNERSHIP for your words and actions (regardless of who wrote that nonsense for you, you OWN the whole nine yards contained in that message because you delivered it to Canada - either you’re really very stupid and did not bother validating the stuff that was prepared for you - or you knew exactly what you were saying and where it came from and are convinced that we are all so foolish that we’ll easily buy your ‘…I never knew…’ story)…

…and while you’re mulling over this, take a moment to think about fixing that really goofy, awkward, stiff, over-choreographed posture and body language as well - and your ’sudden’ school-reunion in the big smoke (where were you all these years? why the sudden yearning to hook up with your school chums?) - pretending to be ‘buddy-buddy’ with Toronto (and Ontario) a few critical weeks before the election - dude: we are an intelligent bunch up here, (regardless of what your stupid spin doctors are feeding you) and we can see right through the ‘façade‘ - just be real, focus on the important issues, and be honest and sincere to the Canadian people…oh wait - sorry, you’re a politician - that can’t happen - ignore what I just wrote, and carry on with your nonsense…

His best buddies down south are equally goofy - Sarah Palin, for example, makes huge headlines everywhere for a number of reasons…I can’t believe how many people have already been brainwashed into believing that she is the best thing to have happened to America since the (supposed) landing on the moon - rumor has it that the ‘hypocrite-in-denial’ Asif Ali Zardari couldn’t stop himself from flirting with her when they met about a week ago (READ MORE HERE)…has anyone taken a moment to reflect on who she really is and what she is capable of doing if given the power and authority (or if she is simply capable, period!)? Here are some gems of wisdom (or lack thereof) from the (potentially) next VP of the great US of A…

What does Ms. Palin know about the US of A’s great war in Iraq?:

“I’ve been so focused on state government, I haven’t really focused much on the war in Iraq. I heard on the news about the new deployments, and while I support our president, Condoleezza Rice and the administration, I want to know that we have an exit plan in place.”
[Alaska Business Monthly, 3/1/07]

Hmmm…so as long as Rice and her cohorts can pen together an exit plan of some sort, we have nothing to worry about…who cares about the repercussions of our actions both at home and abroad? who cares about the irreparable damage to Iraq’s civil, social, economic, and cultural infrastructure?? - and who cares about fixing the damage we’ve inflicted on humanity in our our selfish, greedy quest for ‘energy sources’??? (see below)…

At least she’s (unknowingly) alluding to what could possibly be the underlying truth here:

“We are a nation at war and in many [ways] the reasons for war are fights over energy sources…”
[BusinessWeek, 8/29/08]

This next one though, is a little scary…

…speaking at the Wasilla Assembly of God church in June, Palin said:

“…our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God.” She continues on, “…that’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God’s plan…”
[Huffington Post, 9/2/08]

…who are the fundamentalists now? isn’t this whole ‘war’ that you’ve waged (on humanity) supposedly a fight against certain ‘fundamentalist’ types who prey on the innocent claiming ‘God’ commissioned them to do so??? Basically, ‘God’ makes those dudes tick you off, then ’God’ turns around and asks you to respond in kind…one fundamentalist against another…interesting…very interesting…

When asked for her “take on global warming,” Palin replied:

“A changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location. I’m not one though who would attribute it to being man-made.”
[Newsmax, 08/29/08]

…and that’s exactly what we’ve all been saying for years…the environmental mess we have today is a result of a ridiculously lazy God, who has procrastinated for centuries on the required preventative maintenance on this planet to keep the environment in good shape - none of this damage is man-made - stupid Gore and his bandwagon of goofy green-wannabe pot-smoking hippies…oh wait, the pot-smoking is actually George Dubya’s forté - never mind that last line…we’ll cover it in black ink like we do to 75% of the content in declassified documents under the guise of protecting ‘national security’…the idiots reading this rant will not know any different…

Oh - here’s the most intelligent bit of them all…

Palin asked that people ‘pray‘ for a $30 billion national gas pipeline project that she wanted built in Alaska.

She said: “I think God’s will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that” (CLICK HERE for more on this)…

…let’s all join in prayer to save ourselves from the stupidity that we know as contemporary politics; and while we’re at it, let’s pray for the next $ 30 million lotto-649 jackpot because I think God’s will has to be done in unifying people to be able to get everything they desire for nothing - so pray for that…

Either these morons get some sort of a sadistic high from insulting our intelligence, or we’re really a very stupid bunch, and they’re just taking advantage of the fact - because when I look around me, all I see is more and more people lining up the streets cheering, supporting, and clapping for these morons every time they open their mouths and dish out all this nonsense - instead of challenging them and demanding merit and accountability from them…

And heavens forbid if old-man McCain were to kick the bucket while in office (may he be blessed with a long, healthy life - but anything’s possible - especially when you’re carrying such a heavy baggage of so many medical issues) and Ms. Palin were to assume the role of commander-in-chief…

…let’s pray folks - get on with that chanting already - and pray real hard…

ADDENDUM (Oct 04):

“…Earlier Wednesday, Ms. Palin had met with Jalal Talabani, the president of Iraq, and other Iraqi officials.

As the meeting began, Ms. Palin made small talk with Hiro Ibrahim Ahmed, the first lady of Iraq. “Plenty to do here, isn’t there?” Ms. Palin remarked, presumably about New York. “Plenty to see.”

With a bit of nationalist pride, or perhaps the irritation of a spouse not thrilled about being dragged along on a business trip, the first lady replied, “I have plenty to do at home, also.”

(From THIS New York Times Article)

- TRD