My friend Kate's blog: Stating the Obvious

FIONA APPLE LYRICS"Better Version Of Me"The nickel droppedWhen I was onMy way beyondThe rubiconWhat did I doAnd the games that I can handleNone are ones worth the candleWhat should I doI'm a frightened, fickle personFighting, cryin', kickin', cursin'What can I doOooh, after all the folderol,And hauling over coalsWhat will I doCan't take a good day without a bad oneDon't feel just to smile until I've had oneWhere did I learnI make a fuss about a little thingThe rhyme is losing to the riddlingWhere's the turnI don't want a home, I'd ruin thatHome is where my habits have a habitatWhy give it a turnStopsWhat did I learnI am likely to miss the main eventIf I stop to cry and complain againSo I will keep a deliberate paceLet the damned breeze dry my faceOoooh mister wait until you seeWhat I'm gonna beI've got a plan, a demand and it just beganAnd if you're right, you'll agreeHere's coming a better version of meHere it comes a better version of meHere it comes a better version of me

Subject: Zen Wisdom


1. Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for
I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either. Just pretty much leave me the hell alone.

2. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a broken fan belt and leaky
tire.

3. It's always darkest before dawn. So if you're going to steal your
neighbor's newspaper, that's the time to do it.

4. Don't be irreplaceable. If you can't be replaced, you can't be
promoted.

5. Always remember that you're unique. Just like everyone else.

6. Never test the depth of the water with both feet.

7. If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of car
payments.

8. Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes.
That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their
shoes.

9. If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.

10. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish,
and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

11. If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was
probably worth it.

12. If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.

13. Some days you're the bug; some days you're the windshield.

14. Everyone seems normal until you get to know them.

15. The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it
back in your pocket.

16. A closed mouth gathers no foot.

17. Duct tape is like 'The Force'. It has a light side and a dark side,
and it holds the universe together.

18. There are two theories to arguing with women. Neither one works.

19. Generally speaking, you aren't learning much when your lips are moving.

20. Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

21. Never miss a good chance to shut up.

22. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night

A potential solution to the drug problems in Iran:

http://hotzone.yahoo.com/b/hotzone/blogs2208

Friedman in the NYtimes has a great editorial. See it below. It is imperitive that all leaders in the Middle East do as Mr. Friedman suggests, and 'look their peoples in the eye and tell them the campaign to destroy Israel is over.'

Wanted: An Arab Sharon
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: January 11, 2006
Ariel Sharon's sudden stroke, which has removed him from Israeli politics, has triggered a tidal wave of speculation about who will be his Israeli successor: Ehud Olmert? Bibi Netanyahu? Shimon Peres? So much about the future for Israeli-Arab peace, we are told, rides on that question. But as I think about the post-Sharon Middle East, I find myself asking a different question: Is there an Arab successor to Mr. Sharon? Or, better yet, is there an Arab Sharon?

Even asking such a question may seem incendiary. After all, Ariel Sharon made his name as Israel's most ruthless Arab fighter and unrestrained settlement builder. For many years, that was "Sharonism." So one could easily say that there are many "Arab Sharons": the Arab leaders who have made their names by ruthlessly resisting Israel.
Had Mr. Sharon passed from the scene several years ago, before becoming prime minister, his epitaph would have read: "Israel's most brutal Arab fighter, settlement-builder and hard-liner" - period.
But you can't write his biography without his term as prime minister, which has been his finest and wisest hour. There are not many 77-year-old leaders who not only acknowledge that one of their greatest projects in political life was wrong and posed a dire threat to the future of their people, but then also risk their remaining lives and political careers to reverse it. That, too, must now be called "Sharonism."
So when I ask whether there is an Arab Sharon, I am really asking whether among the Palestinians, Syrians, Lebanese and Saudis - the key Middle East nations that have still not reconciled with Israel - there are leaders who are also ready to acknowledge that their lifelong efforts to keep their societies in a state of hostility against Israel, and to demand the right of return of Palestinian refugees to Israel, has been a huge waste and, if not reversed, poses a dire threat to the future of their own societies?
I raise this question with no illusions about Mr. Sharon. The Haaretz newspaper editorialist Gideon Levy summed him up best: "The belated enthusiasm for Sharon is enthusiasm for a clever leader who tried toward the end of his life to extricate himself somehow from situations that a wise leader would never have gotten into in the first place. ...The old Sharon was one who led the country into the most superfluous and harmful of Israel's wars, the Lebanon War, and would not even raise his hand in favor of the peace agreement with Jordan." He was also most responsible for building a network of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza that became an unsustainable burden.
So Ariel Sharon the prime minister had a lot of problems to clean up from Ariel Sharon the defense minister and agriculture minister. Indeed, when Mr. Sharon was asked why he'd reversed himself and uprooted the Jewish settlements in Gaza and a few in the West Bank, he famously referred to the prime minister's chair: "You see things from here that you don't see from there." He could finally see that overbuilding settlements imperiled Israel's Jewish and democratic character. So he promptly destroyed the very right-wing party he'd built - Likud - to spread those settlements.
Leadership is not what you do to the other side. That's always easy. It is what you say to your own. Looking your own people in the eye and saying, in deeds if not words, "I was wrong. We have to reverse course" - now, that's leadership.
But Mr. Sharon's change of heart will end this conflict only if there is among Israel's remaining Arab foes an Arab Sharon (another Anwar Sadat or King Hussein) ready to act the same. Yasir Arafat and Hafez al-Assad of Syria were never ready to definitively look their peoples in the eye and tell them the campaign to destroy Israel was over. The old Arafat and the old Assad were just like the young Arafat and the young Assad. No matter how high they rose, they could not see any further for their people.
Mr. Sharon's legacy will be a mixed one. Arafat's and Assad's will be pure - pure mediocrity, and both of their nations are now paying the price.
Mr. Sharon is gone from the scene, but because of the new Israeli center he built, "he left Israel capable of making a decision on the future of the West Bank," said the Middle East analyst Stephen P. Cohen. Assad and Arafat are gone, and because they never built "a new center or pathway to a new future, both their nations are now in turmoil after they are gone."
I don't know who will succeed Mr. Sharon. I only know that it will be much easier for Israel's next leader to carry out the positive side of his legacy - if a few more Arab Sharons show up in the neighborhood.

I'm very proud of this fellow ham-vatan. Black belt in Karate, kicking some store robber's butt!
http://www.nwpersians.com/entertainment/funny/links/iranian_store_manager.asp

Double Standards, Hypocracy.

What up with people. Why do we have to make things so negative all the time? So many awesome things to focus on, why choose to dwell on terrible things?

My friend, we have a dark side, and sometimes that dark side comes out. it comes out when we are not at our best, or when we are too proud. It happens, its not good, deal with it. Demand more from yourself, but when you see others bringing out their dark side, no need for you to bring out yours. In due time, they'll realize where their head is at and will natually come back to being decent.

I'm no exception to the rule. I feel dark so much these days. It's my friends that help me see things better, i depend on them to help me look away from my dark feelings. And i know i am doing the same with my friends. i'm so blessed to have had friends like i do that are there for me. it is a pure blessing.

Totally Awesome Robot made by Honda! And it can run!

http://world.honda.com/HDTV/ASIMO/

There is a part of me, however, that's afraid some military will make use of this in battle. I should go watch the Terminator again.