If You aren’t Cheesed Off, you should be.

There are times when it’s better not to know and this is one. Yesterday Afghanistan “donated” a million dollars to Pakistan flood relief. NPR mentioned this in a story about the relief effort. A MILLION DOLLARS of your tax money!!! Where the hell does everybody think the Afghanis GET the money they throw around and steal. Steal? So far more that 3 BILLION DOLLARS in CASH, that’s CASH folks, has openly left Afghanistan on pallets and suitcases (1). American tax dollars or worse, dollars we borrow from the Chinese or some other country.
God this cheeses me off (euphemism alert). The Taliban cut up and kill people, the government openly steals, and soldiers and civilians die.
It is really a catch 22 though, isn’t it? We and NATO leave and the Taliban takes over along with Alcaida, and everything gets worse. We stay and we go broke and Americans die. Who the hell got us into this in the first place, anyway? Oh yeah, Bush. And Obama isn’t making it any better so far.
Sally asked me last night after a series of minor rants (I really must stop that) “isn’t there any good news?” If there is, I don’t see it.
1.http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704638504575318850772872776.html?mod=ITP_pageone_0
Image: www.extravaganzi.com/1-billion-dollars-in-cash/

Guilt and Spirits

I have been mulling over the moccasin incident for two days now. I am troubled by the incident in a way that is new to me. I have quietly meditated on the problem and asked the spirit guides for insight and at first heard only silence. The second time I heard thoughts that seemed to be not my voice. The thoughts were this: “You (addressed to me as if someone/something not me was talking) didn’t give the brother a chance to escape, and you didn’t try hard enough to capture before killing. This was due to your own fear. The brother did not threaten you except by being, and that is not sufficient reason to kill. You will suffer for this for some time to come. You may be forgiven.”
I don’t know the origin of these kinds of thoughts, but I suspect they come from deep inside my own conscience, whatever that is. The alternative answer lies in some other source, a deep and present spiritual source. This morning in the periphery of my vision a grey shape moved quickly away as I contemplated writing this. I think this is the right thing to do and I am sorry to have killed my brother.
Image: cropped photo of brother snake, dead.

Hearing Voices in Your Head?

I do. All the time. I have conversations with myself, and hear music complete with lyrics. I hear dialogue and make up scenarios. I read out loud in my head. What some people think of as “thinking” others call “voices”.
We all think of things in terms of thought or voice or lyric or dialogue. We all practice confronting some uncomfortable situation in our heads. We rehearse speeches and what we will say to someone when needed. This is normal and healthy.
The voices that are unhealthy, if not normal, are those that tell you to do something, or somehow take control of your actions. This is thankfully rare. David Berkowitz, the “Son of Sam” killer is an example of someone who claimed to do things because voices told him to do them (1).
Voices are heard regularly during religious moments and considered normal. The point here? I guess when I write something that includes “hearing” things in my head I get a little uncomfortable thinking that whoever reads what I write will think “now there goes a wacko.” But I think this sort of thing is normal, the difference being that I do admit to having some strange thoughts from time to time. Or maybe the strange part is that I submit my thoughts to public consideration, while most people keep their innermost thoughts, well, inner. There is a certain risk to going public and I don’t have a clue what the motivations for doing so are. It just seems right, and as Davy Crockett is quoted as saying “Be always sure you are right, then go ahead” (2). So I go ahead, thinking in my head that I am right.
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Berkowitz
2. http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Davy_Crockett#Unsourced
Image: http://www.utexas.edu/features/archive/2002/crockett.html

Beautiful Woman Mutilated

Synonym: different words with the same meaning, like Taliban and asshole, or, Taliban and demented sick bastard. The comparison can go on and on. Read on.


Take a good long hard look at this photograph. This woman was found guilty of fleeing abusive in-laws. Her sentence from a local Taliban commander was to have her ears and nose cut off. So they did.
If you ever had any sympathy for those fundamentalist bastards who routinely misuse the Qur’an to justify their miserable existence and pronouncements lose it now. Wiping them off the face of the earth is too good for them. First, unman them. Then uneye them. Then unlimb them. Then say “Have a nice day” and walk off. Am I pissed off? Aren’t you?

Serpent in Paradise

Yesterday as I walked past the French door that opens on to the porch/pool deck I noticed a brownish largeish snake slither under the old coal burning kitchen stove that decorates a wall out there. The stove was my grandmother's, and that tale is for another time. I called Sal to come look, and fetched my Snake Stick (pictured) to catch the critter. CRAP! A genuine moccasin!! Not a brown water snake or Hognose snake. These are often mistaken for moccasins. No, this was the real thing. And, it had just fanged a large skink, now twitching under the stove.
In recent years I have come to understand that living things are no less deserving of life than we are, and so have become more likely to catch and release than squash or kill. Example: Wasp in the house? Catch it in a glass and let it go. Ditto with a fly. Step over bugs or critters on the ground if possible rather than crush them. Catch and move snakes. (I still poison rats in the greenhouse, though, and eat meat too. And I understand the definition of “hypocrisy”.)
But I have a firm agreement with poisonous snakes. I don’t go into their territory to kill or bite, and I don’t want them in mine. Mostly it works. We live in an area criss-crossed with streams and not far from a lake. We have cotton mouths, pygmy rattlers, regular rattlers and copperheads in the watershed. They almost always stay away. And if I see one in the yard or edge, or on the road, I try to move them on. Not so this moccasin. This beauty was inside the screened porch. Inside with lots of plants and pots to hide in. Inside with the pool. Inside for how many days? Just luck that I saw it, instead of getting a bite under the table or when reaching to pluck a dead leaf. I did try to catch it, but couldn't, so I reluctantly shot it. At some level I am still sad, and am working through this with the help of some guides I have in the spirit world. I have written about this in earlier essays if you care to look. Yeah, that’s right: Search? Spirit world? If you know me you know my argument is with Religion, not Spirits. Big difference.
Paradise is again serpent-free (I hope) , and the loose screen found is now fixed. This morning both of us looked very carefully before stepping barefoot onto the porch. And will for some days to come.