Since leaving America August 2006, I have traveled to sixteen countries. A great deal has happened. This site is to share my thoughts, photos, music, writings, travel experiences, and developing political/social commentary with you. I hope you find it interesting and informative.
It’s a very special time of year For family and friends holiday cheer For those no longer with us We shed a tear A time to share A time of feast A time to care And pray for peace A time to give to those Who have the least
(Chorus) Merry Christmas Happy Hanukkah Peace be with us Happy New Year
This is the time to start anew Atheist Christian Muslim Jew To reach within And find the love inside of you Discard the old seek out the new Reject the false embrace the true To look ahead decide To bring out the best in you
(Chorus) Merry Christmas Happy Hanukkah Peace be with us Happy New Year
(Chorus - Japanese) Akemashite Omedetoo Peace be with you Happy New Year
(Chorus) Merry Christmas Happy Hanukkah Peace be with you Happy New Year
Let
this new year finally bring peace to the world. May we discover and
embrace the understanding needed to live together in genuine and lasting
harmony.
I don't know anyone who doesn't love John Lennon's song "Imagine".
Before
I go on, let me say that I too find it beautiful, inspiring, ennobling,
a truly remarkable and timeless creation. I'm thoroughly enchanted by
its haunting melody, totally respect and resonate with the intent, the
pure sentiment, the message -- as I do Lennon's equally powerful "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)".
So what follows is not criticism of the song per se,
but more of an attempt to build on it -- find within its deeper
implications something productive and enlightening -- my shot at taking
it to a new level of appreciation.
Let's be honest. "Imagine" is an anarchist anthem. It recommends us picturing a world which has . . .
No Heaven No Hell No countries No religion No possessions
Throw in 'no television' and 'no money' and we're grunting savages back in a cave. He opens the song with . . .
Imagine there’s no heaven It’s easy if you try
I have mixed feelings about 'Imagine there's no heaven'. There are many among us who have trouble imagining there is a heaven, at least as some religions characterize it. I'm not sure imagining heaven pro or con in a literal sense is the issue.
And
looking at it more as a metaphor, I think we spend most of our waking
lives thinking about some ideal state, some level of perfection where
the challenges and hardships of our lives would go away. We all dream
of a utopia, a Nirvana, at least a better version of what we have. I
think it's wired into us and is what drives humankind to its most
admirable achievements. Why would we want to give that up?
Having said that, the next line is enigmatic. 'It's easy if you try'.
Try?
As
if we weren't already trying? That's practically all we do. We live in
fantasy worlds of our own creation or ones conveniently foisted on us
from others usually with an agenda. People constantly live in their
imaginations, fancying better looks, sexier more attractive bodies, more
interesting friends, finer possessions, better jobs, nicer homes,
cooler cars. We are, it seems, already engaged in a nearly pathological
level of "imagining", one which has dissipated our sense of self,
submerged our individual identities, often caused a sense of alienation
from others, and created unimaginable levels of uncertainty and
insecurity. Sometimes when I listen to people talk or look objectively
at what occupies a generous portion of their time -- television, movies,
sporting events -- I wonder if they aren't completely divorced from the
real world, even when they appear to be engaged.
If
anything, we could be accused of trying too hard, imagining too much.
You might more reasonably argue maybe we spend too much time imagining
many of the wrong things.
So the question is: Is what this song recommends an improvement?
What do we replace these with? There has to be something. We can't live in a void.
I
recognize he's saying we should try to imagine ourselves in an
alternative better world. But there's a reason we don't imagine a world
without countries and possessions. There's a reason we don't imagine a
world where there's nothing to kill or die for. I believe . . .
IT'S BECAUSE WE CAN'T!
I would defend with my life those I love and respect. My wife. My daughter. My friends.
Yes, I would kill and die for them.
Is this bad?
People
can't imagine a world without possessions. I don't know if they
seriously try or not. I do know it's not worth the effort.
It's
not the possessions that are evil. It's what the possessions do to us
and those around us. It's when the possessions "possess" us, when one
person's ownership deprives others of basic survival or dignity that
they become toxic.
Similarly
with countries. Humans by nature are both social and tribal. We
achieve a sense of communal worth and purpose by belonging to a people, a
clan, an extended family, even a nation. It gives us identify and
comfort. I don't think humans are capable of viewing themselves
otherwise.
I
believe that in and of itself is not bad. It becomes threatening and
destructive when it crushes our sensitivity to others who are not in our
tribe, when it convinces us that "we" are somehow more special or more
important than "them". America's obsession with its exceptional role on
the planet, rising above all other nations, is an example of national
identification and healthy pride becoming a dangerous, sociopathic
affliction.
It
is not the lack of imagining or lack of imagination that plagues us.
It is attempting to imagine the wrong things, or things that go against
our essential nature.
Plus, I would start small. If successful, we can work our way up.
Here are just a few things to get us started:
Imagine everyone in the world having enough to eat.
Imagine everyone being free of illness and disease.
Imagine everyone having clothing and a decent place to live.
Imagine being kind to others, even those we don't understand.
Imagine treating everyone equally, with dignity and compassion.
Imagine being honest with ourselves and others.
Imagine cooperation instead of competition.
These are things not only we can imagine, but things that can actually be done.
It’s easy if you try
Having
said all of this -- and I know I've probably trampled on some sacred
ground -- I still think that "Imagine" is one of the most beautiful and
important contributions a pop artist has ever made to the world. Let's
enjoy it for its purity of spirit and honesty.
[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]
I thought Facebook was a wasteland. Then I discovered Twitter. I'm
now at over 7,000 tweets and I can't say anything much in my life has
changed, except I'm a little older, and perhaps more convinced that the
human race is irreversibly beyond redemption. It's increasingly evident
that it's just a matter of time before we are overwhelmed by our own
irrelevance and dissipate like cigarette ash in a typhoon.
But
this is the time of the year to gaze back with weepy sentimentality and
try to milk the last twelve months for everything good and wonderful.
Thus I will try to look on the bright side of the hundreds of hours I've
spent trying to be clever and witty, in order to attract the attention
of the ADHD Twitter community.
Not
that this justifies the enormous squander, or represents anything like a
reward for all of this pointless effort, I will say I have mastered the
art of the text bite. After spending all of my life aspiring to both a
deep appreciation of and a level of adroitness with my mother tongue, I
have traitorously spurned the English language as a tool for profundity,
majesty, nuance, beauty, splendor, power, discovery, insight, grace,
and learned to say something -- albeit of highly dubious value -- using
only 140 characters. I don't know if I should weep and hang my head in
shame, or puff up my chest, hook my thumbs in my imaginary blue
suspenders, and smile like I've just found out that Hillary Clinton is a
man, as I've been saying all along.
Whatever
the case, some of my 140 character compositions have done better than
others. 'Done' means gained acceptance, even acclaim. So here, based on
how many times they were "retweeted" or "favorited", are some of the
more popular verbal excretions that I spewed into the swirling torrent
of Twitter burble over the past year.
PHILOSOPHY, CREATIVITY AND RANDOM HUMOR
To be stupid is forgivable because it's genetic. To be ignorant is unforgivable because it's self-inflicted. There are many roads to the truth but they all end up in the same place. A candid look at a day in the life of a writer. http://jdrachel.com/?p=5728 Creating memorable characters. http://jdrachel.com/?p=5765 Writing poetry. http://jdrachel.com/?p=5797 Canadians are scary! http://jdrachel.com/?p=927 "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." Groucho Marx
The boycott of my new novel is a 100% success. Eat your heart out Marcel Proust. Bleccch! No one drowns or is decapitated. No diseased spider monkeys. In this novel, S&M is a thrift store. Water boarding is not surfing. No can of beer left behind. Detroit…where attitude means survival. Stoicism is not the same as a coma. No vampire breath spores. No faeries or zombie debutantes. No injectable transgendering nano-robots. No neural-net proto-spiders from outer space. No secret covens of neo-Nazi Wiccan cheerleaders. No self-assembling world-destroying kitchen appliances. No Angelina Jolie doppelgängers. I actually thought my book was a pile of garbage. What is it about men? What is it about women?
I write trivial garbage to clutter the world with nonsense, Makes great kindling for your Kindle! Great deal! Only .00001031 cents per word! Less than the price of one of Kim Kardashian’s brain cells. Unclutter your mind. Pulp fiction as a brain laxative.
If I get 1,000,000 likes for my video, I win a lifetime supply of kettle corn! If I get 1,000,000 likes for my video I win two front row seats at a Carly Rae Jepsen concert! Life is what you make it, with what you can manage to borrow. Coming to a bathroom wall near you.
Everything makes sense except when it doesn’t. Even when the cookie crumbles, you can still eat the crumbs. "Blinders Keepers" is to politics what macrame is to string theory. The greatest work of literature since Valley of the Dolls!
There is strength in numbers and only weakness in apathy. Blessed are the blissfully blank. The fool hears silence where the wise man beholds the roar of an epiphany.
This
is the stuff people thought was worthy of the 7 milliseconds of the
time it took for them to point and click their approval? Granted, some
of it is cute.
And,
like a little kid standing on the coffee table in the living room
dancing and mugging in a frenetic attempt to get everyone's attention, I
appreciate any pleasant nod in my direction.
But I've arrived at a profound epiphany in terms of social media.
I just don't get it.
[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]
Many
Americans would like to lose that unsightly bulge in the middle.
Billions of dollars are spent every year on miracle diet pills and
weight loss gadgets of questionable value.
Recently, studies have demonstrated that America as a whole is definitely losing its bulge in the middle.
But that's not a good thing.
Look at these charts: A
nation which has a sizable majority as middle-class, and is not plagued
by extremes of wealth and poverty, is historically a nation which
thrives, one which has a solid economy and laudable living standards. A
nation which does not declines and disintegrates.
Unfortunately, the U.S. is accelerating in the wrong direction on both counts.
There are way too many factors contributing to this destructive juggernaut to go into here. But two things are obvious.
First, people have to recognize that this is an existential threat to our country.
Second, they need to take action.
Since the all major media is controlled by the plutocracy,
the first -- to put it mildly -- is extremely challenging. There are
many talking about these two crises, on alternative and progressive news
sites, and of course via blogs such as this one. Bernie Sanders has
made them centerpieces of his presidential bid and has done more than any other public figure in recent memory to heighten awareness on these challenges.
But it's still an uphill battle of Sisyphean proportions.
Surprisingly, however, there is hope and at least getting started is not that difficult.
I'm referring to a campaign byF-R-E-E.USwhich takes only a few minutes of your time but has the potential at the end of the slog to make a huge difference.
FREE US is allied with the NEAR Foundation, a progressive think tank.
I'm adopting a very low-key approach in recommending this. I assume you're
all very tired of boorish hawking and inflated promises. All I'm asking
is for you to spend just a little time with it. Look at the site, take a quick survey, and download Vote Like You Mean It, the free book you receive just for giving this a few moments of your time.
Judge for yourself.
But don't cynically dismiss it.
This could work.
[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]
Without a doubt, it is extremely difficult keeping up with the news. There's so much happening everywhere on the international stage, it's enough to make your head swim.
I've
learned that it's often necessary to go beyond what's available from
the usual news sources, to dig deep and explore alternative avenues for
discovering what's really going on behind-the-scenes. It's hard work but
at the end of the day quite rewarding. Because after getting ALL of the
information that's available through the miracle of the internet,
everything starts to make sense. Many of the things which are on the
surface puzzling suddenly become clear.
I
have discovered by using some of the same highly reliable "deep data"
sources that our own CIA uses -- Facebook and Twitter -- the real reason
the Russian plane was destroyed.
Turkey was protecting a Christmas ornament factory!
Here
is one such facility in the town of Bidama, near the Turkish border.
Look at how it was mercilessly bombed to rubble by the Russian air
campaign.
Granted,
the "whoops-sorry-about-that" official position of Turkey is plausible.
After all, the U.S. military has had a few minor slip-ups itself -- two
months ago bombing a facility makingthe highly dubious claim it's a hospital, then just last weekkilling Iraqi soldiers.
Hey, these things happen! Nothing's perfect. Haven't we all had the tab
break off a soda can making it nearly impossible to open?
But
it wasn't an impulsive or anomalous response when Turkey had its F-16s
shoot down the Russian plane. Matter of fact, I've learned from deep
sources right in the Middle East that Turkey's entire military campaign
on the Syrian-Turkey border is now dedicated to standing up to the
attack Russia is mounting on our most holy -- and most profitable --
holiday of the year.
Yes, I am talking about . . . Vladimir Putin's war on America's Christmas!
Now I'm not saying I approve of crazy jihadists
making money, even if it's by manufacturing what have widely been
judged to be the finest and most stunning Christmas ornaments available
today.
Furthermore,
it's not at all consistent with our long-range intent -- that of
defeating terrorism -- to have thousands of tons of contraband holiday
decorations "smuggled" into Turkey, then shipped to America to be
distributed to shopping malls from one end of the country to the other,
so that rampaging bands of cutthroats and mad suicide bombers have the
funding to buy even more weapons, ski masks, and SUVs.
But
these are nice terrorists, as is evidenced by the excellent
contribution they are making to the beauty of America's Yuletide
trimmings and overall good cheer.
So lighten up! It's Christmas! Where's your holiday spirit?
I can tell you where Vlad the Impaler's holiday spirit is . . . at the end of a barrel!
While he would like to enjoy Christmas at the helm of areconstituted Soviet Empire, with all his comrades sitting around a Christmas tree drinking vodka, or doing their trademark "gunslinger"
strut across Russia's newly-conquered vassal state of Crimea, he plans
on us here in America being deprived of the beautiful holiday ornaments
produced in villages of liberated Syrians, and sticking us with cheap, sweat-factory junk from China.
Yes! The plot thickens!
Like I said, spend a little time on the internet, and everything starts to make sense.
See,
Putin and Xi Jinping are chums. And now we get to the whole truth
behind Russia's military campaign in the Middle East, and its alleged
war on ISIS . . .
Russia
is destroying the Christmas ornament factories in northern Syria of
well-meaning and industrious entrepreneurs -- jihadists who are
America's good buddies -- to enhance its partnership with China. The
endgame is that the Chinese will continue to monopolize the
mistletoe-ornament-tinsel-manger-scene market and use the money to buy
advanced new military weaponry from . . .
Who else?
Russia!
I have to hand it to Putin. He is one cagey character!
Or is that KGB character?
[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]
We are overjoyed at our recent success in getting Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
banned from a Philadelphia school district. This overrated piece of
racist trash by the self-indulgent literary hack, Mark Twain, deserves
to be consigned to lining the bottom of a bird cage.
However,
we are now privy to additional previously undetected attempts to
subvert all of us, particularly the youth of this country, actually
recruiting them while they're young and impressionable into the ways of
"gay sex" -- though to be quite honest about it we can't figure out how
persons of the same gender rubbing their private parts together is in
any way joyful.
Look at any biology book. What is the human species called? Homo sapiens! Well
we really need to ask: If we're HOMO sapiens, how did there get to be
more than 7 billion of us? The council recently recommended that this
term be replaced with hetero sapiens -- as God intended it.
There
are related sneak attacks. How about 'HOMOgeneous'? Right! They
slipped that in when we weren't looking! The council is now deciding
whether to replace this hideous bit of deviant brainwashing with either
'sameogenous' or 'uniformogeneous'.
It's not just in the classroom that our children are being seduced into the evil cults of buggery and carpet munching.
What
do they drink every day during lunch? HOMOgenized milk! Can you
believe this? These perverts will stop at nothing! The council
recommends replacing this phrase on all labels with the
pleasant-sounding and benign 'blendogenized milk'.
This
conspiracy has spread like a silent disease through our whole culture.
What about the word 'ANALysis'? Pretty clever, eh? The council is in
the process of replacing this hideous subversion of God's perfect plan
for proper sexual behavior. Leading the alternative terms currently
under consideration are 'examinalysis' and 'cogitalysis'. We'll keep
you posted.
Here's
one for the books. This bit of slime nearly got by us. What are
apartment units which are sold for personal ownership called?
CONDOMiniums! Can you believe it?
Granted,
it's pretty clever. Now personally, I'm for these fudgepackers
covering their junk however they can -- never know who's standing next
to you taking a wiz in the public john -- but I sure as heck don't want
to be reminded of the sick shenanigans that goes on using these love
gloves every time I drive down the street. Now every time I see one of
"those" buildings, I can only picture rooms brimming with gallons of
sperm.
There
are countless other examples we could share. This press release,
specifically timed for the most sacred holiday season of the year, is
just to let all you good, God-fearing folks out there that we are, and certainly will continue to be, on the job stamping out decadence and perversion -- particularly this new trend of "same sex" coupling -- wherever we find it.
Remember . . . PC doesn't just mean Politically Correct. It also stands for Personal Christ! God bless you and God bless America!
[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]
