Update: Stairway To Heaven

 

Okay okay.  The title is hyperbole.  It's not so much a stairway to heaven as a ladder to my laughing place.

Then again, I don't really laugh up there.  I smile, feel good, enjoy the silence, daydream.

I guess that makes it more a non-pharmaceutical mood elevator.

Why do we seek high places?  We generally look up when we pray.  We don't send our prayers into the dirt, we launch them out and upwards to float into the ether of spiritual space.  We certainly don't ever aspire to the lower moral ground.  We don't say, 'I'm at the bottom of the world.'  We don't declare, 'I had a valley experience.'  When we smoke a joint we don't get low.  In fact, quite a bit of what we do is to attempt to elevate ourselves to a higher level, a higher plane.

I guess we just assume that somewhere "up there" is some comfort.  Maybe some answers.  And if we don't get the answers we need, at least we have a nice view or easy exhilaration.

Before I came to Japan, I thought -- like I believe most Americans think -- Japan was a concrete jungle.  Skyscrapers, lots of neon, bright lights, huge flat panels displays on the sides of towering buildings, set on an sprawling basin of cement and asphalt.

70% of Japan is covered in forests.  The forests cover the endless peaks and escarpments of countless volcanic mounds, hills, and mountains.  They don't build structures on top of these elevations.  Certainly not buildings and luxury homes.  Thus the dominant motif is unspoiled natural beauty, just about everywhere you look, except of course the towns and cities.  For a small country, Japan has an abundance of breathtaking scenery, hundreds of miles of hiking trails, thousands of miles of back-country roads.

I've written two previous articles about my trek up the small mountain near my house.  As the seasons change, much about the trek alters enough to keep it fresh.  At the same time, it is what remains constant which is the attraction.  That and the convenience.  I literally ride five minutes from my home to the trail head on my bicycle.

I think of America.  Hard as I tried, I could hardly do anything without getting in a car.

How much my life has changed.

(Click on the pictures and they will open up full-scale.)

 
Peace!


[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]


Update: Stairway To Heaven

From Bill To Hillary With Love

 

As we all know, everyone is being watched, monitored, recorded. No one can
escape the eyes and ears of the national security state.

Here is an excerpt from the transcript of a conversation between Bill and Hillary
Clinton recently culled from the files of the NSA.

Classified (TS-SCI Poly Clearance Required):  Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton.
Cell phone interception, June 27, 2014, 10:34 pm.

Hillary:  "I don't know. That hope and change thing sure fooled a lot of people."

Bill:  "Yeah, but fool me twice. You know the drill."

Hillary:  "So what should I do?"

Bill:  "You know what worked for me. Tell people what they want to hear. Then
steal the agenda of the conservatives so you don't get attacked from the
right. Deregulate, bomb, suck up to Wall Street. It's a sure winner.
And you know what else clinched it for me?"

Hillary:  "What's that?"

Bill:  "Playing saxophone. People loved that. Especially black people."

Hillary:  "I can't play saxophone. You know how I hate putting things in my mouth."

Bill:  "That's for sure. Hey! How about guitar?"

Hillary:  "As long as I don't break my nails."

Bill:  "I've got it! We'll put you on a crash course and you can learn Stairway To Heaven.
That's it! It could be your campaign theme song. That would lock up the
hippie burnout vote. You know, all those delusional airhead idealists
who want peace, love and justice. OMG! I'm a fucking genius!"

Hillary:  "Yes, Bill, you really are. Which is why I still love you . . . sort of."

People ask . . . 'Is Hillary Clinton a neocon-lite?'

My unequivocal reply? Nope. No way! Not a chance. Actually . . .

Hillary Clinton is a neocon-heavy.

She is a neocon wet dream!

If she's elected, she'll make Margaret Thatcher look like Mother Theresa.

Especially, since as the first female president she'll be determined to show
how tough she is, how she can hold her own, bombing, bullying, and
bullshitting with the most bestial of the bellicose buckaroos and their
bursting ball sacks of belligerence and bombast.

Hey! How many children starved to death under sanctions on Iraq after 
Operation Desert Storm? Half a million? Ha! Mere child's play, my friends.
Ane then after we destroy Syria, there's Iran. That's just getting warmed
up. Then the real fun begins . . . Russia! . . . China! How many nukes
have we got ready to lob at them?

Hillary is putting on a good show. She has the best handlers money can buy.

But don't be fooled. Sweet talk is just that . . . talk.

It's all on record. At least some pundits are paying attention . . .

Clinton as 'Poster Child for the Military-Industrial Complex by Jacob Chamberlain
Hillary Clinton, the unrepentant hawk by Steve Chapman
Are Neocons Getting Ready to Ally With Hillary Clinton? by Jacob Heilbrunn
"More Of A Neocon Than The Republican Nominee" by Joe Scarborough
Hillary Clinton Flaunts Her Surveillance State Baggage by Robert Scheer
Good Riddance To Warmonger Hillary Clinton by Bob Dreyfuss
Hillary Clinton's Militarism Exposed by Stephen Zunes
Hillary Clinton: Warmonger For The Bankster Elite by Charleston Voice
Hillary Clinton 2016: A Recipe For Endless War by Abby Martin

Sure, it would be nice to have our first ever female president. But let's not have 
putting a bullet item in the history books override common sense and good judgment.

Yes, we should have a female president but the right female.

Certainly not the pompous Mrs. Clinton.

Maybe this one here.

Better yet.


[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]