Some thoughts on life and other contemplations

[Preciouslife1]

I cannot give thee less, to be called grateful. Thou thought'st to help me, and such thanks I give As one near death to those that wish him live.
Author: William Shakespeare

Let never day nor night unhallowed pass But still remember what the Lord hath done.
Author: William Shakespeare

Mysterious love, uncertain treasure, Hast thou more of pain or pleasure! . . . . Endless torments dwell above thee: Yet who would live, and live without thee!
Author: Joseph Addison

If things on earth may be to heaven resembled, It must be love, pure, constant, undissembled.
Author: Mrs. Aphra Johnson Behn


Love worketh no ill to his neighbour; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
Author: Bible
Source: Romans (ch. XIII, v. 10)

Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get, it's what you are expected to give--which is everything.
Author: Vittorio Alfieri
Ask not of me, love, what is love? Ask what is good of God above; Ask of the great sum what is light; Ask what is darkness of the night; Ask sin of what may be forgiven; Ask what is happiness of heaven; Ask what is folly of the crowd; Ask what is fashion of the shroud; Ask what is sweetness of thy kiss; Ask of thyself what beauty is.
Author: Philip James Bailey

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
Author: Bible
Source: I John (ch. IV, v. 18)

Love is like a violin. The music may stop now and then, but the strings remain forever.
Author: Anonymous

Love and relationships are truly one of the most paradoxical aspects of being human. For it is in love that we find the greatest of strengths and the deepest of sorrows. Love can seem to be so fleeting and unachievable yet it remains well within our reach if we only learn how to embrace it's power. To experience true love, we must be willing to open ourselves up and sacrifice part of our heart and part of our soul. We must be willing to give of ourselves freely, and we must be willing to suffer. It is only when we expose our inner selves to the white hot flame of rejection, that love can burn so brightly as to join to souls, melding the two into one, creating a bond that joins forever. It is from this bond that we draw strength eternal and power ever lasting. It is in this thing that we call love that we find the means to achieve greatness, both in ourselves and in our lives.
Author: Anonymous

Love is not getting, but giving, not a wild dream of pleasure, and madness of desire— ... it is goodness, and honor, and peace and pure living.
Author: Henry van Dyke

Love truth, but pardon error.
Author: Francois Voltaire

Love the earth and sun and animals, Despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, Stand up for the stupid and crazy, Devote your income and labor to others ... And your very flesh shall be a great poem. Author: Walt Whitman

Love this Earth as if you won't be here tomorrow; show reverence for your Garden as if you will be here forever.
Author: Proverb

[Preciouslife1]

Anger and intolerance are the twin enemies of correct understanding.

The living man who does not learn, is dark, dark, like one walking in the night.

A man may live long, and die at last in ignorance of many truths, which his mind was capable of knowing, and that with certainty.

But let a man know that there are things to be known, of which he is ignorant, and it is so much carved out of his domain of universal knowledge.

Intolerance is a form of egotism, and to condemn egotism intolerantly is to share it.

Intolerance of ambiguity is the mark of an authoritarian personality.


Sad that so much intolerance and ignorance abounds in our world...


Forsake not an old friend; for the new is not comparable to him: a new friend is as new wine; when it is old, thou shalt drink it with pleasure.
Author: Bible
Source: Ecclesiasticus (ch. IX, v. 10)

[Preciouslife1]

LIFE IS BACKWARDS

The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends.
I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time.
What do you get in the end of it? A death. What's that, a bonus? I think the life cycle is all backwards.

You should die first, you know, start out dead, get it out of the way.

You wake up in a an old age home, feeling better every day.

You get kicked out for being too healthy, go collect your pension, then, when you start work, you get a gold watch on your first day. You work 40 years until you're young enough to enjoy your retirement.

You drink like a fish, party your ass off, and screw anything that moves - you've only got a few years left, so why not?!?

Then you get ready for High School. You go to primary school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities.

You become a baby. Then, you spend your last 9 months floating peacefully with luxuries like central heating, spa, room service on tap, larger quarters everyday, and then you finish off as an orgasm!

PL1 .>) ......Mark

[Preciouslife1]

Few Facts of Life
1. Children who bathe every day and wash their hands more than five times are 25 per cent more likely to have asthma.

The tracking of 14,000 children by the Institute of Child Health at Bristol University has revealed that those children who bathe every day and wash their hands more than five times are 25 per cent more likely to have asthma than less clean children, perhaps because the children are exposed to fewer infections and are left more vulnerable and sensitive to allergens.

2. Those with the highest consumption of apples were less than half as likely to develop lung cancer.

A study of about 10,000 people in Finland, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, reports that those with the highest consumption of apples were less than half as likely to develop lung cancer as those who ate few or no apples. This could possibly be due to the antioxidant flavonoids in apples.


3. Eating tomato products more than twice a week reduced the risk of prostrate cancer by up to 34 per cent.

Lycopene, derived in the diet from tomatoes, can have health benefits. One large study has shown that those with high levels of lycopene had half the risk of a heart attack and another has shown that eating tomato products more than twice a week, as opposed to never, reduced the risk of prostrate cancer by up to 34 per cent. Processed tomatoes appears to offer the most benefit (tomato sauce, puree and ketchup, but with tomato juice showing little or no benefit). Lycopene is also found in watermelon, pink grapefruit and apricots.

4. Kiwi is the most nutritionally dense of the commonly eaten fruit.

Kiwi is the most 'nutritionally dense' of the commonly eaten fruit - scoring high for Vitamin C and E, magnesium, potassium, fibre, serotonin, arginine (used to treat impotence) and nutrients recommended to combat cancer and heart disease.

5. Electromagnetic fields.

Scientists from the UK's National Radiological Protection Board have shown that electromagnetic fields can damage short-term memory in mice and lengthen the time taken to learn tasks. Humans are subjected to electromagnetic fields (at lower levels but for longer periods) from televisions, computers, electrical appliances and power lines.

6. The sleep-regulating hormone melatonin is destroyed in the body by even 15 minutes of light.

The sleep-regulating hormone melatonin is destroyed in the body by even 15 minutes of light, according to a study led by David Klein at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda. "If you get up in the middle of the night, better leave the light off," recommends the New Scientist summary.

7. Humans have inherited a taste for spicy food because spices kill bacteria. Garlic, onion, allspice and oregano kill 100 per cent of bacteria.

Paul Sharman of Cornell University argues that humans have inherited a taste for spicy food because spices kill bacteria. Garlic, onion, allspice and oregano kill 100 per cent of bacteria; Thyme, cinnamon, tarragon and cumin can kill about 80 per cent, with capsicums, chillies and other peppers killing slightly less.

8. Jolting the body.

Dr Michael Weintraub, a clinical professor of neurology at New York Medical College, has evidence that sports which jolt the body, such as long distance running and high-impact aerobics, lead to inner ear damage, with hearing loss at high frequencies, ringing in the ear, dizziness, motion sickness and loss of balance. The daily jolting may displace tiny granules in the inner ear which stimulate the hair fronds that pass sound impulses along the nerves to the brain. The ear damage seems to occur within a few years of starting the exercise, and in one case within less than a year....................

[Preciouslife1]

Best Prayer I Have Heard In A Long Time

Heavenly Father, Help us remember that the jerk who cut us off in traffic last night is a single mother who worked nine hours that day and is rushing home to cook dinner, help with homework, do the laundry and spend a few precious moments with her children.

Help us to remember that the pierced, tattooed, disinterested young man who can't make change correctly is a worried 19-year-old college student, balancing his apprehension over final exams with his fear of not getting his student loans for next semester.

Remind us, Lord, that the scary looking bum, begging for money in the same spot every day (who really ought to get a job!) is a slave to addictions that we can only imagine in our worst nightmares .

Help us to remember that the old couple walking annoyingly slow through the store aisles and blocking our shopping progress are savoring this moment, knowing that, based on the biopsy report she got back last week, this will be the last year that they go shopping together .

Heavenly Father, remind us each day that, of all the gifts you give us, the greatest gift is love. It is not enough to share that love with those we hold dear. Open our hearts not to just those who are close to us, but to all humanity. Let us be slow to judge and quick to forgive, show patience, empathy and love.

[Preciouslife1]

One glass of water shuts down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a University study.

Lack of water is the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.

Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.

A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen.

Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast ! cancer by 79%, and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer.

Are you drinking the amount of water you should every day?

[Preciouslife1]

Two pots
An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which she carried across her neck. One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water.

At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman
bringing home only one and a half pots of water. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do.

After 2 years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the woman one day by the stream. "I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house."

The old woman smiled, "Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side?" "That's because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them."

"For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table." Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house."

Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. You've just got to take each person for what they are
and look for the good in them.

To all of my crackedpot friends, have a great day and remember to get ou and smell the flowers on your side of the path and savor every second of as LIFE is short and PRECIOUS........Mark


The destination is to BE and not arrive anywhere else.......

[Preciouslife1]

THE SCARS OF LIFE


Some years ago, on a hot summer day in south Florida, a little boy decided to go for a swim in the old swimming hole. In a hurry to dive
into the cool water, he ran out the door, leaving behind shoes, socks, and shirt as he went. He flew into the water, not realizing that as he swam toward the middle of the lake, an alligator was swimming toward the shore.
His father working in the yard saw the two as they got closer and closer together. In utter fear, he ran toward the water, yelling to his son as loudly as he could. Hearing his voice, the little boy became alarmed and made a U-turn to swim to his father. It was too late. Just as he reached his father, the alligator reached him. From the dock, the father grabbed his little boy by the arms just as the alligator snatched his legs. That began an incredible tug-of-war between the two. The alligator was much stronger than the father, but the father was much too passionate to let go. A farmer happened to drive by, heard his screams, raced from his truck, took aim and shot the alligator. Remarkably, after weeks and weeks in the hospital, the little boy survived. His legs were extremely scarred by the vicious attack of the animal. And, on his arms, were deep scratches where his father's
fingernails dug into his flesh in his effort to hang on to the son he so loved.

The newspaper reporter, who interviewed the boy after the trauma, asked if he would show him his scars. The boy lifted his pant legs. And
then, with obvious pride, he said to the reporter, "But look at my arms. I have great scars on my arms, too. I have them because my Dad WOULDN'T LET GO."

You and I can identify with that little boy. We have scars, too - no, not from an alligator, but the scars of a painful past. Some of those scars are unsightly and have caused us deep regret. But, wounds, my friend, are because God has refused to let go. In the midst of your struggle, He's been there holding on to you.

The Scripture teaches that God loves you. You are a child of God. He wants to protect you and provide for you in every way. But sometimes
we foolishly wade into dangerous situations, not knowing lies ahead. The swimming hole of life is filled with peril - and we forget that the enemy is waiting to attack. That's when the tug-of-war begins - and if you have the scars of His love on your arms, be very, very grateful. He did not and will not ever let you go.

God has blessed you, so that you can be a blessing to others so please pass this on to those you love. You just never know where a person is in his/her life and what they are going through. Never Judge another
persons scars, because you don't know how they got them.
Right now, someone needs to know that God loves them, and that you love them, too - enough to not let them go.

Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible.

Love conquers all, see all and is patient and kind, never jealous, never boastful..love endures, money fades away like sand through the hourglass....Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get, it's what you are expected to give~which is everything....Mark

[Preciouslife1]

Essential vocabulary additions for the workplace

1. BLAMESTORMING : Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.

2. SEAGULL MANAGER : A manager, who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves.

3. ASSMOSIS : The process by which some people seem to absorb success and advancement by kissing up to the boss rather than working hard.

4. SALMON DAY : The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die in the end.

5. CUBE FARM : An office filled with cubicles.

6. PRAIRIE DOGGING : When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's going on.

7. MOUSE POTATO : The on-line, wired generation's answer to the couch potato.

8. SITCOMs : Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage.
What Yuppies get into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids.

9. STRESS PUPPY : A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whiny.

10. SWIPEOUT : An ATM or credit card that has been rendered useless because magnetic strip is worn away from extensive use.

11. XEROX SUBSIDY : Euphemism for swiping free photocopies from one's workplace.

12. IRRITAINMENT : Entertainment and media spectacles that are Annoying but you find yourself unable to stop watching them. The J-Lo and Ben
wedding (or not) was a prime example - Michael Jackson, another...

13. PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE : The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again.

14. ADMINISPHERE : The rarefied organizational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the adminisphere are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were
designed to solve.

15. 404 : Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web error Message "404 Not Found," meaning that the requested site could not be located.

16. GENERICA : Features of the American landscape that are exactly the same no matter where one is, such as fast food joints, strip malls, and subdivisions.

17. OHNOSECOND : That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you've just made a BIG mistake. (Like after hitting send on an e-mail by mistake)

18. WOOFS : Well-Off Older Folks.

19. CROP DUSTING : Surreptitiously passing gas while passing through a Cube Farm .

[Preciouslife1]

THIS IS HISTORY THAT HAS BEEN LEFT OUT OF OUR TEXTBOOKS. MOST OF YOU ARE NOT OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER THAT NEARLY EVERY FAMILY IN AMERICA WAS GROSSLY AFFECTED BY WWII.. MOST OF YOU DON'T
REMEMBER THE RATIONING OF MEAT, SHOES, GASOLINE, AND SUGAR. NO TIRES FOR OUR AUTOMOBILES, AND A SPEED LIMIT OF 35 MILES AN HOUR ON THE ROAD. NOT TO MENTION, NO NEW AUTOMOBILES. READ THIS AND
THINK ABOUT HOW WE WOULD REACT TO BEING TAKEN OVER BY FOREIGNERS IN 2006.

This is an EXCELLENT essay. well thought out and presented.

Historical Significance, Sixty-three years ago, Nazi Germany had overrun almost all of Europe and hammered England to the verge of bankruptcy and defeat, and had sunk more than four hundred British ships in their convoys between England and America for food and war materials.

At that time the US was in an isolationist, pacifist mood, and most Americans wanted nothing to do with the European or the Asian war.

Then along came Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and in outrage Congress unanimously declared war on Japan, and the following day on Germany, which had not yet attacked us. It was a dicey thing. We had few allies.

France was not an ally, as the Vichy government of France quickly aligned itself with its German occupiers. Germany was certainly not an ally, as Hitler was intent on setting up a Thousand Year Reich in Europe. Japan was not an ally, as it was well on its way to owning and controlling all of Asia. Together, Japan and Germany had long-range plans of invading Canada and Mexico, as
launching pads to get into the United States over our northern and southern borders, after they finished gaining control of Asia and Europe. America's only allies then were England, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, Australia, and Russia. That was about it. All of Europe, from Norway to Italy, except Russia in the East, was already under the Nazi heel.

America was certainly not prepared for war. America had drastically downgraded most of its military forces after W.W.I and throughout the depression, so that at the outbreak of WW2, army units were training with broomsticks because they didn't have guns, and cars with "tank" painted
on the doors because they didn't have real tanks. And a huge chunk of our navy had just been sunk or damaged at Pearl Harbor.

Britain had already gone bankrupt, saved only by the donation of $600 million in gold bullion inthe Bank of England, that was actually the property of Belgium, given by Belgiumto England to carry on the war when Belgium was overrun by Hitler (a little known fact). Actually, Belgium surrendered on one day, because it was unable to oppose the German invasion, and the Germans
bombed Brussels into rubble the next day just to prove they could. Britain had already been holding out for two years in the face of staggering slipping losses and the near-decimation of its air force in the Battle of Britain, and was saved from being overrun by Germany only because Hitler made the mistake of thinking the Brits were a relatively minor threat that could be dealt
with later, and first turning his attention to Russia, at a time when England was on the verge of collapse, in the late summer of 1940....


End part #1

[Preciouslife1]

Ironically, Russia saved America's butt by putting up a desperate fight for two years, until the US got geared up to begin hammering away at Germany.

Russia lost something like 24 million people in the sieges of Stalingrad and Moscow alone... 90% of them from cold and starvation, mostly civilians, but also more than a MILLION soldiers.

Had Russia surrendered, Hitler would have been able to focus his entire war effort against the Brits, then America. And the Nazis could possibly have won the war.

All of this is to illustrate that turning points in history are often dicey things. And now, we find ourselves at another one of those key moments in history.

There is a very dangerous minority in Islam that either has, or wants and may soon have, the ability to deliver small nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons, almost anywhere in the world.

The Jihadis, the militant Muslims, are basically Nazis in Kaffiyahs -- they believe that Islam, a radically conservative form of Wahhabi Islam, should own and control the Middle East first, then Europe, then the world. And that all who do not bow to their will of thinking should be killed, enslaved, or subjugated. They want to finish the Holocaust, destroy Israel, and purge the world of Jews. This is their mantra.

There is also a civil war raging in the Middle East -- for the most part not a hot war, but a war of ideas. Islam is having its Inquisition and its Reformation, but it is not known yet which will win -- the Inquisitors, or the Reformationists.

If the Inquisition wins, then the Wahhabis, the Jihadis, will control the Middle East, the OPEC oil, and the US, European, and Asian economies. The techno-industrial economies will be at the mercy of OPEC -- not an OPEC dominated by the educated, rational Saudis of today, but an OPEC dominated by the Jihadis. You want gas in your car? You want heating oil next winter? You want
the dollar to be worth anything? You better hope the Jihad, the Muslim Inquisition, loses, and the Islamic Reformation wins.

If the Reformation movement wins, that is, the moderate Muslims who believe that Islam can respect and tolerate other religions, and live in peace with the rest of the world, and move out
of the 10th century into the 21st, then the troubles in the Middle East will eventually fade away, and a moderate and prosperous Middle East will emerge.

We have to help the Reformation win, and to do that we have to fight the Inquisition, i.e., the Wahhabi movement, the Jihad, Al Qaeda and the Islamic terrorist movements. We have to do it somewhere. And we can't do it everywhere at once. We have created a focal point for the battleat a time and place of our choosing........in Iraq.

Not in New York, not in London, or Paris or Berlin, but in Iraq, where we are doing two important things.

(1) We deposed Saddam Hussein. Whether Saddam Hussein was directly involved in 9/11 or not, it is undisputed that Saddam has been actively supporting the terrorist movement for decades. Saddam is a terrorist.

Saddam is, or was, a weapon of mass detruction, who is responsible for the deaths of probably more than a million Iraqis and two million Iranians.

(2) We created a battle, a confrontation, a flash point, with Islamic terrorism in Iraq. We have focused the battle. We are killing bad people, and the ones we get there we won't have to gethere. We also have a good shot at creating a democratic, peaceful Iraq, which will be a catalyst for democratic change in the rest of the Middle East, and an outpost for a stabilizing American military presence in the Middle East for as long as it is needed..

World War II, the war with the German and Japanese Nazis, really began with a "whimper" in 1928.
It did not begin with Pearl Harbor. It began with the Japanese invasion of China. It was a war for fourteen years before America joined it. It officially ended in 1945 -- a 17 year war -- and was followed by another decade of US occupation in Germany and Japan to get those countries reconstructed and running on their own again ... a 27 year war.

World War II cost the United States an amount equal to approximately a full year's GDP -- adjusted for inflation, equal to about $12 trillion dollars. W.W.II cost America more than 400,000 killed in action, and nearly 100,000 still missing in action.

The Iraq war has, so far, cost the US about $160 billion,which is roughly what 9/11 cost New York. It has also cost about 2,200 American lives, which is roughly 2/3 of the 3,000 lives that the Jihad snuffed out on 9/11. But the cost of not fighting and winning W.W.II would have been unimaginably greater -- a world dominated by German and Japanese Nazism.

There are 60 minute TV shows, and 2 hour movies in which everything comes out okay. The real world is not like that. It is messy, uncertain, and sometimes bloody and ugly. Always has been, and probably always will be. The bottom line is that we will have to deal with Islamic terrorism until we defeat it, whenever that is. It will not go away if we ignore it.

If the US can create a reasonably democratic and stable Iraq, then we have an "England" in the Middle East, a platform, from which we can work to help modernize and moderate the Middle East.
The history of the world is the clash between the forces of relative civility and civilization, and the barbarians clamoring at the gates. The Iraq war is merely another battle in this ancient and never-ending war. And now, for the first time ever, the barbarians are about to get nuclear weapons. Unless somebody prevents them.

We have four options:

1. We can defeat the Jihad now, before it gets nuclear weapons.

2. We can fight the Jihad later, after it gets nuclear weapons (which may be as early as next year, if Iran's progress on nuclear weapons is what Iran claims it is).

3. We can surrender to the Jihad and accept its dominance in the Middle East, now, in Europe in the next few years or decades, and ultimately in America.

4. Or, we can stand down now, and pick up the fight later when the Jihad is more widespread and better armed, perhaps after the Jihad has dominated France and Germany and maybe most of the rest of Europe. It will, of course, be more dangerous, more expensive, and much bloodier.

If you oppose this war, I hope you like the idea that your children, or grandchildren, may live in an Islamic America under the Mullahs and the Sharia, an America that resembles Iran today.

The history of th world is the history of civilizational clashes, cultural clashes. All wars are about ideas, ideas about what society and civilization should be like, and the most determined always win. Those who are willing to be the most ruthless always win. The pacifists always lose,because the anti-pacifists kill them.

Remember, perspective is every thing, and America's schools teach too little history forperspective to be clear, especially in the young American mind.

The Cold war lasted from about 1947 at least, until the Berlin Wall came down in 1989..
Forty-two years. Europe spent the first half of the 19th century fighting Napoleon, and from1870 to 1945 fighting Germany

World War II began in 1928, lasted 17 years, plus a ten year occupation, and the US still has
troops in Germany and Japan. World War II resulted in the death of more than 50 million people,
maybe more than 100 million people, depending on which estimates you accept.

The US has taken more than 2,000 killed in action in Iraq. The US took more than 4,000 killed in action on the morning of June 6, 1944, the first day of the Normandy Invasion to rid Europe of Nazi Imperialism. In W.W.II the US averaged 2,000 KIA a week -- for four years. Most of the individual battles of W.W.II lost more Americans than the entire Iraq war has done so far.

But the stakes are at least as high ... A world dominated by representative governments with civil rights, human rights, and personal freedoms .. or a world dominated by a radical Islamic Wahhabi movement, by the Jihad, under the Mullahs and the Sharia (Islamic law).

It's difficult to understand why the American left does not grasp this. They favor human rights, civil rights, liberty and freedom, but evidently not for Iraqis..
End of part #2

[Preciouslife1]

"Peace Activists" always seem to demonstrate here in America, where it's safe.

Why don't we see Peace Activist demonstrating in Iran, Syria, Iraq, Sudan,North Korea, in the places that really need peace activism the most?

The liberal mentality is supposed to favor human rights, civil rights, democracy,
multiculturalism, diversity, etc., but if the Jihad wins, wherever the Jihad wins, it is the end of civil rights, human rights, democracy, multiculturalism, diversity, etc. Americans who oppose the liberation of Iraq are coming down on the side of their own worst enemy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~
Raymond S. Kraft is a writer living in Northern California. Please consider passing along copies of this article to students in high school, college and university as it contains information about the American past that is very meaningful today -- history about America that very likely is completely unknown by them (and their instructors, too). By being denied the facts of our
history, they are at a decided disadvantage when it comes to reasoning and thinking through the issues of today. They are prime targets for misinformation campaigns beamed at enlisting them in causes and beliefs that are special interest agenda driven.

Lots to think about in that article isn't there!

[Preciouslife1]

Amazing Little Country

The Middle East has been growing date palms for centuries. The average tree is about 18-20 feet tall and yields about 38 pounds of dates a year.

Israeli date trees are now yielding 400 pounds/year and are short enough to be harvested from the ground or a short ladder.

Israel the 100th smallest country, with less than 1/1000th of the world's population, can lay claim to the following:

* The cell phone was developed in Israel by Israelis
working in the Israeli branch of Motorola, which has its largest
development center in Israel .

* Most of the Windows NT and XP operating systems were
developed by Microsoft-Israel.

* The Pentium MMX Chip technology was designed in Israel at Intel.

* Both the Pentium-4 microprocessor and the Centrino
processor were entirely designed, developed and produced in Israel .
The Pentium microprocessor in your computer was most likely made in Israel.

* Voice mail technology was developed in Israel. Both
Microsoft and Cisco built their only R&D facilities outside the US in Israel .

* The technology for the AOL Instant Messenger ICQ was
developed in 1996 by four young Israelis.

* Israel has the fourth largest air force in the world
(after the U.S. Russia and China). In addition to a large variety of other aircraft, Israel's air force has an aerial arsenal of over 250 F-16's This is the largest fleet of F-16 aircraft outside of the U. S.

* Israel's $100 billion economy is larger than all of its immediate neighbors combined.

* According to industry officials, Israel designed the
airline industry's most impenetrable flight security. US officials now look (finally) to Israel for advice on how to handle airborne security threats.

* Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees
to the population in the world. Israel produces more scientific papers per capita than any other nation by a large margin - 109 per 10,000 people -- as well as one of the highest per capita rates of patents filed.

* In proportion to its population, Israel has the
largest number of startup companies in the world. In absolute terms, Israel has the largest number of startup companies than any other country in the world, except the U.S. (3,500 companies mostly in hi-tech).

* With more than 3,000 high-tech companies and
startups, Israel has the highest concentration of hi-tech companies in the world -- apart from the Silicon Valley , U.S.

* Israel is ranked #2 in the world for venture capital funds right behind the U.S.

* Outside the United States and Canada, Israel has the
largest number of NASDAQ listed companies.

* Israel has the highest average living standards in
the Middle East. The per capita income in 2000 was over $17,500, exceeding that of the UK.

* On a per capita basis, Israel has the largest number
of biotech startups.

* Twenty-four % of Israel's workforce holds university
degrees, ranking third in the industrialized world, after the United States and Holland and 12 % hold advanced degrees.

* Israel is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East.

* Israel airlifted a total of 22,000 Ethiopian Jews
(Operation Solomon) at Risk in Ethiopia, to safety in Israel .

* When Golda Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel
in 1969, she became the world's second elected female leader in modern times.

* When the U. S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya was bombed
in 1998, Israeli rescue teams were on the scene within a day -- and saved three victims from the rubble.

* Israel has the third highest rate of entrepreneurship -- and the highest rate among women and among people over 55 - in the world.

* Relative to its population, Israel is the largest
immigrant-absorbing nation on earth. Immigrants come in search of democracy, religious freedom, and economic opportunity. (Hundreds of thousands from the former Soviet Union)

* Israel was the first nation in the world to adopt
the Kimberly process, an international standard that certifies diamonds as "conflict free."

* Israel has the world's second highest per capita of new books.

* Israel is the only country in the world that entered
the 21st century with a net gain in its number of trees, made more remarkable because this was achieved in an area considered mainly desert.

* Israel has more museums per capita than any other
country.

* An Israeli company developed a computerized system
for ensuring proper administration of medications, thus removing human error from medical treatment. Every year in U. S. hospitals 7,000 patients die from treatment mistakes.

* Israel's Given Imaging developed the first
ingestible video camera, so small it fits inside a pill. Used to view the small intestine from the inside for cancer and digestive disorders.

* Researchers in Israel developed a new device that
directly helps the heart pump blood, an innovation with the potential to save lives among those with heart failure. The new device is synchronized with the camera helps doctors diagnose the heart's mechanical operations through a sophisticated system of sensors.

* Israel leads the world in the number of scientists
and technicians in the workforce, with 145 per 10,000, as opposed to 85 in the U. S., over 70 in Japan, and less than 60 in Germany With over 25% of its work force employed in technical professions. Israel places first in this category as well.

* A new acne treatment developed in Israel , the Clear
Light device, produces a high-intensity, ultraviolet-light-free,
narrow-band blue light that causes acne bacteria to self-destruct -- all without damaging surrounding skin or tissue.

* An Israeli company was the first to develop and
install a large-scale solar-powered and fully functional electricity generating plant, in southern California 's Mojave desert ..

* All the above while engaged in regular wars with an
implacable enemy that seeks its destruction, and an economy continuously under strain by having to spend more per capita on its own protection than any other county on earth.

....AND THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR IN ENGLAND SAYS : "ISRAEL IS NOTHING BUT A S----- LITTLE COUNTRY"

[Preciouslife1]

SAND & STONE

TWO FRIENDS WERE WALKING THROUGH THE DESERT DURING SOME POINT OF THE
JOURNEY, THEY HAD AN ARGUMENT; AND ONE FRIEND SLAPPED THE OTHER ONE IN THE FACE
THE ONE WHO GOT SLAPPED WAS HURT, BUT WITHOUT SAYING ANYTHING, WROTE IN THE SAND:

TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE..

THEY KEPT ON WALKING, UNTIL THEY FOUND AN OASIS, WHERE THEY DECIDED TO TAKE A BATH....

THE ONE WHO HAD BEEN SLAPPED GOT STUCK IN THE MIRE AND STARTED DROWNING,
BUT THE FRIEND SAVED HIM.

AFTER HE RECOVERED FROM THE NEAR DROWNING, HE WROTE ON A STONE:

TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE...

THE FRIEND WHO HAD SLAPPED AND SAVED HIS BEST FRIEND ASKED HIM, "AFTER I HURT YOU, YOU WROTE IN THE SAND AND NOW,
YOU WRITE ON A STONE, WHY?"


THE OTHER FRIEND REPLIED "WHEN SOMEONE HURTS US WE SHOULD WRITE IT DOWN
IN SAND WHERE WINDS OF FORGIVENESS CAN ERASE IT AWAY.
BUT, WHEN SOMEONE DOES SOMETHING GOOD AND KIND FOR US, WE MUST ENGRAVE IT IN STONE WHERE NO WIND CAN EVER ERASE IT"

LEARN TO WRITE YOUR HURTS IN THE SAND AND TO CARVE YOUR BENEFITS IN STONE...

THEY SAY IT TAKES A MINUTE TO FIND A SPECIAL PERSON, AN HOUR TO APPRECIATE THEM, A DAY TO LOVE THEM, BUT THEN
AN ENTIRE LIFE TO FORGET THEM ...

DO NOT VALUE THE THINGS YOU HAVE IN YOUR LIFE, BUT VALUE WHO YOU HAVE IN YOUR LIFE! Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.
Author: Bible
Source: Deuteronomy (ch. XXVIII, v. 5)
The benediction of these covering heavens Fall on their heads like dew, for they are worthy To inlay heaven with stars.
Author: William Shakespeare
Like birds, whose beauties languish half concealed, Till, mounted on the wing, their glossy plumes Expanded, shine with azure, green and gold; How blessings brighten as they take their flight.
Have an abundantly Blessed day today and forever more, and remember that in Forgiveness, when you release the wrongdoer of the wrong, you set yourself free.....

[Preciouslife1]

Life Ain't Fair... So What?? ...By Jim Ziegler
The world doesn't owe you a living, much less prosperity. The United States of America only guarantees Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Happiness is not a constitutional right; you only have the right to be allowed to go for it. Nobody owes you happiness or success. And, if you're a failure, it's neither my fault nor is it my responsibility. Don't stack your wimpy baggage on my doorstep.

Road kill strewn across life's highway! Yes, the highways of our lives are spattered with flattened carcasses of wimps and whiners and other varieties of assorted losers who will envy your successes and automatically assume they've got a right to what you've legitimately earned. Remember this; you have a constitutional right to be successful, happy and prosperous. There's always going be those nasty small-minded crabs lurking in the shadows of life waiting for an opportunity to take a shot at you. They don't want to succeed themselves or to better their own lives. It is their sole purpose and primary mission to drag you back down. Misery loves company.

I'm sincerely sorry so many people find solace and security in the excuses they've manufactured as to why it is okay to fail because life has dealt them a bad hand. I'm amazed to see so many people have given up and accepted less than they deserve out of life because they believe the world has conspired against them. I see all of the excuse-makers who've justified their failures and shortcomings. They take comfort in the flawed thinking that it's impossible for them to succeed because of factors they perceive to be beyond their control. Some people's bad attitudes predestine them to be stuck at the bottom of every pile and the end of every line. I am sick of catering to life's losers, whiners and professional victims. It appears as if some people might actually enjoy whining more than winning.

Yes, I agree, there's discrimination, prejudice and injustice in the world and it's wrong. There's so many people out there filled with mindless hate and jealousy. But just because some people are mean spirited and bigoted is no excuse for you to wallow in your own self-pity. Don't justify your failures because of something you perceive the world's doing to you. The prejudice of others may be an obstacle but you should never allow it to become an unbreakable barrier. That would then be your choice.

Some people have been festering inside, wallowing in self-pity and justifying their failures for so long they may never find their way back. The real hope is in being sure we don't pass this infectious negativity on to other generations. It starts with educating fresh, unspoiled minds. All children deserve a head start. They need the education and the emotional tools to break out and succeed.

When I talk about losers, whiners, wimps and crybabies, I'm describing people who justify failure by blaming external forces in their lives. I am talking directly about and directly to those people who believe they have a right to give up and lay down because they think life isn't fair.

Why would anyone go through life hiding behind built in excuses telling everyone why their life isn't working? If someone can justify all of their failures and non-accomplishments with the pride of knowing it's not their fault, then what's the point? If any of these things sound familiar, stop blaming your problems and failures on other people, circumstances, and those things that are beyond your control. One thing prosperous people have in common is they've taken charge of their lives. No excuses!