Just Another Election Day in Florida

A TYPICAL ELECTION DAY IN FLORIDA. You might see Lady Judy if you're fast enough. Yiiiiiip here's to being free, la la la laaaaaa Zorro's back.

(Editor Note: If you have not visted raindog's YouTude site, you need to to. He has a great way of telling a story.)

Waiting Fro the Parade

No matter you gets elected today, I am sure that students at the school I graduated are looking forward to the parade as his inauguration.

Every four years, we inaugurate a new president and there is a big fancy parade...but have you ever wondered what goes into preparing over 50 horses and riders to march in sub-zero weather in the middle of January? The Culver Academies have been sending their world-renowned equestriennes to ride since WWI...regardless of political leanings, this was one story Explore Media was proud to help tell!

FW: Open Letter to Senator Barack Obama

As voters around the nation were watching the election results, many received the following email letter from independent candidate Ralph Nader


November 3, 2008

Open letter to Senator Barack Obama

Dear Senator Obama:

In your nearly two-year presidential campaign, the words "hope and change," "change and hope" have been your trademark declarations. Yet there is an asymmetry between those objectives and your political character that succumbs to contrary centers of power that want not "hope and change" but the continuation of the power-entrenched status quo.

Far more than Senator McCain, you have received enormous, unprecedented contributions from corporate interests, Wall Street interests and, most interestingly, big corporate law firm attorneys. Never before has a Democratic nominee for President achieved this supremacy over his Republican counterpart. Why, apart from your unconditional vote for the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, are these large corporate interests investing so much in Senator Obama? Could it be that in your state Senate record, your U.S. Senate record and your presidential campaign record (favoring nuclear power, coal plants, offshore oil drilling, corporate subsidies including the 1872 Mining Act and avoiding any comprehensive program to crack down on the corporate crime wave and the bloated, wasteful military budget, for example) you have shown that you are their man?

To advance change and hope, the presidential persona requires character, courage, integrity-- not expediency, accommodation and short-range opportunism. Take, for example, your transformation from an articulate defender of Palestinian rights in Chicago before your run for the U.S. Senate to an acolyte, a dittoman for the hard-line AIPAC lobby, which bolsters the militaristic oppression, occupation, blockage, colonization and land-water seizures over the years of the Palestinian peoples and their shrunken territories in the West Bank and Gaza. Eric Alterman summarized numerous polls in a December 2007 issue of The Nation magazine showing that AIPAC policies are opposed by a majority of Jewish-Americans.

You know quite well that only when the U.S. Government supports the Israeli and Palestinian peace movements, that years ago worked out a detailed two-state solution (which is supported by a majority of Israelis and Palestinians), will there be a chance for a peaceful resolution of this 60-year plus conflict. Yet you align yourself with the hard-liners, so much so that in your infamous, demeaning speech to the AIPAC convention right after you gained the nomination of the Democratic Party, you supported an "undivided Jerusalem," and opposed negotiations with Hamas-- the elected government in Gaza. Once again, you ignored the will of the Israeli people who, in a March 1, 2008 poll by the respected newspaper Haaretz, showed that 64% of Israelis favored "direct negotiations with Hamas." Siding with the AIPAC hard-liners is what one of the many leading Palestinians advocating dialogue and peace with the Israeli people was describing when he wrote "Anti-semitism today is the persecution of Palestinian society by the Israeli state."

During your visit to Israel this summer, you scheduled a mere 45 minutes of your time for Palestinians with no news conference, and no visit to Palestinian refugee camps that would have focused the media on the brutalization of the Palestinians. Your trip supported the illegal, cruel blockade of Gaza in defiance of international law and the United Nations charter. You focused on southern Israeli casualties which during the past year have totaled one civilian casualty to every 400 Palestinian casualties on the Gaza side. Instead of a statesmanship that decried all violence and its replacement with acceptance of the Arab League's 2002 proposal to permit a viable Palestinian state within the 1967 borders in return for full economic and diplomatic relations between Arab countries and Israel, you played the role of a cheap politician, leaving the area and Palestinians with the feeling of much shock and little awe.

David Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator, described your trip succinctly: "There was almost a willful display of indifference to the fact that there are two narratives here. This could serve him well as a candidate, but not as a President."

Palestinian American commentator, Ali Abunimah, noted that Obama did not utter a single criticism of Israel, "of its relentless settlement and wall construction, of the closures that make life unlivable for millions of Palestinians. ...Even the Bush administration recently criticized Israeli's use of cluster bombs against Lebanese civilians [see www.atfl.org for elaboration]. But Obama defended Israeli's assault on Lebanon as an exercise of its 'legitimate right to defend itself.'"

In numerous columns Gideon Levy, writing in Haaretz, strongly criticized the Israeli government's assault on civilians in Gaza, including attacks on "the heart of a crowded refugee camp... with horrible bloodshed" in early 2008.

Israeli writer and peace advocate-- Uri Avnery-- described Obama's appearance before AIPAC as one that "broke all records for obsequiousness and fawning, adding that Obama "is prepared to sacrifice the most basic American interests. After all, the US has a vital interest in achieving an Israeli-Palestinian peace that will allow it to find ways to the hearts of the Arab masses from Iraq to Morocco. Obama has harmed his image in the Muslim world and mortgaged his future-- if and when he is elected president.," he said, adding, "Of one thing I am certain: Obama's declarations at the AIPAC conference are very, very bad for peace. And what is bad for peace is bad for Israel, bad for the world and bad for the Palestinian people."

A further illustration of your deficiency of character is the way you turned your back on the Muslim-Americans in this country. You refused to send surrogates to speak to voters at their events. Having visited numerous churches and synagogues, you refused to visit a single Mosque in America. Even George W. Bush visited the Grand Mosque in Washington D.C. after 9/11 to express proper sentiments of tolerance before a frightened major religious group of innocents.

Although the New York Times published a major article on June 24, 2008 titled "Muslim Voters Detect a Snub from Obama" (by Andrea Elliott), citing examples of your aversion to these Americans who come from all walks of life, who serve in the armed forces and who work to live the American dream. Three days earlier the International Herald Tribune published an article by Roger Cohen titled "Why Obama Should Visit a Mosque." None of these comments and reports change your political bigotry against Muslim-Americans-- even though your father was a Muslim from Kenya.

Perhaps nothing illustrated your utter lack of political courage or even the mildest version of this trait than your surrendering to demands of the hard-liners to prohibit former president Jimmy Carter from speaking at the Democratic National Convention. This is a tradition for former presidents and one accorded in prime time to Bill Clinton this year.

Here was a President who negotiated peace between Israel and Egypt, but his recent book pressing the dominant Israeli superpower to avoid Apartheid of the Palestinians and make peace was all that it took to sideline him. Instead of an important address to the nation by Jimmy Carter on this critical international problem, he was relegated to a stroll across the stage to "tumultuous applause," following a showing of a film about the Carter Center's post-Katrina work. Shame on you, Barack Obama!

But then your shameful behavior has extended to many other areas of American life. (See the factual analysis by my running mate, Matt Gonzalez, on www.votenader.org). You have turned your back on the 100-million poor Americans composed of poor whites, African-Americans, and Latinos. You always mention helping the "middle class" but you omit, repeatedly, mention of the "poor" in America.

Should you be elected President, it must be more than an unprecedented upward career move following a brilliantly unprincipled campaign that spoke "change" yet demonstrated actual obeisance to the concentration power of the "corporate supremacists." It must be about shifting the power from the few to the many. It must be a White House presided over by a black man who does not turn his back on the downtrodden here and abroad but challenges the forces of greed, dictatorial control of labor, consumers and taxpayers, and the militarization of foreign policy. It must be a White House that is transforming of American politics-- opening it up to the public funding of elections (through voluntary approaches)-- and allowing smaller candidates to have a chance to be heard on debates and in the fullness of their now restricted civil liberties. Call it a competitive democracy.

Your presidential campaign again and again has demonstrated cowardly stands. "Hope" some say springs eternal." But not when "reality" consumes it daily.

Sincerely,
Ralph Nader

Interpreting Plato's Cave

We read on another list that Plato's Allegory of the Cave has something to teach us today. Perhaps that writer is correct. Below is another writers interpretation of Plato. Read for yourslef and add your comments if you wish.

by Kate Rosenberger

Plato's The Allegory of the Cave is from book seven of his most famous work, The Republic. Though it was written over 2000 years ago, it still has literary value and philosophical relevance in today's world. Part of the reason The Allegory has endured for all these centuries is that it can be interpreted any number of ways. It is a story of enlightenment. The question is, enlightenment to what? Each person who reads it has a slightly different interpretation than the next. None of them are right or wrong. Take from it what you will.

The Allegory is most often interpreted in a religious context. Those who live their lives without God are the inhabitants of the shadowy cave. One of them leaves the cave where they see the light of the sun (God) for the first time. This revelation has granted them a profound insight that they want to share with others. Like a modern day preacher, they dedicate their time to helping others see the light of God. They return to the shadowy cave to lead the others to the light. They hope to enlighten and thus liberate their former fellow prisoners.

The migration or immigration of a people is another possible interpretation. In Plato's time much of the world was still undiscovered. Unimaginable and fantastic new places were found as people explored the world. A person may visit a new place and find what, to them, is a different world. This can be likened to the prisoner leaving the shadowy cave. For them the new place may signify new opportunities, a new start, or a better life. The person may decide to stay rather than return to what is now for them, the cave. They then go back to their loved ones who are still in the cave and tell them about the new place. In this way they are like the enlightened prisoner.

Often, like Plato's unenlightened prisoners, we are blind to the fact that anything exists beyond the cave. Each of us at some point has our own personal cave and there are always those who seek to enlighten. The religious convert, the immigrant, the activist are all modern day examples of the enlightened prisoner.

There are an infinite number of scenarios to which The Allegory of the Cave can be applied. For me The Allegory symbolizes not spiritual but academic enlightenment. Regardless of your interpretation, there is a lot to be learned from The Allegory. The prisoners, the shadows, the sun, the chains are all symbols that take a different form to each person who reads The Allegory. It is ingenious the way Plato crafted this story into a piece so timeless that it spans centuries.

source: http://www.helium.com/items/1065272-interpreting-platos-cave

Waltzing My Matilda

WALTZING MY MATILDA:: This song is a Vietnam-era anti war song written by a Scottish-Australian singer songwriter named Eric Bogie. He wrote it in 1971, using the Gallipoli campaign in 1915 as a metaphor for the Vietnam war. To make this video I started with WW I and WW II and passed through Korea and Vietnam and on to the entrance into Iraq. You'll keep hearing the recuring lyrics "THERE'LL BE NO MORE WALTZING MATILDA FOR ME". WALTZING here means walking, dancing, traveling, doing things together with your mate so there is a lot of double meaning here. The soldier lost his legs and many people have lost their loved ones and their mates to sickness, or to passing on. In either case for the person who lost limbs or a loved one there'll be no more waltzing for that person for a while. So as you go through the video keep in mine the australian word Waltizing. Matilda means the duffle bag or a wife or girl friend. The title of the song is THE BAND PLAYED WALTZING MATILDA sung by Priscilla Herdman. My Judy is in the Vietnam section with her MASH 4077 tee shirt on. She is also layered in the first photo with the soldiers raising the flag at Iwo Jima.

Your Life and Mine Has a Less Value

In Downtown Los Angeles the winos refer to 5th street as The Nickel. Tom Waits sings this song ON THE NICKEL. It's about being down and out on the Nickel but it could just as well be down and out anywhere.

Watch this video carefully. The picture are not all old. Some look like today. In just a few days those who have not already voted will do so. There are those who claim that this is an election for life... the pro-life folks. But what does pro-life really mean to them.

They are correct this election is about life, but more than the life of the unborn child. A few months ago I read an article that said that ours and my life span depends upon where we live... between 53 years and 83 years. The poor you and I are the more likely we will die from lack of health car, lack of food, lack of clean water. Poverty is a life issue.
I don't tell people how to vite. I presit or bishop, or any minister or pastor has not business to do so. It is unChristian. It is an attack against God, and an attack against you and me.

So go out an vote. Make sure you know what the right issues are, and what the candidates are really saying, not the attacks on each other which serve no purpose than to cover up their true beliefs.

The creator of this video also created the video below. We are under fier as Willie Nelson sings in his song. Willie has a very special and effective of getting the story right the first time. Perhaps that is why I am working on a small book of the Theology of Willie Nelson, and I bet you never thought that Willie was one of this genrations great theologians.


It would seem that the life of a unborn children has a greater value than me at 63 years. We will kill off the old. don't they have a name for that?


These three videos were created by the same person. he has a great talent, would have gotten an A in my editing class. here is what he wrote about this last video, and think we all know who the shoe will fit;

I WON'T POINT TO OR CRITIZE ANY LOCAL. IF THE SHOE FITS THAN THAT'S WHAT THE VIDEO IS ABOUT. I KNOW THE WORKING POOR GO WITHOUT HEALTH CARE, THE ELDERLY GO WITHOUT THEIR MEDICATION, AND OUR CHILDREN, ESPICIALLY AUTISTIC CHILDREN AND THEIR FAMILIES ARE IGNORED. WE CAN DO BETTER AND WE WILL. MY JUDY IS LAYERED IN ONE OF THE PHOTOS OF THE REFINERY IN WOOD RIVER, ILL.

ESPN

This has nothing to do with Orthodoxy, religion, or anything else that is usually posted on this site. And thankfully it has nothing to do with the election. It is nothing more than bragging about the school I graduated from. Culver Academy which has made ESPN.

Culver in position to make statement

By Joe Trost
Special to ESPNRISE.com
(Archive)

For three months a year, a tiny Indiana town called Culver is buzzing.

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Jan Garrison/Culver Academy

Dineo Mmutla left South Africa in August and is now the team's third-leading scorer.

Located 100 miles north of Indianapolis and 100 miles southeast of Chicago, Culver is invaded by vacationers from all over during the summer. The town is the home to the second-largest natural lake in Indiana, and New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, Indianapolis Colts owner Robert Irsay and countless other families have made this their summer getaway for years.

But once Labor Day hits and all the weekenders pull their boats from Lake Maxinkuckee and some of the locals migrate south for the winter, Culver tends to hibernate for the next nine months.

This fall, however, has been a different story for the town of 1,200 year-round residents.

You see, Culver is home to one of the nation's premier college-prep schools -- the Culver Academy. Founded by Henry Harrison Culver, whom the town is named after, the school's enrollment is more than half the population of Culver.

And come Saturday in Indianapolis, everyone will be talking about Culver when the Culver Academy girls' soccer team takes the field for its Final Four state showdown with Fort Wayne. The Eagles (17-0-3), who are making their first state semifinal appearance since the school opened in 1894, are trying to become the first team in the school's history to win a state title.

"I don't think many people even know there is a town called Culver," Culver coach Harry Canellakis said.

Chances are it is the only place where Steinbrenner, a 1948 graduate, can disappear without having the New York media find him. All four of his children and grandchildren graduated from the school, and the performing arts center for dance and theater programs is named after the Steinbrenner family.

"For the past couple of weeks, there have been people that have been asking me who we are and where we're from," Canellakis added.

Of the 795 students who attend the $24,500-a-year school, 333 are girls. More than 25 percent of the school is composed of students from other countries.

One of those international students, Dineo Mmutla (South Africa), is the soccer team's third-leading scorer. The sophomore midfielder has 14 goals and 10 assists. Her play, along with that of Jenna Iwaniec (16 goals, 14 assists) and Jasmine Soo (16 goals, eight assists), have keyed big postseason wins over well-known programs such as Penn and Lake Central.

"My dream was to go to school and play soccer overseas," said Mmutla, who moved to the U.S. in August. "Everything is really different here than what I'm used to, but everyone has welcomed and supported me since I've been here."

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Jan Garrison/Culver Academy

Jenna Iwaniec is one of only a few Culver students who live in the town year-round.

Although Canellakis is quick to throw praise to his three offensive stars, referring to the Eagles' offense as its "best defense at times," the fourth-year head coach knows exactly why Culver is in this historic position.

"We're a very well-balanced team," said Canellakis, who lives in California in the summer and says 30 to 40 percent of his squad does not live in Indiana when school is not in session. "We have very dangerous forwards, and we have players in the midfield that can score, too."

In its six postseason games, Culver has allowed just one goal. This season, it has outscored 20 opponents 80-17.

"I moved to Culver from Indianapolis when I was a freshman, so I'm a local now," said Iwaniec, who is one of five seniors who live year-round in Culver. "What's cool about living in a small town is that word spreads fast. I have people coming up to me who I don't even know wishing us good luck this weekend."

After skipping last season to play hockey, Alicia Schaefer has held her own in goal this season. Maddie Balchan, Sam Hinsey and Deanna Dilts make up the back line in front of her.

"These kids are successful on and off the field, and that's one of the great things about this school," Canellakis said. "They are soccer players who are just as successful academically.

"It really is a great story."

And now more than just the locals know how great Culver is.

Joe Trost is a contributor to ESPNRISE.com.
source: http://sports.espn.go.com/highschool/rise/soccer/news/story?id=3671858