No kidding about this being the Year of the Monkey.
That master of equanimity, my qi-gong teacher, Kevin Starbard, reminds us the Wood Monkey hasn't visited since 1944. Get this: "In general, monkey years are marked by political squabbles and unstable governments," he explains, "and in business, a year of turmoil. In fact, the Chinese almanac notes, 'the economy will be worse than last year, and the crime rate will be high.' Hmmm....sounds to me like a very good time to do the Golden Cicada Sheds Its Shell ceremony ..."
Right, but what's that?
This is a traditional "Feng Shui technique to symbolically rid yourself of acquired bad Chi, and be reborn in a sense. It's usually done ... to prepare for what may be an unfortunate year astrologically."
Thanks for the warning, Kevin.
Speaking of which, have you noticed the alarming proliferation of political blather lately?
I'm thinking of an especially stupid interchange I had a while back when even my ordinarily quite intelligent friend "Higgins" – not his real name – well, make that former friend, was raving about Baby Bush being a military deserter.
Remember those headlines?
Great! I recall replying at the time. "War is definitely hell! That's the first thing I've heard about the Bushling I could really get behind as a pacifist. How hopeful. Maybe he'd remember he deserted – if he really did – and pull us out of Iraq. Tell me more. I'm all ears," I said, pretending I'd never heard about it before.
"But he went AWOL! The president!!" Higgins sputtered.
Yeah? So? Well, DUH-Be-Ya lied us into this embarrassment of a war, after he stole the presidency, too. Hijacked the last election, remember? Abetted by the Supreme Court and assorted honchos and cronies in his junta of thugs. I don't see the cops coming after him for that stuff yet, either.
"Doncha see?" Higgins persisted, "This deserter thing could be what turns the public against Bush."
Let's just focus on the big picture, Higgins. Take a deep breath and repeat after me: Time to vote this illegitimate sucker out of office.
Actually, I gently reminded Higgins that deserter thing wasn't really new news, it's been kicking around for years. As I saw it, it was either true, or not true, and maybe we'd never know for sure. However, if the Bushling really did go AWOL, it wasn't as if the military police didn't know where to find him, since Big Daddy Bush had been head of the CIA and all.
Higgins' persistence was definitely starting to bug me. One blink and this "conversation" could swipe 20 years of your life.
Getting exasperated at Higgins' hard-headedness, I informed him there was even a RICO suit filed against Baby Bush, but that hadn't stopped him yet.
Meanwhile, can you believe several testosteronic posturers, not just Repug-nicans, but Dumb-O-Crap presidential wannabe John Forbes Kerry, were pushing for the United States to send in more troops to Iraq?
I ask you: How is that different from DUH-Be-Ya's side? What's the point of two parties when they're these two parties?
Yet there's a voice of reason. Visionary peace activist Dennis Kucinich – a great potential running mate for, you should pardon the expression, Kerry – has urged the United States to give the United Nations a proposal for bringing our troops home:
We have now [hundreds of] U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq, with many times that number of Iraqi civilians killed, and with several times that number of U.S. soldiers wounded. The question we must all ask ourselves: How many lives is enough? ... Again I'm calling on the administration to change its international policy direction, to reach out to the world community through the United Nations, bring U.N. peacekeepers in and bring our troops home. This exit strategy ... represents the best plan to ensure the stabilization of Iraq, the end of the war and the beginning of world security ...
Anyone listening?
And just because Bush-Wah boasted "there are no longer torture chambers or rape rooms ... in Iraq," doesn't mean there aren't.
You've seen the monstrous photographs. They document mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at the hands of U.S. and British soldiers, so vile even our putative president says "I share a deep disgust ..."
Sickening.
What's happened to America and Americans? With this top-down climate of lawlessness in this country, no wonder the bottom of the pyramid has become as pathologically addicted to sheer brutal power as the top. For shame.
Monkey see, monkey do.