It's a Jeff Head Saturday
Why complain about life
If you are looking for good fish
And have followed some idiot
Into the middle of the copper market?
Why go crazy
If you are looking for fine silk
And you keep rubbing your hands against
Burlap and hemp sacks?
If your heart really needs to touch a face
That is filled with abundance
Then why didn't you come to this
Old Man sooner?
For my cheek is the universe's cloister
And if you can make your prayers sweet enough
Tonight
Then Hafiz will lean over and offer you
All the warmth in my body
In case God is busy
Doing something else
Somewhere.
Why complain if you are looking
To quench your spirit's longing
And have followed a rat into the desert.
If your soul really needs to touch a face
That is always filled with compassion
And tenderness
Then why,
Why my dear
Did you not come to your friend Hafiz
Sooner?
(The Gift, Poems by Hafiz, translations by Daniel Ladinsky)
Kevin Tuma - Jellyfish - cartoon commentary on party politics. Smile.
I saw Pay It Forward on the video last night. Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt, and Haley Joel Osment as an 11-year-old kid. Spacey plays a seventh grade teacher who gives an assignment to his class to do something that changes the world. The kid thinks of the movie title. Do something hard and important for three other people. Don't let them pay you back. Tell them to pay it forward by doing the same for three other people. Well, it doesn't appear to the kid to have worked, and it profoundly doesn't work for him, but the idea catches on. 3, 9, 27, 81, 243, 729, ... Tears a couple of times for me. But I'm a softy when I'm not thinking about killing fascists.
tompaine.com ran a full-page ad in Wednesday's New York Times beginning with the following. A jpeg of the ad (136KB) is here. Articles related to the ad are here.
I Pledge Allegiance to the Drug War
of the United States of America
And to the Hypocrisy for Which it Stands
One Notion, Under Czar, Indefensible,
With Incarceration and Injustice for All.
Jeff Head's Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death home page. A treasure trove. Jeff is the inventor of the 50 Million Round March. Remember to visit the firing range this Father's Day, June 17.
Jeff Head - A Red Blooded American "Apology" to the Red Chinese - a reminder to the communists that America is the home of people who speak softly but carry a big stick. Complete with many pictures of America's big sticks. Will take a while to load over a modem, but worth the wait.
Jeff Head - Proclamation: Use of Force in Defense of Liberty petition.
Jeff Head's Free Republic page. Lots of good story links here.
Lurker at FreeRepublic - So You Want To Buy A Gun - good advice for the first time gun buyer.
Los Angeles IMC - Gun Show 'Loophole Bill' Not What They Say - Secrets Found - A link to a copy at rense.com of the report on S.890 that I linked to on Wednesday. The comments at the bottom point out some of the same inaccuracies that I found. This bill is still treason on the part of the sponsoring senators, and they should all be hanged for it, but it's not as bad as some are making it out to be. I'm linking to the la imc for the last comment, however, which I include in its entirety here:
about legality
by Refuse_Resist_Revolt 6:32pm Wed May 23 '01
address: S.D., CA Refuse_Resist_Revolt@fuckmicrosoft.com
More paperwork to "make sure the sales are legal?" As opposed to the registration and waiting period? If they have to keep making paper trail after paper trail to ensure that gun sales are legal, doesn't that suggest that it is an impossible task? But wait, we already know that. And of course, we all know that gun control has solved the gun-related crime problems in America. All crooks go through the legal channels to secure arms. It's a well known fact. Of course, before gun control, crooks were just waltzing into every sporting goods store to purchase their auto or semiautomatic weapons. And since the laws have been passed, illegal gun sales (which are so easy to track in the first place) have disappeared because all crooks respond to laws like that. Just a FYI, I am not really being sarcastic, just giving name to the fallacies in logic that would have to be true in order for the consensual beliefs about gun control to hold any water. Like the one where limiting guns available to the general public will keep crooks from getting the big boys. I grew up in a house full of guns, knowing exactly where they were and that they were unlocked and accessible. I have handled them since toddler age and began shooting them as a child. I listen to NIN and other horrible music, I read subversive literature, I have piercings and tatoos, and amazingly enough... I have not shot anyone nor seriously considered a gun a plausible way to solve a problem. Imagine that. Damned free will!
Declan McCullagh at Wired - Long Reach of Sex Spam Bill - the congressional puritans are at it again, masqerading a sex email labelling requirement as anti-spam legislation. Spam cannot and should not be controlled except by market forces. Get used to it. [grabbe]
Paul Armentano at High Times - Triangle of Terror - more on the compassionate conservative's draconian drug war picks. [unknown]
With the appointments of Walters and Hutchinson, Bush has made his agenda startlingly clear as well. His administration is not about "compassion," it's about casualties.
Ed Vogel at the Las Vegas Review-Journal - Assembly defies U.S. Supreme Court: Medical marijuana bill receives approval - Nevada's legislators finally implement two citizen initiatives. The governor hasn't said yet whether he'll sign it. [unknown]
Xrefactory "is a refactoring source browser for Emacs/XEmacs providing basic source navigation, intellisense code completion, on-line info on symbol type, safe renaming, function argument manipulations, and extraction of a piece of code into a separate function. Xrefactory is based on full pre-processing, parsing, and static analyzing of sources. It works for C and Java languages, and contains stand-alone cross referencer and generator of HTML documentation." I haven't tried it. [meat]
