! Aaaah, "Apocalypse Now"**; so you're familiar with the movie. ! It was a ! great movie, and the actor, Robert Duvall**, **who delivered ! the famous ! line, "I love the smell of napham in the morning . . . . . . . smells ! like . . like victory.", was equating the smell of napham ! with Victory, ! but he had it all wrong. ! ! I remember the smell of napham from the many times they were ! dropped by ! the South Vietnamees Air Force station at Binh Thuy Air Base. ! The bombs ! would be dropped just outside the parameters of the base, but they ! didn't look, smell, or sound like Victory to anyone on the base. I ! can't wait for the first good movies that will come out about the ! invasion, occupation, and civil war in Iraq. Today is a time for ! Diplomacy, not more war and bombs.
I wish I could partake in your delusions. The truth is, there comes a time when the clash of ideas manifests itself in war of the flesh. Such a time appears to be "most of the time" in this world, including the present time. The horror our grandparents knew is returning. The people who oppose us espouse ideas of hate and repression that make your theocratic fantasies of Jerry Falwell pale in comparison. The worst of your neo-con caricature nightmare scenarios are actually already more than embodied in the mullahs and autocrats in the Middle East, _for real_, not in the hypothetical threat of some neo-con egghead---that strange hybrid of former secular utopian, ostensibly religious modern ivory-tower by-product of the West's obsession with intellectual synthesis. Yet you seem to think we should tolerate and negotiate with the mullahs, and you fear the paper tiger of your vaunted "religious righter" types here at home who, frankly, are walking parodies of western materialism, and far less influential here than the mullahs of hate are over there. Our so-called "religious" leaders are as religious as a Hollywood wedding is destined to last. But the mullahs over there would slit your throat and send your head back to your parents with glee; while at best a neo-con here would engage you in a discussion and possibly call you a kook. Thinking long and hard about the current state of affairs, I am somewhat disillusioned that either war or peace are things we mortals can forge. People are incorrigible. Sort of like global warming: sure, maybe its happening, based on as much data as we can gather and analyze (here's a clue: the climate is always changing, and life is fragile and not exactly something common in the cosmos, though it does appear to come and go in cycles); but its another thing altogether to say we understand its cause, let alone its cure, and are but a few votes shy of a final solution. All our speculation is so much vanity and "chasing the wind". (This is why I find Bill Arnold so fascinating: a seemingly endless endurance to chase that windmill.) "There but for the grace of God go we" is more true than we realize. These seemingly obvious things with elusive meaning are part of the give and take of Life, the ebb and flow of existence. It is pretty much useless to fight the wave when you are a grain of sand---let us see what the dawn shall bring. For now, it is time to sleep. Enjoy the peace while it lasts. Maybe it's real. Good night, my friend. Aphoristically yours, - Bob ! ! http://www.filmsite.org/apoc.html ! ! Regards, ! ! LelandJ ! ! ! petetheisen wrote: ! ! > Leland Jackson wrote: ! > ! >> There is a season for Depolmacy and Peace, and let that ! time be now. <g> ! > ! > ! > Hi Leland! ! > ! > I love the smell of Depolmacy in the morning. ! > ! > Regards, ! > ! > Pete ! > ! > [excessive quoting removed by server] _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
