Without Warning

Trey Smith

As the Federal Times recently reported, sequestration includes an 8.2 percent cut to the National Weather Service. According to the organization representing weather service employees, that means there is “no way for the agency to maintain around-the-clock operations at its 122 forecasting offices” and also means “people are going to be overworked, they’re going to be tired, they’re going to miss warnings.”

Summarizing the problem, the American Institute of Physics put it bluntly: “The government runs the risk of significantly increasing forecast error, and the government’s ability to warn Americans across the country about high impact weather events, such as hurricanes and tornadoes, will be compromised.”

The good news is that the National Weather Service station in Norman, Okla., had a warning in effect for 16 minutes before the most recent Oklahoma City tornado hit. That’s better than the 13 minute average so, thankfully, more people probably had more time than usual to evacuate or find safe shelter.

But what about the next time around? Will we be as ready as we can and should be? The answer is maybe not.

Though the past few years saw a record number of billion-dollar weather cataclysms, the weather service remains a perennial target for budget cuts and already has nearly a 10 percent employment vacancy rate — and those realities may be damaging its long-term ability to warn the public about severe weather events.
~ from Anyone Regret Slashing National Weather Service Budget Now? by David Sirota ~

By now, we all know the mantra of conservatives: Shrink government. Government, they say, is the problem. So, we need to cut it to the bone.

But this government they desperately want to eviscerate is responsible for a host of things that helps to keep average Americans safe and healthy. If we do away with workplace safety inspectors, then workplaces become unsafe. If we do away with food inspectors and/or food safety regulations, then our food supply becomes unsafe. If we do away with safeguards to protect the air, water and land, they will become unsafe too. And, as David Sirota points out, if we cut back on funds available to the National Weather Service, we may not be adequately warned the next time a climate catastrophe is upon us.

In the aftermath of the recent tornado in Moore, Oklahoma, the President pledged whatever federal support the State of Oklahoma needed. Interestingly enough, the state's Republican Governor -- a member of one of the political parties that wants to shrink government -- Mary Fallin graciously accepted. The irony here is palpable! When tragedy strikes, those who want to shrink government almost never turn away federal government assistance. In fact, they sometimes complain of not receiving all they desire.

It's almost like they are saying, "Shrink government, but not when you're dealing me!"

Bit by Bit - Chapter 14, Part 6

Trey Smith

When Confucius was away in the west visiting the state of Wei, Yen Yuan said to the Music Master Chin, "What do you think of my master's trip?"

Music Master Chin said, "A pity! - your master will most likely end up in trouble."

"How so?" asked Yen Yuan.

Music Master Chin said, "Before the straw dogs are presented at the sacrifice, they are stored in bamboo boxes and covered over with patterned embroidery, while the impersonator of the dead and the priest fast and practice austerities in preparation for fetching them. But after they have once been presented, then all that remains for them is to be trampled on, head and back, by passers-by; to be swept up by the grasscutters and burned. And if anyone should come along and put them back in their bamboo boxes, cover them over with patterned embroidery, and linger or lie down to sleep beneath them, he would dream no proper dreams; on the contrary, he would most certainly be visited again and again by nightmares.

"Now your master has picked up some old straw dogs that had been presented by the former kings, and has called together his disciples to linger and lie down in sleep beneath them. Therefore the people chopped down the tree on him in Sung, wiped away his footprints in Wei, and made trouble for him in Shang and Chou - such were the dreams he had. They besieged him between Ch'en and Ts'ai, and for seven days he ate no cooked food, till he hovered on the border between life and death - such were the nightmares he had.
~ Burton Watson translation ~

In both the Tao Te Ching and the Zhuangzi, we find mention of the the term, "straw dogs." Here is a little bit of history and discussion of this term from The Canine in Conversation: Dogs in Metaphor and Idiom Illustrated.

These straw dogs are not the same as straw men, though there are some similarities. Straw men — sometimes called straw dogs as well — are rhetorical devices, weak stand-ins for disliked ideas which are then easily knocked down. These straw dogs were ceremonial props in an ancient Chinese ritual. As R.B. Blakney says in his translation of the Tao Tê Ching, the phrase “straw dogs” is “an easily recognizable metaphor for something worthless.” You may or may not agree with the “easily” part of this statement. Some translators have elected to render this concept in more abstract terms. Because these “dogs” were treated with great reverence until the ritual was over and then discarded with indifference, Chang Chung-yuan simply uses that very word, “indifference,” in his translation. However, Blakney thinks that the Chinese sacrificed real dogs at one time. “The straw dog was an economy,” he states unequivocally.

To view the Index page for this series, go here.

What Sometimes Happens in the Wild, Wild West

Trey Smith

A 21-year-old university student who was taken hostage in her apartment and then shot to death during a police standoff with an armed robber on New York's Long Island was killed by a bullet fired from an officer's gun, investigators said on Sunday.

Andrea Rebello was shot in the head on Friday by one of eight rounds fired at Dalton Smith, who had the woman in a headlock with a 9mm gun pointed at her head at the time, Nassau County Police Department spokesman James Imperiale said.

Smith, 30, was struck by seven bullets and died in the apartment in Uniondale, about a half a mile from Hofstra University. Rebello, who was studying public relations at Hofstra, was taken to a nearby hospital where she later died.
~ from Female Hostage Died From Police Bullet in New York Standoff by Brendan O'Brien ~

I am not sharing this news story to provide fodder for a screed against a local police department. No, I'm sharing it because it indirectly goes to the heart of a notion that many gun enthusiasts harbor: If more citizens own firearms, the chances that one of them could thwart our next mass shooting are greatly enhanced.

We heard this argument after Virginia Tech, Tucson, Aurora and Newtown. The way this line of reasoning goes is that, if not for our currently weak gun control regulations, some average citizen or, in the case of Newtown, a school administrator or teacher, could have whipped out their trusty sixshooter and stopped the carnage sooner as opposed to later.

Hey, it sounds good, but I don't think it would likely play out that way in real time!

The police are trained in the use of firearms during stressful situations. Unfortunately, as this case sadly illustrates, not all of their shots find the intended target. The police were there to try to save this young woman's life and, in doing so, they killed her. This certainly wasn't their intent, but that is what happened.

There was another case within the past year or so when the NYPD tried to apprehend a man with a gun running through the streets. While they eventually shot him, they also ended up wounding several innocent bystanders. They are damn lucky none of those bystanders ended up dead.

If our trained law enforcement personnel sometimes shoot the wrong folks, what are the chances that an average Joe or Jane Doe might do the same? Shooting an assailant in a highly charged and chaotic situation is not the same thing as shooting an immobile target at the local shooting range. For one thing, paper targets don't shoot back. For another, you don't have scores of innocent bystanders running around the range darting in and out of the potential line of fire.

About the last thing we need the next time there is a mass shooting is for more innocent deaths because an average citizen who decides to take the assailant down turns out not to be such a good shot!

I Ching: Hexagram 31 - The Lines, Part 6

Six at the top means:
The influence shows itself in the jaws, cheeks, and tongue.

The most superficial way of trying to influence others is through talk that has nothing real behind it. The influence produced by such mere tongue wagging must necessarily remain insignificant. Hence no indication is added regarding good or bad fortune.

Translator of this version of the I Ching is Richard Wilhelm. If you missed any posts in this series, please utilize the I Ching label below.

Waylessness II

Scott Bradley

We all have our way. Whether articulated or not, whether sharply defined or simply amorphous, whether rigid or ever-evolving — we all have that way by which we orient ourselves in and to the world.

A way, by its very nature, is chosen out from numerous possibilities, and this choice is necessarily an exclusion of some for the appropriation of another. The "path least taken" is still a path chosen. Such is life.

Yet Dao, that is Dao as descriptive of a kind of awareness, makes no distinctions, does not choose, excludes nothing. Understanding this, Zhuangzi suggested a way that, though it must of necessity exclude other ways, still is able to understand itself as just one way among many. This way declares the equality of all ways, yet also understands that to declare this, or anything else, is to necessarily negate all the ways that think otherwise.

Zhuangzi criticizes the Confucians and Mohists for criticizing each other. Is this pure hypocrisy, or is he aware of the contradiction? He is aware. He knows that if he speaks he acts contrary to Dao. Yet, because he is human he speaks. Being human is a messy business. Sex is great, but it is also messy. It can stain the sheets, lead to unwanted pregnancies, spread disease, cause hurt feelings. Yet, this does not stop us. Zhuangzi understands that being human involves a messiness that is not susceptible to disinfection. His way is not a way that seeks or promises perfection, but one that suggests a way of accommodation and approximation that brings its own freedom.

To understand how life does not lend itself to perfection is liberating. To understand this and still live messily is implied in what Zhuangzi calls "walking two roads". It is to be in the world, but not of it. One follows along with the necessary imperfections of life, and can do so because one knows that these imperfections are of no ultimate consequence. One allows the view from Dao — the view that affirms every human being, every microbe, every particle as equally acceptable — to inform us in our imperfections. When we can laugh at our own peccadillos, at our very own bondage, we have been informed by Dao.

How can this not change us? To be informed by total unconditional acceptance is not to be confirmed in our imperfections, but rather to be imbued with the power to grow — naturally.

You can check out Scott's writings on Zhuangzi here.

TYT - Saudi Student Investigated for Pressure Cooker

I Ching: Hexagram 31 - The Lines, Part 5

Nine in the fifth place means:
The influence shows itself in the back of the neck.
No remorse.

The back of the neck is the most rigid part of the body. When the influence shows itself there, the will remains firm and the influence does not lead to confusion. Hence remorse does not enter into consideration here. What takes place in the depths of one's being, in the unconscious mind. It is true that if we cannot be influenced ourselves, we cannot influence the outside world.

Translator of this version of the I Ching is Richard Wilhelm. If you missed any posts in this series, please utilize the I Ching label below.

Let Me Add Another

Trey Smith

Prior to the Iraq War, the war in Libya, and any intervention we may or may not undertake in Syria, some hawks insistently argue(d) that there is a humanitarian imperative to step into the breach.

Their arguments can be powerful.

Innocent people are dying at the hands of a tyrant. We have the most powerful military on earth. If we do nothing, the slaughter will continue. And don't most of us agree that some military interventions, like the one that stopped the Holocaust, would've been justified on purely humanitarian grounds, even if stopping the death camps wasn't the rationale for WWII at the time?

There are many non-interventionist counterarguments. One is that even in situations where death is guaranteed absent intervention, it is still possible to unwittingly make a terrible situation worse.

Another is that war is very costly in U.S. lives and treasure.

And isn't it unfair to order people who joined the military to defend their country to risk their lives for a different cause, however noble?

While open to interventions in the most extreme cases, I'm generally a non-interventionist, and although there are several reasons I feel that way, one in particular seems to be missing from the national debate: Almost every time someone calls for a war to be entered on humanitarian grounds, there's a way to save more lives more cheaply and reliably with philanthropic spending.
~ from The Flaw in Many Humanitarian Arguments for War by Conor Friedersdorf ~

Let me add my own counterargument: If the US genuinely promoted peace, justice and human rights in our foreign policy -- as well as within our own borders -- a lot of these situations wouldn't develop in the first place. Most of the nations that receive our interventions are those in which we have spent numerous years propping up their dictators. As long as these thugs do our bidding and/or allow us to steal their citizens' natural resources, we overlook their despotic tendencies and hold them close to our bosom. Consequently, the support of our elites often is a precipitating cause of unrest among their own people.

Rather than ramming "democracy" down people's throat with the barrel of a gun, I think we could do a lot more good if we modeled real democracy in the way our nation conducts itself in all it does. Like the old saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!

Afternoon Matinee: Protest - Police State

Performed by Dead Prez

(Chairman Omali Yeshitela)

You have the emergence in human society

of this thing that's called the State

What is the State? The State is this organized bureaucracy

It is the po-lice department. It is the Army, the Navy

It is the prison system, the courts, and what have you

This is the State -- it is a repressive organization

But the state -- and gee, well, you know,

you've got to have the police, cause..

if there were no police, look at what you'd be doing to yourselves!

You'd be killing each other if there were no police!

But the reality is..

the police become necessary in human society

only at that junction in human society

where it is split between those who have and those who ain't got

(Dead Prez)

I throw a Molotov cocktail at the precinct, you know how we think

Organize the hood under I Ching banners

Red, Black and Green instead of gang bandanas

F.B.I. spyin on us through the radio antennas

And them hidden cameras in the streetlight watchin society

With no respect for the people's right to privacy

I'll take a slug for the cause like Huey P.

while all you fake niggaz {*UNNNGH*} try to copy Master P

I want to be free to live, able to have what I need to live

Bring the power back to the street, where the people live

We sick of workin for crumbs and fillin up the prisons

Dyin over money and relyin on religion for help

We do for self like ants in a colony

Organize the wealth into a socialist economy

A way of life based off the common need

And all my comrades is ready, we just spreadin the seed

(Chorus: Dead Prez)

The average Black male

Live a third of his life in a jail cell

Cause the world is controlled by the white male

And the people don't never get justice

And the women don't never get respected

And the problems don't never get solved

And the jobs don't never pay enough

So the rent always be late; can you relate?

We livin in a police state

(Dead Prez)

No more bondage, no more political monsters

No more secret space launchers

Government departments started it in the projects

Material objects, thousands up in the closets

Could've been invested in a future for my comrades

Battle contacts, primitive weapons out in combat

Many never come back

Pretty niggaz be runnin with gats

Rather get shot in they back than fire back

We tired of that - corporations hirin blacks

Denyin the facts, exploitin us all over the map

That's why I write the shit I write in my raps

It's documented, I meant it

Every day of the week, I live in it; breathin it

It's more than just fuckin believin it

I'm holdin them ones, rollin up my sleeves an' shit

It's cee-lo for push-ups now, many headed for one conclusion

Niggaz ain't ready for revolution

(Chorus: Dead Prez)

{*police siren wails*}

(Fred Hampton)

I am.. a revolutionary

and you're gonna have to keep on sayin that

You're gonna have to say that I am a proletariat

I am the people, I'm not the pig

(another speaker)

Guiliani you are full of shit!

And anybody that's down with you!

You could man-make things better for us

and you cuttin the welfare

Knowin damn well when you cut the welfare,

a person gon' do crime..

~ from Lyric Wiki ~

More on [Not So] Free Markets

Trey Smith

Here is how we are told that the free market works: It is survival of the fittest! Companies, not burdened nor assisted by the government, duke it out amongst themselves. Those enterprises which attract the most customers and realize the greatest profits survive. The rest die.

I suppose one could say that this theory sounds nice, but even if you accept the theory, that is not how it tends to play out in real life. Often, those enterprises who are anointed as the victors receive a big helping hand at taxpayer expense. As Mijin Cha reports,

Here’s an example of how government subsidies distort market economics: Gas prices are down nearly 35 cents from last year, yet this has had virtually no impact on this year’s first quarter profits of the big oil companies.

On top of the decline in gas prices, several of the top five oil companies -- BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, and Shell -- have had significant spills in the last quarter. A ruptured Chevron pipeline spilled thousands of gallons of oil into a Utah waterway. Shell’s oil pipeline spilled tens of thousands of gallons of oil in Texas. Exxon’s tar sand pipeline spilled up to 126,000 gallons of oil in Arkansas. All of these spills occurred just in the first quarter. Yet, these spills haven’t eaten into the companies’ profits, indicating that fines or cleanup costs aren’t anticipated to have an impact on the earnings potential.

To recap, prices are down by a significant amount and many of these oil-based corporations are staring at major clean-up operations, yet it doesn't appear to impact their bottom lines at all! What happened to the theory that companies must make it on their own? What happened to the notion that these corporations must sink-or-swim without a helping hand?

The answer is more than obvious. The free market is a contrived myth! While Corporate America doesn't want to be burdened by laws and regulations that might impede profits, they are all about slurping up as many taxpayers handouts as they can possibly get. In reality, they want to be free of any responsibilities. That's the ONLY part of free market theory they truly believe in.

Bit by Bit - Chapter 14, Part 5

Trey Smith

"Then I played it with unwearying notes and tuned it to the command of spontaneity. Therefore there seemed to be a chaos where things grow in thickets together, a maturity where nothing takes form, a universal plucking where nothing gets pulled, a clouded obscurity where there is no sound. It moved in no direction at all, rested in mysterious shadow. Some called it death, some called it life, some called it fruit, some called it flower. It flowed and scattered, and bowed before no constant tone. The world, perplexed by it, went to the sage for instruction, for the sage is the comprehender of true form and the completer of fate. When the Heavenly mechanism is not put into action and yet the five vital organs are all complete this may be called the music of Heaven. Wordless, it delights the mind. Therefore the lord of Yen sang its praises thus: `Listen - you do not hear its sound; look - you do not see its form. It fills all Heaven and earth, enwraps all the six directions.' You wanted to hear it but had no way to go about it. That was why you felt confused.

"Music begins with fear, and because of this fear there is dread, as of a curse. Then I add the weariness, and because of the weariness there is compliance. I end it all with confusion, and because of the confusion there is stupidity. And because of the stupidity there is the Way, the Way that can be lifted up and carried around wherever you go."
~ Burton Watson translation ~

There are some songs or instrumentals -- one is Tchaikovsky's Overture of 1812 -- that are guaranteed to move me to tears. Almost every time I hear one of these, my eyes well up and tears streak down my cheeks. I can't tell you why this occurs. All I can say is that the music touches something deep within me and it moves me in such a way that is so far beyond words.

To view the Index page for this series, go here.

You Can't Take It With You

Trey Smith

In his classic, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, German sociologist Max Weber observed that not only did the protestant work ethic promote capitalism but also worldly success became a measure of the likelihood of one's salvation. "He who has the most toys, wins."

Given the strong influence of Calvinism on Republican politics, it's not surprising the GOP favors the rich, opposes new taxes, and continues to support Reaganomics with its myths of "trickle down economics" and "self-regulating markets."

Nonetheless, American Calvinism has become so extreme that it no longer deserves to be called Christianity.

Jesus' first commandment was to love God. But his other teachings are about loving those around us. His second commandment was "love thy neighbor as thyself." Jesus amplified this in his Sermon on the Mount: blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake.

Jesus was not a Calvinist or a capitalist. He disdained worldly possessions.
~ from Republicans Aren't Christians by Bob Burnett ~

While I don't believe in God and I don't put much value in the Christian Bible, I do think highly of the overall perspective of that Jesus dude. I view him as a wise sage not that much different that Laozi, Zhuangzi or many others throughout the annals of history. It is not that such individuals were divine or special; it's more that they developed a lot of wisdom and keen insights into the human predicament.

As Burnett points out in his fine composition, the so-called Christian Right has so perverted the wisdom of the one they ostensibly worship that it's hard to discern why they worship this guy in the first place! Their political philosophy flies in the face of the central messages of Jesus' teachings.

Jesus advocated peace, compassion and understanding. These people advocate war, mercilessness and a "my way or the highway" mentality in HIS name.

Jesus was against amassing wealth and things because he understood that we come into this world naked and that's the way we leave it. These people have built their lives around money, power and wealth.

Most importantly, Jesus was a proponent of trust and love. These people are all about fear and hate.

It would be like a [so-called] Taoist declaring that the Tao that can be told is the REAL Tao and saying this is what Laozi meant all along!

I agree with Burnett. Those of the Christian Right are imposters! It's true that they worship someone, but that someone certainly isn't Jesus of Nazareth.

I Ching: Hexagram 31 - The Lines, Part 4

Nine in the fourth place means:
Perseverance brings good fortune.
Remorse disappears.
If a man is agitated in mind,
And his thoughts go hither and thither,
Only those friends
On whom he fixes his conscious thoughts
Will follow.

Here the place of the heart is reached. The impulse that springs from this source is the most important of all. It is of particular concern that this influence be constant and good; then, in spite of the danger arising from the great susceptibility of the human heart, there will be no cause for remorse. When the quiet power of a man's own character is at work, the effects produced are right. All those who are receptive to the vibrations of such a spirit will then be influenced. Influence over others should not express itself as a conscious and willed effort to manipulate them. Through practicing such conscious incitement, one becomes wrought up and is exhausted by the eternal stress and strain. Moreover, the effects produced are then limited to those on whom one's thoughts are consciously fixed.

Translator of this version of the I Ching is Richard Wilhelm. If you missed any posts in this series, please utilize the I Ching label below.

Waylessness I

Scott Bradley

The Ultimate Way is wayless. But to say so is not wayless. To say so is to exclude ways that are wayful, and thus to be a way. Is there an Ultimate Way? If there is Genuine Knowledge, Zhuangzi opines, then it would only be accessible to a Genuine human being. But has there ever been such a one? Zhuangzi suggests a hypothetical and remote past when perhaps there was, but one is still left with the impression that he does not really think so. In the end, Zhuangzi seems to suggest a way of liberation that accepts that there is no such thing. His vision is of a freedom that ensues from abandoning all hope of being free. His way is an accommodation to the utter irresolvability of the precarious and attenuated reality of human existence. It is a philosophy of cope; incomplete; open-ended; tentative; approximating.

Dao is dao-less in that Dao is that awareness that makes no distinctions. This Dao of which I speak is a theoretical state of mind, not a metaphysical something. Is such an awareness possible? Only the "Genuine human being" could know; and I am not he.

Dao is also dao-ful. Waylessness embraces all things, all daos. We approximate waylessness when we espouse a way that similarly affirms all other ways. This is a step removed from true waylessness, which espouses no way, but it may be the most we can hope to realize.

Here, I would like to re-introduce 'a man from Song' who was a master of the zither, but when he realized that this mastery excluded mastery of the lute, fell into deep melancholy and broke apart his zither. His pursuit of waylessness resulted in having neither a way nor waylessness. He is like the lad who went to Hadan to learn their special walk, but in the process failed to learn theirs and forgot his own so that he had to crawl home. Every human way must of necessity in some respects exclude other ways. A way that declares the equality of all ways negates those ways that declare otherwise. And here, I would like to re-introduce the guitar player who has said no to the drums, but not to the drummer. Together they make music. He accepted the excluding limitations of his way, yet was still able to affirm other ways. Let us not confuse approximation with a cowardly accommodation. Ansel Adams was a master of ‘black and white’ photography precisely because he learned to appreciate the infinite shades of grey.

Then there are daos which declare themselves Dao and judge other daos as not-Dao. Recognizing these as the reigning norm in the battle of ways, Zhuangzi suggested a dao more approximate to a Dao which does not judge, a dao which affirms other daos yet admits that it is itself only an approximating dao, and thus one that also excludes. Yet, though it excludes, it also affirms; for it affirms that daos that declare themselves Dao are not not-Dao, but also Dao.

You can check out Scott's writings on Zhuangzi here.

TYT - The Biggest, Most Corrupt Bank Scheme That's Not Being Stopped

I Ching: Hexagram 31 - The Lines, Part 3

Nine in the third place means:
The influence shows itself in the thighs.
Holds to that which follows it.
To continue is humiliating.

Every mood of the heart influences us to movement. What the heart desires, the thighs run after without a moment's hesitation; they hold to the heart, which they follow. In the life of man, however, acting on the spur of every caprice is wrong and if continued leads to humiliation. Three considerations suggest themselves here. First, a man should not run precipitately after all the persons whom he would like to influence, but must be able to hold back under certain circumstances. As little should he yield immediately to every whim of those in whose service he stands. Finally, where the moods of his own heart are concerned, he should never ignore the possibility of inhibition, for this is the basis of human freedom.

Translator of this version of the I Ching is Richard Wilhelm. If you missed any posts in this series, please utilize the I Ching label below.

When A Basement Is Not Abasement

Trey Smith

I grew up in the generalized area known as Tornado Alley. Every Spring and Summer the sirens would go off and we would grab the transistor radio and head to the basement. While a basement won't guarantee 100% that a person will escape the wrath of a tornado, your chances of survival are much greater. In all the years I lived in Tornado land, I can only think of two houses I lived in that did not have a basement and I didn't live in either for very long.

It is a known fact that riding out a tornado below the ground floor -- even a direct hit -- saves a tremendous amount of lives. And yet, few communities in Tornado Alley require basements for newly built homes and public buildings. One of the two schools in Moore, Oklahoma -- Plaza Towers Elementary School -- that suffered a direct hit by a tornado on Monday did not have a basement and several children were killed. Many of the survivors interviewed survived because they lived in homes that had basements (or storm cellars) and they were able to get down in them before the twister hit and destroyed their homes.

Since we know that basements save lives in tornadoes, why aren't they mandated in all new construction? The answer is as old as they hills: It costs more. Builders don't want the added costs and neither do many homeowners. So, homes are built on slabs in Tornado Alley and the people who live in them often die needlessly when a tornado descends on their neighborhood.

Afternoon Matinee: Protest - Take this Job and Shove It!

Performed by Johnny Paycheck

Take this job and shove it

I ain't workin' here no more

My woman done left and took all the reasons

I was working for

Ya better not try to stand in my way

As I'm walkin', out the door

Take this job and shove it

I ain't workin' here no more

Well, I been working in this factory

for now on fifteen years

All this time, I watched my woman

drownin' in a pool of tears

And I've seen alot of good folk die

who had a lot of bills to pay

I'd give the shirt right off of my back

if I had the guts to say...

Take this job and shove it

I ain't workin' here no more

My woman done left and took all the reasons

I was working for

Ya better not try to stand in my way

As I'm walkin', out the door

Take this job and shove it

I ain't workin' here no more

The foreman, he's a regular dog

The line boss, he's a fool

He got a brand new flat top haircut

Lord, he thinks he's cool

One of these days, I'm gonna blow my top

and that sucker, he's gonna pay

Lord, I can't wait to see their faces

when I get the nerve to say...

Take this job and shove it

I ain't workin' here no more

My woman done left and took all the reasons

I was working for

Ya better not try to stand in my way

As I'm walkin', out the door

Take this job and shove it

I ain't workin' here no more

Take this job and shove it!

~ from Lyric Wiki ~

Selections from Xunzi VI

Scott Bradley

All quotes are from Xunzi: Basic Writings; Burton Watson (Columbia Univ. Press, 2003).

RECTIFYING NAMES (Section 22)

"It is easy to unify the people by means of the Way, though one cannot expect them to share in the process of direction."

"Beings that possess desires and those that do not belong to two different categories — the categories of the living and the dead."

"When men acquire something, they never get only what they desire and nothing more; when men reject something, they never only rid themselves of what they hate and nothing more."

MAN'S NATURE IS EVIL (Section 23)

"Man's nature is evil; goodness is the result of conscious activity." (This introduces one of his more cogent arguments. He is replying to Mencius who thought the contrary. 'Original nature' (instinctual behavior) is contrasted with 'conscious activity' (cultivation), the eternal nature vs. nurture debate. Though he addresses the question of why conscious activity is not also man's nature (a more holistic approach), I find his arguments less than convincing. The idea that man's nature, like that of other animals, might be neither good nor evil, does not seem to have occurred to him.)

"A warped piece of wood must wait until it has been laid against the straightening board, steamed, and forced into shape, before it can be made straight; . . . Similarly, since man's nature is evil, it must wait for the instructions of a teacher before it can become upright . . ." (The Church of Pernicious Oneness has a new motto: "Warped by nature." Compare Laozi's "If you would be straight, be crooked.")

"Every man who desires to do good does so precisely because his nature is evil. . . . Whatever a man lacks in himself he will seek outside."

Quoting 'an old text': "'If you do not know a man, look at his friends.' Environment is the important thing! Environment is the important thing!" (So ends the Xunzi. If Zhuangzi is a 'naturalist', Xunzi is a 'nurturist'. Somewhere in all this there must be some balance; but isn't this what life does — balance things out without our needing to “add” anything to it?)

You can check out Scott's other miscellaneous writings here.

Bit by Bit - Chapter 14, Part 4

Trey Smith

"Then I played it with the harmony of yin and yang, lit it with the shining of sun and moon; its notes I was able to make long or short, yielding or strong, modulating about a single unity, but bowing before no rule or constancy. In the valley they filled the valley; in the void they filled the void; plugging up the crevices, holding back the spirit, accepting things on their own terms. Its notes were clear and radiant, its fame high and bright. Therefore the ghosts and spirits kept to their darkness and the sun, moon, stars, and constellations marched in their orbits. I made it stop where there is an end to things, made it flow where there is no stopping. You try to fathom it but can't understand, try to gaze at it but can't see, try to overtake it but can't catch up. You stand dazed before the four-directioned emptiness of the Way, or lean on your desk and moan. Your eyes fail before you can see, your strength knuckles under before you can catch up. It was nothing I could do anything about. Your body melted into the empty void, and this brought you to an idle freedom. It was this idle freedom that made you feel weary.
~ Burton Watson translation ~

We can decide if we like or dislike a certain song or tune, but we actually can't describe it. Oh, we can say the song is lively, slow or beautiful, but all we are doing is categorizing it. It is next too impossible to define how we experience it. The same is true for much of life!

To view the Index page for this series, go here.