XPost: alt.politics.socialism, alt.politics.economics, alt.politics.media   
   From: efreem2@alumni.umbc.edu   
      
   ZEN JUDAISM   
      
   If there is no self,   
      
   whose arthritis is this?   
      
      
   Be here now.   
      
   Be someplace else later.   
      
   Is that so complicated?   
      
      
   Drink tea and nourish life.   
      
   With the first sip . . . joy.   
      
   With the second . . . satisfaction.   
      
   With the third . . . peace.   
      
   With the fourth . . . a Danish.   
      
      
   Wherever you go, there you are.   
      
   Your luggage is another story.   
      
      
   Accept misfortune as a blessing.   
      
   Do not wish for perfect health or a life without problems.   
      
   What would you talk about?   
      
      
   The journey of a thousand miles   
      
   begins with a single "oy."   
      
      
   There is no escaping karma.   
      
   In a previous life, you never called,   
      
   You never wrote, you never visited.   
      
   And whose fault was that?   
      
      
   The Tao does not speak.   
      
   The Tao does not blame.   
      
   The Tao does not take sides.   
      
   The Tao has no expectations.   
      
   The Tao demands nothing of others. The Tao is not Jewish.   
      
      
   Breathe in. Breathe out.   
      
   Breathe in. Breathe out.   
      
   Forget this and attaining Enlightenment   
      
   Will be the least of your problems.   
      
      
   Let your mind be as a floating cloud.   
      
   Let your stillness be as the wooded glen.   
      
   And sit up straight.   
      
   You'll never meet the Buddha with such rounded shoulders.   
      
      
   Be patient and achieve all things.   
      
   Be impatient and achieve all things faster.   
      
      
   To find the Buddha, look within.   
      
   Deep inside you are ten thousand flowers.   
      
   Each flower blossoms ten thousand times.   
      
   Each blossom has ten thousand petals.   
      
   You might want to see a specialist.   
      
      
   To practice Zen and the art of Jewish motorcycle maintenance,   
      
   Do the following: get rid of the motorcycle. What were you thinking?   
      
      
   Be aware of your body.   
      
   Be aware of your perceptions.   
      
   Keep in mind that not every physical sensation   
      
   Is a symptom of a terminal illness.   
      
      
   The Torah says, "Love thy neighbor as thyself."   
      
   The Buddha says there is no "self."   
      
   So, maybe you are off the hook.   
      
      
   Though only your skin, sinews, and bones remain,   
      
   though your blood and flesh dry up and wither away,   
      
   Yet shall you meditate and not stir until you have attained full   
   Enlightenment.   
      
   But, first, a little nosh.   
      
   *.*   
      
   INSULTS WITH FLAIR   
      
   "I feel so miserable without you, it's almost like having you here."   
   - Stephen Bishop   
      
   "A modest little person, with much to be modest about."   
   - Winston Churchill   
      
   "I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great   
   pleasure."   
   - Clarence Darrow   
      
   "He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the   
   dictionary."   
   - William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)   
      
   "Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?"   
   - Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner)   
      
   "He had delusions of adequacy."   
   - Walter Kerr   
      
   "I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it."   
   - Groucho Marx   
      
   "He inherited some good instincts from his Quaker forebears, but by   
   diligent   
   hard work, he overcame them."   
   - James Reston (about Richard Nixon)   
      
   "I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved   
   of   
   it."   
   - Mark Twain   
      
   "Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go."   
   - Oscar Wilde   
      
   "He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends."   
   - Oscar Wilde   
      
   *.*   
      
   While visiting with my parents this last week,   
   my Mom started nagging me about getting married.   
      
   My Dad came to my rescue, "Oh, leave her alone," he said.   
   "Let her wait until the right man comes along."   
      
   "Why wait?" my Mom snapped. "I didn't."   
      
      
   A colleague of mine spent some time in Arizona.   
   Because I knew he had   
   never been to the prairies before,   
   I asked him what he thought of the experience.   
      
   "Well," he replied, "I've never been to a place before   
   where you can watch your dog run away . . . for three days."   
      
   *.*   
      
   Oneliners   
      
   Alcohol preserves everything except secrets.   
      
   In the good old days, a suspicious package left unattended would be   
   stolen in a heartbeat.   
      
   I'm not sure which is more useless, a Chia Pet or a U.N. resolution.   
      
   If hell is any hotter than this, I'd better change my ways.   
      
   Hermits have no peer pressure.   
      
   The dyslexic pimp opened a warehouse.   
      
   You've got to spend money to lose money.   
      
   *.*   
      
   The frustrating thing about getting old is seeing expensive antiques   
   and remembering items just like them that you threw away.   
      
      
   Modern artists sign their names at the bottoms of paintings   
   so that we'll know how to hang them.   
      
      
   Advise your children to get you quality gifts.   
   After all, they don't want to inherit junk.   
      
      
   After any salary raise, you will have less money   
   at the end of the month than you did before.   
      
   Issue of the Times;   
   Catholics, Iraq, and Just War by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.   
      
   When does war accord with justice? When does it not? No philosophical   
   system   
   is better equipped to deal with these most profound of political questions   
   than Catholicism. Long before the advent of "Catholic social teaching" -   
   an   
   unfortunate phrase that implies a chasm between individual morality and   
   political systems - there were the political writings of St. Augustine,   
   St.   
   Thomas Aquinas, and the Late Scholastics. One jewel of these writings is   
   the   
   doctrine of Just War.   
      
   To pacifists the phrase Just War sounds like an absurdity.   
      
   How can mass killing and maiming, the very essence of war, ever accord   
   with   
   justice? In fact, there are times when it is necessary, just as self   
   defense   
   and defense of one's family and community are morally necessary. But to   
   meet   
   the demands of justice, war and the tactics and weapons of war must first   
   submit to moral examination.   
      
   To militarists too, the phrase Just War sounds highly suspicious. Why   
   can't   
   nation states defend their interests around the globe through any means   
   necessary? Because that way lies moral corruption and chaos. War is the   
   health of the state and the state is the greatest earthly enemy that the   
   faith has confronted in the long history of Christianity. God's kingdom is   
   not of this world, but states have shown a propensity to try to establish   
   themselves as gods, especially in the modern era.   
      
   So there must be restraints on states, particularly on their power to make   
   war. These restraints must be based on Christian moral teaching, and they   
   must also be embodied in the legal structures of nations, including that   
   of   
   international law, a product of centuries of Catholic jurisprudence.   
      
   The desire to avoid war is a fundamental idea in the Christian view of   
   politics, just as the romanticization of war is a pagan one that reflects   
   a   
   disregard for the sanctity of life.   
   What makes a just war? Every Catholic Encyclopedia spells it out.   
      
   It must be defensive and never aggressive.   
      
   It must be the last resort, undertaken after all possible means of   
   negotiating a peace have been exhausted.   
      
   It must be conducted by legitimate authority.   
      
   The means used must be proportional to the actual threat.   
      
   There must be a good chance of winning (no sending soldiers to their death   
   for no purpose).   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)