Twelve Rules For Life
By Henry W. Mengoli

1) You always have a choice
2) Your life is gift. Treat it as an adventure
3) Experience something new everyday
4) Learn something new everyday
5) Fear is something you create
6) The line between where you are and where you want to be is a thought away
7) You create chaos to look busy, feel important and avoid your emotions
8) Remember to thank your deity and to say thank you to everyone for everything that comes your way
9) Truth only exists in the moment
10) Leadership is given, never taken
11) Throw something out everyday until all that exists is you
12) Let it go. It was never yours to begin with

I am getting so ass tired of people with immature political views who go around yankerin' and yammerin' "the country is going down the drain because of the Republicans," "the country is going down the drain because of the George Bush," etc. etc. These people are the lemmings of American society who have allowed them to be influenced by one point of view. I'm no fan of Shrub, but I have seen the country go down the drain since the second presidency of Slick Willy Clinton. Clinton was not a bad president, but he is the one who made not being accountable in style... "What is "is"?" etc., etc., coming up with totally whacked out implausible conspiracy theories about this and that. My favorite one is that Pres. Bush ordered the levies protecting that wetland swamp where New Orleans is situated blown up because he hates black people (Spike Lee came up with that gem)...just like the gem brought up one congressman several years ago said that the sharks which make their home in the Atlantic Ocean still instinctively know the ship routes where the black slaves were transported from Africa as the blood of blacks was spilled along the way.

Did Jessica Simpson EVER have a voice? Or talent, for that matter?

NEW YORK - (AP) Talk about bad timing. At the start of a media blitz to support her new album, "A Public Affair," Jessica Simpson is on vocal rest. "It is true that she has indeed lost her voice," Simpson's publicist, Rob Shuter, told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "She's been ordered to rest. ... She can talk, she can croak out a few sentences. She sounds a little off, but, you know, she can't sing."

Simpson, 26, fell ill Friday and has "a strain, a bruise on her vocal cord," Shuter told the AP. She canceled a planned appearance on CBS' "Late Show With David Letterman" this week but was to appear on MTV's "Total Request Live" on Tuesday afternoon to promote the album — but not sing, Shuter said. Simpson hopes her condition improves by Friday, when she is scheduled to perform on NBC's "Today" show, he said. "She's trying," Shuter said. "Everybody is hoping and keeping their fingers crossed."

Now I'm really going to come off as a heartless dweeb with no sense of propriety:

Remember the old "Dr. Pepper" jingle? ("I'm a Pepper. He's a pepper. She's a pepper. We're a pepper. Wouldn't you like to be a Pepper too? Dr. Pepper") Being subject to all of the one year memorials for Hurricane Katrina it occurred to me that we could be done with it all if everyone would just sing at the top of their voices, "I'm a victim. He's a victim. She's a victim. We're a victim. Wouldn't you like to be a victim too?"

These days EVERYONE loves to be a victim. A victim of racial or sexual discrimination. A victim of this and a victim of that. What happened to the America that just sucked it up? Huh? You never hear those of the Depression/World War II era bitchin' and moanin' how bad they had it. They dealt with their misery and just went on living productive lives no matter what crap life had thrown at them. It comes down to these people just need to get their shit together and rebuild than spending all of the time and energy complaining how bad they had it. Other parts of the country have had their disasters (granted, not with the magnitude of Katrina).

NEW ORLEANS - Bells tolled in this shattered city Tuesday morning, marking the moment one year earlier when New Orleans' levees buckled and unleashed a torrent of water that ripped homes from their foundations and sent tens of thousands of residents into an uncertain exile.

I have always argued that Xanax (a widely prescribed tranquilizer) needs to be added to the water supply in addition to a copious amount of Prozac (a widely prescribed antidepressant). In one day how there could be so many airplane passenger incidents in this terrible new world is beyond me (from the Associated Press):

_A college student's checked luggage on a Continental Airlines flight from Argentina contained dynamite, authorities said, in one of six security incidents Friday that caused U.S. flights to be diverted, evacuated or searched. Federal authorities were investigating why the student, who got off the Continental plane in Houston before it continued to Newark, N.J., had the explosive residue, FBI spokeswoman Shauna Dunlap said. She said the student did not appear to be connected to terrorism. Houston Fire Department Assistant Chief Omero Longoria said the man told authorities he works in mining and often handles explosives. Longoria said federal officials were investigating whether the explanation was true. In Houston, the dynamite was found during a luggage search in a federal inspection station at Bush Intercontinental Airport shortly after Flight 52 landed at about 6 a.m. Marlene McClinton, spokeswoman for the Houston Airport System, said a bomb-sniffing dog "had a hit" on explosive residue during a further search.

In other incidents:

_An American Airlines flight from England to Chicago was forced to land in Bangor, Maine, in response to an unspecified threat, authorities said. Passengers deplaned and were led to a holding area, said airport manager Rebecca Hupp. The jetliner was on the tarmac with its engines shut off.

_A US Airways jet was diverted to Oklahoma City after a federal air marshal subdued a disruptive passenger who had pushed a flight attendant, the FBI said.

_A Continental Airlines flight from Corpus Christi, Texas, to Bakersfield, Calif., was held in El Paso, one of its scheduled stops, after the crew discovered a missing panel in the lavatory, authorities said.

_A utility knife was found on a vacant passenger seat of a US Airways flight traveling from Philadelphia to Bradley International Airport in Connecticut, state police said.

_An Aer Lingus flight from New York to Dublin was evacuated Friday morning during a scheduled stopover in western Ireland following a bomb threat that turned out to be unfounded, officials said.

Pilots and flight attendants are now trained to view passengers who appear to be crazy as potential terrorists, Breslin said. But even if a disruptive passenger isn't a terrorist, "who knows what kind of havoc he could wreak on a closed pressurized tube at 39,000 feet?" he said.

In Oklahoma City, the passenger who pushed the flight attendant on the US Airways flight was taken into custody after the plane landed at Will Rogers World Airport, FBI spokesman Gary Johnson said. He was undergoing a mental evaluation, and authorities had yet to determine what criminal charges he might face. The twin-engine jet returned to flight three hours later on its trip from Phoenix to Charlotte, N.C.

Back in Texas, the crew of Continental Airlines Flight 2258 discovered a missing panel in the lavatory, and passengers were being screened and interviewed upon landing in El Paso, the TSA's Amy von Walter said.

Genuine listening means
suspending memory,
desire, and judgement
for a few moments at least,
and existing for the other person.

Michael P. Nichols

I actually saw someone on television with a worse name than mine!

Suwat Thamronsrisakul

He's the chief of police with the Thailand Immigration Service and was featured in a news conference with Thai authorities regarding the murder of Jon Benet Ramsey.

In light of the terrorist plot to blow up airliners in Great Britain, Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff was on Bill O'Reilly's show tonight. What rubbish that Americans have now to be put through more security screenings when our territorial borders are being compromised by millions upon millions of illegal Mexicans citizens.
I submitted the following note to the show:

Watching Homeland Secretary Chertoff spin out of control was downright frightening. All of the reverse engineering of homemade terrorist bombs and heightened airport security screenings don't mean a hill of beans until the borders with Mexico (and Canada) are sealed air tight. Chertoff's empty words are nothing but window dressing on the Bush administration's failure to uphold U.S. laws and protect its citizens since our rude wakeup call of September 11th. Mr. Chertoff, you can fool some of the people some of the time, not all of the people all of the time.

Ivars Bezdechi
San Diego, CA

A web site called SustainLane.com each year puts America's 50 largest cities into a natural disaster index with its Sustainable U.S. City Ranking.

At the top of the list are cities relatively immune to the brunt of nature. Near the bottom are those in the cross hairs of hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis or some other force to be reckoned with. Note my commentaries after the city names.

This year's list (*=tie):

1. Mesa, AZ* / Never mind that you can FRY
1. Milwaukee, WI* / Never mind that you can FREEZE TO DEATH
3. Cleveland, OH* / Never mind that you can be SHOT TO DEATH
3. El Paso, TX* / Never mind that you can FRY
3. Phoenix, AZ* / Never mind that you can FRY
3. Tucson, AZ* / Never mind that you can FRY
7. Colorado Springs, CO
8. Detroit, MI / Never mind that you can be robbed and killed by gangs
8. Fresno, CA
8. Minneapolis, MN / Never mind that you can FREEZE TO DEATH
8. Philadelphia, PA / Never mind that you can FREEZE TO DEATH
12. Chicago, IL / Never mind that you can FREEZE TO DEATH
13. Denver, CO
14. Albuquerque, NM / Never mind that you can FRY
15. Las Vegas, NV / Never mind that you can FRY
16. San Antonio, TX / Never mind that you can FRY
17. Nashville, TN
18. Atlanta, GA
19. Omaha, NE
20. Austin, TX
21. Kansas City, MO
22. Arlington, TX
22. Dallas, TX
22. Fort Worth, TX
25. Indianapolis, IN
26. Louisville, KY
27. Washington, DC / Never mind that you can be robbed and killed by gangs
28. Baltimore, MD / Never mind that you can be robbed and killed by gangs
29. Charlotte, NC
30. Portland, OR / Never mind that you are taxed to death and have moss grow on you
31. San Diego, CA / Perfection!
32. Boston, MA*
32. Jacksonville, FL*
32. New York, NY*
35. Memphis, TN*
35. Seattle, WA*
35. Virginia Beach, VA* / You are in the same city as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson
38. Sacramento, CA
39. Columbus, OH*
39. Oklahoma City, OK*
39. Tulsa, OK*
42. Long Beach, CA
43. Houston, TX*
43. Los Angeles, CA* / Never mind that you can be robbed and killed by gangs
45. San Jose, CA
46. Honolulu, HI
47. San Francisco, CA
48. Oakland, CA
49. New Orleans, LA
50. Miami, FL

Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright sent President Vaira Vike-Freiberga a letter in which she expresses concern over plans to ban the sale of Coca-Cola in Latvia’s schools. Vike-Freiberga’s spokeswoman, Aiva Rozenberga, said the letter has been passed on to the Latvian Health Ministry with a request to provide an opinion. In her letter, Albright criticizes the decision for singling out a single producer – the U.S. company Coca-Cola. The draft provisions, announced at a meeting of state secretaries, would prohibit selling schoolchildren drinks containing unnatural coloring, sweeteners, preservatives, caffeine and amino acids.

Gosh, could Madeleine Quarterbright now that she is out of office be in the pocketbook of Coca-Cola Corporation? Nahhhhhh.... All Democrats are upstanding individuals who NEVER EVER compromise themselves to major corporate interests when they are out of office...or even in office. Democrats are ALWAYS for the common man and NEVER compromise their ethics....only Republicans would sell out themselves.

At least so many of my far left Democrat lemming friends would try to convince me....

This is truly an effective use of e-mail spam which I received tonight:

Светка, привет!
Как ты там в Москве?
Бросай все и лети отдыхать:
Я не жалею, что сорвалась. Настроение и самочувствие резко изменились.
Проблем как не бывало:Вообщем, все супер: Мои тоже не жалуются: погода-
класс. Зайди посмотри мои фотки http://natalym-24.narod.ru/photoalbum.html

Когда соберешься в Турцию, не забудь купить сим-карту. Мне Сашка
посоветовал. Спасибо ему. Не пожалела. За 400 рублей купила комплект с
сим-картой и 25 минут разговоров с Россией. Даже в Турции таких цен нет.
Обязательно купи, они доставляют бесплатно, тел. 85014791675.
Желаю хорошего настроения.
Вперед на отдых.
Целую, Наташа.

Tonight I prepared to turn in my phone to Sprint to get a replacement and purchase at a highly reduced rate a super duper phone with a lot of high tech features (camera phone, videocamera, etc.). So I decided to clean out my phone number list which has phone numbers of persons who have wanted regular communication with me and otherwise...which led me figure from which states telephone contacts were deleted from.

ALASKA (1)

CALIFORNIA
San Diego (5)
Orange County/Los Angeles (3)
Palm Springs (2)
San Francisco (1)

COLORADO
Denver (1)

GEORGIA
Atlanta (1)

PENNSYLVANIA (2)

A good friend sent this from his camera phone taken at the Cleveland airport.

President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that he thinks Israel is pursuing wider goals in its military campaign against Lebanon than the return of its captured soldiers.

"However complicated the questions are, maximum efforts must be applied to resolve the situation in a peaceful way and I think all efforts have not been exhausted," Putin said. "However, it is our impression that aside from seeking to return the abducted soldiers, Israel is pursuing wider goals."

Why doesn't someone just tell this little nymph to shut up? It is as though that Russia hasn't pursued "wider goals" itself? Some people.

Being realistic is one thing.
Being fatalistic is another.

What if you invited a whole bunch a people to a party and no body came? That is the impression that I'm getting now that anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan and the rest of the Hollywood lefties such as Susan Sarandon, her hubby Tim Robbins, and nutritiion guru Dick Gregory are now participating in a fast in Washington DC to bring about an American troop pullout from Iraq. Except for a bit of coverage in the national media before it started, it would seem that the antics of North Korea shooting missiles and them fizzling everytime is stealing the media spotlight. Just as it is fun watching the Democrats saying they are about to claim victory in the November mid-term elections, they are sniping at each other like never before. And this is the alternative leadership that they want to give us? Thanks, but no thanks.

What has me also snickering is watching the city council of Berkeley, CA wanting to hand over a referendum to the voters in November to impeach President Bush. Like a lot of the maniacs who want this, they don't even give thought that if President Bush is impeached, then Vice-President Cheney becomes President, and then Congress Majority Leader Dennis Hastert becomes Vice-President. This is the typical shortsightedness of the whacked out left that is anti-war and anti-Israel. Just let the Palestinians (who are in constant chaos themeselves) push the Jews into the Black Sea....that's right...what about the rights of Jews to their homeland?

I don't think so...and that is someone who is slightly right of center who never votes a candidate on party affiliation, but uses the anti-moron standard of picking the candidate who will do the least harm and potentially the least mess.

My letter to Fox News' Bill O'Reilly on his interview with Sen. John Kerry:

Dear Bill,

I very much enjoyed your thoughtful "no spin" interview with Sen. John Kerry. Despite all of the bleach and whiteners you added in order to get him to answer questions in a straightforward manner, he still came off as "permanent press."

Ivars Bezdechi
El Cajon, CA

An online friend tonight confided in me about his ongoing conflict between his religious upbringing and his sexual orientation. It led me to do quite a bit of thinking about that concept and how the masses can be led into a certain believing certain things, and when it is repeated enough times it becomes "the truth." We are all children of God. He made white, red, black, yellow, thin, fat, short, and tall people in his image. It is man and his man-made structures -- physical and emotional -- which hold us down. God loves us all no matter as we are. It is dogma in order to corral the less intelligent that is artificial and is truly in conflict with God's word and his power.

Catholics believe God is a Catholic, Baptists believe God is a Baptist. The TRUTH is that God is God...his words is the Bible...and those who have come and preach in His name are interpreting those words.

God wants us to live our lives the best we can...and does not expect us to be perfect. The only people who are going to hell -- are the people who scream and yell threatening other people who are going to go to hell. It is THEIR judgement...and the only one who can validly make judgement on us is God Himself. God gets pissed off when someone gets in His way.

THE MOST STUPID PHRASES IN THE AMERICAN VERNACULAR

OK...The time has come for me to spout on about some of the most stupid phrases people use these days in their speech to pretend they are saying something meaningful which they can easily conveniently duck out of but still sound good and come off as a being "kinder and gentler" human being. In short, all of these phrases mean really nothing, but sound good as they don't require true commitment on the part of the speaker.

Are my views cynical? The answer is a loud "yes" -- but it is all true.


1. "LET'S DO LUNCH SOMETIME"

In my 25 years of active life (out of 43 -- or 185 in dog years) I have NEVER had anyone who said this to me ever follow through with this statement, and when you followup with them they are nowhere to be found, supposedly never got your message, or are just leaving on a business trip to Antartica where their dying aunt next door neighbor lives.

2. "I FEEL YOUR PAIN"

President Clinton made this one famous...sounds good...but did he say this when he romped (schtupped) with Monica Lewinsky in the White House with his warm cigar? He also made famous "I didn't inhale" but he still smoked marijuana. This is what Pres. Clinton will be remembered for in 50 years.

3. "I SUPPORT YOU"

It sounds like someone is ready to do a personal blood letting on your behalf when you're going through hard times, but does not need commitment. Most conveniently the speaker can say this and disappear after he or she has left the impression that "they care."

4. "IF YOU NEED ANYTHING, DON'T HESITATE TO ASK."

After going through a devastating personal tragedy recently, I heard this so many times that I could have slapped the utterer of the phrase silly. Everytime that I really needed something, they always had a "reason" that they couldn't fulfill your need at the moment. With one bright exception, the worst offenders were acquaintances two or more time zones away.

As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn't supposed to ever let you down probably will. You will have your heart broken probably more than once and it's harder every time. You'll break hearts too, so remember how it felt when yours was broken. You'll fight with your best friend. You'll blame a new love for things an old one did. You'll cry because time is passing too fast, and you'll eventually lose someone you love. So take too many pictures, laugh too much, and love like you've never been hurt because every sixty seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you'll never get back.