Grateful Dead

have hit Texas & La........geeeeez-when will it stop???

The Dalai Lama turned 75 years old today and celebrated his birthday in his exile home in Dharamsala, a hill town in the foothills of the Himalaya in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. It has been his home in exile permanently since 1959. This Dalai Lama, the 14th of a lineage of 'tulku' in Tibetan Buddhism, has been an extraordinary leader of his people who are facing extinction on the Tibetan plateau, their ancestral land. The Chinese have imposed their version of a final solution and introduced mass migration of Han Chinese into Tibet, thus overwhelming the people and their culture. A shadow government in exile has been set up and the Dalai Lama travels the world with a head of state status and security. He has made sure that the different lineages of Bon and Tibetan Buddhism have remained intact and insured their preservation. The important arts, crafts and cultural institutions have also been re-established in many countries around the world. Although the tale of the Tibetan people is a very sad one it would have been horribly worse without the tireless campaigning of this Dalai Lama who has proven to be like a second Gandhi, having his people hew a nonviolent path. If you ever have a chance to meet this extraordinary human being don't pass it up.

The whole affair sounds very European, sans PEDs.

They do seem to be crashing a lot. I blame the lack of performance enhancing substances. They are not coming too near us this year...was a lot closer last year, but I stayed away. I saw it 4 years ago...in advance of the race there is a long carnival of trucks and floats from all the sponsors with music, lots of goody bags and fun and drinking. Then there is a pause and a wait. Then the race goes by in a blur. Then it is all over. I never went to a mountain stage, where you get to see more for longer.

Sure have been a lot of bikes hitting the pavement in Belgium: will the tour spin past CB's place?

What will they think of next department... The wing-nuts never sleep. They have brought national attention upon themselves when one of their leaders was stopped by a policeman and his son shot and killed 2 cops in the incident about 18 months ago. They believe the Federal government has no jurisdiction over them and they don't need driver's licenses. They also believe that when you are born the government sells futures contracts on your earnings and the Chinese are currently buying up a lot of those contracts. The Sovereign Citizen Movement is believed to have 50,000 or so members in the U.S.. Hmmm, sort of like a hybrid cross of the militia movement and the far right wing of the Tea Party. Can't wait till they join forces with the gay nazis. Then they could start their own circus. How can people with a high school education believe these things?? ~ Paranoia strikes deep ~

Gonzo, on the news last night. ********************************** By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity -- another man's I mean. Mark Twain

So they were picking through the packages in the mail room at the airport in Bogata the other day when they come up with this replica of the World Cup being sent to Spain. It weighed 24 pounds and was made entirely of cocaine mixed with acetone to make it mold-able 'Chi-chi, grab the yea-oh' (Al Pacino in Scarface)

She was told by her Dad when she was a little girl that the fireworks were for her! How cool was that! Have a safe and fun 4th everyone. Lamagonzo's advice is good re driving. Let's all heed it. The 4th celebrates the birth of a nation that gave us the Grateful Dead, and what's more American than that. It also pays tribute to a nation that has a long way to go to live up to its ideals as noted in some of the posts above. I try to celebrate the positive aspects without ignoring the deficits (sometimes that's hard). Let's all remember and nurture the good stuff while working to change the bad! Happy 4th of July everyone!

old people should eat dog food so they can afford to keep their lights on and buy their medicine. I saw an old man in the market yesterday. He was asking the guy behind the counter why he got chewy steak paying $4 a pound. The guy told him you gotta spend more money than that to get good steak. I wanted to cry and buy this guy and his wife some of the good stuff. WTF kind of country do we live in where old people who are sick get their lights turned off? Hand me that loaded spike. I don't want to think about this anymore.