Robin Williams was a Gift to the World.

There have been few individuals, so singularly talented, so extraordinarily gifted, so captivating as Robin Williams.  This man was a divinely inspired bolt of comedic lightning.  A man who lived only when he was performing for others.  A man who understood that the present - that this moment - is all we have, and that it is not to be taken for granted.

It is a tragic paradox that so often the most gifted human beings are also the most tortured internally.  Whether it be depression, addiction or numerous other 'mental' illnesses, it manifests in its most devastating form within the most creative, intelligent, energetic, compassionate human beings on the planet.

This has been a very sad year as we lost two of the entertainment industry's most beloved performers -- first, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and now Robin Williams.  Addiction and depression obviously played very significant roles in these deaths.  It is time to remove the stigmas associated with 'mental' illness and give it the attention it deserves.

The very term 'mental illness' doesn't even make any sense, if you think about it.  Depression and addiction, for example, are categorized as 'Brain Diseases.'  Last time I checked, the 'BRAIN' is a part of the physical body.  So why are certain illnesses classified as 'mental?' The symptoms of mental illness often manifest behaviorally rather than physiologically, and these symptoms unfortunately affect other people in the form of families torn apart, suicides, crimes, etc.  Hence, the stigma remains attached to these 'mental' illnesses.

So very sad. 

-peace,
Jude

Ten Reasons Not to Become a Suicide Bomber'

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Suicide Bomber's 'Selfie'

1.  Such a career choice is almost certain to piss off your mother.

2.  It would be very difficult to find a girlfriend which such gruesome hopes for the future.

3.  Killing yourself in the hopes that you will be met by 70 virgins in the afterlife is not all its cracked up to be.  I mean, what if they turn out to be seventy old nuns? Not very appealing, is it?  You never know.  It's a big risk to take.

4.  The funeral would be very messy indeed.

Not terribly fashionable is it?

5.  What to wear for such an occasion?

6.  I don't think I-Pods are 'Jihad-proof.'

7.  Your child will likely not have a very good time on your 'bring-your-kid-to-work' day.

8.  There is no cigarette smoking allowed in the afterlife.

9.  Occupational hazards include loss of limbs, decapitation, rape and imprisonment in the event you choose to leave 'the movement' and follow a different career path.

10. The dishevelled, unshaven, black-facemask look is really rather unattractive.

Looks like a nice guy, right?

-peace/warm regards:
Jude

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What Would America Do (WWAD)...

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Albert Einstein famously said that if you cannot explain 'it' simply, then you don't know 'it' well enough. He applied this philosophy to anything from theoretical physics to the meaning of life and to his many anecdotal truths about society and humanity in general.  Einstein was also famous for his 'thought experiments' in which he used simple, basic, ordinary language to explain the most complex of complicated problems.

I try to adhere to this same philosophy.  I will now apply it in order to explain the following:  What Would America Do if a hostile neighbouring country started indiscriminately raining down rockets into its city centers??

Obviously, I am trying to draw an analogy from the Israeli-Palestinian situation.  So, what would the U.S. do, if, say, Mexico started sending rockets over the border into Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California (I have to scale up the relative size of such an 'operation' due to the immensity of the United States)?  I think it's quite clear, based on history, that the U.S. would totally annihilate the enemy.  Unfortunately, civilians would die, and the U.S. typically discards this fact and labels it as 'Collateral Damage' -- a necessary evil in the ugly battleground that is otherwise known as 'War.'

I will give you two historical examples:  (1)  The bombastic 'Shock & Awe' campaign of the second U.S. Gulf War against Iraq; and (2) The nuclear bombs the U.S. dropped on Japan at the tail end of World War II.

Shock & Awe

The Second Gulf War:  This first example is quite unique in that the U.S. spent EIGHT YEARS (from 2003-2011) annihilating the 'enemy' before the enemy even used the weapons that, as it turns out, it did not even possess at the time.  In 2003, when then-acting U.S. General Colin Powell, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, famously presented his erroneous 'weapons of mass destruction' evidence to the United Nations, as we all know, the notorious U.S. military campaign called 'Shock & Awe' proceeded to destroy the 'enemy' with due haste (even though it took eight years, and even though the situation in Iraq is much worse now than it was then -- but that's 'in the past'......).  

More Shock & Awe

Classified US military documents released by WikiLeaks in October 2010, record Iraqi and Coalition military deaths between January 2004 and December 2009. The documents record 109,032 deaths broken down into "Civilian" (66,081 deaths), "Host Nation" (15,196 deaths),"Enemy" (23,984 deaths), and "Friendly" (3,771 deaths).

 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War].  
I don't think I need to explain this one any further, do I?

U.S. nuclear bomb decimating Hiroshima

World War II (Japan):  Back in the 1940's, 'rocket-fire' did not exist.  Instead, the Japanese army deployed 'Kamikazee' planes to hit Pearl Harbor.  Please note:  even though this was a 'military target' (as opposed to 'civilian'), the United States responded by declaring war on the Empire of Japan the very next day, and then it proceeded to send 110,000 Japanese-Americans to internment camps on the Pacific Coast for the duration of the war.(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_Americans).

Hiroshima

And, in case anyone forgot, when it was all over a few years later, the number of Japanese military casualties was estimated to be around 2,100,000 (yes, that's 2.1Million).  The number of Japanese  CIVILIAN casualties ranges from 500,000 to 1,000,000, including 225,000 civilians killed when the U.S. dropped nuclear bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945.  (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWII_Casualties#endnote_Japan).  

Again, I don't think I need to explain this one any further.  I believe in the concept called the 'Economy of Words' -- using the fewest words to make a powerful POINT.

Now, children, let us revisit the question:  What Would America Do if a hostile neighbouring country started indiscriminately raining down rockets into its city centers??

I think we all know what the response would be.

Peace/Warm Regards:

Jude Blues

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The Arab-Israeli 'conflict' for Dummies...

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Why those people who support Palestinians in Gaza are uninformed, misguided, and also support organized terrorism, revisionist history, death, darkness and ignorance:

Hamas (looks like a nice bunch of guys, eh?)

1.  The citizens of Gaza democratically elected Hamas -- an internationally recognized terrorist organization -- to govern them.  These civilians are thus not 'inncocent' of anything.   

2.  There never was a 'Palestinian' state -- ever.  And the concept of a 'right of return' is thus not based in any historical fact whatsoever.  For a more thorough explanation of this truth, I encourage you to read this:  The Middle East 'Problem'

3.  One of the publicly stated mottoes of Hamas, translated into English, is this:  "We love death as much as Jews love life."  The official Hamas charter can be found here (I encourage you to read it):  Hamas Covenant 1988, The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement.

4.  Not one of the twenty-two Arab countries in the world -- many with plentiful land and incredible oil wealth -- is willing to take in the Palestinian Arabs of Gaza.  Not one.

5.  The one Jewish state in the world -- Israel -- is the size of New Jersey.  Yet, it is still willing to give the Palestinians a significant portion of its land. The only requirement is that the Palestinians officially agree to stop sending rockets into Israel and to formally recognize Israel's right to simply exist.  The large majority of Palestinians routinely refuse to do this, made clearly evident by the fact that they democratically elected Hamas to govern them.  And, again, in case you forgot, the stated aim of Hamas is to destroy Israel along with all of it's millions of Jewish inhabitants.

Eliahu Elath (first Israeli ambassador to
the U.N.) presenting ark to U.S. president
Harry S. Truman.

6.  In 1948, the UN officially designated Israel as a Jewish state.  For a brief historical primer, please visit this website:  U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian.  The first line on that particular webpage reads as follows:  "On May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion, the head of the Jewish Agency, proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel. U.S. President Harry S. Truman recognized the new nation on the same day."  

7.  If Hamas laid down its weapons, there would be no more war.  If Israel laid down its arms, the following would immediately occur:  Hamas, Hezbollah and the other innumerable terrorist organizations in and around Gaza and the surrounding Arab countries would immediately seek to destroy Israel.

8.  The textbooks used to educated Palestinian school-children demonize the Jewish people and teach them to seek to murder all of the world's Jewish population.

9.  The Jewish people in Israel and around the world are 'guilty' of this -- and this has remained unchanged for over 5,000 years:  they are 'guilty' of wanting to be left alone to live in peace.  They are guilty of wanting to educate their children.  They are guilty of disproportionately being the wealthiest, smartest, most productive contributors to civilization in the history of humanity.  They are guilty of simply surviving.  They are guilty of cherishing life.  And for these things, the world's Arab population wishes to annihilate them due to jealousy, ignorance, poverty, lack of education, and a uniquely gifted pre-disposition to being the most impossibly ungovernable people in the world.  

10.  All of this information is undisputed by any rational, informed human being on the planet, and has been for years.  It's not complicated.  Some people like to think it's complicated in order to justify their support of the dead, 'innocent' Palestinian 'civilians.'  But, remember, the dead 'innocents' are not innocent at all -- they elected Hamas to govern them.  And, in return, Hamas uses them as human shields to protect their rockets -- in schools, hospitals and mosques.  This is undisputed by all sides and is publicly known information.  It's been this way forever.

As Benjamin Netanyahu simply stated, once again, as he always does -- if Hamas stopped fighting, there would be no more war.  If Israel stopped 'fighting,' there would be no more Israel.

Again, this is not complicated.  Christ.  A child could understand this.  Seriously.  

-peace/warm regards:
JB

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Top 10 Things that Irritate Me Today...

1.  Stop talking to your fucking dog.

2.  Child's first word is 'Goo-gle'

3.  Cameron Diaz is not in my city at the moment.

4.  Humidity.

5.  Money.

6.  The hypocrisy and obscenity of the 'Sultan' of Brunei.

7.  The absurdity of having children.

8.  The United States of Bullshit.......this guy wasn't deported and I was. LOL.

9.  Religion.                              

Biggest ASSHOLE in the world...

10.  Me.

-peace/warm regards:
-jude

And the Winner is....

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The older I get, the more life experience I accumulate, the more wisdom I acquire in my middle(ish)-age, I can only come up with one certain truth, which is this:  There is simply not one shred of evidence that life should be taken seriously....at all.  Yes, I'm serious...

Here are ten random headlines plucked from the most popular online news sources about an hour ago:

1. " Texas Governor Rick Perry compares homosexuality to alcoholism at a San Francisco business conference." (not a terribly brilliant move by Perry once again)  

The esteemed Governor Perry of Texas

2. " Iraq's roads are littered with decapitated police and soldiers...as medeival sharia law is imposed." (yes, they're really adapting to the modern age quite smoothly over there)

Iraqi Al-Qaeda, very nice-looking young men...

3. "Naked 73-year-old man in wheelchair attacks 92-year-old." (LOL)

crazy old wheelchair dude

4. "Mom of seven dies in jail over unpaid school fines." (good old-fashioned American 'justice')

5. "Harrison Ford injured on Star Wars set." (couldn't possibly care less)

6. "Condom use drops among teens." (that's because condoms don't feel as good, duh...)

7. "911 dispatcher tells rape victim to 'quit crying.' (very compassionate, indeed)

8. "Donald Sterling is hiring four different PI firms to dig up dirt on other NBA owners." (no comment)

9. "Oh My God, Here's Chris Christie Dancing." (again, no comment)

10. "Man impersonates Twilight actor to lure girls." (not a bad idea)

Oh yeah, one more important headline:  "Japanese red eels put on endangered species list." (I really don't care about fucking eels -- I care about humanity)

So as the large majority of humanity continues to devolve into a cesspool of ignorance, impoverishment, evil, absurdity and reality -- and while the privileged 'few' continue to look the other way and offer all sorts of uncredible platitudes and opinions on those things which they have not ever personally experienced -- I can't help, but sit back and laugh.  Because this world is a joke.  I welcome anyone to convince me otherwise. 

As I may have mentioned before, I speak from a relatively interesting perspective as a former/future one-percenter and current ninety-nine percenter.  I've seen how money has ruined this planet and completely warped and deluded those who never had to go without -- and I mean truly go without, as in without food, shelter, basic necessities. Funny how those people do most of the talking though, isn't it?? Wonder why that is.....oh yes, access, I mean money.  Again.  It all comes down to money.

In our society, money equates to intelligence and character, morality and productivity.  It's a fucking joke.  I have more character as a poor person than I ever had as a clueless rich kid with a headful of academic 'knowledge' based on nothing more than rote memorization and a few observations.  I have more morality and 'intelligence' too -- much more.  And as far as productivity goes, all I used to care about was money, so I went to the office and made money. It was easy.  If that's considered productive to anyone reading this, then you're a moron and you need to get off of my blog.  Like, right now.  I mean it -- I'm watching you......(Google Analytics is a wonderful thing).

I apologize that my blog posting has been rather sparse this year -- I'm busy working on other creative endeavours that, I hope, will make me a ton of money.....at which point I will sit back and laugh even more than I ever have before.

-peace/warm regards,
Jude

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A thought on the Bowe Bergdahl phenomenon...

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There seems to be an awful lot of judgement and criticism circulating around the return of US prisoner-of-war Bowe Bergdahl.  I find this to be unbelievably inappropriate.  Here's why:

Bowe

This poor guy Bowe just spent the last five fucking years in Taliban captivity.  I've been held in captivity before, in Texas, which is inhumane enough -- but it can't possibly compare to five years as a prisoner of war of one of the most evil extremist groups in the history of humankind.  NOBODY is entitled to judge the circumstances -- ANY of the circumstances surrounding the release of this poor kid.  And he IS just a kid -- well, actually, the past five years surely toughened him up enough on the inside to be a man.  But he was only a kid when this shit went down five years ago.  It doesn't matter what his personal views were, because he was a fucking child.  Do those talking heads in the United States not understand this very material fact?  You send children over to foreign countries to engage in organized murder (aka WAR) and you expect everything to go smoothly.  You expect no emotional, psychological, spiritual variables to enter into the equation.

I don't care what this kid Bowe believed or didn't believe, and I don't care how many other kids may have been killed while looking for Bowe.  They were SENT by their superiors to do so.  So any mothers and fathers who are pissed off because their child died looking for Bowe -- you need to direct your contempt toward the United States Department of Defense.  The commanders and officers are the ones responsible for sending your children into the lion's den.  Plus, it comes with the territory.  War is a ridiculous concept to begin with, especially when it ignites absurd discourses across America about how a certain kid was murdered and why and where and what went wrong.

My point is this:  There is NO HONOR in war.  It's violent.  People enter into war with the intent of murdering other people.  So people die.  Everybody knows this.  So I don't want to hear any parents crying about their kids being killed in war.  It is not honorable.  They're not 'defending' anything.  Patriotism is bullshit -- it's just nationalism covered in sugar.  It is sad.  Very sad, that children are sent to do the business of men.  I think you know what I mean.  If you have a functioning brain, this should make sense.

So leave this kid Bowe alone.  He's been through hell, and unless you've walked in his shoes, you have no credibility even discussing the matter.  I can't watch CNN anymore.  It makes me want to vomit.

-peace,
Jude

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