08/07: Travelogue
Sometimes, it lifts my spirit to presume that I am your representative to nether worlds, roads less traveled, extraordinary opportunities.
Humor my presumption a little longer while I share another glimpse into life well lived:
Several years ago in Xi'an, China, after visiting the Terra Cotta Army, on a bus I met a young lady and her father. They graciously included me in their afternoon, visiting museums and having tea.
We continued to correspond by email and increasingly enjoyed discovering mutual interests.
So, this Tuesday, I will accept an invitation to come visit my friends, now in Shanghai.
Believe that I will take International Relations to a new level, set the bar high, and be worthy of your sacred trust, and revel in being your representative.
S.
Humor my presumption a little longer while I share another glimpse into life well lived:
Several years ago in Xi'an, China, after visiting the Terra Cotta Army, on a bus I met a young lady and her father. They graciously included me in their afternoon, visiting museums and having tea.
We continued to correspond by email and increasingly enjoyed discovering mutual interests.
So, this Tuesday, I will accept an invitation to come visit my friends, now in Shanghai.
Believe that I will take International Relations to a new level, set the bar high, and be worthy of your sacred trust, and revel in being your representative.
S.
03/07: New acquisition
I share with you my new acquisition, which I like very much: SHE SWAM WITH ME. Artist:Tessar Lo. go to: www.tessarlo.com/paintings.html
email: tessar@tessarlo.com
email: tessar@tessarlo.com
Surprisingly, Bill Gates (Style, back page, 6/20) omitted two areas of endeavor that should be address to improve conditions of the massing hordes of suffering humanity:
1) Stabilize, even reduce the number of feet on the ground. Even the unthinking understand that the condition, common to every imaginable problem, not only of humans but very life itself, is just too many people on this planet.
Gates most benevolent efforts only exacerbate the real problem, ignoring the fundamental solution.
2) Get governments to do the right thing for their people. Surely there are as many natural resources in Africa and South America as there are in the United States. Ostensibly, the missing ingredient is proper leadership. This may be an impossibility. Right here in River City, Richmond, Virginia, with the capacity and possibility for greatness, this city could be viewed as a study in dysfunction. Few things work.
A cold eye would say the species is moribund.
Ascribing reasons for unreasonable behavior to an unseen all powerful entity, repeating behaviors that have proven destructive, surrendering ones personal power to a more stupid other, is all clearly a dead end.
I say, let's get drunk get laid. Another way is to see clearly.
1) Stabilize, even reduce the number of feet on the ground. Even the unthinking understand that the condition, common to every imaginable problem, not only of humans but very life itself, is just too many people on this planet.
Gates most benevolent efforts only exacerbate the real problem, ignoring the fundamental solution.
2) Get governments to do the right thing for their people. Surely there are as many natural resources in Africa and South America as there are in the United States. Ostensibly, the missing ingredient is proper leadership. This may be an impossibility. Right here in River City, Richmond, Virginia, with the capacity and possibility for greatness, this city could be viewed as a study in dysfunction. Few things work.
A cold eye would say the species is moribund.
Ascribing reasons for unreasonable behavior to an unseen all powerful entity, repeating behaviors that have proven destructive, surrendering ones personal power to a more stupid other, is all clearly a dead end.
I say, let's get drunk get laid. Another way is to see clearly.
10/06: More on immigration
http://www.forthecause.us/media/ftc-video-CNN-AmnestyBillsWorstProvisions_070523.wmv
Here's some more reasons to write your Congressmen and President. I feel so strongly against the present proposed legislation:
The latest bill....las
"You old white people. It is your duty to die."
The latest bill....las
"You old white people. It is your duty to die."
Mayor Wilder is only half a man, the man I want him to be.
Make no mistake, I thrill every time he reveals yet another instance of squandered money, like the transportation debacle. Or protects my dollars from the giddy do-gooders who perceive tax payers as bottomless pockets, wanting an art center yet putting in nothing of their own.
I revel as he requires our School System to stand up, being in default since the days when the appointed Board was made up of in-laws and grannies.
And joy gets me weak-kneed as he methodically excoriates the cancerous deadwood of bureaucrats that he inherited.
My complaint is that his new people who replaced the terminated have yet to get traction; nothing works.
Some examples:
An architect friend told me that obtaining building permits was an exercise in chaos. I stopped by the office, a disappointment.
Attempting to get my utilities cut on, I was told it would take 5 days. I accused the dispatcher of operating a third world system. Whereby she immediately had my gas and water cut on in half an hour. Later, I was sent a bill for $140. for that 2 minute job, which was rescinded after I agitated some more. I am certain that a policy which best serves the utility consumer is still not in place.
For two years I have been surrounded by barking dogs that sometimes force me to leave my house to get some peace and quiet. Aside from failures of the Judiciary System, the Mayor's Department of Animal Control, budgeted at $1,100,000. has done nothing. I have telephoned countless times.
I have had policemen tell me to move if I don't like dogs. Others didn't know the law on parked vehicles, allowing derelicts to gather on my street. The larger picture is that the police are not trained in law; more in social work, I suspect.
The Mayor is magical when it comes to broad strokes. Meanwhile, the devil is in the details.
Mr. Mayor, your coup is meaningless if your new hires continue in their non-thinking, non-performing way. You really need a systems guy to come and render order, make things work correctly.
You are still my Man.
Make no mistake, I thrill every time he reveals yet another instance of squandered money, like the transportation debacle. Or protects my dollars from the giddy do-gooders who perceive tax payers as bottomless pockets, wanting an art center yet putting in nothing of their own.
I revel as he requires our School System to stand up, being in default since the days when the appointed Board was made up of in-laws and grannies.
And joy gets me weak-kneed as he methodically excoriates the cancerous deadwood of bureaucrats that he inherited.
My complaint is that his new people who replaced the terminated have yet to get traction; nothing works.
Some examples:
An architect friend told me that obtaining building permits was an exercise in chaos. I stopped by the office, a disappointment.
Attempting to get my utilities cut on, I was told it would take 5 days. I accused the dispatcher of operating a third world system. Whereby she immediately had my gas and water cut on in half an hour. Later, I was sent a bill for $140. for that 2 minute job, which was rescinded after I agitated some more. I am certain that a policy which best serves the utility consumer is still not in place.
For two years I have been surrounded by barking dogs that sometimes force me to leave my house to get some peace and quiet. Aside from failures of the Judiciary System, the Mayor's Department of Animal Control, budgeted at $1,100,000. has done nothing. I have telephoned countless times.
I have had policemen tell me to move if I don't like dogs. Others didn't know the law on parked vehicles, allowing derelicts to gather on my street. The larger picture is that the police are not trained in law; more in social work, I suspect.
The Mayor is magical when it comes to broad strokes. Meanwhile, the devil is in the details.
Mr. Mayor, your coup is meaningless if your new hires continue in their non-thinking, non-performing way. You really need a systems guy to come and render order, make things work correctly.
You are still my Man.
12/05: Passing the Word, May 12
My friend, Erjun Zhao, has become an internationally recognized artist. She recently had a show in Shanghai and now one at Gallery 5 in Richmond. I forward some sites for your leisurely perusal, and her address:
(My portrait is still her best work.)
http://www.erjunzhao.com/active.asp?id=25
http://www.cnarts.net/cweb/news/readnews.asp?id=104317
http://static.chinavisual.com/storage/contents/2007/04/23/35287T20070423163408_1.shtml
http://www.jfdaily.com/gb/jfxww/xlbk/xwwb/node19908
erjunzhao@hotmail.com
(My portrait is still her best work.)
http://www.erjunzhao.com/active.asp?id=25
http://www.cnarts.net/cweb/news/readnews.asp?id=104317
http://static.chinavisual.com/storage/contents/2007/04/23/35287T20070423163408_1.shtml
http://www.jfdaily.com/gb/jfxww/xlbk/xwwb/node19908
erjunzhao@hotmail.com
The ability to see clearly is a gift not given to many. Today, the gift is very rare.
Having just come from Southeast Asia, I read there daily accounts of escalating Islamic violence: 23 schools burned in Bangkok, over 2,000 murdered on the Thailand/Malaysian border, more restrictions on women in Indonesia Seldom did the press identify Islamics as the terrorists. Rather terrorists were called rebels, reactionaries or zealots.
Americans too, seem not to compute 9/11, 20,000 cars torched in Paris or death threats to Salman Rushdie. This third attempt by Islam to rule the world by violence is presented by our press as something not associated with us, disguised beyond recognition, either from fear or inability to speak truth.
George Bush and Tony Blair are the only public figures who see clearly, have stood up against the Islamic movement. Their failure is that they are too timid. A Harry Truman solution will ultimately be necessary.
Here in Richmond, the same problem exists. The only one that sees clearly is Mayor
Doug Wilder. Richmond has been ravaged by years with a perverse, incompetent government.
Although Wilder has no A-bomb to clean house, his rolling of heads is as effective and equally fun to watch. There is not space here to tell of my loathing for some officials I've dealt with over the years. I say, clean the house and good riddance; prosecute the assessor.
As for my Councilman Chairman Bill Pantele and the others, they suffer the same blight as their predecessors. Council hasn't figured out that it is a legislative body, writer of ordinances, not executive. Actually, Council could stay home. There are at least 7 inches of Ordinances already written, enough to keep Wilder busy for years.
It would please me though, if Mayor Wilder would take time to enforce the barking dog, loud music and muffler ordinances, and enforce the Building Codes on every building, as Council has already written.
Meanwhile, let Council continue to squeal and peep in the candy store.
Having just come from Southeast Asia, I read there daily accounts of escalating Islamic violence: 23 schools burned in Bangkok, over 2,000 murdered on the Thailand/Malaysian border, more restrictions on women in Indonesia Seldom did the press identify Islamics as the terrorists. Rather terrorists were called rebels, reactionaries or zealots.
Americans too, seem not to compute 9/11, 20,000 cars torched in Paris or death threats to Salman Rushdie. This third attempt by Islam to rule the world by violence is presented by our press as something not associated with us, disguised beyond recognition, either from fear or inability to speak truth.
George Bush and Tony Blair are the only public figures who see clearly, have stood up against the Islamic movement. Their failure is that they are too timid. A Harry Truman solution will ultimately be necessary.
Here in Richmond, the same problem exists. The only one that sees clearly is Mayor
Doug Wilder. Richmond has been ravaged by years with a perverse, incompetent government.
Although Wilder has no A-bomb to clean house, his rolling of heads is as effective and equally fun to watch. There is not space here to tell of my loathing for some officials I've dealt with over the years. I say, clean the house and good riddance; prosecute the assessor.
As for my Councilman Chairman Bill Pantele and the others, they suffer the same blight as their predecessors. Council hasn't figured out that it is a legislative body, writer of ordinances, not executive. Actually, Council could stay home. There are at least 7 inches of Ordinances already written, enough to keep Wilder busy for years.
It would please me though, if Mayor Wilder would take time to enforce the barking dog, loud music and muffler ordinances, and enforce the Building Codes on every building, as Council has already written.
Meanwhile, let Council continue to squeal and peep in the candy store.
