Sunday, April 20, 2003

Jesus of Nazareth's The Golden Rule “Do to others as you would have them do to you." This formulation is credited to Jesus of Nazareth who intuitively discovered the synergic way 2000 years ago. He gave us the rules for synergic relationship in his sermon on the mount. "You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. … Go be reconciled with thy brother.” (04/20/03) Who is Grace Paley? CNN National -- Grace Paley was appointed the new state poet of Vermont by Gov. James Douglas. Paley, a tiny, white-haired woman with a little girl's voice, published her first collection of short fiction in 1959, and helped found the Greenwich Village Peace Center two years later. She's been actively involved in anti-war efforts and other social causes over the last four decades. She doesn't expect to alter her many passions as state poet. "Sometimes two things are important at the same time," she says during an interview at the Thetford home where she and her husband have lived full time since the mid-1980s. Short stories long on awards Paley has received an impressive array of literary accolades, including a senior fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in recognition of her lifetime contribution to literature. She has also written three critically acclaimed collections of poetry, including her latest, "Begin Again: Collected Poems," published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 2000. Born in New York City, the youngest of three children, Paley was surrounded by both books and politics from an early age. Her parents, Russian Jewish immigrants who came to the United States shortly after the turn of the century, were both avid readers. (04/20/03) I feel the need for speed! New York Times: Business -- Carmakers have been selling speed, or at least the illusion of it, for 100 years. From the Stanley Steamer forward, cars have been as much about consumer identity, about the vivid dream state they induce in potential buyers, as about machinery. ... while you're downloading the brochure, or watching the commercial, or standing next to the demon thing itself in your neighborhood showroom, here's what happens in your head: You are alone. Flying low and loud and fast down a long, straight-razor stretch of Nebraska interstate, perhaps in late autumn, headed west, sharp cold just coming on, the desolate geometry of golden stubble fields strobing past you, the sun wobbling low and weak on the horizon, your windshield embroidered with the glare of it, and in the rear-view mirror the sky behind you as blue and deep and black as a bruise. You are cupped in the heated seat. The earth spins beneath you. All the shining instrumentality of uncomplicated power falls easily to hand. Your body dissolves into the machine until you are no more and no less than acceleration itself. The brute music of the engine rises up through the floorboards and the soles of your feet and into your blood until your heart beats with it, the world blurs and the vast web of human complication is somewhere far behind you and there is no past and no future and nothing bad can ever catch you. Nothing can touch you. That's what you tell yourself you're buying. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety would certainly disagree. It sees you more as a basal skull fracture waiting to happen. To car manufacturers, though, all's fair in a sluggish economy, and whatever overwrought Kerouac fantasy you're willing to hypnotize yourself with is none of their business. (04/20/03) Asthma Epidemic in Harlem's Children New York Times: Environment -- A study has found that one of every four children in central Harlem has asthma, which is double the rate researchers expected to find and, experts say, is one of the highest rates ever documented for an American neighborhood. Researchers say the figures, from an effort based at Harlem Hospital Center to test every child in a 24-block area, could indicate that the incidence of asthma is even higher in poor, urban areas than was previously believed. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated that about 6 percent of all Americans have asthma; the rate is believed to have doubled since 1980, but no one knows why. New York City is thought to have a higher rate than other major cities, but that, too, is something of a mystery. The disease kills 5,000 people nationally each year. (04/20/03) I've got that sinking feeling! New York Times: Environment -- Parts of the Gulf Coast in Louisiana and Mississippi are subsiding naturally at such a rapid pace that certain places along evacuation routes may soon become impassable in hurricanes, a study by federal scientists and experts at Louisiana State University has found. In many spots, terrain that is barely above sea level could sink a foot in the next 10 years, the scientists said at a New Orleans conference on hurricanes. (04/20/03) Say Goodbye to the Spotted Owls New York Times: Environment -- Washinton state's northern spotted owl population continues to drop, despite federal efforts to protect the threatened species, a Forest Service expert has found. The number of spotted owls fell by 5 percent to 8 percent annually from 1992 to 2002. (04/20/03) War, Markets and the American Dollar Terence R. Wilken writes: Did you notice how the markets followed the War?  Whenever we advanced another 20 miles, the markets went up.  When a firefight or a sandstorm stalled us, the markets went down.  Amazing how that worked.  Well, I guess now we will have to go back to the old fashioned way of checking the markets.  We will have to see if the Companies represented are actually making money.  That will certainly be a lot more work. Now that the War is over, the dollar should be heading up.  The Iraqi oil will now be sold in dollars again.  It can return to reserve currency status.  Did you notice that millions of dollars were sent to Iraq in order to pay the locals for cleaning up, providing markets, and getting the utilities turned on.  Of course the cost to furnish all this money did not really cost very much.  After all the Fed can print as much as it will take to repair the Iraq economy and get it going again. The only problem is that the dollar has started down.  It is now below par with the Euro.  Will it continue to fall?  Only the Fed, the ESF, and the PPT really know the answer to this one.  Did we win the war, only to lose the dollar battle?  It now appears that Indonesia has decided to start pricing oil in Euros.  Will the rest of Asia follow?  They do not think that the dollar is a stable currency, and they wish to use another to buy their products.  This would not bode well for the dollar. (04/19/03) 7:29:12 AM

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