State of humanity depressing the hell out of me. Cheer me up!

[Plaid Adder]

The beheading has got me down.

I don't know, it seems to me like Bush's cabal and Al Qaeda are playing out some kind of super-bloody endgame in which they are competing to see who can sink the lowest the fastest, and the whole world is there game board. Meanwhile everyone else is hunkered down trying to stay alive.

With Bush in office, we will never get anything but more escalation. He doesn't have the smarts to break this cycle. Al Qaeda, clearly, loves escalation and thrives on it, and every time Bush feeds them some new horror it just gets bigger and bloodier and nastier.

I understand why Bush believes in the Apocalypse but if he's got to end the world I wish he would just do it on his own and not take the rest of the planet with him.

So. Anyone got any good news? I could use a cheerin' up.

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[indigobusiness]

1. Read the Sludge Report...it was created because of the very mood you are

in.
Can't laugh and cry at the same time.
Cheers!
http://sludgereport.blogspot.com/
Broken News of the Bush Apocalypse

[Mattforclark]

2. I do. This will cheer you up!

Human beings are often incompetent or lazy, which means that their evil schemes are not implemented to their maximal possible extent.

[indigobusiness]

10. What if they are evil by accident?

hmmmmmm

[anarchy1999]

3. Exactly how I feel right now. I just give up. Sorry. Game Over.

I could use a "cheerin up" as well. Is there some cheer to be found?

[kentuck]

4. There are a lot of people that are trying to do good......

So I don't think we should write off all of humanity just yet... But we need you. We cannot surrender to that evil part of humanity.

[0007]

5. Your are a Child of the Universe -

Health and Life is to Behold

[Taverner]

6. My baby, Nate, just learned how to crawl

And crawl he does! Can't stop him now....

[indigobusiness]

12. cool...

that cheered ME up.

http://sludgereport.blogspot.com/

[NuttyFluffers]

7. Death is the ultimate equalizer,

so eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you die.

or

life is the ultimate prison. we are allowed to condemn ourselves to the greatest of punishments.

or

...what a beautiful nightmare! i scream but cannot wake.

does that help? i don't know if i'm really any good at this... maybe i shouldn't write cards for hallmark.

[Warpy]

13. Or you can't take it with you when you go

...and the thieves who are stealing the world blind won't be able to, either, and think of how pissed off they're going to be about it.

In any case, look around at all the people posting on the DU boards, all of whom have managed to shrug off the propaganda barrage.

[Pobeka]

8. It's a small, small, small percentage of humanity that's screwed up.

It's places like this (DU) where we are starting to figure out how to remove the leverage those screwballs have on the rest of decent human beings.

I see, for the first time in a long time, a concerted, losely organized movement amongst decent human beings to this end.

Cheers.

Oh, and I went to my the school BBQ today at my daughter's 4th grade. No bushistas to be found :-)

[Jacobin]

9. This will be a good exercise for me

1. Polio, pneumonia and other once common diseases which routinely killed and maimed millions are now preventable or a pill away from cure, at least in much of the world. No more black death plagues that killed tens of millions at a time.

2. We have the means, through intelligent use of technology, to do enormous good for humanity and the environment, if it can be channeled properly. Think hydrogen powered transportation and things that we can't even imagine right now.

3. There are tens of millions of people in this country and around the world who are horrified with the antics of the maniac in our White House and there is growing confidence that he can be retired this year.

4. We have ways of communicating through the internet with like-minded people, in spite of the censorship and ownership of the press by the junta, and regardless of what kind of RW hellhole (like mine) that we may live in.

5. In the last hundred years, women in much of the world were given the right to vote. In the last 50 years, African Americans were given the right to vote as a practical matter (although this is far from perfect as yet).

6. People are openly talking about tolerance of same sex couples and even marriage. This would have been unthinkable even a few years ago.

7. As much as RW ideologues control the power, media and agenda, the consequences of their actions cannot be hidden forever. (That one is becoming pretty obvious!)

8. For most of history, life was short, brutish and ....(I forget the third bad thing). Now, we can expect to live long enough, with some luck, that we can accomplish positive things for humankind, which is the only thing worth doing in the final analysis anyway.


I'm normally probably too cynical. This has been good for me to list some positive things. I hope it was not too smarmy.

:-)

Oh! And Mother Theresa!

[mike1963]

11. Here ya go

Go placidly amid the noise and waste,
And remember what comfort there may be in owning a piece thereof.
Avoid quiet and passive persons unless you are in need of sleep.
Rotate your tires.

Speak glowingly of those greater than yourself,
And heed well their advice, even though they be turkeys.
Know what to kiss and when.
Consider that two wrongs never make a right,
But that three lefts do.

Wherever possible put people on "HOLD".
Be comforted that in the face of all aridity and disillusionment,
And despite the changing fortunes of time,
There is always a big future in computer maintenance.
Remember the Pueblo.

Strive at all times to bend, fold, spindle and mutilate.
Know yourself. If you need help, call the FBI.
Exercise caution in your daily affairs,
Especially with those persons closest to you;
That lemon on your left for instance.

Be assured that a walk through the ocean of most souls,
Would scarcely get your feet wet.
Fall not in love therefore; it will stick to your face.

Carefully surrender the things of youth: birds, clean air, tuna, Taiwan,
And let not the sands of time get in your lunch.
For a good time, call 606-4311.

Take heart amid the deepening gloom that your dog
Is finally getting enough cheese;
And reflect that whatever fortunes may be your lot,
It could only be worse in Sioux City.

You are a fluke of the Universe.
You have no right to be here, and whether you can hear it or not,
The Universe is laughing behind your back.

Therefore make peace with your God whatever you conceive him to be,
Hairy Thunderer or Cosmic Muffin.

With all its hopes, dreams, promises, and urban renewal,
The world continues to deteriorate.
Give up.

-----------------------------------------------------------
"Deteriorata" from the ...70s? Nat'l Lampoon

apologies to 0007 for hijacking the reference.
:evilgrin:

[Jacobin]

16. LMAO

I haven't seen that in a loooong time. Still hilarious

[John BigBootay]

14. You could be living during WWII

Where the stakes were higher and the death toll before / during / and after topped a hundred million. Where life was cheaper, torture was far more brutal, there was a draft and the standard of living was far lower than it is today.

We have a lot to be thankful for, actually.

[Zorra]

15. The state of hell is depressing the humanity out of me. Beam me up.

I'm pretty bummed out about it all too.
:grouphug:

[XanaDUer]

17. I got a job!

:)

[peacetalksforall]

18. If the decapitation turns out to be ours, I will hold double contempt

for the horrible idea and execution. By ours, I mean - turns out to be done by our people.

None of the espionage authors in their worst book or chapter could come up with this utterly stupid timing and charade. Their editor or spouse would have helped them improve it. This impression is exactly what makes me doubt the whole thing.

I'm going to put my feelings about humanity on hold until we know more.

My depair about humanity will go off the end if we don't blame and prosecute UP the line of authority - all the way up.

All American values are destroyed if they don't get the big guys.

[riverwalker]

19. the good news is...

....there are about a zillion asteroids just flying around out there, One could hit us at any minute, and all so called "civilization" as we know it, wiped out in a flash. The only ones to survive are the peaceful indigenous peoples of the planet who still know how to live simply. They re-populate the earth and tell stories around the campfires about the "Crazy Ones" who once roamed the planet, invaded other countries, murdered and tortured for pieces of green paper. They always disbelieve such tales as being too ridiculous to ever possibly have really happened.

[Kanary]

20. Times like these call for a Tom Lehrer song or three

[Cynicelle]

21. I'm down, too.

.....and I can't afford to be since I just found out I'm expecting my third child.

I want to be happy about this, but I've spent the last few days in tears. The Berg story put me over the edge.

[muriel_volestrangler]

22. From LBN: first ever picture of planet outside solar system?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x550091

Doesn't that fill you with a little wonder and awe? We may be able to see planets light years away?

[leftofthedial]

23. well, Alou, Ramirez and Sosa each have 8 dingers for the Cubbies!

that doesn't suck.

My sister learned today that the "bad mammogram" was just scar tissue from a previous biopsy. She's a five-year cancer survivor.

[davekriss]

24. Remember

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth,
Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth
Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,
Of all the unhealthy and o'er-darkened ways
Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon,
Trees old and young, sprouting a shady boon
For simple sheep; and such are daffodils
With the green world they live in; and clear rills
That for themselves a cooling covert make
'Gainst the hot season; the mid forest brake,
Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms:
And such too is the grandeur of the dooms
We have imagined for the mighty dead;
All lovely tales that we have heard or read:
An endless fountain of immortal drink,
Pouring unto us from the heaven's brink.

Nor do we merely feel these essences
For one short hour; no, even as the trees
That whisper round a temple become soon
Dear as the temple's self, so does the moon,
The passion poesy, glories infinite,
Haunt us till they become a cheering light
Unto our souls, and bound to us so fast,
That, whether there be shine, or gloom o'ercast,
They alway must be with us, or we die.

---Keats, Endymion


Having said that, the events of recent days bring back the same discordant grief I felt on 9-11, or when the bombs started dropping on Afghanistan. Tis' time for a better season.