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That’s a nice number.
Went to 10,Chanel Handbags,000 Waves for the public tub/sauna and a long massage. Great xmas present. Feel great. Been thinking about that a bunch lately. To have vs to be. Experience vs ownership. Like my grandfather always said: can’t take it with you! Might as well enjoy the experience. If you gave me a choice between a new car or two weeks on Basho’s trail in Japan I know what I would pick.
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We took this group photo on the stage of the Vilar Center in Beaver Creek after our last show. The performance was a total blast and possibly the best show of the tour. It was as if we wanted to leave on a high note, a very high note.
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PS: found my original post about the Gut Brain.
Musicians can learn to perform with their whole body, that is to follow the flow of the music with their mind, using the brain, ears, body and their “gut”. Eventually we can learn to LIVE with our whole body – if we are willing to do the training: that is the whole premise of Zen training. The main obstacle is our own ego/brain that can get in the way by jealously guarding the self it has created. There is nothing to fear but fear itself, and there is nothing separating us from life itself but our own small selves…
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To listen with a mind that flows freely is to listen with your whole body. I think I mentioned an NY Times article in this diary before, but I can’t find it right now. THIS will have to do:
In a groundbreaking New York Times story,Replica Chanel, Sandra Blakeslee disclosed that new scientific evidence is giving credence to the notion that the human body actually possesses two centers to process knowledge and dictate physical actions. Blakeslee reports: [Scientists say] that the body has two brains–the familiar one encased in the skull and a lesser known but vitally important one found in the human gut….The gut’s brain, known as the enteric nervous system, is located in sheaths of tissue lining the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, and colon. Considered a single entity, it is a network of neurons, neurotransmitters and proteins that zap messages between neurons, support cells like those found in the brain proper and a complex circuitry that enables it to act independently, learn, remember, and as the saying goes, produce gut feelings.
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I mentioned before that the music nominated for a Grammy streams (((for members only))) on iTunes. Unfortunately they have a rule to include only full and complete categories. Apparently someone in the New Age failed to give their permission and as a result none of the music in the New Age category is available for streaming. Which is unfortunate, I think, because how many members actually own or have heard the five albums nominated… I own excatly one album from that category,hermes belts, and I got that for free from SSRI for my involvement in the recording…
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I’d like Gloria Arroyo and her cabal in the House of Representatives to push charter change to the end.
So what if 64 per cent of Filipinos oppose charter change that would result in Gloria Arroyo staying in power forever? (Only 15 percent agree and 21 per cent are undecided, according to a September-October 2008 survey by the Social Weather Station)
What can those 64 percent, that roughly translates to almost 60 million Filipinos, do? Majority of Filipinos also believe that Gloria Arroyo cheated in the 2004 elections but did they do anything to punish the person who masterminded the thwarting of their will?
Much as I detest the shamelessness of Arroyo,I have to admit that in the seven years that she has been in power, she has ingeniously succeeded in perverting Filipino values producing a docile people that have lost the capacity to be outraged over blatant lying, cheating, and stealing.
Rather than go to the streets and protest unbridled corruption the way the Thais did , Filipinos turn a blind eye, suffer in silence and wait for their reward in heaven.The smarter ones join the corrupt and those who feel frustrated flee the country.
The other day, with the news that hundreds of Filipino workers in Taiwan have lost their job due to the financial crisis, Arroyo blithely said , don’t worry, the Department of Labor said there are job openings in Bulgaria. Yes, the Filipino is going global. Global slaves.
After disposing with dispatch the fourth impeachment complaint against Arroyo, Malaca?ang allies in the Lower House are now set to tackle the two House Resolutions on charter change. One was filed by House Speaker Prospero Nograles to open the Constitution to amendments that would allow land ownership by foreign corporations and associations and another one by Kampi president Rep. Luis Villafuerte which calls for Congress to convene as a Constituent Assembly to amend the Constitution.
The one filed by Batangas Rep. Hermilando Mandanas which seeks to transfer the elections from May 2010 to May 2011, had been withdrawn, according to Rep. Victor Ortega, chair of the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments.
All the three resolutions call for joint voting of the two chambers of Congress which Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile said will render the Senate inutile.
Church personalities led by Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales and Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines have spoken out against Malaca?ang’s latest drive for charter change. El Shaddai leader Mike Velarde has said he is opposed to charter change.
The Makati Business Club has issued a statement saying changing the Constitution now is not the answer to the country’s economic problems. It warned of political instability if Malaca?ang insists on it.
Former President Estrada vows to lead protests against Charter Change. Estrada said he will attend a multi-sectoral anti Cha-Cha rally to be held in Makati on Feb. 12.
Arroyo has remain unperturbed by the opposition to charter change, according to her spokespersons. Analysts say it’s now or never for Arroyo because time is running out for charter change as option for her holding on to power (the other is declaration of emergency rule).
In an article last July, former Supreme Court Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban sees a tight timetable for Arroyo: congressional approval by Dec. 31, 2008, Supreme Court decision by June 30, 2009, and plebiscite in September 2009.
Panganiban said, “The elections scheduled on the second Monday of May 2010 will then be held for members of the new Parliament, not for president, vice president, or senators. GMA will secure a parliamentary seat in Pampanga and then become prime minister in a Lakas-Kampi-dominated Parliament after her term as president expires on June 30, 2010.”
Arroyo is banking on the people’s apathy that has allowed her to cheat in the 2004 elections and continue in the plunder of government resources to buy the loyalty of her cohorts. I’d like her to push further because I’d like to see how much more degradation Filipinos can take.
There is no question about the people’s hatred for Arroyo. Ask the taxi driver, the street vendor. Yet, people are not coming out for “people power”. One of the reasons forwarded is that there is no rallying figure just like Cory Aquino in 1986.
That is very sad. I’m reminded of a line in Bertolt Brecht’s play, “Life of Galileo”: A former pupil of Galilio remarked, “Unhappy is the land that breeds no hero.” Galileo replied, “No Andrea. Unhappy is the land that needs a hero.”
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Poor Hillary Clinton. As America basks in the euphoria of having a first black presidential candidate, everybody wants her to disappear from the political landscape.
Actually American political commentators had been wanting her to quit months ago prompting her to tactlessly recall the assassination of Robert Kennedy. Last May 23 , Hillary defended her staying in the race despite Obama overcoming her earlier lead by recalling that her husband, Bill, did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June. She said she didn’t understand all those Clinton-quit-call and reminded everybody: “We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California.”
Of course, America and the world have not forgotten that shocking day on June 5, 1968 when an assassin with the same first and last name (Sirhan Sirhan) shot him dead in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Kennedy was leaving the hotel after celebrating his victory in the California primary elections.
Kennedy’s assassination left the Democrat’s with Hubert Humprey who narrowly lost to the Republican’s Richard Nixon.
Hillary’s reference to Kennedy’s murder was bad taste and betrayed her unbridled ambition. It suggested that she was not discounting the assassination of Obama for her to clinch the Democrat’s nomination.
Now that Obama is the recognized Democratic presidential candidate against the Republican’s John McCain, her name is being floated to be Obama’s running mate. Clinton’s camp she is open to the idea.
Filipino-Americans I’m corresponding with suspect that it’s still part of Clinton’s dream to return to the White House, this time as president. They cite a seer’s warning that Obama would be a target of an assassination attempt. A frequent visitor in my blog that goes by the name of Bitchevil commented, “Don’t laugh now but my fear
Obama might be assassinated and Clinton would succeed him.”
Even the redoubtable Maureen Dowd of the New York Times said it’s in Hillary’s scheme. In her biting column “She is still here!”, she talks of the Clintons’ “Bad stuff happens maneuver.”
Dowd said the maneuver is “exemplified in her gaffe about the R.F.K. assassination, that she figures that at least if she moves a few blocks from Embassy Row to the Naval
Observatory, she’ll be a heartbeat away from the job she’s always wanted.”
But political observers who have closely followed what has been described as the hardest fought campaign for a Democratic presidential nomination, it is doubtful that Obama would pick Clinton as his vice president because the two have no chemistry.
Newsweek’s Howard Fineman wrote about a Kabuki play going on between Obama and Clinton’s camps: “Here is what I hear, on very good authority, from two sources close to
the Clintons who also have strong ties to the Obama campaign: Clinton absolutely does not want the job of vice president, no matter what others are saying about it. Been there, done that in a very real sense, as First Lady. Obama, for his part, does not want her to be his vice-presidential nominee. No way. Neither do any of his major donors, supporters and advisers, say the sources, who asked for anonymity discussing sensitive matters.
“But there is talk that Obama will tentatively offer, or make some kind of gesture in that direction, the VP slot to Hillary, but only, only on the understanding that she promise in advance (through intermediaries if not directly) not to accept! “She doesn’t want it
and would not take it,” said one source very close to her. “But she would like to be asked, and that is the Kabuki theater we are about to engage in.”
Seventeen months ago, when the campaign started, she looked indestructible and headed straight back to the White House. Her loss is a lesson that in politics or in life, nothing is absolutely sure.
I have a soft spot for underdogs. I’m glad Obama won the Democratic nomination. I hope he goes on to be the U.S. president.
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Re: Sabotage of Philippine Baseline Bills
I would like to express my outrage over how the pending House and Senate Bills relating to the definition of Philippine territory are being sabotaged and mishandled, apparently because the said bills include our claim of sovereignty over the Kalayaan Island Group (“KIG”), internationally known as the Spratlys, and the Scarborough shoal.
Yesterday, I was informed that House Bill No. 3216 was reverted to the Committee level upon the direction of Malacanang, so that it could be tampered with to completely remove our claims over the KIG and Scarborough shoal. This is despite the fact that the bill was already passed on Second Reading last December 2007 by the House Plenary.
At the Senate, my own version of the Philippine baseline bill, Senate Bill No. 1467, has been languishing before the Committee on Foreign Affairs for nearly six (6) months now.
Another immediate concern is the approaching deadline on May 2009 set by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) for us to enact a law that will officially define our national territory and register our territorial claims, which should include KIG and Scarborough shoal.
I am appalled at the extent by which the GMA administration and her allies in the House of Representatives are willing to subvert national interest in order to accommodate the interests of a foreign country. This blatant act indubitably confirms earlier accusations of GMA’s sell-out of Philippine Sovereignty relating to our claims over the Kalayaan Island Group or the Spratlys in exchange for bribes attached to billion-dollar projects. This is TREASON, the worst crime any Filipino could ever do to our Country.
SEN. ANTONIO F. TRILLANES IV
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Nilabas ng Vera Files ang special report na ginawa ko tungkol sa pagpalit ng Election Returns ng 2004 election sa Batasan na isinagawa ng Special Action Force ng Philippine National Police.
Ang Vera Files nga pala ay binubuo ng anim na beteranong reporters (kasama ako doon) na sumusulat ng mga artikulong nagpapaliwanag at nagbibigay ng perspective sa mga nangyayari ngayon sa ating lipunan.
Sinabi sa amin ng mga nakausap naming mga miyembro ng SAF na noong Enero 23, 29 at unang Linggo ng Pebrero 2009, sinabihan sila ng kanilang mga superior na may isang operation daw silang gagawin. Legal daw.
Ito ang kwento nila ng operasyon na yun: Sakay sila ng apat na sasakyan kasama na ang police rescue van , dumating sila sa Batasan halos hatinggabi na. Bumaba ang mga 30 na tao. Dalawampong miyembro ng SAF ang kasama sa operasyon na pinangungunahan ni Supt. Rafael Santiago na noon ay hepe ng Intelligence and Investigation Division ng SAF. May kasama si Santiago na ibang opisyal na sina Inspectors Rafael Lero at Samson Kimayong. Sa naunang briefing raw, kasama ang hepe ng SAF noon na si Gen. Marcelino Franco.
Napag-alaman namin na ang operasyon ay pakana ni dating PNP Chief Hermogenes Ebdane, na ngayon ay secretary ng Department of Public Works and Highways. Si Ebdane ay isa sa mga pinagkatiwalaan na adviser ni Gloria Arroyo.
Sa isang naka-tape na paglalahad, sinabi ng isang SAF na pare-pareho ang ginawa nila sa tatlong beses na operasyion nila sa Batasan. May dala silang mga 20 o 30 na karton ng sigarilyo na may laman na pekeng election returns. Yun ang mga ERs na ginawa sa Brookside Hills sa Cainta nina Atty. Roque Bello, isang election lawyer, na utos rin daw ni Ebdane.
Madali raw sila nakapasok sa storage room sa Southwing ng Batasan kung saan nakatago ang mga ERs ng 2004 elections nanakalagay sa ballot boxes, dahil ang nagbabantay ay kapwa nilang SAF sa pangunguna ni Chief Inspector Ferdinand Ortega. May kasama silang pick locker.
Kapag nabuksan na ng pick locker ang mga ballot boxes, kinukuha nila ang totoong ERs at linalagyan nila ang dala nilang mga pekeng ERs.
Mga tatlong oras sila gumagawa at sa talong oeprasyon, nakapalit sila ng mga 6,000 na ERs. Hindi na natuloy ang pang-apat dahil na-promote si Ortega at naging commandant ng SAF Training School. Ayaw raw mag-cooperate ang kanyang kapalit na si Chief Inspector Jimmy Laguyo.
Ang isa sa gumawa ng mga pekeng ERs, si Arsenio Rasalan, ay gumawa noon ng affidavit kung saan sinabi niya na sinabi sa kanya ni Bello na ang pera para sa operasyon ay binigay ni Gloria Arroyo.
Kina-ilangan mapalitan ang totoon ERs sa Batasan dahil kung maala-ala natin noong 2004 eleksyon, pinalitan ng mga military ang mga numero sa Certificate of Canvass (COC) sa maraming presinto sa Mindanao para mahabol ang panalo ni Fernando Poe Jr. sa Luzon.
Dahil sa protesta ni FPJ at Loren Legarda na tumakbo para bise-presidente. Maaring buksan ang mga ballot boxes at kapag tiningnan ang election returns, hindi yun magkakatugma. Mabubuking na talo talaga si Arroyo.
Apat na taon na ang nakaraan at akala ni Arroyo at ng kanyang mga alagad tuluyan ng mailibing ang ginawa nilang pandaraya. Ngunit hindi, ang multo ng “Hello Garci” ay bumabalik.
Para sa kumpletong report tungkol sa ER switching, click kayo sa:www.verafiles.org
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1. Click here http://www.ellentordesillas.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/rp_china.pdf
for the Agreement for Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking in certain Areas in the South China Sea by and Between China National Offshore Oil Corporation and Philippine National Oil Company.
2. Click here
http://www.ellentordesillas.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/rp_china_vietnampart1.pdf
for Part One of A Tripartite Agreement for Joint Marine Scientific Research in Certain Areas in the South China Sea by and among China National Offshore Oil Corporation and Vietnam Oil and Gas Oil Corporation and Philippine National Oil Company.
3. Click here
http://www.ellentordesillas.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/rp_china_vietnampart2.pdf
for Part Two of the CNOOC, Petro Vietnam and PNOC agreement.
4. Click here http://www.ellentordesillas.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/annex-to-agreeements.pdf
for Annex A that shows the Agreement Area.
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