Yesterday the preacher talked about finding little moments of peace in the holiday season when American lives have the screws tightened on them by throwing parties and gift buying and Christmas card lists and travel and extra house guests into normally hectic lives. So, maybe I was subconsciously planning this morning’s moment all along, but it was all cool quiet excitement nevertheless.

Anyway, after waking up and realizing it was Monday and no work and no kids were awake yet and having some time to ourselves, Jodi and I finally drug ourselves out of the warm down covers and she took a shower while I went to feed the dogs.

Now, our three dogs sleep in their beds in the garage, and before I let the dogs out, I usually open the door in the kitchen that leads to the back deck and yard. Otherwise, the dogs rush into the kitchen, slam into the backdoor, and then the two older dogs (both 13 years old and often incontinent) rush around the kitchen and dribble all over the place before I can get the door open. Then the younger dog comes along behind them and makes sure it’s HIS territory by pissing on top of the piss. So, I open the back door before I let the dogs out, so they have a straight shot to the back yard for their morning relief.

But today, it was Christmas Eve, and about 6:30 when I opened the door, I was greeted by a full moonset in the west. The moon was bright white and huge like it had been photoshopped, but I knew it was an illusion because it was close to the leafless, lacelike branchwork of tree limbs on the horizon and almost sitting on the frosty rooftops.

And did I say it was bright?

And quiet?

There was a low, almost imperceptible hum, from early traffic on the main road about a quarter mile away. There was a dog barking in the neighborhood. There were a few birds chirping. Not a cloud in the sky, not a breeze. And that was it. It was THAT quiet.

So, I did get my quiet moment, but don’t worry…I didn’t keep it to myself for too long, and I did let the dogs out so they didn’t burst a bladder. And the two old dogs pooped and pissed and the the young dog did his business, then ran around the frosty (it was 24-degrees, but my robe was warm…) yard, sniffing the trails left by rabbits overnight; I’ve seen the long-eared hoppers sneak under the back gate door to the wooden fence, so I know they’re regular nocturnal visiters.

Everybody’s up now, and we’re off to grab a bunch of coffee at the local coffee shop to take over to relatives…perfect Christmas Eve underway. I hope everybody else is discovering some perfect moments too…

Peace Christmas, Merry Holidays, and Happy Joy! :-)

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On the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party last Sunday, 58,000 people contributed over $6 million to Ron Paul’s campaign.

That’s the largest one-day campaign contribution total ever. It beats out John Kerry’s $5.7 million one-day total contributed the day after he won his party’s primary in 2004.

But don’t pay attention to Ron Paul. Listen to Fox News and CNN: Ron Paul doesn’t have a chance! Joe Lieberman’s backing McCain! Only a few nuts are seriously considering Ron Paul!

Actually, the truth is that only a few crackpots take Faux — I mean Fox — News seriously anymore…and maybe a few sane CEOs can’t beat 58,000 online nuts after all.

Read More: Ron Paul

Recently, La Sirena asked: Hey Joe, Are you still out there somewhere?

Yes, I’m still out here somewhere :-) Just busy with end-of-year-software cycle deadlines at work, Xmas shopping, and all the seasonal events.

And also taking a break from politics, recharging.

Curiosity killed the cat, so the saying goes. Anyway, a couple of years ago I got interested in all the evil things my country was doing in my name with my tax dollars and my apathetic blessing — not that my country doesn’t do a damn lot of awesome great things, mind you, but, you know, it’s like having the greatest-tasting bowl of soup in the world and the President puts a dead roach in it, only recently there have been a LOT of dead roaches flicked in our bowl of soup. So, to continue the allegory, I decided I would stop being apathetic and start telling people about the roaches in our soup.

And, some people were really glad I pointed out there was a roach in their soup; they had no idea the true nature of the sweet-tasting crap they’d been slurping down.

And others, they were really pissed, but not at the person who put the roach in their soup, but at the person who pointed it out to them. And they wouldn’t look at the roach in their soup, but kept saying it was still the best soup in the world, and there was maybe a split bean that sort of looked like a mashed roach, but believe them, it was NOT a roach, and they kept slurping down their soup and liking it.

As I was saying, curiosity killed the cat, and the deeper I dug into the news…the real news…the correction on page A18 two months after the disinforming front-page headline has become accepted fact…the deeper I dug, the more I got pissed off that most Americans have their heads buried in the sand and don’t give a rat’s behind about the rest of the world, and they’ll lie about it and say they do and give a couple bucks to help the tsunami victims in some island they can’t bother to find on a map, but I’ve found that the majority of Americans have a civility that’s inversely related to the length of the line at the gas pump.

That realization…the real deep-down realization of it…had me a bit disillusioned. And it made me grouchy, and probably not fun to be around.

You know, humans today are born with the same neural and emotional equipment as humans at the advent of recorded history. History does repeat itself. One person can’t really make a difference, unless they’re in the right place at the right time, and if they don’t step up, somebody else will probably fill that spot. So, I’ve been sort of avoiding the news of the evil we’re doing lately…I’m coming around to Barbara Bush’s way of thinking, and wondering why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that? Why not pretend everything’s happy. Since things aren’t going to change, maybe I can change myself.

When I was in college, I often grabbed lunch in front of the TV, and for a while my another roommate and I got into watching Days of our Lives. At first it was sort of like, flicking through the channels and going, “Dang, there’s a couple of pretty hot girls on this soap opera…” and the next day, it was like, “…nothing’s on again…let’s check on those two hot girls we ran across yesterday…” and after a couple of days we got hooked.

It was all interesting for a while. Until the same relationship plots started repeating ad infinitum.

Today, America — or most any corporate-run fascist society — works like this:

1. Our leaders lie so their rich friends can steal more money.
2. Middle class America sucks it down with StarBucks whipped cream on top.
3. A few curious folk point out that our leaders stabbed us in the back.
4. Our leaders’ rich friends say, “Hey, look at Britney! No panties!”
5. Then, our leaders lie so their rich friends can steal more money.
6. repeat ad infinitum.

And so, now when somebody gets all excited and says the rotten CIA just destroyed all the tapes they made of torturing people, I have to shrug. It’s business as usual. After all, an FAA manager took a tape filled with flight controller interviews and helped get to the bottom of 9/11 by “crushing the tape with his hand, cutting it into small pieces and depositing the pieces into trash cans around the building.”

Same story. Brain wash. Spin rinse. Repeat the crime.

You know what would be real news? If any of the foxes in the henhouse ever get punished.

So, I am curious as to how it will all turn out, but even that’s not much of a mystery. Once Rome ruled the world. Spain ruled it, too. And then England. And, America. And they all thought they were special. And they WERE each very special, but their empires weren’t immortal. And so, we’ll find a way to tuck our tail between our legs and spin it as victory, and in a hundred years our dollar will be used for TP and the military bases will rust, and some other country will convince everybody that it’s the shining light of the world and then maybe they can be the police and we can get universal health care and get rid of some of the paranoid warmongers.

But, for now, how about a chapter from Eckhart Tolle! :-)

Read More: Recharging, America, empire, Eckhart Tolle