Any questions?

No, I think you explained it perfectly.

Hate is like disco.

If you don't kill every single person who believes in it right away and with extreme violence, that crap will come back.

Hence, "dance music"

Oh, and rated.

uh huh

Ah, I misread that - I thought the title was "The Tao of HATS".

Rated anyway.

Oh, but you have to remember that whilemany will agree that injustice = war, others will tell you ends = means. It is all a matter of perspective.

that is cool, although, sometimes, they are things worth fighting for too.

It's all one and the same Quatto. Except for dance music.

beautiful destruction

hmmm, can we put something in there about ignorance?

but daddy, we're funding it.

Our hate and stupidity are included here too Foolish Monkey. We're the Crusaders remember.

I don't know what's cooler.
The fact that the stomach speaking Quatto came here all the way from mars to debate the nature of war
....or the fact that dance music is an acceptable exception in the policy of non-violence.

God I love this blog.

aye aye sir!!

Yar!!!!!

I do get what Quatto means Doug, and he's right, as is Don. I'm worn out with it though, so it all seems much of a sameness right now.

indeed

I do get what Quatto means Doug

Thanks guy. I'll tell you, it's toughing getting traction in this place when you're a straight-shooting smartass. I believe in calling 'em as I sees 'em and taking my lumps along the way.

There was this good line from a bad movie ("Road House" if I recall correctly) that goes something like, "Nobody ever wins a fight".

But we have to keep re-learning that lesson (we as a species, that is).

clears it all up

Clear as glass.

think you left off

freedom fighter = terrorist

but otherwise a perfect list

Thanks Tim. I could have gone on and on with that list....

And thanks all for reading. "Nobody ever wins a fight" about sums it up, so why do we keep engaging in organized murder for profit or religion or nation or for no good reason at all? I think it must be hardwired into us, something we do as naturally as eating or breathing.

yep. what's so funny about peace love and understanding?

Oh, this is good. We could fill in just about anyone, any ideology and any excuse and find that we are just too good at hating and excusing ourselves while we do it.

Isn't there some group that is vastly wealthy and only wants 500 million of us to live after they get rid of the rest of us? I wonder if they are behind the more well financed and organized efforts of some of these entities: Militant Zionists, Jihadists, the corporations, politicians, dictators, hegenomists, Christian militants and other jackanapes.

Hate is a powerful killer of humans....hmmmmm

Just remember, we're not doing this out of hate, we're doing this for freedom, and democracy!!!! DEMOCRACY!!!!!! When you kill for that word, it makes it alright. We're the freedom fighters, the bringer of democracy, whether you want it or not, it doesn't matter, because we know what's best for you!!!

Goddamn liberal communists in this place seem to forget, WE'RE THE GOOD GUYS!! Yeah, it might look like we're the bullies, but how else are we going to spread our message of love, peace and democracy without full on, kill everyone who doesn't agree and maybe those that do, sorry, casualities of war, my friend, some blood, a whole lot of blood, must fall to spread our message of love, peace, harmony and most importantly, DEMOCRACY!!!!

~hugs~

I have a question --- Did the mop come back at 4am this morning? I couldn't connect!!!! Stupid mop!!

**Tink Picked**

**But not Rated ---- damn liberal communist!!!**

**Wanders off**

Nope. Asked and answered.

Okay, I like Taos too. Great post. R

We live what we learn, indeed.

R~

I hate to throw a monkey into this, but maybe it has something to do with evolution. Maybe we haven't come as far from the club and the loincloth as we'd like to think we have. Maybe it's time for Skip Williamson to weigh in with another of his spirited, eloquently primal reminders of life undressed.

Amen!

umm i mean Namaste!

I'm with Matt on this one, evolved intellect with primitive souls. People are scared shitless (and witless) 24/7. Time to catch up on caring before we develop any more technology. Less brains, more heart, but where's the fun and profit in that.

If nothing else, you'd think people would at least be exhausted from all the fighting. I truly am.

No. You said it all.. ~r

A cosmic pissing match, perhaps? R

The eloquence and tragedy contained in the equation is . . . just spot on, nana. You boiled it down to the essence.

Yes.

Well said. Sadly...

I think the yin yang symbol is backwards.

{[R]}

Ok, I can't hold it in anymore.

Nana - you blissninny weinerfucker! Hate is the most useful tool we have in our little survival handbag!

Without it, we're screwed, we're robotic sludge ready to be mulched by the demonic forces of our corporate masters!

HATE brother, HATE is the fuel that will bring the fire!

What fire? The fire that's going to burn down this entire corrupt institutution, the SYSTEM!

Burn it all man! Burn it all!

Quit being a neutered, beaten, blinded slave boy! What's your name? Nana?

Is it Toby? It is, it IS Toby!

Now, are you going to man up and throw off those shackles ? Are you going to refuse to go quietly into the night? (ID4)

Are you going to bring the gasoline, the benzine the artillery and magazines?!?!

Are you with me?

Yes? YES! I knew you had a pair boy!

Let me hear your war cry!

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!

Now, tell me that didn't at least feel good?

You may resume normal programming.

That does kinda tie in to my personal motto: "Peace love and understanding or I'll cap your ass." The truth is that while I admire the idea of pacifism, I don't think it has much utility in the real world aside from as a demonstration of principles, even though it does have the whole "Gandhi gets Britain out of India" thing going for it. It worked on the Brits 'cause they more or less had to ditch their empire anyway, but I can't imagine it having been of much against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, or against folks like Al Qaeda. What I'm discussing here isn't so much the general wrongness of war - right or wrong, it's a part of us and is likely to be for a long time to come. It's the whole "But Daddy, he started it!" thing which gets on my nerves, and the never-ending cycles of hate and counter-hate that drag on and on with all sides saying that their actions are justified but the other guy's actions are evil. It's going on in the Middle East and it's going on in Afghanistan and other places too and it wears me out. "You blow me up; I blow you up; you blow me up some more; I blow you up again." Fuck a lot of that nonsense, and fuck the assholes who make excuses for their own immoral actions by citing how bad the other side is.

marriage=?

Divorce?

This is actually a serious question (I'll call you a dick weasel and you can call me a shrill bitch later):

Do you think it's okay to hate, and therefore confront, the disproportionate use of force (like, I don't know... lets just say a WHOLE FUCKING SOVEREIGN NATION against a flotilla full of aid supplies???).

Is it okay to hate, and therefore confront, people that have one of the most comprehensive propaganda machines in history and who just out and out lie about the MURDER of 9 people in INTERNATIONAL WATERS?

Is it okay to hate, and therefore confront, people who hold up signs outside of a dead soldiers funeral that say "Thank god for dead soldiers!" and "Thank god for IEDs!"?

Is it okay to hate, and therefore confront, people who hurt kids, that rape children and/or burn churches & drag people behind their truck until they are dead because they don't like the color of their skin?

Is it okay to hate, and therefore confront, people who are so low that they would torture and murder a young man simply because he was gay?

I know what I believe. It's not always possible to separate the people from the acts. Sometimes it IS okay to hate.

fuck. rated!

Hi Amy. You remind me a lot of Suzy. There aren't many people who can make me laugh even on those occasions when I disagree with them or even as they piss me off, but she had that ability and so do you. Not that your comment here pisses me off, but you get what I'm saying I hope.

To try to address your questions I'll reference the comment I made a few minutes ago to Doug. Pacifism would have done no good against Hitler, nor against anyone else who's bent on harming you. If someone is a direct threat to me or my loved ones, I'll do anything in my power to remove that threat, up to and including violence. And I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I deeply loathe Fred Phelps and his people and all they stand for, and that it's not only our right to confront such people, but our duty. I also get why Palestinians feel hatred; they're humans, and humans tend to resent when they're dispossessed and marginalized and turned into third class citizens on what's left of their own lands. I get too why the relatives of an Israeli civilian blown up by a suicide bomber while sitting at a pizza parlor might hate those responsible for carrying out the bombing. Like our apparent enthusiasm for making war, hate is a part of what it means to be human, at least in this stage of our evolution, and I realize that. But in the Israel/Palestine conflict for instance, isn't there a point at which both sides will realize that hate and continued conflict are getting them nowhere? The Palestinians will never be able to defeat the IDF militarily; that is an incontrovertible fact. Nor will the citizens of Israel ever be able to live in security while the Palestinians don't have a sovereign, free homeland of their own; that's also a fact. At some point the hate needs to be set aside long enough for both sides to figure out what the fuck they need to do to put an end to the whole bloody mess, 'cause like it or not the state of Israel isn't going away, and like it or not that state will never have peace or security until a realistic two-state solution is worked out.

Dear nana, when I'm drinking my cares away tonight, I'll tell the waitress,

GO F*CK YOURSELF!!! And then I'll kick the Jewish fellow(you can call him my cousin!!!) sitting next to him!!!!

**wanders off**

i think it matters who started it. most people agree, that's why we have courts, instead of body-bins next to the garbage collection.

when there are no courts, or they are crooked, then you have feuds leading perhaps to civil war. so south africa, to the enduring credit of mandela and his supporters, exposed the crimes of the racist white regime, and then forgave them. i don't expect a second outbreak of such enlightened leadership in my lifetime.

in my experience, people who don't want to look back are just trying to divert attention from the corpses they have left behind.

Nana - your personal motto may just reflect the greatest philosphy mankind has ever known.

No shit here, you are actually in perfect polarized resoance with my ideological leanings.

Peace is all well and fine until it isn't.

I love the fact that you let these little rays between the cracks, showing us the awesomeness inside.

Humans are complex creatures, and one day we may reach our potential for ultimate compassion.

Until that day, however, I shall stand with those who follow the idea that those who would prey upon the weak for the sake of mere hate or advantage need no protection, nor mercy.

As for the crazy rant above, I am on pain pills at the moment and admit no responsiblity for my actions.

What is that? cop out lights? really...ok...ok...I embrace my hate from time to time.

Damn you spooky Yoda Angel....Damn you for haunting me with your weird talk and guilt....

Can I rate this again?

nana just foolin with you. I like this post because everyone is letting it out without being censored. SafeBetAmy: yes, I agree on so many points, thank you for opening me up to these. Sometimes things are are right and deserve to be fought for.

Tink, kick someone for me too, and ask the waitress when her shift ends, I'll be free later!

Al; agreed. But let's look at the Palestine conflict, as I did in a comment here shortly ago. By any objective measure, a great wrong was done to the Palestinian people when Israel was founded. In a perfect world, that wrong would be redressed at some point in a similar fashion to how a person who won a civil case might be recompensed in court for damages done to them. We all know however that isn't going to happen. Ever. The nation of Israel is a fait accompli, whether one agrees with the nature of its founding or not. No amount of moral high ground or waving of banners or rockets fired by Hamas is going to make Israel go away, and that's just simple reality. At some point, the wronged parties there will realize that by looking backward they're not able to chart a course forward, that by continuing to recite the litany of wrongs done they're wasting energy on the past when they need to be thinking about what to do NOW. In other words, keeping obsessive track of old scores (no matter how justified your sense of injury), never-ending hatred, looking always back rather than forward, all these things can be a roadblock to ever resolving any fucking thing.

That's it alright.

A bloody violent circle of reprisal and justification of further reprisals.

Well look at you, getting all tricky with fonts and stuff.

I knew you were just funnin' Rita! And Doug, we definitely see eye to eye on the value of both peace and being prepared for when it ends. Got any extra pain pills?

Safe Bet just summed up my feelings on this topic of hate.

It just might be okay to hate the vile people of the world, but don't let it become you just let it be your feelings about them. Sometimes we really can't come to terms as human beings for whatever reason.

It is the active promotion of hate and lies that lead to hate that I am so strongly against. As to a world without hate it is much like a world without war where it is what I desire but realistically I don't see how human nature fits into the equation here.

Progressive Liberal; exactly! Tit for tat, like two kids in the backseat of a car who won't quit slapping each other.

Natalie, that font's pretty snazzy ain't it? Like with most stuff I do online, I stumbled on it by accident and couldn't find it again if my life depended on it.

"It is the active promotion of hate and lies that lead to hate that I am so strongly against."

Again Progressive, exactly.

Everything I need to know I learned in kindergarten. Like this.

The most important things are often the simplest things Cappy, so why do we so rarely get them right? Maybe we'll grow up as a species one day, move past the Bronze Age SkyDaddy and the love of organized murder and all the infantile games we play. Probably not though.

Stellaa, it reminds me of children alright, like two kids in the backseat of a car who won't stop slapping each other. Except for instead of slaps it's suicide vests and F-16s.

I love you. xox

Oh, but Nana, I am hammered on Ativan.....check back in the morning.....nahhhh, coming off....just kidding! xoxoxo

If you've got any Ativan you need to share Robin, it's not fair to the rest of us kids if you don't!

Nana, I don't have any...but why can I feel you checking my heart to make sure I am coming off okay...natural physician you are...xoxoxoxo

Hey kids, Nana once saved my life...I wasn't sure I wanted to live...and wow was I mad when he rescued me!!!! xoxoxox

May peace reign in the house of Nanatehay.

Simple, yet effective.

"Crude but effective" as Spock would say. You can never go wrong using the first line from the Tao Te Ching, as long as it's coupled with a snazzy font.

cool post, Nana, you are very wise!
r

'Nuff said!

I was listening to the big American maddrassa chief Haggi telling his spellbound audience about, he called him or her the Muslim God, Allah. He was trying to ridicule Allah.
I wonder if anyone in the audience ( I expect they were literate, since I am told education is compulsory in the States ) was saying to themselves what on earth is this guy talking about.
Jesus as you guys must know was a middle eastern gentlemen; he wasn't born in Texas or England, and doesn't matter how blonde and blue eyed he's made out to be, he was not Scandinavian for sure.
He spoke Aramaic, a language spoken in Syria.

Most Americans today hate middle easterners including Syrians.

Haggi must know that Jesus himself could not have used the English word God. I'm not sure what the Aramaic word for God is but it may be quite close to Allah.

I guess there was racism even in those days, the Europeans came and strung up the middle easterner and now for he's worshipped for two millenia. Doesn't make sense. Perhaps if they paint him as middle eastern looking, he would no longer be worshipped.

Poppy, Fay, Salmandar; thanks for coming by and for the comments.
Salmandar, there's no question that racism and other forms of prejudice lie at the root of much of the world's hate. Regarding the appearance of Jesus, I guess it's natural for cultures to imagine their religious figures as looking like one of their own, but it's definitely not accurate to portray him as looking like he's from Germany or England. For myself, I stopped taking religion literally when I was still a child, and I've often thought if we all did that the world would be a better place.

The lyrics from "Dumb All Over" by Frank Zappa seem appropriate here:

Whoever we are
Wherever we're from
We shoulda noticed by now
Our behavior is dumb
And if our chances
Expect to improve
It's gonna take a lot more
Than tryin' to remove
The other race
Or the other whatever
From the face
Of the planet altogether

They call it THE EARTH
Which is a dumb kinda name
But they named it right
'Cause we behave the same...
We are dumb all over
Dumb all over,
Yes we are
Dumb all over,
Near 'n far
Dumb all over,
Black 'n white
People, we is not wrapped tight

Nerds on the left
Nerds on the right
Religous fanatics
On the air every night
Sayin' the Bible
Tells the story
Makes the details
Sound real gory
'Bout what to do
If the geeks over there
Don't believe in the book
We got over here

You can't run a race
Without no feet
'N pretty soon
There won't be no street
For dummies to jog on
Or doggies to dog on
Religous fanatics
Can make it be all gone
(I mean it won't blow up
'N disappear
It'll just look ugly
For a thousand years...)

You can't run a country
By a book of religion
Not by a heap
Or a lump or a smidgeon
Of foolish rules
Of ancient date
Designed to make
You all feel great
While you fold, spindle
And mutilate
Those unbelievers
From a neighboring state

TO ARMS! TO ARMS!
Hooray! That's great
Two legs ain't bad
Unless there's a crate
They ship the parts
To mama in
For souvenirs: two
ears (Get Down!)
Not his, not hers,
(but what the hey?)
The Good Book says:
"It gotta be that way!"
But their book says:
"REVENGE THE CRUSADES...
With whips 'n chains
'N hand grenades..."
TWO ARMS? TWO ARMS?
Have another and another
Our God says:
"There ain't no other!"
Our God says
"It's all okay!"
Our God says
"This is the way!"

It says in the book:
"Burn 'n destroy...
'N repent, 'n redeem
'N revenge, 'n deploy
'N rumble thee forth
To the land of the
unbelieving scum on the
other side
'Cause they don't go for
what's in the book
'N that makes 'em BAD
So verily we must choppeth them up
And stompeth them down
Or rent a nice French bomb
To poof them out of existance
While leaving their
real estate just where
we need it
To use again
For temples in which
to praise OUR GOD
("Cause he can
really take care of
business!")

And when his humble TV servant
With humble white hair
And humble glasses
And a nice brown suit
And maybe a blond wife who
takes phone calls
Tells us our God says
It's okay to do this stuff
Then we gotta do it,
'Cause if we don't do it,
We ain't gwine up to hebbin!
(Depending on which book
you're using at the
time...Can't use
theirs... it don't work
...it's all
lies...Gotta use
mine...)
Ain't that right?
That's what they say
Every night...
Every day...
Hey, we can't really be dumb
If we're just
following God's
Orders
Hey, let's get serious...
God knows what he's doin'
He wrote this book here
An' the book says:
He made us all to be
just like Him,"
so...
If we're dumb...
Then God is dumb...
(An' maybe even a little
ugly on the side)

Excellent summation.

Terse is good sometimes.

nana, I kicked a plenty of folks that night!!! Scratched a back and told the waitress, "nana wants to know when you get off?" She said, "whenver babeeeeee...."

Whooo!!!!

I got her phone number, it seems it leads to a reverend in Nigeria!! Even better!!!!

GIVE PEACE A CHANCE!!! OR I'LL KILL YOU FRACKERS WITH MY ATOM BOMBS!! WOOOOO!!!

An eye for an eye just leaves the whole world blind. Good post. B.T.C.

The need for revenge wears pretty thin alright. Thanks for coming by BTC.