Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Flu run amok

Symptoms of swine flu-esImage via Wikipedia
You think the swine flu has got everyone concerned in 2009? Well, just wait until 2010. Mid-term elections will be on the horizon then and we have delved into the future to discover that homeland security secretary Janet Napolitano will be posting us on the latest . . um . . . health crisis. You thought the Swine Flu was bad? Get ready for the Super Duper Swine Flu!

And the fact that its coming during election season? Just pure coincidence . . .


OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE TWITTER ENTRIES
POSTED BY: JANET NAPOLITANO
MAY 5th, 2010


10:00: At the request of Pres. Obama, I am live twitting today to keep all of the twits on the internet up to date on the latest threat to our American way of life! Last year, we dealt with the Swine Flu epidemic. This year, we are dealing with the latest and greatest epidemic – the SUPER DUPER SWINE FLU, also known as Rhinovirum 2 Derivatium 2, or R2-D2 for short. Already, we have one suspected case in Peoria, Illinois in a Mexican mother of two. And, folks, I do want to emphasize that this is a Mexican virus. M – E – X – I – C – A – N, just in case anyone wasn't paying attention. And yes, I am implying that this is all their fault, not Darwinian evolution or any kind of crap like that. M – E – X – I – C – A – N.


10:45 New is developing fast. It now appears that we have a second confirmed case, that of the 15 year old son of the Mexican woman. M – E – X – I – C – A – N. He too appears to be sick and stayed home from school with mild FLU LIKE SYMPTOMS! Serves him right for jumping across the border!


10:55: I've just gotten an update from my assistant. It appears that both the boy and his mother are citizens. Darn. And here I was, wanting to ship them to Guantanamo Bay with the rest of their Cuban-Mexican-Communist kind. M – E – X – I – C – A – N.


11:15: I've been asked by panicked American to publish a list of warning symptoms that may go along with this new virus. After consulting with our top scientists, it is hard to reach a consensus. Some of them feel that this illness is completely made up and we're just trying to scare people for economic gain. STUPID M – E – X – I – C – A – N SYPATHIZERS! They have now joined their kind in Cuba! The rest of them, seeing what happened to those who oppose us, have come up with the list of following symptoms.


1.

Feeling Sick
2.

Light Headedness
3.

Nausea
4.

Vomiting
5.

Sneezing
6.

Acting Dopey
7.

Grumpiness
8.

Being Bashful
9.

Sleepiness
10.

Feeling Happy
11.

Frequent Doctor Visits
12.

Farting
13.

Explosive Diharrea
14.

Lack of Sex Drive
15.

Too Much Sex Drive
16.

Any Sex Drive at All
17.

Driving in a Car
18.

Falling Asleep on a Bus
19.

Frequent Nose Picking
20.

Terror
21.

Insomnia
22.

Tooth Decay
23.

Having Fun at the Opera
24.

Fear of Red Headed People
25.

Rooting for Onions
26.

Wallowing in Mud
27.

Snorting
28.

Squealing
29.

Grunting to Attract Potential Mates
30.

Anything Not Listed Above


If you have any of the above symptoms, if you feel sick but don't have any of the above symptoms, if you don't feel sick but do have the above symptoms, of if you don't feel sick and don't have any symptoms, YOU PROBABLY HAVE SUPER-DUPER SWINE FLU! Realistically, you have very little chance of recovery, so you should probably slit your wrists and be done with it. Go ahead. You know you want to. Just do it already.


12:00 Good news. Pres. Obama has just approved a new scanning system to detect the presence of swine flu. Plans are to install it by the end of 2015 in all airports, seaports, land bridges, rail stations, public arenas, immigrant homes, and on random street corners throughout the United States. It will cost 700 billion dollars to build and will likely cause America to lose 10,000+ jobs, well worth it for security, in my opinion. Some scientists have questioned the sanity of installing such a system for a mild illness that affects only a very small percent of the world's population. They say that we should focus on things like Malaria and AIDS that kill millions of people every year. Pshaw! Those diseases only kill poor people. Also, the ACLU has questioned the legality of subjecting Americans to randomized virus screenings and racially profiling Mexicans for most of the screenings. I say that Cuba is going to get a lot more house guests before the day is through!


1:00 Oh no! It's confirmed! Ther is now another case in the United States! A 16 year old friend of the 15 year old how lives across the street has also become ill with the new swine flu! This makes at least three known cases in the United States alone! Will the spread of this disease ever be halted?


1:30 In an effort to stop the spread of this new disease, which the World Health Organization is already calling a Pandemic, government buildings across the country are being set on fire. Citizens everywhere are ordered to take any potentially infectious items, including clothing, old food, furniture, pets, and small children, to the burning buildings for incineration. Also, nuclear strikes have been authorized against Russia and China to prevent the possible spread of the disease to those nations.


2:30 Well, it appears that the sicknesses in Illinois were, in fact, not swine flu but rather food poisoning from last nights lasagna. Both the mother and the 15 year old are feeling much better, even though 16 year old is still feeling mildly dizzy. Hopefully he'll die. Then we'd have something!


Economists predict that the rioting and looting that have already started from the new swine flue will take weeks to die down and cost the country 100 Billion dollars in damage and lost revenue. Still, it's a small price to pay for security.

Your nurse if you get sick:


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Monday, May 4, 2009

A Fire Reflected in a Lake.

A fire reflected in a lake cannot burn the water. Neither can emotions disturb the mind when you don’t get involved in them. Don’t identify an emotion as your self. The fear or anger is not you, only an impersonal phenomenon.

Mentally pull back from the emotion and turn your awareness around to observe it. When in the grip of negative emotion we tend to believe it will never end. But emotions are no more permanent than thoughts.

With continued practice you’ll find that you only have to wait and any emotion, whether pleasant or unpleasant, is bound to change.

–Cynthia Thatcher, from Just Seeing: Insight Mediation and Sense-Perception (Buddhist Publication Society)

James: It sure is hard not to identify with emotions--especially when an emotional reaction is so ingrained within the psyche that its emergence seems totally involuntary. However, we know that at some level we have made a conscious choice to react in one way or another. We feel so helpless and at the mercy of these destructive and misery creating emotions. The suffering they engender is so great that it is like experiencing a nightmare.

A nightmare is a pseudo reality where the most ridiculous, terrifying and outlandish events stream through our mind like an all too real virtual reality, interactive video game. The nightmare seems so plausible--perhaps we find ourselves fleeing from a monster in our dream. Or maybe we get ourselves into some crazy situation such as a recurring dream of mine where I end up unjustly thrown in prison--an innocent man. The terror and suffering in those moments are so visceral that they can even cause the physical body to wake up sweating and gasping for air as if the body was in a real fight or flight situation.

There is, however, something called, "lucid dreaming" where a person is aware that they are dreaming--as they are dreaming. I have experienced this phenomenon every so often and it is often like watching things unfold from a third person point of view, which usually lessons the impact of the events. It is a way to step back from what is going on and get a bigger picture view of it all and see that in truth you are not going to die, or get thrown in prison or lose your parent, child or spouse. It is said that a person can train their mind to be able to go into this third person vantage point while dreaming to better deal with and process the events and impacts of the dreams.

In this way, I see meditation as the lucid dreaming of the waking state to be practiced and fine tuned to be a set of tools to enable us to walk through samsara and accumulate less heavy karmic debts.

~Peace to all beings~