Is That So

[alex-traczyk]

IS THAT SO

Without Love

In the fifties and sixties most of the songs on the radio were either about romantic love or heartbreak love ... like falling in ... falling out ... being jilted or sometimes unrequited love.

In 1966 Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio took a different tact when writing a love song ... showing a darker side ... how life looks like to a person who is totally without love.

'The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore' was recorded by the Walker Brothers and became a big hit.

Here are some of the lyrics:

Emptiness is a place you're in

There is nothing to lose no more to win

The sun ain't gonna shine anymore

The moon ain't gonna rise in the sky

The tears are always clouding your eyes

When you're without love

[alex-traczyk]

Is That So

Love Thy Neighbor

A man was returning home from a walk when a neighbor with whom he was having an ongoing feud, swore at him while holding a power tool in a threatening way.

Not wanting to get into a useless argument with his obnoxious neighbor, the man showed him the middle finger.

Shortly after, the police showed up at the man's door and arrested him charging him with criminal harassment.

When the case finally came up before a Montreal court, the judge did not hold back his contempt for the neighbor and the prosecution. He called the case against the man 'a bewildering injustice'.

In his ruling he wrote that "it's not a crime to give someone the finger" ... furthermore he wrote "flipping the proverbial bird is a God-given Charter-enshrined right that belongs to every red blooded Canadian".

After he found the man not quilty, the judge said that he found the case so deplorable that if he could have he would have thrown the case out but couldn't because the courtroom had no windows.

[alex-traczyk]

IS THAT SO

Something terrible happens on this planet everyday ... and sometimes what happens is just plain horrendous ... I know this because people on television, on the radio and the internet tell me so ...

It's good to know that there is something that's just as dependable as the sun going down and the sun going up ....

[alex-traczyk]

America Loves Guns More Then They Do Their Children

I remember Columbine. I especially remember the image of a student crawling out a window and as he slide down head first he left a blood stain the length of his body on the side of the school.

However, as horrible as it was, I thought of the mass shooting as an anomaly ... but boy was I wrong. Since then there have been so many shootings that I have lost count of the number. It has become a sort of American phenomenon ... to such an extent that I have become numb to them.

However, the shooting at a Buffalo grocery store combined with the killing of 19 fourth graders and their teachers, first angered me and saddened me to no end.

After watching so many mass shootings over the years, I have come to the conclusion that these shootings ... aside from the shooter being suicidal ( because they know they will be killed) ... are fueled by hate, anger, envy, frustration and revenge.

I believe, like many others, that the solution lies with the shooter. But in no way would there be so many shootings and deaths if it weren't for the easy access to guns.

But for me the real kicker is that there are many politicians like the Governor of Texas, who believe that life is sacred and have made abortion illegal, are eager supporters of the NRA .... an organizations devoted to promoting guns and therefore making them big supporters of gun makers ... the Merchants of Death ...

[alex-traczyk]

America Loves Guns More Then They Do Their Children

I remember Columbine. I especially remember the image of a student crawling out a window and as he slide down head first he left a blood stain the length of his body on the side of the school.

However, as horrible as it was, I thought of the mass shooting as an anomaly ... but boy was I wrong. Since then there have been so many shootings that I have lost count of the number. It has become a sort of American phenomenon ... to such an extent that I have become numb to them.

However, the shooting at a Buffalo grocery store combined with the killing of 19 fourth graders and their teachers, first angered me and saddened me to no end.

After watching so many mass shootings over the years, I have come to the conclusion that these shootings ... aside from the shooter being suicidal ( because they know they will be killed) ... are fueled by hate, anger, envy, frustration and revenge.

I believe, like many others, that the solution lies with the shooter. But in no way would there be so many shootings and deaths if it weren't for the easy access to guns.

But for me the real kicker is that there are many politicians like the Governor of Texas, who believe that life is sacred and have made abortion illegal, are eager supporters of the NRA .... an organizations devoted to promoting guns and therefore making them big supporters of gun makers ... the Merchants of Death ...

[alex-traczyk]

America Loves Guns More Then They Do Their Children

I remember Columbine. I especially remember the image of a student crawling out a window and as he slide down head first he left a blood stain the length of his body on the side of the school.

However, as horrible as it was, I thought of the mass shooting as an anomaly ... but boy was I wrong. Since then there have been so many shootings that I have lost count of the number. It has become a sort of American phenomenon ... to such an extent that I have become numb to them.

However, the shooting at a Buffalo grocery store combined with the killing of 19 fourth graders and their teachers, first angered me and saddened me to no end.

After watching so many mass shootings over the years, I have come to the conclusion that these shootings ... aside from the shooter being suicidal ( because they know they will be killed) ... are fueled by hate, anger, envy, frustration and revenge.

I believe, like many others, that the solution lies with the shooter. But in no way would there be so many shootings and deaths if it weren't for the easy access to guns.

But for me the real kicker is that there are many politicians like the Governor of Texas, who believe that life is sacred and have made abortion illegal, are eager supporters of the NRA .... an organizations devoted to promoting guns and therefore making them big supporters of gun makers ... the Merchants of Death ...

[alex-traczyk]

WAR vs PEACE

A Survival Guide For A Dark Age

THE WELL

The water well provides one of the most essential needs in life ... the oldest and perhaps the first well was constructed in Cypress around 8400 BC ...

According to the Book of Changes ... the I Ching ... the shape of the well has an important symbolic meaning in China ... the shape has remained constant in China despite the change of dynasties ... the movement of people ... the change of architectural styles throughout the centuries ...

Today it stands as shape known for being free from political forms and symbolic of our most primitive needs ...

It's a reminder that political structures change as do nations, but the life of man with its needs remain eternally the same ... this cannot be changed ... it grows neither less or more ... it exits for one and for all ...

[alex-traczyk]

WAR vs PEACE

A Survival Guide For a Dark Age

There are two types of peace ... inner and outer ... some people say that if you attain inner peace outer peace will follow ... while other say that it's impossible to attain inner peace when all hell is breaking around you ...

If you want peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies ... Desmond Tutu

As in war ... so in making peace ... it takes two to Tango ... A.T.

The pursuit of peace ... with its trials and errors, its successes and its set backs, can never be relaxed and never abandoned ... Dag Hammarskjold

If a conflict is long and bitter with no victory in sight ... peace can only be possible if the opposing combatants (not one) want it ... A.T.

Do not be afraid of taking a chance on peace, to teach peace, to live peace ... Peace will be the last word of history ... Pope John Pual II

It is playing safe that we create a world of utmost insecurity ... Dag Hammarskjold ...

[alex-traczyk]

War vs Peace

A Survival Guide For a Dark Age

The Irony

Regardless of the wars ... the conflicts (internal or external) ... the upheavals ... the strive ... the violence ... the natural disasters ... the pestilence ... the constant discord among nations ... and then there is the ever darkening cloud of global warming - the effects of which are coming soon to your nieghbourhood ...

Regardless of all that the sun still sets and rises everyday ... the Earth orbits the sun every 365 days ... the solar system revolves around the Milky Way approximately at the speed of 800,000 miles per hour ... as the Milky Way travels at a speed of 1.2 million miles per hour ...

Everything is moving in perfect harmony ... unfolding as it should.

[alex-traczyk]

Some more signs of a dark age ...

It's Easter Sunday 2022 ... the pandemic continues as there is a rise in infections around the world due to the sixth wave ... the fighting in Ukraine continues unabated with little hope for peace anytime soon and millions of refugees have poured into Poland and other Slav nations ... meanwhile ... the United Nations continues to sound the alarm about Global Warming ...

So where is the promised light at the end of the tunnel ... or ... is that just fakes news ...

[alex-traczyk]

A Survival Guide For a Dark Age

Some of the signs ...

13000 nuclear warheads in military stockpiles around the world ...

Since 1975 there have been 11 genocides ... Cambodia ... Rwanda ...

Bangladesh ... Zaire ... Uganda ... Darfur, Sudan ... East Timor, Indonesia ... Burundi ... Republic of Congo ... Iraq ... Myanmar

[alex-traczyk]

I'm reading ... My Life .. a short book by Zatkala- Sa who was born in 1886 on a reservation in South Dakota ... Zatkala-Sa or Red Bird spent most of life as an activists fighting for Native American rights ... and is regarded as the most influential Native American activists of the 20th century ...

#indigenous

#music #journalism #human rights #activists

[alex-traczyk]

The meaning of the lotus is both ironic and encouraging ... the lotus rises out the mud (suffering .. misery, destruction etc ..) above the surface of the murky water .. struck by the sunlight ... it's petals unfold and enlightment ... but without the mud there is no flower ..

[alex-traczyk]

1. No .. the Academy should not take away the Oscar from Will Smill for a slap.

2. Chris Rock saved the night by not reacting to the slap .. but instead continued to smile and continued with the show.

3. Also, backstage he was asked if wanted Will arrested for battery. Apparently he said no because it would make matters worse.

4. Anyway, I thought the slap was scripted. It only became apparent that it was anything but when Will returned to his seat and started using the F word .. telling Kris what he thought of him .. that's when my heart dropped to my stomach and stayed there the whole night ...