"A ship in port is safe, but that is not what ships are built for."

- Benazir Bhutto
(June 21, 1953 – December 27, 2007)

As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness

-Henry David Thoreau

Toby Esterhase: You're an old spy in a hurry, George. You used to say they were the worst.

George Smiley: Oh they are, Toby, they are.

“Been far, Pilgrim?”
“Seems like far.”
“Were it worth the trouble?”
“Eh, what trouble?”

-- from the movie “Jeremiah Johnson.”

"You must be the change you want to see in the world."
- - Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948)

Look upon this moment. Savor it! Rejoice with great gladness! Great gladness! Remember it always, for you are joined by it. You are One, under the stars. Remember it well, then... this night, this great victory. So that in the years ahead, you can say, "I was there that night, with Arthur, the King!!!"

For it is the doom of men... that they forget.

-- Merlin (Excalibur)

What follows is a blog entry, but blog entries tend to get buried after a few days never to see the light of day again. I feel too strongly about this particular subject so, I am going to keep it current by placing it on my profile page.



We live in a different time... issues that would, a generation ago, have had an angry people in the streets, are greeted with indifference today by too many in American society. While this nation, with the *tacit consent* of the governed, tortures individuals, spys on its own citizens, and destroys evidence of its crimes, many of us sit idly by as the as talk and discussion drag on and on... as the very definition of "torture" if debated and redefined!! Security before Freedom... that seems to be the motto of the day.

If anyone who reads these does not believe that these actions do occur with "the concent of the governed" then Iask... *no* I demand!! to know: Where are the great crowds marching in every city of this country shouting with a single voice that the actions of this government *not* be performed in the name of the citizens of the United States of America!! *Where* are our leaders, local and national, stating in voices unequivocal, "This is *not* what we as a people believe in!!! This is *not* what our country stands for!! Let us commit ourselves as a society to stop these actions and to NEVER again use such filtthy, unjust methods in the name of freedom, liberty and justice!!!"

"By you actions you have disowned the system that made you. You have placed love above duty. The ground on which you once stood is cut away. You have become a citizen of No Man’s Land. I send you my greetings".

-- George Smiley