New Cycle

"Dear friends,

Today is the beginning of a new cycle, a kind of new year, with this first new moon in Aries.  It is a time of new beginnings and igniting energies that will begin to unfold now as the year moves forward.  Some will explode into form like they've been waiting for a hundred years; others will develop more slowly, in perfect timing, as the year progresses.

Think of this time of year like a fresh start.  It is an opportunity to begin again.  If today is the beginning of a new cycle, what will you make?  What emerging ideas will spark into creation? 

Use your meditation in these next few days to plant a seed or many.  See yourself as a cosmic gardener, weeding your garden of the clutter of the past and making room for the new growth that is coming.  Clean out your closet mentally and quite literally.  Let everything superfluous go.  Let go of old hurts, let go of old things, just let go.

In your meditation see yourself standing on top of a high mountain looking outward, scanning the horizon, breathing in the clear, cold, crystalline air.  In your hands are feathers that you have carefully collected that represent your soul's true desires.  As you stand on the edge of the mountain, affirm deep within yourself, "Today is the beginning”, as you throw the feathers high up in the air and watch them transform into white doves, owls and hummingbirds.  They sweep around you once and fly into the heavens.

Blessings, 
Diana Lang
THE WEATHER
©2006 by DIANA LANG

These letters are sent out as a gift and a service. If you feel so inspired, please feel free to pass them along, but do so without charge or alteration. If you wish to be added to or deleted from the mailing list, please let me know.

Diana Lang
from the City of Angels
818/888-7319
www.DianaLang.com"

Presidents should not be impeached because we disagree with them.

The above statement comes from the chairman of the Vermont Republican Party , James Barnett, and I totally agree with him.

Somehow, somewhere you may have been manipulated into thinking that the President of the United States "lied" to you but here are some facts that should, if you are not brainwashed, change this embedded opinion:

(1) Information from translations of documents found in Iraq has recently been translated and published by ABC News, Newsmax, and The Weekly Standard (among others) and it shows that besides the fact that every major country in the world shared President Bush's intelligence about WMD (no small thing), Saddam was, in fact, hiding dangerous materials from the inspectors.

(2) Gen. Georges Sada (former senior military advisor to Saddam) says that he had the weapons transported to Syria before the invasion.

(3) The above-mentioned translations also prove that Saddam was, in fact, colluding with bin Laden.

Now, I don't know if anyone else cares, but I don't want anarchy in this country.

If you think the President has done something wrong, prove it or shut up.

Why don't people remember the saying "United we stand, divided we fall?"

It's true.

If everyone who disagrees with a President of the United States undermines him (as the current President's opponents continue to do), how can we be governed? We can't! And anarchy is ugly and dysfunctional and will spell the end of our freedom.

I have always supported our elected officials until and unless they were proven to be unworthy and so should you. Otherwise, what the hell are we all doing here? Just hand over the country to the terrorists, then, and save yourself (and everyone else) a bunch of time and trouble!

Personally, though, I think you are living in a dreamworld if you don't know the difference between a REAL police state and our country...and if you really don't, please move or spend time in another country and get educated on someone else's dime.


Technorati Tags: News

Love that Fairy

A man and his wife, now in their 60's, were celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary.

On their special day a Good Fairy came to them and said that because they had been so good each one of them could have one wish.

The wife wished for a trip around the world with her husband.

Whoosh...immediately she had the airline/cruise tickets in her hands.

The man wished for a female companion 30 years younger.

Whoosh...immediately he turned ninety.

Gotta love that fairy!

Technorati Tags: Love

The Truth

""Enough generations of socialist policies have now passed for us to judge their effects. They are bleak.

Socialism undermines the character of a nation and of its citizens. In simpler words, socialism makes people worse.

Socialism teaches its citizens to expect everything, even if they contribute nothing.

Socialism teaches its citizens that they have a plethora of rights and few corresponding obligations except to be taxed.

And that is why the citizens of less socialist and more religious America give more charity per capita and per income than do citizens of socialist countries. That is why Americans volunteer time for the needy so much more than citizens of socialist countries do. That is why citizens of conservative states in America give more charity than citizens of liberal states do.

The more Left one identifies oneself on the political spectrum, the more that person is likely to believe that the state, not fellow citizens, should take care of the poor and the needy.

Under socialism, one is not only liberated from having to take care of oneself; one is also liberated from having to take care of others. The state will take care of me and of everybody else.

The socialist idea sounded altruistic to those who began it, and it sounds altruistic to the naive who believe in it today. In practice, however, it creates self-centered individuals and a narcissistic society. So while it may have begun as a way to help others, it has come to mean a way of evading responsibility for oneself and for others." —Dennis Prager

But we all suspected this, now didn't we?

"Soap Operas and Talk Shows on Television are Associated with Poorer Cognition in Older Women"

"Southern Medical Journal. 99(3):226-233, March 2006.

Fogel, Joshua PHD; Carlson, Michelle C. PHD"

Technorati Tags: Television

Vets for Freedom

This is a brand new website just launched by a former Marine Lieutenant named Wade Zirkle.

During the last year, he's been recovering from injuries that were received when his unit was attacked and six of his fellow Marines were killed.

http://www.vetsforfreedom.org/

Perhaps this is, in part, a response to the partisan politics of those who would rather sacrifice our country by undermining EVERYTHING--not just the war in Iraq--that President Bush does in order to bring him down.

Here's one Marine officer's take on this:

"I work with Mayor Najim [Mayor of Tall ‘Afar, Ninewa, Iraq]. He gets it. The vast majority of the Iraqi people get it. Almost all of us in uniform over here get it, as do our families back home. If the Democrats don't stop the nonsense and get it now, I can assure you, al-Qa'ida will give it to all of us later."

Here follows a fantastic letter from that very same Mayor to the men and women of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and their families:

In the Name of God the Compassionate and Merciful

To the Courageous Men and Women of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, who have changed the city of Tall’ Afar from a ghost town, in which terrorists spread death and destruction, to a secure city flourishing with life.

To the lion-hearts who liberated our city from the grasp of terrorists who were beheading men, women and children in the streets for many months.

To those who spread smiles on the faces of our children, and gave us restored hope, through their personal sacrifice and brave fighting, and gave new life to the city after hopelessness darkened our days, and stole our confidence in our ability to reestablish our city.

Our city was the main base of operations for Abu Mousab Al Zarqawi. The city was completely held hostage in the hands of his henchmen. Our schools, governmental services, businesses and offices were closed. Our streets were silent, and no one dared to walk them. Our people were barricaded in their homes out of fear; death awaited them around every corner. Terrorists occupied and controlled the only hospital in the city. Their savagery reached such a level that they stuffed the corpses of children with explosives and tossed them into the streets in order to kill grieving parents attempting to retrieve the bodies of their young. This was the situation of our city until God prepared and delivered unto them the courageous soldiers of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, who liberated this city, ridding it of Zarqawi’s followers after harsh fighting, killing many terrorists, and forcing the remaining butchers to flee the city like rats to the surrounding areas, where the bravery of other 3d ACR soldiers in Sinjar, Rabiah, Zumar and Avgani finally destroyed them.

I have met many soldiers of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment; they are not only courageous men and women, but avenging angels sent by The God Himself to fight the evil of terrorism.

The leaders of this Regiment; COL McMaster, COL Armstrong, LTC Hickey, LTC Gibson, and LTC Reilly embody courage, strength, vision and wisdom. Officers and soldiers alike bristle with the confidence and character of knights in a bygone era. The mission they have accomplished, by means of a unique military operation, stands among the finest military feats to date in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and truly deserves to be studied in military science. This military operation was clean, with little collateral damage, despite the ferocity of the enemy. With the skill and precision of surgeons they dealt with the terrorist cancers in the city without causing unnecessary damage.

God bless this brave Regiment; God bless the families who dedicated these brave men and women. From the bottom of our hearts we thank the families. They have given us something we will never forget. To the families of those who have given their holy blood for our land, we all bow to you in reverence and to the souls of your loved ones. Their sacrifice was not in vain. They are not dead, but alive, and their souls hovering around us every second of every minute. They will never be forgotten for giving their precious lives. They have sacrificed that which is most valuable. We see them in the smile of every child, and in every flower growing in this land. Let America, their families, and the world be proud of their sacrifice for humanity and life.

Finally, no matter how much I write or speak about this brave Regiment, I haven’t the words to describe the courage of its officers and soldiers. I pray to God to grant happiness and health to these legendary heroes and their brave families.

NAJIM ABDULLAH ABID AL-JIBOURI Mayor of Tall ‘Afar, Ninewa, Iraq



Technorati Tags: Politics, Love, Health

Hope

Dear friends,

All is quiet tonight.

The night is full of hope.

It is everywhere. Permeating everything.

All we have to do is tap into it. It's already on like the electricity is already there before you plug the toaster in.

As you move through the day sense the atmosphere. Feel the hope that is all around us. Let your spirit get sparked and sparkled by it.

It will give you energy. It will give you endurance. It will lighten your Way.

blessings, Diana Lang THE WEATHER ©2006 by DIANA LANG

These letters are sent out as a gift and a service. If you feel so inspired, please feel free to pass them along, but do so without charge or alteration. If you wish to be added to or deleted from the mailing list, please let me know.

www.DianaLang.com from the City of Angels LifeWorks@aol.com 818/888-7319

Take a deep breath...

Dear friends,

Take a deep breath. Let your breath move beyond your lungs into your shoulders and neck and head.

Take another deep breath. Feel your breath move from the soles of your feet, up and all the way through your body, to the crown of your head.

Take one more breath and say in your heart as you do: "I flow peace through my breath. I flow peace in my life."

peace to you, Diana Lang THE WEATHER ©2006 by DIANA LANG

These letters are sent out as a gift and a service. If you feel so inspired, please feel free to pass them along, but do so without charge or alteration. If you wish to be added to or deleted from the mailing list, please let me know.

www.DianaLang.com from the City of Angels LifeWorks@aol.com 818/888-7319

Ingenuity

An old farmer had a pond on his property, next to a peach orchard. One day he took a bucket to go gather some peaches.

As he neared the pond, he heard splashing and giggling, and gleeful squealing. He arrived to find half a dozen young women skinny-dipping in his pond.

The young women spotted him and gathered in the deep end. One of them shouted, "We're not getting out until you leave."

The old farmer replied, "I didn't come here to see naked women (he held up the bucket) I just came to feed the alligator."

Technorati Tags: Jokes

Who's On First? (Windows Update)

It helps to be old enough to remember Abbott and Costello (and too old to REALLY understand computers) to fully appreciate this. For those of you who sometimes get flustered by your computers, please read on!

If Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were alive today, their infamous sketch, "Who's on First?" might have turned out something like this:

COSTELLO CALLS TO BUY A COMPUTER FROM ABBOTT... ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?

COSTELLO: Thanks. I'm setting up an office in my den and I'm thinking about buying a computer.

ABBOTT: Mac?

COSTELLO: No, the name's Lou.

ABBOTT: Your computer?

COSTELLO: I don't own a computer. I want to buy one.

ABBOTT: Mac?

COSTELLO: I told you, my name's Lou.

ABBOTT: What about Windows?

COSTELLO: Why? Will it get stuffy in here?

ABBOTT: Do you want a computer with Windows?

COSTELLO: I don't know. What will I see when I look at the windows?

ABBOTT: Wallpaper.

COSTELLO: Never mind the windows. I need a computer and software.

ABBOTT: Software for Windows?

COSTELLO: No. On the computer! I need something I can use to write proposals, track expenses and run my business. What do you have?

ABBOTT: Office.

COSTELLO: Yeah, for my office. Can you recommend anything?

ABBOTT: I just did.

COSTELLO: You just did what?

ABBOTT: Recommend something.

COSTELLO: You recommended something?

ABBOTT: Yes.

COSTELLO: For my office?

ABBOTT: Yes.

COSTELLO: OK, what did you recommend for my office?

ABBOTT: Office.

COSTELLO: Yes, for my office!

ABBOTT: I recommend Office with Windows.

COSTELLO: I already have an office with windows! OK, let's just say I'm sitting at my computer and I want to type a proposal. What do I need?

ABBOTT: Word.

COSTELLO: What word?

ABBOTT: Word in Office.

COSTELLO: The only word in office is office.

ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.

COSTELLO: Which word in office for windows?

ABBOTT: The Word you get when you click the blue "W."

COSTELLO: I'm going to click your blue "w" if you don't start with some straight answers. What about financial bookkeeping? You have anything I can track my money with?

ABBOTT: Money.

COSTELLO: That's right. What do you have?

ABBOTT: Money.

COSTELLO: I need money to track my money?

ABBOTT: It comes bundled with your computer.

COSTELLO: What's bundled with my computer?

ABBOTT: Money.

COSTELLO: Money comes with my computer?

ABBOTT: Yes. No extra charge.

COSTELLO: I get a bundle of money with my computer? How much?

ABBOTT: One copy.

COSTELLO: Isn't it illegal to copy money?

ABBOTT: Microsoft gave us a license to copy Money.

COSTELLO: They can give you a license to copy money?

ABBOTT: Why not? THEY OWN IT!

(A few days later)

ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?

COSTELLO: How do I turn my computer off?

ABBOTT: Click on "START". . .>

Technorati Tags: Jokes

The blame game

"Liberals tend to blame outside forces for evil. This emanates from the secular humanistic view of people as basically good—and therefore human evil must come not from the bad choices and bad values of the evildoer, but from the unfortunate socioeconomic and other circumstances of the person's life.

As you go further left on the political spectrum, it becomes increasingly difficult to blame the 'weak' for any atrocities they commit. The Left does not divide the world between good and evil nearly as much as it does between rich and poor, and between strong and weak.

Israel is stronger and richer, so Palestinian terror is excused. White America is stronger and richer than black America, so black violence is excused. The West is stronger and richer than the Muslim world, so Muslim violence is explained accordingly.

We don't know who will be the next target of Islamic or other murderers from poor or non-Western or non-white groups. All we can know is that liberal and leftist thought will find reasons to hold the targeted group largely responsible." --Dennis Prager

Don't tell Reese

Blonde LOGIC

Two blondes living in Oklahoma were sitting on a bench talking and one blonde says to the other, "Which do you think is farther away Florida or the moon?" The other blonde turns and says "Helloooooooooo, can you see Florida?"

CAR TROUBLE

A blonde pushes her BMW into a gas station. She tells the mechanic it died. After he works on it for a few minutes, it is idling smoothly. She says, "What's the story?" He replies, "Just crap in the carburetor" She asks, "How often do I have to do that?"

SPEEDING TICKET

A police officer stops a blonde for speeding and asks her very nicely if he could see her license. She replied in a huff, "I wish you guys would get your act together. Just yesterday you take away my license and then today you expect me to show it to you!"

RIVER WALK

There's this blonde out for a walk. She comes to a river and sees another blonde on the opposite bank. "Yoo-hoo!" she shouts, "How can I get to the other side?" The second blonde looks up the river then down the river and shouts back, "You ARE on the other side."

AT THE DOCTOR'S OFFICE

A gorgeous young redhead goes into the doctor's office and said that her body hurt wherever she touched it. "Impossible!" says the doctor. "Show me." The redhead took her finger, pushed on her left breast and screamed, then she pushed her elbow and screamed in even more. She pushed her knee and screamed; likewise she pushed her ankle and screamed. Everywhere she touched made her scream. The doctor said, "You're not really a redhead, are you? "Well, no" she said, "I'm actually a blonde." "I thought so," the doctor said. "Your finger is broken."

KNITTING

A highway patrolman pulled alongside a speeding car on the freeway. Glancing at the car, he was astounded to see that the blonde behind the wheel was knitting! Realizing that she was oblivious to his flashing lights and siren, the trooper cranked down his window, turned on his bullhorn and yelled, "PULL OVER!" "NO!", the blonde yelled back, "IT'S A SCARF!"

BLONDE ON THE SUN

A Russian, an American, and a Blonde were talking one day. The Russian said, "We were the first in space!" The American said, "We were the first on the moon!" The Blonde said, "So what? We're going to be the first on the sun!" The Russian and the American looked at each other and shook their heads. "You can't land on the sun, you idiot! You'll burn up!" said the Russian. To which the Blonde replied, "We're not stupid, you know. We're going at night!" IN A VACUUM

A blonde was playing Trivial Pursuit one night. It was her turn. She rolled the dice and she landed on Science & Nature. Her question was, "If you are in a vacuum and someone calls your name, can you hear it?" She thought for a time and then asked, "Is it on or off?"

FINALLY: THE BLONDE JOKE TO END ALL BLONDE JOKES!

A girl was visiting her blonde friend, who had acquired two new dogs, and asked her what their names were. The blonde responded by saying that one was named Rolex and one was named Timex. Her friend said, "Whoever heard of someone naming dogs like that?" "HELLLOOOOOOO," answered the blond. "They're watch dogs!"

Technorati Tags: Jokes

Ben Stein's Last Column

For many years Ben Stein wrote a biweekly column called "Monday Night At Morton's." (Morton's is a famous chain of Steakhouses known to be frequented by movie stars and famous people from around the globe.) Last year Ben terminated the column in order to move on to other things in his life. Reading his final column is worth a few minutes of your time.

Ben Stein's Last Column:

How Can Someone Who Lives in Insane Luxury Be a Star in Today's World?

As I begin to write this, I "slug" it, as we writers say, which means I put a heading on top of the document to identify it. This heading is "eonlineFINAL," and it gives me a shiver to write it. I have been doing this column for so long that I cannot even recall when I started. I loved writing this column so much for so long I came to believe it would never end.

It worked well for a long time, but gradually, my ! changing as a person and the world's change have overtaken it. On a small scale, Morto! n's, while better than ever, no longer attracts as many stars as it used to. It still brings in the rich people in droves and definitely some stars. I saw Samuel L. Jackson there a few days ago, and we had a nice visit, and right before that, I saw and had a splendid talk with Warren Beatty in an elevator, in which we agreed that Splendor in the Grass was a super movie But Morton's is not the star galaxy it once was, though it probably will be again.

Beyond that, a bigger change has happened. I no longer think Hollywood stars are terribly important . They are uniformly pleasant, friendly people, and they treat me better than I deserve to be treated. But a man or woman who makes a huge wage for memorizing lines and reciting them in front of a camera is no longer my idea of a shining star we should all look up to.

How can a man or woman who makes an eight-figure wage and lives in in! sane luxury really be a star in today's world, if by a "star" we mean someone bright! and powerful and attractive as a role model? Real stars are not riding around in the backs of limousines or in Porsches or getting trained in yoga or Pilates and eating only raw fruit while they have Vietnamese girls do their nails.

They can be interesting, nice people, but they are not heroes to me any longer. A real star is the soldier of the 4th Infantry Division who poked his head into a hole on a farm near Tikrit, Iraq. He could have been met by a bomb or a hail of AK-47 bullets. Instead, he faced an abject Saddam Hussein and the gratitude of all of the decent people of the world.

A real star is the U.S. soldier who was sent to disarm a bomb next to a road north of Baghdad. He approached it, and the bomb went off and killed him.

A real star, the kind who haunts my memory night and day, is the U.S. soldier in Baghdad who saw a little girl playing with a piece of unexploded ordnance on a street near where he was guarding a station. He pushed her aside! and threw himself on it just as it exploded. He left a family desolate in California and a little girl alive in Baghdad.

The stars who deserve media attention are not the ones who have lavish weddings on TV but the ones who patrol the streets of Mosul even after two of their buddies were murdered and their bodies battered and stripped for the sin of trying to protect Iraqis from terrorists.

We put couples with incomes of $100 million a year on the covers of our magazines. The noncoms and officers who barely scrape by on military pay but stand on guard in Afghanistan and Iraq and on ships and in submarines and near the Arctic Circle are anonymous as they live and die.

I am no longer comfortable being a part of the system that has such poor values, and I do not want to perpetuate those values by pretending that who is eating at Morton's is a big subject.

There are plenty of other stars in the American firmament...the policemen and women who go off on patrol in South Central and have no idea if they will return alive; the orderlies and paramedics who bring in people who have been in terrible accidents and prepare them for surgery; the teachers and nurses who throw their whole spirits into caring for autistic children; the kind men and women who work in hospices and in cancer wards.

Think of each and every fireman who was running up the stairs at the World Trade Center as the towers began to collapse. Now you have my idea of a real hero.

I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters. This is my highest and best use as a human. I can put it another way. Years ago, I realized I could never be as great an actor as Olivier or as good a comic as Steve Martin...or Martin Mull or Fred Willard--or as good an economist as Samuelson or Friedman or as good a writer as Fitzgerald. Or even remotely close to any of them.

But I could be a devoted father to my son, husband to my wife and, above all, a good son to the parents who had done so much for me. This came to be my main task in life. I did it moderately well with my son, pretty well with my wife and well indeed with my parents (with my sister's help). I cared for and paid attention to them in their declining years. I stayed with my father as he got sick, went into extremis and then into a coma and then entered immortality with my sister and me reading him the Psalms.

This was the only point at which my life touched the lives of the soldiers in Iraq or the firefighters in New York. I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters and that it is my duty, in return for the lavish life God has devolved upon me, to help others He has placed in my path. This is my highest and best use as a human.

Faith is not believing that God can. It is knowing that God will.

By Ben Stein

Technorati Tags: Love

Not for atheists

Q: What is the shortest chapter in the Bible?
A: Psalms 117

Q: What is the longest chapter in the Bible?
A: Psalms 119

Q: Which chapter is in the center of the Bible?
A: Psalms 118

Fact: There are 594 chapters before Psalms 118
Fact: There are 594 chapters after Psalms 118

Add these numbers up and you get 1188

Q: What is the center verse in the Bible?
A: Psalms 118:8

Q: Does this verse say something significant about God's perfect will for our lives?
A: The next time someone says they would like to find God's perfect will for their lives and that they want to be in the center of His will, just send them to the center of His Word!

Psalms 118:8 - "It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man."

Now isn't that odd how this worked out (or was God in the center of it)?