Spirit of the Season

Tea is nought but this: first you heat the water, then you make the tea. Then you drink it properly.
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Typhoon
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Re: Spirit of the Season

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May the gods preserve and defend me from self-righteous altruists; I can defend myself from my enemies and my friends.
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kmich
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Veteran's Day 2014

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To my fellow military veterans, have a good day with your friends and families, preferably without the bullshit.

Ballpark Liturgy: America’s New Civic Religion

By Andrew Bacevich | July 28, 2011
Fenway Park, Boston, July 4, 2011. On this warm summer day, the Red Sox will play the Toronto Blue Jays. First come pre-game festivities, especially tailored for the occasion. The ensuing spectacle — a carefully scripted encounter between the armed forces and society — expresses the distilled essence of present-day American patriotism. A masterpiece of contrived spontaneity, the event leaves spectators feeling good about their baseball team, about their military, and not least of all about themselves — precisely as it was meant to do.

In this theatrical production, the Red Sox provide the stage, and the Pentagon the props. In military parlance, it is a joint operation. In front of a gigantic American flag draped over the left-field wall, an Air Force contingent, clad in blue, stands at attention. To carry a smaller version of the Stars and Stripes onto the playing field, the Navy provides a color guard in crisp summer whites. The United States Marine Corps kicks in with a choral ensemble that leads the singing of the national anthem. As the anthem’s final notes sound, four U. S. Air Force F-15C Eagles scream overhead. The sellout crowd roars its approval.

But there is more to come. “On this Independence Day,” the voice of the Red Sox booms over the public address system, “we pay a debt of gratitude to the families whose sons and daughters are serving our country.” On this particular occasion the designated recipients of that gratitude are members of the Lydon family, hailing from Squantum, Massachusetts. Young Bridget Lydon is a sailor — Aviation Ordnanceman Airman is her official title — serving aboard the carrier USS Ronald Reagan, currently deployed in support of the Afghanistan War, now in its 10th year.

From Out of Nowhere

The Lydons are Every Family, decked out for the Fourth. Garbed in random bits of Red Sox paraphernalia and Mardi Gras necklaces, they wear their shirts untucked and ball caps backwards. Neither sleek nor fancy, they are without pretension. Yet they exude good cheer. As they are ushered onto the field, their eagerness is palpable. Like TV game show contestants, they know that this is their lucky day and they are keen to make the most of it.

As the Lydons gather near the pitcher’s mound, the voice directs their attention to the 38-by-100-foot Jumbotron mounted above the centerfield bleachers. On the screen, Bridget appears. She is aboard ship, in duty uniform, posed below decks in front of an F/A-18 fighter jet. Waiflike, but pert and confident, she looks directly into the camera, sending a “shout-out” to family and friends. She wishes she could join them at Fenway.

As if by magic, wish becomes fulfillment. While the video clip is still running, Bridget herself, now in dress whites, emerges from behind the flag covering the leftfield wall. On the Jumbotron, in place of Bridget below decks, an image of Bridget marching smartly toward the infield appears. In the stands pandemonium erupts. After a moment of confusion, members of her family — surrounded by camera crews — rush to embrace their sailor, a reunion shared vicariously by the 38,000 fans in attendance along with many thousands more watching at home on the Red Sox television network.

Once the Lydons finish with hugs and kisses and the crowd settles down, Navy veteran Bridget (annual salary approximately $22,000) throws the ceremonial first pitch to aging Red Sox veteran Tim Wakefield (annual salary $2,000,000). More cheers. As a souvenir, Wakefield gives her the baseball along with his own hug. All smiles, Bridget and her family shout “Play Ball!” into a microphone. As they are escorted off the field and out of sight, the game begins.

Cheap Grace

What does this event signify?

For the Lydons, the day will no doubt long remain a happy memory. If they were to some degree manipulated — their utter and genuine astonishment at Bridget’s seemingly miraculous appearance lending the occasion its emotional punch — they played their allotted roles without complaint and with considerable élan. However briefly, they stood in the spotlight, quasi-celebrities, all eyes trained on them, a contemporary version of the American dream fulfilled. And if offstage puppet-masters used Bridget herself, at least she got a visit home and a few days off — no doubt a welcome break.

Yet this feel-good story was political as well as personal. As a collaboration between two well-heeled but image-conscious institutions, the Lydon reunion represented a small but not inconsequential public relations triumph. The Red Sox and the Navy had worked together to perform an act of kindness for a sailor and her loved ones. Both organizations came away looking good, not only because the event itself was so deftly executed, but because it showed that the large for-profit professional sports team and the even larger military bureaucracy both care about ordinary people. The message conveyed to fans/taxpayers could not be clearer: the corporate executives who run the Red Sox have a heart. So, too, do the admirals who run the Navy.

Better still, these benefits accrued at essentially no cost to the sponsors. The military personnel arrayed around Fenway showed up because they were told to do so. They are already “paid for,” as are the F-15s, the pilots who fly them, and the ground crews that service them. As for whatever outlays the Red Sox may have made, they are trivial and easily absorbed. For the 2011 season, the average price of a ticket at Fenway Park had climbed to $52. A soft drink in a commemorative plastic cup runs you $5.50 and a beer $8. Then there is the television ad revenue, all contributing the previous year to corporate profits exceeding $58 million. A decade of war culminating in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression hasn’t done much good for the country but it has been strangely good for the Red Sox — and a no-less well funded Pentagon. Any money expended in bringing Bridget to Fenway and entertaining the Lydons had to be the baseball/military equivalent of pocket change.

And the holiday festivities at Fenway had another significance as well, one that extended beyond burnishing institutional reputations and boosting bottom lines. Here was America’s civic religion made manifest.

In recent decades, an injunction to “support the troops” has emerged as a central tenet of that religion. Since 9/11 this imperative has become, if anything, even more binding. Indeed, as citizens, Americans today acknowledge no higher obligation.

Fulfilling that obligation has posed a challenge, however. Rather than doing so concretely, Americans — with a few honorable exceptions — have settled for symbolism. With their pronounced aversion to collective service and sacrifice (an inclination indulged by leaders of both political parties), Americans resist any definition of civic duty that threatens to crimp lifestyles.

To stand in solidarity with those on whom the burden of service and sacrifice falls is about as far as they will go. Expressions of solidarity affirm that the existing relationship between soldiers and society is consistent with democratic practice. By extension, so, too, is the distribution of prerogatives and responsibilities entailed by that relationship: a few fight, the rest applaud. Put simply, the message that citizens wish to convey to their soldiers is this: although choosing not to be with you, we are still for you (so long as being for you entails nothing on our part). Cheering for the troops, in effect, provides a convenient mechanism for voiding obligation and easing guilty consciences.

In ways far more satisfying than displaying banners or bumper stickers, the Fenway Park Independence Day event provided a made-to-order opportunity for conscience easing. It did so in three ways. First, it brought members of Red Sox Nation into close proximity (even if not direct contact) with living, breathing members of the armed forces, figuratively closing any gap between the two. (In New England, where few active duty military installations remain, such encounters are increasingly infrequent.) Second, it manufactured one excuse after another to whistle and shout, whoop and holler, thereby allowing the assembled multitudes to express — and to be seen expressing — their affection and respect for the troops. Finally, it rewarded participants and witnesses alike with a sense of validation, the reunion of Bridget and her family, even if temporary, serving as a proxy for a much larger, if imaginary, reconciliation of the American military and the American people. That debt? Mark it paid in full.

The late German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer had a name for this unearned self-forgiveness and undeserved self-regard. He called it cheap grace. Were he alive today, Bonhoeffer might suggest that a taste for cheap grace, compounded by an appetite for false freedom, is leading Americans down the road to perdition.

Andrew J. Bacevich, the author of Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War, is professor of history and international relations at Boston University.
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Doc
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Re: Spirit of the Season

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Typhoon wrote:NR2Yz3x9EJY
Interesting contrast:

Image

Day of the dead in Mexico City

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/0 ... 96886.html

BTW
Fp7GqPVq2Zs

"Japanese-Mexican Band "

pIvGGEvjjZ4

Japanese mariachi

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Una japonesa cantando con mariachi estrella de jalisco
"I fancied myself as some kind of god....It is a sort of disease when you consider yourself some kind of god, the creator of everything, but I feel comfortable about it now since I began to live it out.” -- George Soros
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Nonc Hilaire
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A veteran's story about beer and Bastigone

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lZe2H8nvUAM
“Christ has no body now but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks with compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks among His people to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses His creation.”

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Re: Spirit of the Season

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Happy American Thanksgiving to all the forum Americans.

Turkzilla!

[I'll be enroute for my annual trip to the US Midwest . . . ]
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Scotland

Post by Endovelico »

Happy St Andrew's day!...

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Re: Spirit of the Season

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Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to all.

vxvDMWRG-gQ
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Re: Spirit of the Season

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Typhoon wrote:Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to all.

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:lol: :lol:

Outstanding! Thanks!
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Re: Spirit of the Season

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Deep down I'm very superficial
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Re: Spirit of the Season

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Image
“There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. What, do you think our country’s so innocent? Take a look at what we’ve done, too.” - Donald J. Trump, President of the USA
The Kushner sh*t is greasy - Stevie B.
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Re: Spirit of the Season

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10885147_10152608156607684_6611109010928074201_n.jpg
10885147_10152608156607684_6611109010928074201_n.jpg (156.51 KiB) Viewed 1750 times
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Re: Spirit of the Season

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DiXjbI3kRus
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Re: Spirit of the Season

Post by Torchwood »

God/Allah/Y..w.h//the spirit of Humanity bless us all, every one. And Tiny Tim as well.
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Re: Spirit of the Season

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hope all has been well for you torchwood.

and eveyone else of course.
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Re: Spirit of the Season

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Torchwood wrote:God/Allah/Y..w.h//the spirit of Humanity bless us all, every one. And Tiny Tim as well.
Peace on earth, goodwill to all.
May the gods preserve and defend me from self-righteous altruists; I can defend myself from my enemies and my friends.
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Re: Spirit of the Season

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Heracleum Persicum wrote:DiXjbI3kRus
Personal favourite. Thanks for posting it.
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Re: Spirit of the Season

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Typhoon wrote: Personal favourite. Thanks for posting it.
Folks,

I like the good looking one. :)

Alex.
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Re: Spirit of the Season

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Re: Spirit of the Season

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Re: Spirit of the Season

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Image
“There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. What, do you think our country’s so innocent? Take a look at what we’ve done, too.” - Donald J. Trump, President of the USA
The Kushner sh*t is greasy - Stevie B.
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Re: Spirit of the Season

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A Happy New Year 2015 to all.

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Re: Spirit of the Season

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ZOQj50TUUiw



:lol: :lol: .. where is the beef ! ! !


.

Remarks by the Firsty Lady at Nowruz Reception

1:04 P.M. EDT

MRS. OBAMA: Hello everyone! Nowruzetan Mobarak! (Applause.)

It is really, truly a pleasure to have you all here at the White House. I want to start by thanking Ashley for that wonderful introduction. Doesn’t she make us all proud? (Applause.) Ashley represents everything we hope for our kids, and it’s just an honor to have been introduced by such a smart, focused, beautiful young lady. So let’s give Ashley a round of applause. (Applause.) We can do better than that! (Applause.) I know Ashley’s family is here. I heard the Ashley shout-out. We can do that.

But I also want to thank and recognize someone special on my staff, Pantea Faed. (Applause.) Pantea is a part of the social office staff, and she has really put a lot of time and love and energy into making this event possible. I am so proud of Pantea. She has just grown here in the White House. And she is sharp and on top of things. She runs our lives -- (laughter) -- and she does it with grace. She even pushed her parents out of the greet so gracefully. (Laughter.) She just moved them out. But Pantea -- we want to give Pantea a round of applause, too, for doing a really great job. And I’m very proud of her. We all are proud of her here at the White House.

But most of all, I want to thank all of you. We’ve got leaders here from our businesses and our schools, government, entertainment community and more as we celebrate Nowruz.

And I think it’s so fitting that we’re holding this celebration here today because one of my favorite things about the White House is how it is truly the People’s House -- a house that reflects the diversity of culture and traditions that make us who we are as a country. And Nowruz is one of those traditions.

For more than 3,000 years, families and communities in the Middle East, Asia, and all around the world, including here in the United States, have celebrated this holiday to mark the renewal of the earth in springtime -- and we’re finally feeling spring! Yay for that! (Applause.) To reflect on the year before, and to make new commitments for good health, prosperity in the year ahead.

And just like in many of your homes, we have created our own White House Haft-Seen. As you all know, Haft-Seen essentially means “Seven S’s,” and each “S” represents a different hope for the New Year -- a hope for blessings like patience and love and sweetness. For example, we’ve got grass sprouts that represent rebirth and renewal of nature. We’ve got an apple for health and beauty. We have crushed berry spice that represents the sunrise and the spice of life. And after a long winter, we can use a little bit of all of that, right? Finally thawing out. You’re ready for summer, aren’t you? I can tell. (Laughter.)

And as for the food we’ll be enjoying today, we know that this holiday centers on family and community, so we created a menu for you that reflects our White House family. The dishes in the State Dining Room are inspired by some of our staffers’ old family recipes. And are there any family members here who contributed? Let’s hear from you. Come on, don’t be shy. Where are you? (Laughter.) They’ll take credit for it later. (Laughter.)

But I also want to thank local chef Maziar Farivar, who is here cooking for us today, and I know his family is here as well, and our White House chefs working together for putting together such a delicious menu.

And finally, we’re going to have some wonderful entertainment. We have the Silk Road Dance Company with us today. (Applause.) And Payam Yousefi is also -- (applause) -- that was a good one. I like that. (Laughter.) Is that the best one -- that’s good. You can do it again -- Payam Yousefi. (Applause.) All right, that’s going to be good. They’re going to be performing some wonderful music and dances from all over the world.

So I hope that you guys will make yourselves at home. I hope that you feel at home. I hope you feel the welcome, the love, the spirit of this holiday. I hope you enjoy the food, the friendship, and just being at the White House. Isn’t it cool? (Laughter and applause.) It’s kind of cool.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Join us!

MRS. OBAMA: I’m going to be around and about listening and -- (laughter) -- they keep me moving around here. (Laughter.)

But it is -- we’re just delighted to have you here. And we hope you enjoy the celebration. Enjoy the house, enjoy the weather. And Happy Nowruz. Thank you all. (Applause.)

.

.
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Typhoon
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Re: Spirit of the Season

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Happy Nowruz | نوروز | to Mrs. Obama and yourself.
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Re: Spirit of the Season

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Happy St. Patrick's Day to all.

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Re: Spirit of the Season

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“Christ has no body now but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks with compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks among His people to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses His creation.”

Teresa of Ávila
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