KENNAN: X Article
In the light of the above, it will be clearly seen that the Soviet pressure against the free institutions of the western world is something that can be contained by the adroit and vigilant application of counter-force at a series of constantly shifting geographical and political points, corresponding to the shifts and maneuvers of Soviet policy, but which cannot be charmed or talked out of existence. The Russians look forward to a duel of infinite duration, and they see that already they have scored great successes.


It would be an exaggeration to say that American behavior unassisted and alone could exercise a power of life and death over the Communist movement and bring about the early fall of Soviet power in Russia. But the United States has it in its power to increase enormously the strains under which Soviet policy must operate, to force upon the Kremlin a far greater degree of moderation and circumspection than it has had to observe in recent years, and in this way to promote tendencies which must eventually find their outlet in either the breakup or the gradual mellowing of Soviet power. For no mystical, Messianic movement -- and particularly not that of the Kremlin -- can face frustration indefinitely without eventually adjusting itself in one way or another to the logic of that state of affairs.

Thus the decision will really fall in large measure in this country itself. The issue of Soviet-American relations is in essence a test of the overall worth of the United States as a nation among nations. To avoid destruction the United States need only measure up to its own best traditions and prove itself worthy of preservation as a great nation



Surely, there was never a fairer test of national quality than this. In the light of these circumstances, the thoughtful observer of Russian-American relations will find no cause for complaint in the Kremlin's challenge to American society. He will rather experience a certain gratitude to a Providence which, by providing the American people with this implacable challenge, has made their entire security as a nation dependent on their pulling themselves together and accepting the responsibilities of moral and political leadership that history plainly intended them to bear.

EISENHOWER: Military-Industrial Complex
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence-economic, political, even spiritual-is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society's future, we-you and I, and our government-must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.

TONKIN GULF RESOLUTION:
Whereas the United States is assisting the peoples of southeast Asia to protest their freedom and has no territorial, military or political ambitions in that area, but desires only that these people should be left in peace to work out their destinies in their own way.

The United States regards as vital to its national interest and to world peace the maintenance of international peace and security in southeast Asia. Consonant with the Constitution of the United States and the Charter of the United Nations and in accordance with its obligations under the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty, the United States is, therefore, prepared, as the President determines, to take all necessary steps, including the use of armed force, to assist any member or protocol state of the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty requesting assistance in defense of its freedom.

GEORGE W. BUSH: NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGY
The war against terrorists of global reach is a global enterprise of uncertain duration. America will help nations that need our assistance in combating terror. And America will hold to account nations that are compromised by terror, including those who harbor terrorists, because the allies of terror are the enemies of civilization. The United States and countries cooperating with us must not allow the terrorists to develop new home bases. Together, we will seek to deny them sanctuary at every turn.

And, as a matter of common sense and self-defense, America will act against such emerging threats before they are fully formed.We cannot defend America and our friends by hoping for the best. So we must be prepared to defeat our enemies' plans, using the best intelligence and proceeding with deliberation. History will judge harshly those who saw this coming danger but failed to act. In the new world we have entered, the only path to peace and security is the path of action.

Today, the international community has the best chance since the rise of the nation-state in the seventeenth century to build a world where great powers compete in peace instead of continually prepare for war. Today, the world's great powers find ourselves on the same side, united by common dangers of terrorist violence and chaos. The United States will build on these common interests to promote global security.We are also increasingly united by common values. Russia is in the midst of a hopeful transition, reaching for its democratic future and a partner in the war on terror. Chinese leaders are discovering that economic freedom is the only source of national wealth. In time, they will find that social and political freedom is the only source of national greatness. America will encourage the advancement of democracy and economic openness in both nations, because these are the best foundations for domestic stability and international order.We will strongly resist aggression from other great powers, even as we welcome their peaceful pursuit of prosperity, trade, and cultural advancement.

*******FIRST: We wish you well, but we defend ONLY OUR OWN. SECOND: Securing the world for freedom is our best interest/Cold War containment, stability. THIRD: Securing the world actively, we want you to be peaceful so you'd better damn well be peaceful!!!!!***************

*******TREND: US views people/regimes as threats, while OTHERS in Europe view COUNTRIES as threats (post-WWII and Hitler/Germany).************

“If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?”

Sometimes I ask old people "what do you think about as you're dying?"
"I'm not dying."
We're all dying. Do you wanna know what I think about?

That's how it starts.
We go back to your house.
We check the charts,
And start to figure it out.

And if it's crowded, all the better,
because we know we're gonna be up late.
But if you're worried about the weather
then you picked the wrong place to stay.
That's how it starts.

And so it starts.
You switch the engine on.
We set controls for the heart of the sun,
one of the ways we show our age.

And if the sun comes up, if the sun comes up, if the sun comes up
and I still don't wanna stagger home.
Then it's the memory of our betters
that are keeping us on our feet.

You spent the first five years trying to get with the plan,
and the next five years trying to be with your friends again.

You're talking 45 turns just as fast as you can,
yeah, I know it gets tired, but it's better when we pretend.


It comes apart,
the way it does in bad films.
Except in parts,
when the moral kicks in.

Oh when we're running out of the drugs
and the conversation's winding away.
I wouldn't trade one stupid decision
for another five years of lies.

You drop the first ten years just as fast as you can,
and the next ten people who are trying to be belied.
When you're blowing eighty-five days in the middle of this,
Yeah, I know it gets tired only wearing on friends tonight.


So tell the truth.
Oh, this could be the last time.
So when we go,
like a sail's force into the night

And if I made a fool, if I made a fool, if I made a fool
on the road, there's always this.
And if I'm sewn into submission,
I can still come home to this.

And with a face like a dad and a laughable stand,
you leave conceit on the plane or review what you said.
When you're drunk and the kids leave impossible tasks
you think over and over, hey, I finally did.

Oh, if the trip and the plan come apart in your hand,
you look concerted on yourself your ridiculous prop.
You forgot what you meant when you read what you said,
and you always knew you were tired, but then,
where are your friends tonight?

Where are your friends tonight?
Where are your friends tonight?

If I could see all my friends tonight,
If I could see all my friends tonight,
If I could see all my friends tonight,
If I could see all my friends tonight.

ā/' ا 1 y/ī ي 10 q ق 100
b ب 2 k ك 20 r ر 200
j ج 3 l ل 30 sh ش 300
d د 4 m م 40 t ت 400
h ه 5 n ن 50 th ث 500
w/ū و 6 s س 60 kh خ 600
z ز 7 ` ع 70 dh ذ 700
H ح 8 f ف 80 D ض 800
T ط 9 S ص 90 Z ظ 900
gh غ 1000

i carry your heart with me

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

ee cummings




That is a powerful poem. That is the most powerful poem about love I have heard in a while; it moves exactly the way my love moves. The love for deep, abiding things. The love for my loves! My dog, my parents, my cat. The ones.

I'm feeling restless again. I want to throw caution to the wind, run out the door, leave the keys, and go in the cool warm night. Go go go. I've been listening to songs by The Arcade Fire and LCD Soundsystem. They're songs of movement and change and changing, and the same things. I don't know. I'm more tired than I've been, each day more tired. I don't even care that my sentences don't make sense, but it's a good kind of not caring.

I would go on a tangent about faith but I really need to do my work. I leave with this, which is why I have faith:

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Some guy in a suit is about to get into his white Jeep Cherokee, until Kiefer runs up behinds him and totally Grand Theft Autos him to the ground. "Don't get up," he advises, and drives off in the guy's car. That's two cars he's stolen in about an hour, unless you count the Echo, which would make it 2.1 cars. Kiefer drives like the nutbar he is for a few blocks, crashing through fences and generally being a traffic menace. Meanwhile, Assad is still quietly tailing the Handler. Kiefer comes screaming out of an alley and totally t-bones the Handler's car, sending it crashing into a couple of other parked vehicles.

I guess that would explain all the armed soldiers also standing around, assault weapons at the ready. Like that's going to stop Kiefer if he wants to start some shit, whatever his condition.

While the guard isn't looking, Kiefer somehow contrives to rip off the EKG cuff. Hearing the flatline tone, the guard goes to check on him. Last mistake he ever makes, because Kiefer rears back and SINKS HIS TEETH INTO THE GUY'S NECK. I don't know how he keeps him from screaming, unless he's somehow also using his own cheek to block the victim's mouth, but that's fucking gross, dude. I'm having Lost Boys flashbacks.

Trust is a funny thing. Relationships are funny things. Values are damn funny things. A thing told me I held the values of a 'loyal rebel'. This is largely true. I have deep disrespect for authority (but this is a whole separate issue with it's own subrules in my mind), a standoffish but kind attitude to strangers, and a fierce loyalty and protection and love for my friends. Not just my friends, my people. Those that are encircled with me. It is not the same as trust, or not exactly the same. Some I trust more than others, and some I trust with different levels of things. But I feel fiercely for them. You do not want to fuck around with this. These people are defended. If something threatens them or seems to, I immediately propell myself into defense. I can sense myself doing this, and the rational part of me always examines the situation logically--it is not that bad; realistically it is probably nothing major; you will be fine; you'll be fine. The fierce part of me, however: PROBLEMS, BACK THE FUCK AWAY FROM THIS ONE. THIS ONE IS TAKEN CARE OF. THIS ONE IS DEFENDED. DO NOT FUCK WITH THIS. The tricky part is balancing these two things, these two impulses--how to convey information effectively from the logical part without unecessarily complicating the situation with the fierce part.

It is difficult when things happen.

When a thing happens, there is a slow start, a rapid escalation, and a rushing, powerful mobilization. First: what the fuck. What is going on here. The natural human idea that somehow, someone must be playing a mean prank. Or, oh no, is it supernatural? Science fiction? What the fuck? A million crazy ideas running through the brain. Then simultaneously, a stronger, but more worried voice rapidly ascends the podium: stop fucking around. This is real. This is real oh my god this is real. This all depends on the length of the thing, but as it continues, this second voice evaluates things very quickly. Holy fuck, it exclaims, is this happening? Am I actually going to have to do something? As the seconds turn over, this smoothly transitions into a third, powerful, effective and worried voice--the fiercely loyal voice. This one gets shit done. It is very, very scared, but knows that it cannot be scared, just worried. Very quickly, it runs through the list of things that have to be done. It assesses each bit of each second, each continuation of this so unwanted event. Still partially in denial, but rational enough to know that something needs to be done, it despairs only on the surface, and gathers it's arsenal. Should the thing continue to the critical point, decisive action will be taken, and this one will be defended.

The actual thing: oh my god. what is happening. oh god! no, this isn't real, is it? shit shit shit ok keep it under control, keep the whole thing under control. act fast. keep it discreet. keep it effective. mental list--this is happening, it could mean this, if any thing else happens, this is how I'll deal with it. imagine what could happen next; plan for this. get ready. there's a rapid escalation of 'oh fuck oh what the fuck is this really happening', followed by an even faster descent, a denumont, into getshitdone mode. and there is no denying that I am scared, i am scared but not out of my mind. maybe i am not scared, i shouldn't be scared--worried is it. i am worried. worry brings up images of hand-wringing old ladies, but this is much more. this is real fucking WORRY. coiling, getting ready for action, panicking panicking panicking--oh thank god. oh thankgodthankgodthankyougod. bad crisis temporarily averted. praise heavens. now, do not let go, but fix this. aggressively, rapidly and with all your consciousness pay attention. watch out for this one. cover the bases, gather up everything that could be relevant. make sure they are ok. take care of them. (god i can't believe it i was so worried pleasegod let this be ok). please God, let this be ok.

i was so scared.

everything will be ok.

Everything is ok, there is absolutely nothing to worry about.