"United with his fellow-men by the strongest of all ties, the tie of a common doom, the free man finds that a new vision is with him always, shedding over every daily task the light of love. The life of Man is a long march through the night, surrounded by invisible foes, tortured by weariness and pain, towards a goal that few can hope to reach, and where none may tarry long. One by one, as they march, our comrades vanish from our sight, seized by the silent orders of omnipotent Death. Very brief is the time in which we can help them, in which their happiness or misery is decided. Be it ours to shed sunshine on their path, to lighten their sorrows by the balm of sympathy, to give them the pure joy of a never-tiring affection, to strengthen failing courage, to instil faith in hours of despair. Let us not weigh in grudging scales their merits and demerits, but let us think only of their need, of the sorrows, the difficulties, perhaps the blindnesses, that make the misery of their lives; let us remember that they are fellow-sufferers in the same darkness, actors in the same tragedy with ourselves."  -Bertrand Russell

Thailand's prisons department announced a contest in which inmates would vie to see which one had the most contagious laugh, and one official said that especially tense inmates would be urged to compete. [New York Times-AP, 4-29-03]

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Instructions for Slaves 1 Co 7:21, 1 Tm 6:1, Tt 2:9-10, 1P 2:18 with 8 illustrations from St. Paul's Epistles illustrated in Lego blocks.

"Whenever one finds oneself inclined to bitterness, it is a sign of emotional failure."  -Bertrand Russell

Ananova:

Animal protection groups in Switzerland are concerned about the increasing popularity of dog and cat meat.

They are being devoured particularly in rural areas of the country.

And dog fat is also being used as medication against bronchitis in some parts of the country.

Slaughtering pets for their meat is prohibited under Swiss law but animal protection groups say dog meat sells for about nearly £12 a kilo on the black market.

Story filed: 11:24 Monday 23rd June 2003

I've been getting this for about 2 wks, covering 1/4 of my screen. Now I understand Xanga won't accept images from premium payers.

Your Premium Images Have Just Expired

But don't worry - we've got you covered! We've saved a copy of all your images to give you a chance to get them back .

We'll keep a protected copy of your images on Xanga's systems for the next 7 days (then your images will be permanently deleted from Xanga's systems). If you want to reactivate your images, just upgrade at any time within the next 7 days!

(I don't care about the images)

                    George Orwell -born June 25, 1903

George Orwell is rightly famous for his political novels, but the two books of his I like most are autobiographical.

Down and Out in Paris and London, an account of Orwell's experience of destitution, is the best story about homelessness I know of. Reading this, you can see where the feeling of weariness and resignation in 1984 came from.

Homage to Catalonia is about Orwell's service in the Spanish Civil War. It's a quiet, matter-of-fact recounting of how tired, frozen and starving idealists drove themselves beyond imaginable endurance for what they believed in. And how they got stabbed in the back. It's one of the greatest war books written from a combatant's point of view.

Words and phrases George Orwell contributed to the English language:

newspeak

Big Brother is watching

War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength.

doublethink

thought police

unperson

thought crime

Orwellian

revisionist history (I'm not sure about this one)

Distortion of Evidence

YOUR PETITION LETTER

TO: (Your Representative and Senators)
FROM: (Your Name and Email)
SUBJECT: Investigate the Distortion of WMD Evidence
__________

Dear (Name):

(Your comment here)

Please call for an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate the distortion of Iraq intelligence. The investigation should include open hearings with testimony from government and outside witnesses that conclude with an unclassified report to the American people.

A President may make no more important decision than whether or not to take a country to war. If Bush or his officials deceived the American public to create support for the Iraq war, he needs to be held accountable.

Sincerely,

(Your name)
(Your address)

You can  sign this petition at http://www.moveon.org/distortion/

Harry Potter and the Corked Broom
By Jim Caple
Page 2 columnist

If you look closely, you can see where they drilled the hole.

"Look! Cork!" Draco Malfoy shouted, cruely snuffing out his hand-rolled cigarette on the reproductive organs of a small white bunny that had misfortunately hippity-hopped within his reach. "Potter corked his broom! That's why he's able to fly it so fast! He cheats!"

"What?!? I did no such thing," Harry cried and turned around to see to his horror that the broken pieces indeed revealed a cork interior to the broom. He looked back helplessly as Professor Dumbledore and the rest of the Hogwart's faculty strode toward him..."

More at http://espn.go.com/page2/s/caple/030620.html

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