IT TAKES TWO TO RELATE

... shy girl, shy girl, don't shy away ...

For a number of reasons, some people keep others at a distance. Proximity makes them uneasy or self-conscious. Shyness is often a barrier to having good relationships with other people. Typically, the shy person is someone who wants to join in, to share personal intimacies, to feel comfortable about being with others, but somehow is inhibited from doing so. Often this is because he or she has low self-esteem. Such individuals frequently become tongue-tied when they try to speak. They blush if others become friendly or intimate with them. The social exchange is even as an emotional threat--not an opportunity. The shy person backs away from the encounter for self-protection.

Of course, there are positive aspects to shyness. Some people simply might prefer their own company to that of others. But the person who likes to be alone can pay a high price for such privacy. When is or she does need contact with others, it may not be there. It takes two to relate.

JOKE TIME - 1

A bus stops and two Italian men get on. They sit down and engage in an animated conversation. The lady sitting behind them ignores them at first, but her attention is galvanized when she hears one of the men say the following:

"Emma come first. Den I come. Den two asses come together. I come once-a-more. Two asses, they come together again. I come again and pee twice. Then I come one last time."

"You foul-mouthed swine," retorted the lady indignantly. "In this country we don't talk about our sex lives in public!"

"Hey, coola down lady," said the man. "Who talkin' abouta sexa? I'm justa tellin' my frienda how to spella "Mississippi!".


Courtesy of my best friend,

who is very, very, very busy
with his Facebook!

HOW MANY OF THEM?

War, they say, is big business. It pushes up the prices of some metals. It spells more profit for the manufacturers of armaments, and in the past, it was used as a means to economic ends, such as the conquest of markets or sources of raw materials. But it is the twisted mind of those motivated by greed that pursues a policy of war for profit.

We would like to believe that peace also means big business for the many because it creates the stability for long term investments. The minimal condition for regional peace and stability is mutual trust between the two superpowers. And the atmosphere for mutual trust is created when there are no threats hiding behind the deceptive words of security and deterrence, threats that are in the form of nuclear arms stored in overseas bases, and the overseas bases themselves.

"... How many of these millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?..."

Major General Smedley D. Butler, USMC Retired
Two-time Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient

REINFORCING STATUS QUO

... i hereby sentence you to ...

Evidence of racial discrimination is hardly contestable, but there is also evidence that social class is the basis for discriminatory treatment of capital offenders within the criminal justice system. Poverty and social deprivation, while not confined to colored people has served to create a contemptuous stereotype, based on race, which actually does deprive people of their basic human qualities not only in the eyes of the dominant culture, but also in their own eyes.

Many appear to have tolerated the use of the death penalty against the racially subjugated and the impoverished. In fact the death penalty has been--and is being--used carelessly and arbitrarily to promulgate the cause of the dominant higher echelons of society.

Discriminatory culture still prevails. The consequences of institutionalized racism, apart from its effects on the individuals concerned, means that across society the death penalty has no bearing on the needs of justice. Its effectiveness as a crime deterrent has been disproved, and as retribution its inconsistent application has rendered it invalid. It is purely a means of reinforcing the status quo.

Ref: MD 1996

THAT'S WHAT YOU GET ...

That's what you get for... no..., not for loving me,
but for invading my privacy...
you son of a ...

A friend recounted a story he witnessed about a local boy, who was taught by a woman a once-in-life lesson he will never forget. The woman, caught the boy secretly taking pictures of her with his cell phone at an amusement park. The woman snatched the cell phone from his hand and smashed it on the ground. She then began beating the teenager with her fists while he helplessly screamed at the top of his lungs for help. Security guards arrived on the scene and saved the boy from the wrath of the irate woman. To add to his misery, the youth was handed over to police for further investigation.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - INJUSTICE

"The strictest law sometimes becomes
the severest injustice."



Benjamin Franklin

DESERT LANDSCAPE

The stereotype of the Saudi Arabian landscape can be summed up with four words: sand dunes and camels. But most people who visit the Kingdom are struck in one way or another by the country's diversity of habitat. While there are indeed a considerable number of camels and sand dunes, the region is also home to mountains, baboons, ancient volcanoes, mesas, coral reefs, and, if you can believe it, even ice.

The extreme highlands of the southwest, known for their pleasant year-round temperatures, are struck with the occasional frost during the winter months, usually melted away by mid-day.

One particular characteristic that is uncharacteristic for the land whose very mention conjures cinematic images from "Lawrence of Arabia" is the growing of such undesert-like crops as tomatoes and eggplants. More farms have been cropping up around the southwest and in recent years more of these farms are also growing mangoes, the ubiquitous fruit of the tropics. People have said that these mangoes are quite sweet and indistinguishable from their Indian cousins.

ON THE WANTED LIST!

A two-year old boy was briefly held at the airport after he appeared on a list of wanted security suspects. Immigration officers approached the toddler's parents as they wheeled their son's pram to a flight to Turkey last month for a holiday and told them he was not allowed to fly.

Can you imagine that?

"They said, they wanted my son, as the date of birth, the passport number and all other details in the system showed they had the correct suspect."

What a stupid mistake!

The infant was eventually allowed to fly after a probe revealed he was on the wanted list by mistake.

I would not be surprised if a teen-age passenger would be held in the immigration for mistaken identity, but to suspect a two-year old boy as a security threat is not only ridiculous. It's all about stupidity, plain and simple.

MONEY OR DIVORCE?

Money may make the world go 'round, but it also plays a key role in making or breaking marriages.

This is a true account of a man who lost a fortune in the stock market demanded that his wife give him money she had socked away so he could continue his losing streak on the bourse (stock exchange). He also demanded that she sells off all of her jewelry for more cash. When she refused, he laid down an ultimatum: Give him the money or divorce was imminent. Fine, the woman said: It's divorce then, and she was gone.

May this serve as a valuable primer for married men everywhere. When you're broke because you made dumb decisions and sank money into short-term speculation on the stock market (many consider such stock prospecting as the moral equivalent of gambling), the last thing you need to be doing is laying down blackmail and ultimatums against your wife. She can always find another broke, dumb guy; there are plenty of those fish in the sea.

TRIVIA - MALAGASY TRIBES

Did you know that every four or five years the Malagasy of the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar, off southeast Africa, retrieve their dead from tombs that are half above ground and half below, expose them to the sunlight, toss them and catch them, and then wrap them in a new silk for reinterment. It is called "famadihana," and it is a time of much celebration, w tih singing and dancing.

ORIGIN OF SWINE FLU!

Yep! that's right, child kisses swine,
mom kisses child, then she kisses dad,
dad kisses secretary, secretary kisses
her boyfriend, her boyfriend
go to a bar and take a
girl and it spread
from there...

just be careful guys!!!

I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD

I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD
by: William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them dance; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.



The author appreciates the cheerful
sight of the dancing daffodils!

IN LOVING MEMORY OF MY SISTER, RAQUEL

In memory

of my dearest sister, Raquel

Nineteen years ago...

Today you went home with Jesus,

Walked hand in hand through heaven's gate.

You are still with each of us,

In our hearts your memory waits.

To remind us with each new day,

Our life's are touched by your love,

You're not really far away,

Waiting for us in heaven above

Someday when Jesus calls our name,

One by one we'll meet again,

We'll walk hand in hand the same,

Meeting you at the gate to heaven.

When we miss you and need to visit,

We'll go to the garden and wait.

So we can feel your spirit

Just beyond the garden gate.

Those we love remain with us
for love itself lives on.
Cherished memories never fade,
because one loved is gone.
Those we love can never be,
more than a thought apart,
for as long as there is a memory,
they live on in our heart.

~ Anonymous

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - GOOD MANNERS

"Children are natural mimics who act
like their parents despite every effort to
teach them good manners."

Author Unknown

MIND YOUR MANNERS CHILDREN - 2

Children love to take after their parents, and if their parents have good manners, their good manners will usually come naturally. On the other hand, no one can expect a child of two of three years of age to act exactly like a grown-up. Certainly, they may forget to say, "thank you" once in a while, or they may be sloppy from time to time when they are eating at the table. Occasional forgetting of good manners is expected in a small child and is almost always forgiven quickly.

It is funny, but some children at four and five years have better manners than they do when they get to be six, seven or eight. Them to forget all the good things their parents taught when they were young. But it really isn't true. Actually, they neglect their good manners when they get to be six, seven or eight in order to show their parents that they have become independent. It's almost as if they were saying, "Mother, I have always acted and behaved exactly as you told me to when I was little. But now, I'm grown up and I can do what I please.

Ref: Good and Bad Manners