Quote

If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is.
-- John Louis von Neumann

Too Big to Put Behind

-- Rachel Naomi Remen

Disappointment and loss are a part of every life. Many times we can put them behind us and get on with the rest of our lives. But not everything is amenable to this approach. Some things are too big or too deep to do this, and we will have to leave important parts of ourselves behind if we treat them in this way. These are the places where wisdom begins to grow in us. It begins with suffering that we do not avoid or rationalize or put behind us. It starts with the realization that our loss, whatever it is, has become a part of us and has altered our lives so profoundly that we cannot go back to the way it was before.

The thing about the many strategies we use to shelter ourselves from feeling loss is that none of them leads to healing. Although denial, rationalization, substitution, avoidance, and the like may numb the pain of loss, every one of them hurts us in some far more fundamental ways. None is respectful toward life or toward process. None acknowledges our capacity for finding meaning or wisdom.

[Daily Dig from www.bruderhof.com]

For a while I thought India would succumb to US pressure

India won't accept no-test option from The Hindu

NEW DELHI: India has conveyed to the United States that it will not accept a provision in any civilian nuclear agreement with the U.S. that says cooperation would be discontinued if New Delhi were to conduct a nuclear test.

Quote

God loved the birds and invented trees. Man loved the birds and invented cages.
-- Jacques Deval

Mockrey of Caste System :)

Air India Now Offers Business Caste Seating from The Onion

MUMBAI—Air India, the subcontinent's largest airline, announced it will offer upgraded Business Caste seating on all flights starting in July. "More legroom, wider seats—and no need to associate with the manual laborers," a spokesman for the airline said Tuesday. "Our business travelers must have lived good past lives to deserve this." Air India still ranks at the bottom of the airline industry in customer satisfaction, with a high volume of complaints about cooking fires in the climate-uncontrolled cabins, wandering cows that flight attendants refuse to remove, and the "Untouchable" Coach Caste, which is towed behind Air India jetliners in a giant burlap sack.

Another article on Bush n Iraq

A Bad Leak from NYTimes

President Bush says he declassified portions of the prewar intelligence assessment on Iraq because he "wanted people to see the truth" about Iraq's weapons programs and to understand why he kept accusing Saddam Hussein of stockpiling weapons that turned out not to exist. This would be a noble sentiment if it actually bore any relationship to Mr. Bush's actions in this case, or his overall record.

Mr. Bush did not declassify the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq — in any accepted sense of that word — when he authorized I. Lewis Libby Jr., through Vice President Dick Cheney, to talk about it with reporters. He permitted a leak of cherry-picked portions of the report. The declassification came later.

And this president has never shown the slightest interest in disclosure, except when it suits his political purposes. He has run one of the most secretive administrations in American history, consistently withholding information and vital documents not just from the public, but also from Congress. Just the other day, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told the House Judiciary Committee that the names of the lawyers who reviewed Mr. Bush's warrantless wiretapping program were a state secret.

Doesn't it sound ironic ....

Nitish has failed to check crime: Lalu from The Hindu

Samastipur: Announcing that the his party will launch a State-wide agitation against the "failure" of the Nitish Kumar Goverment to check crime, the Rashtriya Janata Dal chief and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad on Sunday alleged that the NDA Government's performance in Bihar was lack-lustre on all fronts.

Addressing a meeting, organised to pay homage to the party leaders killed here a few days ago, Mr. Prasad alleged that his party colleagues were being attacked on ``selective basis.''

He accused the State Government of dancing to the tunes of criminal elements and alleged that its promises of providing good governance had vanished into thin air. — UNI