Only God
No good or bad; only God.
No right or wrong; only God.
No love or hate; only God.
No honesty or dishonesty; only God.
No act of violence.
No act of kindness.
No act of selfishness.
No act of selflessness.
No act of cowardice.
No act of courage.
No downfall.
No redemption.
No life.
No afterlife.
Only God.
It has been said
God is everywhere and in everything.
God is outside and inside you.
Every word you speak comes from God.
Therefore
When you speak, God speaks.
When you say "no faith"; God.
When you say "no hope"; God.
When you say "no chance"; God.
When you say "no God"; God.
Only God.
© 2009 Josh Haden
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Barack Obama's America and the 12-Step Program
If George Bush's America was the corrupt and narcissistic money, power, oil, violence, and greed-addicted junkie always looking for a fix, Barack Obama's America is an addict in recovery, searching for peace and wishing to do whatever she can to better her ways and live a clean and healthy life.
So, then, here are the 12-Steps for the recovery of America, courtesy Alcoholics Anonymous.
1. America admits she is powerless over money, power, oil, violence, and greed—that her life has become unmanageable.
2. America comes to believe that a Power greater than herself can restore her to sanity.
3. America makes a decision to turn her will and her life over to the care of God as she understands Him.
4. America makes a searching and fearless moral inventory of herself.
5. America admits to God, to herself, to another human being, and to another country, the exact nature of her wrongs.
6. America is entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. America humbly asks Him to remove her shortcomings.
8. America makes a list of all persons and countries she had harmed, and becomes willing to make amends to them all.
9. America makes direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. America continues to take personal inventory and when she is wrong promptly admits it.
11. America seeks through prayer and meditation to improve her conscious contact with God as she understands Him, praying only for knowledge of His Will for her and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, she tries to carry this message to other money, power, oil, violence, and greed-addicted countries, and to practice these principles in all her affairs.
Good luck America! See you at the next meeting!
So, then, here are the 12-Steps for the recovery of America, courtesy Alcoholics Anonymous.
1. America admits she is powerless over money, power, oil, violence, and greed—that her life has become unmanageable.
2. America comes to believe that a Power greater than herself can restore her to sanity.
3. America makes a decision to turn her will and her life over to the care of God as she understands Him.
4. America makes a searching and fearless moral inventory of herself.
5. America admits to God, to herself, to another human being, and to another country, the exact nature of her wrongs.
6. America is entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. America humbly asks Him to remove her shortcomings.
8. America makes a list of all persons and countries she had harmed, and becomes willing to make amends to them all.
9. America makes direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. America continues to take personal inventory and when she is wrong promptly admits it.
11. America seeks through prayer and meditation to improve her conscious contact with God as she understands Him, praying only for knowledge of His Will for her and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, she tries to carry this message to other money, power, oil, violence, and greed-addicted countries, and to practice these principles in all her affairs.
Good luck America! See you at the next meeting!
Monday, January 19, 2009
Martin Luther King & Non-Violence
Today is Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 80th birthday, and while Barack Obama and CNN focus on his other important beliefs (commitment to public service, and struggle for civil rights, respectively), his belief in non-violence should not be ignored.
In fact, his commitment to non-violence as a means of social change was as important as his commitment to any of his other beliefs, and, I might suggest, overshadowed his other views because, he believed, his other views could not be implemented without being done so through the means of non-violence.
A few days ago NPR broadcast a piece about a heretofore unknown 1959 recording of Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking on All India radio of his belief in non-violence and the importance it had in his vision of social change.
I quote directly from his speech: "No nation can win a war. Today we no longer have a choice between violence and non-violence, it is either between non-violence, or non-existence."
The NPR piece can be found here.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Josh Haden At The NAMM Show
Yesterday I attended the NAMM show as a guest of Gallien-Krueger bass amplifiers. NAMM stands for National Association of Music Merchants and this once-a-year four-day show is a chance for music instrument & equipment manufacturers to exhibit their latest products and talk business. There are lots of seminars with titles like "How to sell your product and not be a jerk about it" and "You have a website, now what?".
For musicians its a chance to be inspired by new instruments, products, and innovations, and to connect with merchants and see old friends.
I love Martin acoustic guitars, like this Stephen Stills model. Someday I'll own one, but I'll probably have to start with the basic model.
Fleabass is a new bass designed by Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It looks really cool, and seems to be geared toward younger players and those who are just starting out. I bet it plays and sounds great. I got to talk with Flea a little about it. He's an inspiration to me. He started a music school here in L.A. called the Silver Lake Conservatory of Music and its main purpose is to bring music education to kids who might not otherwise have access to it, due to financial stress and/or absence of music programs in public schools. Check out the Conservatory's website and make a donation if you can.
Dr. Lonnie Liston Smith.
Classic American Kazoos make pick-ups for kazoos. Plus their kazoos are made in the USA, very high quality. Thanks for the kazoos guys!
The NAMM disco party will start soon, but not yet.
Much appreciation to Gallien-Krueger for inviting me once again to the NAMM show. I've been using G-K bass amps since I was a teenager and I won't plug my bass into anything else. Thanks Bob, Brian, and Christine!
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Bryn Jones June 17, 1961 – January 14, 1999
Ten years ago today Bryn Jones, aka Muslimgauze, died.
He was a profound artist the likes of which are seldom heard.
A website about him can be found here.
There will be a Muslimgauze tribute radio show today (1pm Pacific time), info below.
Tomorrow will be a special radio show for Muslimgauze on air.
It's from a local radio station in Rostock, Germany.
But it will be available as stream on the net too. http://www.lohro.de/
It starts GMT pm 9.00 and ends 11.00.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Neve Gordon On Gaza
From Democracy Now, 12 January 2009
NEVE GORDON: The problem is the—yes, intentions are important, but the facts are more important. And the fact is that Israel is the one that’s doing the harm to—much more harm to civilians than the Hamas ever did and ever will do. Israel has killed in the past two weeks 275 children, and not Hamas, regardless of the intentions. You mentioned the school. Israel is dealing with a propaganda war. Israel is the one that disseminated a video of Hamas shooting rockets from a school, a video that’s almost two years old, claiming that the video was taken a day or two earlier. So Israel is in a propaganda war. Yes, the Hamas is fighting out from a civilian population, but Israel has the choice whether it’s going to bomb the civilian population ore (sic) not, and it is intentionally deciding to bomb the civilian population. So in terms of intentionality in bombing areas where there are civilians, Israel is acting like a state terrorist. So, if your definition of terrorism doesn’t take into account the identity of the actor—and state actors can also be terrorists—then when you bomb a school and when you bomb a university and when you bomb a neighborhood and you’re killing much more civilians than militants, then you’re doing something that is an act of terror.
And I have a problem. I think my views are pro-Israelis. I would like to see Israel existing in the Middle East sixty years down the line, and not only the first sixty years. And the only way for Israel to continue to exist in the Middle East is if it changes its approach towards the region and see itself as a leader of peace and not a belligerent actor in the region. And Israel has been living on the sword. Some of our neighbors have been living on the sword. But we have to come out and say we no longer want to live on the sword, because those who live on the sword, as the Bible tells us, also die on the sword. We have to come out and say we are willing to talk with our enemies, even with people that say that they do not believe in the existence of Israel. The PLO—you mentioned Fatah—the PLO said that they do not believe in the existence of Israel for many years. And ultimately, we sat down and talked with them, and they are now considered our Palestinian partner. I believe that if there is a pragmatic side, a strong pragmatic wing in Hamas, that if we start negotiation with them, over the years these people will also agree to the existence of Israel and be willing to live side by side with us. If we do not talk with them, if we continue this cycle of violence, ultimately Israel will be destroyed, because ultimately, the technological edge that we have over our neighbors will not be meaningful. So we have to change our approach. We have to be pro—by changing our approach, we’re actually pro-Israeli. We say we want to see Israel a hundred years from now. And the only way we’ll see Israel exist a hundred years from now is if Israel makes peace with Syria, with Lebanon and with the Palestinian people.
NEVE GORDON: The problem is the—yes, intentions are important, but the facts are more important. And the fact is that Israel is the one that’s doing the harm to—much more harm to civilians than the Hamas ever did and ever will do. Israel has killed in the past two weeks 275 children, and not Hamas, regardless of the intentions. You mentioned the school. Israel is dealing with a propaganda war. Israel is the one that disseminated a video of Hamas shooting rockets from a school, a video that’s almost two years old, claiming that the video was taken a day or two earlier. So Israel is in a propaganda war. Yes, the Hamas is fighting out from a civilian population, but Israel has the choice whether it’s going to bomb the civilian population ore (sic) not, and it is intentionally deciding to bomb the civilian population. So in terms of intentionality in bombing areas where there are civilians, Israel is acting like a state terrorist. So, if your definition of terrorism doesn’t take into account the identity of the actor—and state actors can also be terrorists—then when you bomb a school and when you bomb a university and when you bomb a neighborhood and you’re killing much more civilians than militants, then you’re doing something that is an act of terror.
And I have a problem. I think my views are pro-Israelis. I would like to see Israel existing in the Middle East sixty years down the line, and not only the first sixty years. And the only way for Israel to continue to exist in the Middle East is if it changes its approach towards the region and see itself as a leader of peace and not a belligerent actor in the region. And Israel has been living on the sword. Some of our neighbors have been living on the sword. But we have to come out and say we no longer want to live on the sword, because those who live on the sword, as the Bible tells us, also die on the sword. We have to come out and say we are willing to talk with our enemies, even with people that say that they do not believe in the existence of Israel. The PLO—you mentioned Fatah—the PLO said that they do not believe in the existence of Israel for many years. And ultimately, we sat down and talked with them, and they are now considered our Palestinian partner. I believe that if there is a pragmatic side, a strong pragmatic wing in Hamas, that if we start negotiation with them, over the years these people will also agree to the existence of Israel and be willing to live side by side with us. If we do not talk with them, if we continue this cycle of violence, ultimately Israel will be destroyed, because ultimately, the technological edge that we have over our neighbors will not be meaningful. So we have to change our approach. We have to be pro—by changing our approach, we’re actually pro-Israeli. We say we want to see Israel a hundred years from now. And the only way we’ll see Israel exist a hundred years from now is if Israel makes peace with Syria, with Lebanon and with the Palestinian people.
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