Rubaiyat

"Yesterday this day's
Madness did prepare;

Tomorrow's silence,
Triumph or despair:

Drink, for you know not
Whence you came, nor why;

Drink, for you know not
Why you go, nor where."

- Omar Khayyam

In Memoriam

Jozo Glavic

02/01/1929 - 10/25/2009

Good bye Joe, I will miss you.

Dead Peasant Insurance

Can human race sink any lower? (If those guys are members of human race at all). And who's to say that one day those companies will not contract some thugs to start slowly eliminating us only for the sake of their own profit. And our own representatives in Washington will not even blink. If this had happened elsewhere in the world they would all cry genocide. What do they considered it here?

Joke of the Month

A woman walks into the downtown welfare office, trailed by 15 kids.

"WOW!" the social worker exclaims. "Are they all yours?"

"Yep, they are all mine." the flustered momma sighs, having heard that question a thousand times before.

She said, "Sit down Leroy." All the children rush to find seats.

"Well," says the social worker, "then you must be here to sign up. I'll need all your children's names."

"Well, to keep it simple, the boys are all named 'Leroy' and the girls are all named 'Leighroy'."

In disbelief, the case worker asked, "Are you serious? They're all named Leroy?"

Their momma replied, "Well, yes.., it makes it easier. When it's time to get them out of bed and ready for school, I yell, 'Leroy!'. And when it's time for dinner, I just yell 'Leroy!' an' they all comes a running'. And if I need to stop the kid who's running into the street, I just yell 'Leroy' and all of them stop. It's the smartest idea I ever had, naming them all Leroy."

The social worker thinks this over for a bit, then wrinkles her forehead and says tentatively: "But what if you just want one kid to come, and not the whole bunch?"

"Then I call them by their last names."

La Playa De Los Tres Hermanos, Anasco, Puerto Rico

Healthcare

Whether we in America do end up paying extra or not, whether Obama is honest or just another crooked politician, is irrelevant at this point in the development of our health care system. We are too deep into the business of healing.

How do we solve this? We can't, short of wiping out the present system of health insurance, and all insurance companies with it. When are we going to learn that business of insuring is just what those two words mean: the business for their owners and insurance (or gamble, betting against your own health) for the rest of us. Simply put, nobody should profit from someone's misfortune.

p.s.: Does anyone still remember the doctors from yesteryear making routine house calls not charging for them but taking whatever the patient was able to pay? Is 'Hyppocratic Oath' a long forgotten statement of moral conduct of the people we entrust our lives to?

Manipulations

"All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit."

-Thomas Paine ("The age of reason")

Integrity

"Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is looking."
- C.K.

Who We Are...

There are three types of people in this world: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder what happened. Anybody who wishes to belong to any one of these types contrary to their genetic predetermination will look like a moron.

Crisis

"Todays world's crisis is showing that balance in the distribution of wealth is not only a question of social justice or ethics, but a basic condition of economic stability and sustainable progress, in other words it is in mutual, long lasting interest of all levels of society. Despite enormous prosperity achieved in many fields, what rules the world today is really poverty."
- Stipe Mesić

My life credo

"Tuđe nećemo; svoje nedamo."

- Josip Broz Tito

Joke of the Month

Three men were discussing aging at the nursing home. “Sixty is the worst age to be,” said the 60-year-old. “You always feel like you have to pee and most of the time, you stand at the toilet and nothing comes out.”

“Ah, that’s nothin’,” said the 70-year-old. “When you’re seventy, you can’t even crap anymore. You take laxatives, eat bran, you sit on the toilet all day and nothin’ comes out!”

“Actually,” said the 80-year-old, “eighty is the worst age of all.”

“Do you have trouble peeing too?” asked the 60-year-old.

“No, not really. I pee every morning at 6:00. I pee like a racehorse on a flat rock: no problem at all.” said the 80-year-old.

“Do you have trouble crapping?” asked the 70-year-old. “No, I crap every morning at 6:30.” the older man responded.

With great exasperation, the 60-year-old said, “Let me get this straight. You pee every morning at 6:00 and crap every morning at 6:30. So what’s so tough about being 80?”

“I don’t wake up until 7:00!”

Economists

"If all the economists were laid end to end, they'd never reach a conclusion."

- George Bernard Shaw

Consumerism

Basing an economy on domestic consumption versus production is the equivalent to basing the economy on spending the money instead of making money.

- A family being the smallest economic unit within a society needs a source of income to sustain itself. To get the income they have to create some goods or services and sell them on the market or some family members will have to get out and find a job for which they will get paid. That money is then used to pay household bills and provide for schooling, health care and leisure expenses. So, these family members in actuality 'produce' or earn money needed to support the economic growth of their household. If they were jobless or did not make any products they can sell, they would have to depend on some form of help from wider family, friends or society in order to survive. Otherwise, they are out on the street, broke.

- A country, being the biggest economic unit in todays world needs that same source of income to sustain itself. It's citizens (the same family members from previous example) will provide goods and services, to a degree, and will constitute country's work force, but if the government does not provide the market for them, they will be jobless and their goods will remain unsold. Consequently, their standard of living will erode. The government of the country is the only body that regulates the size and availability of those markets. But if the government keeps allowing companies to move abroad in search of cheaper labor, and allowing more goods to be imported because they are cheaper then domestic ones, that same government is cutting it's country's own resources and ability to compete on the global market. If the country does not produce anything or if the country's goods and services are not competitive on the global market, than we will not be able to make any money to pay our bills, provide for our citizens education, health care, infrastructure etc. So, if we do not have any money coming in, how do we support our lifestyle? By spending? Spending something that we do not have? You borrow. And you borrow some more. And you keep borrowing until lenders stop loaning to you, because you are not credit-worthy anymore because you do not have any collateral to put against your loans. And then what? Well, it already happened to a number of places throughout history: Egiptian, Persian, Greek, Roman, Mongol, British, French, Russian, Spanish, Austrian empire..., none an empire anymore.

- If we want our economy to be dependent on spending money, then we have to have that money earned somehow. But, instead of earning it we are actually begging the rest of the world to support us in being who we would like to be. We live our little American dreams today based on a hope that someday someone will repay loans we took. The same applies to both a single family and a country as a whole. The only problem is that when a little guy runs out of money, his 'big brother' will force him into bankruptcy, repossessing his house, car, everything. On a global scale, what guaranty do we have that the rest of the world will not do the same to our country?

Beware

"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have."

- Thomas Jefferson

Joke of the Month

A lawyer married a woman who had previously divorced ten husbands.

On their wedding night, she told her new husband, "Please be gentle, I'm still a virgin."

"What?" said the puzzled groom. "How can that be if you've been married ten times?"

"Well, Husband #1 was a sales representative: he kept telling me how great it was going to be.

#2 was in software services: he was never really sure how it was supposed to function, but he said he'd look into it and get back to me.

#3 was from field services: he said everything checked out diagnostically but he just couldn't get the system up.

#4 was in telemarketing: even though he knew he had the order, he didn't know when he would be able to deliver.

#5 was an engineer: he understood the basic process but wanted three years to research, implement, and design a new state-of-the-art method.

#6 was from finance and administration: he thought he knew how, but he wasn't sure whether it was his job or not.

#7 was in marketing: although he had a nice product, he was never sure how to position it.

#8 was a psychologist: all he ever did was talk about it.

#9 was a gynecologist: all he did was look at it.

#10 was a stamp collector: all he ever did was... God! I miss him! But now that I've married you, I'm really excited!"

"Good," said the new husband, "but, why?"

"You're a lawyer. This time I know I'm gonna get screwed!"

Racism

Isn't it sad to find out that the worst racists would not even consider being in the close proximity with a member of a hated human race, yet they will embrace as one of their own a member of one of the domesticated species of pets.

Altitude

Knowing that the sea levels are constantly changing, it is very difficult to accurately measure terrain altitudes. Would not it be easier to refer to an altitude based on its distance from the center of the Earth? I don't think that parameter is as unreliable.

Human Robots

We believe we humans are intelligent beings and are in full control of our brains, our actions, capabilities and are the only beings on this planet to be able to achieve whatever we can think of.

Or, are we? Can one possibly imagine Albert Einstein playing professional basketball or Mike Tyson being classically trained virtuoso pianist? Why did Alexander the Great need Aristotle as a teacher and why did Aristotle need Alexander as a student? How come there are extremely wealthy and powerful and at the same time we have a lot of people who do not know where their next meal is going to come from? Why are there criminals and mentally unstable among us?

We are all based on a number of preset states of mind and there is no way of getting out of it. Certain brain types guarantee that we will be who and what we are, nothing more, nothing less. One can try all he wants to becoming something that he is not wired to be and surely he is going to fail or what we call 'will be living mediocre life,stressed out, not fully understanding why life is so hard'. So many of us never discover our “calling”, so many of us believe we have, but none of us is aware of the fact that no one is actually in charge of their destinies. We all are lawyers, doctors, journalists, actors, criminals, politicians, laborers, soldiers, rich and poor, not by choice, but by combination of the two factors: preset brain wiring (that tells us what we are created to be and environmental influences that tell us whether we actually will become what we are created to be. This is all part of our genetic code and pretty soon we will all be told what our future will look like. Whether we like it or not.

Nature's Park Tajan, Zavidovici, BiH

Bernard Madoff's Case

Somehow I have this funny feeling that if bunch of little guys like you and I were majority of losers here, "poor old Bernie" would still be a free and honorable man and he might even ask for bailout money. It's the big guns who lost that brought him down, and no one knows who they really are.

Cognition

"One's wisdom should be limited to an awareness of his own ignorance."
- Socrates

Sexes

A woman wants one man to satisfy all her needs and a man wants all women to satisfy only one of his.

The Purpose

Can you imagine, if it takes only the smartest few of us to question and probe into the unknowns of life, and life was originated from the simplest chemical reaction imaginable (photosynthesis), how insignificant and simple we really are?

If this is true, than the dinosaurs had the equal right to believe they are the chosen ones too.

And if that is true, than, chances are, we are not.

Inteligentsia

Only the totalitarian and unjust political system is the one that is afraid of the segment of the society that is at the top of its intellectual structure. The true democratic society promotes education of its citizens without fear that one day those same intellectuals will realize the shortcomings of the system and will turn against it. The best political system is the one which, by promoting education, is actually seeking help from its citizens in making the whole society grow and flourish by analyzing, criticizing and implementing all the truly necessary changes.

Racism

It's been a fact in American history that if you had a tiniest bit of black blood in you, you are a 'negro'. That has been (and unfortunately still is for a lot of Americans) a racist way of looking at our social structure. In other words: if you have any black blood in you, you can't be equal to the rest of us, regardless of the fact that one of your parents is white.

So, if denouncing one part of your racial make up is racism, what do we call all these Americans who insist on themselves being 'black' despite the fact that one of their parents is not?

Joke of the Month

A crusty old man walks into the local church and says to the secretary: "I would like to join this damn church."

The astonished woman replies: "I beg your pardon, sir. I must have misunderstood you. What did you say?"

"Listen up, damn it. I said I want to join this damn church!"

"I'm very sorry sir, but that kind of language is not tolerated in our church."

The secretary leaves her desk and goes into the pastor's study to inform him of her situation.

The pastor agrees that the secretary does not have to listen to that foul language.

They both return to her office and the pastor asks the old geezer: "Sir, what seems to be the problem here?"

"There is no damn problem.", the man says. "I just won $200 million bucks in the damn lottery and I want to join this damn church to get rid of some of this damn money."

"I see...", said the pastor. "Is this bitch giving you a hard time?"

My God...

If one believes his God is one and only, omnipotent creator of the universe and better than anyone else's, isn't one simply acknowledging the existence of more than one God? And if all those Gods created their universes, how many universes are there? And why are we then all stuck together on this tiny planet? Why don't we all just go and live in peace in our own universes where we won't be bothered by other people and their Gods?

How ungodly.

If one believes his God is the same God that everyone else believes in, but he thinks his way is the only proper way of worshiping and following God's word (and that's the case with more or less any organized religion) then we here on earth have a case of ass kissing of grandest proportions.

How ungodly.

And if one believes his God is the same God that everybody else believes in, and he thinks his way and everybody else's ways are just cultural and traditional variations of the same way, then there should be no problem in crossing (or abandoning) religious boundaries and believing that we all are as one believing in one God.

How Godly.

Are religions using us to procure the old "divide et impera" philosophy?

Organized religion, how ungodly.

Human Chemistry

When is someone going to figure out our chemical formula? I know it's almost impossible, but, wouldn't it be a wonderful thing to know what are we made of, and what is driving this marvelous chemical reaction called life?

God

"If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him."
- Voltaire

Joke of the Month

George W.Bush has a heart attack and dies. He goes to hell where the Devil is waiting for him.

"I don't know what to do here" says the Devil. "You're on my list but I have no room for you! You definitely have to stay here though, so I'll tell you what I'm going to do: I've got 3 people who weren't quite as bad as you. I'll let one of them go and you can take their place. I'll even let you decide who leaves."

George reluctantly agreed.

The Devil opened the first room. In there was Ted Kennedy in a large pool of water. He kept resurfacing over and over, gasping for air, such was his fate in hell.

"No!" George said, "I don't think so. I'm not a good swimmer and don't think I could do that all day long."

The Devil led him to the next room. In it was Tony Blair with a hammer and a room full of rocks. All he did was swing the hammer, time after time, and more rocks appeared.

"No! I've got this problem with my back. I would be in constant agony if all I could do was break rocks all day!" commented George.

The Devil then opened the third door. In it was Bill Clinton lying naked on the floor with his arms and legs staked in spread eagle pose. Bent over him was Monica Lewinsky, doing what she does best!

George Bush looked at this in disbelief for a while and finally said, "Yeah, I could handle this!"

The Devil smiled and said..."Monica, you're free to go."

Freedom

'"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose."

- Kris Kristofferson ("Me and Bobby McGee")

Basics:

1. Who are we?

2. Where do we come from?

3. Why are we here?

Uvala Slana, Selce, Croatia

Greed

Humans are the only creatures on earth that "want" more than they can use or “need”. No other animal will kill another one just for the heck of it, it will eat it. No wild animal will break a tree branch without a reason: it will eat the leaves or the fruit off of it. An animal will attempt to encroach on another ones turf, but only for the sake of survival, the food and the natural “need” for continuation of its specie. They can't lie, cheat, swindle and deceit one another in order to better themselves, like we do. Wait till they discover money. We have.

That's why things are the way they are. That's why there is greed. Need to grab for more. Through money comes power. The more money one has the higher he gets up the corporate or social ladder. The higher he gets the more subjects are left beneath to be controlled. The higher one gets the fiercer the battle for the top. Only the greediest (most successful), will win. Greed became an inevitable and necessary component of modern society.

The rest of us will follow suit guided by glitz and glamor that greedy are surrounded by. Does that make us less or as greedy? Why do religious people participate in everyday game of wanting more than they really need knowing of it being a deadly sin? And why is it that those same people created the biggest oxymoron on this subject by imprinting “In God we trust” on our currency? Is it, maybe, because we have invented a new term for greed: “success”. Well, then this is a typical case of mass hypocrisy. It is part of human nature. We call it civilization.

Search

"I am just looking for a human being."
- Diogenes