Coldness

It's 38 degrees out there this morning. Too bad we don't have President's Day off. This would have been a good morning to stay snug in bed.

I watched very little of the Winter Olympics this weekend. I never knew what was on or when. I tune in for the ice skating competitions. The Houston area is proud of one of it's own, though for the speed skating competition. Chad Hedrick has performed well and won gold. His big rival is Shani Davis, the "First black athlete to take individual gold in a Winter Olympics", according to the headline in yesterday's newspaper. It's good for both to be recognized for their achievements. The whole first black athlete thing is a non-story as far as I'm concerned. Won't it be nice when we can all get over that kind of labeling. And for idiots like Bryant Gumbel to stop saying nonsense like the Winter Olympics aren't interesting to him as they are as white as a GOP convention. Stupid political rhetoric had no place in his interview. This from a man who cheated repeatly on his black wife and left her and their kids to marry a white woman. Idiot.

Shani Davis is a different kind of personality and is creating his own kind of controversy. He chose to persue his own gold than to help out the US team effort, so the US team didn't win first place ranking, which they would probably have done if he had participated in the team events. I thought sports was suppose to teach sportsmanship and team player mentality. He said in an interview that he got there on his own and didn't owe anyone anything. And he is angry that corporate sponsorship deals, like commercials, aren't coming his way. Wonder why.

Remember the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi from the 1960's? He was the perceived wise man that all the celebrities and jet setters went to in India to learn how to meditate. He's a 89 year old man now living in a compound in The Netherlands and hosting conferences, aiding a medical curriculum for his university in Iowa, sponsoring schools in India, and meditation centers in Europe. All on 2 - 3 hours of sleep. He is usually isolated from people except a few attendants. He has studied the lessons of the Vedas, the Sanskrit canon compiled 3,500 years ago. Here are his solutions for the troubles of today's world:
Tear down major structures, including the White House and The United Nations, and rebuild them to Vedic architectural plans that harmonize construction with nature.
Send meditation groups to world hot spots as psychic shock troops whose positive energy will allevate negativity, reduce crime, ease conflict and promote world peace.
And, the clincher, his latest project: a $10 trillion plan to eradicate poverty. An ad was placed in the International Herald Tribune in mid-December looking for investors for a minimum $60,000 for a World Peace Bond, promising a 10 to 15 percent annual return.

Here's his plan: He wants to buy 5 billion acres in 100 developing countries for labor-intensive farms which will provide employment and income for the world's poorest people and feed the first world market for organic food. No takers from the ad, so far. All righty then.


"If you like a man's laugh before you know anything of him, you may say with confidence that he is a good man". - Fyodor Dostoevsky