Stunned At This Turn of Events // (Edward Snowden Was Wrong About the Great Solar Flare As the Big "Killshot" That Posed a Danger to Earth)

Soooo many new books I don't even know where to begin... I'm at the library almost every day, now that I live 150 feet away from the damn place!!  I'm going to make a couple of posts about that later on.

The following is an excerpt from a book I recently read, "Thrashing in Ragwood."  About the life of a punk rock kid growing up in the middle of nowhere & how he copes with it all.  Good stuff, considering I don't read novels all that much.  I prefer non-fiction, as m//r readers know! 

"I am still having a hard time understanding how & why this happened. I am still having a hard time with how a person whom I once loved & who ostensibly loved me as well, could possibly sic the motherfucking cops on me?! WTF?!? Lemme' say it again, What. The. Fuck?! Wouldn't simply emailing me to say, "I don't want to talk to you anymore. Don't email me" work just as well? Why in the fuck would ANYONE call the fucking cops on another person--a FRIEND at that--just because they didn't wanna talk anymore?? Here's the bloody facts about Sharon (unless there's something I'm missing, this is the honest to goodness truth): I went to high school with this "woman" Sharon (A term used loosely.) We were both in the punk rock scene, and at the time there just weren't that many of us punkers here in Ragwood, Nebraska. This girl was basically what we called a "poseur." She was like a comic book version of a punker--a thick layer of white corpse paint over her acne ridden face, black eye shadow, black lipstick, a large dyed black fully charged mohawk (that actually looked kinda' cool), carefully ripped & torn jeans, and black combat boots. The thing about her that stood out most, believe it or not, wasn't her carefully put together appearance, but her insanely large nose!! I am not exaggerating when I say it was by & far the BIGGEST nose I have ever, EVER seen on any human being in my entire life!! To this day I have never seen one bigger!! Thick & wide, and very loooong. Too long. My guess is it made the simple act of eating difficult. I couldn't even imagine trying to kiss her! (Actually I can, since I did try to kiss her! More about that in a bit.) Her & I weren't friends, but we weren't enemies either. She had it rough back then, getting lunch & other object thrown at her by the jocks, and spit on, ridiculed, and bullied by the punk rockers, the tribe she was supposed to be most at home with! I used to feel sorry for her, especially watching her get beat up by one particularly tough Asian punker named Annie Shapiro. Annie had a reputation as a tough gal (the feminine equivalent of "tough guy" I suppose) and was a brown-belt in Ju Jitsu. But what could I do, I was bullied myself by Annie! Fast forward to 2007, and me & this now ex-punker girl started chatting via MySpace. We exchanged phone numbers & started talking on the phone and eventually made plans for a date. I was super excited, since after looking through Sharon's MySpace photo albums, it appeared that she had had a nose job, toned down the punker gal look, adopted a macrobiotic diet, laid off the booze & chain smoking, and was even into running & competing in marathons! She also made it clear that she was very, very horny and wanted to have sex with me, on the first date! This is something I normally don't do, since I'm always afraid of getting an STD or worse: and unwanted pregnancy. So she invited me over to her house--for sex--and to watch a DVD & talk. Well we didn't have sex, not that I couldn't have, but I told her I wanted to wait & see where this went. I knew I liked her a lot right away, and she told me she felt the same. Of course we eventually started sleeping together & we fell in love. The only problem was, I was out on bond from the county jail, fighting a bogus minor drug possession charge. I didn't tell this to Sharon right off the bat (who would?) but rather waited until closer to my trial date. With the prospect of jail in front of me, I was scared & not really looking to get into a new relationship. But then again, maybe having a girlfriend who would write to me, visit me, put money in my account, and order me books might be an asset! I would up coping a plea to 90 days in the county jail. True enough, Sharon stuck with me and did all the things I mentioned. This made the county jail much more bearable. I got out after doing seventy days and Sharon & I picked the relationship right back up. Things seemed to be going well, but I just didn't feel "right" with her. She argued with me a lot, picked fights, whined about nearly everything incessantly, and was just an all around negative Nancy & Debbie downer! She hated sex--especially foreplay--(what kind of woman doesn't like to have her guy go down on her or finger-fuck her? Weird!) and wasn't at all into romance or spontaneity whatsoever. And the kicker: Her nose was as big as it was back in h.s., maybe even bigger! Not to mention that she would never let me meet her parents, coworkers, or any of her friends. I began to suspect that she was cheating on me, and my suspicions turned out to be correct. We broke up, but remained friends. We still talked frequently, mainly via email & text messaging. We had a few arguments, but never anything serious. We tried getting back together, but it wasn't time yet. The wounds of her cheating on me were still too fresh. Plus, she was starting school full time, so we decided to wait til she was finished with school, ostensibly two years. (Apparently community college & dating were a bit too much for her at one time. Hey, I never said she was a smart woman! Wait: A butt ugly chick who hates to fuck and isn't all that smart? What the fuck was I thinking?! LOL!) Well, after all Sharon & went through together, the end result was that she tried to sic the law on me! Let me repeat that: she tried to sic the law on me, for emailing her. First of all, I emailed her to apologize for my part in things, owning up to where I went wrong, and to say I was sorry & that I wanted to make a formal amends to her. Then I emailed her to ask if we could talk about things, her, me, us, etc. That was about it. A normal person would have returned the email(s) with either an, "I forgive you" or a "fuck off" or something in between. Yeah, a "normal" person. But apparently not this chick. Nope. Playing with my heart, and then siccing the police on me..... Well, the world has my word: Never again. I'm 86'd. Lesson learned: Stay away from the mud puddles, they're full of piranhas.

"Yoga, Karma, and Rebirth" A Great Book From Columbia University Press--

Here's a link to a cool book from CUP:

Yoga, Karma, and Rebirth (link to book)

Book List Book List Book List Book List Book List--

Holy smokes! Dug out three more boxes of books from storage!  Including doubles & triples of a few.  Those will go to my friends Catholic Men's House, "Friends of the Master" in Ypsilanti.  I've already donated around one hundred books to them, with about another hundred waiting to be transported.
I've decided I need to really make a serious inventory of what's here. And it's just as easy to put it on my blog as it is to put it in one of my hand-written journals. Wish me luck! m//r

note: I am NOT including novels & fiction (for the most part)

Ishmael--

Started reading the book, "Ishmael" yesterday.
Cant. Stop. Reading. It. 
Great book so far!  I can't believe I slept on this for a decade now.

Some New Books & Other Goodies--(updated 07/14/13)

Got some outstanding new books in the mail last week. My bookshelves are swollen over capacity and it's high-time I found a new storage system! Does anybody else find it extremely difficult to store books away in boxes or in a distant storage unit?  I'm the kind of person who MUST have his books at arm's length all the time.  I tend to easily forget about what I own if I don't have it nearby to remind me!  Thus, I've been known to double-purchase a book, 'zine, or record before!  LOL, it's a waste of energy & money to buy something more than once!  Anyhow, here's what's new (to me) over the past couple of weeks.  m//r

New Books That Have Arrived in the Mail--

Let me just say that I STILL LOVE getting mail! Real, physical, tangible mail.  "Snail-mail" so to speak. [I wonder where that term first originated? And by whom?]  In the early to mid 90's I had a post office box (p.o. box), especially useful when I was doing 'Book of Lies' fanzine (which incidentally never actually got finished & printed. In many ways this blog is a continuation of that 'zine) & receiving lots & lots of mail, music for review, letters, and ads for records & labels. Over a fifteen year period or so I had two different p.o. boxes. Nowadays the mail just gets delivered to my house & is more convenient than having to go check the ole' p.o. box everyday or so.  But little else has changed & I still get excited whenever the mail lady comes! I'm blessed to receive so many books, magazines, journals, fanzines, & letters! But in my insatiable thirst, it's still 'never enough.'  This is one of my biggest character defects. And believe me, I'm working on it (kind of).
Here are several books that I've received over the past week. m//r

Got Several New Books In the Mail Today & Learned To Control My Mouth & My Brain--

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It was a good mail day today. After being a shitty day early on, the mail lady came & brightened things up for me a bit.  Other than that my "boss" still didn't pay me today!!! I called him last night to ask him if he could please drop off my check to me this morning, since he DID say he was going to pay me today, and he told me no, he couldn't bring it to me because he wasn't even gonna' be around today!  What?!?  He told me two Friday's ago that he couldn't pay me that day but he would pay me on Tues., after the holiday. Then on Tues. he said we weren't working that day--ostensibly due to rain--but we would be working on Wed. So I assumed he'd pay me Wed. Nope. He told me there wasn't much more work for me, but he'd have a check first thing Mon. morning for me. That's why I called him last night. I tried calling him today but there's no answer. He DID tell me last night that he had another big job & needed me this week, so we'll see. But he already owes me over $300 and I'm not sure I want to work for him anymore. Things could change, and I do need the money. I've got some serious bills that need my attention, not to mention rent that is past due now. Last night he promised me a check this Friday. Hmmm. Seems like he's dodging me. Fortunately for me I made him cut me a check last week for $240, but he asked me not to cash it yet, that he'd pay me my full amount due a.s.a.p. So I've been holding off on putting this check through, but if, by this Fri., he doesn't pay me the full sum of what I'm owed, I'll cash this check and cut me losses. Lesson learned. when dealing with racist, half-assed, inbred, 21 yr old chodes, BE CAREFUL. 
That's my rant on the b.s. of the day. If it's not one thing it's another. I've had some comfort with my Christian meditation lately. Between Eucharistic Adoration & some mystical Christianity (of the Roman Catholic variety) books I've got my nose in, I've been able to sleep a little easier, and calm down when my mind gets to racing. I take comfort in knowing that my Lord, Jesus Christ, is with me all the time, at every step of the way. I try to picture Jesus sitting with me, at the end of my bed, verbally telling me, "it's all right My son."  THAT is a big help. Say what you may about my religious/spiritual leanings, but it works for me. "Restraint of pen & tongue" is about the greatest piece of advice I've ever read.
Use love. ♥ m//r
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Here's a few of the titles the mail lady brought me today:

"The Dynamics of Israeli-Palestinian Relations: Theory, History, and Cases"
  -by Ben Soetendorp

"UFO Religion: Inside Flying Saucer Cults & Culture"
  -by Greg L. Reece

"The Station: Travels to the Holy Mountain of Greece"
  -by Robert Byron

......and a couple of history & religious books.

I Am Currently Reading.......♥

As of March 2, 2013, this is what we've been reading here at 
 MASS // RETALIATION:

"The Conspiracy Reader" 
 by-- Al Hidell & Joan D'Arc

"Edgar Cayce on Atlantis"
 by-- Edgar Evans Cayce

"The Trillion Dollar Conspiracy"
 by-- Jim Marrs

"The Templars: The Secret History Revealed"
 by-- Barbara Frale

"The Search for the Twelve Apostles" 
 by-- Steuart McBirnie

"Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews"
 by-- Alan Hart

"The Harbinger"
 by-- Johnathan Cahn

"Alien Agenda"
 by-- Jim Marrs

"The Templars"
 by-- Malcolm Barber & Keith Bate

"Communion: A True Story"
 by-- Whitley Strieber

...and about three dozen OTHER books, usually at the same time!

What Have I Been Reading Lately?

....And what has been & IS on my bookshelves?
I have a limited amount of space where I live, and I would say my books, 
magazines, and journals take up the majority of my personal space.
So I have room for about forty books on my shelf.  The rest of my literature
is kept in large (and small) plastic totes & cardboard boxes.
I regularly rotate books from my shelf to my storage totes, and vice versa.
I am usually reading ten to fifteen different books at any one time.  No, not 
simultaneously silly.  A few pages from this one, a chapter from that one, etc etc.
I plan on making a series of posts on this blog, as to what I'm reading and links to
each book on Amazon or wherever else, if available. 
♥ Always Use Love ♥

Thomas Merton & Buddhism, & What I'm Reading--

"The Wisdom of the Desert" currently reading.

Also: The Catholic Hearth --various issues of this beautifully & artfully put together Catholic 1/2 sized journal, put out by The Neumann Press.

"Pure Land Pure Mind"  translation by J.C. Cleary. I love love love this book about Pure Land Buddhism.  Pure Land is the most prevalent form of Buddhism on the planet, but one of the least practiced in the West.  It has some similarities to Zen and can thus be practiced alongside Zen Buddhism.  I received many Pure Land books in the mail over the summer, and none of them have let me down.  As a matter of fact, I've got reading material to last me well into 2013!!!  Thank God for generous Buddhists!

And this reminds me of some of the Thomas Merton books I have that talk about his affinity for Zen Buddhism and Buddhist & Eastern religious practices in general.  Good stuff, get in to it!