Happy Diwali - the festival of lights

http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2008/10/happy-diwali-festival-of-lights.html

Happy Diwali - the Festival of lights 11:32am

May this Diwali open our hearts and minds towards fellow beings, there is a real joy and freedom in it. Lighting the lamps and candles symbolically represent turning the switch of the the mind on to remove darkness and lighten up the mind to see a lot more, and to open oneself up to possibilities and embrace a whole lot more than visible. All Festivals, regardless of the religion they are affiliated with have an universal message - of oneness of humankind. Let's celebrate to that. I hope to attend many Diwali events in town, including Dinners. Next year, it will be celebrated in my home and all are welcome.

May this Diwali open our hearts and minds towards fellow beings. Happy Diwali to all. http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com/2008/09/spirit-of-navaratri.html

I hope to recieve blessings from Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in person here in Dallas.
Maha Diwali Yagna on Diwali day 28th Oct at the Dallas convention Center.

For the first time in the USA, the Diwali Yagna will be performed in the presence of His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. Yagna is an ancient method for purifying the atmosphere and enlivening the subtle laws of nature, connecting the individuals to nature in such a way that the benefits and goodwill are extended both to people there and around the world. They bring prosperity, purity, peace and harmony- the whole environment becomes lively …

The energy and vibrations emanating from all will be 1000...times more powerful. In the words of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar "The rituals will be felt in waves around the world".

This yagna is open to all, bring your friends and family and be blessed on this auspicious day of Diwali. Come and be part of this phenomenal celebration to deepen the peace in our lives and bring prosperity and abudance to all.

To find out more, visit http://www.txdiwali.org/

Contact Phone : 1-888-TX-DIWALI
Contact Email: txdiwali@aol.com
Registration url : http://secure.artofliving.org/event_details.aspx?event_id=1758
Venue: DALLAS CONVENTION CENTER
Address: 650 S. Griffin St., Dallas, TX 75202 Map
Date & Time: Oct 28, 2008 6:00 PM
_________________________________________________--

Mike Ghouse
www.MikeGhouse.net
www.FirstCityHomes.net
www.FoundationforPluralism.com

Saving the Republican Party

As Americans, we have an obligation to maintain the checks and balance in our governing system. If not, we will be re-paving the way for the mistakes we have made in the past; Putting all governance in one basket; the Republican Party.

.

Our loyalty should be to America and our Democracy first, and then perhaps to the party. Together, let's work on getting the Republican Majority at the Senate, even though some of them are ugly Republicans who supported the destruction of American economy and did not have the guts to speak out against their party, they put their Party first and America next. It will be a mistake to give all the three branches to one single party. Continue

Joel Osteen; A life changing Message

http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2008/10/joel-osteen-life-changing-message.html

Joel Osteen; A life changing Message

Dear friends;

I care about you and wanted you to spend thirty minutes of your time on this inspirational message.

Click this link : http://www.joelosteen.com/Pages/Index.aspx
On the left of the screen there is a picture of Joel Osteen with a message to Click a video to play.. Click # 401 Living a no excuse Life.

May you be inspired to be the best you can be. Each one of you is our own model, God created each one of you to be a unique being among the 6.5 Billion of us and you should be yourselves and not worry about being someone else. You should build on being yourselves with all the potentials you have. Be yourselves and see the difference it would make in your life in accepting and respecting the uniqueness gifted to you.

By the way Joel quotes from the Bible as that is his reference. You have the same message in your own faith. God has given his message to every one through one book or the other, or through Oral traditions. God cannot be discriminatory or partial. God wanted to make sure he did not miss any one whether you are a theist or not, you have the message to be the best you can be.

You are welcome to share the message from your tradition below in the comments.

Love ya’ll
Mike

Terrorist Barack Hussein Obama

On this particular blog, I usually post my own writings. However, this particular essay is a compelling reading. With the attitudes McCain and Palin are displaying, you have to declare them losers, i.e., LOOSERS. They know they are losers and have got nothing to lose further, instead tear the other one down. When you corner some one, and when they do not have any choices, they are inclined to destroy everything while going down. Republican party needs to guard themselves from this Maverick making a mess out of their party.

I wrote the following piece warnig the Republicans, of their consequneces if they don't reign in on McCain and Palin. I hope they care and take the action. The party needs to rid of the extremists from them. http://www.mikeghouse.net/Articles/Republicans-Please-put-America-First.asp

Mike Ghouse

Op-Ed Columnist
The Terrorist Barack Hussein Obama
By FRANK RICH
Published: October 11, 2008

IF you think way back to the start of this marathon campaign, back when it seemed preposterous that any black man could be a serious presidential contender, then you remember the biggest fear about Barack Obama: a crazy person might take a shot at him.

Some voters told reporters that they didn’t want Obama to run, let alone win, should his very presence unleash the demons who have stalked America from Lincoln to King. After consultation with Congress, Michael Chertoff, the homeland security secretary, gave Obama a Secret Service detail earlier than any presidential candidate in our history — in May 2007, some eight months before the first Democratic primaries.

“I’ve got the best protection in the world, so stop worrying,” Obama reassured his supporters. Eventually the country got conditioned to his appearing in large arenas without incident (though I confess that the first loud burst of fireworks at the end of his convention stadium speech gave me a start). In America, nothing does succeed like success. The fear receded.

Until now. At McCain-Palin rallies, the raucous and insistent cries of “Treason!” and “Terrorist!” and “Kill him!” and “Off with his head!” as well as the uninhibited slinging of racial epithets, are actually something new in a campaign that has seen almost every conceivable twist. They are alarms. Doing nothing is not an option.

All’s fair in politics. John McCain and Sarah Palin have every right to bring up William Ayers, even if his connection to Obama is minor, even if Ayers’s Weather Underground history dates back to Obama’s childhood, even if establishment Republicans and Democrats alike have collaborated with the present-day Ayers in educational reform. But it’s not just the old Joe McCarthyesque guilt-by-association game, however spurious, that’s going on here. Don’t for an instant believe the many mindlessly “even-handed” journalists who keep saying that the McCain campaign’s use of Ayers is the moral or political equivalent of the Obama campaign’s hammering on Charles Keating.

What makes them different, and what has pumped up the Weimar-like rage at McCain-Palin rallies, is the violent escalation in rhetoric, especially (though not exclusively) by Palin. Obama “launched his political career in the living room of a domestic terrorist.” He is “palling around with terrorists” (note the plural noun). Obama is “not a man who sees America the way you and I see America.” Wielding a wildly out-of-context Obama quote, Palin slurs him as an enemy of American troops.

By the time McCain asks the crowd “Who is the real Barack Obama?” it’s no surprise that someone cries out “Terrorist!” The rhetorical conflation of Obama with terrorism is complete. It is stoked further by the repeated invocation of Obama’s middle name by surrogates introducing McCain and Palin at these rallies. This sleight of hand at once synchronizes with the poisonous Obama-is-a-Muslim e-mail blasts and shifts the brand of terrorism from Ayers’s Vietnam-era variety to the radical Islamic threats of today.

That’s a far cry from simply accusing Obama of being a guilty-by-association radical leftist. Obama is being branded as a potential killer and an accessory to past attempts at murder. “Barack Obama’s friend tried to kill my family” was how a McCain press release last week packaged the remembrance of a Weather Underground incident from 1970 — when Obama was 8.

We all know what punishment fits the crime of murder, or even potential murder, if the security of post-9/11 America is at stake. We all know how self-appointed “patriotic” martyrs always justify taking the law into their own hands.

Obama can hardly be held accountable for Ayers’s behavior 40 years ago, but at least McCain and Palin can try to take some responsibility for the behavior of their own supporters in 2008. What’s troubling here is not only the candidates’ loose inflammatory talk but also their refusal to step in promptly and strongly when someone responds to it with bloodthirsty threats in a crowded arena.

Joe Biden had it exactly right when he expressed concern last week that “a leading American politician who might be vice president of the United States would not just stop midsentence and turn and condemn that.” To stay silent is to pour gas on the fires.

It wasn’t always thus with McCain. In February he loudly disassociated himself from a speaker who brayed “Barack Hussein Obama” when introducing him at a rally in Ohio. Now McCain either backpedals with tardy, pro forma expressions of respect for his opponent or lets second-tier campaign underlings release boilerplate disavowals after ugly incidents like the chilling Jim Crow-era flashback last week when a Florida sheriff ranted about “Barack Hussein Obama” at a Palin rally while in full uniform.

From the start, there have always been two separate but equal questions about race in this election. Is there still enough racism in America to prevent a black man from being elected president no matter what? And, will Republicans play the race card? The jury is out on the first question until Nov. 4. But we now have the unambiguous answer to the second: Yes.

McCain, who is no racist, turned to this desperate strategy only as Obama started to pull ahead. The tone was set at the Republican convention, with Rudy Giuliani’s mocking dismissal of Obama as an “only in America” affirmative-action baby. We also learned then that the McCain campaign had recruited as a Palin handler none other than Tucker Eskew, the South Carolina consultant who had worked for George W. Bush in the notorious 2000 G.O.P. primary battle where the McCains and their adopted Bangladeshi daughter were slimed by vicious racist rumors.

No less disconcerting was a still-unexplained passage of Palin’s convention speech: Her use of an unattributed quote praising small-town America (as opposed to, say, Chicago and its community organizers) from Westbrook Pegler, the mid-century Hearst columnist famous for his anti-Semitism, racism and violent rhetorical excess. After an assassin tried to kill F.D.R. at a Florida rally and murdered Chicago’s mayor instead in 1933, Pegler wrote that it was “regrettable that Giuseppe Zangara shot the wrong man.” In the ’60s, Pegler had a wish for Bobby Kennedy: “Some white patriot of the Southern tier will spatter his spoonful of brains in public premises before the snow falls.”

This is the writer who found his way into a speech by a potential vice president at a national political convention. It’s astonishing there’s been no demand for a public accounting from the McCain campaign. Imagine if Obama had quoted a Black Panther or Louis Farrakhan — or William Ayers — in Denver.

The operatives who would have Palin quote Pegler have been at it ever since. A key indicator came two weeks after the convention, when the McCain campaign ran its first ad tying Obama to the mortgage giant Fannie Mae. Rather than make its case by using a legitimate link between Fannie and Obama (or other Democratic leaders), the McCain forces chose a former Fannie executive who had no real tie to Obama or his campaign but did have a black face that could dominate the ad’s visuals.

There are no black faces high in the McCain hierarchy to object to these tactics. There hasn’t been a single black Republican governor, senator or House member in six years. This is a campaign where Palin can repeatedly declare that Alaska is “a microcosm of America” without anyone even wondering how that might be so for a state whose tiny black and Hispanic populations are each roughly one-third the national average. There are indeed so few people of color at McCain events that a black senior writer from The Tallahassee Democrat was mistakenly ejected by the Secret Service from a campaign rally in Panama City in August, even though he was standing with other reporters and showed his credentials. His only apparent infraction was to look glaringly out of place.

Could the old racial politics still be determinative? I’ve long been skeptical of the incessant press prognostications (and liberal panic) that this election will be decided by racist white men in the Rust Belt. Now even the dimmest bloviators have figured out that Americans are riveted by the color green, not black — as in money, not energy. Voters are looking for a leader who might help rescue them, not a reckless gambler whose lurching responses to the economic meltdown (a campaign “suspension,” a mortgage-buyout stunt that changes daily) are as unhinged as his wanderings around the debate stage.

To see how fast the tide is moving, just look at North Carolina. On July 4 this year — the day that the godfather of modern G.O.P. racial politics, Jesse Helms, died — The Charlotte Observer reported that strategists of both parties agreed Obama’s chances to win the state fell “between slim and none.” Today, as Charlotte reels from the implosion of Wachovia, the McCain-Obama race is a dead heat in North Carolina and Helms’s Republican successor in the Senate, Elizabeth Dole, is looking like a goner.

But we’re not at Election Day yet, and if voters are to have their final say, both America and Obama have to get there safely. The McCain campaign has crossed the line between tough negative campaigning and inciting vigilantism, and each day the mob howls louder. The onus is on the man who says he puts his country first to call off the dogs, pit bulls and otherwise.

Columbus day-Overseas trade-religion-spices-greed

http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2008/10/columbus-day-overseas-trade-religion.html
Columbus Day, international trade, religion greed and spices

It was this day, some 516 years ago, Columbus (formally) found this land and the people; the Red Indians. I am pondering bits and pieces of history in a random order on this occasion. I have a few questions for us to ponder over.

It probably is a mourning day for the Native Americans whose land was robbed and cultures annihilated.

It is a day of shame in human history. All Columbus wanted to find was an alternate route to Spices in India, what followed him was individual greed to snatch the land from the natives and force their way of life opon them. The arrogance of the Europeans of that time, most of whom are civilized now, led them to force their beliefs on the natives. Jesus would not have authorized any of that violence, yet, the world allowed those missionaries to butcher the natives in the name of Jesus. Even today, it is happening, doing evil things in the name of God, these are criminal acts of over zealous individuals that need to be punished.

Columbus was commissioned to discover a new sea route in 1492, which led to formal discovery of America. At the same time, under the reign of the individual terrorists Isabella and Fernando, the Jews and Muslims were thrown into cauldrons if they refused to convert to Christianity. How ironic it is, that the evil acts were done in the name of Jesus, who preached non-voilence and love thy neighbor. why did not the clergy stop them? One should be accorded the title of clergy, Imam, Rabbi, Holiness, Pastor or Pundit when they have cleaned their hearts from hate, anger, insecurity, revenge and ill-will, if not strip the title from them, they are not fit to represent any religion.

Some of the forced conversions were also done by individual Muslims against Hindus and Individual Christians against native tribes around the world, all in the name of God, as if God had given them an authority to act in his (her or it) behalf. There is no such permission. Neither Christianity nor Islam allows any one to induce or force others to convert, you cannot make one believe against their will. The insecure individual guardians of religions have done it in the name of religion. Both Muslims and Christians need to push the "refresh button" and read their holy books, their books like all other holy books are about co-existence and living in harmony with nature and people and not creating copy cats. Individuals pretending to represent a major (that is the problem) faith have done this to others. India at one time was Buddhist; they are a tiny minority now. You can find criminal individuals representing every possible faith. No one should gloat or be arrogant that their faith is clean, which it is, but some individual in their faith have messed up somewhere.

When Holocaust was happening in the heartland of Germany in the thirties, where were the good Christians, why did they not stop them? It was not Christianity, it was individual greed and hate for the others labeled with religion or natioanlism. I assert, Religion is never the problem, it is the individual criminals who brand their acts with a religion label, and we the ugly majority of the people, allow them to label their crimes with a religion or nationalism. We need to consciously stop people from blaming religion for the acts of individuals. If we boldly punish the individuals, instead of blaming an intangible religion, we will bring justice to the world. You cannot punish a religion, it is not a body. Think about it.

Coming to this decade, if it was not for three individuals, millions of people in Iraq and Afghanistan would have been alive today. Are we, the Americans paying for our economic consequences caused by deficits through funding the war and cavalier attitudes towards not regulating the rogues? Are we to blame this on ourselves? We had a choice to stop the war that is draingin us, had we protested it strongly we would have saved millions of lives and our own collapse. May God uplift us from our present situation and give us the wisdom to punish all the individuals who inflicted this disaster on all of us.

A strong America is not the goofy idea of threatenening every one in the world and spreading ourselves thin and weak. A strong America is the wisdom of not shedding any blood, American and others, and have the nations willingly cooperate with us. What is good for America has got to be good for the world and vice-versa to make it work and make it sustainable for generations to come.

For over a millennium of recorded history till 1500 AD, "Spices" were the major commodity of trade, they called it overseas trade, now we call International trade. Prior to that Silk was a commodity traded globally, nay the word Globe did not exist then, it was flat land.

Even the Airplanes were initially used to travel "overseas". Indeed, the BA, the British Airways was called British Overseas Airways Corporation. Then there was TWA, PanAm....remember that?

The value of an item is consequently determined by its supply and demand, much of it is driven by what we want rather than our needs. Who would have thought that the Portuguese, French, English and Spaniards would have fought for spices? These were the original predominant colonizers, later on the Dutch, Belgium and others joined the quest. This generation can understand that by the wars caused for Energy resources with Oil being at its center.

Just think of the commodities that have been at the center of overseas trade and causes for destructions and wars.

Silk and spices were the original commodities after the traditional land annexations. Then Cotton became staple, Sugar was next, tobacco after that... what are the items between Tobacco and Oil?

Each one of these commodities are at the center of genocides, killings, annihilation of cultures, wars, domination, colonization and other evils primarily motivated by individual greed. Religion and business are merely labels. There is an individual behind every crime and genocide right from Abel and Cain days to today. There is an individual behind every good that happens. Should we as individual consciously contribute towards the goodness? Should be allow evil to let it ride and ultimately wrap us all in it? Should we speak up when there is injustice?

A ponderous Columbus day to ya’ll.

Mike Ghouse is a Speaker, Thinker and a Writer. He is a frequent guest on talk radio and local television network discussing Pluralism, Interfaith, political and civic issues. His comments, news analysis and columns can be found on the Websites and Blogs listed at his personal website www.MikeGhouse.net. Mike is a Dallasite for nearly three decades and Carrollton is his home town. He can be reached at MikeGhouse@AOL.com

Republicans, please put America first

A majority of the Republicans are like you and I, capable of seeing another point of view, but the ones who run the party do not see the need to enlighten themselves, only God can help them. I am addressing to those principled Republicans in this essay, who are a majority. I am a Republican in my heart supporting Obama, the only hope for America. It is time for you, the good principled Republican senators, congressmen and women and all those committed to the principles of the party to wake up and rescue the party from being hijacked again by those extremists who want power devoid of republicanism. Continue

Should Obama attack McCain?

http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2008/10/obama-dialogues-with-mccain.html
..
In the 2nd Presidential debate on Tuesday, October 7th, Obama remained his usual: civil and to the point. He did not attack McCain the person, as McCain did when he pointed towards Obama and said "that one". The media should have grilled McCain on that.

Here are the dialogues, I wish Obama could deliver;

"Senator McCain, you keep parroting "you don't understand" as if that is the only phrase you know, thank you, just tell me if you understand, or even hear what I have said many times and just three minutes ago that " when we find where Bin Laden is holed up and the Pakistani Government is unwilling and does not want to get him, then we will attack the centers where he is, isn’t' that what I said? Senator McCain, you turn around and say that ‘I will attack Pakistan. Do you really hear things out ? Is that how you make you judgments?’

Didn't Lieberman correct you on Camera that Iran was not training Al-Qaeda, and then you corrected yourselves right on the CNN camera?" Senator McCain do you understand, what you utter?

"Do you want me to give you the list, or two items are enough for you to know to back off. I hope you get this ‘it is you who do not hear, let alone understand.’”

“Senator McCain, you are the one who wants your government to buy houses and you have gall to call that 'he wants bigger a government?" Do you understand what you are saying?

“Senator McCain, let’s focus on topics and what we need to do to create societies of co-existence, when you talk about creating a club of democracies, you are dividing the nations into two groups, let’s strengthen United Nations, where the entire community of Nations can dialogue. Please don’t continue Bushing, “you are either with us” and bring disaster to our economy and our nation”. Do you understand that? The Americans understand that and they don't want four more years of Bush around you.

Personally, I know Obama would stick to the point and I admire that. But to those gossiping Republicans who like lines like that, he should deliver. Because Republicans are not looking for anything of substance, they don't even get it that American Public is not with their wars, with their threats, with their budget deficit, bonuses to the criminals and with their loot in the name of deregulation. McCain does not understand any of that.

Mike Ghouse is a Speaker, Thinker and a Writer. His comments, news analysis and columns can be found on the Websites and Blogs listed at his personal website http://www.mikeghouse.net/. Mike is a Dallasite for nearly three decades and Carrollton is his home town. He can be reached at mailto:MikeGhouse@gmail.com

Ramadan - Rosh Hashanah - Navaratri

Greetings (yours is included in the link)
Happy and meaningful festivals this week.

Ramadan, Rosh Hashanah, Navaratri

May these festivals open our hearts and minds towards fellow beings

The Spirit of Ramadan

The Spiritual masters have captured the human gravity for rituals and have molded it with the art and science of self-discipline in their respective religion. The noble purpose of each one of them was to bring a balance in our lives and a balance with things that surround us; life and environment. Every faith is composed of a set of unique rituals to bring discipline and peace to human life. Fasting is one of the five key rituals that Muslims around the world observe. Eid Mubarak or Happy Ramadan to you. http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/Articles/The-spirit-rituals-and-politics-of-Ramadan.asp

The Spirit of Rosh Hashanah

Rabbi Haas of Temple Shalom joined me in sharing the essence of Judaism every month on my Radio Talk show here in Dallas. The daily one hour show was called "Wisdom of Religion, all the beautiful Religions". Next year, God willing, I will write the essence of Rosh Hashanah and how each one of these beautiful festivals add to the goodwill and community building. This year, I am borrowing from a beautiful write up by Jacqueline O' Sullivan. Wish you all the best on the eve of Rosh Hashanah. As a Muslim, I will be happy to blow the Shofar in a Synagogue this week, just call me. If it is not in the tradition, just add me up as an extra. My Imam had done something similar once. Happy Rosh Hashanah to you.
http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com/2008/09/spirit-of-rosh-hashanah.html

The Spirit of Navaratri

Like the other festivals of India, Navaratri is rich in meaning. At one level, Navaratri signifies the progress of a spiritual aspirant.During this spiritual journey, the aspirant has to pass three stages personified by Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati. Then, he or she enters into the realm of the infinite, wherein one realises one's Self. Navaratri, which literally means 'nine nights,' dedicates three days each to worshipping the Divine in the forms of Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati. The tenth day, though, is the most important; it is known as Vijayadashami, the 'tenth day of victory.' I am hoping to light the Diwali lamp in some one's house, if not in my own house. Next year, when I have a life partner, we will celebrate it in my house also. Happy Diwali http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com/2008/09/spirit-of-navaratri.html

Women led prayers

Oppression of people and suppression of Ideas knocks off the balance in any given society and both go against the fiber of Islam; freedom and justice. Now comes, Dr. Amina Wadud, a Muslim woman has led the Friday congregational prayers for mixed genders, it is indeed a radical idea for those of us who are entrenched in thousands of years of traditions. Muslim Men are no different in their insecurities than Jews, Christians, Americans, Arabs, Zulus, Mongolians or the Mayans. If your strip the dirt from the relgion, it boils down to "a men thing" rather than a Religious issue. http://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com/2008/09/remnants-of-muslim-jahilya.html

Mike Ghouse is a Speaker, Thinker and a Writer. He co-chairs the center for interfaith inquiry of the Memnosyne Foundation, president of the Foundation for Pluralism and is a frequent guest on talk radio and local television network discussing interfaith, political and civic issues. He is the founding president of World Muslim Congress with a simple theme: Good for Muslims and good for the world. His comments, news analysis and columns can be found on the Websites and Blogs listed at his personal website www.MikeGhouse.net. Mike is a Dallasite for nearly three decades and Carrollton is his home town. He can be reached at MikeGhouse@aol.com

PERSONAL :: My Website My Profile My Blog My Business
COMMUNITY :: City of Carrollton Dallas Peace Center Orbits of Influence
EVENTS: XII Annual Thanksgiving IV annual Unity day Holocaust Remembrance