Something to chew on... The Paaji's editorial comments below... 

WHY THE BRITISH GAVE THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT THE WESTERN EDUCATION

Excerpts from Lord Macaulay's address to the British parliament on 2 February, 1835

"I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such calibre, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem, their native culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation."

I do not think there is a more telling quote as that. The legacy of subjugation of the Indian people have continued long past the British withdrawal from India. Much like the rest of the colonized world, the British left India a tattered, dependent state. The colonial British economic system became like heroin to the subcontinent.  This abject dependency was something we couldn't release ourselves from. Take a telescopic peek into the crosshatches of our Indian culture, society and economy and you can see the scars of the lashings that the British colonial system has left on our great region.

The artificial boundaries the British created, and the angst that these political boundaries created, has caused generations of bloodletting to accumulate all over the land. This blood, shed by our own bretheren, seeps into the lifeblood of our culture. No longer do we have a common enemy- we have turned the ire of our scorn back to ourselves. In short, we have learned to hate ourselves and each other. We have become factioned and fractionalized. We despise our brother, and war with our neighobor. Hindu and Muslim, once abash in peaceful coexistance cannot share the same borders. And we collectively suffer because of it.

Say it ain't so Raffy. Say it ain't so.

It's a sad day in sports today. No one died, no one retired, but Mighty Casey may have just struck out. For there is no joy in Paajiville today.

Major League Baseball has been engrossed in an unsavory steroid scandal precipitated by both the BALCO scandal and Jose Canseco's not-so-complimentary tell all book about steroid use in MLB. BALCO, for those of you who don't know, is the sports nutirtion lab in Northern Cali that linked illustrious athletes like Marion Jones, Bill Romonowski, Barry Bonds, and Jason Giambi to a large scale Steroid ring run by a man named Victor Conte. In Canseco's book, the long since faded star depicted many accounts of steroid use and abuse and aslo disclosed names of many high profile stars who were using them. The news about the widespread use of performance enhancing drugs such as steroids or andro in baseball didn't come as much of a surprise. The prodigious homerun numbers, coupled with the increased size of players as well as the larger number of ligament and other joint injuries, pretty much told the story for baseball fans and players nationwide. But everyone seemed to turn a blind eye to the problem, because lets face it, chicks dig the long ball.

Two major revelations did come out of the book,however. The first one was slightly comical... Jose Canseco can read? This guy came off as perhaps one of the stupidest meatheads in baseball. How this man can publish a book is beyond me. But the second revelation really shocked me. Canseco named an old favorite player of mine, Rafael Palmiero, as a steroid abuser. He went as far as to say he'd injected "affy" himself durng thier days in Txas.

Palmiero, is one of the few gentlemen in baseball. Blessed with a picturesque swing and a temperment that was as even keel as a sleeping baby, he was truly an ambassador of the game. When news came that he was a potential steriod user, I was shocked and crushed. But he steadfastly refuted all accounts in Canseco's book. He even testified before Congress stating under oath:

"Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. My name is Rafael Palmeiro and I am a professional baseball player. I'll be brief in my remarks today. Let me start by telling you this: I have never used steroids. Period. I don't know how to say it any more clearly than that. Never. The reference to me in Mr. Canseco's book is absolutely false. I am against the use of steroids. I don't think athletes should use steroids and I don't think our kids should use them. That point of view is one, unfortunately, that is not shared by our former colleague, Jose Canseco. Mr. Canseco is an unashamed advocate for increased steroid use by all athletes."

After hearing his compelling, self-absolving testimony, I was relieved. Raffy wasn't a cheater. He's still going to be a good guy in America's eyes. Why this was important to me, I don't know. But quietly it was a big deal to me. It's one thing of the showy Canseco or Sosa were caught cheating, but a good guy like Raffy...

Until today... when new broke out that Palmiero tested positive to steroid use and suspended for 10 days. Say it ain't so Raffy. Say it ain't so.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/baseball/mlb/08/01/steroids.suspension/index.html

While baseball will recover from this black eye. I dont' think i'll ever be able to root for this guy the same.

By this time I am confident that most of you that I talk to on a regular basis are totally sick of hearing about the boat and my escapades with it so far this summer. But I can't even beging to explain the peace I have found being on the open seas under a seemingly endless sky hovering over an equally endless ocean below me. It really reminds up of the power and grandeur of God's great Earth. It seems no matter what problem that we face, being close to nature makes everything else seem terribly insignificant.

Darwin Awards 2004

Yes, it's that magical time of the year again when the Darwin Awards are bestowed, honoring the least evolved among us. Here then, are the glorious winners for 2004. The 2004 Darwin Award Winners:

1. When his 38-caliber revolver failed to fire at his intended victim during a holdup in Long Beach, California, would be robber James Elliot did something that can only inspire wonder. He peered down the barrel and tried the trigger again. This time it worked.....

And now, the honorable mentions:

2. The chef at a hotel in Switzerland lost a finger in a meat-cutting machine and, after a little hopping around, submitted a claim to his insurance company. The company suspecting negligence, sent out one of its men to have a look for himself. He tried the machine and lost a finger. The chef's claim was approved.

3. A man who shoveled snow for an hour to clear a space for his car during a blizzard in Chicago returned with his vehicle to find a woman had taken the space. Understandably, he shot her.

4. After stopping for drinks at an illegal bar, a Zimbabwean bus driver found that the 20 mental patients he was supposed to be transporting from Harare to Bulawayo had escaped. Not wanting to admit his incompetence, the driver went to a nearby bus stop and offered everyone waiting there a free ride. He then delivered the passengers to the mental hospital, telling the staff that the patients were very excitable and prone to bizarre fantasies. The deception wasn't discovered for 3 days.

5. An American teenager was in the hospital recovering from serious head wounds received from an oncoming train. When asked how he received the injuries, the lad told police that he was simply trying to see how close he could get his head to a moving train before he was hit.

6. A man walked into a Louisiana Circle-K, put a $20 bill on the counter, and asked for change. When the clerk opened the cash drawer, the man pulled a gun and asked for all the cash in the register, which the clerk promptly provided. The man took the cash from the clerk and fled, leaving the $20 bill on the counter. The total amount of cash he got from the drawer...$15. (If someone points a gun at you and gives you money, is a crime committed?)

7. A thief burst into a Florida bank one day wearing a ski mask and carrying a gun. Aiming his gun at the guard, the thief yelled, "FREEZE, MOTHER-STICKERS, THIS IS A **** UP!" For a moment, everyone was silent. Then the sniggers started. The security guard completely lost it and doubled over laughing. It probably saved his life, because he'd been about to draw his gun. He couldn't have drawn and fired before the thief got him. The thief ran away and is still at large. In memory of the event, the banker later put a plaque on the wall engraved with the words, "Freeze, mother-stickers, this is a ****-up!"

8. Seems an Arkansas guy wanted some beer pretty badly. He decided that he'd just throw a cinderblock through a liquor store window, grab some booze, and run. So he lifted the cinderblock and heaved it over his head at the window. The cinderblock bounced back and hit the would-be thief on the head, knocking him unconscious. The liquor store window was made of Plexiglas. The whole event was caught on videotape.

9. As a female shopper exited a New York convenience store, a man grabbed her purse and ran. The clerk called 911 immediately, and the woman was able to give them a detailed description of the snatcher. Within minutes, the police apprehended the snatcher. They put him in the car and drove back to the store. The thief was then taken out of the car and told to stand there for a positive ID. To which he replied, "Yes, officer, that's her. That's the lady I stole the purse from."

10. The Ann Arbor News crime column reported that a man walked into a Burger King in Ypsilanti, Michigan, at 5 a.m., flashed a gun, and demanded cash. The clerk turned him down because he said he couldn't open the cash register without a food order. When the man ordered onion rings, the clerk said they weren't available for breakfast. The man, frustrated, walked away. A 5-STAR STUPIDITY AWARD WINNER!

11. When a man attempted to siphon gasoline from a motor home parked on a Seattle street, he got much more than he bargained for. Police arrived at the scene to find a very sick man curled up next to a motor home near spilled sewage. A police spokesman said that the man admitted to trying to steal gasoline and plugged his siphon hose into the motor home's sewage tank by mistake. The owner of the vehicle declined to press charges, saying that it was the best laugh he'd ever had.