trending 2009

here’s to a happy new year, even if things are likely to get worse before they get better.   and here’s good stuff i found on the web trending into 2009 by professional astrologer steven mcfadden. excerpts:

… the major planetary patterns that characterize the coming years: the recent entry of Pluto into the sign of Capricorn until the year 2024, and the ongoing, dynamic opposition of Saturn and Uranus for next two years…

The numbers of the year 2009 add up to an 11 – a Master Number year.  Master Numbers (11, 22, 33, etc.) are especially vibrant and intense.  When a Master Number characterizes a period of time, it’s understood that the general energy patterns of that period demand more of people, while also representing the potential to give more in return…

The numerological vibration of 2009 is a mirror, or equivalent, of…the basic vibrational signature symbolized by the Saturn-Uranus opposition (2008-2010).  As above, so below on our Earth: the opposition signals forceful encounters with reality and unavoidable demands;it also crackles with electric opportunities to go forward, creating new ways to live, to organize and to govern ourselves…

Big shift.  Big changes.  No road map.  But there are paths…

…a healthy goal to embrace for the year ahead is acceptance — acceptance of major changes and new situations.  We are well underway with an unavoidable process of re-defining our security, prosperity, consumption, power, and also corporate identity and function in the world.  That’s reality, and there is value in swiftly and gracefully accepting it.  Staying stuck in wishing that things would not change, being stubborn and resisting change, blaming others and refusing to forgive, will be problematic stances that function as obstacles to optimum adaptation.

…an effective way to work toward the goal of acceptance in the year ahead, is through observation.  While there may be no road map for the changes, a mode of observation would tend to restrainimpulsive or panicky behavior.  By observing what is happening, and then responding carefully and pragmatically to new conditions, what needs to be done gets done.

…a markedly emotional year, a human intensity that would be mirrored in substantial earth change and climate events, with a predominant theme of water (too much water as in the case of heavy rains and floods, too little water as in the case of shortages or drought, or ice shifts as in the case of Earth’s Poles).

…we haven’t seen anything yet.  Much more is to come.  [But] avoid latching on to that nugget of prophecy…for the year ahead also brings great opportunity.

…in 2009 we reach a tipping point for spiritual awakening and for dynamic, positive sustainable initiatives.  Critical mass approaching.

Saturn in opposition to Uranus unfolds five times, marking a span of time when the forces of change and revolution directly confront forces representing the status quo.  Uranus mandates change and innovation.  Saturn tends to resist it.  When these planetary Titans are in opposition, the clash is on…

In celestial collaboration with the long sojourn of Pluto through Capricorn (2008-2024), the Saturn-Uranus opposition symbolizes a foundational shift in consciousness over the globe, evolving most of us inexorably from ideological debates and risky, unsustainable economic behaviors, into a time characterized by an unavoidable need to respond to Earthly realities via pragmatism, restraint, and discipline.  The imminent questions revolve not around whose God, cosmology, or philosophy is right, but rather what works?  What puts shoes on your feet, a coat on your back, and a glass of clean water on your table?”

blog ‘n’ brawl

well, we are certainly getting a taste of blogger power.   for sure nayanig ang pangandamans, father and sons, by the virulence and volume of the blogging community’s outrage over the alleged mauling of the de la paz father and son, as witnessed and blogged by daughter bambee.

not surprisingly the brawl has spread out to the blogosphere where some commenters — admittedly few, but consistent and persistent — dare rain on the parade of the many who are on “people power” mode and screaming for the heads, so to speak, of the dar secretary and his mayor son.

blogger brianb, commenting on a post in filipino voices, calls it “unprincipled advocacy”, the way that blogger friends of, and friends of friends who sympathize with, the de la pazes are so quick to jump on the bandwagon.

Concerned citizens cannot keep doing this, running to the aid of persons who get victimized by politicians. There’s no progress in this sort of unprincipled advocacy. The blogosphere shouldn’t be used as an extension of your family connections and friendship networks… not that I forbid people but in my thinking this can be a more powerful medium, something that will actually change policies and attitudes.

When the politicos were going after the poor, their lands and their rights, what did themiddle class do? Nothing. When the politicos went after the press, what did the middle class do? Nothing. Now they are starting to come at you and your previous apathy has made you as weak as (a) puking baby.”

oo nga naman.   besides, as he suggests in another comment, we still have to hear the side of the pangandamans.   not that he condones, nor do i, the violence allegedly perpetrated on the de la paz father and son, but he does question, as do i, the rush to judgement (as usual) before we get the whole story.

… I think the case is based on a few omissions of facts and rallying behind this ON A PERSONAL level is a total waste of our time. I doubt if the politicos were totally unprovoked and GMA reports there were a couple of older sons who went to aid the family with baseball bats, which is why the guns were pulled out. Moreover, a few brave souls may be bullied to take this to the next level, but then what? Will these bloggers go public with it? After the first bluster, wala na. Maybe they finally realized who they’re dealing with. So I don’t think you can trust these people who are very vocal now to commit.

My take is very simple: public servants with armed bodyguards should not physically engage the public. This is the larger ethical arc, of which this case should’ve been a good example.”

interesting though how personal blog(ger)s turned political just like that.   too bad it’s not sustainable.   yet.

cory, hindi ka nag-iisa

huwag tayo magalit kay cory for apologizing to erap about edsa dos just because we don’t like erap and/orwe’re convinced he deserved to be impeached.

knowing now what we didn’t know then about how pgma and fgma plotted with the generals to unseat erap long long before chavit singson blew the whistle, and seeing more clearly now how the davide supreme court turned a blind eye to the constitution and collaborated instead with the opposition to install gma, i say cory’s right to regret edsa dos and she does not deserve the kneejerk brickbats, least of all from the dick with a moist moist eye on the presidency.

what if, instead of calling for erap’s ouster when we went to edsa, we called instead for davide to order the prosecutors back and proceed with the impeachment trial?  sure, erap might have been acquitted, but gma wouldn’t have had to cheat in 2004.

or what if we called instead for gloria arroyo to accept erap’s invitation to a council that would oversee the economy?  or what if we called instead for both erap and gloria to make way for a snap election, as both senators enrile and roco preferred?

we had all sorts of options then but we were adolescently fixated on doing an edsa a la 1986 when the real challenge is to do better than, or to improve on, the original.

do not delete 3

as for the pro-chacha argument that it is the prerogative of the legislature to initiate charter change if it so desires or deems necessary, and that we the people should allow the legislative process to proceed and wait until the proposed amendments have been crafted and agreed upon by both houses (voting separately of course) before we start the protests — well, yeah, that’s what happened back in 1970-73.   we allowed a constitutionalconvention, and then marcos declared martial law, and the constitution was tailor-made to his requirements, and it was “approved” not by a plebiscite but by hakot assemblies.   burned once, twice shy.

as for the the “need” to update the constitution, sez who?   conrado de quiros is so right:

. . . why change the Charter at all?

Shifting from a presidential to a parliamentary system, which is the only change Malacañang can be interested in as it would allow Arroyo to become prime minister, means nothing. The merits of a parliamentary government are theoretical, its demerits are practical. Its advantages are on paper, its disadvantages are in plain view. Even as we speak, we can see its infinite dangers in our very efforts to repudiate Con-ass. In a Con-ass, only the congressmen will vote to amend the Constitution, or all legislators – senators and congressmen – may have only one vote. We know that if that happens, Congress will act like a Mafia, as it did when it voted to kill the impeachment bids against Arroyo, and ram through Arroyo’s will on us.

Imperfect as it is, the existence of a Senate and House of Representatives is infinitely preferable to a National Assembly. Take it from Ferdinand Marcos’ Batasang Pambansa [National Legislature], or what we used to call “Bastusang Pambansa.” That is all it will be.

Indeed, far more basically, why keep inventing new constitutions when we don’t followthem anyway? Why keep manufacturing or foisting new laws-a constitution is merely the highest law of the land-when we don’t obey them anyway? First, let us reward the innocent and punish the guilty, then let’s change the Constitution. First, let us have clean elections and legitimate leaders, then let’s change the Constitution. First, let us give the Constitution a chance, then let’s change the Constitution.”