Brad in Corona wins Smack-Off XXI

Jim Rome's Jungle affiliate in Castoropolis

The $5000 (USD) cash prize for the winner of Smack-Off XXI was awarded to Brad in Corona. It was Brad's third title as the Jim Rome Show's king of smack. The general consensus among Rome's faithful Jungle Party Clones in Patria, listening on PMBC-1152, was that Brad's call was not the best and will probably not stand the test of time (some Smack-Off winning calls such as Iafrate's in 2005 are still funny), but at least Vic in NoCal or the Mike and Shael tag team didn't walk away with the loot. Caleb the Walrus in Wisconsin (follow him on Twitter @iambthewalrus) delivered a very strong performance in his first Smack-Off appearance, and is certainly one of the front-runners for a Jungle Party seat in 2018.

To paraphrase one of the callers on the Jim Rome show, whose Smack-Off call did not go well, "make the world a better place, punch a social conservative in the face". The United States Supreme Court did just that - on Smack-Off day, no less - by ruling in favor of same-sex marriage. Gays and lesbians are now free to marry in all 50 states of the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. Congratulations! Mazeltov! Jai Ma!

One year in office: 50th Congress adjourns for summer recess

The First Session of Patria's 50th Congress (1·L 2014-15) adjourned today, following ratification of Patria's fiscal 2016 budget. The traditional Annual Message to Congress was delivered as the last function of Congress immediately prior to the Speaker of the House banging the gavel and blowing the vuvuzela to declare the House adjourned for the northern hemisphere summer:

Om anavadyangyai namah. Salutations to the Divine Mother whose body is worthy of worship. With the Divine Mother’s blessings, the 50^th Congressus Patriaë has come to the end of its first year in office. This session ends as it began – at the lotus feet of Amma Sri Karunamayi. As the Speaker of the House, Amma Karunamayi has kept peace and order on the floor of Congress. As a sadguru, her teachings have been an inspiration on the path of Sanatan Dharma. As an incarnation of Mother Saraswati, her spoken words and songs have brought life and light to the soul of all Patria even as Stephen Harper’s henchmen or Canadian border security authorities, possibly acting on orders from Canada’s spy service, apparently turned her away as she was about to bless her Toronto children. Jai Karunamayi!

In keeping with Patria’s traditions and congressional protocol, the last act of the First Session just moments ago was the ratification of Patria’s fiscal 2016 budget. It is thus duly noted that over the course of this session, Patria’s economy has improved to some extent. By pure statistics alone, the unemployment rate has fallen even if the jobs that have been created are less than ideal: short-term, contract positions or joblets that only throw those who accept such positions back on the unemployment rolls in short order, while the so-called permanent positions are mostly sub-entry level, minimum wage and with little job security or possibility for advancement. To state the obvious, we are still very short of the full recovery that was promised in the election campaign of one year ago. But as we know, over the course of a quarter century since the Dharmic Revolution, Patria is committed to offering its citizens more than simply “recovery” or subsistence-level dead-end jobs, while cutting “waste” or “gravy” in order to appease the bean counters, elites and plutocrats. This is why the austerity of the 49^th Congress, presumably in response to the global economic downturn that began in 2008-09, proved to be such a failed policy. As Amma recently said, “if the economic advancement of a nation fails to ensure well-being and happiness to its citizens, it should be assumed that there is a serious flaw in the process”. Whether a superpower like the United States, an emerging power like India, or an unrecognized micro-state like Patria, a nation’s growth should be measured in more than the numbers of its gross domestic product. To quote the Amrita Party leader again, “money alone cannot ensure happiness, which needs ethics and cultural values. Otherwise, it would be like putting makeup on a dead body”.

Along with the trillion-rupee economic stimuli, funding for social programs and the other components of a compassionate, progressive realm, the budget ratified today also includes appropriations for the celebration of “Ramrajyavarsham 200”, Patria’s bicentennial celebrations in 2018. On this day, one of the official bicentennial logos for the local and national celebrations has been released (and is viewable above).

As the 2014 election campaign sent the message that Patria would no longer be a safe place for social conservatives, Patria has indeed turned away from Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Pat Buchanan and other mostly imported-from-America voices that would have taken Patria back to the 1950s rather than into the second decade of the twenty-first century. The tired war horses and hoary talking points of the social conservatives, such as opposition to same-sex marriage or advocating modest dress for women, are fading from Patria’s public squares and AM radio airwaves. Those who continue to push for restricted access to abortion, marriage only between a man and a woman, or abstinence-only sex education in grade school will prove to be on the wrong side of history, in Patria at least.

As the social conservatives were in retreat in 2014-15, the law and order conservatives have also become increasingly irrelevant over the course of this session. Nothwithstanding the National Union’s unrelenting push for mass incarceration, longer prison sentences, three-strikes-you’re-out mandatory life sentences for repeat offenders and a return to the death penalty, resistance is growing in Patria to the US-style prison industrial complex, also known as the “new Jim Crow”, filling cell blocks with mostly non-white males who – in America at least – become a permanent underclass, denied the right to vote and often virtually unemployable long after their release from prison. This session has taken action to ensure that privately operated for-profit prisons, whose bottom line is a steady supply of small fry caught in the failed war on drugs, must not proliferate in Patria.

Along with banning private prisons, Patria has said no to the literal definition of a police state – a state with a visible police presence on the street, where the police forces of major cities and even suburbs constitute an unaccountable above-the-law armed force equipped with more deadly firepower than the real Army. Wearing a badge and carrying a gun do not make police officers above the laws they are tasked to enforce. The police must not become a privileged elite corps or gang of bullies accountable only to themselves. No one in Patria – and certainly not in America – should be naive enough to believe that “if you are not breaking the law you have nothing to fear from the police”, or that simply having white skin will protect them from being falsely arrested, jailed without charges, bullied, beaten or even killed in cold blood by rogue police officers.

Even as Congress adjourns, the Jungle Party caucus awaits its most anticipated day of the year: the 2015 Smack-Off. Much of Patria will tune in to the Jim Rome show tomorrow, in Castoropolis on PMBC AM 1152, or will listen via Jungle Insider, to find out if Mike in Indy and Chael Sonnen can defend their shared king of smack title and take home the winner-take-all $5000 cash prize, and if not, whether the new Smack-Off champion will be a previous Smack-Off winner such as Brad in Corona, a sitting member of the Jungle Party caucus or a potential representative in the election of 2018.

And so the time has come; let us make a pledge to meet in September. As is traditional, this session is adjourned with a brief prayer, and a moment of silent reflection for those who have lost their lives during the course of this session as a result of war, terrorist acts, disasters or senseless violence, from Nepal to Charleston, South Carolina:

Lokah samasthah sukhino bhavantu.

Asato ma sad gamaya

Tamaso ma jyotir gamaya

Mrityor ma amritam gamaya. 

Hari Om.  Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.

Under the power vested in me by the Constitution of Patria, I declare closed the First Session of the 50^th Congress, and call this Congress to re-assemble here on Monday, 21 September 2015, to open the Second Session of the 50^th Congress. 

Yoga helps us to reconnect with nature and God - Amma

The Hon. Member of the 50th Congress (Amrita-Arboria) presiding over a yoga class during her program in Santa Fe, NM.

The first International Day of Yoga was celebrated throughout Patria on June 21. While on her North American tour, Amma delivered a message to mark the day:

“Today is International Yoga day. Previously, people did not need to have a special day for performing Yoga because Yoga was part and parcel of their lives. Unfortunately, now we need special a special day to remind us to perform Yoga, just as we need a day to remember our mother and father.

“In the olden days, people would wake up in the morning, bow down to mother Earth and then, facing the sun, they would chant prayers and perform Surya Namaskaram. The whole time they were praying, they were exposed to the rays of the rising sun. Today, in many countries, out of ten people, six or seven have Vitamin D deficiency. It is postulated that vitamin D deficiency may be one of the precipitating factors for Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia. Some may argue that even people with normal vitamin D levels get Alzheimer’s disease. This is true, but studies have shown that a majority of people with this condition have Vitamin D deficiency. It is also thought to be a cause of depression, which may be why the incidence of depressive disorders is higher in countries that have less sunlight."

Full text of Amma's International Day of Yoga message. 

June 21 is International Day of Yoga

By a resolution of the United Nations General Assembly on Dec. 11, 2014, June 21 has been designated as the International Day of Yoga (IDY). The Prime Minister of India (and friend of Patria) Narendra Modi urged the world community to adopt an International Day of Yoga during an address to the UN General Assembly in 2014:

"Yoga is an invaluable gift of ancient Indian tradition. It embodies unity of mind and body; thought and action; restraint and fulfillment; harmony between man and nature and a holistic approach to health and well-being. Yoga is not about exercise but to discover the sense of oneness with ourselves, the world and Nature. By changing our lifestyle and creating consciousness, it can help us to deal with climate change. Let us work towards adopting an International Yoga Day".

IDY will of course be celebrated throughout Patria, primarily with free yoga classes, held outdoors wherever possible, such as on the lawns of Castoropolis Common and other public municipal parks. Since the day falls on a Sunday in 2015, these events are expected to be well attended. Patria also encourages IDY to be celebrated on this day rather than Father's Day (which falls on the same day in 2015, i.e. the third Sunday in June). Patria opposes - and has even spearheaded efforts to ban - over-commercialized Hallmark holidays such as Mother's Day, Father's Day and especially Valentines Day. While perhaps not quite as over-commercialized as Mother's Day, Father's Day nonetheless deems men who have fathered children more valuable and more worthy of spending money on than those who have not. It also perpetuates gender-based stereotypes that all men want gifts of electronic toys or power tools.