Howard Dean on the power of the internet

More from Howard Dean's Yearly Kos keynote address.

Howard Dean: Now, I want to say a few things about the net. This is an extraordinary thing, and, speaking for myself, even after the campaign four years ago, I didn't realize what a powerful tool this is. This is the most extraordinary invention for empowering ordinary people since the invention of the printing press in the `400s. It really is. It has re-democratized America. There is an enormous shift in power. I thought the YouTube/CNN debate was sensational. And why was it sensational? That is the first time since the Nixon-Kennedy debates when ordinary people, not members of the media, but ordinary people in large numbers got to ask in front of a national television audience, any question that they could dream up. Censored of course by the CNN people, but I know the person who did this. He's about 26 years old, and he basically did, I thought, a pretty good job, putting up a generation of questions that were direct and directly from people's hearts and minds, aimed at the candidates. Put them on the spot--I thought, frankly, some of those questions were a lot tougher than what the media would have asked.

But even if it was tougher or not as tough, the point is, it got the exchange outside the cozy realm of the beltway and put it out in the rest of Ameria, where it belongs. (Cheers and applause.) It's okay to make politicians a little uncomfortable--it's good for us! And what a surprise that the Republicans don't want to do it. (Laughter.)

It turns out that as the influence of the internet expands, both by more and more people using it, and by the extraordinary innovations--remember, YouTube essentially did not exist when I was running four years ago. And today, without YouTube and the people who use it, we would not have a Democratic majority in the United States Senate. (Applause.) That is true. So, what this party is about is change and evolution, and that's not not easy. There are forces of resistance even inside the Democratic party--I know that would surprise you! (Laughter.) But this party is about evolution. This party is about the future, the other party is about the past. Look at who they have running for president--doesn't that look like something out of the 1950s? Look who we have running for president! (Applause and cheers.)

The fact of the matter is, it shouldn't be true, but it is a revolutionary idear to have the public taking over the agenda of campaigns and political parties had better get used to it, because they are going to lose and become irrelevant if they don't get used to it. The power in campaigns belongs as much to shifting networks of committed citizens as it does to the political establishment. And in the long run, community-built networks will have a more dramatic effect in bringing democracy to both America and to creating democracy where it doesn't exist now--I predict now, that because of the net, and because of the extraordinary binding of the world together, that Iran and China one day will have to decide that they have to become democracies, simply because they are forced to by the extraordinary devolution of power to their citizens because of the internet. (Applause.) Nations run by authoritarian forces will not stop the dynamic of technologically enabled citizens working together. Hundreds of thousands of networking citizens will find ways to circumvent and evade government interference in the free exchange of idears, as we have already demonstrated in the United States. Repressive governments at the helms of nations that would become world or regional powers, face a difficult choice. They can allow democracy to evolve and flourish on the internet, or they can destroy the technology that enables their best and brightest and most determined citizens to network, and that will cause them to fall back into third world status.

So, we can still win the battle for a democratic world. It will not happen by sending troops to Iraq to establish democracy at the barrel of a gun. (Applause.) The truth is that the most important weapon in the struggle for world democracy is a free and open, commercially and politically unfettered internet that empowers ordinary people from across the globe to speak and act in the interest of their own communities. (Cheers and applause.)

When I started as Chairman of the DNC, I said that Democrats had to show up everywhere and campaign everywhere, and ask for everybody's vote. And that includes the way we interact with communities online. In the Democratic party we're focussed on connection, empowerment, and community organizing. And I'm incredibly proud that our candidates have begun to change with the times. We are running what I call two-way campaigns. That is, we're using technology to start a dialog and engage ordinary Americans. Traditional campaigns have relied on enormous amounts of TV advertising, 30 second spots, aimed at you, telling you what we think, and what we think you ought to do. The new campaign, the two-way campaign is, we listen to you before we start talking, and we, throughout the campaign, have a dialog between the people whose votes we're hoping to get, asking for their advice as we go through, and taking it to heart. This is not a gimmick or a "schmooze" as we call it in the trade. This means real two-way campaigns where the views and opinions of the American people have an impact on the leadership, so leaders are with the people instead of seeking to lead folks that aren't interested in being led by them. (Applause.)

It is an extraordinary evolution. An extraordinary evolution. Essentially it means that politicians have to acknowledge something that's been true for a long time. Which is, power is loaned to us--we don't own the power, and we need to earn the power every two years. (Applause.)

Haloscan comment thread

Howard Dean on voting and democracy

The video can be found here.

Howard Dean: You know, this is an extraordinary conference--1400 people--I think the people that organized this really deserve a huge hand. Thank you very very much. (Applause.) And next year I have it on good authority there are going to be 2000 people--that'll be even better!

Let me just thank you, mostly, not just for coming to the conference, but thank you for what you've been doing. I want to spend a little time talking about the net and about a program that we're doing. But first, I will say this: what you have done in the last six years is to set this country on the path of restoring the democracy that George Bush and the Republicans have tried to undermine. (Applause and cheers) and I thank you for that enormously.

That's a long haul, because there's a lot to be done. And I want to talk about a project that we just announced today. The fifty state strategy and all that has been a lot of fun, and you all have been fantastic in defending what we're doing, and I appreciate that. But there's a lot of stuff that goes on in the DNC that doesn't get in the papers, or barely gets in the papers, and I want to share one of those things because a lot of the work that we do is piece by piece and bit by bit. It takes a long time to put folks out of power who have entrenched themselves the way that the right wing has.

And, next week marks the 42nd anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act. But, as you know, the Republicans believe that the fewer votes are cast, the more likely it is to benefit them. And we believe that the more votes are cast, the better it is for the United States of America. (Applause.) We're the party that actually believes there is something more important than our party, and that is our country.

So, over the last 30 years or so, we've seen roadblocks and outright attacks on the right to vote, all kinds of schemes, restrictive voter ID laws, phone jamming, voter purging, voter intimidation tactics. Manipulating the mission of the Department of Justice who fired United States Attorneys who refused to pursue phony voter fraud cases. Turning the Civil Rights Division into the "voter suppression division". We can do better than this, and we will do better than this! (Applause.)

The right wing of the Republican party believes in talking about their "values"--evidently democracy is not one of them. It is a value of the Democratic party. (Applause.) So, we want everybody to be able to vote. And there's a bunch of things we've done. But, for the first time, we're going to try to do this prospectively instead of after the fact. As you know, we have paid staffers in all fifty states, and, in every single one of those states over the next couple of months--we started about three weeks ago--we are going to go to every single county election official, in charge of every single precinct in America, and find out how they run their elections. How they assign voter machines, to which precincts, what they do about voter ID, if it's required in their state. What they do about vote by mail, what they do about early voting, what they do about absentee voting. How do they do voter registration, do they have centralized voter databases.

The reason for this is, we know that election laws are written at the state and federal level, but they are often subject to interpretation at the local level, which creates a lot of variation around the country in terms of how they're run. Now, we know about the corruption that the Republicans have used, particularly in the state of Ohio and Florida and some other places like that in order to suppress votes. But a lot of the problems in voting in this country are not because of Republican corruption. It's simply because of underresourced folks at the local level, and undertrained folks at the local level. And we're going to put together a handbook for every single candidate on the Democratic side that will tell us in advance where the problems are going to be in terms of voting, so we can plan how to deal with those ten months before the election, not ten weeks or ten days before the election. (Applause.)

And the reason we're going to do this is, voting is the fundamental act in every democracy that is required to maintain a democracy, and we want everyone in America to vote. Because the fact of the matter is, voting is good for America. It also happens to be very good for the Democratic party--the more people vote, the better it is for America, but the better it is for us as well.

We also need your help. There are about 1400 people in this room. I would really appreciate it if you would you out yourselves, and get a whole lot of folks who pay attention to what you have to say and do on the net, and launch an effort aimed at every single congressman to get a voting machine right bill passed that is going to get rid of DREs by the year 2008, so that we can have ballots that will actually be counted in 2008, and stop fooling around delaying. We need that bill now! (Applause.) And we need a good bill now. And there is no group of people in America that can do this better than you. Not one group of people in America will have more influence on this bill than you do. So we need your help in Washington. The bill is stalled, it needs to be improved, and it needs to pass now so that it can have an effect in 2008. Two thousand ten could be too late. So--I think it's H811. H811. So, write your congresspeople, and write your friends and tell them to write your congresspeople.

Haloscan comment thread

Douglas Adams on "Do re mi"

I mentioned this yesterday, and today I've found a link to this bit by Douglas Adams. It's from a piece entitled "Unfinished Business of the Century", which was included in the book Salmon of Doubt. And yes, shame on me, I'm reading that before I read Al Gore's The Assault on Reason.

[34-35] “One particularly niggling piece of Unfinished Business, it occurred to me the other day in the middle of a singing session with my five-year-old daughter, is the lyrics to ‘Do-Re-Mi,’ from The Sound of Music. It doesn’t exactly rank as a global crisis, but nevertheless it brings me up short anytime I hear it, and it shouldn’t be that difficult to sort it out.

“But it is.

“Consider.

“Each line of the lyric takes the names of a note from the solfa scale, and gives it meaning: ‘Do (doe), a deer, a female deer; Re (ray), a drop of golden sun,’ etc. All well and good so far. ‘Mi (me), a name I call myself; Fa (far), a long, long way to run.’ Fine. I’m not saying this is Keats, exactly, but it’s a perfectly good conceit and it’s working consistently. And here we go into the home stretch. ‘So (sew), a needle pulling thread.’ Yes, good. ‘La, a note to follow so...’ What? Excuse me? ‘La, a note to follow so...’ What kind of lame excuse for a line is that?

“Well, it’s obvious what kind of line it is. It’s a placeholder. A placeholder is what a writer puts in when he can’t think of the right line or idea just at the moment, but he’d better put in something and come back and fix it later. So, I imagine that Oscar Hammerstein just bunged in a ‘a note to follow so’ and thought he’d have another look at it in the morning.

“Only when he came to have another look at it in the morning, he couldn’t come up with anything better. Or the next morning. Come on, he must have thought, this is simple. Isn’t it? ‘La... a something, something... what?’

“One can imagine rehearsals looming. Recording dates. Maybe he’d be able to fix it on the day. Maybe one of the cast would come up with the answer. But no. No one manages to fix it. And gradually a lame placeholder of a line became locked in place and is now formally part of the song, part of the movie, and so on.

“How difficult can it be? How about this for a suggestion? ‘La, a..., a...’ -- well, I can’t think of one at the moment, but I think that if the whole world pulls together on this, we can crack it. And I think we shouldn’t let the century end with such a major popular song in such an embarrassing state of disarray.”

Anyway, that's the excerpt that inspired this yesterday.

Haloscan comment thread

Howard Dean at Yearly Kos

Thanks to floridagal for posting the link to the video of Howard Dean's speech last night at Yearly Kos, and to Donna for linking to Scarecrow's writeup at Firedoglake, Howard Dean: A tough act to follow.

Dean let us know that he gets it, that he understands how important this amazing community is and how much it’s changing the way democracy functions in America. He knows how this movement is transforming the Democratic Party and bringing America back from the abyss Bush created and towards which he is still driving us. Dean won the crowd early on, and as they listened many had tears in their eyes, lamenting again what the media did to a man who so clearly saw in 2003-04 where the country was going and tried to warn us. But he was not one of the beltway’s privileged and they got him. But the man was not done.

Dean pulled it all together — the trampling of the Constitution, the disgracing of the Justice Department, the neglect of government’s legitimate and necessary functions, the need for checks and balances, the need to restore our civil liberties and to stop commuting the sentences of people who lie and obtruct justice and betray patriots, the need to end the occupation of Iraq — yes, it was all there in the same terms we use to describe what we see and how we feel about what has happened to our country. But then he let us know, as few other politicians can, that he undertands what we, the blogging community, are about.

Click here for the rest.

Haloscan comment thread

Yearly Kos

I'm aware that the Yearly Kos convention is beginning today. While I'm not a fan of the proprietor of the big orange blog it is named for, I am a fan of grassroots organizing. And of getting the opportunity to meet, in person, people who have previously been only words on a computer screen. I look forward to hearing some great stories.

Haloscan comment thread

Open Thread

To go along with the photo, here's a link to the audio of Jonathan Coulton's Re: Your Brains.

Haloscan comment thread

Twenty Years of R & D!

Happy anniversary to Renee and Demetrius, those HEPpest of HEP cats!

Haloscan comment thread

Open Thread

Just wanted to mention we've got our Back to School portal up at our Cafe Press store.

Any news stories to share? I realize I haven't updated my shared items for a few days...will try to do that when we get back from the gym.

Haloscan comment thread

Happy birthday Paul in Illinois

A very happy birthday to my little brother.

Have some virtual cake. :)

Haloscan comment thread

The Rumpled Jedi Rides Again

Thank you, Barry, for posting a link to the article Joe Trippi's Renaissance in the comments. The link didn't work for some reason, but I was intrigued enough to go track down one that did. Ah, where to start...

This cycle, three presidential candidates courted him. He signed on with ex-Sen. John Edwards after bonding with Elizabeth Edwards -- there's a whole separate story here about how he's fitting in. But he's in. That "Hair" video -- vintage Trippi. Edwards hired Trippi in part because Iowa is Trippi's specialty -- he helped Walter Mondale and Dick Gephardt win the caucuses -- and Edwards needs to win the caucuses.

Well, obviously I can't let the words "Iowa is Trippi's specialty" pass without comment. Let us all take a moment and think back fondly to the magic that Joe worked for the Dean campaign in Iowa. Oh, wait...

As far as the "Hair" video, I did see it, and agree that it was clever, but as one of the people who commented on the Trippi article remarked, it came too late. Now that sounds familiar--raise your hand if you remember being frustrated with the Dean campaign's sluggish response to the "scream" story.

Here's something else I remember from the months leading up to the 2004 primaries. I remember, for the first time in my life, actually donating to a political candidate. Not only that, but putting up a "bat" and actually soliciting donations. That is so not me. But I believed in Dean. And I believed that I was part of a "people powered" campaign. I remember many other people feeling the same. Remember "Ramen for Dean"--someone was going to eat Ramen for lunch and donate the savings to the campaign. At least that's my recollection. The point is, people made real sacrifices.

But ultimately, we were not really "shareholders" in the campaign. Many of us balked when the official ads started going negative. We were disappointed in general with the low quality of the ads, and begged anyone who would listen to use some of the ideas that we in the grassroots were offering for free. Like the "Who we are" ads some of us made in response to that dreadful ad the Club for Growth ran against Dean in Iowa. Begged "anyone who would listen"...ah, there's the rub. The article goes on to say

The small-dollar Internet donor base attracted by the Dean and flogged relentless by Trippi has transformed the party's fundraising. Democrats actually counterpunch these days. Every single campaign uses Trippi-patented tactics to raise money. The men and women Joe Trippi cultivated on Dean's staff have stormed the gates and occupy positions of power in major party and campaign offices.

More "gate storming", huh? Much like the "gate crashing" that the proprietor of Daily Kos touts, the ordinary people are still stuck outside those gates. It's all well and good for the campaign professionals to pat themselves on the back for the "genius" of soliciting small donations from the teeming masses. But if that's all you want from us, and you're not going to listen to our ideas or be prepared to answer to us when you make bad choices in the way you spend the money we donated...well, we might just decide we can put that money to better use.

Haloscan comment thread

Something so right

Some people never say the words "I Love You."
It's not their style to be so bold.
Some people never say the words "I Love You,"
But like a child, they're longing to be told. -Paul Simon

A couple of weeks ago I said that we are Love's imagined Lover. It can be hard to imagine that Love desired to Love and be Loved so deeply that, in a burst of unfathomable Force and Wisdom, multiplied itself by itself and, by simply adding the speed of Light, created all the universes that exist from scratch.

Love is patient. Love waited billions of years as here on Earth, and probably many other places Life emerged and became self aware, and here we are, together. Love and Beloved.

Over the past few weeks I've discovered that I resist being Loved. This, to me, was a profound revelation. Most times I consider myself as having too much Love as it is. Huge self storage warehouses of the stuff that I have to give away in thimbles as fast as I can to keep from drowning in it. I'll tell you right now, it's not easy being the happiest man on Earth.

Yesterday, the revelation hit me very simply. I was walking up the hill to the bus stop and a friend offered me a cup of coffee, which I politely refused. As I continued on, I began to realize that although I've rarely had trouble giving compassion or caring, I seem to lack the inner mechanism to RECEIVE.

Renee posted the Prayer of St Francis a few days ago. "It is in giving that we receive."

So often it seems in daily life that all we do is give. That's not a bad thing. It's meant to be joyous and uplifting. Love, after all needs to be Loved. So when we give Compassion and caring for one another, we are Loving the Love that imagined us.

Sometimes however, Love needs to Love you back. Sometimes Love needs to seduce YOU. Sometimes Love needs to show you its open heart and say " I may be Eternal and Omnipotent and all that, but it's really comforting to know that your shoulder is there for me to lean on whenever I need it."

This is a community of compassionate, caring and giving people. So my message here today, is "Be as open to receiving Love as you are in giving it away."

May the Love that knows no comprehension find refuge in your hearts and in your homes forever.

Namaste

Subway

Haloscan comment thread

The good news

In last night's post, I shared my frustration with society's insistence on replaying the same themes over and over again--specifically the fact that the "haves" keep finding artificial ways of dividing the rest of us. And that people keep falling for it.

But of course, some things do change. These two kids, if they had been born a few decades earlier, might never have ended up meeting. Not in college, anyway, and not as peers. Even if they did meet, the odds against them getting married would have been pretty strong.

So, sure, we can look at the way our species keeps repeating the same mistakes, and yes, it's frustrating that it's taking civilized society such a long time to master those lessons we supposedly learn in kindergarten.

The good news, of course, is that things *do* change. Yes, as you've probably guessed, those two kids got married when they grew up. But the part that might surprise some people is that most of the time it doesn't even occur to us that we're "nontraditional" in some sense.

It will be 20 years next Wednesday. Can you tell I'm already getting way sentimental about it? ;)

Haloscan comment thread

There's gotta be a better way

After today's bout of tummy trouble let up, I settled into some very tedious Cafe Press stuff. The section isn't done yet, and I'm not that thrilled with it, so I'm not linking to it directly. But while I was working on that, Doctor Who came on. The television is on Demetrius' desk, and usually he puts on headphones if I'm in the room--since, if I'm in here, I'm probably trying to work on something, and my concentration is shot pretty easily. But today, when he asked if I'd like to hear the show, I said yes, given that I was working on something pretty mindless, and listening to the same show together is the closest we're going to get to "spending time together" today. Sad, ain't it?

Anyway, the Doctor and his traveling companion du jour find themselves in New York city during the depression. They were talking to some of the residents of "Hooverville", one of whom was remarking of the Empire State Building, which was under construction at the time. He said something along the lines of "how can they find the money to put up a building like that when people like us are starving?" Demetrius said, "Well, those people aren't working for you!" And we talked a bit about how, the more things change, the more they stay the same. How we still have this huge chasm between the "haves" and the "have nots", and still have extravagant, things being built or planned while many lack for basic necessities.

But that's not the part that's really bugging me. The part I find utterly insane is that the "haves" manage to find these artificial ways of dividing the rest of us against each other, and the rest of us keep falling for it. "Culture wars", and the like.

It's just gotta stop, that's all. I don't know HOW exactly, but it's gotta...

Haloscan comment thread

Open Thread

Stevie says "hey".

Haloscan comment thread

One Vote '08

I like this idea--it fits with my belief that it's important to get candidates to endorse *our* agenda.

ONE Vote '08 is an unprecedented, bi-partisan campaign to make global health and extreme poverty foreign policy priorities in the 2008 presidential election.

The next president will take office in a time of great hope: there are effective and affordable solutions that save lives. AIDS drugs can now cost as little as $1 a day. A $5 bed net can keep a child from dying from a mosquito bite. With the force of more than millions of members from all 50 states and a coalition of more than 100 non-profit, religious and charitable groups, ONE Vote '08 will educate and mobilize voters to ensure that the next American president is committed to using "strategic" power to end global poverty and keep America strong.

I'm not interested in being on any candidate's team at this point. I'm tired of candidates and their spokespople telling pundits "what the people want". I'm much more interested in being part of a movement where the actual *people* tell the candidates and elected officials what issues are important to us.

Haloscan comment thread

Make me a channel of your peace

Make me a channel of your peace,
Where there is hatred let me bring your love,
Where there is injury your pardon Lord,
And where there's doubt true faith in you.

Lord grant that I may never seek,
So much to be consoled as to console,
To be understood; as to understand,
To be loved as to love with all my soul.

Make me a channel of your peace,
Where there is hatred let me bring your love,
Where there is injury your pardon Lord,
And where there's doubt true faith in you.

Halocan comment thread

Alberto Gonzalez Testimony (and Open Thread)

I haven't had a chance to read through this yet, but Firedoglake had a number of posts (including some liveblogging) about the testimony of Alberto Gonzalez today.

Off topic, but I thought I'd share one of the new designs Demetrius has up. I've dubbed it the Hound of Heck. :)

Update: I took a break from other work and added a bunch of shared items here (in lieu of writing actual content, which I just can't take time for these days).

Via floridagal in the comments:

Ok, here are videos of Howard's appearances yesterday and today...except for the Rachel Maddow show.

And this comment from the spin room is just great. Love it.

"Let's give the last word to Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, who on his way out of the "spin room," said, "I thought it was great! It's fulfilling the promise of the Internet and is an end to the one-way TV. It's effectively handing the power to a new generation ... And it's going to be even more interesting when it's the Republicans' turn. I can't wait to see that one!"

Haloscan comment thread

Tuesday Open Thread

Crossposted from My Left Wing because a little birdie told me one of the regular readers here has a crush on Lynda Carter. :)

“I want to do everything right now! This very minute. I am impatient, but yes I have goals. To be a real well-respected actress whom people know they can rely on to do a good job... whether they like me as a person or not!”

Lynda Carter, born July 24, 1951

Also on this day...
1974: Nixon 'must hand over Watergate tapes'

The US Supreme Court orders President Nixon to surrender tape recordings of White House conversations about the Watergate affair.

Ah, to have a Supreme Court that would insist the president is not above the law...

Haloscan comment thread

Open Thread

Just finished watching the Daily Show, and Jon Stewart interviewed Neil deGrasse Tyson, the host of Nova Science Now. Planning to check that out tomorrow.

Talk amongst yourselves...

Haloscan comment thread

Jet Blue Nonsense

In spite of my lack of affection for Big Orange, this Jet Blue business is nonsense. No way should the company have cowed to O'Reilly and his minions. I previously addressed the Jet Blue story here, by the way.)

It only emboldens them.

If you'd like to write a polite letter to the company expressing your disappointment in their willingness to be bullied by Fox viewers, here is the e-mail address corporatecommunications@jetblue.com

Haloscan comment thread

NYT: Power Without Limits

This appeared as the lead editorial in yesterday's New York Times:

But the administration has been extraordinarily defiant toward Congress’s legitimate requests for information. The low point came recently when Harriet Miers, the former White House counsel, refused even to show up in response to a Congressional subpoena. Some of the questions she would have been asked might have been protected by executive privilege, but others no doubt would not have been. Ms. Miers had no right to ignore the entire proceeding.

The next question is how Congress will enforce its right to obtain information, and it is on that point that the administration is said to have made its latest disturbing claim. If Congress holds White House officials in contempt, the next step should be that the United States attorney for the District of Columbia brings the matter to a grand jury. But according to a Washington Post report, the administration is saying that its claim of executive privilege means that the United States attorney would be ordered not to go forward with the case.

There is no legal basis for this obstructionism. The Supreme Court has made clear that executive privilege is not simply what the president claims it to be. It must be evaluated case by case by a court, balancing the need for the information against the president’s interest in keeping his decision-making process private. Mark Rozell, an expert on executive privilege at George Mason University, calls the administration’s stance “almost Nixonian in breadth,” because of its assertion that “the mere utterance of the phrase executive privilege” means that “no other branch has recourse.”

Click here for the rest.

Haloscan comment thread

Religion Post Gizmo

By Subway Serenade



(photo from Blatte's Fractals)

Over the past few days I've been thinking of what Religion will look like in the future when Entheogenic technologies will redefine humankind's relationship with Nature's Eternity. So much of commercial religion these days seems to focus on what divides us.

It is said that Buddhists, for example, don't believe in God. This is true in the sense that Christians envision someone sitting on a throne somewhere in "Heaven." This is not to say that they don't believe in Eternity, they just don't attach a human like entity to it.

It is also said that Hindus believe in many gods. This is also a misconception. In Hinduism, Brahma is God the One, but in essence God is a Trinity: Brahma, the Generator, Visnu, the Operator and Shiva, the Destroyer. However, one thing in common with the Great Faiths of the world, is they recognize that we are all part of an Eternal process that seems to know where it's going regardless of our place in it. All proclaim Love to be the highest value.

We stand in this time on a great threshold, similar in many respects to when our ancient ancestors began using the Entheogenic plants that grow throughout the world, and began laying the foundations of Civilizations through the power of their expanded minds.

A huge Awakening on a Planetary scale is happening around us. I look forward to the day when every house of worship is filled with folk who are fully aware of their Eternal Selves, and where Religion flourishes in focused Compassion , Justice and Mercy. I'll say it again. Heaven on Earth is merely a global change in perspective, and that change is happening, all around us, now.

Haloscan comment thread

Forgiveness

I haven't had a chance to check it out thoroughly, but there seems to be a blogathon this weekend on the subject of forgiveness over at Street Prophets. I don't know if other blogs are doing the same thing--that's how little I've looked into it. But it looks like there are some interesting essays.

Haloscan comment thread

Which animagus form would you have?

Just for fun, you might want to try this quiz. It says I'm a deer or an owl. I took a different one a week or so ago, and it said I was a wolf.

So, "for entertainment purposes", and all that.

Haloscan comment thread

Open Thread, now with a pile of meerkats

Seriously, this picture is a trip.

Speaking only for myself, I would *not* have identified the animals as meerkats if they weren't labeled as such. Because they're not doing their "signature pose"

Anyway, I'd much rather think about meerkats than about Dick Cheney acting as vice president for a period of time tomorrow.

Well, you know the drill. Yakkity-yak...

Haloscan comment thread

A sermon from Gene Robinson on the Good Samaritan

This morning, just before the post scrolled off their front page, I discovered via An Inch at a Time that Bishop Gene Robinson preached at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena this past Sunday. Click here for the video of the sermon. Lots of good stuff there, so I transcribed most of it


It's important to remember that, though this is called The Good Samaritan, no word like "good" appears in this parable. It's our tendency to rush to judgement about something. It reminds me of the cartoon where the dog is lying on his therapist's couch, and the dog is saying, "It's always 'good dog' or 'bad dog'! Why can't it just be judgement free?"

So I think we rush to label things good and bad. And part--maybe even most--of what this story is about is that this is actually about three good people. The priest and the Levite, who come off looking pretty awful, are actually *very* good people. They are religious people, they are upstanding, they take their religion seriously, they know all the right answers to things, they can recite the creeds--they do all of that exactly right. They "get it" intellectually and theoretically. Even, perhaps, theologically. And it seems that Jesus tells this story in order to show us that it is not 'right belief", it is not "right thinking" that gets us to the heart of God, but actually doing the will of God. That's what actually gets us to know the heart of God.

The priest and the Levite actually had very good reasons not to take care of this fellow on the side of the road. First of all, this road, which still exists--it's the road from Jericho to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is at about 2500 feet above sea level, and Jericho is at 800 feet below sea level, near the Dead Sea. And it was a very crooked road, it was a very dangerous place. There were robbers all along it, and to slow down for anything was thought to be terribly dangerous. And indeed, this could well have been a trap. It was not unknown that people would fake being hurt, and the unsuspecting traveler would stop and try to do something, and in doing so would be robbed and mugged, and perhaps killed.

Not only that, but the priest would have been expected to go to Jerusalem as every priest did, and serve for two weeks in the temple. And he know, being a student of the law, that if he touched a dead body, he would be ritually unclean, and it would take quite a lot of purification rites to make him capable of performing the service that he was due to give. And so, why would he risk touching this comatose traveler, only to discover that he was dead, and in doing so, defile himself, and delay his service in the temple? These were good people. These were good people.

And then, of course, along comes the Samaritan. And Luke, as you know, is the outsider writing a Gospel for people on the outside. And Luke understands that this Gospel of Jesus Christ turned the whole world on its ear. Turned the world upside-down. And so, sure enough, as in so many of Luke's stories, it's the Samaritan who actually does the will of God. It's the priest and the Levite who know the will of God, but seem unable to do it.

It's almost as if, when the lawyer asks the question "What must we do to gain eternal life?", and then he gives the right answer. His head knows the right answer--it's to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus says, "A+, very good!" And then he pushes the point and asks about the neighbor, and Jesus tells this story, I think, to show what love of God looks like detached from love of neighbor. They got the "love of God" part. They understand that. But the priest and the Levite didn't connect that to the love of neighbor, which is really the heart of the Gospel.

You know, more and more, I am convinced that the Christian life is not about life after death--it's about life before death. What God does for us after death, God will take care of. But what we do with life before death is up to you and me. That's the real reward of Christianity, isn't it? Not so much life after death, but life before death. It's not an accident that in our confession now, and in the absolution which follows, we don't say "and may God *bring* you to everlasting life", but keep you in everlasting life. It gets to start now...if we are awake. If we understand that in the doing of God's will, we already participate in everlasting life.

So, it is right action, not right belief, not right thinking, that gets us to the heart of God.

A little while ago, in the only time that the Archbishop of Canterbury ever deigned to see me, we were having a little "chat", and at one point in our conversation, he was explaining to me that, actually what the Episcopal church should have done prior to electing and consecrating me, was that we should have figured all this out theologically and intellectually... We should have come to a common mind, and then passed canons and and then done this thing. And I said to him with as much respect as I could, "Your Grace, it seems to me that all of the great steps that has taken, have been as a result of our doing the right thing, and only then, "thinking" our way to what we did. It's not the other way around. I mean, if we had waited for instance in this country for everyone to have been on the same page about civil rights, there would still be separate drinking fountains, wouldn't there? And if we had waited until women were valued as equal and full members of society and the human race for goodness sakes, all of that discrimination would still exist.

And, does anyone think that if those 11 women hadn't been "irregularly" ordained in Philadelphia, that we would be ordaining women yet? I'm not sure we would! And it seems that all the great steps forward we have made have been a result of our doing the right thing, and then thinking our way theologically to how that was the right thing.

He didn't have a really good response. (Laughter)

So, this lawyer (no lawyer jokes!) this lawyer then pushes the point and says, "So then, what must I do?" And Jesus' answer in this story seems to be "love that costs". Love that actually costs us something--costs us time, costs us money, costs us focus, costs us convenience, love that actually costs us something.

There was a young seminarian who one summer worked with an old priest at a homeless shelter, and they had a feeding program at noontime. A lot of people, and on this particular day, there just seemed to be an unusual amount of people who came. And they were *just* exhausted, and it was nearly 3:00 before the last person left. The old priest asked the seminarian to go and close up the front door and shut down for the day, and just as this young seminarian got to the front door, thinking that this long and difficult day was about to be over, saw yet one more homeless man making his way up the front walk. And in his exhausted state, and thinking he had nothing left to give, he said, "Jesus Christ!" And the old priest said, "It just might be."

Love that costs, even when we think we're depleted, I'm always reminded--you know how when you throw away an old tube of toothpaste that's done, and then you go to the closet, and you've forgotten to buy another one? And so you reach into the trash can and you haul out the thing? Every time you can make one more toothbrush full of toothpaste--yeah? But isn't that the way God is--just when we think there's nothing left to give, if we make but the simplest effort, God provides. God provides manna in the desert--and maybe just enough for that day--but it's enough. God gives us what we need to respond in the way the Good Samaritan responded. That's the real miracle of life in God.

And this is really important: we must do the work of ministry--not just give a nod to it. Louie Crew, who I think was here not to long ago, was the one, I believe, who discovered this mistake in our prayer book. It's in the catechism--it's the only real mistake that I know of in the prayer book, and it's in the section on the Hebrew covenant. And it says "What must we do to please God?" And the answer, in the prayer book, which means to be a quote from Micah, the prophet. It sayw that we must love justice, do mercy, and walk humbly with our God.

Well, that would all be very nice, except that's not what Micah said. Micah said we must do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God. And it strikes me, maybe you're like me, we just looove to love justice, don't we? And even an astounding witness to justice, like All Saints Pasadena can so love to love justice, and sit around, and form committees, and talk about it all day, that we forget that what Micah said is that we must do justice and walk humbly with our God. I think that what Jesus is teaching in this story about the Good Samaritan is that it's not enough to be good. It's not enough to know the creeds and say you believe all the things that you're supposed to believe.

Remember that our baptismal covenant, which is as close to a purpose statement as we have in the Episcopal church, are all action verbs. Right? They're all action verbs. It's not about which doctrines you ascribe to, but will you love and serve one another, will you respect the dignity of every human being, if you make mistakes, will you repent and come back to God? It's all about doing. It's not about ascribing to the right tenets and the right doctrines. That stuff is dry. It's important, but it's not the most important. Because what we see in the story of the Good Samaritan, is the danger of loving God separate from doing the work of loving our neighbor.

So it seems to me, that the real question, the challenge, really, of this story for you and me, is whether or not we want to be admirers of Jesus, or disciples. It's easy to admire Jesus--to think he was a nifty guy with really wonderful ideas. Following Jesus is a whole lot harder. Doing the work of ministry and doing justice--getting into some "Gospel trouble" is what we are meant to do.

You know, this Lent, I realized for the first time that this symbol, this cross, is such a political symbol. Now, let's be clear: the Jews did not kill Jesus. That's a bunch of anti-semitic stuff that runs throughout some of the Gospels, especially John, and it is not true. The Romans killed Jesus.

Now, the Romans killed lots of people, but they saved crucifixion for a very specific kind of criminal. And it was the one who challenged the Powers That Be. Who took on the government, who threatened the Pax Romana with their notions of turning the world upside-down like Jesus did. And they didn't put them all high and lifted up like Cecil B. DeMille--I realize that criticizing Cecil B. DeMille in Los Angeles is...(laughter). But, crosses were actually quite low to the ground, so that as people died and began to rot away, the dogs could eat their flesh, and there would be almost nothing left to bury. They wanted to make a real example of anyone who challenged the Powers That Be. And it is an indictment of you and me that we can wear this symbol around, and it doesn't threaten anybody.

When we wear a cross, it ought to scare people to death! And the more powerful they are, the more it ought to scare them. We should be being followed around by the F.B.I.--I know you're being followed by the I.R.S. (laughter). You've got a good start on this one! But really, really--shame on us that this doesn't threaten anybody! When we put this on, when we put on the cross of Christ, we are saying that it's not just religion that we are about. We are about changing the world, as Jesus changed it. We are about loving the people that Jesus loved--those in the margins. And it doesn't mean sitting in a committee room somewhere talking about loving those people, but actually loving them, and doing the hard work of justice.

Are you and I going to be admirers of Jesus only, or are we going to be disciples?

You know how an innoculation works, right? You don't want to get chicken pox, so you go to the doctor, and they give you just enough chicken pox to make your body form antibodies to it, so you never get a full-blown case of chicken pox. God help us if we come here on Sunday mornings just to get enough religion to keep us from having a full-blown case. It is so easy, isn't it, to come here, isn't it? It feels so good, and you see people you know, and the music's great, and the preaching is good. It just all works! But if we leave here, and it causes us to not do anything any differently, then this is nothing but a religious theme park. Really! We have to be out there doing the work that God has given us to do, or else it is all ultimately just self-serving.

And it'll be hard work! When Jesus says "Take up your cross and follow me", he means it's going to be tough. It's going to be very hard--it means taking risks, it means loving that costs. But the miracle, the miracle is that when we do that,
and we face that trouble, we come to know the very God who is at the center of all that is. It's the only way we get to know him--we don't get to know him by memorizing the creed. We get to know him by doing the work that he did.

So, you and I can do that--especially if we do it with him, that he can work in and through us, to do the work that he has given us to do. So the question for you and me today is, do we just come here for an innoculation? Or do we come here for a full blown infection of God's love? Because it's only when you are fully infected yourself with the love that simply know no bounds, can you go out there and love the world, and God's children, in God's name. And this God promises to be with you and me from now on! There is no better news than that, on this, or any Sunday. Amen.

Haloscan comment thread

Open Thread

Complete with lolcat.


Talk amongst yourselves...

Haloscan comment thread

Calling the Pope a primate is "hateful"?

Somehow I missed this one. Apparently Bill O'Reilly used the fact that some commenter on Daily Kos called the Pope a "primate" as evidence that Big Orange is a hateful site. He used that and other random statements by DK commenters to make his "case" about how hateful the site is. But this was all set up for going after Jet Blue for being one of the sponsors of Yearly Kos.

As with anything that issues forth from Mr. O'Reilly, there are many layers of wrongness that could be addressed. He's like an onion in that way. A big stinky onion. To take an obvious example, as we all know from the Dean campaign, it is possible to cherry pick comments from a blog to make whatever case one wishes.

But as Booman points out, there is nothing hateful or offensive about using the word "primate" to refer to the Pope or any other human, lemur, gibbon, orangutan, etc. And he further notes that there is another usage of the word:

pri·mate -noun
1. Ecclesiastical. an archbishop or bishop ranking first among the bishops of a province or country.

In fact, Bill, it's even in the online Catholic Encyclopedia. And you were an altar boy, too. I'm so disappointed in you...

Now, I'll be honest with you. When I first started to work on this post earlier today, I was planning to go for the cheap laugh, speculating that, from a taxonomic perspective, Bill doesn't quite make the cut as a primate. And then I was going to try to figure out the funniest creature with which I could compare him.

Except...

Last night we started a weekly discussion series at my church on the concept of "grace". Our rector started the meeting by sharing this prayer, which he had also shared during the service earlier in the day:

Thanksgiving for the Social Order
7. For the Diversity of Races and Cultures

O God, who created all peoples in your image, we thank you for the wonderful diversity of races and cultures in this world. Enrich our lives by ever-widening circles of fellowship, and show us your presence in those who differ most from us, until our knowledge of your love is made perfect in our love for all your children; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

"Show us your presence in those who differ most from us", huh? Guess that would imply a willingness to see that presence in those who differ most from me. Even those who come off like real jerks.

Tricky.

Guess that's one of the reasons I need grace...

Haloscan comment thread

Up all night to do what's right

There's a front page post at Buckeye State Blog entitled Up all night to do what's right.

We couldn't resist...

You can watch the proceedings on C-SPAN.

And it would probably be a good idea to keep an eye on Media Matters for any bias in the media coverage that alert citizens should respond to.

Haloscan comment thread

Habeas Restoration Action Item

Via Firedoglake:

I am told by a source who knows the head count that we are within a slim margin on the habeas restoration amendment — and that the vote could still go either way. It is a razor thin margin right now, which means there is no Senator whose vote can be taken for granted.

Yesterday, I asked you to make a few calls on behalf of habeas restoration and the Constitution. Today, I’m asking you to make some more. The following list are the Senators who are currently being targeted for not having an announced position one way or the other:

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT)
Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE)
Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE)
Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN)
Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID)
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME)
Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME)
Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN)
Sen. George Voinavich (R-OH)
Sen. John Sununu (R-NH)
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR)
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN)

Please, take some time this morning to call both your Senators — whether they are on this list or not – and then call a few from the above list as well to voice your support for the full restoration of habeas. You can call your Senators toll free using the following numbers (h/t to katymine):

1 (800) 828 - 0498
1 (800) 459 - 1887
1 (800) 614 - 2803
1 (866) 340 - 9281
1 (866) 338 - 1015
1 (877) 851 - 6437

More here.

Haloscan comment thread

Durbin calls out obstructionists in Congress

Via Crooks and Liars

Sen. Dick Durbin made a passioned plea in Congress on the Iraq war. He called out the Republicans obstructionism on the war and Mitch McConnell’s 60 vote straw-man argument. Also, CNN called it a “theatrical” event by the Democratic Party. We’re talking about war and hell and these idiots are bringing in Broadway

Click here for the rest.

Haloscan comment thread

This weekend's big accomplishment

As part of my ongoing efforts toward generating income, I finally decided to dedicate the time necessary to actually building a store at Printfection. That's one of the other stores where people can sell designs they create. Cafe Press is the big one, and Zazzle is another. I signed up for Printfection a while ago, but the whole setup is almost completely counterintuitive to me.

But over the course of the past several days, I've gotten a little more used to the interface and the process of adding designs. The big hurdle, it turns out, is getting the store to look the way I want it to. Or--what I eventually settled on--changing the things that really annoyed me.

You can select a "theme" for your store's design but, at least as far as I've seen, there doesn't seem to be a straightforward way to do something as simple as changing the text color.

Now, I do know some html, which I have learned, a bit at a time, over the course of several years. And, what I don't know, I can usually figure out by copying source code into Dreamweaver (the web design software we have at home), and messing around with it for a while. Lots of trial and error. But at least it makes some degree of sense to me at this point. A little like knowing the bare bones of a foreign language, I guess. I know enough to be able to look up what I don't know.

CSS, on the other hand, is dark and mysterious to me. I probably could learn it, if I really decided to dedicate the time and patience necessary to learn it. But, when it comes to learning something new, there are good conditions and bad conditions. It is somewhat less than optimal--at least for me--to be trying to learn something new when it's standing between me and something I'm trying to accomplish.

Well, anyway, I selected a basic theme for our store, and the one thing I decided I just had to change was the color of the links down the left side of the page. They were light blue, and the logo Demetrius made for the store has orange and yellow tones.

All I wanted to do was change the color of those links to black. I looked up the code for black, and for almost two whole days tried to figure out how to make that damn text black. Lots of trial and error. Emphasis on the word error, by the way. I took some long breaks to do other things.

But I am nothing if not stubborn--especially when it comes to things that bloody well should be simple and straightforward, in my opinion.

Anyway, you may all gaze upon the results of my hard work, frustration, and overall stick-to-it-iveness.

Black links in the sidebar.

http://www.printfection.com/brainchild

Woo.


Haloscan comment thread

Elmo's Dad Gets Deployed

Wow.

Over half a million children under the age of five are waiting for their active duty, Guard or Reserve, mother or father to come home - the most since World War II.

So there's a Sesame Street special, When Parents are Deployed, dealing with the issue. Apparently the neighbors on Sesame Street support Elmo as he copes with his father's upcoming deployment. (Hopefully keeping Elmo from going all Tickle Me Emo...)

Way to support those family values, Bush, setting that kind of record for child/parent separation.

Haloscan comment thread

"Let's put on a show"

by Subway Serenade




In my post last Sunday, I said that we had 'willed ourselves into existence' and realized that it might seem arrogant to some folks. So I wanted to take the time to explain what I meant by that.

I've asked many practicing Christians what the word "Eternal" means. They all offer variations of "without end." Yet when I point out to them that "Eternal" also means "without BEGINNING" they seem confused. If you have a beginning, there will come a time when you will have an end. But if you have 'Eternal Life' it means that you were a living entity before you entered your present body. Your body is a costume you wear as in a play on a stage.

This means that our life essence begins in a place where even our sub atomic particles are too coarse. When you get a haircut, your hair remains on the floor when you leave. When you clip your fingernails, the nails are gone, but you are still alive. So it is with the body.

So if we already have eternal life, what is it that Christ is actually offering? Eternal Love, if we'll have it. I've begun the crying phase of my studies. I say that Gizmo can teach you how to see God (Know Love In-Phi-Knit) but it's up to the user how much Love they can handle. I think most compassionate people have touched their eternal selves at various times in their lives. It might happen in a blink of an eye, but when it does, you're filled with a very intense feeling that's almost unbearable in its beauty and simplicity, that your first reaction is "STOP!"...

...and it does, and you try top get it back again, but that wonderful feeling has receded to wherever it came from. Gizmo will help you find that well of Love, that Stillpoint, but you have to decide how much of that higher Love you can stand without becoming a shapeless mass in a puddle of your own tears.

Lately, I've been having intense bursts of empathy when I see people hurting. The silliest love songs on the radio send tears streaming down my face. Sometimes now I even have to fight back tears while singing at work. Start a conversation with your own heart and you'll find it has a lot to say, and none of it's in English!

The inventor says these intense rushes of emotion are releases of the chemical reactions of emotions stored in the tissues of the body over the course of your life, and your heart knows where every one of them are. Releasing these emotions is the purification process that opens the heart to it's natural bliss. Setting those emotions free is a process, but at least Gizmo allows you to proceed at your own pace.

So as Eternal beings, who are we and what are we like in the place where even quarks won't fit? Can we bridge the gap between who we seem to be and who we REALLY are? Can we move from "My God can beat up your God" to "We are ONE HUMANITY in the Spirit?"

Haloscan comment thread

Stuff that gets stuck in my head

A few days ago I had an old Sesame Street cartoon running through my head. It was about this kitten who was knittin' a kerchief, a kite, and a polka-dot mitten. The voiceover guy asked, "May I ask, Miss Kitten, why are you knittin' a kerchief, a kite, and a polka-dot mitten?" Miss Kitten responded, "Meow, yes, you may ask." So voiceover guy repeats in an exasperated voice, "Very well then, Miss Kitten, why are you..."

She finally responds, "Because it's Thursday."

I wanted to find the exact words to the sketch, because, well, sometimes I get obsessive about such things. And I usually find that someone else out there has gotten even *more* obsessive about the same topic, and there's a wiki.

Turns out that there is indeed a wiki where people have described, in excruciating detail, episodes of Sesame Street. Not so obsessive as to write out all the words to the kitten segment, but pretty darn detailed.

By the way, you've got to check out the story arc in this particular episode. As a child, somehow I was oblivious to the almost crippling obsessive-compulsive symtpoms that the Count so clearly displayed.

Haloscan comment thread

Bill Moyers discusses impeachment

Hat tip to Booman for alerting me that Bill Moyers will be discussing impeachment tonight. In the clip embedded here, Bruce Fein, a conservative who wrote the articles of impeachment against Bill Clinton, states that what Bush's crimes are even more worrisome than Clinton's were. Also on the program is John Nichols, author of The Genius of Impeachment: The Founders' Cure for Royalism.

Haloscan comment thread

Okinawa's Friday the 13th

From listener

Typhoon Man-Yi wallops Okinawa
by Jeff Masters

(scroll down a bit)
In the Pacific, Typhoon Man-Yi battered Japan's Okinawa Island this morning, striking as a super typhoon with 155 mph winds.

Link

Naha, Okinawa recorded sustained winds of 76 mph with gusts to 105 mph (Figure 1), and a pressure of 939 mb. This was very close the minimum pressure estimated by satellite, 937 mb. Media reports indicate substantial damage occurred on Okinawa, and over 100,000 people lost power. Twelve crew members of a Chinese ship were missing after the vessel sank some 600 km northwest of Guam in strong winds and high seas. Man-Yi is expected to make landfall on the Japanese island of Kyushu Saturday. However, the storm should weaken to a Category 1 storm by landfall, as wind shear from an approaching trough of low pressure has already reached 20 knots on the west side of the storm, and is expected to increase further.

Link

More Images at:
Link
Link


Haloscan comment thread

The Foot Stomper in Chief Speaks

From Press Esc: I run the war, Congress only funds it - Bush

US President George W. Bush today reiterated his stand that he has the sole authority to run the war and the only job for the Congress is to fund it, after it emerged that the Iraqi government had failed half of the 18 benchmarks contained in the Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act.

"I don't think Congress ought to be running the war," Bush said at a press briefing. "I think they ought to be funding our troops."

"Congress has all the right in the world to fund. That's their main involvement in this war, which is to provide funds for our troops," he re-emphasised.
...
"I will repeat, as the Commander-in-Chief of a great military who has supported this military and will continue to support this military, not only with my -- with insisting that we get resources to them, but with -- by respecting the command structure, I'm going to wait for David to come back -- David Petraeus to come back and give us the report on what he sees," he said.

Bush used the term "Commander-in-Chief" seven times to refer to himself during the briefing.

He said he will disregard US citizens view on Iraq on the grounds that the troops do not want "their Commander-in-Chief making decisions based upon popularity."

That man is going to have to learn some humililty. Or have it thrust upon him.

Haloscan comment thread

Science vs. Silly Walks

This link popped up in my Gmail:

'Silly Walks' Dissed by Mathematicians

I decided this was simply too silly NOT to share...

Scientists have explained mathematically why the famous "silly walks" of Monty Python's John Cleese have never caught on in the long history of Homo sapiens.

The giant, leg-twirling strides of silly walks may enable a person to leap around swiftly but are simply too expensive in metabolic energy compared to conventional locomotion, according to a paper published on Wednesday by Britain's Royal Society.

Click here for more.

Or visit the Silly Walk Generator here.

I read the rest of the article, by the way, and it describes recent research into human locomotion, which illustrates that the typical models of human walking and running are the most energy efficient.

Duh. So they tricked me into reading about a fairly dull and pointless sounding study with a cheap reference to Monty Python. I'm just too easy sometimes. But I thought this would be a fun diversion in the middle of the week.

Haloscan comment thread

Science Open Thread

Well, as usual you can talk about whatever you like, but I've got science links for you, so I'm calling it a "science open thread".

As I mentioned in the previous thread, I'm watching part of a DVD of Rough Science with Son in Ohio. It's the one where they are in Death Valley doing simulated space challenges.

I don't know if I've shared this link here before, but I learned about it from someone on my last project (where we were scoring science tests).

The Radioactive Boy Scout

Honestly, there was a Boy Scout merit badge in atomic energy back in 1991? And that seemed like a good idea to someone?

Haloscan comment thread

Shameless Plug Thread

We've been meaning to do a major overhaul of our Cafe Press store for some time, in order to reflect the evolution from a mostly political focus to a wider range of designs. There's still a bit of tweaking to do, but here's what we've got so far.

And now I need a break from all that productive work, so I'm going to take Daughter in Ohio out of the house for a bit. Not sure exactly where, but somewhere air-conditioned.

I wrote a new post last night, but it seemed to fit better at my Religious Left Blog than here, but you can read it there if you're interested.

Keep cool, everybody.

Haloscan comment thread

Net Neutrality Action Item

This arrived in my inbox from Free the Internet, and I thought it was worth sharing--Renee

Dear Media Reformer,

Watch and Rate Our New Video

We have only five days left to defend a free and open Internet at the FCC. The agency needs to hear from you about Net Neutrality -- the principle that stops AT&T, Verizon and Comcast from controlling where you can go online.

Thousands of people have already told their stories (see below) urging the FCC to protect Net Neutrality. Now it's your turn:

Tell the FCC to Save the Internet

You need to act now before the FCC closes its comment period. If we flood them with comments in support of Net Neutrality, the FCC will be pressed to stand up to the giant phone and cable companies that seek to undermine free choice on the Web.

At SavetheInternet.com, you can read stories from others, view photographs, and join the fight to make the Internet affordable, open and accessible to everyone. You can even create your own personal comment page to share with others. Go there now to see our new video:

Watch Our New Video and Save the Internet

This may be the best chance we have this year to demonstrate to Washington that protecting the free and open Internet is an issue that matters to millions of Americans. The FCC needs to know why Net Neutrality is important to you. Tell them how an open Internet impacts your daily life, your business and your ability to connect with others.

To save the Internet, we need to flood the FCC with stories from people around the country. Can you ask five friends to send their stories to the FCC?

Tell Your Friends to Take Action

With your help, we can send a message to the FCC that they can't ignore.

Onward,

Timothy Karr
Campaign Director
www.savetheinternet.com

P.S. Here's what others are saying:

"The greatest hope that this country has is the reconnection of American voices with our political system. The Internet is the first medium that is truly interactive, in which one person's voice can reach millions. This fundamental change would end the open Internet as we know it." Read Jennifer's full story.

"In rural America, the Internet is very important in staying informed. We read several national newspapers every day to get the news our local paper does not thoroughly cover." Read Charles & Carol's full story.

"Currently the media is not diverse at all, and the only option I have found to escape from it has been the Internet. ... If the Internet is controlled by powerful people with money, will it ever be what it has been? Will we be able to enjoy diversity?" Read Norie's full story.

To read thousands of other stories visit: www.savetheinternet.com/yourstory/gallery

---

Take action on this campaign at: www.savetheinternet.com/yourstory

Tell others about this campaign at: www.savetheinternet.com/tellafriend.php

If you received this message from a friend, you can click here to become a Free Press activist.

Haloscan comment thread

Sunday Night Open Thread

I just finished doing some "impeach Cheney" designs, and after spending time looking at that man's evil mug, I thought some cute kitties would be a nice antidote.

'Night everybody.

Haloscan comment thread

The Secret

by Subway Serenade


I just finished watching a film called "The Secret." It's essentially designed to look mysterious like "The Celestine Prophecy" or "The Da Vinci Code." but it's essentially a self help primer for Eternal Beings. It has all the fun of "Think and Grow Rich" and at times feels like a lecture by Dr. Phil. For all it's flash it really doesn't offer anything new. Except...

It essentially starts from the premise that we ARE Eternal beings by nature, and that we need to teach our children this. But they don't present the nuts and bolts of their process until near the end of the film. The Secret, is the energy field or 'charge' created by focused intent.

The entire film confirmed for the viewer what Gizmo was designed to quantify, and I would be surprised in anyone featured or involved in the film had ever considered Bliss Entrainment as a possibility on a mass scale. Yet every one of those who contributed, even that guy who wrote "Chicken Soup of the Soul" spoke of a coming transformation and wonderous times ahead if we can give this wisdom to our children and grandchildren.

If you've ever been to a self help seminar, or learned a structured meditation, much of what "The Secret" has to offer won't be much of anything new. We are all individual expressions of a unified energy field and the way to manipulate the field for your benefit is through positive focused intent.

What I took away from the film, other than the fact that Gizmo is an integral technology for teaching focused intent on a global scale, was that progressives should stop talking so much about the things we oppose and focus on the positive aspects of the struggle. Don't be 'against' a certain candidate. Be 'for' his opponent. 'Anti-war rallies' should be called 'peace marches' because when you are against something, there has to be an equal and opposite push back.

In other words they are calling for a change in the language of the mind. If you see something you don't like, rather than saying 'I don't like that,' try finding a thought about it that doesn't focus on the negative.

My favorite part, near the end was when FINALLY one of these self help thingies finally recognized that our BEING begins at the sub atomic level and that we have consciously willed ourselves into physical existence. As Shakespear wrote, "All the world's a stage."

It was nice to see a film that joyously presents such a fundamental Truth.

Haloscan comment thread

Open Thread

Son in Ohio got a kick out of this sign at the pool we visited yesterday, and wanted me to take a picture of it. If you can't read it, it indicates that there is a depth of 0 feet, 0 inches at this particular part of the pool, along with the caution "No diving".


Talk amongst yourselves.

Haloscan comment thread