One is a religious fanatic railing against secularism, the role of women in the workplace, and the evils of higher education, as he seeks to impose his draconian moral values upon the state. The other is the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Skinner's Constant (or Flannagan's Finagling Factor):
That quantity which, when multiplied by, divided by, added to,
or subtracted from the answer you get, gives you the answer you should
have gotten.
The idea that the profits of capital are really the rewards of a just society for the foresight and thrift of those who sacrificed the immediate pleasures of spending in order that society might have productive capital, had a certain validity in the early days of capitalism, when productive enterprise was frequently initiated through capital saved out of modest incomes. The idea, as a moral justification of present inequalities of privilege, has become more and more dishonest, since the increased centralization of power and privilege makes it possible for those who make the largest investments in industry to do so without any diminution of even the most luxurious living standards. Since we are living in a world in which there is too much capital for production and too little for consumption, the argument that economic inequality is necessary for the accumulation of capital resources has lost even its economic validity. Yet it is still used by privileged classes to establish a specious connection between virtue or social function and privilege.
Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971)
Moral Man and Immoral Society, 1932
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If Fox News covered the Civil Rights movement of the 50s and 60s
Abstract conversations
Instead of telling our vulnerable stories, we seek safety in abstractions, speaking to each other about our opinions, ideas and beliefs rather than about our lives. Academic culture blesses this practice by insisting that the more abstract our speech, the more likely we are to touch the universal truths that unite us. But what happens is exactly the reverse: as our discourse becomes more abstract, the less connected we feel. There is less sense of community among intellectuals than in the most "primitive" society of storytellers.
Parker J. Palmer
A hidden wholeness
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I am drawn to the tidiness of proverbs
little zingers
that make you nod
and think you have gotten to the pulp
of a thing
like how you can know a person
by the books they keep
but it’s not true
you know only the stomach
of their brain
a naïve hunger that tends
to want more
of the same
it’s like thinking you know
a bird
by the wire
he sits on
life is unkempt
people die
too soon
all there is to do
is pay attention to the litter
of minutes that fling from the day
and catch some
on your tongue
like snowflakes
each one
a tiny perfect story
a life written in ice
before it melts
and returns home
to the sea.
MYTH #1: 47% of Americans do not pay taxes.
Fact: All Americans pay taxes.
MYTH #2: The American people and corporations pay high taxes.
Fact: The US has the third lowest taxes of any developed country in the world.
MYTH #3: Cutting taxes creates jobs and raises revenue.
Fact: Tax cuts reduce revenue and are not associated with economic growth.
MYTH #4: The US tax system is very progressive because wealthy individuals already pay a disproportionate amount of taxes.
Fact: At a time of growing income inequality, the US tax system is basically flat.
When you take into account all of the taxes that individuals pay, the truth is that our tax system is relatively flat. The top one percent of income earners receives 20.3 percent of total income while paying 21.5 percent of total taxes and the lowest 20 percent of income earners receive 3.5 percent of total income while still paying out two percent of total taxes.
In other words, wealthy individuals pay a high percentage of taxes because they earn a highly disproportionate amount of income. This is a consequence of growing income inequality in the United States, which is at a level not seen since before the Great Depression.
MYTH #5: The “Fair Tax” or a flat tax would be more fair.
Fact: The “Fair Tax” or a flat tax would make our tax system even more regressive.
Gautham Nagesh for The Hill - Eight of the largest Web companies have endorsed an online piracy bill offered by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) as an alternative to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its Senate counterpart PROTECT IP.
The OPEN Act would direct online patent infringement claims against foreign websites to the International Trade Commission, which would be authorized to order online ad networks and payment processors to sever ties with the rogue foreign sites.
We have to create culture, don't watch TV, don't read magazines, don't even listen to NPR. Create your own roadshow. The nexus of space and time where you are now is the most immediate sector of your universe, and if you're worrying about Michael Jackson or Bill Clinton or somebody else, then you are disempowered, you're giving it all away to icons, icons which are maintained by an electronic media so that you want to dress like X or have lips like Y. This is shit-brained, this kind of thinking. That is all cultural diversion, and what is real is you and your friends and your associations, your highs, your orgasms, your hopes, your plans, your fears. And we are told 'no', we're unimportant, we're peripheral. 'Get a degree, get a job, get a this, get a that.' And then you're a player, you don't want to even play in that game.
You want to reclaim your mind and get it out of the hands of the cultural engineers who want to turn you into a half-baked moron consuming all this trash that's being manufactured out of the bones of a dying world.
A scaly foot sea snail. The scales are covered with layers of pure pyrite and iron sulphide. Photograph: David Shale
Denizens of the Dragon Vent – in pictures
CHEETA the chimpanzee, who starred alongside Tarzan from the movies of the 1930s through to the 1960s TV series, has died at the age of 80.
This strikingly coloured electric-blue European lobster was caught off the east coast of Scotland and spotted at London Billingsgate fish market in November 2011. It was sent to the Natural History Museum before settling into a new home at the London Aquarium.
The Bronze Rat
A tourist from the Midwest walked into a Chinese curio shop in San Francisco.
While looking around at the exotic merchandise, he noticed a very lifelike, life-sized, bronze statue of a rat. It had no price tag, but was so incredibly striking the tourist decided he must have it. He took it to the old shop owner and asked, “How much for the bronze rat?”
“Ahhh, you have chosen wisely! It is $12 for the rat, and $100 for the story,” said the wise old Chinaman.
The tourist quickly pulled out twelve dollars. “I’ll just take the rat, you can keep the story”, he said.
As he walked down the street carrying his bronze rat, the tourist noticed that a few real rats had crawled out of the alleys and sewers and had begun following him down the street. This was a bit disconcerting so he began walking faster.
A couple blocks later he looked behind him and saw to his horror the herd of rats behind him had grown to hundreds, and they began squealing. Sweating now, the tourist began to trot toward the Bay. After a couple more blocks, he looked around only to discover that the rats now numbered in the THOUSANDS, and were squealing and coming toward him faster and faster.
Terrified, he ran to the edge of the Bay and threw the bronze rat as far as he could into the Bay.
Amazingly, the thousands of rats all jumped into the Bay after the bronze rat, and were all drowned.
The man walked back to the curio shop in Chinatown.
“Ahhh,” said the owner, “You have come back for story, yes?
“Are you kidding?,” said the man, “I came back to see if you have a bronze Politician!”
A free bird leaps on the back
Of the wind and floats downstream
Till the current ends and dips his wing
In the orange suns rays
And dares to claim the sky.But a BIRD that stalks down his narrow cage
Can seldom see through his bars of rage
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing.The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
Of things unknown but longed for still
And his tune is heard on the distant hill for
The caged bird sings of freedom.The free bird thinks of another breeze
And the trade winds soft through
The sighing trees
And the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright
Lawn and he names the sky his own.But a caged BIRD stands on the grave of dreams
His shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing.The caged bird sings with
A fearful trill of things unknown
But longed for still and his
Tune is heard on the distant hill
For the caged bird sings of freedom.
What if there is only one God, and this one God is manifested in many beautiful names? Those names could include Jesus Christ, Wonderful, Counselor Allah, Buddha, and scores of other names. If we believe in one God, let's start living and talking like it, and stop being so competitive. Start accepting that that one God is so brilliant that he made many ways to show himself before us all.
Bronwen Henry
excerpt from Jesus is a Buddha
