The Horizon

Keep your eyes on the horizon. That’s where present and future merge.

Promised Land

Does the Source want us to reach the promised land? No. The Source wants us to be on our way there, to walk toward it.  There is no promised land: only a dirt path with spectacular scenery, our two legs, and good travel companions.  The path is rocky and slow-going, but we learn much along the way. There are lots of alternate routes, and each one takes us to new vistas and landscapes.  When we finally do arrive at the place for which we yearn, we find that it’s just another dirt path taking us somewhere else.

Fox Goes Full Birther

Disgusting. Repellent. Racist. Xenophobic. Yet Fox has led the charge with its fake news.
http://mediamatters.org/research/201104200008

Oil Price Rise

Oil companies make huge profts by limiting supplying and sending oil abroad for sale at premium prices:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-oil-refineries-20110429,0,1414360,full.story

Universal Health Care in Vermont One Step Closer

Some good news for a change:
http://vtdigger.org/2011/04/27/vt-senate-gives-final-nod-to-universal-health-care-bill-in-21-9-vote/

Birtherism as Racism

A discussion of the paranoia and racism that lies just beneath the surface of our national psyche. Donald Trump Trump has exploited this for PR purposes:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/04/trump-birtherism-and-race-baiting.html

Being and Becoming in Shabbat

Shabbat closes the weekly circle, being completing becoming.  Then a new curved line swirls outward, moving forward, waiting to meet its sibling at the beginning and at the end, to commence again in an eternally re-forming helix.  This is the 7-day ourobouros, the snake swallowing its tail, shabbat swallowing six days of creation.  We go forward, only to begin again, before the Source swallows us, and life then continues in a new form.  A day, a week, a month, each a re-forming of days, weeks, and months before them.  No different from life, Gilgul:  we are born, we live, we die, rest a while in shabbat, to move gain as new life forms, beings in the midst of becomings.

BP Oil Spill and Local Power

How local, not national, power effects will effect the most influence on environmental issues:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-wohlforth-bp-20110420,0,3704732,print.story

Jacob’s Ladder

Jacob’s Ladder: Dreams allow us to move from one dimension to another.

Fox Goes Full Birther

Disgusting. Repellent. Racist. Xenophobic. Yet Fox has led the charge with its fake news.
http://mediamatters.org/research/201104200008

The Moral Ambiguity of Spanish Jewish Heritage

Is the Spanish government’s  emphasis on Jewish tourism a legitimate enterprise? http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/04/04/3086707/spain-building-monuments-to-its-jewish-past-critics-question-motives

Massacre in Syria

A disturbing audio report from Cal Perry of a massacre in Syria:
http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2011/04/24/no-humanity-left-syria-0

No Prosecutions of Financial Crimes

This is one of the most demoralizing aspects of the economic and financial crisis that began in 2008. White collar criminals do not have to face the courts or prison because they are rich, powerful, and influential. This is the triumph of plutocracy that is now America. Via Dianne M. Bazell

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/14/business/14prosecute.html (via Dianne Bazell)

Lost

Lost we wander in the wilderness trying to find an oasis, not realizing that both the wilderness and the oasis are inside us.

Huckabee Indoctrination

Huckabee wants Americans indoctrinated at gunpoint by David Barton, pseudo-historian who claims the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation. Barton apparently denies that the First Amendment protects the religious rights of all US citizens; rather it protects only those who are Christian. Another Oy vez.
http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2011/03/30/mike-huckabee-says-he-wants-americans-to-be-indoctrinated-at-gunpoint/

Koch Brothers’ Thought Control

The Koch Brothers use their power to intimidate their employees to vote for their favored candidates:
http://www.thenation.com/article/160062/big-brothers-thought-control-koch

Exxon 2nd to GE in Not Paying Taxes

Exxon comes in a close second to General Electric as tax deadbeats:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/04/12-1

Burdens

When your burden is too heavy to bear, let others share it.

Colorful Food Not Always So Nice

Often food that looks good isn’t so good for you. Beware of colors!

http://newsvandal.com/2011/04/pretty-food-is-dangerous/

When Things Look Down

When things look down,  look up.

Fake News

Corporations are airing advertisements through media outlets as if they are legitimate news.
http://www.freepress.net/press-release/2011/3/25/fcc-fines-local-tv-stations-airing-fake-news

Truth and Authenticity

Truth is the core goal of seekers. Authenticity is its sibling.

Mountaintop Removal Destroys Town

How a coal company destroyed a community:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/13/us/13lindytown.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=all

GOP Pushes to Cut Environmental Regulations at State Level

A sad story that makes no rational sense, but the GOP effort is a nice pay-off to large corporations and campaign contributors.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/16/science/earth/16enviro.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

The Rise of Al-Jazeera

The importance of Al-Jazeera continues to grow
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/53339.html

Facebook Data and Advertising

Here’s the way Facebook is now mining your data to deliver targeted advertising to you:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-facebook-ads-20110417,0,1887797.story

Art as Protest

Art is one of the most potent means of protesting authoritarianism and affirming freedom, but artists face threats in many nations, including China.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/20/opinion/20Rushdie.html

Carcinogens Injected into Natural Gas Wells

Another concerning aspect of natural gas exploration through the process of hydraulic fracturing:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110417/ap_on_re_us/us_drilling_chemicals

Helping Others

We may never know those whom we are here to help, but we are here for them just the same.

Thinking is a Scion of Feeling

Thinking is a scion of feeling, one of the senses, a metaphorical, symbolic realm filled with the vibrant colors of awareness, the smells of memory, the voices of inspiration, the touch of knowledge, and the light of clarity.

Anti-Dolphin Killing Campaigns in the Solomon Islands and Indonesia

Anti-Dolphin Killing Campaigns are finding success:
http://savejapandolphins.org/blog/post/no-dolphins-killed-in-the-solomon-islands
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/70-dolphins-to-swim-free-thanks-to-famous-rescuer/431226

IDF Adapts to Goldstone Report

The IDF (Israeli Defense Force) has learned from the Goldstone Report in spite of the report’s failings. The IDF emphasizes the participation of legal advisors in military operations, media relations, and cooperation with legitimate human rights groups.
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/04/11/3086821/pushed-by-goldstone-idf-embraces-new-smart-warfare

Sweden and the USA

This article by David Michael Green argues that Sweden is a much better county in which to live than the USA.

Of course, Sweden, that paragon of freedom, democracy, and equality, is now riven with conflict between Swedes and immigrant Muslims, turning antisemitic (I don’t think it’s the place for people like me with its distaste for MOTs),  and busy trying to extradite Julian Assange so that it can protect governments from that wicked scourge of (gasp)–transparency. Diversity is not exactly one of Sweden’s hallmarks.

Worshipping Sweden reminds me of a Euro-version of Edward Said’s “Orientalism”: the left romanticizing modern Norsemen in their quest for a homogenous Valhalla that doesn’t really exist.

Everything looks greener when you don’t live there.

Sweden, I’m sure, has wonderful attributes, but it’s not nirvana. I’ve always said that you don’t really belong to any group until you see its underside and still love it. That’s a grown-up way to view the world. The other is for children.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/06-2

Egypt Sentences Blogger

This is not a good sign for democracy:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/12/world/middleeast/12egypt.html

How the Super-Rich Avoid Taxes

Tax tools for the super-rich:
http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=1b9903a2-1944-4107-a8ea-4e5116fdb51e

Debtor Prisons Back in Vogue

Oops. What century is this? Where is Charles Dickens?
www.clarkhoward.com/news/clark-howard/consumer-issues-id-theft/debtors-prison-makes-return-some-states/nCHdX/

Rider Removes Wolves from Endangered Species List

Yes, that sounds like a great idea. Congress is much more knowledgeable than scientists. That’s a no-brainer–not.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/13/us/politics/13wolves.html

Dealing with Evil

Sociopaths, murderers, con-men, sadists, and bystanders before violence are all part of the same cosmic body as heroes, rescuers, protectors, saints, and gentle souls. We are all on the same path, only some of us perhaps further along than others. When we punish evil, which we must–often harshly–we need to remember to have compassion for all human beings, no matter how rotted and degraded they are. They are our family; they are us. That is a form of wholeness: to be able to condemn (sometimes to kill to protect the lives of others or our own) while also acknowledging our common humanity and shared divine spirit.

Shale Natural Gas Worse Than Coal on Climate

Guess the good energy may not be so good after all.
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/155101-report-gas-from-fracking-worse-than-coal-on-climate

Shalom

Where do we find shalom? Inside ourselves, then exhaled as life-giving breath for others.

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