September 2007 archive

Sep 26 2007

Gore Wins Another Award, Seeks Regular Environmental Summits

crossposted at Daily Kos and Truth & Progress

Following his Emmy Award a week ago when his television network, Current TV, won the award for ‘Interactive Television Services,’ Al Gore was honored yesterday by the Sierra Club

Gore to Receive Sierra Club’s Highest Award

SAN FRANCISCO, California, September 24, 2007 (ENS) – Former Vice President Al Gore, who has spent 30 years making the world aware of the dangers of global warming, will receive the Sierra Club’s top award this year, the environmental group announced today.

Between his earliest political career in 1976 as a representative of Tennessee’s Fourth District, and his two-term vice presidency beginning in 1993, Gore helped set the political and popular stages for prime-time environmentalism, the Sierra Club said today.

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Sep 26 2007

help desk

poetry help desk … medieval help desk….. star wars help desk…

Sep 26 2007

Zig Zag Zen: Buddhism and Psychedelics



Artist: Nisvan

Since Buddhism has been a topic of discussion here lately (On Religion and Buddhism at Docudharma), I thought I would weigh in from another perspective and talk a little about my experiences with Buddhism and the spiritual realm. 

The title of this essay comes from a book of the same name1 which discusses the role that mind-altering drugs play in spiritual practice.  The book is a collection of essays written by western Buddhist teachers and religious scholars such as Jack Kornfield, Allan Hunt Badiner, Lama Surya Das, Huston Smith and Stephen Batchelor.  They all relate personal anecdotes of how psychedelics opened the doors to higher consciousness. 

From the Foreword:

It is undeniable that a significant proportion of those drawn to Buddhism and other Eastern traditions in the 1960s (including the present writer) were influenced in their choice of religious orientation by experiences induced by psychoactive substances such as marijuana and LSD.  Despite the fact that experimentation with such drugs was illegal, potentially dangerous, and unmonitored, the startling shift in consciousness it occasionally provoked was considered to be worth the risks involved.  Now, thirty years later, many of these Buddhists are priests, meditation teachers, therapists, college professors, and writers: respected members of the very society against which they rebelled in their youth.  Yet although they often eschew the use of psychedelics themselves and warn others of the dangers of abuse, few would deny the role of these substances in opening their eyes to a life of spiritual and religious meaning.

Sep 26 2007

Beware, liberals, progressives, Democrats and Independents….

I first wrote this blog about two years ago. At the time, Karl Rove and the Republican Party seemed indomitable. Fortunately, Rove and the Republicans have gone into remission. But, much like cancer, we must constantly guard against any recurrence, and if the Rovettes reemerge, quickly bring to bear all the antidotes available to drive the forces of the Right into oblivion. Be warned, Rove continues to lurk behind the lines, a ready reserve to join the battle of 2008.

Sep 26 2007

Eros vs. Thanatos

The final paragraph of Freud’s Civilization and its Discontents (1930) always chills me:

The fateful question for the human species seems to me to be whether and to what extent their cultural development will succeed in mastering the disturbance of their communal life by the human instinct of aggression and self-destruction. It may be that in this respect precisely the present time deserves a special interest. Man have gained control over the forces of nature to such an extent that with their help they would have no difficulty in exterminating one another to the last man. They know this and hence comes a large part of their current unrest, their unhappiness and their mood of anxiety. And now it is to be expected that the other of the two “Heavenly Powers” eternal Eros, will make an effort to assert himself in the struggle with his equally immortal adversary. But who can foresee with what success and with what result.

Freud added the very last sentence in 1931, when Hitler’s threat had already become clear.

His use of language pointing to the present moment produces an uncanny effect, for while he is surely pointing to his own historical moment, the reverberation of the “present time” and “now” ensure that this foreboding ending forever taps on the reader’s particular historical moment, as if every age were a moment of crisis. And perhaps it is.

Sep 26 2007

FAQ revision request

This diary will self-destruct shortly.

I was looking at our FAQ, and I had two things I thought should be added.

First of all, a list of Admins and Contributing Editors.  I know I can suss out who most of them are via the blogroll, but I didn’t know, for example, that pyrrho was one.  Not that this is a problem, but if I don’t know, probably newcomers don’t either.

Second, could we put up our current I/P policy there?  The FAQ doesn’t reflect it.

Sep 26 2007

Top Commander in Afghanistan Doubts Taliban Ever Defeated

How bad is the situation in Afghanistan?

So bad that U.S. Army Gen. Dan K. McNeill, the top NATO commander in Afghanistan, doubts the Taliban were ever defeated in the first place by the 2001 invasion. The invasion that the American, Afghan, and Pakistani officials once described as a success and the Taliban as a “spent force”.

“The question is, were they ever defeated, and I don’t think they ever were,” McNeill said.

McNeill is quoted in a story by the Washington Post that reports of an emboldened Taliban carrying out more attacks with a greater reach – right up to provinces ringing Kabul, the Afghan capital.

After six years of the United States being distracted by Iraq, the Taliban is gaining the advantage and the U.S. doesn’t have the strength nor resources to stop them.

Fighting and holding ground “is a problem for us,” McNeill said. “We’re not all the force we should be, both in size and capability.” Boosting Afghan army and police forces is a key goal because indigenous forces typically are the most effective in fighting a counterinsurgency, he said.

Sep 26 2007

Easy Things, Simple

From MLW

A lot of people say I’m confusing, and at least one reason is easy problems are no fun… once it’s easy, why bother. Well, I do know reasons to bother with them, so here are some easy things:

Health Care: we should have nationalized health care.

Drug War: There is no drug war… drugs should be legal along with medical care.

Abortion: Abortion is a serious and grave personal decision, as is the decision to have open heart surgery. Its also a medical decision for a person to ultimately make for themselves on consultation with a doctor.

Guns, War and the Military: I will not say that military is necessary in the world, but right now, the power of the world is still in GUNS. That’s just a fact of life.  As for war, all war involves war crimes, which are some of the most horrific crimes known to humanity, and should only be undertaken fully realizing the crime one has willfully endeavored to engage in.  The “noble purpose” is soiled, at best, and better be very important… in short the enemy really better be a hitler.

Sep 26 2007

Profiles in Literature: the Book of Job

Greetings, literature-loving dharmosets!  Last week the series had a guest poster who tackled a close reading of one of Edith Wharton’s best known works, The House of Mirth.  This week we’re going to crawl into the WayWayback machine to address one of history’s most baffling short stories.

Why do people suffer?  If there is a God, and he does have a ‘plan’, why do people who believe in him find themselves suffering the same indignities as people who don’t?

I have no interest in the religious side of this question (I’m an atheist), but the it makes for fascinating art. If you think religious texts aren’t appropriate fodder for literary analysis… well, then this ain’t the essay for you!

Otherwise, join me below for a trip through ancient Edom.

Sep 26 2007

35% of the Iraqi population is either dead, maimed or a refugee **update

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            1 in 3 people is the stunning reality of this war and no one speaks for them
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I wish to inform and hopefully to move you. I have gathered this information from various sources, UNICEF, the United Nations, WHO, medical journals and relief organizations. The figures are often based on estimates along with some verifiable reports and eye witness accounts because hard figures are difficult to gather. I tried, whenever possible to use multiple sources. Additionally, the UN places the prewar  population of Iraq at 22 million. With numbers so large they are already incomprehensible, understand  it is very likely the toll is greater than we can imagine or ever be able to document.
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You are invited below the fold where I hope we will find a sense of proportion and perspective and most of all outrage. 

Sep 26 2007

OPOL (not quite an Essay)

I just responded in a a thread to one of your detractors.

  I find nothing “RADICAL” about OPOL  (1.00 / 1)

He is just a run of the mill 60’s nostalgist spouting cliche talking points and  dated iconography.

Maybe he would have been radical 40 years ago.
by: Dharmando @ Tue Sep 25, 2007 at 10:34:18 AM PDT

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I call Bullshit. (4.00 / 1)

I may have butted heads with him about one thing, but the man believes what he says, and actual IDEALS don’t change with time.

If more people had not sold out & laughed at it as you have done, the world would be a better place.

OPOL cares about the world.  Do You?

by: Diane W @ Tue Sep 25, 2007 at 14:10:17 PM PDT

Sep 26 2007

Pony Party, “not enough for a separate essay” edition ;)

Jenny McCarthy, the beautiful actress you may remember from movie appearances in ‘Dirty Love’ or ‘Scream 3’, or numerous television appearances (oh, yeah, and the whole ‘Playboy’ thing…) has recently gone public about 2 aspects of her life.  She has a 5-year-old son who is autistic, and she has been dating actor Jim Carrey, whom she calls an ‘autism whisperer’.

From the linked Yahoo!News article:

“He’s actually helped Evan get past some obstacles I couldn’t. I sometimes call him the autism whisperer. He speaks a language Evan understands, and Evan feels safe with him.”

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