hi friends.

here's my list.

• security: knowing there will be medical care for me when i need it, knowing that there are no neighbors at any distance who wish me harm, knowing that someone is going to be there for my emotional needs, should any ever arise
• food: rice and beans with some good sauce. sushi sometimes, and every once in a while pizza or lasagna, or spaghetti with meatballs. oh, and safely-and-sustainably-grown foods, that are kosher enough for tevye's rabbi (fiddler on the roof -- must see), and chocolate chip cookies, lots of cereal and yogurt, rice milk, and bananas and spinach, and broccoli.
  
• abundant clean water (from the tap). i'm mortified by what's happening right now.
• a lower population of humans. something like 2-3 billion, so the resources are less scarce.
  
• housing: a place just big enough, with shared community workshops for woodworking, gardening, audio jamming, and other hobbies.
  
• absolute end of oppression, domination, and poverty
  
• room-mate(s) who together form a highly beneficial cohesive community
• a body in good health that i can enjoy
  
• low-garbage requirements: i want the absolute minimum of advertising and packaging
  
• clothing: made to order shirts and shorts, with good colors, automatically, and comfortable underwear. entirely by robots. perhaps hand-delivered by robots.
  
• permanent access to guitars that can automatically tune at the press of a button (during {all strings open} or between songs) as necessary (automatic per-string piezo pickups attached to gears in the headstock that respond on a MIDI command)
• permanent access to a guitar that has two pushbuttons like the old arcade video game "track and field" that can be used to open the channels of the humbucking bridge and neck pickups.
• permanent access to a guitar with a little felt bumper that can flip up to damp the strings right at the bridge or at the nut.
  
• unique ownership of an acoustic guitar that resonates well from 200-1300 hertz, and with very low easy-to-play action, and the face of a smiling girl with a flower inlaid on the front.
• real peace and understanding between/among/within christianity and islam. come together, right now, over me.
• celebrations, quarterly: for spring, a week where we honor our current generations and future generations. for summer, a week where we honor all generations past, future, and present. for fall, a week where we honor our ancestral generation, along with our generation. for winter, a celebration where we time to be contemplative and huddle within our own generation.
  
• a mass-media system that rocks, not one that sucks (commercial radio is pathetic, commercial television is better, but still. let's think of doing television shows of "the world's greatest youtube video," and television stations that are dedicated to just 1987, for instance, so we could choose to live in that experience as part of our virtual lives
  
• an educational system that encourages people to go to school and receive a truly well-rounded education, based on student's interests, and with sufficient support from the adult community.
• freedom of expression and action. the freedom to freely speak one's mind without feeling marginalized, threatened, or crucified. the freedom to strike up a cigarette or joint in agreed-on recreational areas, and at home. the freedom to have a fair opportunity to be on television, radio, and the mass media. (i don't have my 15 minutes prepared yet, but still...)
  
• freedom of goods and services, to the extent that our industry can most efficiently and fairly produce those goods and services.
• a high avocational/vocational ratio for people's personal lives
  
• a fully-accountable (reports on a weekly basis) government, and media that fairly represents all views
  
• democracy, according to the textbook, and not like the corporatist "democracy" america has, and is trying to bring to iraq. real democracy, on a global scale
• some recognition for the 7 uu principles, and the u.n. charter
• an internet 1000 times better than this, and as easy to turn on and switch channels as a tv.
  
• someone to remind me to do a little bit of yoga daily at noon.
  
• a good selection of high-quality erotica with a positive vibe for all, and a grounded understanding of the nature of pleasure in our own bodies and spirits.
  
• an end to needless commercial advertisements, including spam
• a decent replacement "icon" for christian churches. jesus wouldn't've chosen the cross.
  
• a fully-developed system of elevated/underground 200mph electric maglev trains between major cities on this continent, and slower/lighter maglev train networks for within cities. loads of solar panels near the train tracks
  
• electric earth-movers, so we can create levees around all the cities that could go below sea level. and well-designed newer cities (with the trains) several meters up, elevation-wise.
  
• fixing the planet's serious ecological/environmental problems, using our science for restoration, not just "progress."
  
• loads of solar panels, and an unbiased study assessing all of our energy alternatives
• a drink: martini, very cold, about one olive's worth of olive juice, and a little wet.
• one of the moons of jupiter or saturn, or maybe even mars, to be brought into an orbit between earth and venus and then terraformed, so we can have another "M-class" planet nearby.
  
• unique yearly times to convoke with family, in addition to the four global celebrations per year
  
• wireless music available on demand almost everywhere, except for sacred places
• studies on the safety of wireless frequency transmissions to people and animals, especially birds. studies on the soundness of many of our current practices actually.
  
• a new set of organic ears, and maybe digital ears as well.
• people who resonate with my thinking and feeling who take my important ideas seriously, and care to make them happen. and people to laugh at my bad ideas and kid me about them.
• faith
• love
• peace
• joy
• harmony
• substance and the transsubstantial
  

--
pax hominibus,
agape to everyone,
joel


http://revjd.blogspot.com/

Once in a while, the time will come
To surrender everything you have to give
Once in a while, the time will come
To surrender everything you have to give
-Flaming Lips, "Superhumans"

Enlightenment means choosing to dwell in the state of presence rather than in time. It means saying yes to what is.
-Eckhart Tolle

All formal dogmatic religions are fallacious and must never be accepted by self-respecting persons as final.
-Hypatia of Alexandria

just curious, how many people out there are blogging, carrying-on, and living life with the same general attitude as me?
--
pax hominibus, agape to everyone,
joel
http://revjd.blogspot.com/

Once in a while, the time will come To surrender everything you have to give Once in a while, the time will come To surrender everything you have to give -Flaming Lips, "Superhumans"

Enlightenment means choosing to dwell in the state of presence rather than in time. It means saying YES to what is.
-Eckhart Tolle

All formal dogmatic religions are fallacious and must never be accepted by self-respecting persons as final.
-Hypatia of Alexandria

Well, Cindy Sheehan is finally sick of it, and offered up her public resignation from social activism the other day. Frankly I'm amazed she lasted this long, considering how difficult and unsustainable (and mostly thankless) her position must've been throughout. Being a person who speaks out about things makes one -- and the things one says -- a target for those who disagree, and even for those who agree but are afraid of your methods, motives, or outspokenness.

A note from fellow seminarian Neal, 'It is one thing to be prophetic and another to "deal" with or at times "suffer" the consequences of ones prophecy.'

Rabbi Michael Lerner speaks to this in an insightful letter which I will either post here if given permission or link to if/when I can find it.

lyrics: "the "vroop, vroop" guitar sound from Primus' "John the Fisherman"

colors: grey with rainbows (the new default)

mood: a little slack, but charging up.

chant/prayer/mantra: power to the prophets.


pax hominibus,
joel

A pure mind is one that has grown dispassionate to thoughts of past and future, and has no hankering for any sights, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensations, or ideas at all.
- Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo from dharmaweb.org
--
pax hominibus,
agape to everyone,
joel


http://revjd.blogspot.com/

Once in a while, the time will come
To surrender everything you have to give
Once in a while, the time will come
To surrender everything you have to give
-Flaming Lips, "Superhumans"

Enlightenment means choosing to dwell in the state of presence rather than in time. It means saying yes to what is.
-Eckhart Tolle

All formal dogmatic religions are fallacious and must never be accepted by self-respecting persons as final.
-Hypatia of Alexandria

I've always wanted to know this. Maybe some day I'll pay them a visit. It'd be nice to find out what other Scandinavian cities my other paternal and maternal ancestors hailed from...

chant/prayer/mantra: roots.


pax hominibus,
joel

You can tell by the look in her eyes, right?




lyrics: meow, meow, meow

colors: black, white, brown, grey

mood: greasy hands. my bike chain came off on the ride home this evening.

chant/prayer/mantra: "what is love?"


pax hominibus,
joel

Today at our school's graduation ceremony (i'm not graduating yet for a couple more years), we had a speaker by the name of Leslie Feinberg, author of Stone Butch Blues. Somehow in the process of poking around at the Internet, I ended up at the page linked from the title. None of them really glides off the tongue, and its difficult to get a new word that "sounds" like a third-person possessive, for example, but takes up its own unique namespace. By that I mean words like "Hir" (pronounced here) sounds odd. "Ghe" (pronounced like the J in "Jacques", and a word I coined in an article last year) sounds kind of like a third-person pronoun, but must be pronounced kind of carefully so it doesn't just sound like "she". At the same time, when one is trying to be careful to pronounce the word correctly, they tend to give it extra enunciation, emphasis, or different timing and it sticks out like a sore thumb.

lyrics:

colors:

mood:

chant/prayer/mantra:


pax hominibus,
joel

The republican strategy for Iraq is to stay the course.
The democratic strategy for Iraq is to get out.
Neither of those methods is going to work, because the former is just agitating the whole region, and the latter would pull out without trying to ease any of the agitation.

In today's New York Times, there is a full-page ad on page nine, with a realistic strategy for peace in Iraq and security abroad and in the domestic U.S.

The plan is straightforward:
1. Repent of U.S. wrongdoing, and acknowledge all the damage done.
2. Be generous, diverting the war funds to go toward rebuilding Iraq as the Iraqi's would have it. A global Marshall Plan, diverting even just 1% of US GDP toward eliminating poverty worldwide.
3. Get the US troops (and US business interests) completely out, and replace them with a multi-nation peace-keeping force that is more diverse, including many Muslims and people of other faiths.

For more, go here, and read about it, view the ad, sign, and donate if you can.

Now, the real question is whether US leaders can have the chutzpah to make it happen. And whether the people of the US will hold them accountable ("If you want my vote, you are working to make this happen.")


chant/prayer/mantra: "peace, please."


pax hominibus,
joel

.
I didn't know that until I read about it in a local paper "The Street Sheet," published by and for the homeless community in the bay area. Many people in the homeless community suffer greatly from mental health issues, and are often either undertreated or untreated. In addition to articles written by mental health activist Leonard Roy Frank (the author of the piece linked above, and several other b00ks, including a quotationary put out by Random House), they had in-depth articles/interviews with journalist/author Robert Whitaker on the nature of the nationwide problems associated with antidepressants and antipsychotics, their marketing pressure, ineffectiveness, and the danger they actually produce in patients.

Almost needless to say, I'm against ECT as a treatment and as a torture. There are much better ways of treating mental health problems, and it seems to still exist primarily as a tool of social control. I think that as humanity grows to be more aware of how the human brains work, they may find that introducing electricity to the brain can be effective, and they will also discover that ECT introduces the brain to a destructive process with the subtleties of a kiloton-sized bomb, when really what could be best would be small fine-tuned intricately-timed millivolt charges at precise locations. I guess we'll see, but I'd imagine there is already a lot of headway being made with respect to electrochemical neuroconnectivity, right?

WELL-KNOWN ELECTROSHOCK PATIENTS
Some of the better-known people who have undergone electroshock treatment include
French philosopher Louis Althusser, French playwright and actor Antonin Artaud, actor
Clara Bow, writer and poet Richard Brautigan, television personality Dick Cavett, Kitty
Dukakis (Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis’s wife), Missouri senator and
(briefly) 1972 Democratic Party vice presidential nominee Thomas Eagleton, writer
Ralph Ellison, actor Frances Farmer, New Zealand writer Janet Frame, singer Connie
Francis, singer and actor Judy Garland, Naomi Ginsberg (Allen Ginsberg’s mother),
Australian pianist David Helfgott, writer Ernest Hemingway, Russian-born U.S. pianist
Vladimir Horowitz, Irish poet Pat Ingoldsby, poet Bob Kaufman, musician Roland
Kohloff, Olga Koklova (Pablo Picasso’s first wife), writer Seymour Krim, British actor
Vivien Leigh, pianist and actor Oscar Levant, poet Robert Lowell, British humorist Spike
Milligan, composer Paul Moravec, physician and writer Sherwin Nuland, actor Jennifer
O’Neill, English writer and illustrator Mervyn Peake, baseball player Jimmy Pearsall,
writer Robert Pirsig, poet Sylvia Plath, composer Cole Porter, poet and lyricist Dory
Previn, songwriter and performer Lou Reed, singer/actor and human rights leader Paul
Robeson, French fashion designer Yves Saint-Laurent, writer Andrew Solomon, writer
William Styron, actor Gene Tierney, songwriter and performer Townes Van Zandt,
physician Mark Vonnegut (Kurt Vonnegut’s son), poet John Wieners, Rose Williams
(Tennessee Williams’s sister), British writer Simon Winchester, CIA official Frank
Wisner, Australian singer Stevie Wright, and singer Tammy Wynette.



A LONG list of telling quotes from the 155-page article (based on historical quotations on ECT) linked above:

'[Regarding the first ECT experiment, performed on a subject found by police wandering around a railway station] “Two large electrodes were applied to the frontoparietal regions, and I decided to start cautiously with a low-intensity current of 80 volts for 0.2 seconds. As soon as the current was introduced, the patient reacted with a jolt and his body muscles stiffened:
then he fell back on the bed without loss of consciousness. He started to sing abruptly
at the top of his voice, then he quieted down. Naturally, we, who were conducting the
experiment, were under great emotional strain and felt that we had already taken
quite a risk.
“Nevertheless, it was quite evident to all of us that we had been using a too low
voltage. It was proposed that we should allow the patient to have some rest and repeat
the experiment the next day. All at once, the patient, who evidently had been following
the conversation, said clearly and solemnly, without his usual gibberish: ‘Not another
one! It’s deadly!’”
The next day, despite the subject’s plea, Cerletti administered a stronger shock which
caused a seizure. Thus “the first experiment of induced electric convulsions in man”
(Cerletti’s words) was carried out against the will of the subject with no one’s
authorization other than that of the person conducting the experiment.'

"1957-1961 — Husbands might wish to have their wives forget the emotional troubles,
including marital strife, which precipitated hospitalization. Mr. Karr [a pseudonym]
commented on his wife’s long-term memory loss as proof of her successful cure by ECT,
saying that her memory was still gone, especially for the period when she felt ill, and
that “they did a good job there.” These husbands used their wives’ memory loss to
establish their own definitions of past situations in the marital relationship....
Mr. Karr... expressed pleasure to the research interviewer that electroshock therapy
had made his wife forget her hostile outbursts against him in the pre-hospital period."

"A few days after being released from the Mayo Clinic following a second electroshock series in 1961, Hemingway killed himself with a shotgun blast to the head at the age of 61. Several years later, Howard P. Rome, his Mayo Clinic psychiatrist, was elected president of the American Psychiatric Association."

"You are strapped to a table, shaped, ironically, like a cross, with a crown of electric
sparks in place of the thorns. You are touched on each side of the head with wires. Zap!
Five cents’ worth of electricity through the brain and you are jointly administered
therapy and a punishment for your hostile go-to-hell behavior, on top of being put out of
everyone’s way for six hours to three days..."

"When I was young, I wanted to be a priest and I guess that was the dream
of my childhood, and I went into a seminary at the age of 16 and later went to novitiate.
And one day I woke up in a hospital. And on my medical records it said that I was a
catatonic schizophrenic and that therefore they gave me electroshock treatment. The
treatment itself was horrendous.
I remember two of them from my medical records which stated that I had 17 of them.
I remember being strapped down, totally powerless, electrodes being applied to my
head, injection of drugs, and a hum starting to appear inside my head, increasing in
volume till my whole head vibrated, and finally at the last moment it was like a crack,
like a gunshot, which blew me into nonexistence.
Coming to and not knowing who I was or where I was. An incredible fog. That was
horrendous, and I remember the last treatment that I had. I told the psychiatrist when I
was lying on the table, “I don’t want this treatment, I am afraid of it, it is horrendous, it
kills me, it’s very painful.”
And he said, “There is no pain. We give you a drug and there is no pain. Don’t be so
childish, don’t be a baby about it. Just relax and take the drug.” And that was such a
[pause] demeaning... [ellipsis in original]. I was even denied the ability to say that my
experience is that I feel pain in this treatment, that I am being a baby... [ellipsis in
original]. He is the expert. He has this credential. He went to school and studied this. He
has been certified by the state. But I am the person going through this, and I have no
credibility...."

"I am 49 years old today. I accept my age only because
my birth certificate validates the time, day, and the place of my birth. In reality, my
reality, I am 23. I have no memory of existing prior to October 1963, and the
recollections I do have of events of the following years until 1966 are fuzzy and few....
Dr. Cameron’s “brainwashing” experiments wiped my brain clean of every experience
I had ever known....
My parents were introduced to me that winter of 1963/64. Of course, I did not know
them. The children came back from wherever they had been living. I had no idea who
they were, and I certainly had no sense of what a “mother” was. They were all “older”
than I; the oldest could read and write — their mother could not...."

"Terrified, having seen the price for disobedience (for I had defied the psychiatrists by
not resuming my role), I tried hard now to be “good.” The carpeted floors and pastel
walls showed me one of my choices; the vacant stares and shuffling gaits of the patients
returning each morning from the shock room showed the other. Again the lesson:
conformity or punishment!"

"she was one that
really rebelled. I don’t know if she knew what it was before, but she had seen people and
you don’t see people get it, but you see them before and after and you see the difference.
Q. Anybody else attempt to fight back in any way?
A. I don’t think so. You know, you learn to play the game. But sometimes I thought, I
wonder if I got better they’d stop doing it. So I’d say, “Boy, I sure feel good today,” and
they’d say, “Oh, that’s great, they’re helping you so much.” So I thought, well, maybe if I
don’t do any better. [And I’d say,] “God, I feel terrible,” so they go, “That’s okay, the next
one will take care of it.” You can’t win really. I think they’d set up before how many I was
going to get. And after twenty she [the nurse] stopped and said, “Well, you’ve had your
twenty.” So I don’t think it would have mattered if I had done really bad or done really
well."

"[The old personality] was dead. Destroyed by order of the court, enforced by the
transmission of high-voltage alternating current through the lobes of his brain.
Approximately 800 mills of amperage at durations of 0.5 to 1.5 seconds had been
applied on twenty-eight consecutive occasions, in a process known technologically as
“Annihilation ECS” [ECT]. A whole personality had been liquidated without a trace in a
technologically faultless act that has defined our relationship ever since. I have never
met him. Never will."

"All your two-bit psychiatrists
Are giving you electroshock
They said, they’d let you live at home with mom and dad
Instead of mental hospitals
But every time you tried to read a b00k [note from joel: i change the oo's to 00's, so that this and other posts don't show up in a "b00k + list" search of my blog.]
You couldn’t get to page 17
‘cause you forgot where you were
So you couldn’t even read."

"I have been a registered nurse for 13 years and I’ve been a psychiatric nurse for
the past five....
I have seen the shock doctor try out all kinds of drugs, mixing them and using them
in such a way that the patient would get worse. Worse. And then the doctor [would have
97
a case for using] ECT as “all else has failed.” Often, if a lot of anticholinergic drugs are
given at once, the patient can go into a worse state and it’s called an anticholinergic
psychosis. I have seen him do this several times with different patients. It can be made
to look in the chart that ECT is the last resort.
I have seen consults with other psychiatrists which are required by law, signed and
written up when the patient was in the process of being put under anesthesia. This is
clearly illegal.
Patients are badgered to consent to another series after the first series is finished. At
this point they are often confused and do not remember how many treatments they have
had. Can this be legal informed consent?
Patients are often given a soft sell and not told of the possibilities of irreversible brain
damage. Thus, they cannot truly make an informed consent."

"At one time I tried to file for Social Security. I could not remember places I worked or
years. My mother tells me I was always good with dates, years, etc, not no more. I can’t
do any math, I’ve been tutored and helped and it won’t sink in. I can read a page in a
b00k and look up and not have any recollection of what I read. I have lost my ability to
learn and better myself....
I’d also like to tell you that since the ECT I lost my first husband, I have hardly any
memory of him, we were married 10 years."

"One advantage in the use of this treatment as far as hospital staff is concerned is
that the effect of successive shock treatments makes the patient more and more
confused, regressed, compliant, and — above all — forgetful, until the patient no longer
remembers that he is fighting his hospitalization and the use of electroshock treatment.
If there is any question whether the patient meets the criteria for commitment, several
shocks later all doubts will have disappeared as the patient becomes increasingly more
disoriented and confused."

"For the last 15 years or so, nobody has been speaking about electroshock in
Switzerland. Even among professionals, except for the ECT psychiatrists themselves,
there is hardly any knowledge about the current practice of this “treatment.” During the
1970s, psychiatrists noisily declared that electroshock was a very effective treatment,
especially for depressed people. This “beneficial treatment” then fell into disrepute and
for a while there were in real terms fewer people being electroshocked. Psychiatrists
attributed this to a dishonest press campaign carried out by critics of psychiatry.
Starting around 1985, however, and with little public awareness, the number of people
being electroshocked began to rise and has continued rising ever since. One might speak
of the silent comeback of electroshock.
There are good reasons for this silence: most people think of cruelty, torture and
electrocution when they hear the word electroshock. Nearly everyone feels horror and
dread when they imagine someone being administered electroshocks. The same must be
true for psychiatrists, at least before they begin their specialized training. It is during
this training that they learn to suppress their feelings more and more. This results in the
gap between themselves and their patients becoming larger and larger. This gap
separates not only the sane and the insane, the normal and the abnormal, but also the
powerful and the powerless. This gap enables psychiatrists (and other people) to project
everything in themselves that is disturbing and frightening, everything they dislike
about themselves, onto the so-called mad people where it can be dealt with by any
means they choose, including deception and violence. This blaming of others prevents
empathy, understanding, and appreciation of the truth that we are all creatures of value
— equal value.
Violence has always been a remedy, a false remedy, against fear. The powerful are
especially fearful of those they cannot control. In modern society, the “lunatic” is
emblematic of all the uncontrollables. Psychiatrists have developed the tools of control,
145
really weapons of violence passed off as medical treatments. With these tools they are
able to control, manipulate and destroy to a greater or lesser extent the intellectual and
emotional capacities of the uncontrollables, now fixed with stigmatizing psychiatric
labels, and so reduce their own fears and at the same time satisfy their sadistic impulses.
The true nature of electroshock becomes obvious when one considers that outside of
psychiatry applying electricity to any part of a human body is immediately perceived as
a method of torture."

"Women are subjected to electroshock 2 to 3 times as often as men. To cite as
examples statistics from different eras and locations, a 1974 study of electroshock in
Massachusetts reported in Grosser (1975) revealed that 69% of those shocked were
women. By the same token, figures released under the Freedom of Information Act
(Weitz, 2001) show that for the year 1999-2000 in Ontario, Canada, 71% of the patients
given ECT in provincial psychiatric institutions were women.... Another statistic that
seems relevant is that approximately 95% of all shock doctors are male (Grobe, 1995).
Factor in these statistics and a frightening and indeed antiwoman picture of ECT
emerges: Overwhelmingly, it is women’s brains and lives that are being violated by
shock. Overwhelmingly, it is women’s brains, memory, and intellectual functioning
that are seen as dispensable. Insofar as people are being terrorized, punished, and
controlled, overwhelmingly those people are women. And what is likely not coincidental,
almost all the people making the determinations and wreaking the damage are men....
[At public hearings] woman after woman maintained that despite the rationales used,
the real purpose of the electroshock was social control. Cognitive impairment or
memory loss was frequently identified as the means. The implicit rationale is: What
cannot be remembered cannot be repeated or acted on.
ECT appears to be effective in the way abuse is always effective: by inspiring fear of
further violation."


lyrics: Belly's version of "Have You Ever Been Experienced?"


chant/prayer/mantra: Surrender. Be at one. Pull.


pax hominibus,
joel

I just got this simple email from a spammer. Yes, there is indeed nothing other than the Subject line, but it makes me wonder about ways in which "surferness" could be not other than joyful? I was groggy this morning until I read this, now my mind is firing on all three cylinders.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: john5_booma1 <john5_booma1@ig.com.br>
Date: 08-May-2007 06:05
Subject: JOY AFTER SURFERNESS
To: john5_booma1@ig.com.br


--
pax hominibus,
agape to everyone,
joel


http://revjd.blogspot.com/

Enlightenment means choosing to dwell in the state of presence rather than in time. It means saying yes to what is.
-Eckhart Tolle

All formal dogmatic religions are fallacious and must never be accepted by self-respecting persons as final.
-Hypatia of Alexandria

Lets just be glad for the time together -
Lifes such a treat and its time you taste it.
There aint a reason on earth to waste it.
It aint a crime to be good to yourself!
-Kiss, "Lick It Up"

If you follow your bliss, doors will open for you that wouldn't have opened for anyone else.
-Joseph Campbell

If men were angels, no government would be necessary.
- James Madison

Tired of an American government that sucks up to corporate lobbyists and doesn't care for its people? You must watch this video of Barack Obama at the California Democratic Convention. The transcript of the text for the speech is here.

Oh my, he is sharp, can speak eloquently, has an upstanding character, and is charismatic. When he says things, he acknowledges the real problems that exist in America and the world, and there are ideas there that actually flow (as well as a campaign speech can put together a full flow). George W. Bush's short stubby repetitive statements and declarations seem almost grunt-like in comparison.

"It’s time to turn the page.

It’s time to show the world that America is still the last, best hope of Earth. This President may occupy the White House, but for the last six years the position of leader of the free world has remained open.
It’s time to fill that role once more. Whether it’s terrorism or climate change, global AIDS or the spread of weapons of mass destruction, America cannot meet the threats of this new century alone, but the world cannot meet them without America. It’s time for us to lead.

It’s time for us to show the world that we are not a country that ships prisoners in the dead of night to be tortured in far off countries. That we are not a country that runs prisons which lock people away without ever telling them why they are there or what they are charged with. We are not a country which preaches compassion to others while we allow bodies to float down the streets of a major American city.

That is not who we are.

We are America. We are the nation that liberated a continent from a madman, that lifted ourselves from the depths of Depression, that won Civil Rights, and Women’s Rights, and Voting Rights for all our people. We are the beacon that has led generations of weary travelers to find opportunity, and liberty, and hope on our doorstep. That’s who we are."

"And it reminds us of a simple truth – a truth I learned all those years ago as an organizer in Chicago – a truth you carry by being here today – that in the face of impossible odds, people who love their country can change it."

“That’s how change has always happened – not from the top-down, but from the bottom-up.”

I want a president who is smart and charismatic, and can make change (for the good) happen. Watch this video, and tell your friends.

As for Hillary -- the war defending thing.... not so convincing or attractive. I wish she'd step down now and offer her support for him. An Obama ticket with Clinton, Edwards, or Kucinich would be a good thing.

Count me in the Obama camp, though I still think Kucinich has some really good things to say.

Again, watch this video, and tell your friends.

pax hominibus,
joel

The most apparent thread of life's spirit moves from pre-substantial through substantial to post-substantial.

(In one of my classes, we're discussing the terms post-colonial and postcolonial in terms of biblical critique, and somehow the pre/post thing came into my mind while still working through the thoughts on substance.)

In other words, the answer to the age old question "Mommy, what happens when we die?" (always a tough question for parents to deal with). Just say "Oh, don't worry honey - you'll become post-substantial." Note that "become" is the future tense of "to be." So once you've become post-substantial, you are post-substantial. In that case, you'll be able to proudly still say "I am," albeit without a substantial tongue. In honor of all of those who are presently post-substantial, and especially those who are presently pre-substantial (who should get top billing, according to the value shown to us by time's arrow), I'll make the claim for them that "they are," and due to the lack of tongue of substance, are presently an oppressed class. Those of us privileged with substance can now step out of the now and allow them the strength of our humble voices.

OK, my work is done here. j/k, hoho.


f/f,
joel

BTW, speaking of voices, I have been thinking lately about how excited I am to be older. My father has, and my grandfather really had a really nice gravelly voice. When I'm older I hope to do recordings like William S. Burroughs did, but possibly not quite in the same vein.

Many Christians acknowledge the concepts of transubstantiation and constantiation. I am thinking transubstantiation is likely a mythical/mystical subset of trans-substantialism, but that's just a guess until I've done further study.

A few weeks ago, I went to a lecture on the variant forms of Avalokiteshvara (an eastern deity of love and compassion), and the speaker got to a very interesting place where it started to sound kind of Christian in terms of the state of existence (not so much WRT the doctrine) as he described the situation. Anyway, one of the audience members asked the presenter if his theory wouldn't be bordering on the sin of "substantialism," which apparently is looked down upon in certain circles. I began thinking about what could be the counterpart to substantialism -- what is the level of existence that transcends our substantial reality, the one where the spirit resides, and things can "get goofy." The place where we really are in touch with the divine -- what's that called? I couldn't find an answer other than the (to me) inadequate phrase "the etherial." The closest agreeable term I could come up with was a new term of my own - "Trans-substantialism." I need to do further study on substance theory, but I think there's something there. (No pun intended!)


pax hominibus,
joel

Here is a list of some other books that I've found at the library or heard about from other people that I wish I had time to read.

1. Stony th Road we Trod: African Amer bibl interp
2. howard thurman -th luminous dkness
3. the foucault reader - michel foucault
4. dorothy bryant - th kin of ata are waiting for you
5. mike davis - city of quartz
6. jean baudrillard - simulations
7. th postman (aftr ww3) - david brin
8. a history of collectiv joy - barbara ehrenreich
9. romans 8:18-30: "suffering doesn't thwart future glory" - bs 2665.2 g54
10. please understand me II - david keirsey
11. what the doormouse said: how th 60s counterculture shaped pc's
12. hanna arendt - feminist liberation
13. th origin of satan - elaine pagels
14. metaphors we live by: p 106 L235
15. how to better yr life with mind control: bf 1141 g6
16. *proverbs of ashes: bt 265.3 b76
17. strange birds frm zoroaster's nest: bL 85 f37
18. unsnarling th wrld knot: bd 418.3.g75
19. th light bearers: carrying hope & healing to th middle east battleground: ds 62.7 h37
20. th history of jerusalem:.th early muslim period (638-1099)
21. th alternative xmas catalog: gt 4985 a4 1974
22. claiming reality: phenomenology & women's experience: hm 24 L455
23. democracy & its critics: jc 423 d2478
24. walk in th light & 23 tales by tolstoy: pg 3366 a1 m3
25. th ox-herder pix: zen buddhism's.version of 'th pilgrim's progress': pt2687 k85 a513
26. th mark of cain: pn 710 b22
27. sacred space (interfaith): na 4600 s23 size 2
28. mere theology: a guide to c.s.lewis' thought: bx 5199 L53 v38
29. trance, healing, and hallucination: bv 5090 t7
30. th god-players: bt 701.2 j3
31. 'th last things' in a process persspective: bt 821.2 p57
32. th future of hope: theology as eschatology as eschatology: bt 823 f85
33. christ & narcissus: prayer in a self-centered wrld: bv 210.2 m398
34. rethinking rights & responsibilities: th moral bonds of community - jc 571 d9264
35. th moral imagination (peace-bldg): jz 5538 L43
36. th life of god in th soul of man: bv 4500 s3 1868
37. theology, music & time - mL 3921 b44
38. th spirituals & th blues (cone) - mL 3556 c66
39. killing rage: ending racism - e 185.615 h645
40. a marxist look at jesus - bt 202 m2913
41. jesus: th man & th myth - bt 202 m312
42. th teaching of contempt (TOC) - ds 145 i743
43. th hell jc nevr intended: bt 837 w74
44. hippies, hindus & rock & roll: bv 4596 h5 L37
45. th relig art of warhol - n 6537 w28 d56 size 2
46. faith in mind: a guide to ch'an practice - bq 9288 s51 f2
47. th collected works of erasmus - pa 8500 1974 v.1-86
48. th jesus legend - bt 303.2 w427
49. god th problem - bt 102 k34
50. pomosexuals: challenging assumptions about gendr & sexuality - hq 76.25 p66
51. th republic of plato - jc 71 p35
52. aristotle on political enmity & disease - jc 71 a7 k34
53. lost scriptures: bks tht did not make it into th NT - bs 2832 e37 (sfts)
54. th bondage of th will (luther) - bj 1460 L8
55. th way of mindfulness (bq 1320 s2522 e5 t53)
56. anqels & ministers of grace (bs 1199 a5 f5)
57. purple violet squish (bv 4470 w5)
58. th miracle of dialogue (bv 4012.2 h6)
59. world wo/ end xtian eschat frm a process persp (bj 1406 w68)
60. angels: ministers of grace (bt 966.2 m25)
61. between two qardens (bt 708 n43)
62. mephistopheles: th dvl in th modern wrld - bt 981 r865
63. purging racism frm xtianity - bt 734.2 e38
64. sikhism - its impact: bL 2018 s517
65. th messiah - bm 615 p75
66. 50 jewish messiahs - bm 615 r33
67. dynamics of salv - br 65 g66 w56
68. th seminary student writes - br 117 c67
69. crystal & cross - br 128 n48 e67
70. pq 2198 b18 a23
71. th art of chi kung: ra 781.8 w66
72. th gestalt art experience: rc 489 a7 r48
73. th star bk fr ministers - bv 4016 h5
74. th mystery of quaker light - bx 7732 p4 v.384
75. revelation & th environmnt - bs 2825.2 p371
76. beyond th ordinary: 10 strengths of US congregations - bv 700 w65
77. passion & paradise:.human & divine emotion, gregory of nyssa - bv 4817 s52
78. eschatology & utopia: th rel in a hist perspective: bt 821.2 L343
79. white soul: country music, th church, & wrking americans: mt 3524 s26
80. th gospel according to america: a medit on a god-blessed, christ-haunted idea: br 526 d36
81. picturing god: bL 205 p53
82. philosophy in the flesh: the embodied mind... - bd 418.3 L35
83. anarchy, state, & utopia: jc 571 n68
84. how we see god, & why it matters: a multicultural view thru kids drawings & stories: bL 205 L 34
85. kundalini & th chakras: bL 1238.56 k86 p38
86. pedagogy of th heart (paulo freire) - Lc 71 f7413
87. understanding media: th extension of man (mcLuhan): p 90 26
88. 50 key words of th church: br 95 s76
89. th mcLuhan explosion: p 90 m263 c7
90. th puppetmastr (moon): bx 9750 s4 y36
91. energize yr audience! Lc 5225 L42 u54
92. wrestling w/ angels: bt 966.3 s85
93. th concept of god in global dialogue: bL 473 c66
94. framing in discourse: p 302 f72
95. th gospel according to dr seuss: bv 4501.3 k 45
96. wht is mysticism? Bv 5082.2 k6
97. saved - frm wht? Bt 751.2 j6
98. jc & th angels: bt 198 c32
99. perspectives on th parables: bt 375.2 t65
100. christianity, evolution & th environ: bt 712 r53
101. death by despair: bt 714 m34
102. romans: an interp outln: bs 2665.5 s83
103. th rhetorical strat of 1 peter: bs 2795.3 t58
104. light on pranayama (iyengar): ra 782 i95
105. do u understnd wht u read? Bs 511.2 k813
106. r we amused? (wmn in th bibl): bs 575 a74
107. a wrld abandnd by god: pq 653 L44
108. we pledge our hearts (celebrate love/mrrge): pn 6071 L7 w4
109. global civilization: a buddh/islamic dialog (ikeda): bq 8419.4 i85 i34
110. th tantric distinction: bq 8915.4 h66
111. alphabet of creation: bm 525 a52 s53
112. causality: th central philo of buddh: bq 4240 k34
113. a relig tht thinks - a psy study: bx 9842 w53
114. footprints of a dream (thurman): bx 9999 s3 c5
115. long walk to freedom - dt 1949 m35 a3
116. xtian voices in u.u.: bx 9867 c47
117. religion & econ: normative social theory: hb 72 r45
118. th political realism of reinhold niebuhr: bx 4827 n5 m37
119. reinhold niebuhr & christian realism: bx 4827 n5 L68
120. th bk of mormon (annotated): bx 8623
121. true parents (s.m.moon): bx 9750 s45 g37
122. sun myung moon: th man & his ideals: bx 9750 s48 c58
123. dark side of th moonies: bx 9750 s48 h44
124. xtianity: does it have a founder?: bt 203 w47
125. intro to th parables ofjc: bt 377 s75
126. th 7 churches not in th book of rev: v 652.1 m58
127. stigmata of st. Francis of Assisi: bx 4700 f6 s279413
128. devils: n 8140 n47
129. genocide in NW calif: e 78 c15 n65
130. shamanism in w. North Amer: e 78 w5 p17
131. groupthink: e 744 j29
132. social deviance: hm 291 f27
133. alienation: concept, term, & meaning: hm 291 j57
134. th orifice as sacrificial site: gn 298 a46
135. author of liberty: jc 433 s4
136. sexuality & th black church: bt 83.9 d68
137. th paradox of existentialist theology: bt 84 s57
138. th story of th copts: bx 133.2 m583
139. *ppl need ppl - hm 132 s65
140. to do th wrk of justice (cath u.s. Plan): hn 39 u6 n3 1978
141. can god & caesar coexist? K 3258 d75
142. x fr all ppl - n 8050 c39
143. a guide to good singing & speech: mt 820 g22
144. afterburn: reflections on burning man: nx 510 n48 a34
145. becoming x: bv 5091 c7 t38
146. imagine ourselves richly (native amer) - e 98 r3 v43
147. satan is left-handed & other stories - e 169.1 s26
148. th integration of islam & hinduism in w. Europe: d 1056.2 m87 i58
149. daily life in th time ofjesus - ds 112 d233
150. paul & his theology: a brief sketch: bs 2651 f5
151. th cloud of unknowing: bv 5080 c5
152. rome in america: bx 1406.3 d34
153. washington & rome: bx 1406.2 z6413
154. th franciscan tradition of celibate chastity: bx 3603 c45
155. th jewish ppl in th 1st century: ds 122 j48
156. there is a balm in gilead: e 185.97 k5 b35
157. th negro baptist pulpit: bx 6452 b7
158. getting into th formula of concord: bx 8069.4 k58
159. or & argent (pics): cr 151 h45
160. th gnostic scriptures: bt 1390 g494
161. behind th eurocentric veils: gn 645 j42
162. how much do we deserve? Hb 523 g54
163. th late great planet earth: bs 647.2 L5
164. coming of age in th milky way: q 125 f425
165. survival into th 21st century: ra 784 k85
166. plants of th gods: qk 99 a1 s39
167. why ppl join th church: bv 820 r3
168. discover yr spiritual type: bv 4501.2 w37
169. to relieve th human condition: r 724 m2922
170. modern cosmology & th xtian idea of god: qb 981 m77
171. *wrinkles in time: qb 981 s695
172. same sex: hq 76.25 s24
173. catullus, et.al. pa 6156 a2
174. more than cool reason: pn 228 m4 L27
175. th gospel according to oprah: pn 1992.4 w56 n45
176. th life of god (as told by himself): pq 4866 e77 m6613
177. th ancient wisdom of origen: Br 65 o68 s65
178. theo of angels & devils' bt 966.2 v35
179. liberating eschat: bt 823 L53
180. shafted: hf 1746 s53
181. th sexual politics of meat: hv 4708 a25
182. atonement, christology & th trinity: bt 265.3 b78
183. who wrote th bible? Bs 1225..2 f75
184. symbolism ofevil: bt 715 r48
185. 22 keys to being a minister: bv 4011.3 L56
186. th heart of buddhist meditation: bq 1320 s2522 e5
187. recovering th scandal of th cross: bt 265 b35
188. th gospel according to superman: bv 4501.2 g3
189. u r peter: bx 955.2 c4313
190. between jesus & th market: br 1642 u5 k56
191. more money, more ministry: br 1642 u5 m67
192. th war prayer (twain): ps 1322 w3
193. choosing reality (physics & th mind): qc 6 w28
194. airwaves to th soul (relig broadc): bv 656 h54
195. einstein's god: qc 16 e5 g67
196. th city of god (st. Aug): br 65 a64 e5
197. we shall see him as he is: bx 382 s6413.

lyrics: "Jesus, forgive me, Jesus, I'm sorry, help guide me out of this mess." - off a home-spun CD I got from the lovely woman at the chiropracter's office. the disc is by one of the teachers at her school.

colors: orange, white blue

mood: studious

chant/prayer/mantra: in the beginning was the word, and then it multiplied (see list above).


pax hominibus,
joel

Labels: book list

I was just reading about the plight of some people in Uganda. My sister and brother-in-law went there recently on a Christian aid mission. The people there had to walk 6 miles round trip to get clean water, and the people on the mission helped them dig a well, which is awesome.

BUT we're using water like mad, and the drinking water tables are lowering. Meanwhile, the people in control of many governments, including the U.S. government, are more interested in keeping the power, and being on the side of the water privatizers than on the side of the people and our commonwealth known as clean water.

The "quick mental revolution" I had that I want to keep in mind going forward is that the system of government must extricate itself from the problem and become part of the solution. "The system of government" is incapable of doing anything, because it only exists in the form of people and their words. SO the people in government positions must help the governance get free from money-serving interests, even if it costs them their long-term possibility of reelection (which I really don't think it will). If they won't do it, we must get some people into the critical roles who WILL. For any candidate, we must very carefully consider the balance of their interests between corporate profit and the common good.

The short version of this quick mental revolution is WE ARE SCREWED WHEREVER GOVERNMENT IS PART OF THE PROBLEM. GOVERNMENT (everywhere) NEEDS TO BE PART OF THE SOLUTION.

And I should acknowledge three important things.

1) Though I would prefer to focus on other organizations and their capacity for agency, I have good reasons for focusing on government. When government is part of the problem, it actually makes justice work more difficult. Government that is part of the problem actually supports oppressions either through negligence, or through willfully serving those who already hold power. On the flip side of the coin, given the magnitude of some of the problems looming in the near future, it is CRITICAL that government (at all levels of community -- municipal, regional, "national," and global) be part of the solution. See this and this for more info on where I'm coming from here.

2) The identity of government (or a person or corporation) being either part of the problem or of the solution is a binary way of looking at this issue, and this concept actually exists on a continuum. When the truth about government actions is made available, it's not difficult to discern where a government agency fits on the continuum.

2) This issue of responsible government action is obviously about a LOT more than water. To name a few instances:

• Military-industry support, even to the extent of trying to drum up wars or places to sell American weapons and military equipment.

• Tax breaks for the rich, and supporting the rich in more ways than one could quickly enumerate or even discover (When multi-billionaire Warren Buffet says "If class warfare is being waged in America, my class is clearly winning," that's a strong case for this argument.) Because the distribution of wealth has become so off-kilter, its really REALLY unfair to consider the strength of an economic system on GDP, GNP, or other similar measures. If a country is rich, and many people are poor, the rich in that country, especially those in positions of control of resources, stand in judgment.
  

• FCC support of self-serving corporate media, while those who speak for the common good have no voice on the television/radio spectrum, and are blogging to each other and not the general public.

• Budgeting money toward profanely hideous park benches that have armrests in the middle so that homeless people can't lay down on them, rather than actually serving them (see note on Matthew below). In the meantime, those of us who want to enjoy the park can't snuggle up with our significant others on these benches because of these metal dividers.
  

• Receiving the bribes and desires of the [name your poison] lobbyists, while those who would lobby for the common wealth are either busy doing the charity work that missing social welfare nets could provide.

• The war on drugs, which does more damage to the population than most of the drugs do. There are better solutions in existence which await a government that cares more about people than wars on things.

• Energy policy. The U.S. federal government is ensnarled in oil interests. I'm still wondering what happened in that private closed-door energy meeting? Solar = Security!

• Speaking of private meetings, secrecy is part of the problem. If our government is doing things that we don't know about, are they planning a surprise for us?

• Our prison system has turned into a for-profit enterprise. More prisoners = more profits. But those profits come primarily from our tax dollars. Thinking people know that punitive justice is significantly less effective (if really effective at all) than psychological counseling and restorative justice. Support our prison system as it stands and you're on the "problem end" of the continuum.
  

• Just in general being bullheaded and obstinate. People who don't listen have no place in representative government, except to serve pre-conceived ideologies.
  

If the United States (and any other country) wants to really be a Christian nation,* they must note
“Truly I tell you, insofar as you did it for one of the least of one of these my siblings, you did it for me.” (Matthew 25:40, gender-inclusive Amplified Bible)
and note it well. Otherwise, they're just a nation that purports to be Christian, using some definition of "Christian" that I can't relate to.

*Oh, and "Hi." We're taking back Christianity. Today. My selfish reason for wanting to do that is so that my friend Ellie will "zip it" about Christians being such haters. All done with the hate, as of Tuesday, May 1, 2007. Speaking of -- Happy May Day everyone, especially those who work hard for worker justice. May your road be cleared for vitalizing labor, and fair compensation for your efforts.

lyrics: "Butterflies wear boxing gloves..." Knucklehead, by Lullaby Baxter Trio.

colors: rainbow flags in government buildings

mood: study study

chant/prayer/mantra: love yr neighbor


pax hominibus,
joel