[FairfieldLife] Re: Science absorbs Religion
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, dhamiltony2k5 dhamiltony...@... wrote: Dr. B: All Religion http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uAx059ecLgfeature=channel http://tinyurl.com/a4fj3d I couldn't force myself to watch more than the first minute or so of this, but that was enough. Dr. Anti-Charisma manages in that short time to actually turn the myth surrounding the writing of the Tao Te Ching into a TM movement-serving lie. He claims that Lao-tzu was trying to go to India when he was (in the myth) stopped by a gatekeeper who asked him to write down his wisdom before he left China. Lao-tzu was heading in the other direction in the real myth, towards Mongolia and Manchuria. But His Bevanness manages to turn that into him trying to go to India, and India being the source of his wisdom. What a putz -- the whole idea seems to be co-opting some other tradition's wisdom and claiming it's based on TM, and so the white-suited toady can't help himself from lying about a well-documented legend so that he can co-opt it as well.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Melissa Etheridge on Rick Warren
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Nelson nelsonriddle2...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_reply@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, BillyG. wgm4u@ wrote: But it's not the 'wrath of God' that brings on this destruction, it's violation of the natural laws of nature made by God, we have freewill to either obey these laws or suffer as a result of our ignorance of these laws or outright defiance of these laws, We have free will, period. BTW, the laws of nature you believe in are fiction, too. :-) snip, I find that ignoring the law of gravity can be troublesome at times. some of the laws of nature seem pretty real to me or am I missing something here? N. Nelson, I was just poking a little good-natured fun at Billy because he was extending the concept of the laws of nature to say that he considered things like unbridled sexuality, homosexuality, and lust to be against them. My point was that the word law is inappropriate. Take your example of gravity, for example. So far, as far as I know, no scientist has fully explained this *force* of nature. When they finally come up with a theory that seems to cover all the bases, in their hubris they'll proclaim their theory to be a law of nature. It isn't. You violate the law of gravity every time you step on a plane or fly a kite. What humans in their hubris call laws are merely their spec- ulations about the nature of the forces of nature; they aren't laws. And they go even further afield in their hubris when they attempt to claim that the things that they personally feel are moral or right are laws of nature. And they step into the world of the absurd when they claim that these theories of morality and proper behavior were dictated by God.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Melissa Etheridge on Rick Warren
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, BillyG. wg...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Nelson nelsonriddle2001@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_reply@ wrote: We have free will, period. BTW, the laws of nature you believe in are fiction, too. :-) I find that ignoring the law of gravity can be troublesome at times. some of the laws of nature seem pretty real to me or am I missing something here? N. Turquoise makes up his own laws as he goes along apparently, to date he has not specified his moral beliefs, per se, although he may be a moral humanist much like an existentialist, (like my brother). I do, in fact, make up my own rules of proper behavior as I go along, based on the situation itself and my perception of what may be right action in that par- ticular situation. I would suppose that this makes me a moral relativist. Personally, I loathe the word morals or morality and prefer the more Buddhist terms ethics. Morality connotes something that has been codified by a trad- ition, be it social or religious, and passed along to others. Ethics comes from within. IMO you can never go wrong if you attune yourself with an inner sense of ethics, but you cannot help but go wrong if you attune yourself to and follow to the letter some codified system of morals. Take Thou shalt not kill. You do it every day, if you eat meat, and even if you eat vegetables. You make exceptions for wars, and when you want to execute a wrongdoer for violating one of your made-up laws. A Buddhist, on the other hand, would always feel that killing was not right action, and would search for a way to avoid it. If it can't be avoided, he would do what seemed necessary ethically, especially if by killing one individual you saved thousands. But he would never, even for a moment, pretend that the killing was right or justified. He would assume that he was going to suffer all of the karmic blow- back for killing, even if it WAS the right thing to do in this situation. That's the difference between ethics and morality. There are no exceptions in ethics. You make your decisions and you live with the repercussions of your actions. Billy puts his trust in *what he has been told by other people* about what is right and what is wrong and then follows them blindly, as if the people who told him these things were right. I put my trust only in what feels right to me.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Melissa Etheridge on Rick Warren
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, BillyG. wg...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_reply@ wrote: And, just as a real mindfuck, what if there is no judgment and this guy gets away with his lifestyle while you spent years bridling your sexuality? http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gen/55053/original.jpg Here's picture of a man who has 'sold' his soul to the devil, much like Faust. The bargain was if he compromised his integrity (by publishing Playboy) the devil (temptation) would reward him with all the worldly pleasures he could enjoy. The down side was, at the time of death the Devil would own his soul. Billy, do you have any idea how much JEALOUSY and sour grapes comes out when you say shit like this? You are JEALOUS of Hugh Hefner, that's all. He got a lifetime full of nookie and you did not. So you make up stories about what his moti- vations were for getting the nookie and all of the bad things that will happen to him after his death for getting the nookie. Bottom line is that he may just get away with a lifetime full of nookie. And that pisses you off, because you didn't. So you make up imaginary Devils and imaginary stories of the horrible things that will happen to him because he wasn't as moral as you are, and you project them outwards to cover the fact that you're simply jealous. Wouldn't it have been a lot more efficient on your part to just go get laid? Meaning, since he never dedicated himself to any spiritual pursuits (ostensibly) he would have nothing spiritual to live out in the afterlife, hence he could only *pine* (since he couldn't fulfill those desires in the afterlife) for those wonderful glory days of the senses (aka hell, purgatory, pretaloka). To some degree we all sell our souls to the devil whenever we compromise principle for advantage, and we have the price (devil) to pay.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Melissa Etheridge on Rick Warren
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_re...@... wrote: [ A fascinating and uplifting counterpoint to all the hysterical condemnations of Rick Warren, and Obama for inviting him to the party. Remember, this is the person who refuses to pay California taxes in the wake of Proposition 8 passing. ] As a followup, t'would seem that Obama extending a proverbial hand across the aisle to Rick Warren has had the effect of causing him to temper his language about gays and backtrack to change his public stance. Cynics (and those who are more attached to their own righteous anger and indig- nation and sense of superiority than they are actually changing the attitudes of people towards gays) may claim that this is all for show, and that he doesn't really mean it. So what? He's DOING it. He *has* tempered his lang- uage and his stance towards gays, and as a direct result of being *included* instead of being rejected as less than human by people who claim that they are doing so because he has referred in the past to gays as less than human. The HYPOCRISY of those who wear their hatred of Rick Warren on their sleeves proudly because they claim he hates gays is just astounding. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/23/rick-warren-scrubs-anti-g_n_153068.html http://www.tmz.com/2008/12/23/rick-warren-out-of-the-closet/ Rick Warren's image change may be only for show. But he is *making* an image change. His website has been scrubbed clean of anti-gay language. He is going out of his way to scrub anti-gay hate behavior from his life. Meanwhile, a couple of people on this forum have not changed *their* image one iota. They are still clinging to their hatred of Rick Warren and being proud of it, while decrying Barack Obama for coming up with an idea that WORKED to reduce the amount of anti-gay hate speech in the world. Fuckin' hypocrites.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Melissa Etheridge on Rick Warren
The religious right has been quite satisfied by Obama's reach around. They know Pastor Rick is just doing what he must to further their bigoted agenda and trade on the credibility Obama has given them. A sham of change is not change. Make no mistake about it, the Fundies are repulsed by the thought of gay sex and are praying this moment that Jesus will protect Pastor Rick Warren from getting the cooties if he hugs a gay guy or has dinner with Melissa. They must be laughing their asses off at his ability to bamboozle The Gays. The only fuckin' hypocrites in this discussion have been preacher-man and Obama-can (do whatever the hell he wants.) Get use to it folks, Obama cannot resist poking the you in the eye and blaming you for the pain. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_re...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_reply@ wrote: [ A fascinating and uplifting counterpoint to all the hysterical condemnations of Rick Warren, and Obama for inviting him to the party. Remember, this is the person who refuses to pay California taxes in the wake of Proposition 8 passing. ] As a followup, t'would seem that Obama extending a proverbial hand across the aisle to Rick Warren has had the effect of causing him to temper his language about gays and backtrack to change his public stance. Cynics (and those who are more attached to their own righteous anger and indig- nation and sense of superiority than they are actually changing the attitudes of people towards gays) may claim that this is all for show, and that he doesn't really mean it. So what? He's DOING it. He *has* tempered his lang- uage and his stance towards gays, and as a direct result of being *included* instead of being rejected as less than human by people who claim that they are doing so because he has referred in the past to gays as less than human. The HYPOCRISY of those who wear their hatred of Rick Warren on their sleeves proudly because they claim he hates gays is just astounding. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/23/rick-warren-scrubs-anti-g_n_153068.html http://www.tmz.com/2008/12/23/rick-warren-out-of-the-closet/ Rick Warren's image change may be only for show. But he is *making* an image change. His website has been scrubbed clean of anti-gay language. He is going out of his way to scrub anti-gay hate behavior from his life. Meanwhile, a couple of people on this forum have not changed *their* image one iota. They are still clinging to their hatred of Rick Warren and being proud of it, while decrying Barack Obama for coming up with an idea that WORKED to reduce the amount of anti-gay hate speech in the world. Fuckin' hypocrites.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Melissa Etheridge on Rick Warren
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Nelson nelsonriddle2...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_reply@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, BillyG. wgm4u@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_reply@ wrote: [ A fascinating and uplifting counterpoint to all the hysterical condemnations of Rick Warren, and Obama for inviting him to the party. Remember, this is the person who refuses to pay California taxes in the wake of Proposition 8 passing. ] The Choice Is Ours Now by Melissa Etheridge I know she, and probably you, scoff and snicker at the story in the Bible of 'Sodom and Gomorrah', yet it contains an important moral lesson. If humanity continues in behavior that is contrary to natural law, it will suffer. In this context unbridled sexuality, homosexuality, and lust led to the demise of Sodom and Gomorrah...does San Francisco qualify? probably! Billy, Billy, Billy. I'll bet you still believe in Santa Claus, too. :-) Hate to break it to you, dude, but the story of what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah is fiction, as is the big guy in the sky who supposedly wasted them because they weren't as uptight as he was. But it's not the 'wrath of God' that brings on this destruction, it's violation of the natural laws of nature made by God, we have freewill to either obey these laws or suffer as a result of our ignorance of these laws or outright defiance of these laws, We have free will, period. BTW, the laws of nature you believe in are fiction, too. :-) snip, I find that ignoring the law of gravity can be troublesome at times. some of the laws of nature seem pretty real to me or am I missing something here? N. And you assume that the Old Testament determines the laws of nature? Uh-huh.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Melissa Etheridge on Rick Warren
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, BillyG. wg...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, do.rflex do.rflex@ wrote: --And perhaps you also go by the Old Testament Biblical standards such as human rights for prisoners of war as defined by this lovely example: Bible: Numbers 31:1-54 - Under god's direction, Moses' army defeats the Midianites. They kill all the adult males, but take the women and children captive. When Moses learns that they left some live, he angrily says: Have you saved all the women alive? Kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves. So they went back and did as Moses (and presumably 'god') instructed, killing everyone except for the virgins. In this way they got 32,000 virgins -- Wow! What a score! :-) Translation: I can't answer the questions I snipped so I'll just say something stupid and pretend those questions don't matter.
[FairfieldLife] Charlie Lutes' explanation on why people are gay
In my years of working for Charlie he was occasionally asked why
people are gay. And while Charlie was a bit of a homophobe himself, he
made it clear that the soul is without gender and incarnates into the
world of polarities via either a male or female body.
He also added that in order to fathom the range of human experience
and to learn the 'lessons of life' as he put it, the soul often
changes the gender of the body it uses for this to happen.
He made it clear that when this change happens, the person who was
previously, for example, a man, may now have the body of a woman but
can and often does retain the desires of the man they were - and
vice-versa. ---
This isn't something limited to the views of Charlie. That the soul is
without gender is a common understanding. And that the soul incarnates
into bodies of both genders is also commonly understood. {Even the
Hindu gods are found in the literature to have occasionally changed
gender.]
That people retain their desires from a previous gender is no
surprise, and neither is it a 'sin' worthy of death as Billy G and
other homophobic bigots are eager to proclaim.
---
You have taken on the human form to gain Divine Mind through
knowledge and experience in the field of combined opposites.
~~ Charlie Lutes
[FairfieldLife] Perfect Xmas gift for Willytex and other paranoids
And it's even free: http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/12/google-maps-mas.html This article talks about an application called Ground Zero (http://www.carloslabs.com/projects/200712B/GroundZero.html) developed by Australian coders to take advantage of Google Maps data to show the effect of a nuclear blast, and how far the blast damage would reach. (It does not take into account radiation or other effects.) Just enter an address for Ground Zero, press the Nuke It button, and see the result. Thus Willytex could see a visual representation of what would happen if the terrorists he's so terrified of nuked Austin, and whether the damage would extend to his house. (It would.) Not that I'm in any position to gloat. I entered data to sim- ulate a nuclear blast in Barcelona, thirty-some miles away, and I'd be a crispy critter here in Sitges, too. While this may not seem in keeping with the peace on Earth good will to men spirit of the season, I think that such visualizations are, in fact, good things. Back in the 50s you could see all sorts of data on what the effects of a nuclear blast would really be, and the horrible devastation that would result. Then, both in England and in the US, all of this data was pulled from the public domain, and no more documentaries were produced about it. It was like let's pretend that it wouldn't be as bad as we know it would be. The sad result is that now whole generations speak about nuclear weapons as if they could actually be used sanely. The great British documentary The War Game was made as a protest to this attempt to hide the reality of nuclear war by putting our collective heads in the sand. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059894/) Better IMO to present the real picture of what would really happen if some nation or some fanatics ever set off a nuclear war. According to scientists who've done the math, it would take as few as 20 modern-sized nuclear weapons going off to end all life on planet Earth. If more people knew that, fewer dollars would be being spent on adding more of these weapons to our arsenals (more new nukes are being built each year by the U.S. since 9/11 than at any time during the Cold War), and politicians would stop talking about using them as if they actually could. As we're putting the old guard like Dick Cheney (who started his whole career as a politician by lobbying for the devel- opment of first strike nuclear weapons by the U.S., weapons that could be used *only* if we attacked them first, and without warning) out to pasture, I think it would be a good time to reintroduce some reality into the information pres- ented to a new generation of politicians, so that they don't end up thinking that they can actually USE the nukes at their disposal. Maybe if they and the public were allowed access to real data, we could finally get rid of these things forever.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Charlie Lutes' explanation on why people are gay
Homophobia... isn't that the fear of getting caught using your
imagination in a way that could get you branded odd?
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, do.rflex do.rf...@... wrote:
In my years of working for Charlie he was occasionally asked why
people are gay. And while Charlie was a bit of a homophobe himself,
he
made it clear that the soul is without gender and incarnates into
the
world of polarities via either a male or female body.
He also added that in order to fathom the range of human experience
and to learn the 'lessons of life' as he put it, the soul often
changes the gender of the body it uses for this to happen.
He made it clear that when this change happens, the person who was
previously, for example, a man, may now have the body of a woman but
can and often does retain the desires of the man they were - and
vice-versa. ---
This isn't something limited to the views of Charlie. That the soul
is
without gender is a common understanding. And that the soul
incarnates
into bodies of both genders is also commonly understood. {Even the
Hindu gods are found in the literature to have occasionally changed
gender.]
That people retain their desires from a previous gender is no
surprise, and neither is it a 'sin' worthy of death as Billy G and
other homophobic bigots are eager to proclaim.
---
You have taken on the human form to gain Divine Mind through
knowledge and experience in the field of combined opposites.
~~ Charlie Lutes
[FairfieldLife] Re: Charlie Lutes' explanation on why people are gay
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, do.rflex do.rf...@... wrote:
In my years of working for Charlie he was occasionally asked why
people are gay. And while Charlie was a bit of a homophobe himself, he
made it clear that the soul is without gender and incarnates into the
world of polarities via either a male or female body.
He also added that in order to fathom the range of human experience
and to learn the 'lessons of life' as he put it, the soul often
changes the gender of the body it uses for this to happen.
He made it clear that when this change happens, the person who was
previously, for example, a man, may now have the body of a woman but
can and often does retain the desires of the man they were - and
vice-versa. ---
This isn't something limited to the views of Charlie. That the soul is
without gender is a common understanding. And that the soul incarnates
into bodies of both genders is also commonly understood. {Even the
Hindu gods are found in the literature to have occasionally changed
gender.]
That people retain their desires from a previous gender is no
surprise, and neither is it a 'sin' worthy of death as Billy G and
other homophobic bigots are eager to proclaim.
I was merely relating the story of Sodom and Gomorrah and the
ramifications of licentiousness on a grand scale as stated in the
Bible. You are being judgmental by calling me a homophobe.
You have taken on the human form to gain Divine Mind through
knowledge and experience in the field of combined opposites.
~~ Charlie Lutes
You left out the part about the ideal (according to Charlie) is one
should change sexes every 3 lifetimes, if you don't and stubbornly
refuse to be reborn as the opposite sex you're reborn, a little light
in the loafers as he put it.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Charlie Lutes' explanation on why people are gay
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, BillyG. wg...@... wrote:
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, do.rflex do.rflex@ wrote:
In my years of working for Charlie he was occasionally asked why
people are gay. And while Charlie was a bit of a homophobe himself, he
made it clear that the soul is without gender and incarnates into the
world of polarities via either a male or female body.
He also added that in order to fathom the range of human experience
and to learn the 'lessons of life' as he put it, the soul often
changes the gender of the body it uses for this to happen.
He made it clear that when this change happens, the person who was
previously, for example, a man, may now have the body of a woman but
can and often does retain the desires of the man they were - and
vice-versa. ---
This isn't something limited to the views of Charlie. That the soul is
without gender is a common understanding. And that the soul incarnates
into bodies of both genders is also commonly understood. {Even the
Hindu gods are found in the literature to have occasionally changed
gender.]
That people retain their desires from a previous gender is no
surprise, and neither is it a 'sin' worthy of death as Billy G and
other homophobic bigots are eager to proclaim.
I was merely relating the story of Sodom and Gomorrah and the
ramifications of licentiousness on a grand scale as stated in the
Bible. You are being judgmental by calling me a homophobe.
That's because you applied those judgments to all gays. Duh. Your own
words show that you are indeed homophobic, Billy G. You've repeatedly
condemned gays for just being gays. That's bigotry.
You have taken on the human form to gain Divine Mind through
knowledge and experience in the field of combined opposites.
~~ Charlie Lutes
You left out the part about the ideal (according to Charlie) is one
should change sexes every 3 lifetimes, if you don't and stubbornly
refuse to be reborn as the opposite sex you're reborn, a little light
in the loafers as he put it.
Looks to me that you made up that last part about 'stubbornly refusing
to be reborn as the opposite sex.' I never heard him say any such thing.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Melissa Etheridge on Rick Warren
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_re...@... wrote: I would suppose that this makes me a moral relativist. snip Billy puts his trust in *what he has been told by other people* about what is right and what is wrong and then follows them blindly, as if the people who told him these things were right. I put my trust only in what feels right to me. There are two reliable sources of information regarding right and wrong, one IS scripture, but it can be wrong. The other is intuition (i.e. conscience) which is also a reliable source. You have to balance the two, and as you grow in spiritual receptivity your intuition grows considerably and becomes more reliable until one is naturally upheld and established in the 'home of all the laws of nature', naturally. Like enlightened dawn suggested, you are using old ideas to make old arguments about outdated methodologies to deal with lust anger and greed, in short, you're living in the past...
[FairfieldLife] Re: Charlie Lutes' explanation on why people are gay
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Paul Mason premanandp...@...
wrote:
Homophobia... isn't that the fear of getting caught using your
imagination in a way that could get you branded odd?
I'd say that's a common reason. Also, studies have shown that
gay-bashing homophobes are often found to be latent homosexuals
themselves. They overcompensate and attempt to hide it by attacking
gays because they're terrified of their own feelings and being exposed.
Prominent gay-bashers are sometimes found in 'difficult to explain'
circumstances. Here are a few names that come to mind:
Mark Foley, Ted Haggard, Larry Craig - and here's a good one:
Troy King, Alabama's Attorney General as well as the chairman of John
McCain's Alabama Leadership Team was reportedly caught by his wife in
their bed with naturally another man:
King, a conservative Republican Christian who has called
homosexuality the 'downfall of society,' has been caught with his
pants down literally in a gay sex scandal. King was reportedly
nabbed having sex with a male assistant by his wife, Paige King, in
the couple's own bed.
http://tinyurl.com/6jsmv8
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, do.rflex do.rflex@ wrote:
In my years of working for Charlie he was occasionally asked why
people are gay. And while Charlie was a bit of a homophobe himself,
he
made it clear that the soul is without gender and incarnates into
the
world of polarities via either a male or female body.
He also added that in order to fathom the range of human experience
and to learn the 'lessons of life' as he put it, the soul often
changes the gender of the body it uses for this to happen.
He made it clear that when this change happens, the person who was
previously, for example, a man, may now have the body of a woman but
can and often does retain the desires of the man they were - and
vice-versa. ---
This isn't something limited to the views of Charlie. That the soul
is
without gender is a common understanding. And that the soul
incarnates
into bodies of both genders is also commonly understood. {Even the
Hindu gods are found in the literature to have occasionally changed
gender.]
That people retain their desires from a previous gender is no
surprise, and neither is it a 'sin' worthy of death as Billy G and
other homophobic bigots are eager to proclaim.
---
You have taken on the human form to gain Divine Mind through
knowledge and experience in the field of combined opposites.
~~ Charlie Lutes
[FairfieldLife] Re: Edg, re: Trikke
Cool! Marek Reavis wrote: Hey, Edg, I wanted to give you a preliminary report on the Trikke. Because of lots of rain I only had the opportunity to take it out 2 more times, 30 minutes on Friday, and another 60 minutes tonight; so that's only a total of 2 hours or so. Before I go any further, it should be noted that tonight I got it, which hadn't been the case earlier two times (more on the breakthrough, below). There's more got its to come. Muscle memory will gradually accumulate and lots of trikking attention will be freed up as the common challenges become easily handled. You'll be surprised at what you learn in the next year, because trikking is about nuancing. Hills will teach you this; it is one thing to get the basic technique and quite another to be use it in all circumstances -- with hills being the ultimate challenge to use the skill with a higher order of exactitude. And it is just pure fun getting to that levelnot a day wasted, never any this thing is getting boring. Each day, you find yourself becoming smoother and less likely to be caught off guard by the many forces of evil out there masquerading as acorns, sticks, bumps, cracks, upliftments, etc. But some first impressions: (1) The Trikke is really well built, even over-engineered it seems to me, and it inspires a heap of confidence right off the bat. It's totally sturdy and manufactured without any apparent compromise; absolutely no sense of flimsy or cheap, it feels aeronautical, in a way. They advertise that it's aircraft aluminum. Whatever, but the clones and knockoffs that have come and gone have been quite flimsy and easily broken. That said, I've broken my trikkes dozens of times because I'm just rough as I want to be with them by stressing the joints with various no-no's like banging into things to bounce backwards off them. Most trikkers never break a part for years, but megeeze. (2) It's really a marvelous concept and you are constantly reminded of that while you're doing it; these guys really put a fine thing out in the world. It's a fine thing that newbies can see this almost as clearly as oldies. But, let me praise your write-up for it's conceptual clarity. Can I post this to the general trikking community and to the company? It's good. (3) It's also very non-intimidating, even right from the start. Having a 3-point stable wheel platform made me feel secure and confident right away. Having handlebar mounted handbrakes is another confidence-building feature, though I hardly use them. (4) Air-filled rubber tires make a lot more sense to me than these large PU wheels that I currently have. Tonight I found another location on the high school campus (someplace I probably wasn't supposed to be) where it was slick concrete and finegrain asphalt that felt super smooth compared to regular asphalt streets around here. Rubber tires would smooth everything out just fine, IMO. There were no rubber tires when I bought my first Trikke, so I was an expert by the time they came out, and wow, it was like entering heaven. Yet, though the poly wheels give a bumpy jarring ride on many surfaces, it serves to strengthen the grip of hands and arms and teach one that alertness is as necessary to trikking as it is to meditation. And, the funny thing is that most trikkers keep all their Trikkes just to have the fun of the poly challenge from time to time. (5) I totally appreciate the whole body workout the Trikke delivers. What's more, both upper body and lower body energy output seem nicely balanced and the rate of output is easily adjusted; I liked the fact that I could speed up the pace to get more heat in the workout, or I could just cruise and glide. One can carve using, say, 90% arms-only or 90% legs-only, but using the whole body all the time is the default choice for most. Hills work the upper body quite a bit more, and I look at a hill as a weight lifting event of a hundred reps of lifting my body uphill one carve-rep at a time. On the flats, quads are the long-distance engine with the arms instantly coming into play when one wants to get back up to speed when momentum has been attenuated. (6) The Trikke provides a high degree of built in feels good that dominates the exercise part of it; the immediate reward is the doing of the thing, not the deferred gratification of being more fit, and it definitely delivers. The feedback loop is immediate and positive, you want to do this thing once you start doing this thing. Well said. It just doesn't come off as exercise. It's so much more like eating potato chips -- gotta get one last carve in. Hard to quit even when you're exhausted. That's the quick impressions. Tonight, however, I finally found the groove with the thing and that made (naturally) a huge difference. The concept is pretty easy to figure out once you get up on the thing, and I'd had long moments of finding the sweet spot while I was riding the other
[FairfieldLife] Re: Edg, re: Trikke
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Arhata Osho arhatafreespe...@... wrote: A couple of times on the Venice Boardwalk. Jim went cross country to advertise it! Jimmy Evans went from coast to coast -- and then, he did it again! First time on poly wheels with 50 pounds of backpack strapped to his Trikke. And he did Europe too! And with little or no support team -- he slept on the ground most nights, alone. The guy is almost like Forest Gump in his running phase. Edg Can be fun for sure. This town is all hills and kind challenging for any type bike. Arhata Very cool, Arhata, have you tried it? As you can tell, I'm a neophyte, but definitely impressed by the thing. Marek ** --- In FairfieldLife@ yahoogroups. com, Arhata Osho arhatafreespeech@ ... wrote: I had a friend Jim , on Venice Beach who introduced that in the early 2000's! Arhata Hey, Edg, I wanted to give you a preliminary report on the Trikke. Because of lots of rain I only had the opportunity to take it out 2 more times, 30 minutes on Friday, and another 60 minutes tonight; so that's only a total of 2 hours or so. Before I go any further, it should be noted that tonight I got it, which hadn't been the case earlier two times (more on the breakthrough, below). But some first impressions: (1) The Trikke is really well built, even over-engineered it seems to me, and it inspires a heap of confidence right off the bat. It's totally sturdy and manufactured without any apparent compromise; absolutely no sense of flimsy or cheap, it feels aeronautical, in a way. (2) It's really a marvelous concept and you are constantly reminded of that while you're doing it; these guys really put a fine thing out in the world. (3) It's also very non-intimidating, even right from the start. Having a 3-point stable wheel platform made me feel secure and confident right away. Having handlebar mounted handbrakes is another confidence-building feature, though I hardly use them. (4) Air-filled rubber tires make a lot more sense to me than these large PU wheels that I currently have. Tonight I found another location on the high school campus (someplace I probably wasn't supposed to be) where it was slick concrete and finegrain asphalt that felt super smooth compared to regular asphalt streets around here. Rubber tires would smooth everything out just fine, IMO. (5) I totally appreciate the whole body workout the Trikke delivers. What's more, both upper body and lower body energy output seem nicely balanced and the rate of output is easily adjusted; I liked the fact that I could speed up the pace to get more heat in the workout, or I could just cruise and glide. (6) The Trikke provides a high degree of built in feels good that dominates the exercise part of it; the immediate reward is the doing of the thing, not the deferred gratification of being more fit, and it definitely delivers. The feedback loop is immediate and positive, you want to do this thing once you start doing this thing. That's the quick impressions. Tonight, however, I finally found the groove with the thing and that made (naturally) a huge difference. The concept is pretty easy to figure out once you get up on the thing, and I'd had long moments of finding the sweet spot while I was riding the other two times; but it wasn't till tonight that I finally found out how to line up all the different sinuses the Trikke calls into play, and . . . ahh , yes, that's the ticket. It felt like a horse going from a canter to a gallop, not the speed aspect, but the change from bouncy and uncomfortable to smooth and right. And it was funny, too, because I'd been working it and working it, and each time I'd get the thing going but then, with each additional move, I'd lose just a little momentum and after a bit I'd have to push off again with one foot or the other to pick up some speed. But then, after about 10-15 minutes the body picked up the groove and all at once, the mechanism dissolved into the movement. Very cool. Have to say that surfing is like nothing else in my experience and nothing like the Trikke. I dig the addition of the Trikke into my exercise and recreation regimen and expect to use it several times a week, but I'm sold out to surfing. Let's hope we get to come back because next time I'm going start out on the coast and get this wave-riding thing going first off and not wait till I'm older. Anyway, Edg, thanks for the persistence in bringing up the Trikke on
[FairfieldLife] Re: Melissa Etheridge on Rick Warren
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_re...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Nelson nelsonriddle2001@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_reply@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, BillyG. wgm4u@ wrote: But it's not the 'wrath of God' that brings on this destruction, it's violation of the natural laws of nature made by God, we have freewill to either obey these laws or suffer as a result of our ignorance of these laws or outright defiance of these laws, We have free will, period. BTW, the laws of nature you believe in are fiction, too. :-) snip, I find that ignoring the law of gravity can be troublesome at times. some of the laws of nature seem pretty real to me or am I missing something here? N. Nelson, I was just poking a little good-natured fun at Billy because he was extending the concept of the laws of nature to say that he considered things like unbridled sexuality, homosexuality, and lust to be against them. My point was that the word law is inappropriate. Take your example of gravity, for example. So far, as far as I know, no scientist has fully explained this *force* of nature. When they finally come up with a theory that seems to cover all the bases, in their hubris they'll proclaim their theory to be a law of nature. Barry's reasoning here is confused in a number of different ways. First, he tries to put Billy down by declaring his use of the term laws of nature is somehow an unwarranted extension. But then he goes on to declare that *science's* use of the term is inappropriate as well. He seems to think that the only correct usage of the word law is the *legal* sense. He's wrong on all three counts. In fact, of course, Billy's usage isn't something *he* extended: When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the LAWS OF NATURE and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.--Declaration of Independence (emphasis added) The use of the term laws of nature or natural law in this sense goes back to Aristotle. In science, a law refers to a statement of an order or relation of phenomena that SO FAR AS IS KNOWN is invariable under the given conditions (emphasis added). It isn't. You violate the law of gravity every time you step on a plane or fly a kite. Um, no, you don't. You simply take advantage of *other* laws of nature. What humans in their hubris call laws are merely their spec- ulations about the nature of the forces of nature; they aren't laws. And they go even further afield in their hubris when they attempt to claim that the things that they personally feel are moral or right are laws of nature. And they step into the world of the absurd when they claim that these theories of morality and proper behavior were dictated by God. Barry obviously doesn't like the idea of anything permanent or binding or fixed; it scares the daylights out of him. It's perhaps the only consistent theme that runs throughout his posts. You might even say Barry's notion that there are no inviolable laws is, in his mind, an inviolable law, and anyone who presumes to violate it is always WRONG. As I've noted before, Barry has always had a tendency to fall into infinite regress.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Melissa Etheridge on Rick Warren
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, BillyG. wg...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_reply@ wrote: I would suppose that this makes me a moral relativist. snip Billy puts his trust in *what he has been told by other people* about what is right and what is wrong and then follows them blindly, as if the people who told him these things were right. I put my trust only in what feels right to me. There are two reliable sources of information regarding right and wrong, one IS scripture, but it can be wrong. As do.rflex pointed out with his Bible quotes, it often IS wrong. Unless you feel comfortable with offering up your own daughters as a sexual favor; if you do feel comfortable with this, you have no problem with the Bible. :-) More important, however, the whole *question* of whether you believe that scripture is a reliable source of information depends on whether you believe that the so-called scripture was written by man or dictated by God. Since I don't believe that any book in human history has EVER been dictated by or written by God, that puts scripture right out as a reliable source of information for me, because it renders all such scriptures as Just Opinions, written by human beings as prone to error as I am. I'd rather just trust my own intuition. The other is intuition (i.e. conscience) which is also a reliable source. I would not equate intuition with conscience. Intuition is much broader and covers a wider range of phenomena and insights than conscience does. You have to balance the two... You may feel that you have to balance the two. I completely reject one (scripture, unless it happens to agree with my intuition) and rely on the other. ...and as you grow in spiritual receptivity your intuition grows considerably and becomes more reliable until one is naturally upheld and established in the 'home of all the laws of nature', naturally. You mean the way that all of these TMers who have been arrested for various crimes became established in the home of all the laws of nature? Or the way that generations of celibate priests have abused the women and children who trusted them? Like enlightened dawn suggested, you are using old ideas to make old arguments about outdated methodologies to deal with lust anger and greed, in short, you're living in the past... Billy, with all due respect, you have this exactly backwards. YOU are the one living in the past, slavishly following the advice of men long dead, as written in their scriptures. I am merely following my own intuition, and owe no obedience to anyone's advice or guidelines from the past. As for having to deal with lust, that implies that it's something negative, something that HAS to be dealt with. I do not believe this. I believe instead that sexual attraction is the most natural thing in the world, and that there is nothing about it that has to be dealt with to make it go away or to bridle it, as you put it. Sure, I don't mess around with married women, or with women who have some other committed relation- ship with another person, but that is a personal preference of mine based on my own intuition. If some scripture told me that I *should* fool around with married women (and the so-called scriptures of India are just *full* of the gods fooling around with the wives of the other gods), I *still* would not do it. Similarly, I see no benefit to my own spirituality in trying to deny impulses that are as natural as breathing. In fact, I see (and have seen) many, many instances of those who DO deny their own sexual appetites and try to suppress them going downright crazy, or becoming pedophiles or secret molesters. So I think I'm pretty safe in assuming that if I feel some attraction to an eligible female, and she feels a similar attraction to me, it's fine for both of us to pursue things. You feel differently, and that is your right. I have NO PROBLEM with you living your life the way you think best for yourself and your own evolution. I only speak up when you attempt to suggest that your version of right is right for everyone else. That's just religious bigotry and self importance, and I don't suffer such things quietly. As I see it, the bottom line of your life and your approach to it is that it is based on FEAR. You seem to believe in these scriptures you hold as authorities so firmly that you are trying to deny your own body's natural impulses, because these authorities have convinced you that these natural impulses are BAD, and that you should fear them. You are afraid of losing your energy by ejaculating, and you are afraid of sabotaging your enlightenment by doing something (having sex) that any number of enlightened people throughout the ages have done, and have had no problem with. And you actually seem to be trying to present this fear-based approach to life to us as if we should buy into it. I just don't do fear, sorry. If
[FairfieldLife] Re: Melissa Etheridge on Rick Warren
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_re...@... wrote: snip Personally, I loathe the word morals or morality and prefer the more Buddhist terms ethics. Morality connotes something that has been codified by a trad- ition, be it social or religious, and passed along to others. Ethics comes from within. Actually, these are Barry's *personal* definitions, or perhaps his parroting of Buddhist teaching. Morals and ethics are in fact synonymous in common usage. Nothing wrong with the distinction that Barry makes concerning the source of one's sense of right and wrong, but it has nothing to do with how the terms morals and ethics are actually used in ordinary discourse.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Edg, re: Trikke
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Duveyoung no_re...@... wrote: **snip It's a fine thing that newbies can see this almost as clearly as oldies. But, let me praise your write-up for it's conceptual clarity. Can I post this to the general trikking community and to the company? It's good. **snip to end Edg, post whatever I write to whomever you want. The nutshell summary is that the Trikke is a marvelous mechanism and a great way to get a low-impact, high-caloric workout that feels all fun rather than exercise. And, as you point out, it's highly portable and available to enjoy on a moment's notice. I'm heading down to Davis later today to meet up with my son, his wife and the ever-delightful granddaughter for the holiday at my former spouse's home and I'm bringing the Trikke with me for sure; Davis has lots and lots of bike paths and it's all flat. More later, as news comes in. Marek
[FairfieldLife] Re: Charlie Lutes' explanation on why people are gay
And that the soul incarnates
into bodies of both genders is also commonly understood. {Even the
Hindu gods are found in the literature to have occasionally changed
gender.]
The most interesting take on this one in Hindu/Vedic literature is a
story in the Yoga Vashista. A king and queen decide to get into
spiritual pursuits and the queen gets to UC pretty quick. The king
will have nothing of it and wanders off into the forest for a few
decades of austerities. A few decades later the queen reckons he might
be ready for some instruction, but knowing he won't listen to a woman,
she disguises herself as a celibate monk. After some detailed
instruction on what's what he gets enlightened, and then the queen
starts thinking, hold on this guy is my husband and we haven't had it
for years So she goes through a big rigmarole of changing sex every
night so the king can hump the celibate monk he's met in the forest,
while in UC. Real soap opera stuff and calculated to break the
boundaries of people who think in conventional ways about what's
spiritual.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Melissa Etheridge on Rick Warren
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_re...@... wrote: -snip- You violate the law of gravity every time you step on a plane or fly a kite. What humans in their hubris call laws are merely their spec- ulations about the nature of the forces of nature; they aren't laws. -snip- 'You violate the law of gravity every time you step on a plane...' you're kidding me, right? how do you think a plane gets airborne anyway, by using its anti-gravitational effect neutralizer, or something? lol. an airplane flies because it adheres to the law of gravity. it is the shape of the cross section of the wing, an aitfoil, that allows the air to move faster across the underside of the wing than over the top, producing lift. no laws of gravity are violated. in fact it is the gravitational pull exerted on the atmosphere that even makes flight possible. i get your persona of always being 'the bad boy', but sometimes all you come across as is 'the dumb boy'.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Melissa Etheridge on Rick Warren
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_re...@... wrote: All in all, I'd prefer to be known as the bad boy or the dumb boy. :-) If the foo shits...
[FairfieldLife] Classical Music for Christmas Eve
Beautiful: Mozart Violin Concerto No. 5 http://tinyurl.com/8konlx Amazing: Heifetz plays Paganini Caprice No.24 http://tinyurl.com/7a8gwn What are your favorites?
Re: [FairfieldLife] MUM slaying lawsuit goes to court in Jan
On Dec 23, 2008, at 10:58 PM, Peter wrote: Why the powers-to-be at MUM are not settling this out of court is beyond comprehension. MUM violated its own written procedures and were grossly negligent. Just incomprehensible in sending a floridly psychotic student who had previously attacked and injured a student to sit with an untrained faculty member who then leaves him unattended. And then when he finally finds him, he's mingling with other students and this untrained faculty member simply observes him? WTF? What, was everyone terrified of getting embarrassed or something? Probably. Short of bribing the judge, it's tough to see how they can win. So maybe they will settle at some point, although I hope they don't, as I'd love to see them get their asses whipped in court, it was such gross negligence. Then again, maybe I'm just a revenge-seeking lowlife. :) Sal
[FairfieldLife] Re: Dick Cheney Thinks It's Okay to be Your Master
lets see, our congress has bankrupted the social security fund and no one is accoutable for that.senators have protected fannie mae and freddi mac from regulation and now both Fannie and Freddie are in conservatorship and again no one is responsible...our senators have a pension and insurance for life that 99% of common folk do not havethey fly in private jets all over the world..above the lawabove any accountabilityabove all of humanity --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Richard J. Williams willy...@... wrote: bettyblue wrote: The political class has been above the law for a very long time.. Let's see - Barak Obama and Joe Biden are both lawyers, right? And both of them are politicians, right? And they have been 'above the law' for a very long time? This doesn't even make any sense. If anyone is in a political 'class' and has been a lawyer for a very long time, then I'd say it was Hillary Clinton - she's a lawyer, right? So, now you're thinking that Barak is going to roll back the Defense of Marriage Act, signed by her husband, Bill Clinton? Yesterday we made the case for why Caroline Kennedy should be Gov. David Paterson's pick for the Senate seat being vacated early next year by Hillary Rodham Clinton. Read more: 'The Case Against Caroline Kennedy' Posted by Chris Cillizza Washington Post, December 22, 2008 http://tinyurl.com/89ebrr
[FairfieldLife] Re: Melissa Etheridge on Rick Warren
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_re...@... wrote: snip As a followup, t'would seem that Obama extending a proverbial hand across the aisle to Rick Warren has had the effect of causing him to temper his language about gays and backtrack to change his public stance. Cynics (and those who are more attached to their own righteous anger and indig- nation and sense of superiority than they are actually changing the attitudes of people towards gays) may claim that this is all for show, and that he doesn't really mean it. So what? He's DOING it. He *has* tempered his lang- uage and his stance towards gays, He's talking the talk, at least for current public consumption, but is he walking the walk? Are unrepentant gays now acceptable for membership in his congregation, or are they still excluded? Has his *stance* really changed, or has he merely cleaned up his public utterances? and as a direct result of being *included* instead of being rejected as less than human by people who claim that they are doing so because he has referred in the past to gays as less than human. Hmm, I haven't seen anyone reject Warren on the grounds that he is less than human. For that matter, I haven't seen any statement by Warren referring to gays as less than human. I strongly suspect that Barry made this up. Creating straw-man arguments is standard with Barry because he has such trouble thinking clearly enough to construct valid ones. The HYPOCRISY of those who wear their hatred of Rick Warren on their sleeves proudly because they claim he hates gays is just astounding. Some would say it's Warren who's the hypocrite, first of all. Second, whether Warren hates gays is impossible to know. In this case, his public stance has been very consistent: It's hate the sin, love the sinner. Whether hating homosexuality constitutes homophobia depends on how one defines homophobia. There's no question that acting on one's purported hatred of homosexuality is exceedingly harmful to homosexuals. snip Rick Warren's image change may be only for show. (Otherwise known, of course, as hypocrisy: feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not. An image change for show is virtually the *definition* of hypocrisy. And yet Barry charges those who point this out as hypocrites.) But he is *making* an image change. His website has been scrubbed clean of anti-gay language. He is going out of his way to scrub anti-gay hate behavior from his life. Is he scrubbing the behavior? Has he changed the requirement for membership in his church? Warren has gotten all kinds of credit for his work against AIDS, especially in Africa. But those who are inclined to support him on this account need to better inform themselves. A good start can be found in a blog post by Kathryn Joyce. Excerpt: Warren's undeserved reputation as a new-breed 'moderate' evangelical, with his benevolent AIDS work in Africa supposed to negate his anti-gay and anti-choice advocacy at home, rests on a deeply flawed foundation. Warren's AIDS activism is nearly as troubling as the rest of his ideology The new faith-based arm of the AIDS movement Warren had energized asked for, and got, a number of obstacles to prevention services: a prohibition on needle exchange programs for drug users; a ban family planning services in Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission clinics; and the anti-prostitution loyalty oath, which required all groups receiving PEPFAR [government] funding, including those that work with sex workers, to condemn prostitution. As with conscience clauses, Jacobson says, this ideological interpretation of PEPFAR became a source of U.S. funding that allows groups or organizations to avoid having to provide prevention treatment or care according to evidence-based criteria. http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2008/12/19/untold-consequences- rick-warrens-aids-activism http://tinyurl.com/5xkrzp Although Warren does support some evidence-based AIDS-prevention measures, there's a more sinister motivation to his AIDS work in Africa. As he told WorldNet Daily in an interview last year, explaining why he doesn't object to supplying condoms to prostitutes: I want to keep them alive long enough that I can win them to Christ. If they're dead, it's too late. The good news is only good news if it gets there in time. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.viewpageId=45039 http://tinyurl.com/7tfmj4 Meanwhile, a couple of people on this forum have not changed *their* image one iota. They are still clinging to their hatred of Rick Warren and being proud of it, while decrying Barack Obama for coming up with an idea that WORKED to reduce the amount of anti-gay hate speech in the world. Fuckin' hypocrites. As I think everyone here realizes, if raunchydog and I were *supporting* Obama's choice of Warren to deliver the inaugural invocation, Barry would be roundly condeming it (and us). Virtually
[FairfieldLife] Re: Melissa Etheridge on Rick Warren
Who Knew? The Gay Is the Rational One! BY TAYLOR MARSH 12.23.08 http://tinyurl.com/axabej Video: Mike Rogers on Hardball http://tinyurl.com/7ex3jl Not that he was planning to attend, but Barack Obama should know that my sister's inauguration night party -- the one for which she was preparing Obama Punch -- has been canceled. The notice went out over the weekend, by e-mail and word of mouth, that Obama's choice of Rick Warren to give the inaugural invocation had simply ruined the party. Warren is anti-gay, and my sister, not to put too fine a point on it, is not. She's gay. She is -- or was -- a committed Obama supporter. [...] - Richard Cohen Mike Rogers turned into Rick Warren's worst nightmare yesterday. He presented himself and his community as what they are: a mature, sensitive and intelligent constituency that is much more powerful than some fringe group, which is how Warren wants them seen. Out of the gate, Rogers makes the salient point that Warren has already scrubbed the Saddleback website due to the heat they've gotten over Warren's lack of sensitivity on civil rights, so it's already a victory for his community. Rogers appeared tolerant and even reached out. On the other hand, representing the religious side, Rev. Eugene Rivers appeared strident, even shrill, as well as the intolerant, abusive, divisive one in the debate, which was seen through his insulting judgment of Obama's pick of Warren, which has hurt many more than just the gay community, though they have owned this story, for which they deserve a standing ovation. Contrary to Rivers' rhetoric, this is not a pseudo controversy that has been fabricated by the anti-religious left. Seriously, could this reverend be any more condescending? Many black religious leaders across this country have been responsible for promoting homophobia akin to Warren, so let me just say that I'm not surprised. Their own culpability in ignoring the AIDS epidemic has been reported time and again, costing the black community dearly, which many were forced to admit publicly to their shame. Rivers' response is something I've come to expect from religious leaders representing organized institutions. Because I find Warren completely unacceptable to give the invocation at a Democratic presidential inaugural, I am automatically called the anti religious left. Nothing could be further from the truth. But I've been insulted before by Barack Obama's religious lectures, so it's again not shocking that the defenders of his Warren decision would do it as well. The stridency of Reverend Rivers was startling. It's something you'd expect from The Gay, right? But Rogers really turned the table on Rivers when he suggested Warren privately sit down with the leadership of the lesbian and gay community. Doubting the importance of Warren sitting down with your particular crew, slapped Rivers at the end of the interview, was a perfect exclamation point on the divisive nature of Warren's apologists, but also of the disrespect of religious leaders in this country who are losing their grip on what it means to be Christian. Oh, and one last thing. If you're going to take your lessons on this matter from Melissa Ethridge, please check your criteria for being informed. Ms. Ethridge didn't even know who Rick Warren was until he was vaulted to the invocation spot at Obama's inaugural, something that will stain the event for many of us. Segue to Feministing (h/t april): Dear Melissa and Tammy, You were just hustled by a member of one of America's oldest fraternities of snake-oil salesmen: the slick-talking preacher. I'm sorry to have to tell you this, because it's clear that you both want to sincerely move forward into a new era of change with a spirit of openness, trust, and respect for the differences and disagreements that inevitably divide any group of 300 million people. You want to believe that Rick Warren really likes you, really likes gay people, really wants peace and equal rights for everyone as much as you do. I'm sorry it's just not true. He acted as if he likes you. Maybe he really does at some level. But that doesn't change his job, and part of his job is to do things to hurt your family and families like yours. [...] That Obama would waste this capital on the likes of Warren in order to reach the evangelical community not only shows Obama's arrogance in ignoring a fundamental issue of Democratic politics, but his willingness to insult the people who put him where he is today, and I'm not just talking about The Gay. Disallowing women's civil rights or that women can lead churches, including becoming priests, inviting them into the national conversation on television shows as well, is just another way people like Warren and Rivers legitimize the patriarchal foundation of organized religion, which simply must be re-envisioned for the 21st century. It's why, as Rogers states, people like Warren and Rivers will soon be in the minority in this country. Young
[FairfieldLife] Re: Classical Music for Christmas Eve
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, raunchydog raunchy...@... wrote: Beautiful: Mozart Violin Concerto No. 5 http://tinyurl.com/8konlx Amazing: Heifetz plays Paganini Caprice No.24 http://tinyurl.com/7a8gwn What are your favorites? In our household we have a morbid streak Raunchy, and we like to play Mozart's Requiem - deep gloomy for the darkest evening of the year* http://tinyurl.com/67u24f * Well it would be the darkest evening if we celebrated it on the right day!
[FairfieldLife] Re: Classical Music for Christmas Eve
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, raunchydog raunchy...@... wrote: Beautiful: Mozart Violin Concerto No. 5 http://tinyurl.com/8konlx Amazing: Heifetz plays Paganini Caprice No.24 http://tinyurl.com/7a8gwn What are your favorites? Here's my current fave: Bach, Chaconne from the Partita No. 2 in d minor Performed by a violinist nobody's ever heard of by the name of Ben Goldstein. This recording from Wikipedia is the only one by Goldstein that exists; he's never recorded it commercially. Compared to many other performances, his is quite rough-edged, almost brutal in spots, rather than sweet and lyrical, but that's what the miraculous Chaconne calls for, in my view. I believe he's also using a period instrument and playing in period style. It's a terrific performance, IMHO. Curtis may recall that this is the piece violinist Joshua Bell played first in his incognito concert in the D.C. subway station. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Johann_Sebastian_Bach_- _Chaconne_for_violin_alone.ogg http://tinyurl.com/72zgj2 Note: Plays in Quicktime (audio only). You may have to tell your browser to allow it to play. It's long-- about 13 minutes. BTW, it's a free download if you go to the site that hosts the file.
Re: [FairfieldLife] MUM slaying lawsuit goes to court in Jan
--- On Wed, 12/24/08, Sal Sunshine salsunsh...@lisco.com wrote: From: Sal Sunshine salsunsh...@lisco.com Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] MUM slaying lawsuit goes to court in Jan To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Date: Wednesday, December 24, 2008, 11:26 AM On Dec 23, 2008, at 10:58 PM, Peter wrote: Why the powers-to-be at MUM are not settling this out of court is beyond comprehension. MUM violated its own written procedures and were grossly negligent. Just incomprehensible in sending a floridly psychotic student who had previously attacked and injured a student to sit with an untrained faculty member who then leaves him unattended. And then when he finally finds him, he's mingling with other students and this untrained faculty member simply observes him? WTF? What, was everyone terrified of getting embarrassed or something? Probably. Short of bribing the judge, it's tough to see how they can win. So maybe they will settle at some point, although I hope they don't, as I'd love to see them get their asses whipped in court, it was such gross negligence. Then again, maybe I'm just a revenge-seeking lowlife. :) Sal Sal, I'm the same way. Perhaps its a way to vent all the years of frustration because of having to surpress wise ass retorts to mood-making Capital staff and administration. So, it would be good to...yes..yes.. like this, like this. Its a great joy! To subscribe, send a message to: fairfieldlife-subscr...@yahoogroups.com Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!'Yahoo! Groups Links
[FairfieldLife] Barack Obama, legal scholar
August 12, 2008 Barack Obama, Legal ScholarBy Ed Lasky http://www.americanthinker.com/ed_lasky/ Barack Obama promises to accomplish quite a lot if he becomes our next President. These promises are symbolized in his campaign themes: hope and change. But just how likely is he to fulfill his own promise and the promises he has made to the American people? Judging by his previous career, not very likely. We have seen this movie before in Barack Obama's life, and the end is not a happy one. In fact, when you examine his career in its various dimension, it seems to be marked disturbingly often by failure. Faced with his failures, he tries to obscure the record; or else he blames mistakes on staffers or other people. The successes he uses as campaign tropes often turn out to be due to the work of others for which he has claimed credit, or to be much less significant than meets the eye. Fortunately, the spell seems to be wearing off and the media has begun to scrutinize his career a bit more, and it has been found wanting. Far more serious scrutiny of Obama's professional track record is necessary, for there is a danger when an unexamined candidate meets an uninformed voter. In the case of Barack Obama, disheartening aspects emerge when one pulls off the rose-colored glasses. His career has three chapters: academia, community organizing, and politics. Today we begin where his national career first took off: Harvard Law School and examine his legal career. Future articles will cover Senator Obama's community organizing and his political career. Harvard Law Review president Barack Obama originally emerged on the national scene as the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. This selection may have been based http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/us/politics/28obama.html on factors that do not necessarily http://www.slate.com/id/2186324/#obamajstor reflect merit http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/us/politics/03affirmative.html , as he himself recognizes. He has refused to answer questions about his days at Harvard (such holes in his life are a recurring feature). He was clearly a man of promise given the historic step that was taken when he was appointed President of the Law Review. Has he fulfilled his promise as a legal scholar? One thing he did not do while at the review was publish http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0608/11257_Page2.html his own work. The absence of a paper trail is a pattern throughout his academic and to some extent his political career. The pattern of leaving no intellectual footprints pre-dates Harvard. He has claimed he lost his senior thesis http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/07/24/1219722.aspx from Columbia University, where he majored in political science. The thesis was on Soviet nuclear disarmament. The depth of knowledge on display in Barry Obama's undergraduate thesis is of particular interest because he was wrong http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/015/149gq\ ohu.asp about a crucial Kennedy-Khrushchev conference, and about the diplomatic history between America and the Soviets. How likely is it that someone would lose his senior thesis -- particularly someone who thought his life was compelling enough that he would write an autobiography just a few years later? Legal scholar Indeed, he has left little in the way of a record for Americans to judge his legal abilities. No written records, no signed legal papers, no research papers authored or co-authored by him. Nothing. This is especially surprising because he served as a senior lecturer and law professor (there is some dispute over his title http://bench.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDQwZjhmZTExMGQ4OTJiZGRjNjllNDd\ kNTkxOTFlNmM= http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0308/Obama_vindicated_on_lawschoo\ l_title.html ) at the University of Chicago Law School for twelve years. He was certainly popular with his students, who were, like him, young and enthusiastic. Liberals flocked to his classes and they give him high marks as a professor. But among his fellow faculty members, apparently the verdict was mixed. He shied away from intellectual jousting that is otherwise the hallmark of academia. Jodi Kantor of the New York Times portrayed http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/us/politics/28obama.html?_r=2oref=sl\ oginoref=slogin his shortcomings as a colleague in an academic community: The Chicago law faculty is full of intellectually fiery friendships that burn across ideological lines. Three times a week, professors do combat over lunch at a special round table in the university's faculty club, and they share and defend their research in workshop discussions. Mr. Obama rarely attended, even when he was in town. I'm not sure he was close to anyone, Mr. Hutchinson said, except for a few liberal constitutional law professors, like Cass Sunstein, now an occasional adviser to his campaign. Mr. Obama was working two other jobs, after all, in the State Senate and at a civil rights law firm.
Re: [FairfieldLife] MUM slaying lawsuit goes to court in Jan
On Dec 24, 2008, at 12:28 PM, Peter wrote: --- On Wed, 12/24/08, Sal Sunshine salsunsh...@lisco.com wrote: From: Sal Sunshine salsunsh...@lisco.com Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] MUM slaying lawsuit goes to court in Jan To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Date: Wednesday, December 24, 2008, 11:26 AM On Dec 23, 2008, at 10:58 PM, Peter wrote: Why the powers-to-be at MUM are not settling this out of court is beyond comprehension. MUM violated its own written procedures and were grossly negligent. Just incomprehensible in sending a floridly psychotic student who had previously attacked and injured a student to sit with an untrained faculty member who then leaves him unattended. And then when he finally finds him, he's mingling with other students and this untrained faculty member simply observes him? WTF? What, was everyone terrified of getting embarrassed or something? Probably. Short of bribing the judge, it's tough to see how they can win. So maybe they will settle at some point, although I hope they don't, as I'd love to see them get their asses whipped in court, it was such gross negligence. Then again, maybe I'm just a revenge-seeking lowlife. :) Sal Sal, I'm the same way. Perhaps its a way to vent all the years of frustration because of having to surpress wise ass retorts to mood- making Capital staff and administration. So, it would be good to...yes..yes.. like this, like this. Its a great joy! No doubt. Not to mention that, at least on the surface, the negligence looks so thick you could cut it. Will be interesting to see what happens. Any bets on them settling before or during trial? Sal
[FairfieldLife] Re: MUM slaying lawsuit goes to court in Jan
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Sal Sunshine salsunsh...@... wrote: [snip] Probably. Short of bribing the judge, it's tough to see how they can win. So maybe they will settle at some point, although I hope they don't, as I'd love to see them get their asses whipped in court, it was such gross negligence. Then again, maybe I'm just a revenge-seeking lowlife. :) Sal You're half right.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: MUM slaying lawsuit goes to court in Jan
On Dec 24, 2008, at 12:37 PM, shempmcgurk wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Sal Sunshine salsunsh...@... wrote: [snip] Probably. Short of bribing the judge, it's tough to see how they can win. So maybe they will settle at some point, although I hope they don't, as I'd love to see them get their asses whipped in court, it was such gross negligence. Then again, maybe I'm just a revenge-seeking lowlife. :) Sal You're half right. LOL! Sal
[FairfieldLife] How Al Franken will win...
ONE PLUS ONE EQUALS 20 EXTRA VOTES FOR FRANKEN December 17, 2008 It's bad enough that the Republican Party can't prevent Democrats from voting in its primaries and saddling us with The New York Times' favorite Republican as our presidential nominee. If the Republican Party can't protect an election won by the incumbent U.S. senator in Minnesota, there is no point in donating to the Republican Party. The day after the November election, Republican Sen. Norm Coleman had won his re-election to the U.S. Senate, beating challenger Al Franken by 725 votes. Then one heavily Democratic town miraculously discovered 100 missing ballots. And, in another marvel, they were all for Al Franken! It was like a completely evil version of a Christmas miracle. As strange as it was that all 100 post-election, discovered ballots would be for one candidate, it was even stranger that the official time stamp for the miracle ballots printed out by the voting machine on the miracle ballots showed that the votes had been cast on Nov. 2 - - two days before the election. Democratic election officials in the miracle-ballot county simply announced that their voting machine must have been broken. Don't worry about it -- they were sure those 100 votes for Franken were legit. Then another 400-odd statistically improbable corrections were made in other Democratic strongholds until -- by the end of election week - - Coleman's lead had been whittled down to a mere 215 votes. Since then, highly irregular counting methods have added to Franken's total bit by bit, to the point that Coleman is now ahead by only 188 votes. As long as Coleman maintains any lead at all, Republicans don't seem to care that Coleman's advantage is being shrunk by laughable ballot discoveries and disreputable standard-switching from precinct to precinct -- depending on which method of counting ballots is most advantageous to Franken. Consider a few other chilling examples of Democrats thieving their way to victory over the years. In 1974, Republican Louis Wyman won his race for U.S. Senate in New Hampshire, beating Democrat John Durkin by 355 votes. Durkin demanded a recount -- which went back and forth by a handful of votes until the state's Ballot Law Commission concluded that Wyman had indeed won by (at least) two votes. Wyman was certified the winner by the New Hampshire secretary of state and was on his way to Washington when ... the overwhelmingly Democratic U.S. Senate refused to seat Wyman. Despite New Hampshire's certification of Wyman as the winner of the election, this was the post-Watergate Senate, when Democrats could get away with anything -- up to and including a prank known as President Jimmy Carter. The U.S. Senate spent months examining disputed ballots from the New Hampshire election. Unable to come up with a method to declare the Democrat the winner that didn't require a guillotine, the Senate forced New Hampshire to hold another election. It was a breathtaking abuse of power. New Hampshire had certified a winner of its Senate election, but it was a Republican, so the Democratic Senate simply ordered a new election. Demoralized Republicans stayed away from the race and, this time, the Democrat won the re-vote. Even more egregious was the Indiana House race in 1984. On election night, the incumbent Democrat Frank McCloskey appeared to have won a narrow victory of 72 votes. But after a correction was made in one county, it turned out his Republican opponent, Richard McIntyre, had won by 34 votes. McIntyre was certified the winner -- which is when the trouble usually starts for a Republican. Again, a majority Democrat House refused to seat the certified winner in a close election. I'm sure it was just a coincidence that the winner was a Republican. Consequently, Indiana performed yet another recount of the entire district, which again showed that Republican McIntyre was the winner - - this time by 418 votes. Now he was really asking for it. The nerve of this guy! Hey, buddy, do you mind? We're trying to throw an election over here! As The Washington Post reported at the time: There were no allegations of fraud in the recount and 90 percent of ballot disqualifications had been agreed to by election commissions dominated by Democrats. So naturally the House refused to seat the Republican even though he had received the most votes (hereinafter referred to as the winner). The House proceeded to conduct its own recount. (If you haven't detected a pattern by this point, please ask your doctor if Prilosec is right for you.) This time, instead of ordering the district to hold another election, the Democratic House saved all concerned a lot of time and money by simply declaring Democrat Frank McCloskey the winner by four votes. The vote-theft most like Minnesota this year was the infamous 2004 gubernatorial election in Washington State. The Republican won the
[FairfieldLife] Poll: 82% Like How Obama Is Handling Transition
...Eighty-two percent of those questioned in a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Wednesday morning approve of the way the Obama is handling his presidential transition. That's up 3 points from when we asked this question at the beginning of December. Fifteen percent of those surveyed disapprove of the way Obama's handling his transition, down 3 points from our last poll. The 82 percent approval is higher than then President-elect George W. Bush 8 years ago, who had a 65 percent transition approval rating, and Bill Clinton, at 67 percent in 1992. Barack Obama is having a better honeymoon with the American public than any incoming president in the past three decades. He's putting up better numbers, usually by double digits, than Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, or either George Bush on every item traditionally measured in transition polls, says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. The poll also suggests that the public approves of the President-elect's cabinet nominees, with 56 percent of those questioned saying Obama's appointments have been outstanding or above average, with 32 percent feeling the picks have been average, and 11 percent saying Obama's choices have been below average or poor. That 56 percent figure is 18 points higher than those who said then President-elect Bush's cabinet appointments were outstanding or above average and 26 points higher than those who felt the same way about then President-elect Clinton's nominees. Obama walks in with nearly twice the support on the economy that President-elect Clinton had in January, 1993, and he beats Ronald Reagan as well, adds Holland. A third say that their impression of Obama has gotten better since the election, with only 8 percent saying their opinion has gotten worse. Presidents usually start to lose support once they assume office and start making the tough decisions. But with eight in ten currently approving of Obama, he can give away 20 or 30 points, estimates Holland, and still have a majority of the country on his side... http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/12/24/cnn-poll-obama-transition-draws-approval-of-4-in-5-americans/ http://snipurl.com/92z0y
[FairfieldLife] Re: Who done it (?)
Doc, is interesting insight what you write here. Like, what you think those inside TM PR guys were thinking when they were doctoring those prominent news articles about TM and the TM- movement, for their re-publishing. Crafted the look of the original. Methodically made them more 'positive'. Took some time and smarts to do. Were they without, conscience? These are people, you'd trust? Would these guys be doing the wrong kind of meditation for them? What were they thinking? Refer to these for instance, paste Sanitizing the Fairfield Story TMO editing PR (NYTimes article): http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/message/79381 TMO editing PR (Washington Post article) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/message/123447 TMo editing Invincibility America http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/message/122911 --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Peter drpetersutp...@... wrote: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/message/202226 --- On Thu, 12/18/08, Vaj vajradh...@... wrote: From: Vaj vajradh...@... Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Who done it (?) To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Date: Thursday, December 18, 2008, 9:15 PM On Dec 18, 2008, at 4:45 PM, TurquoiseB wrote: Surely you have met evil people who see no desire to change? Why have compassion if they don't want it? Like love, compassion isn't ABOUT the person it is directed to and whether they deserve or want it; it's about what the person who feels it is feeling. Chogyam Trungpa had a name for the type of compassion where well meaning people try to be compassionate and actually end up making things worse, he called it stupid compassion. The problem with most sociopaths is that they don't have much compassion for others or for themselves. Even in people with Borderline Personality Disorder, it's next to impossible to get the person to believe they have issues--let alone BPD. And if the therapist screws up in the way they lead the patient to that realization, then the patient blasts the therapist and withdraws into their defenses or leaves the therapeutic relationship--or sues them. Ideally what might work for Sociopaths is a form of Mindfulness meditation, since that tends to re-weave the prefrontal cortex and the social circuitry of the brain. There is some work being done on this by the leading expert on attachment disorders. The hard part would be getting a sociopath to believe they needed meditation in the first place--you'd almost, I'd guess, have to appeal to their own selfish need for benefits. Then--maybe--you could segue to a type of practice, like tonglen--where you work on taking the view of the other, which seems to be precisely what the sociopath is missing. They don't grok or even have the circuitry to grok how to 'walk a mile in another's shoes'. But those would all be big ifs. In the real world, the rules of triage apply: help the ones who need it most and can be successful. I doubt that in a real world the sociopaths show up in psychologists offices asking for help, again, unless it's a very selfish motive. .02 USD om
[FairfieldLife] Re: Classical Music for Christmas Eve
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jst...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, raunchydog raunchydog@ wrote: Beautiful: Mozart Violin Concerto No. 5 http://tinyurl.com/8konlx Amazing: Heifetz plays Paganini Caprice No.24 http://tinyurl.com/7a8gwn What are your favorites? Here's my current fave: Bach, Chaconne from the Partita No. 2 in d minor Performed by a violinist nobody's ever heard of by the name of Ben Goldstein. This recording from Wikipedia is the only one by Goldstein that exists; he's never recorded it commercially. Compared to many other performances, his is quite rough-edged, almost brutal in spots, rather than sweet and lyrical, but that's what the miraculous Chaconne calls for, in my view. I believe he's also using a period instrument and playing in period style. It's a terrific performance, IMHO. Curtis may recall that this is the piece violinist Joshua Bell played first in his incognito concert in the D.C. subway station. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Johann_Sebastian_Bach_- _Chaconne_for_violin_alone.ogg http://tinyurl.com/72zgj2 Note: Plays in Quicktime (audio only). You may have to tell your browser to allow it to play. It's long-- about 13 minutes. BTW, it's a free download if you go to the site that hosts the file. That is stunning. Me, I'm a bit of a guitar freak. Do you like this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1pxymGOWDo (John Williams is astonishingly 'accurate', and so he's great for Bach.) My favourite Bach piece is this fugue in A minor (on guitar of course. by Julian Bream my fave): http://tinyurl.com/7tg7u7
[FairfieldLife] Maitreya to appear on American TV
As prophesied, Maitreya will appear on American TV within the next few weeks on the Fox Network series House. Don't want to give away the plot, which as usual has it's well known twists and turns in diagnosing Maitreya's condition.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Charlie Lutes' explanation on why people are gay
Not what Charlie told me. He said in a lecture I was at that men were gay
because they were supposed to incarnate as a woman and insisted on being a man.
A friend in ff once told me he also denied ever saying get on the round ones,
don't get on the cigar-shaped ones!, but he clearly said that in one of the
two of his lectures I was at.
Love will swallow you, eat you up completely, until there is no `you,' only
love.
- Amma
--- On Wed, 12/24/08, do.rflex do.rf...@yahoo.com wrote:
From: do.rflex do.rf...@yahoo.com
Subject: [FairfieldLife] Charlie Lutes' explanation on why people are gay
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
Date: Wednesday, December 24, 2008, 7:57 AM
In my years of working for Charlie he was occasionally asked why
people are gay. And while Charlie was a bit of a homophobe himself, he
made it clear that the soul is without gender and incarnates into the
world of polarities via either a male or female body.
He also added that in order to fathom the range of human experience
and to learn the 'lessons of life' as he put it, the soul often
changes the gender of the body it uses for this to happen.
He made it clear that when this change happens, the person who was
previously, for example, a man, may now have the body of a woman but
can and often does retain the desires of the man they were - and
vice-versa. ---
This isn't something limited to the views of Charlie. That the soul is
without gender is a common understanding. And that the soul incarnates
into bodies of both genders is also commonly understood. {Even the
Hindu gods are found in the literature to have occasionally changed
gender.]
That people retain their desires from a previous gender is no
surprise, and neither is it a 'sin' worthy of death as Billy G and
other homophobic bigots are eager to proclaim.
---
You have taken on the human form to gain Divine Mind through
knowledge and experience in the field of combined opposites.
~~ Charlie Lutes
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[FairfieldLife] spirituality spot found in brain
Spirituality Spot Found in Brain By Robin Nixon Special to LiveScience LiveScience.com robin Nixon special To Livescience livescience.com â Wed Dec 24, 9:19 am ET What makes us feel spiritual? It could be the quieting of a small area in our brains, a new study suggests. The area in question - the right parietal lobe - is responsible for defining Me, said researcher Brick Johnstone of Missouri University. It generates self-criticism, he said, and guides us through physical and social terrains by constantly updating our self-knowledge: my hand, my cocktail, my witty conversation skills, my new love interest ... People with less active Me-Definers are more likely to lead spiritual lives, reports the study in the current issue of the journal Zygon. Most previous research on neuro-spirituality has been based on brain scans of actively practicing adherents (i.e. meditating monks, praying nuns) and has resulted in broad and inconclusive findings. (Is the brain area lighting up in response to verse or spiritual experience?) So Johnstone and colleague Bret Glass turned to the tried-and-true techniques of neuroscience's early days - studying brain-injured patients. The researchers tested brain regions implicated in the previous imaging studies with exams tailored to each area's expertise - similar to studying the prowess of an ear with a hearing test. They then looked for correlations between brain region performance and the subjects' self-reported spirituality. Among the more spiritual of the 26 subjects, the researchers pinpointed a less functional right parietal lobe, a physical state which may translate psychologically as decreased self-awareness and self-focus. The finding suggests that one core tenant of spiritual experience is selflessness, said Johnstone, adding that he hopes the study will help people think about spirituality in more specific ways. Spiritual outlooks have long been associated with better mental and physical health. These benefits, Johnstone speculated, may stem from being focused less on one's self and more on others - a natural consequence of turning down the volume on the Me-Definer. In addition to religious practices, other behaviors and experiences are known to hush the Definer of Me. Appreciation of art or nature can quiet it, Johnstone said, pointing out that people talk of losing themselves in a particularly beautiful song. Love, and even charity work, can also soften the boundaries of Me, he said. The greatest silencing of the Me-Definer likely happens in the deepest states of meditation or prayer, said Johnstone, when practitioners describe feeling seamless with the entire universe. That is, the highest point of spiritual experience occurs when Me completely loses its definition. If you look in the Torah, the Old Testament, the New Testament, in the Koran, a lot of Sufi writings, Buddhist writings, and Hindu writings, they all talk about selflessness, said Johnstone. We may be finding the neurological underpinnings of these writings, he said.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Melissa Etheridge on Rick Warren
On Wed, Dec 24, 2008 at 4:35 AM, TurquoiseB no_re...@yahoogroups.com wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_re...@... wrote: So what? He's DOING it. He *has* tempered his lang- uage and his stance towards gays, and as a direct result of being *included* instead of being rejected as less than human by people who claim that they are doing so because he has referred in the past to gays as less than human. Here, here. Obama has done what Jesus would have done, IMO.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Charlie Lutes' explanation on why people are gay
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, gullible fool ffl...@... wrote: Not what Charlie told me. He said in a lecture I was at that men were gay because they were supposed to incarnate as a woman and insisted on being a man. A friend in ff once told me he also denied ever saying get on the round ones, don't get on the cigar-shaped ones!, but he clearly said that in one of the two of his lectures I was at. It's clear that apart from what Charlie has said that it's a common understanding that on the evolutionary path the genderless soul uses bodies of both male and female. It's no stretch to assume that shifting from one to another can be accompanied by desires from the previous gender. In any case, to consider it somehow evil and deserving of death when it happens is ridiculous. Apparently, [depending on the sources], around 2% to 7% of the population is gay - a substantial number of human beings.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Charlie Lutes' explanation on why people are gay
An interesting factoid to add is the Ramtha followers believe a soul incarnates into the same gender pretty much exclusively. The very few who cross over into the opposite gender when they should not be doing such an abhorrent thing are called crossovers and looked at with disdain. Love will swallow you, eat you up completely, until there is no `you,' only love. - Amma --- On Wed, 12/24/08, do.rflex do.rf...@yahoo.com wrote: From: do.rflex do.rf...@yahoo.com Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Charlie Lutes' explanation on why people are gay To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Date: Wednesday, December 24, 2008, 2:31 PM --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, gullible fool ffl...@... wrote: Not what Charlie told me. He said in a lecture I was at that men were gay because they were supposed to incarnate as a woman and insisted on being a man. A friend in ff once told me he also denied ever saying get on the round ones, don't get on the cigar-shaped ones!, but he clearly said that in one of the two of his lectures I was at. It's clear that apart from what Charlie has said that it's a common understanding that on the evolutionary path the genderless soul uses bodies of both male and female. It's no stretch to assume that shifting from one to another can be accompanied by desires from the previous gender. In any case, to consider it somehow evil and deserving of death when it happens is ridiculous. Apparently, [depending on the sources], around 2% to 7% of the population is gay - a substantial number of human beings. To subscribe, send a message to: fairfieldlife-subscr...@yahoogroups.com Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!'Yahoo! Groups Links
[FairfieldLife] Re: Classical Music for Christmas Eve
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Richard M compost...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, raunchydog raunchydog@ wrote: Beautiful: Mozart Violin Concerto No. 5 http://tinyurl.com/8konlx Amazing: Heifetz plays Paganini Caprice No.24 http://tinyurl.com/7a8gwn What are your favorites? Here's my current fave: Bach, Chaconne from the Partita No. 2 in d minor Performed by a violinist nobody's ever heard of by the name of Ben Goldstein. This recording from Wikipedia is the only one by Goldstein that exists; he's never recorded it commercially. Compared to many other performances, his is quite rough-edged, almost brutal in spots, rather than sweet and lyrical, but that's what the miraculous Chaconne calls for, in my view. I believe he's also using a period instrument and playing in period style. It's a terrific performance, IMHO. Curtis may recall that this is the piece violinist Joshua Bell played first in his incognito concert in the D.C. subway station. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Johann_Sebastian_Bach_- _Chaconne_for_violin_alone.ogg http://tinyurl.com/72zgj2 Note: Plays in Quicktime (audio only). You may have to tell your browser to allow it to play. It's long-- about 13 minutes. BTW, it's a free download if you go to the site that hosts the file. That is stunning. Me, I'm a bit of a guitar freak. Do you like this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1pxymGOWDo Ooh, yes, I sure do. He does a beautiful job, clear as crystal and yet deeply expressive. Ack! Too bad it gets cut off near the end. The poster should try to put the whole thing up in two parts. If I had to choose which to take to a desert island, I'd go with the violin version, though. There's a kind of almost harshness to all the double-stopping (I think that's what it's called) that conveys some of the pain Bach felt at the death of his first wife, in whose memory the Partita was supposedly written. I think that comes across more plainly on the violin, maybe because it's much harder to do, since you've got only one bow, as opposed to five fingers! (John Williams is astonishingly 'accurate', and so he's great for Bach.) Absolutely. You've got to have both depth of technique and depth of heart. My favourite Bach piece is this fugue in A minor (on guitar of course. by Julian Bream my fave): http://tinyurl.com/7tg7u7 Brilliant. This and the Chaconne are almost companion pieces; they have the same feeling somehow, although the fugue isn't as heavy. Really gorgeous performance. Anybody who thinks Bach's music is passionless and dull hasn't ever heard it played well. Brahms wrote of the Chaconne: If I imagined that I could have created, even conceived the piece, I am quite certain that the excess of excitement and earth-shattering experience would have driven me out of my mind. Lewis Thomas explained how the people of this planet should communicate with the universe: I would vote for Bach, all of Bach, streamed out into space, over and over again. We would be bragging, of course, but it is surely excusable to put the best possible face on at the beginning of such an acquaintance.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Melissa Etheridge on Rick Warren
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, I am the eternal l.shad...@... wrote: On Wed, Dec 24, 2008 at 4:35 AM, TurquoiseB no_re...@yahoogroups.com wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_reply@ wrote: So what? He's DOING it. He *has* tempered his lang- uage and his stance towards gays, and as a direct result of being *included* instead of being rejected as less than human by people who claim that they are doing so because he has referred in the past to gays as less than human. Here, here. Obama has done what Jesus would have done, IMO. Actually, I think Jesus would have invited an openly gay person to deliver the invocation.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Melissa Etheridge on Rick Warren
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jst...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_reply@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Nelson nelsonriddle2001@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_reply@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, BillyG. wgm4u@ wrote: But it's not the 'wrath of God' that brings on this destruction, it's violation of the natural laws of nature made by God, we have freewill to either obey these laws or suffer as a result of our ignorance of these laws or outright defiance of these laws, We have free will, period. BTW, the laws of nature you believe in are fiction, too. :-) snip, I find that ignoring the law of gravity can be troublesome at times. some of the laws of nature seem pretty real to me or am I missing something here? N. Nelson, I was just poking a little good-natured fun at Billy because he was extending the concept of the laws of nature to say that he considered things like unbridled sexuality, homosexuality, and lust to be against them. My point was that the word law is inappropriate. Take your example of gravity, for example. So far, as far as I know, no scientist has fully explained this *force* of nature. When they finally come up with a theory that seems to cover all the bases, in their hubris they'll proclaim their theory to be a law of nature. Barry's reasoning here is confused in a number of different ways. First, he tries to put Billy down by declaring his use of the term laws of nature is somehow an unwarranted extension. But then he goes on to declare that *science's* use of the term is inappropriate as well. He seems to think that the only correct usage of the word law is the *legal* sense. He's wrong on all three counts. In fact, of course, Billy's usage isn't something *he* extended: When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the LAWS OF NATURE and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.--Declaration of Independence (emphasis added) The use of the term laws of nature or natural law in this sense goes back to Aristotle. In science, a law refers to a statement of an order or relation of phenomena that SO FAR AS IS KNOWN is invariable under the given conditions (emphasis added). It isn't. You violate the law of gravity every time you step on a plane or fly a kite. Um, no, you don't. You simply take advantage of *other* laws of nature. What humans in their hubris call laws are merely their spec- ulations about the nature of the forces of nature; they aren't laws. And they go even further afield in their hubris when they attempt to claim that the things that they personally feel are moral or right are laws of nature. And they step into the world of the absurd when they claim that these theories of morality and proper behavior were dictated by God. Barry obviously doesn't like the idea of anything permanent or binding or fixed; it scares the daylights out of him. It's perhaps the only consistent theme that runs throughout his posts. You might even say Barry's notion that there are no inviolable laws is, in his mind, an inviolable law, and anyone who presumes to violate it is always WRONG. As I've noted before, Barry has always had a tendency to fall into infinite regress. You should be charging him for your psycho-analysis!
[FairfieldLife] Re: Melissa Etheridge on Rick Warren
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, enlightened_dawn11 no_re...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_reply@ wrote: -snip- You violate the law of gravity every time you step on a plane or fly a kite. What humans in their hubris call laws are merely their spec- ulations about the nature of the forces of nature; they aren't laws. -snip- 'You violate the law of gravity every time you step on a plane...' you're kidding me, right? how do you think a plane gets airborne anyway, by using its anti-gravitational effect neutralizer, or something? lol. an airplane flies because it adheres to the law of gravity. it is the shape of the cross section of the wing, an aitfoil, that allows the air to move faster across the underside of the wing than over the top, producing lift. no laws of gravity are violated. in fact it is the gravitational pull exerted on the atmosphere that even makes flight possible. i get your persona of always being 'the bad boy', but sometimes all you come across as is 'the dumb boy'. Brevity is the soul of witha, ha!
[FairfieldLife] Re: Maitreya to appear on American TV
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, I am the eternal l.shad...@... wrote: As prophesied, Maitreya will appear on American TV within the next few weeks on the Fox Network series House. Don't want to give away the plot, which as usual has it's well known twists and turns in diagnosing Maitreya's condition. OMG!!! Maitreya has lupus!!!
Re: [FairfieldLife] Maitreya to appear on American TV
I don't watch that show, though. Bummer. I'll try to remember to catch the highlights on CNN or Nightline that night. Love will swallow you, eat you up completely, until there is no `you,' only love. - Amma --- On Wed, 12/24/08, I am the eternal l.shad...@gmail.com wrote: From: I am the eternal l.shad...@gmail.com Subject: [FairfieldLife] Maitreya to appear on American TV To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Date: Wednesday, December 24, 2008, 2:06 PM As prophesied, Maitreya will appear on American TV within the next few weeks on the Fox Network series House. Don't want to give away the plot, which as usual has it's well known twists and turns in diagnosing Maitreya's condition. To subscribe, send a message to: fairfieldlife-subscr...@yahoogroups.com Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!'Yahoo! Groups Links
[FairfieldLife] Re: Classical Music for Christmas Eve
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jst...@... wrote: Bach, Chaconne from the Partita No. 2 in d minor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Johann_Sebastian_Bach_- _Chaconne_for_violin_alone.ogg http://tinyurl.com/72zgj2 That is stunning. Me, I'm a bit of a guitar freak. Do you like this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1pxymGOWDo My favourite Bach piece is this fugue in A minor (on guitar of course. by Julian Bream my fave): http://tinyurl.com/7tg7u7 Beautiful. My sister is music director for the Metro East Community Chorale for the St. Louis/Southwestern Illinois area. My mother and I drove from Fairfield to visit her this weekend for their annual Christmas performance. Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck 'Hodie Christus Natus Est was the most complex piece they sang http://tinyurl.com/8lo56x My family if very proud of her professional accomplishments and dedication to making beautiful music. We both had piano lessons when we were kids. Roz was more introverted and practiced constantly. I learned to read music but I gave it up after I became passionate about playing tennis.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Melissa Etheridge on Rick Warren
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jst...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, I am the eternal L.Shaddai@ wrote: On Wed, Dec 24, 2008 at 4:35 AM, TurquoiseB no_re...@yahoogroups.com wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_reply@ wrote: So what? He's DOING it. He *has* tempered his lang- uage and his stance towards gays, and as a direct result of being *included* instead of being rejected as less than human by people who claim that they are doing so because he has referred in the past to gays as less than human. Here, here. Obama has done what Jesus would have done, IMO. Actually, I think Jesus would have invited an openly gay person to deliver the invocation. How about an openly polygamous person? Seeing as polygamy was quite the norm back then, any possibility that you would think that Jesus would have invited such a person to give the invocation? After all, they are persecuted just as gays are... Or...how about an openly gay polygamous person? That is, a male homosexual that keeps 6 males as concubines? He'd make quite a treat as the gay to deliver the invocation, doncha think? What would Jesus say about polygamous gay civil unions? Wouldn't you think, Judy, that Jesus would be first in line to bless such unions and sanction them? After all, you are being so politically correct why not extend the good cheer on this, the eve of Jesus' birthday?
[FairfieldLife] Re: Melissa Etheridge on Rick Warren
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, shempmcgurk shempmcg...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, I am the eternal L.Shaddai@ wrote: On Wed, Dec 24, 2008 at 4:35 AM, TurquoiseB no_re...@yahoogroups.com wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_reply@ wrote: So what? He's DOING it. He *has* tempered his lang- uage and his stance towards gays, and as a direct result of being *included* instead of being rejected as less than human by people who claim that they are doing so because he has referred in the past to gays as less than human. Here, here. Obama has done what Jesus would have done, IMO. Actually, I think Jesus would have invited an openly gay person to deliver the invocation. How about an openly polygamous person? Seeing as polygamy was quite the norm back then, any possibility that you would think that Jesus would have invited such a person to give the invocation? After all, they are persecuted just as gays are... Or...how about an openly gay polygamous person? That is, a male homosexual that keeps 6 males as concubines? He'd make quite a treat as the gay to deliver the invocation, doncha think? What would Jesus say about polygamous gay civil unions? Wouldn't you think, Judy, that Jesus would be first in line to bless such unions and sanction them? After all, you are being so politically correct why not extend the good cheer on this, the eve of Jesus' birthday? Crackin' up here..ha, ha!, 'er Ho, Ho!
[FairfieldLife] Bongo Brazil's up-to-date latent homosexual closeted Republicans bucket list
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, do.rflex do.rf...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Paul Mason premanandpaul@ wrote: Homophobia... isn't that the fear of getting caught using your imagination in a way that could get you branded odd? I'd say that's a common reason. Also, studies have shown that gay-bashing homophobes are often found to be latent homosexuals themselves. They overcompensate and attempt to hide it by attacking gays because they're terrified of their own feelings and being exposed. Prominent gay-bashers are sometimes found in 'difficult to explain' circumstances. Here are a few names that come to mind: Mark Foley, Ted Haggard, Larry Craig - and here's a good one: Troy King, Alabama's Attorney General as well as the chairman of John McCain's Alabama Leadership Team was reportedly caught by his wife in their bed with naturally another man: King, a conservative Republican Christian who has called homosexuality the 'downfall of society,' has been caught with his pants down literally in a gay sex scandal. King was reportedly nabbed having sex with a male assistant by his wife, Paige King, in the couple's own bed. http://tinyurl.com/6jsmv8 I'm fascinated, Bongo Brazil, that you actually keep tabs on all the comings and goings in the Gay World. You have to expend at least SOME effort to maintain such a list of wayward gay Republican politicians...and I'm wondering what's behind it (no pun intended).
[FairfieldLife] Trouble in Charlie Paradise
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, do.rflex do.rf...@... wrote:
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, BillyG. wgm4u@ wrote:
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, do.rflex do.rflex@
wrote:
In my years of working for Charlie he was occasionally asked why
people are gay. And while Charlie was a bit of a homophobe
himself, he
made it clear that the soul is without gender and incarnates
into the
world of polarities via either a male or female body.
He also added that in order to fathom the range of human
experience
and to learn the 'lessons of life' as he put it, the soul often
changes the gender of the body it uses for this to happen.
He made it clear that when this change happens, the person who
was
previously, for example, a man, may now have the body of a
woman but
can and often does retain the desires of the man they were - and
vice-versa. ---
This isn't something limited to the views of Charlie. That the
soul is
without gender is a common understanding. And that the soul
incarnates
into bodies of both genders is also commonly understood. {Even
the
Hindu gods are found in the literature to have occasionally
changed
gender.]
That people retain their desires from a previous gender is no
surprise, and neither is it a 'sin' worthy of death as Billy G
and
other homophobic bigots are eager to proclaim.
I was merely relating the story of Sodom and Gomorrah and the
ramifications of licentiousness on a grand scale as stated in the
Bible. You are being judgmental by calling me a homophobe.
That's because you applied those judgments to all gays. Duh. Your
own
words show that you are indeed homophobic, Billy G. You've
repeatedly
condemned gays for just being gays. That's bigotry.
You have taken on the human form to gain Divine Mind through
knowledge and experience in the field of combined opposites.
~~ Charlie Lutes
You left out the part about the ideal (according to Charlie) is
one
should change sexes every 3 lifetimes, if you don't and stubbornly
refuse to be reborn as the opposite sex you're reborn, a little
light
in the loafers as he put it.
Looks to me that you made up that last part about 'stubbornly
refusing
to be reborn as the opposite sex.' I never heard him say any such
thing.
Bongo, why are you being so hostile to Your-Brother-In-Charlie?
Aren't you and BillyG amongst the most devoted Charlie Lutes
followers?
BillyG is your GuruBrother.
Indeed, BillyG even has a photo of himself with Charlie posted on
that I love Charlie Lutes website. Can't say I've seen one of YOU
with Charlie.
Are you jealous?
[FairfieldLife] Re: Charlie Lutes' explanation on why people are gay
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, guyfawkes91 guyfawke...@...
wrote:
And that the soul incarnates
into bodies of both genders is also commonly understood. {Even the
Hindu gods are found in the literature to have occasionally
changed
gender.]
The most interesting take on this one in Hindu/Vedic literature is a
story in the Yoga Vashista. A king and queen decide to get into
spiritual pursuits and the queen gets to UC pretty quick. The king
will have nothing of it and wanders off into the forest for a few
decades of austerities. A few decades later the queen reckons he
might
be ready for some instruction, but knowing he won't listen to a
woman,
she disguises herself as a celibate monk. After some detailed
instruction on what's what he gets enlightened, and then the queen
starts thinking, hold on this guy is my husband and we haven't had
it
for years So she goes through a big rigmarole of changing sex every
night so the king can hump the celibate monk he's met in the forest,
while in UC. Real soap opera stuff and calculated to break the
boundaries of people who think in conventional ways about what's
spiritual.
Not the Rig Veda.
Not the Sama Veda.
It's the Larry Flynt Veda, wrapped in brown paper and available at
the back of your local newsstand.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Charlie Lutes' explanation on why people are gay
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, do.rflex do.rf...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, gullible fool fflmod@ wrote: Not what Charlie told me. He said in a lecture I was at that men were gay because they were supposed to incarnate as a woman and insisted on being a man. A friend in ff once told me he also denied ever saying get on the round ones, don't get on the cigar-shaped ones!, but he clearly said that in one of the two of his lectures I was at. It's clear that apart from what Charlie has said that it's a common understanding that on the evolutionary path the genderless soul uses bodies of both male and female. It's no stretch to assume that shifting from one to another can be accompanied by desires from the previous gender. Bongo: Sorry to burst your bubble but you've mixed up your spiritual anecdotes with an episode from the original Star Trek series. That was Captain Kirk who found himself trapped in the body of a gorgeous blond on some outer planet in a remote solar system. In any case, to consider it somehow evil and deserving of death when it happens is ridiculous. Apparently, [depending on the sources], around 2% to 7% of the population is gay - a substantial number of human beings.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Charlie Lutes' explanation on why people are gay
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, gullible fool ffl...@... wrote: An interesting factoid to add is the Ramtha followers believe a soul incarnates into the same gender pretty much exclusively. The very few who cross over into the opposite gender when they should not be doing such an abhorrent thing are called crossovers and looked at with disdain. Fortunately for them, there was that precedent-setting Supreme Court decision Brown v. Kansas Board of Education which ruled that discrimination against crossovers was covered under the equality guarantees under the first amendment. I heard that, as a result, the Ramtha hierarchy had to pay some undisclosed amount in a class action suit brought by a whole score of put-upon crossovers who had been treated unfairly by their organisation. Love will swallow you, eat you up completely, until there is no `you,' only love. - Amma --- On Wed, 12/24/08, do.rflex do.rf...@... wrote: From: do.rflex do.rf...@... Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Charlie Lutes' explanation on why people are gay To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Date: Wednesday, December 24, 2008, 2:31 PM --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, gullible fool fflmod@ wrote: Not what Charlie told me. He said in a lecture I was at that men were gay because they were supposed to incarnate as a woman and insisted on being a man. A friend in ff once told me he also denied ever saying get on the round ones, don't get on the cigar-shaped ones!, but he clearly said that in one of the two of his lectures I was at. It's clear that apart from what Charlie has said that it's a common understanding that on the evolutionary path the genderless soul uses bodies of both male and female. It's no stretch to assume that shifting from one to another can be accompanied by desires from the previous gender. In any case, to consider it somehow evil and deserving of death when it happens is ridiculous. Apparently, [depending on the sources], around 2% to 7% of the population is gay - a substantial number of human beings. To subscribe, send a message to: fairfieldlife-subscr...@yahoogroups.com Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!'Yahoo! Groups Links
[FairfieldLife] Re: Melissa Etheridge on Rick Warren
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, shempmcgurk shempmcg...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@ wrote: Actually, I think Jesus would have invited an openly gay person to deliver the invocation. How about an openly polygamous person? Seeing as polygamy was quite the norm back then, any possibility that you would think that Jesus would have invited such a person to give the invocation? After all, they are persecuted just as gays are... Or...how about an openly gay polygamous person? That is, a male homosexual that keeps 6 males as concubines? He'd make quite a treat as the gay to deliver the invocation, doncha think? What would Jesus say about polygamous gay civil unions? Wouldn't you think, Judy, that Jesus would be first in line to bless such unions and sanction them? After all, you are being so politically correct why not extend the good cheer on this, the eve of Jesus' birthday? Lordy, Lordy right-wing-nuts, I wouldn't be surprised if you all start picking on the poor Box Turtle. For the homophobes on FF Life who can't resist making fun of What would Jesus Do if he were Obama? and pointing out the absurdity of Shemp's argument, we must preemptively defend the honor of the Box Turtle: http://tinyurl.com/9r98fs
[FairfieldLife] Re: Melissa Etheridge on Rick Warren
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, raunchydog raunchy...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, shempmcgurk shempmcgurk@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@ wrote: Actually, I think Jesus would have invited an openly gay person to deliver the invocation. How about an openly polygamous person? Seeing as polygamy was quite the norm back then, any possibility that you would think that Jesus would have invited such a person to give the invocation? After all, they are persecuted just as gays are... Or...how about an openly gay polygamous person? That is, a male homosexual that keeps 6 males as concubines? He'd make quite a treat as the gay to deliver the invocation, doncha think? What would Jesus say about polygamous gay civil unions? Wouldn't you think, Judy, that Jesus would be first in line to bless such unions and sanction them? After all, you are being so politically correct why not extend the good cheer on this, the eve of Jesus' birthday? Lordy, Lordy right-wing-nuts, I wouldn't be surprised if you all start picking on the poor Box Turtle. For the homophobes on FF Life who can't resist making fun of What would Jesus Do if he were Obama? and pointing out the absurdity of Shemp's argument, we must preemptively defend the honor of the Box Turtle: http://tinyurl.com/9r98fs The polygamous argument is, at least, not absurd (the others, of course, were said in jest). When Mormon-heavy Utah joined the union, one of the requirements was that they make polygamy illegal. This was a cornerstone of their religion which they were forced to give up. Why? Because of the Full Faith and Credit clause of the U.S. Constitution which says that all states must recognize the civil laws of other states. Having polygamy recognized in Utah would have meant that ALL states would have had to recognize it (that's why people used to get those quickie divorces in Nevada; once you got one there, all states had to recognize it). Legalizing polygamy IS, most definitely a logical next step if and when gay marriages become legal and constitutional. If I were Mormon I would be royally pissed off that an alternative form of marriage such as gay marriage was getting a stronghold and polygamy isn't allowed. And, besides, polygamy has a much stronger, legitimate, and existing presence in history than gay marriage does. To support gay marriage and yet be against polygamy is, simply, bigotted and discriminatory.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Maitreya to appear on American TV
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, I am the eternal l.shad...@... wrote: As prophesied, Maitreya will appear on American TV within the next few weeks on the Fox Network series House. Don't want to give away the plot, which as usual has it's well known twists and turns in diagnosing Maitreya's condition. I hear he's going to play one of Thirteen's lovers, which may mean that he turns out to be a she.
[FairfieldLife] Re: MUM slaying lawsuit goes to court in Jan
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Peter drpetersutp...@... wrote: Why the powers-to-be at MUM are not settling this out of court is beyond comprehension. MUM violated its own written procedures and were grossly negligent. Just incomprehensible in sending a floridly psychotic student who had previously attacked and injured a student to sit with an untrained faculty member who then leaves him unattended. And then when he finally finds him, he's mingling with other students and this untrained faculty member simply observes him? WTF? What, was everyone terrified of getting embarrassed or something? *** It's not within MUM's power to settle this suit or decide on any legal strategies. MUM's insurance company has undoubtedly made a settlement offer, but the plaintiffs surely feel that they can do better in a jury trial. We may still see a settlement before it goes to trial or the insurance company may wait and see what kind of jury it gets, or the progress of the trial before it makes another offer.
[FairfieldLife] Re: How Al Franken will win...
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, shempmcgurk shempmcg...@... wrote: ONE PLUS ONE EQUALS 20 EXTRA VOTES FOR FRANKEN December 17, 2008 It's bad enough that the Republican Party can't prevent Democrats from voting in its primaries and saddling us with The New York Times' favorite Republican as our presidential nominee. *** It's time for marginal species to disappear, anyway, Shemp: Mark McKinnon: The problem with the Republican Party is there are too many woolly mammoths like me wandering around. It's time to kill us off. Just slaughter us all. Drive us into the tar pits and move on. Republicans working in leadership and the trenches are largely old, white, male, out-of-touch, out of ideas, technology averse, and living in the past. * McKinnon is former media advisor to Bush: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Mark_McKinnon
Re: [FairfieldLife] Barack Obama, legal scholar
On Wed, Dec 24, 2008 at 12:33 PM, shempmcgurk shempmcg...@netscape.net wrote: August 12, 2008 Barack Obama, Legal Scholar By Ed Lasky Barack Obama promises to accomplish quite a lot if he becomes our next President. These promises are symbolized in his campaign themes: hope and change. But just how likely is he to fulfill his own promise and the promises he has made to the American people? This is sour grapes trash talk. GW Bush was a lifelong underachiever yet look what great things he's been able to accomplish during his adminstration: voiding most of the Bill of Rights, making an imperial presidency, getting the US trillions of more dollars in the hole, getting us into two wars we won't be able to get out of for a long time. Very few presidents have as great a legacy as GW Bush. Further, there's the underachiever Harry Truman who turns out to have been a pretty damned successful president. If Obama delivers just a fraction of what he's offered, he'll go down as one of the great presidents.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Barack Obama, legal scholar
On Dec 24, 2008, at 5:34 PM, I am the eternal wrote: On Wed, Dec 24, 2008 at 12:33 PM, shempmcgurk shempmcg...@netscape.net wrote: August 12, 2008 Barack Obama, Legal Scholar By Ed Lasky Barack Obama promises to accomplish quite a lot if he becomes our next President. These promises are symbolized in his campaign themes: hope and change. But just how likely is he to fulfill his own promise and the promises he has made to the American people? This is sour grapes trash talk. GW Bush was a lifelong underachiever yet look what great things he's been able to accomplish during his adminstration: voiding most of the Bill of Rights, making an imperial presidency, getting the US trillions of more dollars in the hole, getting us into two wars we won't be able to get out of for a long time. Very few presidents have as great a legacy as GW Bush. Further, there's the underachiever Harry Truman who turns out to have been a pretty damned successful president. If Obama delivers just a fraction of what he's offered, he'll go down as one of the great presidents. It's refreshing to hear some downright honesty from someone who is/was a conservative. If you're honest with the situation, you come to the realization that he does have incredible potential, intelligence, honesty and integrity, although he still does have to actualize that potential. There's nothing more annoying for me than to turn on the radio and hear Rush Bimbo and Glenn Dreck dropping thought-stoppers like socialism and he'll steal our guns over the airwaves. One day I have the time I'll call up Dreck and ask him if he really knows about all the different types of socialism and whether he realizes that we're talking about democratic socialism and the style of govt. we see in NW European countries. You know, the kind with free healthcare for everyone and free college for those with the grades. That kind of socialism. I listen to a lot of these call in shows and the above memes have conditioned a lot of the listeners and callers. The other favorite-- and I cringe when I hear it--is 'we need to get Big Govt. out of the way', i.e. deregulate. It's like there's this collective denial mechanism that's built into this entrenched partisan think. Unless they're really not listening it should be manifestly obvious that the Reagan-Bush Depression was caused by capitalism's natural tendency to trend towards greed and avaricious behavior. In a capitalist system, you'll always need regulation.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: MUM slaying lawsuit goes to court in Jan
Bob, do you know where the trial is scheduled to be held? --- On Wed, 12/24/08, bob_brigante no_re...@yahoogroups.com wrote: From: bob_brigante no_re...@yahoogroups.com Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: MUM slaying lawsuit goes to court in Jan To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Date: Wednesday, December 24, 2008, 5:20 PM --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Peter drpetersutp...@... wrote: Why the powers-to-be at MUM are not settling this out of court is beyond comprehension. MUM violated its own written procedures and were grossly negligent. Just incomprehensible in sending a floridly psychotic student who had previously attacked and injured a student to sit with an untrained faculty member who then leaves him unattended. And then when he finally finds him, he's mingling with other students and this untrained faculty member simply observes him? WTF? What, was everyone terrified of getting embarrassed or something? *** It's not within MUM's power to settle this suit or decide on any legal strategies. MUM's insurance company has undoubtedly made a settlement offer, but the plaintiffs surely feel that they can do better in a jury trial. We may still see a settlement before it goes to trial or the insurance company may wait and see what kind of jury it gets, or the progress of the trial before it makes another offer. To subscribe, send a message to: fairfieldlife-subscr...@yahoogroups.com Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!'Yahoo! Groups Links
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Melissa Etheridge on Rick Warren
On Dec 24, 2008, at 3:19 PM, shempmcgurk wrote: How about an openly polygamous person? Seeing as polygamy was quite the norm back then, any possibility that you would think that Jesus would have invited such a person to give the invocation? After all, they are persecuted just as gays are... Or...how about an openly gay polygamous person? That is, a male homosexual that keeps 6 males as concubines? He'd make quite a treat as the gay to deliver the invocation, doncha think? How about an openly gay Jewish black polygamous person? Who's also had a sex change? Why leave anyone out? Sal
Re: [FairfieldLife] Barack Obama, legal scholar
On Wed, Dec 24, 2008 at 5:03 PM, Vaj vajradh...@earthlink.net wrote: It's refreshing to hear some downright honesty from someone who is/was a conservative. If you're honest with the situation, you come to the realization that he does have incredible potential, intelligence, honesty and integrity, although he still does have to actualize that potential. The words are sincere. We had a long, drawn out painful election. I was looking for a different president, definitely not a high yellow elitist one, but Obama was the best being offered, so I voted for him. Unhappy with my representation, I voted the complete Democratic party. Now we have a president elect. It's time to put the election aside and stand behind our president and wish him and us well. I've not seen any Obama impersonators yet. I don't find him so grating. It's not like the MLK or Barbara Jordan black preacher speak. It'll be interesting to see how the humorists do make fun of him. It would be nice of Obama is allowed to live long enough so we can see him in action as the president.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Melissa Etheridge on Rick Warren
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Sal Sunshine salsunsh...@... wrote: On Dec 24, 2008, at 3:19 PM, shempmcgurk wrote: How about an openly polygamous person? Seeing as polygamy was quite the norm back then, any possibility that you would think that Jesus would have invited such a person to give the invocation? After all, they are persecuted just as gays are... Or...how about an openly gay polygamous person? That is, a male homosexual that keeps 6 males as concubines? He'd make quite a treat as the gay to deliver the invocation, doncha think? How about an openly gay Jewish black polygamous person? Who's also had a sex change? Why leave anyone out? Sal Sal, If anyone can figure that one out, it would be Obama, but he's only interested in giving the religious right credibility when they should just get used to the idea that they are in the minority on the issue of gay marriage. By giving them such a prominent platform to justify their bigoted ideas, he has resuscitated their dying breed. Most sane people JUST DON'T CARE if two people in a committed relationship want to marry. It's just nobody's damn business what people do in their bedrooms.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Science absorbs Religion
O TM-Science: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHw5jfEDMSwfeature=channel Predicting 2009 Science absorbs Religion: Science seeks to not transcend religion but to absorb religion and reduce it to just another natural phenomenon that can be prodded, measured and explained. Such research is now going on apace- and set to provoke screams that will echo well beyond 2009. From The Economist `The World in 2009'
[FairfieldLife] Post Count
Fairfield Life Post Counter === Start Date (UTC): Sat Dec 20 00:00:00 2008 End Date (UTC): Sat Dec 27 00:00:00 2008 442 messages as of (UTC) Thu Dec 25 00:05:37 2008 52 authfriend jst...@panix.com 32 TurquoiseB no_re...@yahoogroups.com 31 enlightened_dawn11 no_re...@yahoogroups.com 31 I am the eternal l.shad...@gmail.com 28 shempmcgurk shempmcg...@netscape.net 25 BillyG. wg...@yahoo.com 21 do.rflex do.rf...@yahoo.com 19 raunchydog raunchy...@yahoo.com 18 Richard J. Williams willy...@yahoo.com 17 nablusoss1008 no_re...@yahoogroups.com 15 Bhairitu noozg...@sbcglobal.net 14 Vaj vajradh...@earthlink.net 13 dhamiltony2k5 dhamiltony...@yahoo.com 13 cardemaister no_re...@yahoogroups.com 12 curtisdeltablues curtisdeltabl...@yahoo.com 10 yifuxero yifux...@yahoo.com 10 gullible fool ffl...@yahoo.com 10 Sal Sunshine salsunsh...@lisco.com 6 bob_brigante no_re...@yahoogroups.com 6 Hugo richardhughes...@hotmail.com 6 Arhata Osho arhatafreespe...@yahoo.com 5 ruthsimplicity no_re...@yahoogroups.com 5 Peter drpetersutp...@yahoo.com 5 Alex Stanley j_alexander_stan...@yahoo.com 4 Richard M compost...@yahoo.co.uk 4 Marek Reavis reavisma...@sbcglobal.net 3 Jai yen thailandch...@earthlink.net 3 Duveyoung no_re...@yahoogroups.com 2 sparaig lengli...@cox.net 2 off_world_beings no_re...@yahoogroups.com 2 bettyblue109 no_re...@yahoogroups.com 2 Nelson nelsonriddle2...@yahoo.com 2 John jr_...@yahoo.com 1 william108wm william10...@yahoo.com 1 uns_tressor uns_tres...@yahoo.ca 1 lurkernomore20002000 steve.sun...@sbcglobal.net 1 guyfawkes91 guyfawke...@yahoo.com 1 dan hawkeye422...@yahoo.com 1 bhairitu noozg...@sbcglobal.net 1 arhatafreespe...@yahoo.com 1 The Secret l.shad...@gmail.com 1 Richard Williams willy...@yahoo.com 1 Paul Mason premanandp...@yahoo.co.uk 1 Mark Kincaid m.kinc...@mchsi.com 1 FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 1 min.pige min.p...@yahoo.com 1 mdixon.6569 mdixon.6...@yahoo.com Posters: 47 Saturday Morning 00:00 UTC Rollover Times = Daylight Saving Time (Summer): US Friday evening: PDT 5 PM - MDT 6 PM - CDT 7 PM - EDT 8 PM Europe Saturday: BST 1 AM CEST 2 AM EEST 3 AM Standard Time (Winter): US Friday evening: PST 4 PM - MST 5 PM - CST 6 PM - EST 7 PM Europe Saturday: GMT 12 AM CET 1 AM EET 2 AM For more information on Time Zones: www.worldtimezone.com
[FairfieldLife] One of the nicest national anthems
The words are of course about war... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pHO7GW0MKE
[FairfieldLife] Re: MUM slaying lawsuit goes to court in Jan
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Peter drpetersutp...@... wrote: Bob, do you know where the trial is scheduled to be held? Federal court in Des Moines http://www.ottumwacourier.com/archivesearch/local_story_357230551.html
[FairfieldLife] Re: Melissa Etheridge on Rick Warren
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_re...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Nelson nelsonriddle2001@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_reply@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, BillyG. wgm4u@ wrote: But it's not the 'wrath of God' that brings on this destruction, it's violation of the natural laws of nature made by God, we have freewill to either obey these laws or suffer as a result of our ignorance of these laws or outright defiance of these laws, We have free will, period. BTW, the laws of nature you believe in are fiction, too. :-) snip, I find that ignoring the law of gravity can be troublesome at times. some of the laws of nature seem pretty real to me or am I missing something here? N. Nelson, I was just poking a little good-natured fun at Billy because he was extending the concept of the laws of nature to say that he considered things like unbridled sexuality, homosexuality, and lust to be against them. My point was that the word law is inappropriate. Take your example of gravity, for example. So far, as far as I know, no scientist has fully explained this *force* of nature. When they finally come up with a theory that seems to cover all the bases, in their hubris they'll proclaim their theory to be a law of nature. It isn't. You violate the law of gravity every time you step on a plane or fly a kite. What humans in their hubris call laws are merely their spec- ulations about the nature of the forces of nature; they aren't laws. And they go even further afield in their hubris when they attempt to claim that the things that they personally feel are moral or right are laws of nature. And they step into the world of the absurd when they claim that these theories of morality and proper behavior were dictated by God. OIC- right The area between facts, laws,theories, opinions etc. leaves a lot of room for controversy which should last for some time.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Classical Music for Christmas Eve
(NOTE: For anyone who is delirious with joy thinking I've gone over my 50 for the week, please see Alex's post #202546.) --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, raunchydog raunchy...@... wrote: snip My sister is music director for the Metro East Community Chorale for the St. Louis/Southwestern Illinois area. My mother and I drove from Fairfield to visit her this weekend for their annual Christmas performance. Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck 'Hodie Christus Natus Est was the most complex piece they sang That's quite an accomplishment; it's not an easy piece to perform. But it's wonderful. I found an audio of it (not your sister's performance!) here: http://www.hendrix.edu/music/music.aspx?id=10784 I adore that period of choral music. Years ago in New York I belonged to a small amateur chorus that specialized in Renaissance church music. We sang-- in Latin, yet--on street corners (no donations allowed) and in parks, and in churches, when they'd let us. We also sang in subway stations, which are fabulous for that kind of music; sounds like you're in a cathedral. I used to do a lot of choral singing of various kinds, but as I got older I lost my upper register. A real drag, because I loved to sing. As this is my last post for the week, I'll wish everyone a terrific holiday with a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins (read it aloud for best effect): GLORY be to God for dappled things-- For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow; For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim; Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings; Landscape plotted and pieced--fold, fallow, and plough; And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim. All things counter, original, spare, strange; Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?) With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim; He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change: Praise him.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Melissa Etheridge on Rick Warren
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, do.rflex do.rf...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Nelson nelsonriddle2001@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_reply@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, BillyG. wgm4u@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_reply@ wrote: [ A fascinating and uplifting counterpoint to all the hysterical condemnations of Rick Warren, and Obama for inviting him to the party. Remember, this is the person who refuses to pay California taxes in the wake of Proposition 8 passing. ] The Choice Is Ours Now by Melissa Etheridge I know she, and probably you, scoff and snicker at the story in the Bible of 'Sodom and Gomorrah', yet it contains an important moral lesson. If humanity continues in behavior that is contrary to natural law, it will suffer. In this context unbridled sexuality, homosexuality, and lust led to the demise of Sodom and Gomorrah...does San Francisco qualify? probably! Billy, Billy, Billy. I'll bet you still believe in Santa Claus, too. :-) Hate to break it to you, dude, but the story of what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah is fiction, as is the big guy in the sky who supposedly wasted them because they weren't as uptight as he was. But it's not the 'wrath of God' that brings on this destruction, it's violation of the natural laws of nature made by God, we have freewill to either obey these laws or suffer as a result of our ignorance of these laws or outright defiance of these laws, We have free will, period. BTW, the laws of nature you believe in are fiction, too. :-) snip, I find that ignoring the law of gravity can be troublesome at times. some of the laws of nature seem pretty real to me or am I missing something here? N. And you assume that the Old Testament determines the laws of nature? Uh-huh. Equally relevant is the question- Why does a mouse when it spins.
[FairfieldLife] Merry Christmas to all on FFL
The future is bright and that is my delight - Maharishi
[FairfieldLife] More elderly Japanese turn to petty crime
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/12/24/elderly.shoplifters/index.html
[FairfieldLife] Letter from An Enlightened Man: Sidhis
Another RWC letter, this time touching on the topic of siddhis, the magical outward-stroke remnants Maharishi Patanjali tells us are not to be sought after, and as Swami Brahmananda Saraswati urges, siddhis are mere after-effects, meant to trail behind the sadhaka. To seek after them by samyama formulae, the primary text on enlightenment in the Shankaracharya tradition, Discrimination of Cosmic and Unity Consciousness, wisely warns us (esp. yogic flying and certain other siddhis) are impediments to true realization. Caveat emptor. Recent descendants of the Saraswati order have indeed noticed, not surprisngly, an epidemic of yogic disease among TM siddhas. Not so surprisingly, RWC's slant of the sidhis is similar to other TM claimants of enlightenment. The reason they have no observable siddhis is because this is deemed some thing extra and beyond their exalted states. Uh huh... RWC's spiel on the siddhis (TMO-speak: sidhis) are by and large regurgitated movement-speak, although he touches on some esoterica hidden in old video tapes that many may not have heard of (the absolute body), the techniques for these carrots were never in fact taught on any TM course but they do actually exist. RWC can also be seen chafing against the obvious disparity between Mahesh's description of siddhis as a criteria for Unity, a state of consciousness traditionally associated with the Advaita Vedanta darshana (and beyond siddhi), instead of the yoga-darshana of Patanjali (and Cosmic Consciousness; Skt: turiyatita), their rightful domain. This same and quite obvious confusion continues up to the current day in TM-sidhi proponents. (Many thanks to former students of RWC who've been very helpful in these reviews and who all wish to remain anonymous.) - All Excerpts © Robin Woodsworth Carlsen, 1978. This book has no ISBN. Since printers were being harassed by TM cultists, it also mentions no Printer or Publisher. ... at once it struck me, what quality went to form a Man of Achievement... I mean Negative Capability, that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason. John Keats March, 1978 Dear Matthew, You kindly issued an invitation for me to attend a Sidhi course in the summer, guaranteeing some special attention in order to avoid any backlash from course leaders. Thank you. It is a distinct possibility, for in spite of my felt sense of realization on the level of consciousness, i.e., the Self is primary, everything is perceived in terms of the Self, and all actions are governed by pure Creative Intelligence, there still is considerable refining that can yet take place on the level of the gross human body, and for that presumably all of Maharishi's technology would be necessary. A further point on this same issue concerns a tape I listened to in '73 at the commencement of my TTC in which Maharishi spoke of absolute bodies. This seems to me a very real and inevitable outcome of continuing to meditate after one is 'Self-realized'. He spoke of this phenomenon in terms of a metamorphosis from a clay body to one made of glass! I certainly am aware of a continuing process of evolution on the level of my physical nervous system, and if Nature deems it appropriate I shall be seeing you in the summer. On this point, however, it should be made clear that I take Maharishi's statements on sidhi performances (e.g., He'll come out with a new program when proficiency is demonstrated in hovering, etc.) to be functional, and open to several different levels of interpretation. Self-realization, Unity, simply means the 'I' has merged with the unmanifest and one spontaneously perceives the universe as fluctuations of pure consciousness, completely whole, and composed of the light and love of God. At the point of liberation one awakens as if from a dream and one transfers one's allegiance from the ego to the Creator. Ego, individualized consciousness as the primary reality, is simply an hallucination, and the outcome of the spell of ignorance. This is my experience. The applied expression of this state of consciousness is that all one's activities are motivated and guided by Nature; one is an instrument of God. Now about Maharishi's recent (a few days after I proclaimed my 'Enlightenment' I was told to do so by Steven Francis by M's request) criteria of Enlightenment, e.g., how high one can 'fly', becoming invisible at will, etc. These powers, as I see them, are the spontaneous outcome of further refinement of the nervous system, but NOT significant as a barometer of consciousness, if viewed in terms of ego, small self desire. An Enlightened individual cannot lift his little finger except as Nature decides to lift it. He does not have a personal will; he innocently does the will of Nature, or rather, his desire is
[FairfieldLife] Cat--the other white meat
http://wrongcards.com/ecard/there-are-other-sources-white-meat
[FairfieldLife] Re: MUM slaying lawsuit goes to court in Jan
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Peter drpetersutp...@... wrote: Bob, do you know where the trial is scheduled to be held? DM, homes: http://snipurl.com/93e9e [www_iasd_uscourts_gov]
[FairfieldLife] Web tech help sites
from NYT tech page: If you're like me, odds are that you've also found yourself with a tech problem that was made worse by the lack of ready, available and perhaps most important useful help. But with the Internet, there's no need to have to wait on hold. There are hundreds (if not thousands) of other users out there, sharing their experience and wisdom, often free. So instead of getting on the phone, get online and start crowdsourcing your tech support needs. Here's how. General Tips First, a a few general rules. Many of the below sites require you to register a user name and password before you can post a question. Also, it's a good idea to check how active a site is. Answerbag.com http://answerbag.com/ , for example, has more than 750,000 members. The bigger the site, the more likely you are to get an answer. Sites with moderators are a plus because they will help weed out irrelevant or duplicate answers and keep the discussion on topic. There are also good fee-based sites like Experts Exchange (http://sec http://sec/ ure.experts-exchange.com http://ure.experts-exchange.com/ /), but I've limited the below list to free help. PCs One of my favorite tech support sites is FixYa.com http://fixya.com/ (http://www.fixya.com http://www.fixya.com/ /). It has a clean design, which makes searching easy. When posing a question, use keywords, hit the search button, and a list of solutions will pop up. FixYa lets its users rate one another so you can see who has a good solution rating and who doesn't. Users can choose among the post a new problem, I can solve this! and I have the same problem tabs. The site also has an alphabetical list of brands so you can search by name. TechIMO.com http://techimo.com/ (http://www.techimo.com http://www.techimo.com/ /) is also a good bet, judging by sheer volume of active users. The site's PC hardware and tech general discussion board (http://www.techimo.com/forum/general-tech-discussion http://www.techimo.com/forum/general-tech-discussion /) had nearly 240,000 posts when I checked it. Fair warning: the site is geared more toward the tech-savvy than the tech-phobic. Tech publications PC World (http://tinyurl.com/3q7xm5 http://tinyurl.com/3q7xm5 ) and CNet (http://tinyurl.com/43be5q http://tinyurl.com/43be5q ) also have good discussion forums. Macs Pretty as they may be, Macs have their own special brand of problems. Apple http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/apple_computer_in\ c/index.html?inline=nyt-org 's own site (http://www.apple.com/support http://www.apple.com/support /) has effective forums (http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=731 http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=731 ), but sometimes they can turn into complaint centers where everybody acknowledges having the problem, but no one seems to have a solution. CNet's MacFixIt.com http://macfixit.com/ (http://www.macfixit.com http://www.macfixit.com/ /) gets around this by taking select Apple.com http://apple.com/ forum questions and answering them on its site. In one post, a Mac user wrote on Apple.com's forums that he was experiencing problems with Time Machine backups. Most of the thread's other users chimed in only to say that they had the same problem. MacFixIt then stepped in and offered its solution. In addition to an active forum, MacFixIt also offers useful tutorials (http://tinyurl.com/4xw9a http://tinyurl.com/4xw9a ) with digestible instructions, and explanations, on everything from sleep problems to reinstalling your system. Of course, it's better to find advice for your exact Mac. Everymac.com http://everymac.com/ 's Q. A. section is broken down by model, so if you're dealing with MacBook Pro problems, you can go to that section (http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/faq/index.html http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/faq/index.html ). Smartphones I solved my BlackBerry problem on Crackberry.com http://crackberry.com/ 's forums (http://forums.crackberry.com http://forums.crackberry.com/ /). Not only does the site break down problems by model, including Apple's iPhone http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/i/iphone/i\ ndex.html?inline=nyt-classifier 3G, but it also has a section for older BlackBerrys (http://forums.crackberry.com/f29 http://forums.crackberry.com/f29 /), which is helpful because not everyone has the money or desire to switch models every year. You can also search by carrier. Users of the iPhone can turn to the- iPhoneBlog.com http://iphoneblog.com/ (http://www.theiphoneblog.com/iphone-help-and-how-to-guides http://www.theiphoneblog.com/iphone-help-and-how-to-guides /), which is helpful because it uses screen images and other visual aids instead of dizzying amounts of text. Even better are video tutorials. Instead of wasting time trying to locate your SIM card tray, just mimic the video's step-by step instructions and pause and replay as needed. If you're short on patience, CNet's video
[FairfieldLife] Shalajit and Fulvic acid from the Himalayas
http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/fulvic.htm
[FairfieldLife] Interesting Google Factoid
I ran into a Google employee last night, while travelling, who told me that Google now has nearly a million servers. So many that about 12,000 fail every day and are promptly replaced. They are networked in such a way that their work is distributed and the failure of a small percentage doesn't degrade their overall performance. Google builds their own computers out of standard components and as such, is one of the world's largest computer manufacturers.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Interesting Google Factoid
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Rick Archer r...@... wrote: I ran into a Google employee last night, while travelling, who told me that Google now has nearly a million servers. So many that about 12,000 fail every day and are promptly replaced. They are networked in such a way that their work is distributed and the failure of a small percentage doesn't degrade their overall performance. Google builds their own computers out of standard components and as such, is one of the world's largest computer manufacturers. Looks like they're well primed to take over the world... or, has that already happened..?
[FairfieldLife] Re: OffWorld-Music Only: THE CLASH - 1977
Headphones required for this thread: The Clash - Late 1977, cover of Junior Murvin's original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eluResb4xQE OffWorld
[FairfieldLife] Re: OffWorld-Music Only: THE CLASH - 1977
Headphones required for this thread: Junio Murvin - mid 70's - Jamaican: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OID0h7X6hmk OffWorld
[FairfieldLife] Re: OffWorld-Music Only: Junior Murvin - 1976
Headphones required for this thread: Junio Murvin - mid 70's - Jamaican: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OID0h7X6hmk OffWorld
[FairfieldLife] Re: OffWorld-Music Only: Junior Murvin - 1976
Headphones required for this thread: Roxy Music - mid 70's - English: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci9jA_4O3GIfeature=related OffWorld
[FairfieldLife] Re: OffWorld-Music Only: Roxy Music - mid '70's
Headphones required for this thread: Roxy Music - mid 70's - English: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci9jA_4O3GIfeature=related OffWorld
[FairfieldLife] Re: OffWorld-Music Only: GRACE JONES - mid '70's
Headphones required for this thread: Grace Jones - 1980's - Jamaican: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6AQgrs_c44 OffWorld
[FairfieldLife] Re: OffWorld-Music Only: GRACE JONES - 1980's
Headphones required for this thread: Grace Jones - 1980's - Jamaican: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6AQgrs_c44 OffWorld
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: MUM slaying lawsuit goes to court in Jan
Oh Lord, a jury trial. This will never make it that far. They'll be a last minute offer by MUM's insurance carrier. --- On Wed, 12/24/08, bob_brigante no_re...@yahoogroups.com wrote: From: bob_brigante no_re...@yahoogroups.com Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: MUM slaying lawsuit goes to court in Jan To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Date: Wednesday, December 24, 2008, 9:37 PM --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Peter drpetersutp...@... wrote: Bob, do you know where the trial is scheduled to be held? DM, homes: http://snipurl.com/93e9e [www_iasd_uscourts_gov] To subscribe, send a message to: fairfieldlife-subscr...@yahoogroups.com Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!'Yahoo! Groups Links
[FairfieldLife] Re: MUM slaying lawsuit goes to court in Jan
--- The jurors can watch reruns of Blade Runner while not busy: http://www.ncane.com/v7h In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Peter drpetersutp...@... wrote: Oh Lord, a jury trial. This will never make it that far. They'll be a last minute offer by MUM's insurance carrier. --- On Wed, 12/24/08, bob_brigante no_re...@yahoogroups.com wrote: From: bob_brigante no_re...@yahoogroups.com Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: MUM slaying lawsuit goes to court in Jan To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Date: Wednesday, December 24, 2008, 9:37 PM --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Peter drpetersutphen@ wrote: Bob, do you know where the trial is scheduled to be held? DM, homes: http://snipurl.com/93e9e [www_iasd_uscourts_gov] To subscribe, send a message to: fairfieldlife-subscr...@yahoogroups.com Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!'Yahoo! Groups Links
[FairfieldLife] Christmas Lights
Trans-Siberian Orchestra - Wizards in Winter Frisco Christmas Lights http://tinyurl.com/2noh9a Christmas Lights Gone Wild http://tinyurl.com/2hlcj6 Merry Christmas!
