True Religion? The Parable of the Rings

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Wednesday September 08, 2010 · 11:19 PM PDT

2010/09/08 · 23:19

There are those who claim that the US was founded on Judeo-Christian tradition and values. There are also those who claim that the great founding documents stem from the European enlightenment. I happen to belong to the latter camp, but what is more important is that the First Amendment is an expression of tolerance in the service of civility. It is not a barrier to any religion but a haven for all--even for atheists. We seem to be tearing that apart, which leads me to want to offer some insights from a source relatively unknown in America. Several postings have referred to the quote from Jewish German poet Heinrich Heine--one of the great masters of the German language, who said, "Dort, wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen." or, "Where they burn books, in the end they will also burn human beings." Heine's own books were burned by Hitler and we know what followed.

I offer here another insight by a figure of somewhat earlier German literature, Gotthold Lessing, whose parable of tolerance is also little known in the US, but can offer insight for these increasingly troubled times from his play, "Nathan the Wise."

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Tuesday August 03, 2010 · 7:48 AM PDT

2010/08/03 · 07:48

The Republicans are well known for their tactic of using wedge issues to excite the base (think God, Gays and Guns) in order to accomplish more nefarious goals like tax cuts for the rich and favors for corporations. The "debate" over repealing the 14th amendment is a classic example. In this so-called debate, everyone is talking about the clause that guarantees citizenship for anyone born in the U.S. But read the whole amendment and you'll see there are other little matters that the Republicans would like to do away with.

They talk about repealing the 14th as a whole, but the citizenship clause (the first sentence in the amendment) is only a part of it.

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Friday June 11, 2010 · 9:06 AM PDT

2010/06/11 · 09:06

In the endless cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth, the evolving celebration that is the soul of this planet, there is a vital role for death. Death is the transition, the movement of material and energy from living beings to the fertilizer for renewed life.
But what happens if death itself is eliminated? What happens is that the cycle of life is broken and ceases to be. This may be the fate of the Gulf if not the planet.

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Monday May 31, 2010 · 5:46 PM PDT

2010/05/31 · 17:46

To the ancient Greeks as well as to many past and present nature religions, the Earth was the Mother, the Great Goddess, the source of all life. From her we are born and to her we return in the everlasting wheel of life. But what if that wheel is broken? Today a stream of black oil is flowing into the heart of our Mother and threatening to break the sacred cycle of life, birth, death and rebirth.

To all peoples of this green and blue planet, even to those who in their folly and ignorance are bent on her destruction, I plead for awareness and raise her name, which to the Greeks was Gaia, the Mother Goddess of the Earth. To her I offer this hymn and to all of you I evoke her name. In the hope that healing may still be possible and that transformation may truly occur.

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Wednesday May 12, 2010 · 6:42 AM PDT

2010/05/12 · 06:42

We are witnessing the continuing rape of the planet, our blue oasis swimming in a vacuous sea. There is something basic at work here, an addiction, even a malice, a hatred of some against beauty, against all things delicate and fair.
Somehow we all acquiesce to some degree to the war and savagery that result. Without following a new vision, we will all live and die amidst squalor. This morning my wife came to bed in tears. She had stayed up most of the night unable to sleep because of thoughts of the gulf and those wetlands and those lives. And then at dawn the birds had begun singing as they do to greet the rising sun and it broke her heart.
The following was written in 1991 on the eve of the first Gulf War, but the sense of it applies today.

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Monday March 22, 2010 · 10:20 PM PDT

2010/03/22 · 22:20

Take a look at the provisions that are contained in this bill. When you put them together, they spell the death knell of the business model that the vampiric health insurance companies have been using to drain the life blood from their customers and from the economy. They will no longer be able to rack up their obscene profits through a number of mechanisms that have now been made illegal

Oh, there is so much more we could have wanted from this bill, but it is a START--a start to putting the for-profit health insurance companies out of business. Just look at the revenue streams that are being cut off.

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Saturday December 19, 2009 · 9:01 PM PST

2009/12/19 · 21:01

I know, I know. The current Senate health care bill is a watered down disappointment. In fact, it can reasonably be called a piece of crap. Then there are those who point out that bad as it is, it contains quite a few positive elements and thus the debate swirls--kill it because it doesn't do what is needed and pass it because it is at least a "step forward."

I am at least heartened by the hissy fit thrown by Mitch McConnell, which tells me we ought to pass it just to see his head explode. But what if it is killed? Then the Republican effort to give Obama his "Waterloo" is realized and most likely another full-blown effort for health care reform will not come for at least another fifteen years.

IF this turkey is passed, we may have openings to go forward from here that would not exist if it is killed.

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Tuesday May 26, 2009 · 9:12 PM PDT

2009/05/26 · 21:12

Some rather interesting implications might be drawn from this ruling. For example, what do we now call the document the state issues to permit a couple to "establish an officially recognized family relationship?"The excellent diary by Seneca Doane lays out the fact that the decision really guts the intent of Proposition 8. While this is still unaccepatible, it does open the way for some interesting tactics until a repeal can be passed.

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Monday May 25, 2009 · 10:59 AM PDT

2009/05/25 · 10:59

The leech's kiss, the squid's embrace,
The prurient ape's defiling touch,
And do you like the human race?
No. Not much.
--Aldous Huxley

Oh, the recriminations are going to fly. The Republicans are already figuring out how to blame Obama for the North Korean nuclear test. We all know that Bush and Cheney let it happen while they were obsessed with their lies to get us into Iraq where we are now bogged down and unable to offer even a credible military threat where it might be needed. But let us look at a bigger picture.

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Thursday May 07, 2009 · 10:59 PM PDT

2009/05/07 · 22:59

Keith, I love the way you needle Sean Hannity every night about his cowardly reneging on his promise to be waterboarded for charity for the troops' families.
One would think that $1,000 per second would be enough for the sniveling coward, but perhaps he can still be bought. A vast influx of smaller pledges could add up to a big purse--one that Hannity might not be able to publicly turn down.

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Thursday April 09, 2009 · 1:49 PM PDT

2009/04/09 · 13:49

I've seen nothing about this in the MSM, but early this morning someone climbed down a manhole on Blossom Hill Road in South San Jose, CA and cut four fiber optics cables. This has brought down the phone service in San Jose and Santa Cruz counties. Also this morning, two cables were cut in San Carlos

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Sunday February 08, 2009 · 6:59 PM PST

2009/02/08 · 18:59

There have been early stumbles in dealing with the Republicans. Obama tried to extend the hand of bipartisanship and basically pulled back a bloody stump. This effort, while laudable on one level, has allowed the Republicans to gain control of the spin on the stimulus package.

I am hoping that Obama's performances at the Department of Energy and later in Williamsburg, are previews of where he is about to take the discourse.

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True Religion? The Parable of the Rings

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The Death of Death

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This Breaks the Insurance Companies' Business Model

Can Passing ThisTurkey Get Us to Where We Want to Go?

Some Unintended Implications of the CA Prop 8 Ruling

Another Crazy Has the Bomb

Keith--Take the Challenge to Netroots

BREAKING: Phone Fiber Cables Sabotaged in San Jose and San Carlos, CA

Obama's Chance--He must seize it!