scientist's blog: January 2007

compassion

The selfless vulnerability of compassion requires the vigilant protection of mindful awareness.

It is not enough to want to feel this way toward others.

We need to be alert at all times to the invasion of thoughts and emotions that threaten to break in and steal this open and caring resolve.

A compassionate heart still feels anger, greed, jealousy, and other such emotions.

But it accepts them for what they are with equanimity,

and cultivates the strength of mind to let them arise and pass

without identifying with or acting upon them.

Compassion is not devoid of discernment and courage.

Just as we need the courage to respond to the anguish of others,

so we need the discernment to know our limitations and the ability to say "no".

A compassionate life is one in which our resources are used to optimum effect.

Just as we need to know when and how to give ourselves fully to a task,

so we need to know when and how to stop and rest.

~SB

mindscape

rolling

white energy

taking indiscriminantly

from the networks built

inside my head

and forming

a ball

of focused

white energy

perpetually rolling

through in through out

the caverns of my mind

think

the evangelical war on science

watch friends of god

it will blow your mind

if you're using it

brian flemming is absolutely right:

"to take a child

and to tell him that 2000 years ago a man died,

stayed dead for 3 days,

rose from the dead,

flew up in the air above the clouds,

but also he's with you right now as your invisible companion,

and if you don't believe that you're going to hell,

that's psychological torture"

christianists are just as evil as islamists:

"The distinction made is between those who sincerely hold to an ancient faith,

and those who are deploying that faith as a political weapon,

who see no distinction between state and mosque,

and who aggressively foist their religious doctrines onto civil law.

People who believe in the Gospels of Jesus Christ are Christians.

People who use the Gospels of Jesus Christ for political gain,

and for a political program of right or left, are Christianists.

And Christianism, like many "isms", is an ideology that will corrupt faith and poison politics.

It has already done both, under the auspices of this president and his acolytes.

It is long past time that real Christians took their faith back from these political charlatans."

for the love of god

think for yourself

oh my god

this interview is incredible

who's angry?

i see one angry nut calling a calm, rational guy "angry"

i see one angry nut who cannot refute rational arguments

i see one angry nut trying to make his christian audience angry

like they're being persecuted somehow

brain flemming is a god

not because he says believe what i do or die

but because he compels people to think for themselves

his movie is a real eye-opener

craving (part 2)

It would perhaps be better if life did not bring change-

if it could be relied upon to provide lasting happiness.

But since this is not true, a calm and clear understanding of what is true-

that no conditions are permanent or reliable-

would weaken the grip in which craving holds us.

Craving can vanish in awakening to the absurdity of the assumptions that underlie it.

Without stamping it out or denying it,

craving may be renounced the way a child renounces sandcastles:

not by repressing the desire to make them

but by turning aside from an endeavor

that no longer holds any interest.

~SB

craving (part 1)

When driven by craving, I am convinced that if only I were to achieve this goal, all would be well.

While creating the illusion of a purposeful life, craving is really the loss of direction.

It is a process of compulsive becoming.

It spins me around in circles, covering the same ground again and again.

Each time I think I have found a situation that solves all my problems,

it suddenly turns out to be a reconfiguration of the very situation I thought I was escaping from.

My sense of having found a new lease on life turns out to be merely a repetition of the past.

I realize I am running on the spot, frantically going nowhere.

Life becomes a succession of minibirths and minideaths.

When I achieve what I want, I feel reborn.

But no sooner have I settled into this feeling than the old anxieties resurface.

The new possession swiftly ages as it is diminished by the allure of something more desirable that I do not have.

What seemed perfect is abruptly compromised by alarming glimpses of its imperfections.

Instead of solving my problems, this new situation replaces them with others I had never suspected.

Yet rather than accepting this as the nature of living in an unreliable world,

rather than learning to be content with success and joy and not to be overwhelmed by failure and pain,

rather than appreciating life's poignant, tragic, and sad beauty,

I grit my teeth and struggle on in thrall to that quiet, seductive voice that whispers:

"If only..."

~Stephen Batchelor

spiders on drugs

ice gold

twisting turning tumbling fleece

a glittering tube of golden ice

free to all who long for peace

rock & roll never sounded so nice

my high's

from tuesday, january 23 2007

basketball

state of the union

"strongly we will use strength to bestrongen our strongness for strongiliciousness is strongtastic"

my prediction for this year:

"the state of our union is stronger than ever"

idiots

this is a truly frightening display

produced by a system designed to keep americans uneducated and docile

through the programmed ineptitude of starving the beast:

"In education, unfunded federal testing requirements and special education mandates compel financially strapped states and local governments to bleed the beast at its source.

It is a prescription for the systemic failure of public education, which the new Republicans (and like minded Democrats) will use to demonize teachers and reissue the call for privatization in the form of school vouchers.

Why have no politicians demanded that private schools (predominantly religious and the beneficiaries of privatization) receiving public funds be held to the same accountability standards as public schools?"

if only americans had someone to look up to

hd porn

now you can see naked people in high definition

"Pornography has long helped drive the adoption of new technology, from the printing press to the videocassette.

Now pornographic movie studios are staying ahead of the curve by releasing high-definition DVDs.

They have discovered that the technology is sometimes not so sexy.

The high-definition format is accentuating imperfections in the actors —

from a little extra cellulite on a leg to wrinkles around the eyes."

i personally won't buy it

everything is better in high-def

except porn

imperfections are not sexy

so when you can't discern them

your brain makes them perfect for you

dawkins

dawkins does lynchburg

"Many of the questioners announced themselves as either students or faculty from Liberty, rather than from Randolph Macon which was my host institution.

One by one they tried to trip me up, and one by one their failure to do so was applauded by the audience.

Finally, I said that my advice to all Liberty students was to resign immediately and apply to a proper university instead.

That received thunderous applause, so that I almost began to feel slightly sorry for the Liberty people.

Only almost and only slightly, however."

istanbul

a true crossroads for all of humankind

Day 431

from friday, january 19 2006

head

my high's

from thursday, january 18 2006

basketball

$1,200,000,000,000.00

what can $1.2 trillion buy?

"$1.2 trillion would pay for an unprecedented public health campaign — a doubling of cancer research funding, treatment for every American whose diabetes or heart disease is now going unmanaged and a global immunization campaign to save millions of children’s lives.

Combined, the cost of running those programs for a decade wouldn’t use up even half our money pot. So we could then turn to poverty and education, starting with universal preschool for every 3- and 4-year-old child across the country. The city of New Orleans could also receive a huge increase in reconstruction funds.

The final big chunk of the money could go to national security. The recommendations of the 9/11 Commission that have not been put in place — better baggage and cargo screening, stronger measures against nuclear proliferation — could be enacted. Financing for the war in Afghanistan could be increased to beat back the Taliban’s recent gains, and a peacekeeping force could put a stop to the genocide in Darfur."

or we could spend $300 million a day rebuilding iraq

this is the first time taxes have not been raised during wartime

and the bushies are just dying to cut taxes on the wealthiest of us

which means our children and their children will pay for this bullshit war

while a couple greedy maggots get rich quick

off the lives of americans they've brainwashed to believe they're fighting a good cause

sarcasm

“A sarcastic person has a superiority complex that can be cured only by the honesty of humility." ~Lawrence G. Lovasik

"Why do we laugh at such terrible things? Because comedy is often the sarcastic realization of inescapable tragedy." ~Bryant H. McGill

“Owww look at me Marge, I'm making people Happy! I'm the magical man, from Happy Land, who lives in a gumdrop house on Lolly Pop Lane!!!!...... By the way I was being sarcastic..." ~Homer Simpson

reverse terrorism

step one: lose the loserman

joe wants this war more than bush, if that's possible

so when the decider announces the new strategy of adding another 20,000 targets to the battlefield

joe could not be happier and bush can claim bullshit bipartisanship.

i love how these two nuts get along so well

and now that joe is the new chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee,

he can refuse to investigate how the bushies fucked up katrina

i understand that america has a "special" relationship with israel

i don't understand why that relationship is not linked to the war in iraq?

or the upcoming wars in iran and syria?

why is everyone afraid to talk about israel?

even proud joe

religion devalues life

people risk their lives and fight because they think they will be rewarded in heaven

would young americans fight in iraq if they knew heaven did not exist?

would young muslims strap explosives to their bodies if they knew heaven did not exist?

joe is now holding america hostage

if he doesn't get what he wants from the dems

he can switch party and return control of the senate to the bushies

who's the terrorist now?

mad world

fuckin'

brawlin'

idiots

a school board in seattle is going to restrict students from watching "An Inconvenient Truth" because some idiot complained

here's his logic:

"Condoms don't belong in school, and neither does Al Gore. He's not a schoolteacher," said Frosty Hardison, a parent of seven who also said that he believes the Earth is 14,000 years old.

"The information that's being presented is a very cockeyed view of what the truth is. ... The Bible says that in the end times everything will burn up, but that perspective isn't in the DVD."

condoms prevent disease and unwanted pregnancy

the earth is slightly more than 14,000 years old

but he's upset that everyone isn't being told that everything is going to burn up?

lol

this is really amazing

here we have two schools of thought

both agree that the earth is going to get hotter

one bases their belief on scientific data that can be seen and measured

the other is trusting someone's interpretation of a book written by god knows who

and written a long long time before we started burning fossil fuels and pumping CO2 into the atmosphere

and the idiot who believes in the book wins?

who the hell wants to believe everything is going to burn up?

that's batshitinsanity!!!

anyone who doesn't believe global warming exists is an idiot

i would imagine those who fight global warming initiatives do understand the link to human activity

but they're being paid lots and lots of money by those who pollute

so they can brainwash idiots like Frosty Hardison

desire

i want a goddamn iphone right meow

buck fush

bush want's more troops in iraq

colbert want's more troops in iraq

olbermann gets it right, as usual

the american people don't want more troops in iraq

i'm sure the 100,000 contractors in iraq wouldn't mind a friendly face

and a little more protection

and of course the religious nuts of the world are happy

like joementum lieberman

do you think the iraqis want more troops?

saddam was a bad guy, but he was our guy

and the poor people living in a region full of oil

are forced to suffer in a warzone.

america has to maintain troop presence

to keep the country together

so that they can control the oil

if they did not, the country would split into three

each ethnicity governing their own portion of oil

so instead of letting these people

(whose country did not attack ours ever)

control the oil they were born over

we're gonna force them to live together