Changing Places

‘Wash Post’ Cuts Ties to Pentagon Event After Protests

The Washington Post announced tonight that it will cease its co-sponsorship of the Pentagon-organized Freedom Walk next month. The paper’s involvement had drawn heat from within and outside the paper, with a guild committee today calling for the link to end.

The newspaper told the Department of Defense that it was pulling back on its offer of free ads for the event–a march up the mall ending with a concert by pro-war country singer Clint Black.

“As it appears that this event could become politicized, The Post has decided to honor the Washington area victims of 9/11 by making a contribution directly to the Pentagon Memorial Fund,” said Eric Grant, a Post spokesman. “It is The Post’s practice to avoid activities that might lead readers to question the objectivity of The Post’s news coverage.”

E&P was first to report on the internal dissent at the paper on Friday.

The Pentagon expressed disappointment with the decision. It has called the event a memorial to 9/11 victims and a salute to our troops.

Good for the Wash Post for pulling out of this bullshit event. If the Pentagon wants to promote its war efforts with a “freedom Rally”, I suppose we can’t really stop them, but there’s no point in supporting this nationalist bullshit.

If the Pentagon really wanted to support our troops, they would take the cost of this event and use it to BUY SOME ARMOR FOR THE TROOPS. Politicizing this war to save face is just inane.

Without too much trouble,
One can keep on the main road.
But the people love to be distracted,
And perspective is difficult.

People constantly declare that they want to walk the road of Tao. They say that all they want is to reach realization. But this is not true. If it were, they would simply walk their road and attain enlightenment right away.

Instant realization doesn’t happen very often because people become distracted. It is not given to every person to pursue immediate realization. When enlightenment comes, the world becomes completely insignificant. Some of us still want to explore, be involved, amuse ourselves. That is all right, as long as you know that you are making up games and intrigues. In the final analysis, it is all right to be sidetracked a little bit, but one must always be cautious and come back to the main road without losing too much time or ground.

That is why a strong perspective is at the root of wisdom. One who follows Tao may appear to be going away from the goal, but such a person knows exactly when to pull back.

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

The Road Not Taken

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

– Robert Frost

I guess I don’t really see Tao as the “main road” — I believe it is the road less traveled by. Most people don’t want to fully explore spirituality, it’s true, and I think that is the main road most people take.

The side road of Tao is a personal path, not a major road. It rambles through hills and forests and “leads me beside still waters”. And yes, there are lots of enticing byways to explore, but they are ones that would never be found on the main road. They lead to places like art, and music, and theatre, and romance, and lust and golden retrievers and cats, lots of cats. And gardens, and searching for interesting clothing and new ideas, and exotic places and cultures and so much more. But these aren’t found on the main road. They are found while searching for the things that truly excite one in life, and make you feel alive and whole.

Perhaps when you come to full enlightment, the world does become insignificant. I wouldn’t know, and doubt I will ever get there. And somehow, I really kind of doubt that is what the true path of Tao is about, anyway. I believe we are here to experience the ten thousand things. When it is time to let go and pull back and return to the Tao, we can do that, true. But while we are here, let us enjoy.

And on to my other thoughts, tied to the picture above, on consistency….

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.”
– Oscar Wilde

“Consistency is the quality of a stagnant mind” — John Sloan

“Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are dead.” — Aldous Huxley

“Consistency is the paste jewel that only cheap men cherish.” — William Allen White

“Emerson has said that consistency is a virtue of an ass. No thinking human being can be tied down to a view once expressed in the name of consistency. More important than consistency is responsibility. A responsible person must learn to unlearn what he has learned. A responsible person must have the courage to rethink and change his thoughts. Of course there must be good and sufficient reason for unlearning what he has learned and for recasting his thoughts. There can be no finality in rethinking.” — B. R. Ambedkar

“Consistency requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year ago.”
– Bernard Berenson

“What, then, is the true Gospel of consistency? Change. Who is the really consistent man? The man who changes. Since change is the law of his being, he cannot be consistent if he stick in a rut.” — Mark Twain

Tao is about change, if it is about anything. The world as we know it is in constant change, in many different cycles. One of those cycles is political. Right now, the conservative right wing is at its prime in our country, dominating the discussion and the government. But, it is beginning to lose ground, in so many ways, large and small slips that begin to add up into larger changes.

Bush ignores these slips at his peril. He is seen as uncaring, unconcerned about a grieving mother. He is seen as uncaring, unconcerned about the state of Iraq, about the state of the country, about those who are becoming more and more worn down in the war of the haves and the have-nots. And this will be the ultimate change in this country — when we become, once again, the great nation that cares about its people, the little people, not the people with power and position. This is what has always been great about America, and needs to be again. The Bill of Rights was driven by the concern for the common man’s freedoms. The Civil War was driven by state’s rights and the rights of all men to be free. The Civil Rights movement was driven by the need to recognize the rights of minorities. The Women’s Liberation Movement by the need to recognize the rights of women, a battle we still continue to fight. And the next great political movement?

I think it will be the resurgence of a populism that is lying dormant in America right now and beginning to spring back to life. It is very evident in the grass-roots movements — in my Move On group, in the progressive movement events I’ve attended, in the DFA organization, in Dean’s takeover of the Democratic organization. When this movement hits the Republican organization machine, and it will, they are going to be clueless about how to deal with it. But those on the bottom of the Republican dogpile are not going to be content to remain there for much longer, without their jobs, without their security, without some assurances that they will be cared for and their families provided for.

The Democratic organization is dealing with these changes now. The Republicans are failing to realize they are next, and won’t be able to continue buying everyone off with God, guns and gays forever. They will learn, eventually, that as Bill taught us, “It’s the economy, stupid.” Until Republicans are willing to provide for the common welfare, they have no business leading this country any longer. Bush may be enjoying his consistency of his little mind — but the only truly consistent thing is change.

Bush said he is aware of the anti-war sentiments of Cindy Sheehan and others who have joined her protest near the Bush ranch.

“But whether it be here or in Washington or anywhere else, there’s somebody who has got something to say to the president, that’s part of the job,” Bush said on the ranch. “And I think it’s important for me to be thoughtful and sensitive to those who have got something to say.”

“But,” he added, “I think it’s also important for me to go on with my life, to keep a balanced life.”

Oh, really? And how are all those people who have lost their children to your war supposed to go on with their lives, Mr. Asshole? Guess they’re just not as important as you are, huh?

Yeah, go ride your damn bike, you scum-sucking maggot.

Tespih WIndow, Turkey

My prayer beads are strung on my life span.
I am not allowed to skip a single bead:
Sometimes the bead is a seed. Or a bone.
Or jade, Or dry blood. Or semen. Or crystal.
Or rotted wood. Or a sage’s relic. Or gold.
Or glass. Or a prism. Or iron. Or clay. Or an
eye. Or an egg. Or dung. Or a ball. Or a
stone. Or a peach. Or a bullet. Or a bubble.
Or lead. Or pure light.
No matter what the next bead is, I must
count it.
Perform my daily austerities.
Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
Until repetition becomes endurance.

People seldom understand the power of repetition. What is repeated over and over again can become enduring: what is done in a moment is seldom lasting. If farmers do not tend to their fields every day, they cannot expect a harvest. The same is true of spiritual practice. It is not the grand declaration or the colorful initiation that means anything. It is the ongoing, daily living of a spiritual life that has meaning. Our progress may range from dull to spectacular, but we must accept both. Each and every day should be linked together, strung into a long line of prayer beads.

In life, you don’t know how many beads you’ve counted already, and you don’t know how many are yet to come. All that matters is fingering the one that comes to you now and taking the spiritual significance of that moment to heart.

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

“Nature is an endless combination and repetition of a very few laws. She hums the old well-known air through innumerable variations.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“He who sows the ground with care and diligence acquires a greater stock of religious merit than he could gain by the repetition of ten thousand prayers” — Zoroaster

“Now the way of life that I preach is a habit to be acquired gradually by long and steady repetition. It is the practice of living for the day only, and for the day’s work.” — William Osler

“Were it offered to my choice, I should have no objection to a repetition of the same life from its beginning, only asking the advantages authors have in a second edition to correct some faults in the first.”
– Benjamin Franklin

“Let not the enjoyment of pleasures now within your grasp, be carried to such excess as to incapacitate you from future repetition”
– Seneca

True spirituality is demonstrated in the way you live your life, not in going to church and repetition of prayers. Those things are mere reminders to live your life in the way you believe. The reality is that your spirit is most nourished or starved by the things that happen every day, how you treat those around you every day, what things you do daily to further your own spirituality. I was always far more impressed by the great things my mother did for other people than by the fact that she went to church every week. I learned more from her example of how to be there for other people than from going to church myself.

Beads, however, are pretty cool. My son and I recently got interested in beads at a wonderful bead store in Tucson, Beaucoup Congé. Ah, now there is a place one could have a spritual experience! He fell in love with the magnetic hematite, I fell in love with the copper pearls. Now we both want to do more beading, and a friend has offered to go with me and tour our local beading supply stores. And then there were the used bookstores – Bookman’s. Ah, a spiritual experience for sure! A huge bookstore as neat and organized as any Borders, with thousands and thousands of used books of all types. Mmmm….

HoustonChronicle.com – Answers sought in death outside Wal-Mart

Answers sought in death outside Wal-Mart
Man accused of theft begged to be let up from hot pavement, witness says

By ROBERT CROWE and S.K. BARDWELL
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

A man suspected of shoplifting goods from an Atascocita Wal-Mart — including diapers and a BB gun — had begged employees to let him up from the blistering pavement in the store’s parking lot where he was held, shirtless, before he died Sunday, a witness said.

An autopsy for the man, identified as Stacy Clay Driver, 30, of Cleveland, was scheduled for Monday, but officials said results probably would be delayed by a wait for toxicology tests.

Driver’s family, as well as one emergency worker, are questioning company procedure, including whether Wal-Mart workers administered CPR after they realized he needed medical attention.

When Atascocita Volunteer Fire Department paramedics arrived, Driver was in cardiac arrest, said Royce Worrell, EMS director. Worrell said Monday he heard from investigators that Wal-Mart employees administered CPR to Driver, but he was not sure that happened.

“When we got there, the man was facedown (in cardiac arrest) with handcuffs behind his back,” Worrell said. “That’s not indicative of someone given CPR.”

Wal-Mart employees referred calls to the Harris County Sheriff’s Department, where homicide detectives are investigating the death.

“We’re just not able to provide any comment at this time … ,” said Christi Gallagher, spokeswoman at Wal-Mart’s headquarters in Bentonville, Ark….

That’s why I don’t shop there….

Agenzia Giornalistica Italia – News In English

WOMAN, 38, DIES CRUSHED BY CRUCIFIX DURING MASS
(AGI) – Oristano, Italy, Aug 10 – A woman died crushed by an iron crucifix at the entrance of the church of San Lorenzo while she was attending mass in the city’s patron saint’s celebrations. Paoletta Orru’, 38, had returned to Mogorella, near Oristano, with her husband and two children especially for the celebration of San Lorenzo. Tomorrow was her birthday. This morning the woman was outside of the busy church, together with other devotees who did not manage to enter. Suddenly, around 12, the heavy crucifix about one metre wide fell from the entrance of the church where it was placed, crushing the woman. The emergency services immediately dispatched a helicopter, but when they arrived from the nearby Ales they warned that it was not necessary any more: the victim, hit on the head, died due to a strong concussion. Fire-fighters and police arrived and will inspect the scene. The accident is currently unexplained. A youth, who was grazed by the crucifix, suffered a slight injury to his ankle and will heal in 4-5 days.

That’s why I don’t go….

Pink Shell With Seaweed, Georgia O’Keeffe

Tao is within us; Tao surrounds us.
Part of it may be sensed,
And is called manifestation.
Part of it is unseen,
And it is called void.

To be with Tao is harmony,
To separate from Tao is disaster.
To act with Tao, observe and follow.
To know Tao, be still and look within.

Tao is within us; we are Tao. It is also outside of us, it is all the known universe. All that we can know of ourselves and our universe cannot account for all that is Tao. What we know is merely the outer manifestation of Tao.

The ultimate Tao is called absolute. We cannot know it directly because it has no definitions, references, or names. Our normal minds are incapable of perceiving where there is no contrast. Yet it is precisely this colorless infinity that is the underlying reality to this life.

The only way to fathom it is to remove our sense of division from it. In essence, we must plunge into the mystery itself. Only then will we know peace.

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

How many people in your life do you know who are satisfied simply to be, to exist? Probably not too many. We all think we need to become something more than we are, that we have to achieve something, we don’t really know what but we think it might be this or that. And yet, we are already part of the marvelous existence around us, the universe that simply is. We don’t see ourselves as part of it, we see ourselves as somehow separate from it, as if the dog or the plant or the table or chair or the shell that surrounds us and is us was something other, when in fact we are composed of the same kinds of molecules and atoms and mostly empty space.

Life, any life, especially our own, is so much more wonderful and amazing than we give it credit for being. We take it for granted, take others for granted and ourselves, until we are some day hit up with the fact that one day it will be gone. And will we wish we had spent that day at the office, or gone to the beach, or visited the mountains, or seen that friend we’ve put off seeing? I bet few of us would long for more time in the office, really.

- toledoblade.com -

Tom Noe used his American Express credit card from Thomas Noe, Inc. — the same entity he’s accused of using as a vehicle to steal millions of dollars from Ohio’s rare-coin funds — to contribute $10,000 to California’s governor.

Transaction records released yesterday from the $50 million funds that Mr. Noe managed for the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation included a credit-card statement for Thomas Noe, Inc., containing a pair of $5,000 charges from March 9, 2004, for “political contributions” to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

After initially refusing to return the contributions, Mr. Schwarzenegger in June decided to reverse course and not keep the money after all. His spokesman could not confirm that the money has been returned.

MUST read op-ed – go read the whole thing. It’s brilliant!

Ignorance Is Bliss; Sometimes It’s Policy

The ranch at Crawford hardly compares with the Forbidden City, but George W. Bush has something in common with the Ming emperors of China: He seems determined to make his great nation less ambitious and more ignorant.

He wouldn’t see it that way, of course, but the emperors didn’t see it that way either. And I don’t know how else to explain policies and pronouncements that make the quest for knowledge conditional on politics. That is a prescription for decline.

In the early 1400s the Ming emperor Zhu Di made China into the world’s leading maritime nation, sending huge fleets on missions of trade and exploration as far as the Swahili coast of Africa. It should have been just a matter of a few years before Chinese sailors discovered the Americas. But Zhu Di’s successors, influenced by court politics, called home the fleets and forbade them to sail again, forfeiting the riches of the New World — and five centuries of global domination — to an underdeveloped backwater called Europe.

I guess it’s a general rule of political dynasties, in China as well as in Texas, that the blood thins with successive generations.

Examples? Well, there’s the way Bush insists on hamstringing American scientists who are trying to explore the potential medical benefits of therapies involving embryonic stem cells.

……

By all rights, we ought to remember the Ming dynasty for discovering America; instead, we think of gorgeous pottery but not much else. China’s current leaders seem determined not to make the same mistake.

I just recently purchased Gavin Menzie’s 1421: The Year China Discovered America and have barely started to read it (reading too many blogs to get to my much-loved books lately…) I’m heading out on a road trip to Tucson though, so will probably take it along. Here’s the blurb:

On March 8, 1421, the largest fleet the world had ever seen set sail from China. Its mission was “to proceed all the way to the ends of the earth to collect tribute from the barbarians beyond the seas” and unite the whole world in Confucian harmony.

When it returned in October 1423, the emperor had fallen, leaving China in political and economic chaos. The great ships were left to rot at their moorings and the records of their journeys were destroyed. Lost in China’s long, self-imposed isolation that followed was the knowledge that Chinese ships had reached America seventy years before Columbus and had circumnavigated the globe a century before Magellan. Also concealed was how the Chinese colonized America before the Europeans and transplanted in America and other countries the principal economic crops that have fed and clothed the world.

Unveiling incontrovertible evidence of these astonishing voyages, 1421 rewrites our understanding of history. Our knowledge of world exploration as it has been commonly accepted for centuries must now be reconceived due to this landmark work of historical investigation.

Anyway, go read the op-ed – and get the book, too – it’s great! Ah, for more time…

Esther Yaa Alofe
“The community where I live inspires me to paint through their way of dressing and their activities… I paint to tell of nature and to motivate people in life.”

Support the UNICEF famine campaign in Niger this week and local artists by purchasing arts and crafts from West African artists at NOVICA

They call her useless
And yet push for achievement.
“I want a baby.”
They bicker between themselves,
And reproach her for being distant.
“My friends have so much fun.”
They dwell on money,
And indenture her to loyalty.
“I can‘t stand this every day.”
She is innocent.
They have ambitions.

There was a girl who was both a good student and a good athlete. Her family did not find that to be enough. They pushed her to spend all her time studying or practicing for her next sport competition. Finally, she could stand it no further. She ran away.

Her family was firmly convinced that it was a kidnapping.

In so many families, a girl is told how useless she is. Is it any wonder that she gets pregnant? A boy is told how lazy he is. Is it any wonder that he rebels as an act of individuality?

When parents demand without understanding, they thwart development. Forcing children to fulfill parental ambitions destroys individuality. Before parents blame their children, they should first look to how their daughters and sons were raised.

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

The facts tell an impersonal tale: approximately 1.5 million U.S. youth run away or are sent away from home yearly, 68% are between the ages of 15-17, 35% had run away before. Behind the statistics lie stories waiting to be told of lives changed by the runaway experience.

“Runaway Lives” was created to give voice to those stories. Runaways, past and present, and their family members are invited to share their experiences. Writings may be of any length and in any form: a brief reflection, a diary, a poem, a captioned photo, whatever. The only requirement is that it be based on fact, not fiction.

Runaway Lives, stories by runaways and their families

National Runaway Switchboard
National Runaway Switchboard offers confidential help to runaways and their families, as well as information and educational services.

Covenant House provides shelter and many other services to homeless and runaway youth.

National Youth Crisis Hotline – 1-800-HIT-HOME/1-800-448-4663

Foundation 2 helps runaways, suicidal teens, and others through a crisis center, shelters, and other outreach services.

National Runaway Switchboard – phone 1-800-621-4003

Covenant House – phone 1-800-999-9999

National Youth Crisis Hotline – 1-800-HIT-HOME/1-800-448-4663

Childhelp USA (Child Abuse Hotline) – 800-4-A-CHILD/1-800-422-4453

Team Hope gives one-on-one support to parents of missing children through a volunteer network of parents who have gone through the experience. The website also offers a wealth of information on abduction, runaways, Internet enticement, etc.

Child Find of America, Inc. (New York)-phone 1-800-a-day out

National Missing Children’s Locate Center (Oregon) – phone 1-800-999-7846

____________

I don’t have much of a personal nature to add to this post today. I wouldn’t even think of treating my kids in a way that would make them want to run away from home. My problem is usually that I can’t get them to leave, and they drag all their friends here too…. but as I always tell my husband when he complains, “at least we know where they are”.

My older son went up on the hill behind our house with a friend when he was much younger and I didn’t know where he was. He got grounded for two weeks, the only time I have ever grounded him for anything. The number one rule in the house was always that I had to know where they were and when they would be home. He’s 19 now, and still calls me every time he’s leaving his community college to come home.

Parenting is difficult, and every situation is different. We can all fall into abusive behavior when we are tired or stressed, we can all get too insistent on having things done our way. Children are too young to understand so many things, and in our rush to get them to grow up, we look at our own experience and try to tell them what’s best from what we’ve learned. There’s a big difference though between sharing what you know from your own experience, and giving people, even children, the chance to understand that and act upon it in their own way, and demanding that something be done a certain way and RIGHT NOW simply because you said so. In emergencies, that’s fine, and in anything involving a child’s safety, it can be essential. But that demanding parent voice needs to go away when it isn’t an emergency.

Kids also learn best, of course, from their parents’ examples of behavior. If you say one thing but do another, that is the first thing a child will notice. And if your excuse is, “but I’m an adult”, then the child often see that the privileges of adulthood mean you can do what you want to and they will arrange their lives to make that happen. If you never take your child to work or out in public places and let them see that you must observe the rules as well, they will attempt to get out from under your control as soon as possible. If your rules are inconsistent with your values, your child notices that, too.

Ah, but I could go on for a long time about all my own experiences of parenting and what I think, but that’s another blog, and I’m not into all the mommy blogs, although I would have loved it if blogging were around when my kids were younger. It probably would have been very helpful as well as a great outlet.

Anyway, I asked my son why he never considered running away from home, and his answer was, “because I have too much stuff”. So there you go. Buy your kids lots of stuff and spoil the heck out of ‘em. His room is full of stuffed tigers, and he has no way to carry them all with him to leave. Guess I’ll have to get him a moving van for his next car…. Nope, that won’t work either. He said, “Maybe. But then again, E-bay. I’m sure there is someone out there willing to pay money who needs a moving van more than I do.”

Sigh….

Poetall, Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun

Anything is subject for a poem :
A catalog of boxing equipment, a collage of other poems,
Serpentine trail of incense, raised deer fur, old shoes pointed pigeon-toed,
Glass and steel cityscape, almond eyes of a saint, weeping tiny flowers,
Sunlight on whitewashed walls, blue shadows of stooped women,
A spring mousetrap, a trickle of blood in the gutter,
The homing swoop of a gull, chill whitecapped bay, scent of eucalyptus.
Green lawn of broken blades, clods of fat earth.
Anything is subject for a poem.

Even in sleep, write a poem.
When waking, write a poem.
While loving, write a poem.
Even voting, write a poem.
When angry, write a poem.
While dreaming, write a poem.

The sages say quite seriously that those who wish to know better should cultivate the poet in themselves.

Deng Ming Tao, 365 Tao

Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash. ~Leonard Cohen

Poetry is the journal of the sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air. Poetry is a search for syllables to shoot at the barriers of the unknown and the unknowable. Poetry is a phantom script telling how rainbows are made and why they go away. ~Carl Sandburg, Poetry Considered

To see the Summer Sky
Is Poetry, though never in a Book it lie -
True Poems flee.
~Emily Dickinson

We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. Dead Poet’s Society

Breathe-in experience,
breathe-out poetry.
~Muriel Rukeyser

Poets aren’t very useful
Because they aren’t consumeful or very produceful.
~Ogden Nash

Percy Bysshe Shelley was born on August 4, 1792

“Poetry is a mirror which makes beautiful that which is distorted.”
~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

On a Poet’s Lips I Slept
by Percy Bysshe Shelley

from `Prometheus Unbound’

On a poet’s lips I slept
Dreaming like a love-adept
In the sound his breathing kept;
Nor seeks nor finds he mortal blisses,
But feeds on the aerial kisses
Of shapes that haunt thought’s wildernesses.
He will watch from dawn to gloom
The lake-reflected sun illume
The yellow bees in the ivy-bloom,
Nor heed nor see what things they be;
But from these create he can
Forms more real than living man,
Nurslings of immortality!
One of these awakened me,
And I sped to succour thee.

I tend to write poems when I am sad or unhappy. Which means, I haven’t written very many poems lately, since it’s been a long time since I’ve been really unhappy or sad. If you want to view some of my past poems, they are posted here.

I suppose could write more poems about the Tao, but these days, it’s sort of like this posting says, everything is poetry. I look outside and the wind blows through the trees, and I will just watch the leaves shifting back and forth, the sunlight playing off them, and I think, “ah.” I admire the soft texture and colors of my golden retriever’s fur, and I think “ah”. I look at the smooth curved edges and the deep cobalt blue color of my teapot and I think, “ah”. It just never ends…

Next times things are bothering you and you think there’s no solution, just take a few moments to look at something that is beautifully made, either natural or artificial. The grain of wood on the desk you are sitting at, the beautiful lines of the chair you are sitting in, the wonderful mystery of your very own skin when you look at it closely. And think, “ah”.

Pharyngula::Bush endorses Intelligent Design creationism

Links to 160 Evolution-Friendly bloggers here.

John Nichols:

Bolton will serve differently than his predecessors. For one thing, he is neither the intellectual nor the emotional equal of those who came before him. For another, he will be seen as a representative only of the Bush White House — not of the United States or its people.

At a time when the United States should be a full and active participant in the United Nations, it will instead be marginalized force — an embarrassed land represented by one its most embarrassing sons.

I agree — the thing I feel most strongly about the entire Bush presidency is embarrasment — we have gone from being possibly the world’s most respected nation to an embarrassing oaf of a nation.

World turning its back on Brand America

The US is increasingly viewed as a “culture-free zone” inhabited by arrogant and unfriendly people, according to study of 25 countries’ brand reputations.

The findings, published online today, will add to concerns that anti-Americanism is hurting companies whose products are considered to be distinctly “American”.

The Anholt-GMI Nation Brands Index found that although US foreign policy remained a key driver of hostility, dissatisfaction with the world’s sole superpower might run deeper.

“The US is still recognised as a leading place to do business, the home of desirable brands and popular culture,” said Simon Anholt, author of the survey. “But its governance, its cultural heritage and its people are no longer widely respected or admired by the world.”

The Bolton appointment will only serve to continue to embarrass us as a nation in the eyes of the world, create hostility towards us from other countries, and add to our problems with terrorism.

Bush endorses teaching ‘intelligent design’

President Bush waded into the debate over evolution and “intelligent design” Monday, saying schools should teach both theories on the creation and complexity of life.

In a wide-ranging question-and-answer session with a small group of reporters, Bush essentially endorsed efforts by Christian conservatives to give intelligent design equal standing with the theory of evolution in the nation’s schools.

On other topics, Bush said he has no idea how Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts would vote in a case challenging the legality of abortion because he never asked him about it. He also defended Baltimore Orioles first baseman Rafael Palmeiro, who was suspended Monday for using performance-enhancing steroids.

Bush declined to state his personal views on “intelligent design,” the belief that life forms are so complex that their creation can’t be explained by Darwinian evolutionary theory alone, but rather points to intentional creation, presumably divine.

The theory of evolution, first articulated by British naturalist Charles Darwin in 1859, is based on the idea that life organisms developed over time through random mutations and factors in nature that favored certain traits that helped species survive.

Scientists concede that evolution doesn’t answer every question about the creation of life, but most consider intelligent design an attempt to inject religion into science courses.

Bush compared the current debate to earlier disputes over “creationism,” a related view that adheres more closely to biblical explanations. As governor of Texas, Bush said students should be exposed to both creationism and evolution.

On Monday the president said he favors the same approach for intelligent design “so people can understand what the debate is about.”

Here’s what the debate is about, Mr. President. It’s about taking this country backwards scientifically, technologically, socially, and economically.

We ought to teach science and history in conjunction, so we can say, “Well, people used to believe this, and many people still do, but now science has shown us that….” There are so many subjects that need to be taught in this way. People don’t understand the history of ideas, where they come from, how they have changed. And they don’t know how to separate something they have heard or read from scientific proof and evidence.

The things we need to teach in school are Critical Thinking Skills and How to Do Research. The facts taught and the subjects matter even less than those things. My son was 5 when he asked a cashier how a cash register works. When the cashier tried to tell him there were little fairies inside, he stomped his foot and declared, “That is a machine, it is not magical, and I want to know how it *works*!

Our real problems in this society are not who is in power or what people believe, but that there are so few people who really have the ability to think clearly and reason things out for themselves. And yes, this does go back to parenting and even to the nature of the individual, but everyone can be taught to clarify their thinking. Even 5 year olds.

Religion is emotional, and stems from the amygdala. It makes us feel good, eases our fears, and gives a sense of order to what can be a chaotic-seeming world. Those are all good things. But to take religion beyond that and try to make it into something it is not, and force it into fields where it has no business being, is as ridiculous as teaching a science class in church and expecting it to make everyone feel spiritual. It simply dumbs down our society.

We won’t survive economically if we can’t forge ahead in scientific fields. Our technology will fall behind, and that is what makes the crucial differences in power. All these attempts to hold us back scientifically and technically for the sake of religion, to make people into sheep following an ancient belief trussed up as some new theory, will backfire on us as we are bypassed by China and other countries who are busy training their scientists and engineers.

Update:

Sorry, the argument here is not about your personal belief about the universe, as one commenter seems to think. It is about what is taught as science – testable, provable ideas. Look at all the great science that has come from the idea of evolution, look around you for goodness sake at how we can change the very DNA of life itself, the medicines, the knowledge, and tell me honestly that you haven’t benefitted from science. If you still want to pursue this logic, give me the name of your church so I can come give a lecture on the Tao on alternate Sundays. After all, don’t people deserve to hear all sides of the spiritual story and choose for themselves? Now, if you can’t honestly agree that science is science and religion is religion, then GET LOST and don’t comment here, at least not without leaving a proper email address – spam pisses me off as much as idiotic people who don’t know what science is, K?

I’m still sick with this darn cold today and just feeling uninspired. If you would like to post, please email me at donna at woodka.com and I’ll send you the login info…