Miles Davis

“Well, I’ve changed the course of music five or six times. What have you done except fuck the president?”

—
Miles Davis to Nancy Reagan at a White House dinner in 1987 after she’d inquired as to what he’d done with his life to merit an invitation. source
(via marxisforbros

If there is a sin against life...

“If there is a sin against life, it consists perhaps not so much in despairing of life as in hoping for another life and in eluding the implacable grandeur of this life.”

— Albert Camus

Gandhi 7 Sins

Reason's Greetings

“They’ve promised us that dreams come true - but forgot that nightmares are dreams too.”

— Oscar Wilde

Love is all

“Congress is on the verge of wrecking the greatest engine of innovation and greatest platform for democracy ever known to human kind.

“Congress is on the verge of wrecking the greatest engine of innovation and greatest platform for democracy ever known to human kind. And for what? For the sake of propping up an ossified industry that refuses to change with the times, but happens to make a lot of campaign contributions.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2011/12/14/sopa-protect-ip_n_1140180.html

“Animals are my friends. And I don’t eat my friends.”

— George Bernard Shaw

Ooohh I wish

“A New Model of Empathy: The Rat” by David Brown, Washington Post

In a simple experiment, researchers at the University of Chicago sought to find out whether a rat would release a fellow rat from an unpleasantly restrictive cage if it could. The answer was yes.

The free rat, occasionally hearing distress calls from its compatriot, learned to open the cage and did so with greater efficiency over time. It would release the other animal even if there wasn’t the payoff of a reunion with it. Astonishingly, if given access to a small hoard of chocolate chips, the free rat would usually save at least one treat for the captive — which is a lot to expect of a rat.

The researchers came to the unavoidable conclusion that what they were seeing was empathy — and apparently selfless behavior driven by that mental state.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/a-new-model-of-empathy-the-rat/2011/12/08/gIQAAx0jfO_story.html

She's Alive... Beautiful... Finite... Hurting... Worth Dying for.

We all long for a bright future.

Royal Oak, MI November 13, 2011 Brian Day

Al Franken on the defense authorization act

“With this defense authorization act, Congress will, for the first time in 60 years, authorize the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens without charge or trial, according to its advocates. This would be the first time that Congress has deviated from President Nixon’s Non-Detention Act. And what we are talking about here is that Americans could be subjected to life imprisonment without ever being charged, tried, or convicted of a crime, without ever having an opportunity to prove their innocence to a judge or a jury of their peers. And without the government ever having to prove their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. I think that denigrates the very foundations of this country. It denigrates the Bill of Rights. It denigrates what our Founders intended when they created a civilian, non-military justice system for trying and punishing people for crimes committed on U.S. soil. Our Founders were fearful of the military—and they purposely created a system of checks and balances to ensure we did not become a country under military rule. This bill undermines that core principle, which is why I could not support it.”

Al Franken - U.S. Senator, Minnesota
alfranken.com/

Galileo Galilei

I’ve loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night -

(Source: signmysignature, via forumgamer)

Will 2012 Be 1984: DRM and SOPA are Breaking The Internet! via www.singularityweblog.com

Imagine a world where someone has a monopoly over the media, backed by the power to ban personal privacy and political dissent and capable of preventing people from public gathering and collective discussion without due process, judicial review or any evidence! Sound familiar?! Some of you might venture a guess that the above text reads like a passage from George Orwell’s 1984. Others might say that it sounds like the situation under the totalitarian regimes of the former Eastern Block or any other contemporary authoritarian. It is vital to realize, however, that this is not only fiction. This is not just the situation in some geographically obscure country stuck in the last 6 seconds of the evening newscast. This is in fact the future reality that we might be facing today, here, in the “free world.” This is Canada, the United States and the E.U.

we are all connected

To say my fate is not tied to your fate is like saying, "Your end of the boat is sinking." ~Hugh Downs

Quotes from our Founding Fathers on Christianity

God is an essence that we know nothing of. Until this awful blasphemy is got rid of, there will never be any liberal science in the world. - John Adams, Founding Father and 2nd President of the United States We discover in the gospels a groundwork of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, of superstition, fanaticism and fabrication . - Thomas Jefferson, Founding Father and 3rd President of the United States Lighthouses are more helpful than churches. In the affairs of the world, men are saved not by faith, but by the lack of it. I looked around for God’s judgments, but saw no signs of them. The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason. - Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father, scientist, inventor, educator Take away from Genesis the belief that Moses was the author, on which only the strange belief that it is the word of God has stood, and there remains nothing of Genesis but an anonymous book of stories, fables, and traditionary or invented absurdities, or of downright lies. Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst. I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any Church that I know of. My own mind is my own Church. Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all. The study of theology, as it stands in the Christian churches, is the study of nothing; it is founded on nothing; it rests on no principles; it proceeds by no authority; it has no data; it can demonstrate nothing; and it admits of no conclusion. - Thomas Paine, leader of the American Revolution Via @princedarwin

New Republican Budget

Influence without indoctrination (Parenting Beyond Belief #4)

“I’ve learned"

“I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow. I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights. I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life. I’ve learned that making a living is not the same thing as making a life. I’ve learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance. I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw some things back. I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision. I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be one. I’ve learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back. I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn. I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

— Maya Angelou

“Imagine a future in which millions of our descendants murder each other over rival interpretations of Star Wars or Windows 98. Could anything — anything — be more ridiculous? And yet, this would be no more ridiculous than the world we are living in.”

— Sam Harris, on religion (via liberal-life)

A few times in my life...

“A few times in my life I’ve had moments of absolute clarity, when for a few brief seconds the silence drowns out the noise and I can feel rather than think, and things seem so sharp and the world seems so fresh. I can never make these moments last. I cling to them, but like everything, they fade. I have lived my life on these moments. They pull me back to the present, and I realize that everything is exactly the way it was meant to be. Christopher Isherwood Quotes (Author of A Single Man)

Donald Duck Meets Glenn Beck in Right Wing Radio Duck

You Can Support Wis. Senators Who Are Standing with Workers | AFL-CIO NOW BLOG

You Can Support Wis. Senators Who Are Standing with Workers | AFL-CIO NOW BLOG

Boehner on losing jobs because of drastic cuts:

Boehner on losing jobs because of drastic cuts:

The New Tithe by Justin Wilson

The New Tithe from Justin Wilson on Vimeo.

‎"The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems...

‎"The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge." - Albert Einstein

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— Sam Harris~ letter to a christian ration (quote)

“if you think that it would be impossible to improve upon the Ten Commandments as a statement of morality, you really owe it to yourself to read some other scriptures. once again, we need look no further than the Jains; Mahavira, the Jain patriarch, surpassed the morality of the Bible with a single sentence: ‘do not injure, abuse, oppress, enslave, insult, torment, torture, or kill any creature or living being.’ imagine how different our world might be if the Bible contained this as its central precept. Christians have abused, oppressed, enslaved, insulted, tormented, tortured, and killed people in the name of God for centuries, on the basis of a theologically defensible reading of the Bible. it is impossible to behave this way by adhering to the principles of Jainism. how, then, can you argue that the Bible provides the clearest statement of morality the world has ever seen?”

— Sam Harris, letter to a christian nation

Mobile Blogging from here.

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Sunflower Sutra

--We're not our skin of grime, we're not our dread bleak dusty imageless locomotive, we're all beautiful golden sunflowers inside, we're blessed
by our own seed & golden hairy naked
accomplishment-bodies growing into mad black formal sunflowers in the sunset, spied on by our eyes under the shadow of the mad locomotive riverbank sunset Frisco hilly tincan evening sitdown vision.

Allen Ginsberg ~Berkeley, 1955

http://http://boppin.com/sunflower.html

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Mario Benedetti ~ Amor de Tarde

Es una lástima que no estés conmigo
cuando miro el reloj y son las cuatro
y acabo la planilla y pienso diez minutos
y estiro las piernas como todas las tardes
y hago así con los hombros para aflojar la espalda
y me doblo los dedos y les saco mentiras.

Es una lástima que no estés conmigo
cuando miro el reloj y son las cinco
y soy una manija que calcula intereses
o dos manos que saltan sobre cuarenta teclas
o un oído que escucha como ladra el teléfono
o un tipo que hace números y les saca verdades.

Es una lástima que no estés conmigo
cuando miro el reloj y son las seis.
Podrías acercarte de sorpresa
y decirme "¿Qué tal?" y quedaríamos
yo con la mancha roja de tus labios
tú con el tizne azul de mi carbónico.

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I'm the one

I'm the one that has to die when it’s time for me to die, so let me live my life, the way I want to.

Jimi Hendrix

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Sam Harris: A response to critics:

"For those unfamiliar with my book, here is my argument in brief: Morality and values depend on the existence of conscious minds -- and specifically on the fact that such minds can experience various forms of well-being and suffering in this universe. Conscious minds and their states are natural phenomenon, of course, fully constrained by the laws of Nature (whatever these turn out to be in the end). Therefore, there must be right and wrong answers to questions of morality and values that potentially fall within the purview of science. On this view, some people and cultures will be right (to a greater or lesser degree), and some will be wrong, with respect to what they deem important in life".

read the complete article here

Mobile Blogging from here.

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Give to every other human being

"Give to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself".

Thomas Paine~

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Adapt

Adapt.

thanks to @nickholmes

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Cognitive dissonance

“Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called. And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn’t fit in with the core belief”

—
Frantz Fanon (via mohandasgandhi)

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Guess the Quote: “If this is ‘socialism,’ what would capitalism look like?”

Guess the Quote: “If this is ‘socialism,’ what would capitalism look like?”

Clarence Thomas failed to report wife's income, watchdog says

Clarence Thomas failed to report wife's income, watchdog says

Clarence Thomas is a traitor who sold his country for a fistful of dollars

What the Right Gains From Poisoning Our Political Discourse and Inspiring Violence | | AlterNet

What the Right Gains From Poisoning Our Political Discourse and Inspiring Violence | | AlterNet

How Traumatic Events Change Our View Of Language by GEOFF NUNBERG

"Sarah Palin was right. It was irresponsible for people to say she had anything to do with the Tucson shootings. I'm not sure why she had to bring "blood libel" and the persecution of the medieval Jews into it. But she could certainly say it was a bum rap.

But people kept talking about political rhetoric even after the facts came out. For some, it was just an opportunity to bash the right. But most people were worried about the potential for violence. In polls, the majority of Americans said the tone of debate is so inflammatory that it could Push people over the edge"

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This is America

“This is America, where a white Catholic male Republican judge was murdered on his way to greet a Democratic Jewish woman member of Congress, who was his friend. Her life was saved initially by a 20-year old Mexican-American gay college student, and eventually by a Korean-American combat surgeon, all eulogized by our African American President.”

—
Mark Shields, PBS

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New Rules: Bill Maher to the Teabaggers - The Founding Fathers Would Have Hated Your Guts | Video Cafe

New Rules: Bill Maher to the Teabaggers - The Founding Fathers Would Have Hated Your Guts | Video Cafe

CRUDE: The Real Price of Oil

The story of lawsuit by tens of thousands of Ecuadorans against Chevron over contamination of the Ecuadorean Amazon.
One of the largest and most controversial legal cases on the planet.
An inside look at the infamous $27 billion Amazon Chernobyl case, CRUDE is a real-life high stakes legal drama set against a backdrop of the environmental movement, global politics, celebrity activism, human rights advocacy, the media, multinational corporate power, and rapidly-disappearing indigenous cultures.
Presenting a complex situation from multiple viewpoints, the film examines a complicated situation from several angles while bringing a story of environmental peril and human suffering into focus.

Watch the full documentary now

Mobile Blogging from here.

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Sri Chinmoy

"Be universal in your love. You will see the universe to be the picture of your own being."

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Tree of Failure by David Brooks

In a famous passage, Reinhold Niebuhr put it best: “Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore, we must be saved by hope. ... Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore, we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore, we must be saved by the final form of love, which is forgiveness "

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Enough Is Enough - Tony Schwartz - Harvard Business Review

Enough Is Enough - Tony Schwartz - Harvard Business Review

Amber Case: We are all cyborgs now | Video on TED.com

Amber Case: We are all cyborgs now | Video on TED.com

Tea party in the Sonora: For the future of G.O.P. governance, look to Arizona—By Ken Silverstein (Harper's Magazine)

Tea party in the Sonora: For the future of G.O.P. governance, look to Arizona—By Ken Silverstein (Harper's Magazine)