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PFNELKAK ~ How would I enforce the law? The same way any law is enforced. Depending on the the violation the penalty will not exceed the harm done in the crime. For small altercations and property damage, restorations will be required. For failure to make restorations--or repeat offences--fines and imprisonment. Personal assaults will be dealt with on an individual basis depending on cause and severity. Repeat offenders will be isolated or relocated. Habitual offenders will be banished. They who refuse banishment, will be permanently imprisoned in a banished isolated prison colony.
Those who obey the law will enjoy all the benefits society has to offer without limit.
When you're on my world, don't question my law.
It is amazing how government thinks we believe everything they say. I guess it's because we do. Just like when they told everyone that the ACA was going to insure 15 million people who can't afford health insurance and not cost anyone any more money. Even better everyone is going to get health care cheaper. Ya right.
PFNELKAK ~ I can't speak for Loren or Mark J. Saulys, however, for myself, THE LAW OF JESUS, namely...
Of course you could simplify that into, "Love thy neighbour as thyself." There really can only be but ONE LAW.
The problem arises that you cannot 'love thy neighbor' until you 'love thyself'. Furthermore, you can hardly love thyself without loving GOD. This brings us fundamentally back to the rock solid foundation of the law--The first Great Commandment, and The Ten Commandments. In order to obey the ONE LAW you must also obey the 11 Commandments that make it possible.
For instance, let us consider the First and Second of the 10 Commandments, "Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me." "Thou Shalt make no Graven Images." How seriously the organized religious community take those commandments in this nation? Everywhere you look you find blessed nicknacks hanging in graven places, be they crosses, pictures, figurines, statues, paintings, landmarks, artifacts, or beads. Soldiers march into battle with containers of "holy water," women in churches light candles for magical favors, I've even seen Saint trading cards offered for sale in church gift shops. For a shekel any Priest or Pastor will bless your lunch box, or favorite toy. We still practice all manner of idolatry in this nation in the name of God. If we can't even get the First Two Commandments down right, how can we do anything else right?
Perhaps the most offensive piece of idolatry we have is the Bible itself. We treat it as though it is a holy thing. According to the First Two Commandments there is no such thing as a holy thing! A magical thing. God himself--for sale! It's just a book. A bunch of paper with some ink splashed on it. It has no other power. It has no other value. The only power all these 'things' have is the power we give them in our mind; and, that is a wicked power indeed.
No, my friend. I have already given this scenario much deep thought. "Love your neighbor as you love yourself" is the only law I will need. All the other laws of GOD naturally flow through it; and, if there is any question, the other 11 supporting laws are all written down there in that great piece of reference material I call, The Bible.
Thank you so much for asking!!
Leave it to the Repugnicans to take dog s**t, wrap it up, and sell it as tootsie rolls.
Where did I put the pooper scooper?
Your example is founded on some presumptions I don't think are valid or plausible. First, you presume we (and, presumably, our sons) will "own" the planet - and even the others on it, in some feudal sense. By what authority would that be enforced and why would the others accept that order?
That brings me to the second presumption that the others on the planet would be passive, docile children "looking to us" for solutions to this and all other problems.
The third, I assume, is that we couldn't act against our own sons or relinquish any "authority" we are presumed to have or, indeed, not have that authority long since wrested from us.
The greater liklihood - considering, especially, that we're all Thom Hartmann listeners, but even so - would be that we would allow to occur or try to establish or, not unlikely, just naturally couldn't prevent, a pretty horizontal, democratic order in our little society making any supposed title to the planet of the three "founders", or anyone else, irrelevant.
A still more likely scenario would be that some renegade, outside group, organization or power would come, sieze control of the planet, colonize it, take everyone hostage and use the planet for their own purposes.
Patriarchal, Bron Age type religious authority isn't the only possibility.
you dont really understand any of the dynamics of the Fed ponzi scheme. the Fed captures our income before it becomes money supply ( we are all so good at making the lettuce) and sells that cash flow to its member banks (our Mr. POTTERS) at a discount to market value with the understanding that you dont loan the lettuce to anyone but back to the FED. The Fed will pay you to take an already sweet deal and shut up? in the mean time the Fed has massively increased its capture of both legal and illegal incomes since '07! and dont seem to be of the trinkle down tribe thus far. long before '07 the Fed has been shipping our money supply over to LA DUCE VITA and now those dollars are going to flood back as the European central bank wants to own more dollar denomies. and in a hurry? like i said you dont see stuff like i do YET.
The penalty for not having health insurance in 2014 is the greater of two amounts. One is 1.0% of your taxable income. The other is a fixed $95.
Both of these go up for the 2015 tax year: $325 or 2.0%. In 2016, $695 or 2.5%.
A total of less than 3 months without coverage in a calendar year will not incur a penalty.
I really blew it voting for Clinton 20+ years ago. My distrust of billionaires had me shying away from Perot. If I could do it over again, I'd vote for Perot in a heartbeat.
Reply to #18: OU, You got me. I'm devastated. I think I'll go hide from Blog Land for a week or two until the shame wears off. - AIW
(P.S.-- Pssst! You are what you eat!)
to D'anne Marc & Loren & Mark J. Saulys
Now you guys opened a can of worms. It's easy to sit back in a comfortable chair and brainstorm on what the proper ethics should be from one book to another and then pitch it. Lets turn the tables and see how you would handle this scenario.
The three of you have just won the lottery and 1st prize is your very own little planet. Slightly smaller, let's say the size of the U.S.A. for land mass, water, hills, but all luscious green. All livable, no huge desolate mountains or freezing cold ice packs. Yes, you are human, with families, & young bucks in your late 20's. By the way, this is a one way trip for all. You will have room for 1000 people of your choice to enjoy this planet with you. Sorry, no electronic gadgets of any kind. Only animals and people. Like horse and buggy days. One month later, you arrive & everyone is enjoying this jaw dropping experience, a life of bliss, 5 yrs, 10 yrs, 15 yrs. Suddenly death fills the land, 2 people, 6 people, 40 people. What went wrong? You guys are in charge? You find out there is a band of 30 to 40 men stealing, burning, raping, killing, and taking over the eastern 1/4 of all the land. And one of the leaders is one of your sons. Its now your turn. It is your planet. The people are scared to death and they turn to you for action. Some are outraged. Some are ready to ban together for a lynch mob. Remember, one of them is one of your sons.
So the hard questions come up. What laws should you have that are right for all people? And what are the consequences for breaking the laws? How will YOU enforce them? It's all up to you three now.
I Agree and Thom knows that as well, that is why he is a vegetarian !Have you checked out the back of Thom,s book The Prophets Way .There is detailed information there on the impact of Eating a meat based diet .I think a lot of the information came from John Robbins who wrote Diet for a New America and Food Revolution .,amongst other great books on food and the environment .The information in Cowspiracy is not new but the more people that know the better .
We have to raise conciousness to change consciousness so thanks for the link ,we have to get the film going viral as they say .Especially to the kids, give our younger generations access to the consequences of eating McDonald's ,a meat and Dairy based diet .
Because the KKK and Cosa Nostra are "freedom fighters".
Roland
Back??? When did it leave?
Roland
Unlike the depression of the thirties, modern Americans have no survival skills and will perish wholesale.
Roland
Interesting no mention of Venusaula or Nigeria. Two of worlds largest worst environmental polluters.
i am proud to say the U of Calgary is spending billions on research on keeping in in the ground in carbon capture and the first refinery in the world that returns all of its CO2 enmmisions is being built right now in Alberta. Just think all coal fired plants in the world could recapture all of the carbon. yet no news of this anywhere. Makes me wonder if it's carbon we want to get rid of or oil companies.
Vegasman, NAFTA didn't raise the standard of living in Mexico or why was there a fourfold increase in economic refugees from there by the early to mid 2000s? NAFTA ruined the livlihood of peasant farmers and sent them into the cities - and subsequently, up north to the U.S. - looking for work by the millions.
The factories are gone from Mexico too. After Mexican workers and citizens organized and stood up, the manufacturing base - previously of the U.S. - was moved again to China where the iron police state was reassuring to transnational - previously American - manufacturers who worried about organizing and workers' and citizens' power.
Can't they be fired for insubordiantion? Didn't they get a direct order not to do that stuff? Or was that just a suggestion?
Mark J. Saulys ~ It will be nice when the human race matures and doesn't need to look to ancient myths to tell them what is right and what is wrong. Perhaps when we can rely on ourselves to determine what is right and wrong then we will truly evolve? Perhaps Fromm was right on more than one level?
Thanks for sharing!
Thom, if we could shut down all of the fossil fuel production today, --we would still lose the upcoming climate change catastrophe! We all need to refocus our attention, because the really big problem is much larger than the energy sector, as is explained in this powerful, new video:
http://www.cowspiracy.com
D'Anne Marc, essential in Fromm's charachterization is that the eating from the
"tree of knowledge of good and evil" was that it was an act of disobedience. It is a metaphor for adolescent rebellion when a child becomes truly a seperate individual in their own right by disobeying their elders.
Okay D'Anne Marc, we'll let you slide - this time - but you watch yourself!
I can't think of a single commandment of the ten that I couldn't violate justly under some circumstance. Monogamy developed in tandem with private property and patriarchy and for similar reasons - largely male posessiveness, among some others. That then also shoots down "steal", the 6th, and the 5th, "kill", is always almost impossible to keep - who doesn't swat a fly?
Psychologists (Kohlberg) studying moral development in children found that strict adherence to the rules is what little children do. Older children and adults - who have eaten from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and no longer live in the Garden of Eden - have more "situational" ethics. They may or may not obey a rule depending on the effect it would have on the greater good.
The Republican Senate rule change may cross the line into legislation. A rule generally specifies procedure. This rule deals with the content of proposed legislation.
Mark J. Saulys ~ I'm not listening to Thom because he's been wiped off the Bay Area radio networks. If I want to listen to him I have to stream him live from your town; and, that schedule conflicts with mine. (Yes, Chicago has become more "liberal" than San Francisco. Please don't rub it in.) I catch bits and pieces of the show on YouTube and his FaceBook feed. That's about the best I can do. However, I do it to keep informed. I want to be a "good liberal" about as much as I want to be a "good organ donor".
Interesting interpretation of the story of the Garden of Eden. Of course you realize that as with any great literary epic, multiple interpretations are possible; and, equally valid. I still stand by mine. However, I really like Fromm's too. It also makes perfect sense. Thanks for sharing it!
You only accept three or four of the Ten Commandments? I must admit that I've had some difficulty with maybe two or three of them; however, generally, I've considered them all good and acceptable. Perhaps sometime you could share with us the Commandments you don't accept and the reasons for it? That would be most interesting. George Carlin did a good job at combining them and reducing them to three Commandments -- "1)Thou Shalt Always Be Honest And Faithful To The Provider Of Thy Nookie 2)Thou Shall Try Really Hard Not To Kill Anyone; Unless, They Pray To A Different Invisible Man Than You Do, 3)Thou Shall Keep Thy Religion To Thyself."
Love that bit...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE8ooMBIyC8
Thom, PLease stop using the Einstein quote about it being insanity. It is not. Einstein was wrong if he said that. Doing somehting over and again and expecting a different result is stupidity. Not knowing the difference between reality and fantasy is insanity.
Thank you for your service, A great deal of what you espouse rings familiar if not "true".
I think the controversial artwork Thom was looking for is "Immersion (Piss Christ)-- a photo by Andres Serrano (not Mapplethorpe).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piss_Christ