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It takes enormous courage to live with compassion
-- to even experience what the word compassion means..
Cowards choose to not feel, and call themselves brave -- they are fighting off their own surrender to experience of Universal Love -- which I admit is overwhelming. But there is no way to battle it out on your own. It is against what we are, against Nature. We Are One -- to love each other provides the relief of suffering, personal and collective, and opens the path to communities that work, and that encourage the best in all of us to come together. We have fallen victim to the myth that rude is good --- and it is not. Rude is only rude.
Add to the poll, 6. Well coiffed Onion loaf.
Jgmdesign, it's called motivated reasoning:
Part I: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/2011/04/18/the-science-of-why-we-deny-science-motivated-reasoning/
Part II: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/2011/04/18/motivated-reasoning-part-ii-climategate-partisanship-and-how-intelligence-makes-our-biases-worse/
..yup!
Alissa Rosenbaum
Is "Ayn Rand"'s real name -- how many young neo-fascists realize they are following an atheist Jewess
(who took medicare)?
Perhaps a wonderful story teller with a tragic and tormented life -- driven to seek the protector image of a killer in her fantasy because of the fear she experienced after her very privileged life style collapsed when she was young -- but really -- has anyone in that camp thought this all the way through?
Perhaps they might better take to reading Anne Frank, and learn something about the reality that happens when any group, any any race, any religion is "hunted", is hated. Perhaps understanding that we are, in reality, ONE -- would relieve some of the fear, the sense of isolation and the sense of threat that isolation produces. There is enough to go around. Heck, if only the Koch Broths had taken all they spent on dirty political campaigns and put that money into rebuilding job-stripped communities -- what would that look like?
Trump's hair is an antenna that feeds him conspiracy theories beamed from Zenu, and also a helmet that prevents any COMMON sense from getting in.
Check out Ed Garvey's blog at fightingbob.com. Ed says that the same plan/tactics Michigan's governor is using is coming soon to Wisconsin. I cannot believe that the people of Wisconsin will stand for it. I know and respect Ed greatly, but I think I'm putting my trust in the people of Wisconsin. By the way, a third recall election of the infamous "Republican 8" will be held soon -- probably more on the way.
The saddest thing for me is that when people latch onto an ideology they tend to defend it at all costs, and reject anything that contradicts their beliefs. That's how Scientology has persisted and grown- or any other religion for that matter. When you identify with a belief you become a member of that tribe, which is a deeply seated human predisposition, and it is very difficult thing to dislodge. It takes an earth shaking even to change their minds. It took 9/11 to unseat my religious affilitation.
I fear it will take a similarly catastrophic event to knock some sense into Libertarians and Ayn Randians. Hopefully that shocking description of the horrific murder by Rands hero will suffice. I hope you repeat this daily so it reaches the widest possible audience. They should be embarrassed to hold that affiliation. Unfortunately many Republicans and Conservatives are beyond embarrassment, as they have demonstrated by their shameless behavior, and it may take something far more catastrophic to knock some sense into them.
Good for you, Tom. Keep pounding it in.
The denseness of modern conservatism!
http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Denseness-of-Modern-Co-by-Roger-Shuler-110417-886.html
Follow the money . . .
Who financed the new "Atlas Shrugged" film?
IMO, there's a coordinated plan being followed to 'sell' Rand's philosophy [sic].
Let me see if I have the sequence of events straight:
1. Corporations bribe and otherwise corrupt local governments.
2. Corporate-owned media raises a stink about how corrupt local governments are.
3. Corporate lawyers write unconstitutional bills that are passed by corporate-bribed legislators, enabling corporate-bribed governors to illegally fire elected officials, illegally cancel union contracts, and sell the city's property and other assets to corporations.
4. Corporate-owned media informs us that we are ok with what they have done to us.
Boehner's orange riddle solved!
After years of desperate struggle to keep the truth suppressed -- it is finally emerging....
That awful orange color is sadly the result of botched skin bleaching treatments, covered up by makeup... nothing to make light of. Tragic indeed.
Yes, his father did operate a bar -- and young Boehner did run there, charmingly underfoot... but that bar was not the Boehner boys' first home.... devotedly religious young John's dad was a missionary in Nigeria, where, following his heart -- he fell in love with a beautiful Nigerian woman. When his brave choice to cross cultural barriers was discovered, he was forced to flee, carrying the young John, born of love -- but doomed to dodge the ever-present fear of racism and ignorant misapprehensions....
Yes, young John Boehner was is ---- Nigerian.
Donald Trump is being allowed to get into the presidential race to make the other Republican contenders look good. People will think, "Newt Gingrich has been married only three times; he's (relatively) good at relationships. Mitt Romney occasionally created jobs, he's (relatively) good at business."
The "Donald" has hair plugs from his armpits!
The power of words!!!
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/04/19/the-power-of-words.aspx
Obama Signing Statements Firestorm
As a presidential candidate in 2008, President Obama aggressively criticized his predecessor, George W. Bush, for attaching signing statements to legislation coming across his desk.
“I taught the Constitution for 10 years,” Obama said then. “I believe in the Constitution and I will obey the Constitution of the United States. We’re not going to use signing statements as a way of doing an end run around Congress.”
Three years later, Obama is racking up a reputation for using the same technique, which is neither specifically prohibited nor sanctioned by the Constitution or federal law. On Friday he announced the addition of a statement that would override parts of the 2011 federal appropriations bill, specifically a provision defunding four White House czars.
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/print/obama_runs_into_signing_statements_firestorm_20110418/
Habeas corpus - Obama has yet to re-instate Habeas corpus after two years in office!
http://www.networklobby.org/blog/2011-4-15/blog-good-news-about-taxes
The neocons said that invading Iraq would "break the back" of OPEC. Instead the tax breaks and war costs almost broke ours and we did not even get all the oil.
http://www.networklobby.org/taxonomy/term/8
http://www.networklobby.org/blog/2011-4-18/blog-about-federal-budget
http://www.networklobby.org/legislation/unbalanced-budget
Thom -- thanks for telling the truth
about "Ayn Rand" (not her real name)
She is a self-made media trap and has sucked in a multitude.
Everyday I meet another 18 yr old who brags that he is "Libertarian" --- and if I ask what that means, he says, "I am totally Free!" ---when I remind him (or her) that if the Libertarians win, his school grant (as we no longer have FREE schools, thanks to Raygun) will be gone, his food stamps which let him eat while he is in school racking up a $30,000 debt, his job training program will be gone -- the public park he goes to to skateboard will be locked up and sold to a macmansion complex -- and the public library he goes to for the wi-fi will be locked up as well.
Plus -- at least half or more of these young converts ALSO claim Christ as their personal savior ---so, they are shocked to learn their heroine (about which they know nothing) hated the very idea of religion....
(and took medicare)
Thank you for fighting for the Truth -- one mind at a time.........................................................
Years ago, before I left for West Germany in 1981, I read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. I thought that the struggle to build a business and succeed was interesting. I did notice, though, that there was a certain dis-compassion, failure of sympathy for the welfare of others, within the characters. I also noticed that the environment was similarly not embraced or protected. How can anyone have success when your natural environment is not protected and you don’t care about other people? But the ending was sort of happy, and I thought I’ll read the other book. (I was a very young 20-something.)
Well, Fountain Head worked like the romance novels work: different names, different places, same theme. Half way into the second chapter (or earlier), I lost interest, closed the book, and returned it to the library. As I listen to Thom Hartmann this morning, I realize that I’m glad that I didn’t read more of Fountain Head. Rape is a wretched crime, and anyone who glorifies or practices it should be water boarded for decades.
Reflection of the week:
“[N]o matter what we argue or where we stand, we’ve always held certain beliefs as Americans. We believe that in order to preserve our own freedoms and pursue our own happiness, we can’t just think about ourselves. We have to think about the country that made those liberties possible. We have to think about our fellow citizens with whom we share a community. And we have to think about what’s required to preserve the American Dream for future generations.”
-- President Barack Obama, April 13, 2011