By Anonymous
May 30, 2016
I did my duty,
I paid the supreme price.
I pray you'll remember,
My sacrifice.
My life was short,
I did my best.
God grant me peace,
In my eternal rest.
Monday, May 30, 2016
Memorial Day
Memorial Day
By Anonymous
May 30, 2016
I did my duty,
I paid the supreme price.
I pray you'll remember,
My sacrifice.
My life was short,
I did my best.
God grant me peace,
In my eternal rest.
By Anonymous
May 30, 2016
I did my duty,
I paid the supreme price.
I pray you'll remember,
My sacrifice.
My life was short,
I did my best.
God grant me peace,
In my eternal rest.
Sunday, May 29, 2016
A Soldier's Prayer
A Soldier's Prayer
By Anonymous
May 29, 2016
Dear Lord, I'm just a soldier,
A protector of our land.
A servant called to battle,
When my country takes a stand.
I pray for strength and courage,
And a heart that will forgive.
For peace and understanding,
In a world for all to live.
My family's prayers are with me,
No matter where I roam.
Please listen when I am lonely,
And return me safely home.
By Anonymous
May 29, 2016
Dear Lord, I'm just a soldier,
A protector of our land.
A servant called to battle,
When my country takes a stand.
I pray for strength and courage,
And a heart that will forgive.
For peace and understanding,
In a world for all to live.
My family's prayers are with me,
No matter where I roam.
Please listen when I am lonely,
And return me safely home.
Saturday, May 28, 2016
In Memorium
In Memorium
By Lilian Leader
May 28, 2016
Have you ever looked, really looked, at a soldiers face?
Sometimes it's young barely an adult - the hopes of youth
still painted in it's features.
Sometimes it's old - older than faith, older than wisdom,
older than time.
And sometimes...it's a bit of both all at once.
Sometimes it's gritty and pained, remembering the face
of another who has fallen.
Sometimes it's laughing, pleased to have a moment of peace.
Most of the time it is proud because it knows, oh yes it knows,
the world is a better place - a better place - because of it.
Next time you look at a soldier's face, see if you can find that
glint of pride.
Sometimes it's hidden, and you have to search it out.
You'll find it in the eyes - always in the eyes.
For the eyes are indeed the windows to the soul,
even a soldier's soul.
And when you've examined every feature of that soldiers face,
stand up straight and tall, and smile your best smile.
Thank that soldier, because it does what some cannot or will
not.
It defends what it believes to be right - with it's very life.
But more important, it defends a perfect stranger, you.
And when you see a flag covered casket, stand in memorium
of all the soldiers faces you've examined.
For when one of them fall, they all fall.
And when one of them stands, they all stand.
Shouldn't we stand with them?
http://www.usmemorialday.org/InMemorium.pdf
By Lilian Leader
May 28, 2016
Have you ever looked, really looked, at a soldiers face?
Sometimes it's young barely an adult - the hopes of youth
still painted in it's features.
Sometimes it's old - older than faith, older than wisdom,
older than time.
And sometimes...it's a bit of both all at once.
Sometimes it's gritty and pained, remembering the face
of another who has fallen.
Sometimes it's laughing, pleased to have a moment of peace.
Most of the time it is proud because it knows, oh yes it knows,
the world is a better place - a better place - because of it.
Next time you look at a soldier's face, see if you can find that
glint of pride.
Sometimes it's hidden, and you have to search it out.
You'll find it in the eyes - always in the eyes.
For the eyes are indeed the windows to the soul,
even a soldier's soul.
And when you've examined every feature of that soldiers face,
stand up straight and tall, and smile your best smile.
Thank that soldier, because it does what some cannot or will
not.
It defends what it believes to be right - with it's very life.
But more important, it defends a perfect stranger, you.
And when you see a flag covered casket, stand in memorium
of all the soldiers faces you've examined.
For when one of them fall, they all fall.
And when one of them stands, they all stand.
Shouldn't we stand with them?
http://www.usmemorialday.org/InMemorium.pdf
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Crooked Hillary's Paid Speeches
Cooked Hillary's Paid Speeches
By Expotera
May 24, 2016
Dear Readers:
Below for your independent, objective and thoughtful review is a
list of how much Hillary Clinton was paid for her, "Speeches" from
April 18, 2013 thru March 19, 2015 and the total amount that was
paid to Hillary Clinton was almost, "$22 Million Dollars" in just a
little under two years.
Hillary Clinton and her husband former President, "Bill Clinton" have
now created a model for massive, "Self Enrichment" that allows you
to go into so called, "Public Service" but get extremely rich all at
the very same time.
While nothing is, "Sacred" and everything is for, "Sale" when it now
comes to both Bill and Hillary Clinton, our entire, "Country" is now
paying the ultimate price, along with all of us as it's, "Citizens" and
maybe, just maybe, the American People are finally tired of, "The
Clinton's" as well as tired of being, "Sold Out" by all of our publicly
elected, "Officials" as well:
4/18/2013, Morgan Stanley Washington, DC: $225,000
4/24/2013, Deutsche Bank Washington, DC: $225,000
4/24/2013, National Multi Housing Council Dallas, TX: $225,000
4/30/2013, Fidelity Investments Naples, FL: $225,000
5/8/2013, Gap, Inc. San Francisco, CA: $225,000
5/14/2013, Apollo Management Holdings, LP New York, NY: $225,000
5/16/2013, Itau BBA USA Securities New York, NY: $225,000
5/21/2013, Vexizon Communications, Inc. Washington, DC: $225,000
5/29/2013, Sanford C. Bernstein and Co., LLC New York, NY: $225,000
6/4/2013, The Goldman Sachs Group Palmetto Bluffs, SC: $225,000
6/6/2013, Spencer Stuart New York, NY: $225,000
6/16/2013, Society for Human Resource Management Chicago, IL: $285,000
6/17/2013, Economic Club of Grand Rapids Grand Rapids, MI: $225,000
6/20/2013, Boston Consulting Group, Inc. Boston, MA: $225,000
6/20/2013, Let’s Talk Entertainment, Inc. Toronto, Canada: $250,000
6/24/2013, American Jewish University Universal City, CA: $225,000
6/24/2013, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Company, LP Palos Verdes, CA: $225,000
7/11/2013, UBS Wealth Management New York, NY: $225,000
8/7/2013, Global Business Travel Association San Diego, CA: $225,000
8/12/2013, National Association of Chain Drug Stores Las Vegas, NV: $225,000
9/18/2013, American Society for Clinical Pathology Chicago, IL: $225,000
9/19/2013, American Society of Travel Agents, Inc. Miami, FL: $225,000
10/4/2013, Long Island Association Long Island, NY: $225,000
10/15/2013, National Association of Convenience Stores Atlanta, GA: $265,000
10/23/2013, SAP Global Marketing, Inc. New York, NY: $225,000
10/24/2013, Accenture New York, NY: $225,000
10/24/2013, The Goldman Sachs Group New York, NY: $225,000
10/27/2013, Beth El Synagogue Minneapolis, AIN: $225,000
10/28/2013, Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago Chicago, IL: $400,000
10/29/2013, The Goldman Sachs Group Tuscon, AZ: $225,000
11/4/2013, Mase Productions, Inc. Orlando, FL: $225,000
11/4/2013, London Drugs, Ltd. Mississauga, ON: $225,000
11/6/2013, Beaumont Health System Troy, 111: $305,000
11/7/2013, Golden Tree Asset Management New York, NY: $275,000
11/9/2013, National Association of Realtors San Francisco, CA: $225,000
11/13/2013, Mediacorp Canada, Inc. Toronto, Canada: $225,000
11/13/2013, Bank of America Bluffton, SC: $225,000
11/14/2013, CB Richard Ellis, Inc. New York, NY: $250,000
11/18/2013, CIIE Group Naples, FL: $225,000
11/18/2013, Press Ganey Orlando, FL: $225,000
11/21/2013, U.S. Green Building Council Philadelphia, PA: $225,000
01/06/2014, GE Boca Raton, Fl.: $225,500
01/27/2014, National Automobile Dealers Association New Orleans, La.: $325,500
01/27/2014, Premier Health Alliance Miami, Fl.: $225,500
02/06/2014, Salesforce.com Las Vegas, Nv.: $225,500
02/17/2014, Novo Nordisk A/S Mexico City, Mexico: $125,000
02/26/2014, Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Orlando, Fl.: $225,500
02/27/2014, A&E Television Networks New York, N.Y.: $280,000
03/04/2014, Association of Corporate Counsel – Southern California Los Angeles, Ca.: $225,500
03/05/2014, The Vancouver Board of Trade Vancouver, Canada: $275,500
03/06/2014, tinePublic Inc. Calgary, Canada: $225,500
03/13/2014, Pharmaceutical Care Management Association Orlando, Fl.: $225,500
03/13/2014, Drug Chemical and Associated Technologies New York, N.Y.: $250,000
03/18/2014, Xerox Corporation New York, N.Y.: $225,000
03/18/2014, Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal Montreal, Canada: $275,000
03/24/2014, Academic Partnerships Dallas, Tx.: $225,500
04/08/2014, Market° Inc. San Francisco, Ca.: $225,500
04/08/2014, World Affairs Council Portland, Or.: $250,500
04/10/2014, Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. Las Vegas, Nv.: $225,500
04/10/2014, Lees Talk Entertainment San Jose, Ca.: $265,000
04/11/2014, California Medical Association (via satellite) San Diego, Ca.: $100,000
05/06/2014, National Council for Behavioral Healthcare Washington D.C.: $225,500
06/02/2014, International Deli-Dairy-Bakery Association Denver, Co.: $225,500
06/02/2014, Lees Talk Entertainment Denver, Co.: $265,000
06/10/2014, United Fresh Produce Association Chicago, II.: $225,000
06/16/2014, tinePublic Inc. Toronto, Canada: $150,000
06/18/2014, tinePublic Inc. Edmonton, Canada: $100,000
06/20/2014, Innovation Arts and Entertainment Austin, Tx.: $150,000
06/25/2014, Biotechnology Industry Organization San Diego, Ca.: $335,000
06/25/2014, Innovation Arts and Entertainment San Francisco, Ca.: $150,000
06/26/2014, GTCR Chicago, II.: $280,000
07/22/2014, Knewton, Inc. San Francisco, Ca.: $225,500
07/26/2014, Ameriprise Boston, Ma.: $225,500
07/29/2014, Coming, Inc. Coming, N.Y.: $225,500
08/28/2014, Nexenta Systems, Inc. San Francisco, Ca.: $300,000
08/28/2014, Cisco Las Vegas, Nv.: $325,000
09/04/2014, Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP San Diego, Ca.: $225,500
09/15/2014, Caridovascular Research Foundation Washington D.C.: $275,000
10/02/2014, Commercial Real Estate Women Network Miami Beach, Fl.: $225,500
10/06/2014, Canada 2020 Ottawa, Canada: $215,500
10/07/2014, Deutsche Bank AG New York, N.Y.: $280,000
10/08/2014, Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed) Chicago, II.: $265,000
10/13/2014, Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers Colorado Springs, Co.: $225,500
10/14/2014, Salesforce.com San Francisco, Ca.: $225,500
10/14/2014, Qualcomm Incorporated San Diego, Ca.: $335,000
12/04/2014, Massachusetts Conference for Women Boston, Ma.: $205,500
01/21/2015, tinePublic Inc. Winnipeg, Canada: $262,000
01/21/2015, tinePublic Inc. Saskatoon, Canada: $262,500
01/22/2015, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Whistler, Canada: $150,000
02/24/2015, Watermark Silicon Valley Conference for Women Santa Clara, Ca.: $225,500
03/11/2015, eBay Inc. San Jose, Ca.: $315,000
03/19/2015, American Camping Association Atlantic City, NJ.: $260,000
Total: $21,667,000
By Expotera
May 24, 2016
Dear Readers:
Below for your independent, objective and thoughtful review is a
list of how much Hillary Clinton was paid for her, "Speeches" from
April 18, 2013 thru March 19, 2015 and the total amount that was
paid to Hillary Clinton was almost, "$22 Million Dollars" in just a
little under two years.
Hillary Clinton and her husband former President, "Bill Clinton" have
now created a model for massive, "Self Enrichment" that allows you
to go into so called, "Public Service" but get extremely rich all at
the very same time.
While nothing is, "Sacred" and everything is for, "Sale" when it now
comes to both Bill and Hillary Clinton, our entire, "Country" is now
paying the ultimate price, along with all of us as it's, "Citizens" and
maybe, just maybe, the American People are finally tired of, "The
Clinton's" as well as tired of being, "Sold Out" by all of our publicly
elected, "Officials" as well:
4/18/2013, Morgan Stanley Washington, DC: $225,000
4/24/2013, Deutsche Bank Washington, DC: $225,000
4/24/2013, National Multi Housing Council Dallas, TX: $225,000
4/30/2013, Fidelity Investments Naples, FL: $225,000
5/8/2013, Gap, Inc. San Francisco, CA: $225,000
5/14/2013, Apollo Management Holdings, LP New York, NY: $225,000
5/16/2013, Itau BBA USA Securities New York, NY: $225,000
5/21/2013, Vexizon Communications, Inc. Washington, DC: $225,000
5/29/2013, Sanford C. Bernstein and Co., LLC New York, NY: $225,000
6/4/2013, The Goldman Sachs Group Palmetto Bluffs, SC: $225,000
6/6/2013, Spencer Stuart New York, NY: $225,000
6/16/2013, Society for Human Resource Management Chicago, IL: $285,000
6/17/2013, Economic Club of Grand Rapids Grand Rapids, MI: $225,000
6/20/2013, Boston Consulting Group, Inc. Boston, MA: $225,000
6/20/2013, Let’s Talk Entertainment, Inc. Toronto, Canada: $250,000
6/24/2013, American Jewish University Universal City, CA: $225,000
6/24/2013, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Company, LP Palos Verdes, CA: $225,000
7/11/2013, UBS Wealth Management New York, NY: $225,000
8/7/2013, Global Business Travel Association San Diego, CA: $225,000
8/12/2013, National Association of Chain Drug Stores Las Vegas, NV: $225,000
9/18/2013, American Society for Clinical Pathology Chicago, IL: $225,000
9/19/2013, American Society of Travel Agents, Inc. Miami, FL: $225,000
10/4/2013, Long Island Association Long Island, NY: $225,000
10/15/2013, National Association of Convenience Stores Atlanta, GA: $265,000
10/23/2013, SAP Global Marketing, Inc. New York, NY: $225,000
10/24/2013, Accenture New York, NY: $225,000
10/24/2013, The Goldman Sachs Group New York, NY: $225,000
10/27/2013, Beth El Synagogue Minneapolis, AIN: $225,000
10/28/2013, Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago Chicago, IL: $400,000
10/29/2013, The Goldman Sachs Group Tuscon, AZ: $225,000
11/4/2013, Mase Productions, Inc. Orlando, FL: $225,000
11/4/2013, London Drugs, Ltd. Mississauga, ON: $225,000
11/6/2013, Beaumont Health System Troy, 111: $305,000
11/7/2013, Golden Tree Asset Management New York, NY: $275,000
11/9/2013, National Association of Realtors San Francisco, CA: $225,000
11/13/2013, Mediacorp Canada, Inc. Toronto, Canada: $225,000
11/13/2013, Bank of America Bluffton, SC: $225,000
11/14/2013, CB Richard Ellis, Inc. New York, NY: $250,000
11/18/2013, CIIE Group Naples, FL: $225,000
11/18/2013, Press Ganey Orlando, FL: $225,000
11/21/2013, U.S. Green Building Council Philadelphia, PA: $225,000
01/06/2014, GE Boca Raton, Fl.: $225,500
01/27/2014, National Automobile Dealers Association New Orleans, La.: $325,500
01/27/2014, Premier Health Alliance Miami, Fl.: $225,500
02/06/2014, Salesforce.com Las Vegas, Nv.: $225,500
02/17/2014, Novo Nordisk A/S Mexico City, Mexico: $125,000
02/26/2014, Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Orlando, Fl.: $225,500
02/27/2014, A&E Television Networks New York, N.Y.: $280,000
03/04/2014, Association of Corporate Counsel – Southern California Los Angeles, Ca.: $225,500
03/05/2014, The Vancouver Board of Trade Vancouver, Canada: $275,500
03/06/2014, tinePublic Inc. Calgary, Canada: $225,500
03/13/2014, Pharmaceutical Care Management Association Orlando, Fl.: $225,500
03/13/2014, Drug Chemical and Associated Technologies New York, N.Y.: $250,000
03/18/2014, Xerox Corporation New York, N.Y.: $225,000
03/18/2014, Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal Montreal, Canada: $275,000
03/24/2014, Academic Partnerships Dallas, Tx.: $225,500
04/08/2014, Market° Inc. San Francisco, Ca.: $225,500
04/08/2014, World Affairs Council Portland, Or.: $250,500
04/10/2014, Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. Las Vegas, Nv.: $225,500
04/10/2014, Lees Talk Entertainment San Jose, Ca.: $265,000
04/11/2014, California Medical Association (via satellite) San Diego, Ca.: $100,000
05/06/2014, National Council for Behavioral Healthcare Washington D.C.: $225,500
06/02/2014, International Deli-Dairy-Bakery Association Denver, Co.: $225,500
06/02/2014, Lees Talk Entertainment Denver, Co.: $265,000
06/10/2014, United Fresh Produce Association Chicago, II.: $225,000
06/16/2014, tinePublic Inc. Toronto, Canada: $150,000
06/18/2014, tinePublic Inc. Edmonton, Canada: $100,000
06/20/2014, Innovation Arts and Entertainment Austin, Tx.: $150,000
06/25/2014, Biotechnology Industry Organization San Diego, Ca.: $335,000
06/25/2014, Innovation Arts and Entertainment San Francisco, Ca.: $150,000
06/26/2014, GTCR Chicago, II.: $280,000
07/22/2014, Knewton, Inc. San Francisco, Ca.: $225,500
07/26/2014, Ameriprise Boston, Ma.: $225,500
07/29/2014, Coming, Inc. Coming, N.Y.: $225,500
08/28/2014, Nexenta Systems, Inc. San Francisco, Ca.: $300,000
08/28/2014, Cisco Las Vegas, Nv.: $325,000
09/04/2014, Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP San Diego, Ca.: $225,500
09/15/2014, Caridovascular Research Foundation Washington D.C.: $275,000
10/02/2014, Commercial Real Estate Women Network Miami Beach, Fl.: $225,500
10/06/2014, Canada 2020 Ottawa, Canada: $215,500
10/07/2014, Deutsche Bank AG New York, N.Y.: $280,000
10/08/2014, Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed) Chicago, II.: $265,000
10/13/2014, Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers Colorado Springs, Co.: $225,500
10/14/2014, Salesforce.com San Francisco, Ca.: $225,500
10/14/2014, Qualcomm Incorporated San Diego, Ca.: $335,000
12/04/2014, Massachusetts Conference for Women Boston, Ma.: $205,500
01/21/2015, tinePublic Inc. Winnipeg, Canada: $262,000
01/21/2015, tinePublic Inc. Saskatoon, Canada: $262,500
01/22/2015, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Whistler, Canada: $150,000
02/24/2015, Watermark Silicon Valley Conference for Women Santa Clara, Ca.: $225,500
03/11/2015, eBay Inc. San Jose, Ca.: $315,000
03/19/2015, American Camping Association Atlantic City, NJ.: $260,000
Total: $21,667,000
Monday, May 23, 2016
A Political Age
A Political Age
By Wisława Szymborska
Adbusters
May 23, 2106
We are children of our age,
it’s a political age.
All day long, all through the night,
all affairs—yours, ours, theirs—
are political affairs.
Whether you like it or not,
your genes have a political past,
your skin, a political cast,
your eyes, a political slant.
Whatever you say reverberates,
whatever you don’t say speaks for itself.
So either way you’re talking politics.
Even when you take to the woods,
you’re taking political steps
on political grounds.
Apolitical poems are also political,
and above us shines a moon
no longer purely lunar.
To be or not to be, that is the question.
And though it troubles the digestion
it’s a question, as always, of politics.
To acquire a political meaning
you don’t even have to be human.
Raw material will do,
or protein feed, or crude oil,
or a conference table whose shape
was quarreled over for months;
Should we arbitrate life and death
at a round table or a square one?
Meanwhile,
people perished,
animals died,
houses burned,
and the fields ran wild,
just as in times immemorial
and less political.
http://www.adbusters.org/article/a-political-age
By Wisława Szymborska
Adbusters
May 23, 2106
We are children of our age,
it’s a political age.
All day long, all through the night,
all affairs—yours, ours, theirs—
are political affairs.
Whether you like it or not,
your genes have a political past,
your skin, a political cast,
your eyes, a political slant.
Whatever you say reverberates,
whatever you don’t say speaks for itself.
So either way you’re talking politics.
Even when you take to the woods,
you’re taking political steps
on political grounds.
Apolitical poems are also political,
and above us shines a moon
no longer purely lunar.
To be or not to be, that is the question.
And though it troubles the digestion
it’s a question, as always, of politics.
To acquire a political meaning
you don’t even have to be human.
Raw material will do,
or protein feed, or crude oil,
or a conference table whose shape
was quarreled over for months;
Should we arbitrate life and death
at a round table or a square one?
Meanwhile,
people perished,
animals died,
houses burned,
and the fields ran wild,
just as in times immemorial
and less political.
http://www.adbusters.org/article/a-political-age
Saturday, May 21, 2016
Proverbs 28
Proverbs 28
By Bible Gateway
May 21, 2016
Proverbs 28
1 Evil people run even though no one is chasing them,
but good people are as brave as a lion.
2 When a country is lawless, it has one ruler after another;
but when it is led by a leader with understanding and knowledge,
it continues strong.
3 Rulers who mistreat the poor
are like a hard rain that destroys the crops.
4 Those who disobey what they have been taught praise the wicked,
but those who obey what they have been taught are against them.
5 Evil people do not understand justice,
but those who follow the Lord understand it completely.
6 It is better to be poor and innocent
than to be rich and wicked.
7 Children who obey what they have been taught are wise,
but friends of troublemakers disgrace their parents.
8 Some people get rich by overcharging others,
but their wealth will be given to those who are kind to the poor.
9 If you refuse to obey what you have been taught,
your prayers will not be heard.
10 Those who lead good people to do wrong
will be ruined by their own evil,
but the innocent will be rewarded with good things.
11 Rich people may think they are wise,
but the poor with understanding will prove them wrong.
12 When good people triumph, there is great happiness,
but when the wicked get control, everybody hides.
13 If you hide your sins, you will not succeed.
If you confess and reject them, you will receive mercy.
14 Those who are always respectful will be happy,
but those who are stubborn will get into trouble.
15 A wicked ruler is as dangerous to poor people
as a roaring lion or a charging bear.
16 A ruler without wisdom will be cruel,
but the one who refuses to take dishonest money
will rule a long time.
17 Don’t help those who are guilty of murder;
let them run until they die.
18 Innocent people will be kept safe,
but those who are dishonest will suddenly be ruined.
19 Those who work their land will have plenty of food,
but the ones who chase empty dreams instead will end up poor.
20 A truthful person will have many blessings,
but those eager to get rich will be punished.
21 It is not good for a judge to take sides,
but some will sin for only a piece of bread.
22 Selfish people are in a hurry to get rich
and do not realize they soon will be poor.
23 Those who correct others will later be liked
more than those who give false praise.
24 Whoever robs father or mother and says,
“It’s not wrong,”
is just like someone who destroys things.
25 A greedy person causes trouble,
but the one who trusts the Lord will succeed.
26 Those who trust in themselves are foolish,
but those who live wisely will be kept safe.
27 Whoever gives to the poor will have everything he needs,
but the one who ignores the poor will receive many curses.
28 When the wicked get control, everybody hides,
but when they die, good people do well.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+28& version=NCV
By Bible Gateway
May 21, 2016
Proverbs 28
1 Evil people run even though no one is chasing them,
but good people are as brave as a lion.
2 When a country is lawless, it has one ruler after another;
but when it is led by a leader with understanding and knowledge,
it continues strong.
3 Rulers who mistreat the poor
are like a hard rain that destroys the crops.
4 Those who disobey what they have been taught praise the wicked,
but those who obey what they have been taught are against them.
5 Evil people do not understand justice,
but those who follow the Lord understand it completely.
6 It is better to be poor and innocent
than to be rich and wicked.
7 Children who obey what they have been taught are wise,
but friends of troublemakers disgrace their parents.
8 Some people get rich by overcharging others,
but their wealth will be given to those who are kind to the poor.
9 If you refuse to obey what you have been taught,
your prayers will not be heard.
10 Those who lead good people to do wrong
will be ruined by their own evil,
but the innocent will be rewarded with good things.
11 Rich people may think they are wise,
but the poor with understanding will prove them wrong.
12 When good people triumph, there is great happiness,
but when the wicked get control, everybody hides.
13 If you hide your sins, you will not succeed.
If you confess and reject them, you will receive mercy.
14 Those who are always respectful will be happy,
but those who are stubborn will get into trouble.
15 A wicked ruler is as dangerous to poor people
as a roaring lion or a charging bear.
16 A ruler without wisdom will be cruel,
but the one who refuses to take dishonest money
will rule a long time.
17 Don’t help those who are guilty of murder;
let them run until they die.
18 Innocent people will be kept safe,
but those who are dishonest will suddenly be ruined.
19 Those who work their land will have plenty of food,
but the ones who chase empty dreams instead will end up poor.
20 A truthful person will have many blessings,
but those eager to get rich will be punished.
21 It is not good for a judge to take sides,
but some will sin for only a piece of bread.
22 Selfish people are in a hurry to get rich
and do not realize they soon will be poor.
23 Those who correct others will later be liked
more than those who give false praise.
24 Whoever robs father or mother and says,
“It’s not wrong,”
is just like someone who destroys things.
25 A greedy person causes trouble,
but the one who trusts the Lord will succeed.
26 Those who trust in themselves are foolish,
but those who live wisely will be kept safe.
27 Whoever gives to the poor will have everything he needs,
but the one who ignores the poor will receive many curses.
28 When the wicked get control, everybody hides,
but when they die, good people do well.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+28& version=NCV
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
An Open Letter To Barack Obama
An Open Letter To Barack Obama
By Expotera
May 17, 2016
Hey Barack, it's me, Tony.
Say, I just wanted to let you know that I caught part of your little
commencement speech at Rutgers University on this past Sunday,
where you of all people had the both the, "Audacity" as well as the
nerve to publicly state, "In politics, and in life, ignorance is not a
virtue."
Well Barack, for what it is now worth you are absolutely, positively,
"Right" here, because only a really and truly, "Ignorant" man such as
yourself Barack, could put an entire Country like the United States
of America well over, "$20 Trillion Dollars" in debt while at the very
exact same time now trying to talk, "Trash" about a man who hasn't
put his Country called the United States of America well over,
"$20 Trillion Dollars" in debt, "Donald Trump" Barack.
You see Barack, back on July 3, 2008 at a campaign stop in Fargo,
North Dakota, you openly stated the following:
"The problem is, the way Bush has done it over the last eight years
is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of
our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion dollars
for the first 42 presidents - #43 added $4 trillion dollars by his
lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion dollars of debt that
we are going to have to pay back, $30,000 for every man, woman,
and child. That's irresponsible. It's unpatriotic."
And now Barack here we are in the year 2016 and since calling
former President George W. Bush, both, "Irresponsible" as well as,
"Unpatriotic" back in July of 2008 for adding $4 trillion dollars to
our Country's national debt, you all by your, "lonesome" have now
added an additional, "$10 Trillion Dollars" to our Country's national
debt, which now makes you even by your very own words here,
doubly, "Irresponsible" as well as doubly, "Unpatriotic" Barack.
So Barack, beyond just being, "Doubly Irresponsible" as well as,
"Doubly Unpatriotic" here, you are also, "Doubly Stupid" as well as,
"Doubly Ignorant" if you think the majority of the American People
and/or Donald Trump for that matter are going to let, "You" and/or
any of your fellow, "War/Credit" criminals, forget about any of this
and/or get away with any of this as well.
Now inclosing Barack, "Ignorance" is defined as a, "A lack of
knowledge or information" and when it now comes to our Country's
current national debt, no one is, "Ignorant" of the fact that you
have now added more, "Debt" to our Country's and to our Nation's
economy than the previous, "43" President's combined, and only a
very, very, extremely, "Ignorant" person, would be now trying to
defend you and/or your record as, "President" up to this point,
because you have now in essence, "Bankrupt" the United States of
America, which only goes to further show and to only further prove
that, "In politics, and in life, ignorance is not a virtue" Barack, and
might I humbly add, being both a, "Certified Hypocrite" as well as
a, "Pathological Liar" are not, "Virtues" in politics, and/or in life,
as well, Barack....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kuTG19Cu_Q
By Expotera
May 17, 2016
Hey Barack, it's me, Tony.
Say, I just wanted to let you know that I caught part of your little
commencement speech at Rutgers University on this past Sunday,
where you of all people had the both the, "Audacity" as well as the
nerve to publicly state, "In politics, and in life, ignorance is not a
virtue."
Well Barack, for what it is now worth you are absolutely, positively,
"Right" here, because only a really and truly, "Ignorant" man such as
yourself Barack, could put an entire Country like the United States
of America well over, "$20 Trillion Dollars" in debt while at the very
exact same time now trying to talk, "Trash" about a man who hasn't
put his Country called the United States of America well over,
"$20 Trillion Dollars" in debt, "Donald Trump" Barack.
You see Barack, back on July 3, 2008 at a campaign stop in Fargo,
North Dakota, you openly stated the following:
"The problem is, the way Bush has done it over the last eight years
is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of
our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion dollars
for the first 42 presidents - #43 added $4 trillion dollars by his
lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion dollars of debt that
we are going to have to pay back, $30,000 for every man, woman,
and child. That's irresponsible. It's unpatriotic."
And now Barack here we are in the year 2016 and since calling
former President George W. Bush, both, "Irresponsible" as well as,
"Unpatriotic" back in July of 2008 for adding $4 trillion dollars to
our Country's national debt, you all by your, "lonesome" have now
added an additional, "$10 Trillion Dollars" to our Country's national
debt, which now makes you even by your very own words here,
doubly, "Irresponsible" as well as doubly, "Unpatriotic" Barack.
So Barack, beyond just being, "Doubly Irresponsible" as well as,
"Doubly Unpatriotic" here, you are also, "Doubly Stupid" as well as,
"Doubly Ignorant" if you think the majority of the American People
and/or Donald Trump for that matter are going to let, "You" and/or
any of your fellow, "War/Credit" criminals, forget about any of this
and/or get away with any of this as well.
Now inclosing Barack, "Ignorance" is defined as a, "A lack of
knowledge or information" and when it now comes to our Country's
current national debt, no one is, "Ignorant" of the fact that you
have now added more, "Debt" to our Country's and to our Nation's
economy than the previous, "43" President's combined, and only a
very, very, extremely, "Ignorant" person, would be now trying to
defend you and/or your record as, "President" up to this point,
because you have now in essence, "Bankrupt" the United States of
America, which only goes to further show and to only further prove
that, "In politics, and in life, ignorance is not a virtue" Barack, and
might I humbly add, being both a, "Certified Hypocrite" as well as
a, "Pathological Liar" are not, "Virtues" in politics, and/or in life,
as well, Barack....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kuTG19Cu_Q
Saturday, May 14, 2016
The Demoralized Mind
The Demoralized Mind
By John F. Schumaker
New Internationalist
Saturday, May 14, 2016
Our descent into the Age of Depression seems unstoppable. Three
decades ago, the average age for the first onset of depression was
30. Today it is 14.
Researchers such as Stephen Izard at Duke University point out that
the rate of depression in Western industrialized societies is doubling
with each successive generational cohort.
At this pace, over 50 per cent of our younger generation,
aged 18-29, will succumb to it by middle age.
Extrapolating one generation further, we arrive at the dire
conclusion that virtually everyone will fall prey to depression.
By contrast to many traditional cultures that lack depression
entirely, or even a word for it, Western consumer culture is
certainly depression-prone.
But depression is so much a part of our vocabulary that the word
itself has come to describe mental states that should be understood
differently.
In fact, when people with a diagnosis of depression are examined
more closely, the majority do not actually fit that diagnosis.
In the largest study of its kind, Ramin Mojtabai of Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health sampled over 5,600 cases and
found that only 38 per cent of them met the criteria for depression.
Contributing to the confusion is the equally insidious epidemic
of demoralization that also afflicts modern culture.
Since it shares some symptoms with depression, demoralization
tends to be mislabeled and treated as if it were depression.
A major reason for the poor 28-per-cent success rate of anti-
depressant drugs is that a high percentage of ‘depression’ cases
are actually demoralization, a condition unresponsive to drugs.
Existential Disorder
In the past, our understanding of demoralization was limited to
specific extreme situations, such as debilitating physical injury,
terminal illness, prisoner-of-war camps, or anti-morale military
tactics.
But there is also a cultural variety that can express itself more
subtly and develop behind the scenes of normal everyday life
under pathological cultural conditions such as we have today.
This culturally generated demoralization is nearly impossible
to avoid for the modern ‘consumer’.
Rather than a depressive disorder, demoralization is a type of
existential disorder associated with the breakdown of a person’s
‘cognitive map’.
It is an overarching psycho-spiritual crisis in which victims feel
generally disoriented and unable to locate meaning, purpose or
sources of need fulfilment.
The world loses its credibility, and former beliefs and convictions
dissolve into doubt, uncertainty and loss of direction.
Frustration, anger and bitterness are usual accompaniments, as
well as an underlying sense of being part of a lost cause or losing
battle.
The label ‘existential depression’ is not appropriate since, unlike
most forms of depression, demoralization is a realistic response to
the circumstances impinging on the person’s life.
As it is absorbed, consumer culture imposes numerous influences
that weaken personality structures, undermine coping and lay the
groundwork for eventual demoralization.
Its driving features – individualism, materialism, hyper-competition,
greed, over-complication, overwork, hurriedness and debt – all
correlate negatively with psychological health and/or social well
being.
The level of intimacy, trust and true friendship in people’s lives
has plummeted.
Sources of wisdom, social and community support, spiritual
comfort, intellectual growth and life education have dried up.
Passivity and choice have displaced creativity and mastery.
Resilience traits such as patience, restraint and fortitude
have given way to short attention spans, over-indulgence
and a masturbatory approach to life.
Research shows that, in contrast to earlier times, most people
today are unable to identify any sort of philosophy of life or set
of guiding principles.
Without an existential compass, the commercialized mind
gravitates toward a, ‘philosophy of futility’ as Noam Chomsky
calls it, in which people feel naked of power and significance
beyond their conditioned role as pliant consumers.
Lacking substance and depth, and adrift from others
and themselves, the thin and fragile consumer self is
easily fragmented and dispirited.
By their design, the central organizing principles and practices
of consumer culture perpetuate an ‘existential vacuum’ that is
a precursor to demoralization.
This inner void is often experienced as chronic and inescapable
boredom, which is not surprising.
Despite surface appearances to the contrary, the consumer age
is deathly boring.
Boredom is caused, not because an activity is inherently boring,
but because it is not meaningful to the person.
Since the life of the consumer revolves around the overkill of
meaningless manufactured low-level material desires, it is quickly
engulfed by boredom, as well as jadedness, ennui and discontent.
This steadily graduates to ‘existential boredom’ wherein
the person finds all of life uninteresting and unrewarding.
Moral Net
Consumption itself is a flawed motivational platform for a society.
Repeated consummation of desire, without moderating constraints,
only serves to habituate people and diminish the future satisfaction
potential of what is consumed.
This develops gradually into ‘consumer anhedonia’, wherein
consumption loses reward capacity and offers no more than
distraction and ritualistic value.
Consumerism and psychic deadness are inexorable bedfellows.
Individualistic models of mind have stymied our understanding
of many disorders that are primarily of cultural origin.
But recent years have seen a growing interest in the topic of
cultural health and ill-health as they impact upon general well
being.
At the same time, we are moving away from naïve behavioural
models and returning to the obvious fact that the human being
has a fundamental nature, as well as a distinct set of human
needs, that must be addressed by a cultural blueprint.
In his groundbreaking book The Moral Order, anthropologist
Raoul Naroll used the term ‘moral net’ to indicate the cultural
infrastructure that is required for the mental well being of its
members.
He used numerous examples to show that entire societies
can become predisposed to an array of mental ills if their,
‘moral net’ deteriorates beyond a certain point.
To avoid this, a society’s moral net must be able to meet the key
psycho-social-spiritual needs of its members, including a sense of
identity and belonging, co-operative activities that weave people
into a community, and shared rituals and beliefs that offer a
convincing existential orientation.
We are long overdue a cultural revolution that would force
a radical revamp of the political process, economics, work,
family and environmental policy
Similarly, in The Sane Society, Erich Fromm cited ‘frame
of orientation’ as one of our vital ‘existential needs’, but
pointed out that today’s ‘marketing characters’ are shackled
by a cultural programme that actively blocks fulfillment of
this and other needs, including the needs for belonging,
rootedness, identity, transcendence and intellectual stimulation.
We are living under conditions of, ‘cultural insanity’ a term
referring to a pathological mismatch between the inculturation
strategies of a culture and the intrapsychic needs of its followers.
Being normal is no longer a healthy ambition.
Human culture has mutated into a sociopathic marketing machine
dominated by economic priorities and psychological manipulation.
Never before has a cultural system inculcated its followers
to suppress so much of their humanity.
Leading this hostile takeover of the collective psyche are
increasingly sophisticated propaganda and misinformation
industries that traffic the illusion of consumer happiness
by wildly amplifying our expectations of the material world.
Today’s consumers are by far the most propagandized people
in history.
The relentless and repetitive effect is highly hypnotic, diminishing
critical faculties, reducing one’s sense of self, and transforming
commercial unreality into a surrogate for meaning and purpose.
The more lost, disoriented and spiritually defeated people become,
the more susceptible they become to persuasion, and the more
they end up buying into the oversold expectations of consumption.
But in unreality culture, hyper-inflated expectations continually
collide with the reality of experience.
Since nothing lives up to the hype, the world of the consumer is
actually an ongoing exercise in disappointment.
While most disappointments are minor and easy to dissociate,
they accumulate into an emotional background of frustration
as deeper human needs get neglected.
Continued starvation of these needs fuels disillusion about one’s
whole approach to life. Over time, people’s core assumptions can
become unstable.
Culture Proofing
At its heart, demoralization is a generalized loss of credibility in
the assumptions that ground our existence and guide our actions.
The assumptions underpinning our allegiance to consumerism are
especially vulnerable since they are fundamentally dehumanizing.
As they unravel, it becomes increasingly difficult to identify
with the values, goals and aspirations that were once part of
our consumer reality.
The consequent feeling of being forsaken and on the wrong life
track is easily mistaken for depression, or even unhappiness, but
in fact it is the type of demoralization that most consumer beings
will experience to some degree.
For the younger generation, the course of boredom,
disappointment, disillusion and demoralization is
almost inevitable.
As the products of invisible parents, commercialized education,
cradle-to-grave marketing and a profoundly boring and insane
cultural programme, they must also assimilate into consumer
culture while knowing from the outset that its workings are
destroying the planet and jeopardizing their future.
Understandably, they have become the trance generation,
with an insatiable appetite for any technology that can
downsize awareness and blunt the emotions.
With society in existential crisis, and emotional life on a steep
downward trajectory, trance is today’s fastest-growing consumer market.
Once our collapsed assumptions give way to demoralization, the
problem becomes how to rebuild the unconscious foundations of
our lives.
In their present forms, the psychology and psychiatry professions
are of little use in treating disorders that are rooted in culture
and normality.
While individual therapy will not begin to heal a demoralized
society, to be effective such approaches must be insight-oriented
and focused on the cultural sources of the person’s assumptions,
identity, values and centres of meaning.
Cultural deprogramming is essential, along with, ‘culture proofing’
disobedience training and character development strategies, all
aimed at constructing a worldview that better connects the person
to self, others and the natural world.
The real task is somehow to treat a sick culture rather than it's
sick individuals.
Erich Fromm sums up this challenge: ‘We can’t make people sane
by making them adjust to this society. We need a society that is
adjusted to the needs of people.’
Fromm’s solution included a Supreme Cultural Council that would
serve as a cultural overseer and advise governments on corrective
and preventive action.
But that sort of solution is still a long way off, as is a science
of culture change.
Democracy in its present guise is a guardian of cultural insanity.
We are long overdue a cultural revolution that would force a
radical revamp of the political process, economics, work, family
and environmental policy.
It is true that a society of demoralized people is unlikely to revolt
even though it sits on a massive powder keg of pent-up frustration.
But credibility counteracts demoralization, and this frustration
can be released with immense energy when a credible cause,
or credible leadership, is added to the equation.
It might seem that credibility, meaning and purposeful action would
derive from the multiple threats to our safety and survival posed by
the fatal mismatch between consumer culture and the needs of the
planet.
The fact that it has not highlights the degree of demoralization
that infects the consumer age.
With its infrastructure firmly entrenched, and minimal signs of
collective resistance, all signs suggest that our obsolete system
what some call, ‘disaster capitalism’ - will prevail until global
catastrophe dictates for us new cultural directions.
http://newint.org/columns/essays/2016/04/01/psycho-spiritual-crisis
By John F. Schumaker
New Internationalist
Saturday, May 14, 2016
Our descent into the Age of Depression seems unstoppable. Three
decades ago, the average age for the first onset of depression was
30. Today it is 14.
Researchers such as Stephen Izard at Duke University point out that
the rate of depression in Western industrialized societies is doubling
with each successive generational cohort.
At this pace, over 50 per cent of our younger generation,
aged 18-29, will succumb to it by middle age.
Extrapolating one generation further, we arrive at the dire
conclusion that virtually everyone will fall prey to depression.
By contrast to many traditional cultures that lack depression
entirely, or even a word for it, Western consumer culture is
certainly depression-prone.
But depression is so much a part of our vocabulary that the word
itself has come to describe mental states that should be understood
differently.
In fact, when people with a diagnosis of depression are examined
more closely, the majority do not actually fit that diagnosis.
In the largest study of its kind, Ramin Mojtabai of Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health sampled over 5,600 cases and
found that only 38 per cent of them met the criteria for depression.
Contributing to the confusion is the equally insidious epidemic
of demoralization that also afflicts modern culture.
Since it shares some symptoms with depression, demoralization
tends to be mislabeled and treated as if it were depression.
A major reason for the poor 28-per-cent success rate of anti-
depressant drugs is that a high percentage of ‘depression’ cases
are actually demoralization, a condition unresponsive to drugs.
Existential Disorder
In the past, our understanding of demoralization was limited to
specific extreme situations, such as debilitating physical injury,
terminal illness, prisoner-of-war camps, or anti-morale military
tactics.
But there is also a cultural variety that can express itself more
subtly and develop behind the scenes of normal everyday life
under pathological cultural conditions such as we have today.
This culturally generated demoralization is nearly impossible
to avoid for the modern ‘consumer’.
Rather than a depressive disorder, demoralization is a type of
existential disorder associated with the breakdown of a person’s
‘cognitive map’.
It is an overarching psycho-spiritual crisis in which victims feel
generally disoriented and unable to locate meaning, purpose or
sources of need fulfilment.
The world loses its credibility, and former beliefs and convictions
dissolve into doubt, uncertainty and loss of direction.
Frustration, anger and bitterness are usual accompaniments, as
well as an underlying sense of being part of a lost cause or losing
battle.
The label ‘existential depression’ is not appropriate since, unlike
most forms of depression, demoralization is a realistic response to
the circumstances impinging on the person’s life.
As it is absorbed, consumer culture imposes numerous influences
that weaken personality structures, undermine coping and lay the
groundwork for eventual demoralization.
Its driving features – individualism, materialism, hyper-competition,
greed, over-complication, overwork, hurriedness and debt – all
correlate negatively with psychological health and/or social well
being.
The level of intimacy, trust and true friendship in people’s lives
has plummeted.
Sources of wisdom, social and community support, spiritual
comfort, intellectual growth and life education have dried up.
Passivity and choice have displaced creativity and mastery.
Resilience traits such as patience, restraint and fortitude
have given way to short attention spans, over-indulgence
and a masturbatory approach to life.
Research shows that, in contrast to earlier times, most people
today are unable to identify any sort of philosophy of life or set
of guiding principles.
Without an existential compass, the commercialized mind
gravitates toward a, ‘philosophy of futility’ as Noam Chomsky
calls it, in which people feel naked of power and significance
beyond their conditioned role as pliant consumers.
Lacking substance and depth, and adrift from others
and themselves, the thin and fragile consumer self is
easily fragmented and dispirited.
By their design, the central organizing principles and practices
of consumer culture perpetuate an ‘existential vacuum’ that is
a precursor to demoralization.
This inner void is often experienced as chronic and inescapable
boredom, which is not surprising.
Despite surface appearances to the contrary, the consumer age
is deathly boring.
Boredom is caused, not because an activity is inherently boring,
but because it is not meaningful to the person.
Since the life of the consumer revolves around the overkill of
meaningless manufactured low-level material desires, it is quickly
engulfed by boredom, as well as jadedness, ennui and discontent.
This steadily graduates to ‘existential boredom’ wherein
the person finds all of life uninteresting and unrewarding.
Moral Net
Consumption itself is a flawed motivational platform for a society.
Repeated consummation of desire, without moderating constraints,
only serves to habituate people and diminish the future satisfaction
potential of what is consumed.
This develops gradually into ‘consumer anhedonia’, wherein
consumption loses reward capacity and offers no more than
distraction and ritualistic value.
Consumerism and psychic deadness are inexorable bedfellows.
Individualistic models of mind have stymied our understanding
of many disorders that are primarily of cultural origin.
But recent years have seen a growing interest in the topic of
cultural health and ill-health as they impact upon general well
being.
At the same time, we are moving away from naïve behavioural
models and returning to the obvious fact that the human being
has a fundamental nature, as well as a distinct set of human
needs, that must be addressed by a cultural blueprint.
In his groundbreaking book The Moral Order, anthropologist
Raoul Naroll used the term ‘moral net’ to indicate the cultural
infrastructure that is required for the mental well being of its
members.
He used numerous examples to show that entire societies
can become predisposed to an array of mental ills if their,
‘moral net’ deteriorates beyond a certain point.
To avoid this, a society’s moral net must be able to meet the key
psycho-social-spiritual needs of its members, including a sense of
identity and belonging, co-operative activities that weave people
into a community, and shared rituals and beliefs that offer a
convincing existential orientation.
We are long overdue a cultural revolution that would force
a radical revamp of the political process, economics, work,
family and environmental policy
Similarly, in The Sane Society, Erich Fromm cited ‘frame
of orientation’ as one of our vital ‘existential needs’, but
pointed out that today’s ‘marketing characters’ are shackled
by a cultural programme that actively blocks fulfillment of
this and other needs, including the needs for belonging,
rootedness, identity, transcendence and intellectual stimulation.
We are living under conditions of, ‘cultural insanity’ a term
referring to a pathological mismatch between the inculturation
strategies of a culture and the intrapsychic needs of its followers.
Being normal is no longer a healthy ambition.
Human culture has mutated into a sociopathic marketing machine
dominated by economic priorities and psychological manipulation.
Never before has a cultural system inculcated its followers
to suppress so much of their humanity.
Leading this hostile takeover of the collective psyche are
increasingly sophisticated propaganda and misinformation
industries that traffic the illusion of consumer happiness
by wildly amplifying our expectations of the material world.
Today’s consumers are by far the most propagandized people
in history.
The relentless and repetitive effect is highly hypnotic, diminishing
critical faculties, reducing one’s sense of self, and transforming
commercial unreality into a surrogate for meaning and purpose.
The more lost, disoriented and spiritually defeated people become,
the more susceptible they become to persuasion, and the more
they end up buying into the oversold expectations of consumption.
But in unreality culture, hyper-inflated expectations continually
collide with the reality of experience.
Since nothing lives up to the hype, the world of the consumer is
actually an ongoing exercise in disappointment.
While most disappointments are minor and easy to dissociate,
they accumulate into an emotional background of frustration
as deeper human needs get neglected.
Continued starvation of these needs fuels disillusion about one’s
whole approach to life. Over time, people’s core assumptions can
become unstable.
Culture Proofing
At its heart, demoralization is a generalized loss of credibility in
the assumptions that ground our existence and guide our actions.
The assumptions underpinning our allegiance to consumerism are
especially vulnerable since they are fundamentally dehumanizing.
As they unravel, it becomes increasingly difficult to identify
with the values, goals and aspirations that were once part of
our consumer reality.
The consequent feeling of being forsaken and on the wrong life
track is easily mistaken for depression, or even unhappiness, but
in fact it is the type of demoralization that most consumer beings
will experience to some degree.
For the younger generation, the course of boredom,
disappointment, disillusion and demoralization is
almost inevitable.
As the products of invisible parents, commercialized education,
cradle-to-grave marketing and a profoundly boring and insane
cultural programme, they must also assimilate into consumer
culture while knowing from the outset that its workings are
destroying the planet and jeopardizing their future.
Understandably, they have become the trance generation,
with an insatiable appetite for any technology that can
downsize awareness and blunt the emotions.
With society in existential crisis, and emotional life on a steep
downward trajectory, trance is today’s fastest-growing consumer market.
Once our collapsed assumptions give way to demoralization, the
problem becomes how to rebuild the unconscious foundations of
our lives.
In their present forms, the psychology and psychiatry professions
are of little use in treating disorders that are rooted in culture
and normality.
While individual therapy will not begin to heal a demoralized
society, to be effective such approaches must be insight-oriented
and focused on the cultural sources of the person’s assumptions,
identity, values and centres of meaning.
Cultural deprogramming is essential, along with, ‘culture proofing’
disobedience training and character development strategies, all
aimed at constructing a worldview that better connects the person
to self, others and the natural world.
The real task is somehow to treat a sick culture rather than it's
sick individuals.
Erich Fromm sums up this challenge: ‘We can’t make people sane
by making them adjust to this society. We need a society that is
adjusted to the needs of people.’
Fromm’s solution included a Supreme Cultural Council that would
serve as a cultural overseer and advise governments on corrective
and preventive action.
But that sort of solution is still a long way off, as is a science
of culture change.
Democracy in its present guise is a guardian of cultural insanity.
We are long overdue a cultural revolution that would force a
radical revamp of the political process, economics, work, family
and environmental policy.
It is true that a society of demoralized people is unlikely to revolt
even though it sits on a massive powder keg of pent-up frustration.
But credibility counteracts demoralization, and this frustration
can be released with immense energy when a credible cause,
or credible leadership, is added to the equation.
It might seem that credibility, meaning and purposeful action would
derive from the multiple threats to our safety and survival posed by
the fatal mismatch between consumer culture and the needs of the
planet.
The fact that it has not highlights the degree of demoralization
that infects the consumer age.
With its infrastructure firmly entrenched, and minimal signs of
collective resistance, all signs suggest that our obsolete system
what some call, ‘disaster capitalism’ - will prevail until global
catastrophe dictates for us new cultural directions.
http://newint.org/columns/essays/2016/04/01/psycho-spiritual-crisis
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Security In Wisdom
Security In Wisdom
By Proverbs 4
Biblegateway.com
May 11, 2016
Proverbs 4
1 Hear, my children, the instruction of a Father,
And give attention to know understanding;
2 For I give you good doctrine:
Do not forsake my law.
3 When I was my father’s son,
Tender and the only one in the sight of my Mother,
4 He also taught me, and said to me:
“Let your heart retain my words;
Keep my commands, and live.
5 Get wisdom! Get understanding!
Do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth.
6 Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you;
Love her, and she will keep you.
7 Wisdom is the principal thing;
Therefore get wisdom.
And in all your getting, get understanding.
8 Exalt her, and she will promote you;
She will bring you honor, when you embrace her.
9 She will place on your head an ornament of grace;
A crown of glory she will deliver to you.”
10 Hear, my son, and receive my sayings,
And the years of your life will be many.
11 I have taught you in the way of wisdom;
I have led you in right paths.
12 When you walk, your steps will not be hindered,
And when you run, you will not stumble.
13 Take firm hold of instruction, do not let go;
Keep her, for she is your life.
14 Do not enter the path of the wicked,
And do not walk in the way of evil.
15 Avoid it, do not travel on it;
Turn from it and go on your way.
16 For they do not sleep unless they have done evil;
And their sleep is taken away unless they make someone fall.
17 For they eat the bread of wickedness,
And drink the wine of violence.
18 But the path of the just is like the shining sun,
That shines ever brighter unto the perfect day.
19 The way of the wicked is like darkness;
They do not know what makes them stumble.
20 My son, give attention to my words;
Incline your ear to my sayings.
21 Do not let them depart from your eyes;
Keep them in the midst of your heart;
22 For they are life to those who find them,
And health to all their flesh.
23 Keep your heart with all diligence,
For out of it spring the issues of life.
24 Put away from you a deceitful mouth,
And put perverse lips far from you.
25 Let your eyes look straight ahead,
And your eyelids look right before you.
26 Ponder the path of your feet,
And let all your ways be established.
27 Do not turn to the right or the left;
Remove your foot from evil.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+4&versi
on=NKJV
By Proverbs 4
Biblegateway.com
May 11, 2016
Proverbs 4
1 Hear, my children, the instruction of a Father,
And give attention to know understanding;
2 For I give you good doctrine:
Do not forsake my law.
3 When I was my father’s son,
Tender and the only one in the sight of my Mother,
4 He also taught me, and said to me:
“Let your heart retain my words;
Keep my commands, and live.
5 Get wisdom! Get understanding!
Do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth.
6 Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you;
Love her, and she will keep you.
7 Wisdom is the principal thing;
Therefore get wisdom.
And in all your getting, get understanding.
8 Exalt her, and she will promote you;
She will bring you honor, when you embrace her.
9 She will place on your head an ornament of grace;
A crown of glory she will deliver to you.”
10 Hear, my son, and receive my sayings,
And the years of your life will be many.
11 I have taught you in the way of wisdom;
I have led you in right paths.
12 When you walk, your steps will not be hindered,
And when you run, you will not stumble.
13 Take firm hold of instruction, do not let go;
Keep her, for she is your life.
14 Do not enter the path of the wicked,
And do not walk in the way of evil.
15 Avoid it, do not travel on it;
Turn from it and go on your way.
16 For they do not sleep unless they have done evil;
And their sleep is taken away unless they make someone fall.
17 For they eat the bread of wickedness,
And drink the wine of violence.
18 But the path of the just is like the shining sun,
That shines ever brighter unto the perfect day.
19 The way of the wicked is like darkness;
They do not know what makes them stumble.
20 My son, give attention to my words;
Incline your ear to my sayings.
21 Do not let them depart from your eyes;
Keep them in the midst of your heart;
22 For they are life to those who find them,
And health to all their flesh.
23 Keep your heart with all diligence,
For out of it spring the issues of life.
24 Put away from you a deceitful mouth,
And put perverse lips far from you.
25 Let your eyes look straight ahead,
And your eyelids look right before you.
26 Ponder the path of your feet,
And let all your ways be established.
27 Do not turn to the right or the left;
Remove your foot from evil.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+4&versi
on=NKJV
Sunday, May 8, 2016
The Mother's Prayer
The Mother's Prayer
By Ella Wheeler Cox
Sunday, May 8, 2016
A mother kneels by the cradle,
Where her little infant lies,
And she sees the ghastly shadows
Creeping around his eyes.
And she clasps her hands together,
And her heart beats loud and wild,
And she cries in a gush of anguish,
"O Father! save my child.
"Oh! do not, do not take him
So soon to the home on high;
My beautiful, dark-eyed darling,
O God! he must not die.
I cannot pray in meekness,
'My Father's will be done.'
I can only cry in anguish,
'Oh! save my infant son.'"
Slowly the ghastly shadows
Crept from the baby's eyes,
And the mother saw the bright orbs
Open in sweet surprise.
And she heard the lisping prattle
And the childish laugh again,
And she clasped him close to her bosom,
And her glad tears fell like rain.
The mother stands at the window,
Watching the night come down,
As it settles slowly, slowly,
Over the busy town.
And the withered face is troubled,
And she sighs in a weary way:
"Oh! where does my darling tarry,
Now at the close of day?
"Surely his task is ended:
Why is it he does not come?"
Ah! mother, one word will answer,
And that one word is Rum.
He stands at the bar this moment,
Draining the tempter's bowl;
And your beautiful boy has entered
His name on the drunkards' roll.
Ah! well, your prayer was answered:
You prayed that he might not die,
That he might not join the angels
Who dwell in their home on high.
O mother! say, is it better,
Or is it worse than death,
To see your darling stagger,
And feel his rum-foul breath?
You could not pray, "My Father,
Thy will, not mine, be done,"
But cried, in your deaf, blind sorrow,
"Oh! save my infant son."
And is he saved, fond mother?
And which is better, pray,
To know he is there in the rum-shop,
Or under the grass, today?
O God of a mighty nation!
When shall the glad day be
That the liquor reign is ended,
And our land is truly free?
When our darling boys may wander
Through all its length and breadth,
With never a serpent lurking
To slay them in their strength?
Full many a year has vanished
Since the grand triumphant day
When we stood in bold defiance
Of a tyrant monarch's sway;
And now in a blood-red torrent,
At the price of a million graves,
We have swept the bonds and shackles
From the hands of a million slaves.
And yet we are under a tyrant,
And yet we are slaves today,
And we do not bid defiance
To the baleful liquor sway.
Up! O ye mourning captives!
Strike at the tyrant's hand!
Loosen his hold for ever--
Deliver a bondaged land!
http://www.ellawheelerwilcox.org/poems/pmprayer.htm
By Ella Wheeler Cox
Sunday, May 8, 2016
A mother kneels by the cradle,
Where her little infant lies,
And she sees the ghastly shadows
Creeping around his eyes.
And she clasps her hands together,
And her heart beats loud and wild,
And she cries in a gush of anguish,
"O Father! save my child.
"Oh! do not, do not take him
So soon to the home on high;
My beautiful, dark-eyed darling,
O God! he must not die.
I cannot pray in meekness,
'My Father's will be done.'
I can only cry in anguish,
'Oh! save my infant son.'"
Slowly the ghastly shadows
Crept from the baby's eyes,
And the mother saw the bright orbs
Open in sweet surprise.
And she heard the lisping prattle
And the childish laugh again,
And she clasped him close to her bosom,
And her glad tears fell like rain.
The mother stands at the window,
Watching the night come down,
As it settles slowly, slowly,
Over the busy town.
And the withered face is troubled,
And she sighs in a weary way:
"Oh! where does my darling tarry,
Now at the close of day?
"Surely his task is ended:
Why is it he does not come?"
Ah! mother, one word will answer,
And that one word is Rum.
He stands at the bar this moment,
Draining the tempter's bowl;
And your beautiful boy has entered
His name on the drunkards' roll.
Ah! well, your prayer was answered:
You prayed that he might not die,
That he might not join the angels
Who dwell in their home on high.
O mother! say, is it better,
Or is it worse than death,
To see your darling stagger,
And feel his rum-foul breath?
You could not pray, "My Father,
Thy will, not mine, be done,"
But cried, in your deaf, blind sorrow,
"Oh! save my infant son."
And is he saved, fond mother?
And which is better, pray,
To know he is there in the rum-shop,
Or under the grass, today?
O God of a mighty nation!
When shall the glad day be
That the liquor reign is ended,
And our land is truly free?
When our darling boys may wander
Through all its length and breadth,
With never a serpent lurking
To slay them in their strength?
Full many a year has vanished
Since the grand triumphant day
When we stood in bold defiance
Of a tyrant monarch's sway;
And now in a blood-red torrent,
At the price of a million graves,
We have swept the bonds and shackles
From the hands of a million slaves.
And yet we are under a tyrant,
And yet we are slaves today,
And we do not bid defiance
To the baleful liquor sway.
Up! O ye mourning captives!
Strike at the tyrant's hand!
Loosen his hold for ever--
Deliver a bondaged land!
http://www.ellawheelerwilcox.org/poems/pmprayer.htm
Thursday, May 5, 2016
Opening The Door
Opening The Door
By Rob Wipond
Adbusters.org
May 5, 2016
On the weather report, another record-breaking hurricane is
chewing up the coast.
You drive out through the suburbs and discover a shantytown,
the kind you’ve always associated more with Somalia or Haiti
than your own hometown.
One more overtime shift at work, and your company health plan
will automatically sign you up for Prozac.
On TV, there’s another war.
Around and around and around.
Even the most entrenched believers in the new global order have
a mounting sense that some fundamental mind shift is needed.
The contradictions of late-capitalist life put increasing pressure
on our psyches to synthesize the data, yet insights come only in
fits and starts.
They appear like desert mirages, dazzling us with their promise
and then dissolving into sand.
And suddenly we are all wondering:
What would it be like to drink deeply?
Can we in the First World have a revelation?
Would we recognize one if we had it?
A few pioneers have been working with these questions. In the past,
political radicals have been as quick as reactionary conservatives to
dismiss maverick consciousness researchers.
But suddenly, the discoveries of mind explorers like Stanislav Grof,
Jean Houston and the recently deceased John Lilly, seem to have a
penetrating cultural significance.
The currency of the times is revelation and epiphany.
Grof, a former Johns Hopkins professor and chief of a Maryland
psychiatric research center, has scoured ancient and modern
methods of consciousness change in order to develop techniques
that can trigger revelatory experience rapidly and in a broad
spectrum of people.
In his Holotropic Breathwork technique, a combination of intense
breathing, expressive music and focused bodywork causes dramatic
psychological transformations in most people.
Within minutes, those who try it begin to experience things more
acutely (much the way people often say they do in the midst of
abrupt life changes).
Colors look brighter, memories appear more detailed, symbols
and words provoke pluralities of interpretation.
Sensitivity to sensations in the body and brain is heightened; old
patterns are suddenly seen in a new light.
For serious explorers, this is only the beginning.
As their sensory experiences evolve, mind explorers frequently
find that the psychological and the physical become intertwined,
and watch amazed as each influences the other.
Incorporeal presences may seem as real as the walls, walls may
seem permeable, or normal material reality may dissolve into
flowing energy fields.
The mind and body’s instruments of perception come to be
understood as critical components in constructing a sense of
reality.
What is music without our eardrums conveying it, our memories
labeling it?
Even if such experiences are discounted as, “hallucinations” there
is a lingering sense that normal reality itself could be one of those
illusions – the ultimate meme, prolonged interminably by its social
infectiousness.
Even this is merely one stage.
As revelation extends, “time” as a psychological process can stop;
explorers report a sense of intense connection to their body’s
internal cellular activities, to collective memory, or to other beings
or the entire human race.
Some feel the inextricable unity of good and evil, oppressor
and oppressed, or find themselves dissolved into a universal
consciousness.
It all sounds wild and chaotic, and yet, for many of us, oddly
familiar as well.
Under the pressure of stress, despair or confusion, more and
more of us are peering over the brink of breakthroughs of this
type.
Grof suggests it’s, “archetypal” – as the human crisis deepens,
our consciousness tries to promote healing by uncovering
repressed truths.
We resist the shift: Who wants to lose their grip on everyday life?
We dread an exile from so-called, “consensus reality”
imagining an impoverished, eternal loneliness of insanity.
But in fact, those who’ve gone all the way down the rabbit-hole
of epiphany come back with a view of a world that has truly and
profoundly changed.
Grof alone has compiled records from thousands of such people.
Without any coercion, the overwhelming majority emerge with
a non-violent attitude, reverence for nature, anti-materialistic
values, a keen interest in spiritualism (though not organized
religion), a holistic approach to health, and an intense desire
for social change.
Why?
Because one common effect of these non-ordinary states is
pure awe.
Even a faint glimpse beyond the spectacle and into the vastness
of existence transforms into breathtaking experiential reality.
This almost invariably creates deep humility before the infinite
complexity of nature.
Unsurpassed levels of compassion emerge from the intimate
identification with other people, creatures and things.
Visceral immersion in the entire human collective makes it almost
impossible not to consider the effects of every personal action on
the global community and future generations.
Often, the end result is confusion.
But rather than growing depressed or anxious or paralyzed by it,
revelatory explorers tend to become irrepressible skeptics.
For them, no moral perspective, dominating mood or intellectual
conclusion can pass for absolute “fact” or “objective truth” very
easily, or for long.
Revelation is a radical deconstruction of the senses of self
and reality.
It allows entirely different impulses to influence your actions;
it shortens the distance to spontaneity and authenticity.
As long as revolutionaries have existed, they’ve sought ways
to fundamentally change how people think and see the world.
Frustrated, they fall back on reform: the attempt to persuade
people to follow prescriptions for change.
Consciously or not, most people resist.
But when someone’s whole sense of reality shifts – say, when they
realize that death is closer than they had allowed themselves to
think – radical new decisions come effortlessly.
The First World is a culture preparing for revelation.
We are watching, alarmed, as rips appear in the fabric of
our reality.
At the same time, we are quick to forget, ignore, or send
in reinforcements.
How many are ready to step through the hole?
http://www.adbusters.org/article/opening-the-door
By Rob Wipond
Adbusters.org
May 5, 2016
On the weather report, another record-breaking hurricane is
chewing up the coast.
You drive out through the suburbs and discover a shantytown,
the kind you’ve always associated more with Somalia or Haiti
than your own hometown.
One more overtime shift at work, and your company health plan
will automatically sign you up for Prozac.
On TV, there’s another war.
Around and around and around.
Even the most entrenched believers in the new global order have
a mounting sense that some fundamental mind shift is needed.
The contradictions of late-capitalist life put increasing pressure
on our psyches to synthesize the data, yet insights come only in
fits and starts.
They appear like desert mirages, dazzling us with their promise
and then dissolving into sand.
And suddenly we are all wondering:
What would it be like to drink deeply?
Can we in the First World have a revelation?
Would we recognize one if we had it?
A few pioneers have been working with these questions. In the past,
political radicals have been as quick as reactionary conservatives to
dismiss maverick consciousness researchers.
But suddenly, the discoveries of mind explorers like Stanislav Grof,
Jean Houston and the recently deceased John Lilly, seem to have a
penetrating cultural significance.
The currency of the times is revelation and epiphany.
Grof, a former Johns Hopkins professor and chief of a Maryland
psychiatric research center, has scoured ancient and modern
methods of consciousness change in order to develop techniques
that can trigger revelatory experience rapidly and in a broad
spectrum of people.
In his Holotropic Breathwork technique, a combination of intense
breathing, expressive music and focused bodywork causes dramatic
psychological transformations in most people.
Within minutes, those who try it begin to experience things more
acutely (much the way people often say they do in the midst of
abrupt life changes).
Colors look brighter, memories appear more detailed, symbols
and words provoke pluralities of interpretation.
Sensitivity to sensations in the body and brain is heightened; old
patterns are suddenly seen in a new light.
For serious explorers, this is only the beginning.
As their sensory experiences evolve, mind explorers frequently
find that the psychological and the physical become intertwined,
and watch amazed as each influences the other.
Incorporeal presences may seem as real as the walls, walls may
seem permeable, or normal material reality may dissolve into
flowing energy fields.
The mind and body’s instruments of perception come to be
understood as critical components in constructing a sense of
reality.
What is music without our eardrums conveying it, our memories
labeling it?
Even if such experiences are discounted as, “hallucinations” there
is a lingering sense that normal reality itself could be one of those
illusions – the ultimate meme, prolonged interminably by its social
infectiousness.
Even this is merely one stage.
As revelation extends, “time” as a psychological process can stop;
explorers report a sense of intense connection to their body’s
internal cellular activities, to collective memory, or to other beings
or the entire human race.
Some feel the inextricable unity of good and evil, oppressor
and oppressed, or find themselves dissolved into a universal
consciousness.
It all sounds wild and chaotic, and yet, for many of us, oddly
familiar as well.
Under the pressure of stress, despair or confusion, more and
more of us are peering over the brink of breakthroughs of this
type.
Grof suggests it’s, “archetypal” – as the human crisis deepens,
our consciousness tries to promote healing by uncovering
repressed truths.
We resist the shift: Who wants to lose their grip on everyday life?
We dread an exile from so-called, “consensus reality”
imagining an impoverished, eternal loneliness of insanity.
But in fact, those who’ve gone all the way down the rabbit-hole
of epiphany come back with a view of a world that has truly and
profoundly changed.
Grof alone has compiled records from thousands of such people.
Without any coercion, the overwhelming majority emerge with
a non-violent attitude, reverence for nature, anti-materialistic
values, a keen interest in spiritualism (though not organized
religion), a holistic approach to health, and an intense desire
for social change.
Why?
Because one common effect of these non-ordinary states is
pure awe.
Even a faint glimpse beyond the spectacle and into the vastness
of existence transforms into breathtaking experiential reality.
This almost invariably creates deep humility before the infinite
complexity of nature.
Unsurpassed levels of compassion emerge from the intimate
identification with other people, creatures and things.
Visceral immersion in the entire human collective makes it almost
impossible not to consider the effects of every personal action on
the global community and future generations.
Often, the end result is confusion.
But rather than growing depressed or anxious or paralyzed by it,
revelatory explorers tend to become irrepressible skeptics.
For them, no moral perspective, dominating mood or intellectual
conclusion can pass for absolute “fact” or “objective truth” very
easily, or for long.
Revelation is a radical deconstruction of the senses of self
and reality.
It allows entirely different impulses to influence your actions;
it shortens the distance to spontaneity and authenticity.
As long as revolutionaries have existed, they’ve sought ways
to fundamentally change how people think and see the world.
Frustrated, they fall back on reform: the attempt to persuade
people to follow prescriptions for change.
Consciously or not, most people resist.
But when someone’s whole sense of reality shifts – say, when they
realize that death is closer than they had allowed themselves to
think – radical new decisions come effortlessly.
The First World is a culture preparing for revelation.
We are watching, alarmed, as rips appear in the fabric of
our reality.
At the same time, we are quick to forget, ignore, or send
in reinforcements.
How many are ready to step through the hole?
http://www.adbusters.org/article/opening-the-door