Sir Jonathan Miller, being interviewed on how he feels about facing his own death packed more into a 5 minute interview than many people ever think about in a lifetime. He commented that he never thought about a name for that which other people call Atheism. After all, said he, he had no name for not believing in Pixies either.
Once I wrote on fear of dying, not fear of death. Hearing the exact same sentiments from a man with whose ideas I have been confronted, I relived the experience and realization that my own thoughts are hardly unique. It is just confirming, realizing that others reach the same conclusions. Why, then, do we not all come to the same conclusions? Where (or why) do we get sent onto a different track.
People have been doing research for years on this very subject. What does the brain have to do with a belief in religion? Some researchers thought it had to do with the amount of serotonin in the brain. A correlation was found between serotonin levels and anxiety, and researchers were surprised to discover a connection between the density of the receptors and spiritual acceptance. I hardly expect true religious believers to accept that their brains were not influenced by their God to make it so.
Newberg, one of the researchers says: "If we can learn more about the human brain through studies of these very complex spiritual and religious experiences people have, we can understand neurobiology and psychiatry better,...and if there are ways we can learn more about these experiences - how they happen, what they mean - religion and spirituality can be enhanced as well."
It then follows that if people believe there is a conscious after-life that extends their present life experience, they will face death very differently than those of us who sincerely believe when our physical body ceases to maintain life for us, oblivion follows. Thus our bodies can be cremated and scattered wherever because they have as much meaning as the leaves that fall in the Autumn. It is my view that the belief affects us by some living our lives less passively; we believe this life is all there is for us. It then behooves us all to accept that which we cannot change. Enjoy it while you have it and share the enjoyment with as many others as your life touches and affects.
For me, it has allowed me to put the deaths of friends and loved ones behind me, as, 'they existed for me in a period of time which is now over' and move on. I often kid that, if there really is a God, she/he/it would not make me a bigamist in Heaven by putting me with both my husbands when on earth they were successive rather than simultaneous spouses!
Saturday, October 31, 2009
THE WHITE STUFF IGNORES LATITUDE AND SEASONS
Snow fall has begun...or has it ever stopped? New England has had early snow in the northern states and even some in MA. Apparently this year's show has ignored global warming. Click here. May you enjoy the Shell commercial, otherwise, if you don't watch it you won't get to see what is intended.
If it interests you to watch a few webcams around the world, check this site out. Skiers really seem to care exactly what the conditions are...would that there were more webcams scattered around.
If it interests you to watch a few webcams around the world, check this site out. Skiers really seem to care exactly what the conditions are...would that there were more webcams scattered around.
Friday, October 30, 2009
ANOTHER ADJUSTMENT TO CHANGE
As I age I get less limber. Elsewhere, I envied the attachments on toilet seats which lift the user by two inches. Those two inches make it easier to hoist my ample butt off the seat to a standing position. So, figuring that I will sooner (probably more so than later) find one of those attachments desirable, if not necessary, I took advantage of a closing sale, bought a toilet 2" higher than normal, thus eschewing the add-on.
Satisfied, until I visited public or friends' toilets, their seats are lower than where my brain tells me I should have made contact. It triggers an "I'm falling and I can't get up." fear so as I keep lowering the sitting part of my anatomy. I pass a stopping point; my body goes into 'free fall' until contact is made with some surface, guessing wrongly that is to be the floor.
Quite another experience happens in restaurant booths. They all seem to be made for very tall, slim people. Too wide for a booster seat or high chair, I eat with my chin barely above my dish. This works well, though it puts my face dangerously near my food. It does, though, minimize the many meals I have worn on my chest.
Having lost almost three inches of height in the past few years, I've toyed with learning to walk with stilts. Instead, a library stool in my kitchen, several smaller stools in other rooms as well as step ladders on each floor, compensate Oddly it is easier to reach up than to get things off the floor or from under furniture. Following a law of physics, "What goes up must come down", the opposite is not true. What goes down does not always come up...at least not easily.
Satisfied, until I visited public or friends' toilets, their seats are lower than where my brain tells me I should have made contact. It triggers an "I'm falling and I can't get up." fear so as I keep lowering the sitting part of my anatomy. I pass a stopping point; my body goes into 'free fall' until contact is made with some surface, guessing wrongly that is to be the floor.
Quite another experience happens in restaurant booths. They all seem to be made for very tall, slim people. Too wide for a booster seat or high chair, I eat with my chin barely above my dish. This works well, though it puts my face dangerously near my food. It does, though, minimize the many meals I have worn on my chest.
Having lost almost three inches of height in the past few years, I've toyed with learning to walk with stilts. Instead, a library stool in my kitchen, several smaller stools in other rooms as well as step ladders on each floor, compensate Oddly it is easier to reach up than to get things off the floor or from under furniture. Following a law of physics, "What goes up must come down", the opposite is not true. What goes down does not always come up...at least not easily.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
WHEN THE POPULACE GETS PUSHED TOO FAR....
Thousands March in 3-Day Showdown with Banking Industry By Kari Lydersen, AlterNet. Posted October 28, 2009. "Tired of bailouts and fat paychecks for those that created the economic catastrophe, marchers made clear demands to tame an out-of-control financial system." The greedy fatcats got used to their good pay-offs (thefts is a better term) and decided it could last forever. We all know that nothing lasts forever and the French Revolution should never have to be repeated. An uprising would not bring out the guillotines today. People don't lose their physical lives but they are in danger of losing their political and professional lives as well as their reputations for trust. If you would like to read more on Lydersen's article, click here.
Unlike Madoff who did not represent as large a system to fall and affect as many people as some of these banks with their millions of credit card customers and loan recipients. When a business is so big that the government fears allowing it to collapse for fear of the impact on the nation's economy, and the government (i.e. the taxpayers who are already giving them too large a proportion of their salary (after all, they are not a religion and do not deserve a tithe, do they?)are getting more and more upset at the return to Feudal systems while Republican fringes keep screaming at the Democrats for getting us into this economic mess. It would seem that, with that kind of short memory, Republicans need to start posting reminders around themselves as occupational therapist teach those with beginning Alzheimer's to do so they won't forget the important stuff.
Meanwhile we keep hearing about the armed militias and noises of people, like Texas, who wish to secede, as well as stories of other discontent. We can only hope that there won't be more Timothy McVeys
Unlike Madoff who did not represent as large a system to fall and affect as many people as some of these banks with their millions of credit card customers and loan recipients. When a business is so big that the government fears allowing it to collapse for fear of the impact on the nation's economy, and the government (i.e. the taxpayers who are already giving them too large a proportion of their salary (after all, they are not a religion and do not deserve a tithe, do they?)are getting more and more upset at the return to Feudal systems while Republican fringes keep screaming at the Democrats for getting us into this economic mess. It would seem that, with that kind of short memory, Republicans need to start posting reminders around themselves as occupational therapist teach those with beginning Alzheimer's to do so they won't forget the important stuff.
Meanwhile we keep hearing about the armed militias and noises of people, like Texas, who wish to secede, as well as stories of other discontent. We can only hope that there won't be more Timothy McVeys
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS?
New Website Tracks Your Congressional Reps' Moves On Afghanistan Posted by Katrina Vanden Heuvel, TheNation.com at 8:40 AM on October 26, 2009.
NoEscalation.org tracks who has taken a stand, listing phone numbers so you can call and ask legislators to do the right thing. Ms. Vanden Heuval writes that the choices that President Obama makes about Afghanistan will say a great deal about his presidency. We have already fought there twice as long as WWII. Since Obama has not been in office for a year yet, it should certainly say something more important about the Bush administration
She believes that the fact that the majority of Americans has turned against the war is a good sign. While poll that does not clearly spell out what the exact question is to which there is an answer published may seem to imply the answer some may wish to hear, to me polls can be very misleading without that information. For her full article, click here.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
MISGUIDED GOALS
The world would be a better place if people could see the whole picture. It is unfortunate that too many see only a single action. For example, P.E.T.A. (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is hardly ethical in their treatment of mice when they freed them from laboratories where they were being used in research. These mice were raised to be used in experiments; they never had to find food in the wild for themselves and wouldn't know how to do it. They would simply be preyed upon as delicacies for predators. Many are unable to withstand the harshness of nature and weather out of the lab. When P.E.T.A. volunteers let the animals loose in the world, they are, in fact, sentencing them to a quick death and not necessarily a painless one as they would have been more likely in the lab. Yet those who spout concern about animals are the cruelest in some of their ignorant behaviors.
The Pro-Lifers talk about how sacred life is, forcing unwanted children to be born into poverty and rejection, yet murder abortion doctors who have a life, family and children left to survive without them on their death. Do they not see the hypocrisy of their actions?
When Bush/Cheney went to war in Iraq believing the war would be paid for by Iraqi oil (not American taxpayers), that the American troops would be welcomed as heroes with flowers being flung at them, that there would be few troop casualties, that the war would quickly be over, and many other unfulfilled promises, we find it clear that their actions might have been different if they were honest with themselves and the public. If only they had bothered to listen to those scholars who knew about the culture of the Middle East we would have fewer dead in the service and their extended families not having to struggle with the loss and the burden that has placed on all of them.
When people see only what they want to see and do not act in haste but, rather. review major decisions carefully before finalizing them, there are fewer 'mistakes', disasters, and lives lost. Obama is being criticized for not making things right immediately. If the people who think they know what he should be doing that he is not, really knew all the facts which he is having to juggle, they may find that he is best left alone to do his job. He has welcomed input but that doesn't seem to be enough for the loudest ones. Limbaugh would have him fail, missing the price all Limbaugh's fellow Americans would pay if that happens (as would the fringe Right and others who dislike him).
We have erred in our haste to let people speak by putting them on an equal standing on the world podium. As the Blue Collar comedians say, "There is no cure for stupid." Having an impressive CV and a graduation from an Ivy League school does not always equal across-the-board knowledge. To be really brilliant, there have to be so many more elements to your decision making process than just saying 'yes' or 'no'.
The Pro-Lifers talk about how sacred life is, forcing unwanted children to be born into poverty and rejection, yet murder abortion doctors who have a life, family and children left to survive without them on their death. Do they not see the hypocrisy of their actions?
When Bush/Cheney went to war in Iraq believing the war would be paid for by Iraqi oil (not American taxpayers), that the American troops would be welcomed as heroes with flowers being flung at them, that there would be few troop casualties, that the war would quickly be over, and many other unfulfilled promises, we find it clear that their actions might have been different if they were honest with themselves and the public. If only they had bothered to listen to those scholars who knew about the culture of the Middle East we would have fewer dead in the service and their extended families not having to struggle with the loss and the burden that has placed on all of them.
When people see only what they want to see and do not act in haste but, rather. review major decisions carefully before finalizing them, there are fewer 'mistakes', disasters, and lives lost. Obama is being criticized for not making things right immediately. If the people who think they know what he should be doing that he is not, really knew all the facts which he is having to juggle, they may find that he is best left alone to do his job. He has welcomed input but that doesn't seem to be enough for the loudest ones. Limbaugh would have him fail, missing the price all Limbaugh's fellow Americans would pay if that happens (as would the fringe Right and others who dislike him).
We have erred in our haste to let people speak by putting them on an equal standing on the world podium. As the Blue Collar comedians say, "There is no cure for stupid." Having an impressive CV and a graduation from an Ivy League school does not always equal across-the-board knowledge. To be really brilliant, there have to be so many more elements to your decision making process than just saying 'yes' or 'no'.
IS FOX NEWS OR ISN'T IT?
For those of us who have long felt that media outlets ought to be limited to one owner and have felt that Rupert Murdoch's empire has become to overpowering, it is uplifting to see some people actually standing up to the megalomaniacs who think they are running the country, not the executive branch, the judicial and legislative branches.
Recently Adele Stan, AlterNet. Posted October 24, 2009. 8 Reasons Fox Is Not a News Organization. She made some excellent points and you may wish to read the article. If so, click here. This is part of what was said: "Now the fearmongers at Fox are crying foul since the president and his aides declared Fox not to be a news organization. Earlier this month, White House Communications Director Anita Dunn called Fox an "arm" of the Republican Party. Obama went even further, suggesting this week that Fox "is operating basically as a talk-radio format," and we know what that means: A format in which the most provocative opinions dominate the discourse and facts are optional." The eight reasons should be clear to any intelligent person who watched Fox News, but should some intelligent person have missed them, here they are: 1. Glenn Beck, the community organizer -- No other news operation in memory has ever hired its own community organizer, at least not one tasked with the mission of organizing paranoid people to march through the streets of the nation's capital with signs depicting the president of the United States as a mass murderer.
2. Fox's alliance with the corporate-funded astroturf group Americans for Prosperity - 3. On-air fundraising for Republican PACs 4. Bill O'Reilly, stalker of those whose opinions he doesn't like 5. Sunday talk-show host who promotes Republican falsehoods "Once upon a time, Chris Wallace, son of the aforementioned Mike, was a real journalist, just like his dad. Then he joined the Fox team, as host of Fox News Sunday, which airs on the Fox's broadcast network." 6. Fox News anchors, show hosts and pundits parrot GOP press releases, or just make up stuff 7. Fox News hosts urge viewers to join a particular political group "During the run-up to the big right-wing 9-12/Tea Party march on Washington, Fox News entities and personalities repeatedly flogged viewers to join the Tea Party Express, a bus tour of anti-Obama activists." 8. Glenn Beck, deranged inventor of paranoid conspiracies
The White House Cites Opinion Shows as Basis for Fox News Complaints
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs refers to "Beck" and "Hannity" as the reasons why the Obama administration is criticizing Fox News.
White House Makes Security Changes to Web Site Following Complaints Over E-Mails
The e-mail address set up for people to report "fishy" information about health care reform has become inactive. The White House also has added two new filter devices to its "Contact Us" section on its Web site, following complaints from people who said they were receiving unsolicited e-mails from the administration. Read more....
Perhaps the public should get the FCC to revert back to the days when it was sane, fair, followed the law to prevent the kind of monopoly-like situation we have today. Despite Murdoch's attempts to control the news that reaches Americans' ears, he forgets about the Internet and the access we all have to the rest of the world. Unfortunately, too many people still do not know how to do that. I'm amazed at how many people still don't have or use computers! Sadly, it points to the state of our voters...misinformed. too lazy to decide for whom to vote, believe their vote doesn't count (forgetting that if others felt the same, we definitely would get the wrong people in office as we have in the past).
Recently Adele Stan, AlterNet. Posted October 24, 2009. 8 Reasons Fox Is Not a News Organization. She made some excellent points and you may wish to read the article. If so, click here. This is part of what was said: "Now the fearmongers at Fox are crying foul since the president and his aides declared Fox not to be a news organization. Earlier this month, White House Communications Director Anita Dunn called Fox an "arm" of the Republican Party. Obama went even further, suggesting this week that Fox "is operating basically as a talk-radio format," and we know what that means: A format in which the most provocative opinions dominate the discourse and facts are optional." The eight reasons should be clear to any intelligent person who watched Fox News, but should some intelligent person have missed them, here they are: 1. Glenn Beck, the community organizer -- No other news operation in memory has ever hired its own community organizer, at least not one tasked with the mission of organizing paranoid people to march through the streets of the nation's capital with signs depicting the president of the United States as a mass murderer.
2. Fox's alliance with the corporate-funded astroturf group Americans for Prosperity - 3. On-air fundraising for Republican PACs 4. Bill O'Reilly, stalker of those whose opinions he doesn't like 5. Sunday talk-show host who promotes Republican falsehoods "Once upon a time, Chris Wallace, son of the aforementioned Mike, was a real journalist, just like his dad. Then he joined the Fox team, as host of Fox News Sunday, which airs on the Fox's broadcast network." 6. Fox News anchors, show hosts and pundits parrot GOP press releases, or just make up stuff 7. Fox News hosts urge viewers to join a particular political group "During the run-up to the big right-wing 9-12/Tea Party march on Washington, Fox News entities and personalities repeatedly flogged viewers to join the Tea Party Express, a bus tour of anti-Obama activists." 8. Glenn Beck, deranged inventor of paranoid conspiracies
The White House Cites Opinion Shows as Basis for Fox News Complaints
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs refers to "Beck" and "Hannity" as the reasons why the Obama administration is criticizing Fox News.
White House Makes Security Changes to Web Site Following Complaints Over E-Mails
The e-mail address set up for people to report "fishy" information about health care reform has become inactive. The White House also has added two new filter devices to its "Contact Us" section on its Web site, following complaints from people who said they were receiving unsolicited e-mails from the administration. Read more....
Perhaps the public should get the FCC to revert back to the days when it was sane, fair, followed the law to prevent the kind of monopoly-like situation we have today. Despite Murdoch's attempts to control the news that reaches Americans' ears, he forgets about the Internet and the access we all have to the rest of the world. Unfortunately, too many people still do not know how to do that. I'm amazed at how many people still don't have or use computers! Sadly, it points to the state of our voters...misinformed. too lazy to decide for whom to vote, believe their vote doesn't count (forgetting that if others felt the same, we definitely would get the wrong people in office as we have in the past).
Sunday, October 25, 2009
KNOW YOUR ENEMIES
Before 9/11, most of us would have no occasion to understand or know who the Taliban are,and what their mission for existence is.The BBC has printed an excellent article explaining the Taliban historically and in the present. While most sides in fights like this use bullying tactics, the Taliban seems to deliberately go after collateral damage while we, 'the good guys', go out of our way to try to minimize it.
On 9.8.2009, Bert Hansen wrote in a column on The Telescope: "...the risks of attacks from home-grown eco-terrorists, political extremists and pro-life groups targeting abortion clinics seems to be outweighed by the threat of religiously motivated terrorism exercised by fanatics trained in dedicated facilities, formerly located only in the Middle East. Click here.
Without doubt, the FBI must keep tabs on many militia groups. Groups like the KKK are still alive and well. Refer to my blog article as of 6/15/2009. Terrorism comes in many sizes, shapes and forms. Never forget the Clergy who sexually terrorized youth of both genders whom they should have been protecting and nurturing.
The truth is, we rarely know an enemy until it is too late for many of us. From war to the bully next door or the thief who wants what you own...they are all enemies. We count on the police, the media and other authorities to keep us wary but they have too often failed us. When they fail us, it is too easy for militia, posse, lynchers, and others who presume their right to take action on their own. We must do all in our power to uphold our laws and disallow mob mentality taking over our freedoms. Political corruption has already taken away too much from our rights and lives.
On 9.8.2009, Bert Hansen wrote in a column on The Telescope: "...the risks of attacks from home-grown eco-terrorists, political extremists and pro-life groups targeting abortion clinics seems to be outweighed by the threat of religiously motivated terrorism exercised by fanatics trained in dedicated facilities, formerly located only in the Middle East. Click here.
Without doubt, the FBI must keep tabs on many militia groups. Groups like the KKK are still alive and well. Refer to my blog article as of 6/15/2009. Terrorism comes in many sizes, shapes and forms. Never forget the Clergy who sexually terrorized youth of both genders whom they should have been protecting and nurturing.
The truth is, we rarely know an enemy until it is too late for many of us. From war to the bully next door or the thief who wants what you own...they are all enemies. We count on the police, the media and other authorities to keep us wary but they have too often failed us. When they fail us, it is too easy for militia, posse, lynchers, and others who presume their right to take action on their own. We must do all in our power to uphold our laws and disallow mob mentality taking over our freedoms. Political corruption has already taken away too much from our rights and lives.
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