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Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.
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This is how we are spreading our influence in the name of spreading peace, progress, and democracy. Is this what the MIC, Obama, and NATO have in store for the world?
At one point the Arab news person is heard saying, "Those who kill their own people have lost all credibility" a reference to those involved in 9/11, which is known throughout the Arab world to have been an inside job.
When you make war, you have to kill some kids
How can anyone stand by while drones and jets bomb innocents killing 50 collaterals to every intended target? If all we can do is stand by then we cannot hypocritically cry so loudly when one of our own kills our own children!
Bush-era policies, continued and expanded by Obama, have led to the murder of over 1 million Iraqi children and civilians. It was a US war crime to target their water purification facilities. These victims of our military-industrial complex (MIC) aggression are no threat to us. But we are to them. We are to them.
How inhuman we must seem the longer we dehumanize them. They live, feel, die, love, work, take care of their children just as we do. Yet our government, for and by the people, has been taken over by war mongers and passive profiteers.
How many of us protested when Bush invaded in spite of the will of the American public? How many more of us did nothing, or even attached patriotic flags to our cars and homes in support of military aggression?
Now a newer better storyteller sits in the White House making excuses for the powers that be, a man who took his Nobel Peace Prize and started eight new wars with it. And what are we doing? Mourning a minor incident of military-grade killing, what our soldiers do on an average morning abroad, calling it the worst catastrophe ever.
Jillian Soto trying to get information on her sister, Victoria Soto, a teacher at the Sandy Hook elementary in Newtown, CT, Friday, after a gunman murdered children and adults. Her sister was among those killed (Jessica Hill/AP).
Who kills more children than anyone? What will we do now? Shall we follow Diane Feinstein and banassault rifles so that the only people who have assault rifles are NRA members with enough foresight to have pre-purchased them? Shall we give the guns to soldiers and the paramilitary police then beg them not to shoot at us in the street the way they do "suspects" at protests and in ghettos now? What do we offer instead, more psychological care, more assessments, more surveillance? When the POLICE STATE arrives, will it be forced on us, or will we have been duped into demanding it? "Give me liberty or give me death." But don't hurt the children (of this country), anything but that! It's our Achilles heel. And we surrender unequivocally if you threaten them.
Boo, Tee, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly;Idolator; LAWeeky; Rolling Stone; Yahoo!; MTV
PSY's "horse dance” comes from 1,000-year-old Buddhist ceremonial dance (Korean Bodega)
Jazz impressario Dave Brubeck joins the Choir Invisible leaving a noteworthy legacy for musicians pushing the envelope
Korean Buddhist and the top draw in the short history of YouTube, PSY has his eye on rap. As he approaches a billion hits for "Gangnam Style," he fears becoming an irrelevant one-hit-wonder. Solution? Work with 2 Chainz and Diplo to create the next great hit.
2 CHAINZ? Yes, Wisdom Quarterly's resident rapper is heading for the big time. In a week he is returning to Los Angeles to participate in the Power106 FM "Cali Christmas" with Big Sean, Rick Ross, and others. But what PSY has in store for him with choreography, lyrics, and a non-stop dance mix is likely to break all records and make GOODE Music's Kanye West wish he'd included the Atlanta rapper in his inner crew.
ROLLING STONE magazine has released the Top 50 Rap Songs of all time. Grandmaster Flash gets top honors; Will Smith left off list. (RS)
RAP GENIUS, a great idea with venture capital backing, is not a hit with the stylemakers in the rap community. The Wikipedia-for-rap lyrics gets hits. But its founders, principally Mahbod Moghadam, are not making any friends in the business(LAW).
KENDRICK LAMAR, meanwhile, took it to the streets as crowds flowed out of the Lakers' game in downtown h*ll. A double deck bus served as a stage before police swarmed in with helicopter support to disperse the crowd that had the audacity to dance in the streets. If rap won't contain itself, the growing police state will contain it.
(Yahoo!) The "Swimming Pools" rapper tweeted about a secret LA show (Crash Concert) across from the Staples Center where the Lakers had just played. The encroaching police state had other ideas.
"I wanted to do something special…that actually made a point, made a statement," he says during an exclusive Yahoo! interview. "Better to do it in our hometown, right after the Laker game." The massive crowd spilled onto the street. After performing "Swimming Pools," "The Recipe," and a bonus from his "Section 80" release, the police dispersed the crowd as a chopper hovered making the evening news.
RAP NOSTALGIA Country music took off when most Americans no longer lived on the farm(Prof. Fox, RadioLab.org). Why? It became glamorized, powered by nostalgia. How many of us still live in ghettos? Most of us live in cities but certainly not in the megalopolises that create most of the most popular rap music.
Dads can't rap for shizzle! But pops, they try.
Chris Brown was acting like a 17-year-old stoner who traveled to Amsterdam for the first time. Breezy posted a bunch of marijuana-centric photos from what was surely a fruitful trip to the Netherlands [Oh No They Didn't]. Ellieand Skrillex may have called it quits earlier this year, but the two are “still big fans of each other,” according to Ellie. In fact, she hopes the two can work together again, like they did on the Breaking Dawn - Part 2 song “Bittersweet” [MTV].
The power of story -- even in Japanese (English below) -- transports us. Where do we go when we go off in our heads full of wonder, or bored, in search of the next story to learn from?
Story taught to monkey, Java (Mararie/flickr)
This week’s show is about story and narrative withJonathan Gottschall, author of The Storytelling Animal. Although this is not about Obama or politics, Barry reveals the overwhelming importance of story in our lives:
In a July 2012 interview with Charlie Rose, Obama said that “the mistake” of the early years of his presidency was his failure to be a better storyteller:
“The mistake of my first couple of years was thinking that this job was just about getting the policy right. And that’s important. But the nature of this office is also to tell a story to the American people that gives them a sense of unity and purpose and optimism, especially during tough times.” If given a second term he says he will “spend more time with the American people, listening to them, but also being in a conversation with them about where do we go as a country?”
The late evolutionary biologist Steven Jay Gould called humans “the primate who tells stories…” And it’s not just Gould. Anthropologists have found societies that have existed for millennia without the wheel, but they’ve never found one that doesn’t tell stories.
Siddhartha daydreaming about what it would be like to be free (Nitin_Paul/flickr.com)
A World That Just Might Work, the website, leads with: “On the radio, I tell stories of a world that just might work. As a consultant, I help you tell yours.” Building on time as a teacher, two decades in the entertainment industry, and 15 years of radio interviews, I help non-profits, foundations, public agencies, and businesses tell better stories and build better narratives.
What does Gottschall have to say about the latest science on the subject? Why is narrative so powerful? What is its evolutionary value? And can what we’re learning help us get even better at tapping its power?
10,000 Days of Hun Sen: “I not only weaken the opposition, I’m going to make them dead...and if anyone is strong enough to try to hold a demonstration, I will beat all those dogs and put them in a cage.”
(HuffPo)Gloomy teens, take heed -- your more happy-go-lucky classmates will likely earn more than you, according to new research. Researchers followed more than 10,000 U.S. adolescents over a decade and found that happiness during the teen years and young adulthood was linked with income at age 29.
(Yale Daily News) Hundreds of students flooded into LC 101 last night to hear a panel of professors discuss happiness. The talk, hosted by Vita Bella ["Good Life"]...
(Herald Sun, Nov. 25, 2012) Workers now happiest they have been in ages, finds study... Happiness among their workers also is up by 40 per cent as they too enjoy better...
(MSN NZ News, Nov. 26, 2012) A study claiming porn actresses are happier in their sexuality and self-image than other women has been discredited by an Australian expert.
"Travelers and Magicians"
In Bhutan, the last Himalayan Buddhist kingdom, dreaming of coming to Buddhist America
A Bhutanese fable [available for DVD rental] about lives in transition will be shown Monday at Real Art Ways, 56 Arbor St., Hartford."Travelers and Magicians" tells the story about Dondup, who wants to leave Bhutan for America, and a monk who tries to talk him out of it. To do this, the monk tells the story of another man restless and dissatisfied, whose story does not end well.It is the first movie shot entirely in Bhutan, and is in the Bhutanese language, Dzonghka, with subtitles. More
iJAN helps FREE Palestine: The WorldSocial Forum Free Palestine (WSF FP) is approaching. More than 10,000 Palestinian and solidarity activists from 36 countries will converge on Porto Alegre to learn from each other and together organize to build a strong movement to confront Israel and Zionism and the broader injustices they represent and support. TheInternational Jewish Anti-Zionist Network and activists in the US, Canada, and around the world are building a joint struggleframework to the WSF FP. More
(LINK)Director Ang Lee ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon") recruits an actual trained Bengal tiger to create a groundbreaking movie about a young man who survives a tragic disaster at sea. He is hurtled on an epic journey of adventure and discovery. While marooned on a lifeboat, he forms an amazing and unexpected connection with the ship's only other survivor, thetiger. WARNING: Many viewers say the movie tries to inspire wonder and awe and a belief in GOD.
This Wachowski film features handsome Halle Berry and America's very own sweetheart Tom Hanks with Buddhist themes reminiscent of "Looper." Except this is without a time-travel conceit to make the karmic connection perfectly clear. "Cloud Atlas" is an exploration of how the actions (karma) of individual lives impact one another. This happens in the past, present, and future. One living being, in the course of becoming, is shaped from a killer into a hero. And a single act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution. Not since Hanks nearly ruined "Cast Away" have we been so torn between wanting to watch a film for thematic reasons and being kept away by its male lead. In that epic adventure, Hanks' character is adrift on a raft ("Life of Pi"-style) with no one to talk to but a soccer ball. He draws eyes on it, places a wig atop it, and constantly whines: "Wilson, will I ever get home? Wilson, does my wife still love me? Wilson, what are we going to do?!!" Later in a hallucination, the ball answers him: "My name is Voit, dumb@ss!" Wait, that pay-off only came much later in a "Family Guy" cutaway:
"Cloud Atlas" might be bearable with the help of co-stars Susan Sarandon, Zhou Xun, Hugo Weaving, Doona Rae, Jim Sturgess, James D'Arcy, Hugh Grant, Ben Whishaw, Jim Broadbent, Keith David,David Mitchell, David Gyasi... because if the worst thing one has tosay about a prospective film is that Tom Hanks is in it, that is probably one great film.
E. Landau, A. Dorrian, P. Macpherson, edited by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly
Is compassion for Palestinians in Gaza anti-semitism? Absolutely not. But one would never know that from reading through the mainstream mead's coverage of Israel's war crimes against Palestinians in the name of self-defense. And wherever Israel goes, the US/MIC is not far behind.
Often "we" (as if the average American had much to do with the decision-making motives of corporate war-profiteers and violence-prone generals at the Pentagon) are leading Israel around by the nose to do the bidding most profitable to us in the region. "Israel is worth ten CIAs" a CIA official once famously admitted.
Benjamin Netanyahu, "Bibi," was educated in America. That is why he has barely an accent. Yet no one speaks eloquently for the Palestinians. And it seems no one tells Muslim men and women being bombed to stop shouting and behaving "emotionally" when reporting the facts on the ground. Jewish soldiers are not allowed to brag or are not asked by reporters to explain why they kill and terrorize civilians. Is there an Arab League representative, an unbiased translator, any voice in the wilderness? Palestinians do not have a fraction of the sterling public relations support Israel and the US military take for granted.
Israeli warcrimes against Palestine: witnessessee KL War Crimes Commission(sabbah.biz)
The coverage, particularly on NPR, is astoundingly pro-Israel even when it seems to be showing the other side of the argument. The obvious slant is in reporting Netanyahu's spin; the subtle bias is far more insidious, leaving one to wonder how they do not lose all credibility news story after news story.
Such is the power of money, intellectual capital, and misguided sympathy for historical wrongs towards Jews and, only more recently "Israelis," if there is such a thing. Zionists? Usurpers? The people of the Bible? Anyone who claims the bloodline and mantle of The Chosen Ones?
It takes an Arabic or Palestinian scholar to point out that the people who call themselves and whom we call "Jews" today are hardly as distinct or rooted in and around Jerusalem as we now take for granted. The whole history of the genocidal founding of the modern state of "Israel" and its location in Palestine as their "promised land" is problematic.
However, PR firms pay off Christian scholars and other scientists to jump into the fray in favor of all things Israel. It doesn't even take that; for it is understood in scholarly circles that if one wants to make a name for him or herself and be widely cited and published, one's finding had better be in favor of Israel and its revisionist history. If all these voices silenced themselves, the CIA and its operatives would still rule the discussion. How much nicer that they self-select and use their clout to justify and further war.
This is not a question about Semitic languages, proto-Hebrew (apparently any earlier or current form of Arabic on any shard of pottery), or how far back the Bible can be pushed as unbiased historical document not a story of a people told by those very people to perpetuate themselves at the expense of neighbors or outsiders coming in claiming to be those descendents continuing a long tradition of forced relocation and cultural genocide.
The blame does not fall on individuals like Romney-supporting Netanyahu, his similarly educated brother, or the Kanesset. It is displaced onto other actors, even stone throwers trying to defend themselves against atrocities wrought by the super power on the other side of the wall. Yes, wall, not "fence."
Israeli nationalists are wrong. And their right-wing media machines, owned and operated by billionaires and multi-millionaries rather than the dogged journalists and editors who constantly bear the brunt, are hopelessly biased. Here is one problem. Polls are taken and reported acting as if the vast majority, 80%, of Israelis are for genocide, rubber stamping anything the Israeli Department of War (IDF) wants to do, short of ground invasions unless Netanyahu should deem them "unavoidable."
What are the poll questions being asked? And who is doing the asking and tabulating and spinning the results, an Israeli nationalist paper?
"Do you disapprove of a country defending itself from hostile rocket fire?"
"Are you for terrorism?"
"If a peaceful nation, which only wants peace, is brutally attacked by thugs hiding in slums on the other side of a Security Fence, is it all right for the peaceful nation to defend itself, or should it allow bombs to rain down on its children and elderly?"
Answer honestly and anonymously, and we promise not to twist or construe your answers as being in support of genocide, mutilation, or asymmetrical warfare against those godforsaken "dogs" in Gaza and the West Bank.
Has anyone ever heard something more true than that Sarah Silverman joke from her feature-length movie, "J is Magic"? She complains about someone criticizing Jews then, rhetorically, with biting satire, asks: Hey, I thought we owned the media. How are others getting their say?
The gist of it is, of course Israeli nationalists have an inordinate influence on the media around the world, but we aren't ever allowed to point that out. Wink-wink. That would be, pick your offending term, "racist," anti-Semitic, hateful, so unfair, so biased.
Angry Netanyahu, a real CIA asset (Al Jazeera)
God (YHWH) forbid anyone attribute anything negative to any Jewish person (except Bernie Madoff or Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, those pariahs), Israelis in and around Palestine, or any Hebrew-speaking person from here in Hollywood to there in Tel Aviv, that's "anti-Semitism!"
If a right-wing leader in Israel acts like that German guy andanyone dares to point out a similarity or two, dares to point out that the Emperor has no clothes, forgetaboutit. The gloves are off. Just last week Southern Californians were sympathizing with the plight of Palestinians in Westwoodat the beloved Federal Building, site of all the best protests.
Jews, Israeli nationalists, Christian fundamentalists, and/or students feeling guilty about not doing enough to support the Promised Land Project (i.e., the new state of Israel), which gives them dual US-Israeli citizenship while Palestinians have no citizenship anywhere, and free trips to Israel while Palestinians are free to travel to a neighbor's house but no farther, went to confront and provide a counterpoint to those Palestinian sympathizers. Violence erupted on the streets of Los Angeles as a result of their intimidating counter protest. West LA is the heart of the Jewish and pro-Israel presence in LA.
Most Los Angelenos slept in. We can't be bothered. We've got homework, housework, work (business), and lots of other busy-work to see to.
They may say we're "racists," but Wisdom Quarterly has to stand up and call it what it is: Israeli-planned attacks on a nearly defenseless population using Iran-made "missile strikes" as pretext, propaganda, atrocities, the world's biggest prison, ethnic cleansing, and if only there were a word for the attempted systematic elimination of a people...
What's the real motive? Even God (the war-like Jewish tribal one) doesn't know, but the MIC sure does.
Although some one or some "cabal" put him up to it, P.M. Netanyahu has to be called on to answer for it. Sec'y of State Clinton has to be called to answer. (Pres. Obama is smart using Bibi's pro-Romney comments to stay out of the fray, sort of earning his Nobel Peace Prize by sending in Hillary to do the handshaking and historic signing, while he himself enjoys the sights in Buddhist Asia instead).
Mansfield: "I chose to sit in here. Now there was a film showing, 'Where Should Birds Fly.' Now those of you who were in here would have been as shocked -- even though I thought I knew what was going on -- shocked as anybody could be about the appalling situation. We've heard a lot about the appalling situation, but the film says it all. Farmers being shot at as I speak... It's in that context that I have a feeling...that there's a sense of urgency, emergency, and that that has to be communicated into legal redress."
The RToP held its fourth international session in New York City on Oct. 6-7. It took place in the Great Hall at Cooper Union located at 7 East 7th Street, New York, NY.
The RToP is an International People's Tribunal created in response to the international community's inaction regarding Israel's recognized violations of international law.
The Tribunal aims to bring attention to the complicity and responsibility of various national, international, and corporate actors in the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and the perpetuation of Israel's impunity under international law.
RToP has no legal status, but like other tribunals on Vietnam, Chile, and Iraq, its legitimacy comes from its universality and the strength it draws from the will of citizens and the support of international personalities who advocate for an end to the Israeli occupation and Israel's denial of Palestinian rights.
Why are we at war with Iraq? It was initiated by Ehud Barak for Israel's strategic benefit and US influence in the region.That's what "Israel" is for. It has its intelligence organization, Mossad, carry out false flag operations, deceiving others into attacking its enemies, getting others to fight wars for them. Wars for territory, wars for oil (or its control), wars for regional influence... Iraq is being turned into another Palestine for Israel.
The above image is one of my favorite pictures of late. U.S. President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of State Clinton recently visited Wat Pho monastery and head-monk, Chaokun Suthee Thammanuwat in Thailand, Bangkok (link). The American leaders both observed the Buddhist tradition of removing shoes before ending a temple. In the blue trousers is U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The one wearing socks and dark blue slacks is President Obama. The head-monk is the one wearing orange.
I find this image so striking and full of lessons. The photo is poignant reminder that regardless of our station in life, we are all sentient beings having the same worth and importance. If I didn't mention the names, we'd never know who those feet represent. In this angle, President Obama isn't the most powerful man in the world but simply another sentient walking the path of life.
The picture evokes letting go of our egos and the self-important images we sometimes display. This photo transcends their lofty titles of president, secretary and monk to expose them as being just like the rest of us. They must walk the path of samsara like all of us. They have weaknesses, attachments and set-backs like any other human being, regardless of their importance. How wonderful a lesson it is to view life from alternative perceptions and angles. In this case, literally!!
Barry bathes the Buddha with sky-deva looking on and Hillary nosing in (Reuters).
The Dalai Obama
While the rest of America was in line to re-watch K-Stew out vamp T-Laut and R-Patz and some blended chimera kid, fearless leader President B-SOb (Barry Soetoro Obama, or B.S. Obama) was in Buddhist Burma, the most Orwellian police state in the world.It was George Orwell's inspiration for Nineteen Eighty-Four.
He worked for England's Indian Imperial Police in Burma, having been born in colonial India, now Buddhist Bihar state, the site of the Buddha's great enlightenment. B-SOb continues his epic tour through Thailand and the formerly devastated "killing fields" of Cambodia.
These Theravada Buddhist countries welcomed the future leader of the planet, groomed by the MIC's clandestine services to assume the position post-disclosure. He will be a great speaker, the Great Communicator (scoot over, actor Ron Reagan), but he will wield no more actual power than anyone. That's what happens when you're just a hired teleprompter reader, as Zaphod Beeblebrox found out in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. (He's "just some guy, y'know?") This is the way the MIC has been running the world for decades since at least the time of a short man with a neat mustache wowed the crowds. And it goes to show, on a positive note, that in the decision between a Brave New World and an Orwellian New World Order, the powers that be seem to be leaning toward the former.
Like Barack or Barry, as he went by growing up, Zaphod is the renegade president of the galaxy. This sounds good, but it is a role that involves no power whatsoever. It merely requires the incumbent to attract attention so that no one asks, Who's really in charge?
This is a role for which Zaphod is perfectly suited. He is the only person to have survived the mind warping Total Perspective Vortex. The TPV is a machine that derives its hideous power from any material inserted into one end, say a slice of angel's food cake. It takes the holographic information contained in that material and reveals a boundless multiverse.
When a person is inserted into the business end of the machine, s/he sees what that arrow is pointing at -- an infinitesimally small speck on an infinitesimally small speck in this vast spectacle of space. A sign attached to the arrow contains the confidence-destroying, reality-warping message, "You are here."
How did Zaphod survive the revelation? In the original BBC radio series, it was established that he survived because he was in an Electronically Synthesized Universe within the multiverse. It was created especially for him, making him the "most important being in that universe." He was thus uniquely equipped to survive that version of the vortex.
His brain-care specialist (psychiatrist) Gag Halfrunt, constantly explains to anyone who will listen, "Vell, Zaphod's just zis guy, you know?"
The Lady Aung San Suu Kyi with Pres. Obama
President Zaphod used his position as President of the Galaxy to steal the Heart of Gold, a craft capable of taking advantage of Infinite Improbability Drive at its unveiling. This is quite like the shocking but true reports of a young Barry Obama traveling to the surface Mars via an "elevator" (transporter room) in El Segundo, California. Believe it. Why? Because life and this universe is much, much stranger than fiction. And one thing is sure here: Like Zaphod, Barry is really, really cool. So all salute our handpicked (by the NSA, NSC, CIA, or MIC) leader!
We love him (as a person). We just can't stand those he represents, which are the same secretive behind-the-scenes movers-and-shakers Dick Cheney and the Bush Dynasty represented.
Presidents Obama and Thein Sein during historic visit (zimbio)
(Reuters) "For too long, the people of this [Burmese] state, including ethnic Rakhine, have faced crushing poverty and persecution. But there's no excuse for violence against innocent people," Obama told a packed audience for a speech at Yangon University.
"The Rohingya...hold within themselves the same dignity as you do, and I do. National reconciliation will take time, but for the sake of our common humanity, and for the sake of this country's future, it's necessary to stop incitement and to stop violence."
Thein Sein, in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last week, promised to tackle the root causes of the problem, and Obama said he welcomed "the government's commitment to address the issues of injustice, and accountability, and humanitarian access and citizenship."
PRISONERS RELEASED? Some human rights groups objected to the Burma visit, saying Obama was rewarding the government of the former pariah state for a job that was incomplete. Speaking in Thailand on the eve of his visit, Obama denied he was going to offer his "endorsement" or that his trip was premature. More
(Original post in Burmese, Niknayman) I am a Burmese Army engineer from Division 905. Our captain, Ye Win Aung, from my division is forcing everyone in our division to recruit new soldiers. If we are not successful in our recruitment, he threatens to re-deploy us from well-paid positions at the base camp to other places. On top of that, he also demands that we must recruit at least one new soldier per month. We have also been given strict orders to recruit even underage kids, beggars, or homeless people by either offering them money or capturing them by force. Hence, everyone in the division is feeling miserable about having to carry out such orders. Army personnel close to obtaining pensions are especially worried that they might be punished if they do not carry out the orders.
How many of us protested when Bush invaded in spite of the will of the American public? How many more of us did nothing, or even attached patriotic flags to our cars and homes in support of military aggression?
