1.31.2015
***** MUST READ... "my own long-term reaction to the Holocaust has led me not to focus on anti-Semitism and Jewish security (although neither can be ignored) but on the values and teaching that I see as central to Judaism. Justice, Compassion, Humility, individual and collective Responsibility. These are not new lessons but very old ones. As a Jew, I choose to apply these to our relationship with the Palestinian people because this is the issue on which we must judge ourselves. In the 21st century this is ‘the Jewish question’... While a growing number of Jews both in Israel and around the world share this perspective, it is still a minority opinion. When it comes to the Palestinian people, the Holocaust has hardened our hearts and closed our minds. The scale of our own suffering has made us blind to their suffering – which we see as all of their own making....Perhaps this was inevitable. Why should a people abused and broken become saints? The opposite result is more often the outcome. I am asking for too much. Expecting something that no group is capable of. - See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2015/01/auschwitz-revisited#sthash.d1NkFQKE.dpuf
"my
own long-term reaction to the Holocaust has led me not to focus on
anti-Semitism and Jewish security (although neither can be ignored) but
on the values and teaching that I see as central to Judaism. Justice,
Compassion, Humility, individual and collective Responsibility. These
are not new lessons but very old ones. As a Jew, I choose to apply these
to our relationship with the Palestinian people because this is the
issue on which we must judge ourselves. In the 21st century this is ‘the
Jewish question’... While a growing number of Jews both in Israel and around the world share this perspective, it is still a minority opinion.
When it comes to the Palestinian people, the Holocaust has hardened our hearts and closed our minds. The scale of our own suffering has made us blind to their suffering – which we see as all of their own making.
...
Perhaps
this was inevitable. Why should a people abused and broken become
saints? The opposite result is more often the outcome. I am asking for
too much. Expecting something that no group is capable of. - See more
at:
http://mondoweiss.net/2015/01/auschwitz-revisited#sthash.d1NkFQKE.dpuf
- See more at:
http://mondoweiss.net/2015/01/auschwitz-revisited#sthash.d1NkFQKE.dpuf
1.30.2015
STOP. WATCH: Dolphin Asks Diver for Help Removing a Fishing Hook Read more at http://blog.therainforestsite.com/dolphin-hook-rescue/#psRuigYJxtPyFMJm.99
WATCH: Dolphin Asks Diver for Help Removing a Fishing Hook
Read more at http://blog.therainforestsite.com/dolphin-hook-rescue/#psRuigYJxtPyFMJm.99
Read more at http://blog.therainforestsite.com/dolphin-hook-rescue/#psRuigYJxtPyFMJm.99
***** On Religion.... When Religion moves from 'as if' it were True, to 'IT IS THE TRUTH' it moves from Life Giving to Death Giving... Religion is NEVER the Truth, Reality. And... It is virtually impossible for a human to exist without a 'religion' - world view, understanding of how things work, belief system. "Fundamentalism" is the genocidal problem. (click for detail)
(the following is far from neatly written and thought out but it is an explosive advance, for me, this afternoon, in terms of my understanding of these issues)
When Religion moves from 'as if' it were True, to 'IT IS THE TRUTH' it moves from Life Giving to Death Giving
Religion is often on my mind because it is central to the single greatest evil on earth today - the slow torture genocide of my Muslim / Christian family in Palestine by Fundamentalist US christians and Israeli jews. This is forcing me into study of Islam, Judaism, fundamentalism (christian and jewish)... that otherwise I would not undertake:
Fundamentalism
is clinical delusion, insanity, mental illness. It is divorce from
reality, truth... that we can never know Reality, Truth.
Fundamentalism of the left, the liberals, academic elites... is destroying all life on earth materially and destroying much human goodness by ignoring the moral limits and boundaries the human needs for Health and Survival.
Fundamentalism on the right, the conservatives... is destroying life regionally - christian Fundamentalists exterminating a million in Iraq, torturing millions in Palestine, literally trying to bring about Armageddon. muslim fundamentalists are killing thousands in Nigeria, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria.... jewish fundamentalists are driving much of the US christian Fundamentalist insanity and mid-east Islamic Fundamentalist insanity. Fundamentalists on the right are thereby moving us to global annihilation by nuclear war.
When Religion moves from 'as if' it were True, to 'IT IS THE TRUTH' it moves from Life Giving to Death Giving
Religion is often on my mind because it is central to the single greatest evil on earth today - the slow torture genocide of my Muslim / Christian family in Palestine by Fundamentalist US christians and Israeli jews. This is forcing me into study of Islam, Judaism, fundamentalism (christian and jewish)... that otherwise I would not undertake:
Human Religion is NEVER the Truth, Reality because we Humans are in imperfect species.
And... It
is virtually impossible for a human to exist without a 'Religion' -
world view, understanding of how things work, belief system.
And it is Impossible to Thrive Spiritually and Physically without a comprehensive, healthy, Holistic, Truth-Approximating Religion that enables one to keep all aspects of their needs as humans optimally met, and those of the people they influence, most importantly young-ones. (Adamant 'Blindness' to this is maybe the most fatal flaw of the Left.)
And it is Impossible to Thrive Spiritually and Physically without a comprehensive, healthy, Holistic, Truth-Approximating Religion that enables one to keep all aspects of their needs as humans optimally met, and those of the people they influence, most importantly young-ones. (Adamant 'Blindness' to this is maybe the most fatal flaw of the Left.)
One
of the greatest scientific minds, EO Wilson, is in the news recent days
for his stance in an upcoming book that the world is dying from
religion. I often have this thought. But seeing this from him makes me
recall that no one does not have a 'religion,' a 'belief system,' a way
of 'seeing and understanding' the world.
What
may well destroy the world, and what DOES destroy any individual
'spiritually' (the only existence that matters) is not Religion, which is Indispensable and Unavoidable, but Fundamentalism, that
is, when one moves from understanding that their way of seeing the world
is NOT REALITY, NOT TRUE... that the world, the Creator, is REAL, TRUE,
and that our religion at best can only approximate that Truth,
Reality... to the error of 'believing' their Religion to be True, Realty, and therefore 1. The Only True religion (all others being inferior) and 2. Dead, Fixed, no longer moving closer to the Truth, Reality... and probably 'Killing' anyone and anything that IS moving toward them. Making this mistake is the False Idol that Jesus spoke of, and
the 'Tribal' religions that cause so many genocidal wars. Making this
mistake is when 'religion' becomes 'dry as dust,' or, 'a social club with a thin veneer of reality,' whether this fatal mistake is made by a
christian, jew, scientist or atheist, liberal or conservative.
The
US left, Liberals, are mostly Fundamentalists. They believe they know
the Truth - education, science, equality, rationality... whatever.
The
US right conservatives are mostly Fundamentalists - 'christian' (they
couldn't be more anti-Christlike), terrified of change, 'religiously'
selfish in principal... whatever.
The one in a million Great Humans are so exactly because they never make the Deadly Error of becoming Fundamentalist in their Belief.
The one in a million Great Humans are so exactly because they never make the Deadly Error of becoming Fundamentalist in their Belief.
All
Fundamentalist make themselves less than human, sub-human, truly
'Dead,' Dead to moving closer to Reality, Truth... they surrender their
'Image' as children of the Creator by taking on their Fundamentalists
beliefs as Truth, Reality, rather than Facing, Embracing that their
Religion is at best a means of best living even though we can never know
Truth, Reality being the imperfect beings that we are... and that their Religion can, and needs to, constantly improve, move more toward the Truth, Reality.
Fundamentalism of the left, the liberals, academic elites... is destroying all life on earth materially and destroying much human goodness by ignoring the moral limits and boundaries the human needs for Health and Survival.
Fundamentalism on the right, the conservatives... is destroying life regionally - christian Fundamentalists exterminating a million in Iraq, torturing millions in Palestine, literally trying to bring about Armageddon. muslim fundamentalists are killing thousands in Nigeria, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria.... jewish fundamentalists are driving much of the US christian Fundamentalist insanity and mid-east Islamic Fundamentalist insanity. Fundamentalists on the right are thereby moving us to global annihilation by nuclear war.
1.29.2015
vid. John McCain to Code Pink: "Get out of here you low-life scum." ..... Is "Code Pink" low-life scum? I mean, have they paid some price to morally justify their regular public assaults on world figures? Or do they just take cheap, 'low life' shots paying little or no personal price to do so? http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2015/01/29/mccain-get-out-of-here-you-low-life-scum/
Is "Code Pink" low-life scum? I mean, have they paid some price to morally justify their regular public assaults on world figures? Or do they just take cheap, 'low life' shots paying little or no personal price to do so? http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2015/01/29/mccain-get-out-of-here-you-low-life-scum/
1.28.2015
1.27.2015
Nd. Rabbi Kook, the Elder, the revered father of the messianic tendency of Jewish fundamentalism (who is featured in our book), said “The difference between a Jewish soul and souls of non-Jews – all of them in all different levels – is greater and deeper than the difference between a human soul and the souls of cattle. ...... Rabbi Kook’s entire teaching was based upon the Lurianic Cabbala, the school of Jewish mysticism that dominated Judaism from the late sixteenth to the early nineteenth century. One of the basic tenants of the Lurianic Cabbala is the absolute superiority of the Jewish soul and body over the non-Jewish soul and body. According to the Lurianic Cabbala, the world was created solely for the sake of Jews; the existence of non-Jews was subsidiary. If an influential Christian bishop or Islamic scholar argued that the difference between the superior souls of non-Jews and the inferior souls of Jews was greater than the difference between the human soul and the souls of cattle, he would incur the wrath of and be viewed as an anti-Semite by most Jewish scholars regardless of whatever less meaningful, positive statements he included ” , Israel Shahak, Jewish fundamentalism in Israel.
Rabbi Kook, the Elder, the revered father of the messianic tendency of Jewish fundamentalism (who is featured in our book), said “The difference between a Jewish soul and souls of non-Jews – all of them in all different levels – is greater and deeper than the difference between a human soul and the souls of cattle. ...... Rabbi Kook’s entire teaching was based upon the Lurianic Cabbala, the school of Jewish mysticism that dominated Judaism from the late sixteenth to the early nineteenth century. One of the basic tenants of the Lurianic Cabbala is the absolute superiority of the Jewish soul and body over the non-Jewish soul and body. According to the Lurianic Cabbala, the world was created solely for the sake of Jews; the existence of non-Jews was subsidiary. If an influential Christian bishop or Islamic scholar argued that the difference between the superior souls of non-Jews and the inferior souls of Jews was greater than the difference between the human soul and the souls of cattle, he would incur the wrath of and be viewed as an anti-Semite by most Jewish scholars regardless of whatever less meaningful, positive statements he included ” , Israel Shahak, Jewish fundamentalism in Israel.
posted from Bloggeroid
the Archbishop of Wales has criticized "atheistic fundamentalism" broadly[26][27][28] and said "Any kind of fundamentalism, be it Biblical, atheistic or Islamic, is dangerous".[29] He also said, "the new fundamentalism of our age ... leads to the language of expulsion and exclusivity, of extremism and polarisation, and the claim that, because God is on our side, he is not on yours."
Nd. , Israel Shahak, Jewish fundamentalism in Israel.
, Israel Shahak, Jewish fundamentalism in Israel.
posted from Bloggeroid
Nd. " Virtually identified with Arab terrorism, Islamic fundamentalism is anathema throughout the non-Muslim world. Virtually identified with ignorance, superstition, intolerance and racism, Christian fundamentalism is anathema to the cultural and intellectual elite in the United States. The recent significant increase in its number of adherents, combined with its widening political influence, nevertheless, make Christian fundamentalism a real threat to democracy in the United States. Although possessing nearly all the important social scientific properties of Islamic and Christian fundamentalism, Jewish fundamentalism is practically unknown outside of Israel and certain sections of a few other places. When its existence is acknowledged, its significance is minimized or limited to arcane religious practices and quaint middle European dress, most often by those same non-Israeli elite commentators who see so uncompromisingly the evils inherent in Jewish fundamentalism’s Islamic and/or Christian cousins" , Israel Shahak, Jewish fundamentalism in Israel.
" Virtually identified with Arab terrorism, Islamic fundamentalism is anathema throughout the non-Muslim world. Virtually identified with ignorance, superstition, intolerance and racism, Christian fundamentalism is anathema to the cultural and intellectual elite in the United States. The recent significant increase in its number of adherents, combined with its widening political influence, nevertheless, make Christian fundamentalism a real threat to democracy in the United States. Although possessing nearly all the important social scientific properties of Islamic and Christian fundamentalism, Jewish fundamentalism is practically unknown outside of Israel and certain sections of a few other places. When its existence is acknowledged, its significance is minimized or limited to arcane religious practices and quaint middle European dress, most often by those same non-Israeli elite commentators who see so uncompromisingly the evils inherent in Jewish fundamentalism’s Islamic and/or Christian cousins" , Israel Shahak, Jewish fundamentalism in Israel.
posted from Bloggeroid
'American Sniper' - Evidence of the Swamp of Moral Depravity in Which America Is Sinking.... "The peddling of such myths is the very currency of Hollywood. Over many decades the US movie industry has proved itself one of the most potent weapons in the armoury of US imperialism, helping to project a myth of an America defined by lofty attributes of courage, freedom, and democracy"
'American Sniper' - Evidence of the Swamp of Moral Depravity in Which America Is Sinking.... "The peddling of such myths is the very currency of Hollywood. Over many decades the US movie industry has proved itself one of the most potent weapons in the armoury of US imperialism, helping to project a myth of an America defined by lofty attributes of courage, freedom, and democracy"
Nd. Israeli Justice Minister Yosef Lapid was probably correct when in a December 19, 2003 statement he described the Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza as “barbaric” and accused them of having de facto control in Israel and of wanting to drive Palestinians out of the West Bank and Jordan, Israel Shahak, Jewish fundamentalism in Israel.
Israeli Justice Minister Yosef Lapid was probably correct when in a December 19, 2003 statement he described the Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza as “barbaric” and accused them of having de facto control in Israel and of wanting to drive Palestinians out of the West Bank and Jordan, Israel Shahak, Jewish fundamentalism in Israel.
posted from Bloggeroid
Israel Shahak, Jewish fundamentalism in Israel: Fundamentalist members of the Knesset, for example, concerned about the increase of homosexuality compared homosexuals and lesbians to animals and vowed that “when in power” they would order compulsory psychiatric treatment for homosexuals and lesbians
Fundamentalist members of the Knesset, for example, concerned about the increase of homosexuality compared homosexuals and lesbians to animals and vowed that “when in power” they would order compulsory psychiatric treatment for homosexuals and lesbians
posted from Bloggeroid
Nd. "many Israeli Jews are chauvinists who feel pride in the display of Jewish power and considered it to be compensation for centuries of Jewish humiliation." from Jewish fundamentalism by Israel Shahak
"many Israeli Jews are chauvinists who feel pride in the display of Jewish power and considered it to be compensation for centuries of Jewish humiliation." from Jewish fundamentalism by Israel Shahak
posted from Bloggeroid
1.26.2015
Having read the first 1/5 of the Qur'an I find it no more primitive, quaint, ignorant, dangerous, ignorant, harmful, 'terrorizing'... (detail)
Having read the first 1/5 of the Qur'an I find it no more primitive, quaint, ignorant, dangerous, ignorant, harmful, 'terrorizing'... than the Old Testament and New Testament... except for the Humane, Advanced, Sane Moral Teachings of Jesus in Mark, Luke and Matthew (not the nonsense in John) which is somewhat carried forward in the Qur'an as well. Both are books by fairly good, well-intended people trying, within the limits of the knowledge and science of their time, to increase the peace and well-being of humankind. Jesus, the man, alone, according to the best scholars I can find, focused on morality, Universal Family, and effectively rejected all the mythology, mysticism, magic of the sort found in the OT and repeated in the Qur'an. I find the Qur'an less deadly in word and historical consequence than the christian bibloe because although like the NT bible Jesus is revered, in the NT it is largely for what was made up about him, 'son of god,' which was NOT carried forward in the Qur'an.
President Obama gave the traditional mainstream media carte blanche for six years. They failed to report truthfully, accurately, and in an unbiased manner. The president decided to remove a level of indirection to get his message out. No longer will the traditional mainstream media get first dibs. These vloggers and bloggers will no longer be solely dependent on the traditional media's colored interpretation.
1.25.2015
nd. Hmmm. Every species, all healthy tissue, every healthy organ... devotes every second of its existence to the well-being of the species, and the larger body, group, all of creation... and humans think they can be happy devoting their lives to their individual self, and maybe a few others around them, as does cancer.
Hmmm. Every species, all healthy tissue, every healthy organ... devotes every second of its existence to the well-being of the species, and the larger body, group, all of creation... and humans think they can be happy devoting their lives to their individual self, and maybe a few others around them, as does cancer.
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