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Tricycle Daily Dharma August 8, 2012

Welcoming Everything that Arises

Thoughts come and go. Feelings come and go. Allow yourself to experience the transient nature of thoughts and feelings, welcoming everything that arises as Just this, not me, not mine.

- Sandra Weinberg, "Eating and the Wheel of Life"

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Via The Pragmatic Progressive Page

Via JMG: Illinois Hate Group Tells Parents To Pull Kids Out Of Classes With Gay Teachers

The Illinois Family Institute, the former home of Peter LaBarbera, has issued a call for parents to pull their kids out of the classes of liberal or gay teachers.

1-Parents can go to their middle school and/or high school websites and find out which teachers sponsor gay and straight alliances and liberal political activist groups (e.g. AWARE).

2- Parents can also ask what texts will be taught or used (e.g. The Chocolate War, Fat Kid Rules the World, Angels in America, The Laramie Project, or The People’s History of the United States) by a particular teacher. Parents should ask for the reading list for the entire year. Teachers who have a reasonable degree of respect for the values and beliefs of all parents will not have highly controversial texts on either required or recommended reading lists.

3- If parents have children who have already gone through the school or have already completed a year or more, they should ask those children and/or their friends or friends’ parents which teachers are known for bringing their politics into the classroom or who displays a “Safe Space” sticker, the inverted pink triangle, the rainbow flag, or the lower case Greek letter “lambda” on their desk, classroom door, or wall. Students usually know who the liberal, activist teachers are. Liberal teachers develop reputations, often as the “cool” teachers.

Friendly Atheist blogger Hemant Mehta, who IS a teacher, has posted a great response.

They want to rail against liberal teachers — even ones like me, who keep our religious beliefs out of the classroom — but they’re silent when it comes to Christian teachers who proselytize instead of teaching. And you can bet that happens far more often. They’re hypocrites who refuse to acknowledge it and school districts know better than to take them seriously. That’s why IFI has to make up fake enemies. That’s why they go after atheist teachers and English departments and pink triangles and lambda symbols.

Because the teachers who preach atheism or Islam or Hinduism in the classroom don’t exist. Preaching instead of teaching is something certain Christians do, not the rest of us. And if you’re a Christian and you agree with me, then say something about it to them. Stop being silent. It’s not like they care what atheists have to say. On the brighter note, IFI staffers won’t be teaching in any public schools this fall. But I will be. Me and my evil, liberal, hippie, godless, proof-loving, triangle-drawing, “cool” ways.

Labels: bigotry, douchenozzles, education, evil, hate groups, horrible, Illinois Family Institute, religion

Reposted from Joe

Via Gay Politics Report:

• Will Republicans spotlight Democrats' marriage plank?
  Republicans' muted reaction to news that the Democratic party platform will likely include a marriage equality plank doesn't necessarily mean the GOP is going to ignore the issue in the coming months, according to this article. Some party activists have urged Mitt Romney to highlight the marriage debate, although so far Romney has been reluctant to discuss hot-button social issues. “It would be rather unwise politically for the GOP to ignore the Chick-fil-A vote,” said one strategist for the anti-gay National Organization for Marriage. Politico (Washington, D.C.) (8/6)     

• Religious right plans multi-million dollar campaign: Social conservatives opposed to President Barack Obama's embrace of marriage equality are planning to spend millions to register voters in Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania and other key states, according to this article. The efforts are reportedly backed by the billionaire Koch brothers, Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus and others. One group, the Georgia-based Faith and Freedom Coalition, said it will spend $10 million to encourage socially conservative voters to go to the polls this November. The Huffington Post (8/7)     

JMG Petition Of The Day

The petition is here. Video explanation below.

Labels: "ex-gay", California, LGBT youth, religion, scams

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Four Times Married Drug Addict Rush Limbaugh Defends Sanctity Of Marriage

"Now Christianity has to be banned, and that’s where this is all headed. All this stuff at Chick-fil-A, the target is Christianity, not Chick-fil-A. The target is freedom of religion. [With] Obama and Obamacare, the target is always freedom. When we’re talking about liberals, the target is always freedom. Dan Cathy, the head honcho of Chick-fil-A, he’s not making a political statement when he talks about the values the company believes in. It gets interpreted that way because the left has politicized gay marriage." - Rush Limbaugh.

RELATED: We're still waiting for Limbaugh to fulfill his 2010 promise to move to Costa Rica should the Affordable Healthcare Act pass. Not incidentally, Costa Rica provides universal health care. While Costa is ranked 50th in per capita health care expenditures, its medical system rates higher than the United States, which spends the most per person.

Labels: asshattery, drug addicts, drugs, fast food, hypocrisy, religion, Rush Limbaugh, sanctity of marriage

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Gay And Proud In Uganda

It boggles the mind, but a small gay pride event was held in Uganda this weekend. Alexis Okeowo reports at New Yorker:

“Can you imagine that the worst place in the world to be gay is having Gay Pride?” Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera asked a crowd of cheering gay men, lesbians, transgendered men and women, and queers somewhere in between. It was Saturday afternoon, and we were on the shores of the giant, cloudy Lake Victoria in the Ugandan city of Entebbe, where L.G.B.T. activists had decided to stage the country’s first Pride Parade. Nabagesera, a lesbian activist covered, for the occasion, in glitter and neon spray paint, with homemade angel wings, was being half-sarcastic. A barrage of media coverage has painted the country as a hell for gays—a place where they are suffering and being attacked constantly—and, despite the need to combat such threats, L.G.B.T. Ugandans were tired of hearing a story that ignored their nuanced experiences of both joy and hardship.

Hit the link for a slideshow and the rest of Okeowo's fascinating article. (Tipped by JMG reader Joe)

Labels: Africa, bravery, gay Pride, LGBT culture, Uganda

Reposted from Joe

Via AmericaBlog Gay:

GOP silent on Dem gay marriage platform

Fascinating. NJ.com: When Democrats announced that their 2012 platform would include a historic first -- gay marriage written in as a plank -- the reaction from mainstream Republicans was near silence. There were no statements blasted out from Mitt Romney's campaign. The same was true for the Republican National Committee. Romney has yet to address the fact.Most Republican Party leaders seem...

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma August 7, 2012

Facing Difficulties

Do not become annoyed when faced with difficulties. To do so merely adds difficulty to difficulty and further disturbs your mind. By maintaining a mind of peace and nonopposition, difficulties will naturally fall away.

- Master Sheng-yen, "Nonopposition"

Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection through August 9th, 2012
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Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma August 7, 2012

Facing Difficulties

Do not become annoyed when faced with difficulties. To do so merely adds difficulty to difficulty and further disturbs your mind. By maintaining a mind of peace and nonopposition, difficulties will naturally fall away.

- Master Sheng-yen, "Nonopposition"

Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection through August 9th, 2012
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Via BeliefNet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	All the delightful things of the world--sweet sounds, lovely forms, all the pleasant tastes and touches and thoughts--these are all agreed to bring happiness if they are not grasped and possessed. But if you regard them merely as pleasures for your own use and satisfaction and do not see them as passing wonders, they will bring suffering. - Sutta Nipata More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma August 6, 2012

All-encompassing Mindfulness

If ‘mindfulness’ is to create genuine change in our society, it must involve being mindful of more than just our own need for comfort, good health, or serenity. It must entail being mindful of the social and economic forces that allow some to prosper while others struggle, forces that promote and perpetuate certain behaviors and thought patterns while discouraging or suppressing others.

- Richard Eskow, “Buying Wisdom"

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Tricycle Daily Dharma August 5, 2012

The Refuge of Silence

Silence arrests flight, so that in its refuge, the need to flee the chaos of noise diminishes. We let the world creep closer, we drop to our knees, as if to let the heart, like a small animal, get its legs on the ground.

- Barbara Hurd, "On Silence"

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