Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	There are, bhikkhus, two successive Dhamma-teachings of the Tathagata, the Arahant, the Fully Enlightened One. What are the two? 'See evil as evil'--this is the first Dhamma-teaching. 'Having seen evil as evil, be rid of it, be detached from it, be freed from it'--this is the second Dhamma-teaching. - Itivuttaka More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma December 12, 2012

Accepting the Pain of Relationships

Mindfulness can transform all our personal relationships—but only if we are willing to feel the inevitable pain that relationships entail. When we turn away from our distress, we inevitably abandon our loved ones as well as ourselves. But when we mindfully and compassionately incline toward whatever is arising within us, we can be truly present and alive for ourselves and others.

- Christopher K. Germer, "Getting Along"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through December 14th, 2012
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Via JMG: Your Mother Made You Gay

Researchers at the University of California believe they've found another clue to the origins of homosexuality.

A group of scientists suggested Tuesday that homosexuals get that trait from their opposite-sex parents: A lesbian will almost always get the trait from her father, while a gay man will get the trait from his mother. The hereditary link of homosexuality has long been established, but scientists knew it was not a strictly genetic link, because there are many pairs of identical twins who have differing sexualities. Scientists from the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis say homosexuality seems to have an epigenetic, not a genetic link.
Long thought to have some sort of hereditary link, a group of scientists suggested Tuesday that homosexuality is linked to epi-marks — extra layers of information that control how certain genes are expressed. These epi-marks are usually, but not always, "erased" between generations. In homosexuals, these epi-marks aren't erased — they're passed from father-to-daughter or mother-to-son, explains William Rice, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California Santa Barbara and lead author of the study.

Hit the link for much more and enjoy the uproar from God's Gentle People who are pouring into the comments.
UPDATE: Wasn't Fischer just saying it's a choice? 

Labels: homosexuality, science, sexuality

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Scott Lively Endorses Uganda's "Revised" Plan To Imprison Homosexuals For Life

Hate group leader Scott Lively, whom many believe to be the person most responsible for Uganda's "Kill The Gays" bill, announced today that he is endorsing the allegedly revised version of the bill which only calls for gay people and their allies to be imprisoned for life.
Lively writes on his blog:

Just because Secular Humanist America began to decriminalize sexual sins in civilian law starting in the early 1960s doesn’t mean criminal sanctions against homosexuality are “un-Christian.” Indeed, given the enormous damage to our culture from the so-called sexual revolution, it was obviously a big mistake for us to have done this. Knowing what we know now it is arguably more “un-Christian” to support the status quo than to support a return to the legal framework of the 1940s and 50s regarding sexual misbehavior.[snip]  There is one easy, guaranteed method of protecting oneself from ever being subject to the Anti-Homosexuality law in Uganda: Don’t Commit Sodomy! We all seem to forget, in the dense propaganda haze of American popular opinion, that homosexuality is defined by voluntary sexual acts. Homosexuals are no more compelled to commit sodomy with each other than a married man is compelled to cheat on his wife.

He concludes: "Since the alternative to passing this bill is to allow the continuing, rapid, foreigner-driven homosexualization of Ugandan culture, I am giving the revised Anti Homosexuality Bill my support."
It's important to note that Scott Lively enjoys the full-throated endorsement of other anti-gay hate groups, including the Family Research Council, Mission America, and Americans For Truth About Homosexuality.  Will any of these groups object to Lively's support for life imprisonment for LGBT people? Don't hold your fucking breath.

Labels: Africa, bigotry, Christian Love, fascists, gay death penalty, God's Gentle People, hate groups, religion, Scott Lively, Uganda

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Uruguay House Overwhelmingly Approves Same-Sex Marriage By 81-6 Vote

Rex Wockner and Andres Duque have the good news:

Eighty-one of the 99 members of Uruguay's House of Representatives voted to legalize same-sex marriage this evening. Twelve members of the chamber were not present for the vote. The bill now advances to the Senate, where support is equally strong, according to LGBT activists. President José Mujica plans to sign the measure into law in early 2013. "Very happy here!" said Álvaro Queiruga of the LGBT lobby group Colectivo Ovejas Negras (Black Sheep Collective). Uruguay will be the 12th nation to offer same-sex marriage nationwide. Same-sex marriage is legal in Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden and Mexico (where same-sex marriage is legal in the Federal District, i.e. Mexico City, and in the state of Oaxaca, and those marriages are recognized nationwide).

Yet another victory in our best year ever. So far!

Labels: marriage equality, South America, Uruguay

Reposted from Joe

Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	The king said: 'Venerable Nagasena, where does wisdom dwell?' 'Nowhere, O king.' 'Then, Sir, there is no such thing as wisdom.' 'Where does the wind dwell, O king?' 'Not anywhere, Sir.' 'So there is no such thing as wind.' 'Well answered, Nagasena!' - Milindapanha 77 More Buddhism Quotes >>

Seattle Men's Chorus & Seattle Women's Chorus Celebrate Marriage Equality

Impeach Supreme Court Justic!e Antonin Scalia!

Justice Antonin Scalia Compares Gay Sex To Bestiality And Murder (AGAIN)

Yesterday Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia repeated one of his most famously foul comparisons.

Speaking at Princeton University, Scalia was asked by a gay student why he equates laws banning sodomy with those barring bestiality and murder. "I don't think it's necessary, but I think it's effective," Scalia said, adding that legislative bodies can ban what they believe to be immoral. Scalia has been giving speeches around the country to promote his new book, "Reading Law," and his lecture at Princeton comes just days after the court agreed to take on two cases that challenge the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman.
Some in the audience who had come to hear Scalia speak about his book applauded but more of those who attended the lecture clapped at freshman Duncan Hosie's question. "It's a form of argument that I thought you would have known, which is called the 'reduction to the absurd,'" Scalia told Hosie of San Francisco during the question-and-answer period. "If we cannot have moral feelings against homosexuality, can we have it against murder? Can we have it against other things?"

Scalia also again rejected arguments that the U.S. Constitution should be considered a "living document" that can be updated to reflect the times. He said, "It's dead, dead, dead, dead,"

Labels: Antonin Scalia, disgusting, DOMA, homosexuality, LGBT rights, Proposition 8, SCOTUS

Reposted from Joe

Via O Bosque de Berkana / FB:

Não tente adivinhar o que as pessoas pensam a seu respeito.
''Faça a sua parte, se doe sem medo.
O que importa mesmo é o que você é.
Mesmo que outras pessoas não se importem.
Atitudes simples podem melhorar sua vida.

Não julgue para não ser julgado...
Um covarde é incapaz de demonstrar amor
- isso é privilégio dos corajosos.''

Mahatma Gandhi

Follower of the Buddha / FB: Dilgo Khyentse Fellowship - Shechen's photo.

‎"You, the practitioner, should first of all be like a bee going from flower to flower collecting nectar. At the stage when you are listening to and studying the teachings, learn all of them carefully, in both words and meaning. Then, you should be like a wild animal. Not satisfied with a mere theoretical understanding, go to live in mountain solitudes where you can be free from all the busy involvement of ordinary life. Be self-sufficient and firm in one-pointed practice, as you discover directly for yourself the profound meaning of the teachings. Finally, as you put the teachings into practice and integrate them with your being, you should be like a peg driven into hard ground. Unshaken by thoughts during meditation, remain unwavering. Cut away all limiting concepts of existence and non-existence from within, and directly encounter the face of the ultimate nature of everything. " 

Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma December 11, 2012

Freed from Fixations

Our lack of self frees us from the compulsion to secure ourselves within the world. We do not need to become more real by becoming wealthy, or famous, or powerful, or beautiful. We are able to realize our nonduality with the world because we are freed from such fixations.

- David Loy, "Healing Ecology"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through December 13th, 2012
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The Supreme Fabulettes - You Ruined My Xmas

JMG Quote Of The Day - Maureen Dowd

"The Mayans were right, as it turns out, when they predicted the world would end in 2012. It was just a select world: the G.O.P. universe of arrogant, uptight, entitled, bossy, retrogressive white guys. Just another vanishing tribe that fought the cultural and demographic tides of history. Someday, it will be the subject of a National Geographic special, or a Mel Gibson movie, where archaeologists piece together who the lost tribe was, where it came from, and what happened to it.

The experts will sift through the ruins of the Reagan Presidential Library, Dick Cheney’s shotgun casings, Orca poll monitoring hieroglyphics, remnants of triumphal rants by Dick Morris on Fox News, faded photos of Clint Eastwood and an empty chair, and scraps of ancient tape in which a tall, stiff man, his name long forgotten, gnashes his teeth about the 47 percent of moochers and the 'gifts' they got. Instead of smallpox, plagues, drought and Conquistadors, the Republican decline will be traced to a stubborn refusal to adapt to a world where poor people and sick people and black people and brown people and female people and gay people count." - Maureen Dowd, writing for the New York Times.

Labels: 2012 elections, GOP, Maureen Dowd

Reposted from Joe

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma December 10, 2012

The Gift of Compassion

True dana is about giving with no expectation of return. One who receives a gift of compassion is promised nothing more than the emotional boost of knowing good has been done. But as we groan under the weight of our possessions, that in itself can be a priceless gift. Altruism is a proven tonic.

- Joan Duncan Oliver, "Gifts that Keep Giving"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through December 12th, 2012
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Sri Sri Ravi Shankar - Uma voz pela Paz e Valores Humanos

Via JMG: Pet Shop Boys - He Dreamed Of Machines

Pet Shop Boys have created a tribute piece to gay British computer genius Alan Turing. Yesterday they wrote on their blog:

Last night's concert with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra was a wonderful experience for us. The orchestra played with such luxurious power and conviction, conducted by Dominic Wheeler, and the Manchester Chamber Choir brought ethereal beauty to, for instance, "Miracles" and "He dreamed of machines" (from our new piece about Alan Turing). To hear Johnny Marr playing the guitar riff from "This must be the place I waited years to leave" was a real thrill so many years after he played on the original record; his acoustic guitar playing on "Breathing space" was gorgeous. Other highlights for me were performing live for the first time "It couldn't happen here", "The survivors" and "For all of us". Sven Helbig's orchestral arrangements were both magnificent and subtle: "New York City boy" was returned to Broadway; "He dreamed of machines" had a pale beauty.

The first clip below is a fan-created video for He Dreamed Of Machines.  Below that is the full audio of Wednesday's collaboration with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, which has been reviewed here.








(Tipped by JMG reader Paul)

Labels: Alan Turing, BBC, concerts, dance music, gay artists, Pet Shop Boys, pop music, UK

Reposted from Joe

JMG Quote Of The Day - Edith Windsor

"When Thea and I met nearly 50 years ago, we never could have dreamed that the story of our life together would be before the Supreme Court as an example of why gay married couples should be treated equally, and not like second-class citizens. While Thea is no longer alive, I know how proud she would have been to see this day. The truth is, I never expected any less from my country." - DOMA litigant Edith Windsor, 83, responding to yesterday's decision by the Supreme Court.

Labels: DOMA, Edith Windsor, LGBT rights, SCOTUS

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: NEW POLLS: Majorities Support Marriage In Oregon, Illinois, New Jersey

Public Policy Polling reports that majorities in Oregon, New Jersey, and Illinois support the passage of same-sex marriage.

Oregon voters are ready to legalize same sex marriage. 77% think they should be able to have a say on the issue, and 54% say they would vote to legalize it with 40% opposed. Independents support it by a 64/33 margin and there are more Republicans (17%) ready to make it legal than there are Democrats (15%) who aren't. Voters under 45 support it by a 68/30 spread.
New Jersey voters think same sex marriage should be allowed in their state by a 53/36 margin, and Illinois voters believe it should be permitted by a 47/42 spread. A few things stand out on the New Jersey numbers. There are more Republicans (21%) who support same sex marriage than Democrats (19%) who oppose it. There's also 54/36 favor for it among independents. 72% of voters in the state think they should be allowed to vote on the issue.
In Illinois even though there's only narrow overall support for same sex marriage the numbers are 58% for and 37% against among voters under 45, another sign that it's just a matter of time given the big generational divide on the issue. Black voters, perhaps following the lead of President Obama, think it should be legal by a 60/16 spread. That's a much wider margin than we see with them nationally.

(Tipped by JMG reader Matthew)

Labels: Illinois, LGBT rights, marriage equality, New Jersey, Oregon, polls

Reposted from Joe

Via United Nations For a Free Tibet (India) / FB:

It is better to travel well than to arrive - Buddha