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Tricycle Daily Dharma May 20, 2013

Accepting Uncertainty

There is no need for science to be fundamentalist any more than there is a need for religions to be fundamentalist. Fundamentalism springs from a desire for certainty, but many religious people and many scientists know that this cannot be achieved by beings with limited minds and experience such as ourselves.

- Rupert Sheldrake, "A Question of Faith"

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Via JMG: Worse Than Watergate: Growing Scandal Brings Nation To The Brink Of Ruin

The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein points us to the ever-growing scandal that will echo through the ages:

When future generations look back on the scandals of our age, it’ll be the unchecked rise in global temperatures, not the Benghazi talking points, that infuriate them.

Yes, unchecked warming is likely to prove the greatest scandal in U.S. history.
Certainly it’s the one that will ruin the lives of the most people, far more than Watergate did if our government doesn’t act to expose what’s going on and work to put an end to it — before it puts an end to our stable climate:

Scandalous: Projected warming this century (in red, via recent literature) if humanity allows current carbon pollution trends to continue compared to the temperature change over past 11,300 years (in blue, via Science, 2013).

I know it’s not one of the scandals the major media are now obsessed with 24/7, but that is business as usual for the MSM, as Klein notes:

Things go wrong in government. Sometimes it’s just bad luck. Sometimes it’s rank incompetence. Sometimes it’s criminal wrongdoing. Most of the time you never hear about it. Or, if you do hear about it, the media eventually gets bored talking about it (see warming, global).

It was Watergate and the fame it brought Woodward and Bernstein that inspired so many journalists to enter the field. But now that post-modern cynicism reigns supreme –which is to say, much of the media acts as if their really is no objective truth or over-arching public interest — fame alone seems to drives the media.
And so this scandal goes largely unreported (see “Silence Of The Lambs 3: Media Coverage Of Climate Mixed In 2012, But Still Down Sharply From 2009“) or misreported (see “False Balance Lives“).
Fortunately for the media, having largely missed the chance to report the scandal when it might have had some positive impact on the outcome, they’ll have plenty of time to become famous reporting on its consequences (see Climate change “largely irreversible for 1000 years,” with permanent Dust Bowls in Southwest and around the globe).

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 18, 2013

A Glimpse at Liberation

Nirvana manifests as ease, as love, as connectedness, as generosity, as clarity, as unshakable freedom. This isn’t watering down nirvana. This is the reality of liberation that we can experience, sometimes in a moment and sometimes in transformative ways that change our entire life.

- Jack Kornfield, "The Wise Heart"

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Via JMG: Portugal Approves Gay Adoption

 UPDATE: Not So Fast

 

UPDATE: The below-linked source has edited their opening sentence to read: "Portuguese parliament has approved Friday a bill that will allow same-sex married couples to adopt their partner’s biological or adopted children."
So it's not full adoption rights. Below is my original post.
Today the Portuguese Parliament narrowly approved adoption rights for same-sex couples. The vote was 99-94 with nine abstentions.

The bills were supported by the ruling center-right Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the progressive Socialist Party (PS). The Portuguese parliament had approved the right to same-sex marriages in 2010, but without adoption rights. The law allowed gay couples the same rights as married heterosexual couples, including taxes, inheritance and housing, but didn’t offer the right to adopt children.  Portugal is among the first 10 counties in the world to allow same-sex marriage. As recently as 1982, homosexuality was a crime in Portugal. Today, Portugal has wide-ranging anti-discrimination laws and is one of the few countries in the world to contain a ban on discrimination based on sexual orientation in its Constitution.

(Tipped by JMG reader Pedro)

Labels: gay adoption, LGBT rights, Portugal

Reposted from Joe

What religion has contributed to the world this month - Episode 6 (April/May 2013)

Via JMG: MEXICO: President Enrique Pena Neito Issues Message Against Homophobia

 

Yesterday Mexican President Enrique Pena Neito issued the above tweets in recognition of the International Day Against Homophobia. "This May 17, International Day of the Fight Against Homophobia, I endorse my committment to a #InclusiveMexico, free of discrimination. Making Mexico a society of rights implies equality in dignity and eliminating all types of discrimination."

Labels: Enrique Nieto, homophobia, Mexico

Reposted from Joe

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 17, 2013

How to Deal with Excessive Thinking

The best way to deal with excessive thinking is to just listen to it, to listen to the mind. Listening is much more effective than trying to stop thought or cut it off.

- Ajahn Amaro, "Thought Like Dreams"

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Via JMG: Europe Rainbow Map 2013

 

ILGA-Europe has issued its annual overview of LGBT rights. Although it does not yet have full marriage equality, the United Kingdom received the highest rating of the 49 nations in the report, earning a 77% score. Russia got the lowest score at 7%.   Via Pink News:

Among the EU member states causing major concern are Hungary and Greece. The report notes that the economic crisis in Greece has given a platform to extremist groups, such as the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, who target minority groups including LGBT activists.
North Cyprus continues to be the only place on the continent of Europe where homosexuality is a criminal act, while expressions of “overt homophobia and transphobia” by government, religious leaders and extremist groups were “common” in Bulgaria.
Italy is not taking any legislative initiatives despite having a “relatively high level” of violent homophobia and transphobia. Meanwhile in France, despite the recent passing of the country’s same-sex marriage bill, 1,397 cases of hate crime, hate speech and discrimination incidents against sexual minorities were documented last year.

The co-chair of ILGA-Europe notes: "The Annual Review 2013 uncovers the real situation of LGBTI people beyond laws and gives us the whole picture of what it is like to be an LGBTI person in Europe today. The picture is far from satisfactory."  Ratings and graphs for individual nations can be downloaded here.

Labels: Europe, ILGA, LGBT rights

posted by Joe

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Tricycle Daily Dharma May 16, 2013

Things As They Are

The process of finding the truth may not be a process by which we feel increasingly better and better. It may be a process by which we look at things honestly, sincerely, truthfully, and that may or may not be an easy thing to do.

- Adyashanti, "Bliss is a By-Product"

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Via JMG: More On Brazil's Marriage Situation

Yesterday the federal judiciary council that oversees Brazil's notary publics ruled that gay marriage ceremonies cannot be refused.  The New York Times reports on what this likely means:

The move by the National Council of Justice, a 15-member panel led by Joaquim Barbosa, the chief justice of the nation’s high court, effectively legalizes gay marriage throughout Brazil, legal scholars here said. The decision follows legislation in two neighboring countries, Argentina and Uruguay, where lawmakers have managed to pass bills authorizing same-sex marriage nationwide in recent years.
Still, there is some room for judicial appeals of the Brazilian decision, potentially within the high court, the Supreme Federal Tribunal, and resistance may emerge in Congress, where gay-marriage legislation has faced opposition from an influential bloc of evangelical Christian lawmakers. Even so, supporters of same-sex marriage described the council’s decision as pioneering.

Same-sex marriage is already legal in 13 Brazilian states and in the capital federal district.

Labels: Brazil, marriage equality, South America

Reposted from Joe

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Tricycle Daily Dharma May 15, 2013

The Remedy Itself Is Free Right Where It Is

We are not called upon as Buddhists to deny the world, and certainly not to escape from it. We are called to live with it, and to make our peace with all that is. The world of worries we wish to escape from in the beginning of Buddhist practice is found to be enlightenment itself in the end.

- Clark Strand, "Worry Beads"

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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 JMG: New Gallup Marriage Poll

Gallup reports:

Fifty-three percent of Americans say the law should recognize same-sex marriages, the third consecutive reading of 50% or above in Gallup polling over the past year. The 53% in favor ties the high to this point, also measured last November and in May 2011. Gallup's May 2-7 poll suggests Americans' support for gay marriage is solidifying above the majority level.

Labels: Gallup, marriage equality, polls

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: OREGON: Portland Timbers Pro Soccer Fan Club Display Denounces Homophobia

On Sunday the fan club for the Portland Timbers pro soccer team created the above display in support of the International Day Against Homophobia, which is this Friday. From the Major League Soccer site:

Sometimes, supporters groups' tifo displays are designed to look really cool, to recognize a player's career-long contributions to the club or even to intimidate that day's opponent with a massive pregame display that covers the entire end of a 70,000-seat stadium. And other times, the displays transcend the sport of soccer altogether, making a statement about life in general. On the same day a match in Italy – one that happened to involve United States national team midfielder Michael Bradley's club team, AS Roma – had to be momentarily halted because of racist chants aimed at opposing AC Milan players, the Timbers Army chose to spend their Sunday afternoon taking a stand against another sensitive social issue in the sports world: homophobia. The 5,000-person section used roughly 4,500 colored cards to create the display, according to Timbers Army 107 Independent Supporters Trust board member Abram Goldman-Armstrong in an e-mail exchange with MLSsoccer.com on Monday.

The article adds: "The Timbers Army will be the first of many independent supporters groups across MLS to lend their support to the 'Pride, Not Prejudice' cause this week."  Very, very cool. By the way, the Timbers won their game. (Tipped by JMG reader Lance)

Labels: coolness, homophobia, Idaho, Oregon, Portland, soccer, sports

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Marriage Now Legal In All Of Brazil?

It does appear that way.

O Conselho Nacional de Justiça (CNJ) aprovou nesta terça-feira (14), por maioria de votos (14 a 1), uma resolução que obriga os cartórios de todo o país a celebrar o casamento civil e converter a união estável homoafetiva em casamento.  Os cartórios não poderão rejeitar o pedido, como acontece atualmente em alguns casos. A decisão do CNJ poderá ser questionada no Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF).  Segundo o presidente do CNJ e autor da proposta, Joaquim Barbosa, que também é presidente do STF, a resolução visa dar efetividade à decisão tomada em maio de 2011 pelo Supremo, que liberou a união estável homoafetiva.

JMG reader Ricardo provides us with a translation:

The Brazilian Conselho Nacional de Justiça (CNJ) decided by 14-1 vote that notary offices (where civil marriages are performed) in ALL 26 Brazilian states and the capital do Brasília have to officiate same sex marriages. Until this past week, the decision was up for local jurisdictions: 12 states and the federal district had already started doing them. Notary offices can't refuse to perform the unions, as it was happening in some places. In 2011, the Brazilian Supreme Court had decided that gay unions were legal, but left the regulation of marriage to Congress, that has never acted on the matter. Civil unions were law nationwide for the past two years. Federal benefits, like pensions and immigration, have been the norm since 2001.

I'll have more on this today when it hits the English-language press.  Zoom, zoom, zoom!
UPDATE: O Globo has more.
UPDATE II:  Here's the first English-language report.

A top judicial panel cleared the way for same-sex marriage in Brazil on Tuesday, ruling that gay couples could not be denied marriage licenses. The National Council of Justice, which oversees the Brazilian judicial system and is headed by the chief justice of the Supreme Court, said government offices that issue marriage licenses had no standing to reject gay couples. The Supreme Court "affirmed that the expression of homosexuality and homosexual affection cannot serve as a basis for discriminatory treatment, which has no support in the Constitution," said Chief Justice Joaquim Barbosa on the council's website, referring to a 2011 ruling by the top court.

Labels: Brazil, LGBT rights, marriage equality, South America

Reposted from Joe

The Brazilian Supreme Court voted to legalize gay marriage in the whole country.

 

 

Casamento gay está liberado em todo o Brasil, decide CNJ. Nenhum cartório em território nacional pode mais se negar a fazer a união civil. Veja mais em http://migre.me/exKbv

Foto: Reuters

Via http://www.pewstates.org:

Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	When we demand the rights and freedoms we so cherish, we should also be aware of our responsibilities. If we accept that the others have an equal right to peace and happiness as ourselves, do we not have a responsibility to help those in need? - His Holiness the Dalai Lama More Buddhism Quotes >>

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Tricycle Daily Dharma May 12, 2013

The Compulsion to Consume

Like a fire, greed is more a process than a thing. It is the state of combustion, the activity of consumption, the procedure by means of which organic resources are quickly reduced to a heap of ash. It is insatiable by nature, since the moment one desire is gratified another flares up, demanding also to be sated. Greed drives an unquenchable compulsion to consume, and as the guiding hand of our economic system, its reach is rapidly becoming global. As it burns it throws off a compelling light, dazzling us with the pleasure of its shapes and colors. We delight in playing with this fire.

- Andrew Olendzki, "Burning Alive"

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