There is grace in suffering. Suffering is part of the training program for wisdom.
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When
judging the results of your own actions, you can’t simply take your own
ideas of ‘what works’ as a trustworthy standard. After all, you can
easily side with your greed, aversion, or delusion, setting your
standards too low. So to check against this tendency, the Buddha
recommends that you also take into consideration the views of the wise,
for you’ll never grow until you allow your standards to be challenged by
theirs.
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For
compassion to develop toward a wide range of persons, mere knowledge of
how beings suffer is not sufficient; there has to be a sense of
closeness with regard to every being. That intimacy is established
either through merely reflecting that everyone equally wants happiness
and doesn’t want suffering, or through reflecting on the implications of
rebirth, or both, with the one reinforcing the other.
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The Church's abrupt intervention came amid a growing debate over whether the Kremlin should mount a firmer defence of traditional values that many in the overwhelmingly conservative country view as coming under attack from Europe and the United States. Church spokesman Vsevolod Chaplin pointed to polls showing more than half of Russians viewing homosexuality as either an illness or a crime as a sign that the country was ready to revert to a Soviet-era homosexual ban. "There is no question that society should discuss this issue since we live in a democracy," Chaplin told the online edition of the pro-government Izvestia daily. "For this reason, it is precisely the majority of our people and not some outside powers that should decide what should be a criminal offence and what should not," he said.A member of Vladimir Putin's ruling party told the news agency Interfax that Russia is bound by international treaties that ban outlawing homosexuality.
The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) today expressed its support for a bill announced in Congress yesterday, the “State Marriage Defense Act of 2014” (HR 3829), and praised Representative Randy Weber (R-TX) for authoring and introducing “this vitally important legislation.” “Representative Weber deserves praise for this vitally important legislation which will lend clarity to the way states’ marriage laws are dealt with by federal agencies,” said Brian Brown, NOM’s President. “The bill simply reaffirms and strengthens the rights reserved by the states under the US constitution.” Brown also said that the bill is based upon a proper understanding of last summer’s decision by the Supreme Court in the Windsor case that struck down one facet of the law but supported states’ rights to determine their own definition of marriage.Wonkette today posted a typically fabulous reaction.
Given that even Utah briefly recognized gay marriage, we are pretty sure that this legislation isn’t going to go anywhere, let alone have a chance in hell of passing the Senate with Harry Reid being the badass that he is. However, it is a good reminder that there has always and forever been only one form of marriage which is between a man with a PENIS and a woman with governmentally regulated LADYPARTS the GOP continues to hate on the gays in new and inventive ways. We have no idea if this bill deals with age-of-marriage laws, which also differ between states, but we guess that so long as that 12-year-old GIRL is marrying a 40-year-old MAN, Weber and his ilk are probably totes cool with it, because that is WAY MOAR BETTERER than two consenting adult menfolk doin’ it in the butt.
MEDICAL CARE: The Olympics are the first large-scale event to be held in Sochi and medical capacity and infrastructure in the region are untested for handling the volume of visitors expected for the Olympics. Medical care in many Russian localities differs substantially from Western standards due to differing practices and approaches to primary care. Travelers should consider purchasing private medical evacuation and/or repatriation insurance.The warning goes to say that the State Department is presently unaware of any threat specifically aimed at Americans. Today's message includes a special warning to LGBT travelers.
TERRORISM: Large-scale public events such as the Olympics present an attractive target for terrorists. Russian authorities have indicated that they are taking appropriate security measures in Sochi in light of this. Acts of terrorism, including bombings and hostage takings, continue to occur in Russia, particularly in the North Caucasus region. Between October 15 and December 30, 2013, there were three suicide bombings targeting public transportation in the city of Volgograd (600 miles from Sochi), two of which occurred within the same 24-hour period. Other bombings over the past 10-15 years occurred at Russian government buildings, airports, hotels, tourist sites, markets, entertainment venues, schools, and residential complexes. There have also been large-scale attacks on public transportation including subways, buses, trains, and scheduled commercial flights, in the same time period.
LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER (LGBT) ISSUES: In June 2013, Russia’s State Duma passed a law banning the “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” to minors. The U.S. government understands that this law applies to both Russian citizens and foreigners in Russia. Russian citizens found guilty of violating the law could face a fine of up to 100,000 rubles ($3,100). Foreign citizens face similar fines, up to 14 days in jail, and deportation. The law makes it a crime to promote LGBT equality in public, but lacks concrete legal definitions for key terms. Russian authorities have indicated a broad interpretation of what constitutes “LGBT propaganda,” and provided vague guidance as to which actions will be interpreted by authorities as “LGBT propaganda.” LGBT travelers should review the State Department’s LGBT Travel Information page.Read today's advisory in full.
We
all suffer the limitations of our humanness: not just our aches and
pains but our fear, our anger, our pettiness, our grief. Fact is, we do
practice being human in every waking moment. And the more mindfully we
practice, the more often our conflicts dissolve, the more easily we
create new possibilities for relationship and community.
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“There are numerous gay conversion therapy providers as well as organizations like the infamous International Healing Foundation located right here in Maryland advocating for what I consider very harmful conversion therapies,” said Cardin, noting Prince George’s County Public Schools last year stopped using an anti-bullying curriculum that included references to the Bowie-based organization and other “ex-gay” groups. “To me it is incredibly repulsive.” International Healing Foundation Director Christopher Doyle criticized Cardin and others who seek to ban conversion therapy to minors in Maryland. “This is not being fueled by mental health advocates,” Doyle told the Blade on Tuesday. “This is being done by political organizations that are more interested in promoting a political ideology as opposed to clients’ rights.”Similar bills have been approved in New Jersey and California. In November the anti-gay Liberty Counsel lost a court battle to overturn New Jersey's ban.
If Delegate Cardin's bill passes, it will render a blow to the "ex-gay" industry nationwide, as one of the worst organizations advocating for such "therapy," the International Healing Foundation, is based in Maryland. IHF Executive Director Richard Cohen was banned from the American Counseling Association for life in 2002 after multiple ethics violations, and advocates "therapeutic practices" which involve beating pillows with tennis rackets in order to heal anger toward one's mother, followed by sessions where he cuddles his male patients in order to recreate a father's love. IHF Director Christopher Doyle admitted that he tried to molest little girls in his mother's daycare when he was ten, a disturbing fact considering IHF's focus on youth and Doyle's status as an ill-credentialed counselor. Another "ex-gay" activist, Greg Quinlan of the Maryland-based PFOX, claims to heal LGBT people, but when he's around like-minded people, is more inclined to practice verbal gay-bashing than healing, telling an anti-gay conference in 2010 that he was never a "limp-wristed, flaming faggot," a statement revelatory of his true feelings about the LGBT community.
The State Marriage Defense Act will simply require federal agencies to look to a person’s legal residence when determining marital status and application of federal law. The 10th Amendment was established to protect state sovereignty and individual rights from being seized by the Federal Government. For too long, however, the Federal Government has slowly been eroding state’s rights by promulgating rules and regulations through federal agencies. I drafted the State Marriage Defense Act of 2014 to help restore the 10th Amendment, affirm the authority of states to define and regulate marriage, as well as, provide clarity to federal agencies seeking to determine who qualifies as a spouse for the purpose of federal law. By requiring that the Federal Government defer to the laws of a person’s state of legal residence in determining marital status, we can protect states’ constitutionally established powers from the arbitrary overreach of unelected bureaucrats.KKK-affiliated hate group leader Tony Perkins is cheering:
Family Research Council strongly supported the Defense of Marriage Act, and disagreed with the Court's decision in Windsor. However, if the federal government is required to defer to state determinations of which of their residents are "married," it must defer to those determinations in all fifty states – not just those that have redefined marriage. The State Marriage Defense Act is consistent with the ruling in Windsor, which reiterated that states have the "historic and essential authority to define the marital relation." The current Obama administration policy is doing the very thing which the Court condemned – "creating two contradictory marriage regimes within the same State." The State Marriage Defense Act serves to protect state definitions of marriage against what the Court called efforts "to put a thumb on the scales and influence a state's decision as to how to shape its own marriage laws."I can't yet quote from Weber's bill as it hasn't yet been posted to the House website. The only previous House legislation authored by Weber is a failed 2013 resolution which declared that "extensive scientific studies" have found the Keystone pipeline to be "environmentally sound." Which means, of course, that the FRC surely had a hand in writing today's bill. Weber has a 100% approval rating from the virulently anti-gay Heritage Foundation. He will appear tonight on Tony Perkins' nationally syndicated radio show.
This
is what we call ignorance: not recognizing the void nature of phenomena
and assuming that phenomena possess the attribute of true existence
although in fact they are devoid of it. With ignorance comes attachment
to all that is pleasant to the ego as well as hatred and repulsion for
all that is unpleasant. In that way the three poisons—ignorance,
attachment, and hatred—come into being. Under the influence of these
three poisons, the mind becomes like a servant running here and there.
This is how the suffering of samsara is built up. It all derives from a
lack of discernment and a distorted perception of the nature of
phenomena.
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Former Aston Villa midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger has revealed he is gay. The 31-year-old, who won 52 caps for Germany and also played for West Ham and Everton, made the announcement in newspaper Die Zeit. He is the most prominent footballer to publicly reveal his homosexuality and said it was "a good time" to do so. "I'm coming out about my homosexuality because I want to move the discussion about homosexuality among professional sportspeople forwards," he added. The midfielder said he has only realised "in the past few years" that he would "prefer to live together with another man", adding: "I've never been ashamed of the way I am."Hitzlsperger retired last year due to injuries. (Tipped by JMG reader John)
In Pali, the language of the oldest written Buddhist teachings, the belief in some core notion of self is called sakkaya-ditthi;
this is sometimes translated as ‘personality belief.’ It’s said to be
the most dangerous of all the defilements, more dangerous than greed or
even hatred, because these are rooted in this mistaken belief. This
wrong view of self is central to how we go about in the world, and all
kinds of unskillful actions come out of it. The aim of the practice,
central to everything we’re doing, is to free the mind from this
misconception.
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