Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Via JMG: NYT Calls On Obama To Issue Executive Order On Employment Discrimination
From the New York Times editorial board:
Mr. Obama said in November that workplace discrimination “needs to stop, because, in the United States of America, who you are and who you love should never be a fireable offense.” An executive order barring discrimination by federal contractors would extend badly needed job protections to more than 11 million employees who work in states that lack such protections and whose companies fail to provide them voluntarily, according to the Williams Institute at the U.C.L.A. School of Law. What Mr. Obama needs to do is act on his principles and issue such an order, without the religious exemption that was put into the Senate bill to lure Republican votes. Challenged last week to explain the mystifying delay on this issue, Mr. Obama’s spokesman said that the president supported broader legislation and that its enactment by Congress would make an executive order “redundant.”The Times concludes that the president should "lead by example" in order to prod the House to do the right thing on ENDA. The Senate passed ENDA in November.
Via JMG: Out Issues Power 50 Ranking
Out Magazine today published its eighth annual ranking of the 50 most powerful LGBT people in the United States. Here's a bit of the list.
1. Ellen DeGeneres 2. Tim Cook 3. Rachel Maddow 4. Sen. Tammy Baldwin 5. Glenn Greenwald 6. Ryan Murphy 7. Neil Patrick Harris 8. Andy Cohen 9. Michael Sam 10. Robin Roberts
Homocon billionaire Peter Thiel is #13. Former RNC chairman Ken Mehlman is #18. Andrew Sullivan is #26. New to the list is DOMA attorney Roberta Kaplan at #47. Curiously missing from this year's ranking is closeted homocon blogger Matt Drudge, who ranked at #21 last year and at #16 in 2012. Since there's no obvious reason for Drudge to completely fall off the list in one year, I wouldn't be surprised if somebody got a cease-and-desist letter.
1. Ellen DeGeneres 2. Tim Cook 3. Rachel Maddow 4. Sen. Tammy Baldwin 5. Glenn Greenwald 6. Ryan Murphy 7. Neil Patrick Harris 8. Andy Cohen 9. Michael Sam 10. Robin Roberts
Homocon billionaire Peter Thiel is #13. Former RNC chairman Ken Mehlman is #18. Andrew Sullivan is #26. New to the list is DOMA attorney Roberta Kaplan at #47. Curiously missing from this year's ranking is closeted homocon blogger Matt Drudge, who ranked at #21 last year and at #16 in 2012. Since there's no obvious reason for Drudge to completely fall off the list in one year, I wouldn't be surprised if somebody got a cease-and-desist letter.
Labels: Ellen Degeneres, Glenn Greenwald, Ken Mehlman, Matt Drudge, Michael Sam, Out Magazine, Peter Thiel, Rachel Maddow, Roberta Kaplan, Tammy Baldwin, Tim Cook
Via Daily Dharma
Giving Up Addictions
| April 15, 2014
Starting to wake up is a lot like
giving up an addiction. You’re going to go through withdrawal symptoms,
weaning yourself from this addiction to habitual, small-minded patterns
of perception. You could say enlightenment is no more addiction. You’re
just fully awake, fully on the spot, without having to hide out.
—Pema Chödrön, "No Right, No Wrong"
Monday, April 14, 2014
Via Daily Dharma
The Healing We Seek
| April 14, 2014
Perhaps we all carry an immemorial
wound, an infinite loss, a self-exile we perpetrate on ourselves. It
turns us into isolated entities stalking the earth in search of what we
think we need—the temporary stays against ennui, despair, loss, and
terror. But sooner or later, the wound can carry us toward its own
remedy, if we only let it.
—Henry Shukman, “Beautiful Storm”
Sunday, April 13, 2014
Via Daily Dharma
Idleness
| April 13, 2014
Doing nothing is essential for thinking
to occur. Many of the most important thoughts are unintentional—they
can be neither solicited nor cajoled but have a rhythm of their own,
creeping up, arriving, and leaving when we least expect them. It is
important to cultivate the lassitude of mind that clears a place for the
arrival of what cannot be anticipated. Idleness allows time for the
mind to wander to places never before imagined and to return
transformed.
—Mark C. Taylor, "Idleness Waiting Grace"
Saturday, April 12, 2014
Via Daily Dharma
Where You Fall
| April 12, 2014
You get up where you fall down. You don’t get up somewhere else. It’s where you fall down that you establish your practice.
—Ryokan Steve Weintraub, "Umbrella Man"
Friday, April 11, 2014
Via JMG: Harvey Milk Stamp To Be Dedicated At White House Ceremony On May 22nd
The official first-day-of-issue dedication ceremony for the Harvey Milk Forever Stamp will take place at the White House May 22. Harvey Milk was a visionary leader who became one of the first openly gay elected officials in the U.S. when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. Milk’s achievements gave hope and confidence to the LGBT community in the United States and elsewhere at a time when the community was encountering widespread hostility and discrimination. Milk believed that government should represent all citizens, ensuring equality and providing needed services. His remarkable career was tragically cut short nearly a year after he took office, when he and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone were assassinated. In 2009, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama. May 22 is Harvey Milk Day in California. The stamp image will be previewed at a later date and a public dedication ceremony will take place in San Francisco May 28.I predicts some super-sadz over this!
Via Utne: Collapse of Human Civilization 'Difficult to Avoid'
Collapse of Human Civilization 'Difficult to Avoid'
According
to a NASA-funded study led by mathematician Safa Motesharrei, the
collapse of human civilization is likely unless mankind accepts one of
two major policy changes.
Read More...
Read More...
Via Daily Dharma
Study and Practice
| April 11, 2014
Deepening study can inform and empower
practice and deepening practice can bring meaning to what you are
studying. That unity of practice and learning can be informed by
understandings of our contemporary world.
—John Makransky, "Bridging the Gap"
Thursday, April 10, 2014
NSFW: Justin Sayre explains "The New Hanky Code" at The Meeting*
Publicado em 09/04/2014
The Chairman of the International
Order of Sodomites discusses the latest in the gay color spectrum. Taped
live in March at Joe's Pub.
Every month hosts The Meeting* to educate the membership on the latest in political news and social trends.
Video by Martian Entertainment
www.InternationalOrderofSodomites.com
Every month hosts The Meeting* to educate the membership on the latest in political news and social trends.
Video by Martian Entertainment
www.InternationalOrderofSodomites.com
Via Daily Dharma
Even the Smallest Glimpse
| April 10, 2014
Even the smallest glimpse of freedom
heightens our awareness of the pain we have created by our ego-fixation.
Seeing the contrast is what inspires us to go forward on the path. In
particular, each time we sit on the cushion and meditate, we relax and
let go a little bit more. The notion we’ve held onto—that if we don’t
keep up our ego-momentum something bad is going to happen—dissolves bit
by bit.
—Judy Lief, “Letting Go”
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Via JMG: Saudi Police Arrest 35 Men At "Gay Party"
Saudi Arabia police have arrested 35 people and accused them of being gay. The men, allegedly dressed in women’s clothes, were arrested at a beach resort in the western city of Jeddah. According to local reports, neighbors contacted the religious police complaining of the loud music being played at the party. The police took the arrested men to the station and kept the dresses and music equipment until an investigation is complete. LGBTI rights in Saudi Arabia are non-existent. Homosexuality is taboo and punished with jail, flogging, chemical castration or even death.Saudi Arabia is one of ten nations where homosexuals acts are punishable by the death penalty.
JMG Quote Of The Day - Hank Aaron
RELATED: As Aaron approached Babe Ruth's record late in the 1973 season, he had received so many death threats that the editor of the Atlanta Journal quietly had an obituary written.
Via JMG: Mississippi And Alabama Sex Education Programs Claim That Gay Sex Is Illegal
The New Republic reports:
Reposted from Joe Jervis
Mississippi’s sex-ed curriculum is not notable for its progressive nature. But one thing you can’t say about the Magnolia State is that it follows the advice of some conservative parents who want schools to totally ignore homosexuality. In fact, state law mandates that the subject be discussed, at least briefly: Students are to be told that homosexual activity is illegal. Mississippi, whose governor just signed a noxious anti-gay bill, is not the only state with such a clause in its sex ed curriculum. Neighboring Alabama requires that instructors teach that “homosexuality is not a lifestyle acceptable to the general public and that homosexual conduct is a criminal offense." In fact, the Supreme Court rendered all state laws against gay sex unenforceable in 2003, when it struck down an anti-sodomy law in Texas.(Tipped by JMG reader Jake)
Simplicity
| April 9, 2014
I dream of simplicity, but I'm as far
from it as ever. That is my practice, how to be in the world and remain
simple. One day perhaps I'll accept the fact that I am never going to
find the simple life. Maybe the first step toward simplicity will be to
accept that my life will never be simple even if I go live in a cave and
subsist on green nettles like Milarepa.
—Peter Matthiessen, "Emptying the Bell"
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Thich Nhat Hanh: On Homosexuality
Thich Nhat Hanh: On Homosexuality
Thich Nhat Hanh, the noted Zen monk, poet, teacher who is the inspiration behind Deer Park Monastery and the Plum Village tradition, shares these words about the Buddhadharma’s view of “homosexuality” in the latest book, ANSWERS FROM THE HEART.
excerpt from Thay’s new book Answers from the Heart
Q. What is the Buddhist view of homosexuality?
A.
The spirit of Buddhism is inclusiveness. Looking deeply into the nature
of a cloud, we see the cosmos. A flower is a flower, but if we look
deeply into it, we see the cosmos. Everything has a place. The base-the
foundation of everything-is the same. When you look at the ocean, you
see different kinds of waves, many sizes and shapes, but all the waves
have water as their foundation and substance. If you are born gay or
lesbian, your ground of being in the same as mine. We are different, but
we share the same ground of being. The Protestant theologian Paul Tillich
said that God is the ground of being. You should be yourself. If God
has created me as a rose, then I should accept myself as a rose. If you
are a lesbian, then be a lesbian. Looking deeply into your nature, you
will see yourself as you truly are. You will be able to touch the ground
of your being and find peace.
If
you’re a victim of discrimination, then your way to emancipation is not
simply by crying out against injustice. Injustice cannot be repaired by
recognition alone, but by your capacity to touch the ground of your
being. Discrimination, intolerance, and suppression stem from lack of
knowledge and lack of understanding. If you’re capable of touching the
ground of your being, you can be released from the suffering that has
been created in you through discrimination and oppression.
Someone
who discriminates against you, because of your race or the color of your
skin or your sexual orientation, is ignorant. He doesn’t know his own
ground of being. He doesn’t realize that we all share the same ground of
being; that is why he can discriminate against you.
Someone
who discriminates against others and causes them to suffer is someone
who is not happy with himself. Once you’ve touched the depth and the
nature of your ground of being, you’ll be equipped with the kind of
understanding that can give rise to compassion and tolerance, and you
will be capable of forgiving even those who discriminate against you.
Don’t believe that relief or justice will come through society alone.
True emancipation lies in your capacity to look deeply.
When you
suffer because of discrimination, there’s always an urge to speak out.
But even if you spend a thousand years speaking out, your suffering
won’t be relieved. Only through deep understanding and liberation from
ignorance can you be liberated from your suffering.
When you
break through to the truth, compassion springs up like a stream of
water. With that compassion, you can embrace even the people who have
persecuted you. When you’re motivated by desire to help those who are
victims of ignorance, only then are you free from your suffering and
feelings of violation. Don’t wait for things to change around you. You
have to practice liberating yourself. Then you will be equipped with the
power of compassion and understanding, the only kind of power that can
help transform an environment full of injustice and discrimination. You
have to become such a person-one who can embody tolerance,
understanding, and compassion. You transform yourself into an instrument
for social change and change in the collective consciousness of
mankind.
Thich Nhat Hanh, Answers from the Heart: Practical Responses To Life’s Burning Questions (Berkeley: Parallax Press, 2009), 119-122.
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