Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Matt Gold "Appreciated "- Official Music Video


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.


Reposted from Joe Jervis

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.


Reposted from Joe Jervis

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

Joseph Arthur - In The Sun


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


Via press release from the White House Office of Communications:
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!


Reposted from Joe Jervis

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...
Earth

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

Via The Pragmatic Progressive FB:


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
 
 

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"


Gay Star News reports:
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.


Reposted from Joe Jervis

JMG Quote Of The Day - Hank Aaron


"A lot of things have happened in this country, but we have so far to go. There's not a whole lot that has changed. We can talk about baseball. Talk about politics. Sure, this country has a black president, but when you look at a black president, President Obama is left with his foot stuck in the mud from all of the Republicans with the way he's treated. We have moved in the right direction, and there have been improvements, but we still have a long ways to go in the country. The bigger difference is that back then they had hoods. Now they have neckties and starched shirts." - Baseball legend Hank Aaron, 80, speaking yesterday on the 40th anniversary of his having broken Babe Ruth's all-time home run record. Aaron is being attacked for the above comments over on Breitbart.

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.


Re posted from Joe Jervis

Via JMG: Mississippi And Alabama Sex Education Programs Claim That Gay Sex Is Illegal

The New Republic reports:
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)


Reposted from Joe Jervis

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.