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POPSKilling the Buddha a fascinating and interesting read:from the article: "It is as yet undetermined what it means to be human, because every facet of our culture—and even our biology itself—remains open to innovation and insight."
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POPSConscience versus Belief and Dogma Although those with deep beliefs and expressed values do any amazing job of advertising their compassion and calls for justice in the names of far away people, only conscience cam motivate love for the person next door. Who is my neighbour?
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POPSAn awesome way of putting it... i was raised to feed both "wolves." On July 6th, 07, i killed the first one. P.S. i will never forget that date. JayGurl (Thanks to my first clipmarks follower: righthand)
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POPSRepublicans: Crazy, Or Nuts?
Who in their right mind would argue with the observations in this article? More: "The Republican Party has become an aggregation of people who prefer to live in a world of fantasy -- and their first fantasy, the Ur-myth on which the entire conceit rests, is (classically) "we are the realists." "It degrades, into farce and Newspeak, from there. The perpetrators and defenders of the outing of a CIA agent are "patriots." Tom DeLay is a "leader" and Newt Gingrich is a "visionary." The President plays guitar while New Orleans drowns, causes a hundred thousand Americans and Iraqis to be killed or injured, and outsources torture, and it's the Democrats who, per the repellent Ramesh Ponnuru, are the "party of death." "It has gotten so that you have to muster all the compassion and understanding of which you are capable just to think of the Republicans as a party of greedy corporatists manipulating the credulous, the provincial, and the bigoted. That's the nice way of putting it.”
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POPSSometimes We Becme Prisioners To Our Material Choices Of course this is not taking into account the fastest growing debt here in the US which is for necessities such as medical care, food, and gasoline. You know, the ones who simply cannot be helped because they enjoy being poor. Thanks to GW the poor and moderate income families now have much more difficulty using bankruptcy protection. It's called tough s***, whoops, love. On the other hand, compassion flows for corporations like milk and honey. This clip is dedicated to those who get in credit card debt for their wants, not their needs. It's quite easy to become prisoners to our material choices.
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POPSGlobal compassion - photos Discrimination is an act of depriving individuals of their fundamental human rights and treating them unjustly in any aspect of their lives, be it political, economic or cultural. In Japan, Buraku discrimination happens against people who were born or live in the Hisabetsu Buraku (discriminated districts). The roots of Buraku discrimination come from feudal Japan, when the Buraku were areas separated from the other social classes. The people there lived under tight restrictions in every part of their lives, such as clothing, jobs, and home, due to the feudal class system formed by a variety of political and social factors. These historical areas are the origins of today’s Buraku, people who are still the target of discrimination due to the influence of subsequent social systems. This discrimination is what Japanese call, “Buraku issues.” (via boing-boing)
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POPSLetters Reveal Mother Teresa's Secret "What do I labor for?" she asked in one letter. "If there be no God, there can be no soul. If there be no soul then, Jesus, You also are not true." "These are letters that were kept in the archbishop's house," the Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk told Phillips. The letters were gathered by Rev. Kolodiejchuk, the priest who's making the case to the Vatican for Mother Teresa's proposed sainthood. He said her obvious spiritual torment actually helps her case. "Now we have this new understanding, this new window into her interior life, and for me this seems to be the most heroic," said Rev. Kolodiejchuk. According to her letters, Mother Teresa died with her doubts. She had even stopped praying, she once said. The church decided to keep her letters, even though one of her dying wishes was that they be destroyed. Perhaps now we know why.
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POPSWhat the Hell Happened to Christianity? Jay Bakker, son of former Praise The Lord leaders Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Messner, is minister of Revolution Church and subject of a new documentary series, "One Punk Under God," on Sundance Channel.
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POPSHow To Have A Mindful Sensuality "The more we can obtain our mindful sensuality the better we will ultimately be able to cope with the uncertainties in our lives." + video of Daniel Dennett on Consciousness.
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POPSShouting At The Devil "Why in the hell do we stubbornly cling to a system that enables a fraction of a percent of the population to live in OBSCENE opulence while 35,000 of our fellow human beings die of starvation-related causes each day? Are the rest of us truly inane enough to believe that asinine myth that any of us has a REALISTIC chance of becoming the next Bill Gates, if we “just work hard enough.” Or that there is an ounce of moral virtue in pursuing the accumulation of excessive wealth?"
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POPSTesticles and evolution More Unintelligent Design. "The site of human testicles seems a bizarre anomaly from an evolutionary point of view, like positioning the driver of an armored vehicle in a sack strapped to the bumper."
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POPSWhy do displays of compassion differ between East and West?
I am trying to understand A bit more: "In many Asian countries, favors invariably create obligations, which is perhaps why people are sometimes disinclined to interfere in the problems of others. You are obliged to take care of your family, your friends, or even your fellow countrymen. But the idea of universal charity is too abstract, and smacks of the kind of unwelcome interference that Western imperialists — and the Christian missionaries who followed them — practiced in the East for too long. The notion of "Asian values," promoted mostly by Singaporean official scribes, was partly a critique of universalist Western claims. Asians, according to this theory, have their own values, which include thrift, deference to authority, the sacrifice of individual to collective interests, and the belief that countries should not stick their noses into others' affairs. Hence, the hesitant response of Southeast Asian governments — and public opinion — to the Burmese disaster." see source
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POPSGod's Dupes I clipped this article because I am a believer in God and I found the quote "Compassion is deeper than religion" to be deeply profound.