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  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 11:17 am on March 25, 2016 Permalink | Reply
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    Bolshevik Bernie Makes a Boo-boo: talking Coo-ba blues… 

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    Mass transit in Santa Clara, Cuba, NOT recommended for tourists

    I know I know I know: Bernie’s not really a ‘Communist’, so to speak, not really, much less a Bolshevik, even if he DID say that we could learn a lot from Cuba and Nicaragua. He’s right. We could. BUT: that’s not Scandinavia, and their system of social welfare, which is what his electoral narrative is all about. Narrative does not equal truth. This is the definition of socialism, like it or not, as defined historically, as defined by Merriam-Webster:

    “A social system or theory in which the government owns and controls the means of production (as factories) and distribution of goods”.  Ouch. (More …)

     
    • Invisible Mikey's avatar

      Invisible Mikey 1:55 pm on March 25, 2016 Permalink | Reply

      Jill Stein (Green Party) – fits your label of “social environmentalist”. You did say “any party”, right?
      http://www.jill2016.com/plan

      • hardie karges's avatar

        hardie karges 2:07 pm on March 25, 2016 Permalink | Reply

        Sounds good, but, as with Bernie, many of those ideas are DOA. I prefer battles that can actually be won…

        • Invisible Mikey's avatar

          Invisible Mikey 4:41 pm on March 25, 2016 Permalink

          Lol – Any conflict is winnable. Just depends on how long you choose to alternate between fighting and retreats. That’s how we beat the Brits in the Revolution, and how the Viet Cong beat us!

        • hardie karges's avatar

          hardie karges 6:38 pm on March 25, 2016 Permalink

          True enough, guess I’m a confirmed incrementalist and gradualist, takes more disciplined to stay on track, but also less disruptive if you can pull it off. I’m glad the concept of ‘socialism’ is back in play, just looking for a new updated version of it…

  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 7:50 am on March 24, 2016 Permalink | Reply
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    The Swedish Word for Peace is ‘Fred’… 

    If you think things are bad in Brussels right now, imagine what it’s like in Syria, every day, or Palestine, every year… Pace سلام שלום Hasîtî शान्ति Barış 和平 Мир สันติภาพ Paz

     
  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 8:35 am on March 20, 2016 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , mythology, ,   

    Religion, Philosophy, Mythology: Land of 1000 Dances, God of 1000 Faces… 

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    Hindu Temple in Sri Lanka

    Joseph Campbell got it backwards, you know, with his emphasis on the ‘Hero with 1000 Faces’, as if the hero were really the important actor on this world stage, he with his light-saber or Bowie knife, long bow or trebuchet. They were mostly just movable actors on a movable stage, and not so smart for the most part, simply acting on hunches best articulated by others. The important aspect were the ideals they represented, the gods they served, and the food supplies they secured, for this was what would advance their respective societies.

    The problem with Campbell’s analysis is that he is largely describing a literary device, not the world of real people in which heroes are definitely hard to find and much more nuanced in the roles they play, few in fact going through the formal stages that Campbell describes. In the real world, gods are more important for that very reason: they ARE literary devices, custom-built to serve a mythological purpose. Heroes are expendable. Gods are not. The fact that Hollywood might not even know the difference speaks volumes.

    The epiphany, of course, is that heroes—and gods—can, are, and should be made to order to fit the circumstances and needs of their particular flock. Thus violent Europeans get a god of love while overly possessive Orientals get a god of non-attachment and hyper-sexed Middle Easterners get a god of strict prohibitions. Still it seems that there should be a higher common denominator than this and that there could and should be a higher level of spirituality to unite them all. A bicameral legislature of divinity, perhaps? Sounds good to me… (More …)

     
  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 9:35 am on March 13, 2016 Permalink | Reply
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    Religion 102: Toward a New Spiritual Discipline 

    We’re a degenerate society, America, that is, profane and impolite, licentious and unlicensed, democratic and debauched. We’ve lost our way as a society, a nation, and a culture, for what reasons being debatable.  What’s worse: having made our deal with the Devil we now dismiss those religions that haven’t, as though our degenerate society is somehow superior.  We’re drunken, drug-addled, sex-craving, and proud of it! This is how we measure our manliness, and increasingly: our womanliness…

    Starlets repeatedly score fashionista points for how much skin they’re willing to show, as if titillation were talent. Paragons of virtue we are no longer. Is this the best we can do as a race of people? Much of this is in the name of ‘freedom’, of course, which is understandable, given our traditions, but some of it also tries to pass for spirituality, which I object to. Early Christians used to torture themselves mercilessly to show their love of Jesus and God, you know, quite the opposite of nude selfies at the Grand Canyon… (More …)

     
  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 9:30 am on March 12, 2016 Permalink | Reply
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    Takin’ It to the Trumpster: Fake Smiles and the Art of Duh-ceit… 

    “You can only smile when the losers of the world try so hard to put down successful people. Just remember, they all want to be YOU!”–Donald Trump

    Kudos to Rubio (“Little Marco”) for asking his supporters to vote for John Kasich in Ohio. I like it. I don’t like Trump. The only apologies I have for previously referring to him as a ‘disgusting pig’ are to the hardworking barnyard animals of this world. He represents everything that is wrong with America–the arrogance, the stupidity, and the mindless aggression. The fact that so many Americans seem to identify with that a$$hole would seem to indicate that we are a nation of a$$holes. I hope that’s not true… time will tell…

     
  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 1:08 pm on March 8, 2016 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , John Kasich, , , , US   

    T. Cruise: Republican Anomaly for US Prez… 

    Okay, this is difficult, advocating a vote for Ted Cruz, BUT: these are difficult times. After all, that WAS a pretty funny line about, “Breathe, Donald, breathe.” Give him credit for that one. That’s the only time anyone has ever stumped Trump, AND… he does know how to use the subjunctive mood correctly, as in, “If I were you… Most Democrats can’t do that, SO… If I were a Republican, I’d vote for John Kasich. That makes sense. There, I said it…

     
  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 11:27 am on March 6, 2016 Permalink | Reply
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    Religion, Atheism, Buddhism, Christianity and fear… 

    Atheists are adamant about denying the existence of God, without making it clear exactly ofIMG_0387 what they are denying the existence. I get the feeling that denial is the important act. They seem to not be able to get past the fact that our God and gods are created by us ourselves, first person plural possessive reflexive. Does that make them any less real or efficacious? I mean: I don’t think anyone really believes that there is a Superman sitting up there on a cloud somewhere sipping espresso, do they? Okay, so never mind, the important thing is how you live your life…

    …and definitions of God have long been shifting, subject to a sliding scale of current events, and ultimately are secondary to their utility in our lives. My own suspicion—totally unprovable—is that gods have their origin aboriginally in the deaths of powerful leaders and family members. Where did they go? What just happened? So where did we come from, anyway? Just like early Texan settlers felt the need to “Remember the Alamo!” others must have long felt the need, or desire, to remember their ancestors. Ancestor worship seems to confirm this. From there it’s a short hop to postulated deities… (More …)

     
  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 11:41 am on March 3, 2016 Permalink | Reply
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    Bernie Sanders’ Three-Part Campaign Platform… 

    Image result for bernie pics…was released today by Thor Wyndham, Sander’s campaign manager and currently a graduate student in Political Science at Columbia University in New York City. According to Wyndham, the core principles of Sander’s political philosophy inform the platform and are as follows:

    1) Break up the banks (30-day notice required or withdrawal penalties apply)

    2) Free college tuition (with any 4.0 GPA–bill us)

    3) Hillary sucks (dude!)

    For a complete description of the platform, interested parties should send e-mails to:

    hillarysuxdude@hotmail.com

    (-:  The previous post is satire and for purposes of entertainment only. Hopefully you’ll see the humor. If symptoms last for more than four hours, please contact your physician 🙂

     
  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 12:19 pm on March 1, 2016 Permalink | Reply
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    Karma, Tr*mp and the 2016 Election… 

    Image result for mandarin duck picsMy wife says Donald Trump reminds her of Mandarin ducks, not just the hair, but the personality.  Myself, I was thinking more like Peking duck.  What do you think?  Ni hao. Ni hao ma?

    The Repubs brought this on themselves, of course, this ‘theatre of the absurd’ style of politics that now has brought celebrity mogul Donald Trump to the brink of the Republican nomination for President. This has its origins in the obstructionist tactics that even mainstream Republicans used to inflict their inherent racism upon the country for the last seven years, offended that a black man could be smarter than the lot of them, and without even trying, they holding on to the politics of the Wild Wild South, negroes ‘wanted dead or alive’, frustrating Obama at every move simply because he’s a black man…

    In a way, Trump’s the perfect payback for the a$$hole treatment that the Repubs have exhibited over the last seven years, during which not only was racism not overcome, but was in fact doubled down. The question now is whether the Democrats will take advantage of this opportunity, or whether they instead will take the bait and succumb to the same level of absurdity, throwing caution to the wind in favor of long-pent-up desires and agendas. With Trump at the helm, Dems should be able to waltz to the Prez, and maybe pick up a house of Congress to boot. But will they? (More …)

     
  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 11:12 am on February 28, 2016 Permalink | Reply
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    Zen and the Art of Smartphone Maintenance 

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    Buddhism in Sri Lanka

    For someone to say that they just want the Zen Enlightenment, without all the ‘normal’ Buddhist suffering is like a doctor—or patient—who only wants elective surgery, no cure for the common cold necessary, thank you. Of course that can be done, as thousands of the bored wealthy among us do, the elective surgery and the Zen enlightenment up at the Zen Center up on the hill, BUT: there’s only one problem…

    …that ain’t Buddhism, not really IMHO. It’s hard to have true Buddhism in a Christian country. Twenty Christians practicing Buddhism as a second language will be a very ‘Christian-y’ Buddhism. So that’s more like New Age such-and-such, or Transformational something or other, as American as apple pie a la mode du jour.

    There’s more to Buddhism than meditation, too, which is what Zen specializes in, that and the ‘crazy wisdom’ of unsolvable riddles designed to trick your mind into Enlightenment, the Sudden Enlightenment of stopped thought. That IS the goal of meditation, after all, isn’t it, to stop all thought, all linguistic thought, if only for a little while? I’d say so, though there IS some scuttlebutt about accessing other worlds—yeah, right…. (More …)

     

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