Reuters -
Israel, which sees Iran's nuclear drive as a mortal threat, sent F-16 jets to destroy Iraq's atomic reactor in 1981 and launched a similar sneak sortie against Syria in 2007.
2.05.2012
'Divine Truth is Demonstrated, Shown, Told of not Argued, Convinced., Proven.' SL (txt)
Jesus, the man, never argued, convinced.... He Demonstrated, Showed, Told of... the Truth of how things are. If someone shows me that a tree is green, and I argue that it is some opposite color, if one argues with me, or tries to convince me, they are at best wasting their time, probably, right? And so it is, that the Divine Truth of Life is Love - relentless waging of activity to advance the well-being of the individual and the species.
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Principles of Nonviolence Martin-Luther-King (txt)
http://paceebene.org/power-nonviolent-change/martin-luther-king-jr-s-principles-nonviolence
1) Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people.
1) Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people.
- It is active nonviolent resistance to evil.
- It is assertive spiritually, mentally, and emotionally.
- It is always persuading the opponent of the justice of your cause.
- The end result of nonviolence is redemption and reconciliation.
- The purpose of nonviolence is the creation of the Beloved Community.
- Nonviolence holds that evildoers are also victims.
- Nonviolence willingly accepts the consequences of its acts.
- Nonviolence accepts suffering without retaliation.
- Nonviolence accepts violence if necessary, but will never inflict it.
- Unearned suffering is redemptive and has tremendous educational and transforming possibilities.
- Suffering can have the power to convert the enemy when reason fails.
- Nonviolence resists violence of the spirit as well as of the body.
- Nonviolent love gives willingly, knowing that the return might be hostility.
- Nonviolent love is active, not passive.
- Nonviolent love does not sink to the level of the hater.
- Love for the enemy is how we demonstrate love for ourselves.
- Love restores community and resists injustice.
- Nonviolence recognizes the fact that all life is interrelated.
- The nonviolent resister has deep faith that justice will eventually win.
'DC Occupy - Police happy to club, trample, shoot citizens.' SL (vid, txt)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrjuAlbqaAs
'DC Occupy - Police happy to club, trample, shoot citizens.' SL
Today I have uploaded two videos with extremely inflammatory titles talking about police brutality, when in fact the brutality that the early morning and midday videos revealed was the verbal brutality, abuse, violence of the occupiers. Just, just a nasty young mob, vicious, irresponsible, just a nasty young mob. The title of this video is not facetious. Tonight I witnessed something that in eight years in DC I've not witnessed, that I can recall.
So disgusted was I with what I saw this morning at Occupy DC that it was clear to me I'd have nothing more to do with it. I've never enough respected what I saw to identify myself with it, but I'd seen sufficient glimmerings of hope to try and help it become what it should be. And, as of today I see no hope there. McPherson’s on my return trip from the coffee shop I use, to where I am now, where I sleep, and it also is in park where I get food in the evening. My guess was that the police action would have been done by 5:15 when I was going for supper. On my 10 min. walk halfway I encountered one of the few people that I've had a significant regard for, who was running the opposite direction to catch transportation I think, who said, 'Start, don't go that way, there's police violence.' I believed him because I've learned to trust his word pretty much, his judgment, but I go toward trouble, not away from it. When I arrived at the camp, as he had told me I would find, all of the protesters had been driven out of the park, which didn't alarm me, still doesn't alarm me; the police have been breaking the law for three months, the law that says no camping. And it remains my belief that within the Park police is a sense of duty to democracy, to protect the expression of Democratic action, that was self sacrificial on the part of the police, in allowing this three months suspension of the law, on their own volition. So, that the police are now beginning to enforce the law, I can, no responsible citizen can, have an objection. I saw no responsible citizens in Occupy this morning.
I took 15 or 20 minutes to walk around the park to try and see what I could see. Roughly half of the tents are gone. To what degree the police honored their commitment to only remove tents that had bedding in them, and food, I don't know. It surprises me that that many tents would have violated their dictate. But probably half to two thirds of the tents were gone. On my way back around the north side of the park, because the south streets were closed off for the police action, that's where the crowd was, and I went to a far end and was slowly exiting, I'd pretty much come past the crowd, when a phalanx of, oh, 6 to 8 massive police horses, that had been stationary, hence not catch my attention, and yet only 12 feet from me, instantly lurched into motion and almost trapped me, almost trampled me. I wasn't their target, but there's no indication they would've hesitated to trample me. I was able to get out-of-the-way, I was willing to be trampled, but I could conveniently, with a little rushing, get out. These on-horse officers were part of about 30 officers, maybe only 20; some with night vision scopes on their helmets, SWAT team folks mixed in with the Park police, maybe city police as well, but probably mostly Park, and then SWAT team folks. There was someone about eight feet into the crowd that had been really not paying attention to the police as I recall, not threatening in any way, but someone that they wanted to arrest, so quickly, 12 to 15 heavily armed police, including these SWAT team type folks, extremely military, special forces looking, and the horses, drove into the crowd. The fellow they wanted to apprehend, there was no indication of who or why, it was just a guy in the crowd, was instantly on the ground, was apprehended and carried out.
I didn't sense any viciousness in this, and I didn't sense an ounce of compunction as to whether anyone got trampled; those of us in the crowd were bodies; we could've been Taliban, we could've been rat's, four-legged rats, it didn't matter; these officers were given orders and there was no order they weren't going to carry out. I'm not saying I should be shocked, or even find it worthy of comment, but I do, it's quite horrifying. One could say, well gee, how well trained they are. Okay, well trained droids, well-trained robots, Star Wars clones?
The implications of this in my view, I don't know. It's, it's simply a factor, it's certainly a factor I've not witnessed before, I've heard of, but not paid attention to, and it's now squarely on my radar screen.
There was no humanity in evidence. There was no humanity in evidence on the occupiers, among the occupiers, in the morning and the afternoon, and I'd like to think I saw some evidence of humanity among the police. I believe I've seen evidence of humanity among the police for three months now. But not tonight among the police, nor the occupiers. No humanity on either side. I believe in nothing mystical, believe in no higher sentient power, thinking God, Angels, whatever, of the mystical sort; but I think there's wisdom in some of the old tales, and I frequently now think of Pharaoh in Egypt, warning after warning after warning after warning, to which he could not or would not or both, wake up to, or wake up from. That's you, that's me, that's us as a society, police and demonstrators, and the 99.999% who sit on their asses at home. In their addictive stupors; warning after warning after warning - storms, scientific pronouncements, attacks on the Constitution by Bush and Cheney, wars that slaughter Arabs and our own children, and we do nothing. We even don't even contemplate doing anything. Yes I think of I think of Pharaoh, I think of that story more and more. It's virtually certain we're beyond redemption. This is the end.
I don't feel sorry for we western adults, we deserve, we deserve what our children and all of creation are going to get from our behavior, and they don't deserve it. But 7 billion people on a planet going to nine or 10 billion, and all this technology? It's like a child born into a drug-den. We're not designed to be born in drug dens, were not designed to be born into the dens of this massively dense population, technology, this idol worship. Oh what a tragedy that that sounds so arcane, so moralistic; no, we worship idols, we don't worship humanity, we don't worship human beings, we don't worship Love. We worship everything but, all false idols. Humanity is what we should worship; we are built to be kind to one another; we should worship our ability to care for one another which is life itself.
I seem to be at a place of acceptance that I've been moving toward for quite some time, that whereas my secondary job will be to continue to do what I can to stand in the way of this impending, irreversible doom, that's not my primary job. My primary job is to keep Love alive within me, and to be a possible life raft should anyone come along that either wants the Love in them protected, or want's it kindled. Absurd. Absurd. But that's the truth of it.
'DC Occupiers - spoiled, bratty, hateful mob.' SL (vid, txt)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MW7sO5No74
'DC Occupiers - spoiled, bratty, hateful mob.' SL
My brothers and sisters all, but I suspect that today's impression that I hold will not change - those willing to stand among the occupiers, no that's not true - the largest group of those willing to stand among the occupiers are the class brats, whiners, irresponsible me me me me me. Everything that doesn't comply with their wishes is evil and wrong. Absolutely worthless trash.
But eight of us, including two that were young, the rest Vets, except for me and one other, were willing to, were, were determined to risk life and limb to protect the police from an Occupy faction that had amassed mustard gas and feces bombs. And those eight remained through today among the occupiers. But with the exception of myself, this group did not stand up against the hate speech of the brats, which is tragic, but nothing can take away the they were passionately eager to protect anyone and everyone, including the police against abuse, against violence.
But as a movement, it's clear to me that what we've seen so far is at best an indication of what is not a hope. I experience no hope within me that it will be learned from its behavior thus far, in a constructive way, but it could be.
The most hopeless thing is for people to try nothing - entropy wins by default. At least these folks tried something, and they didn't come here out of malice; they didn't come here to hate the police; they didn't come here to rag on the police - there may be a few exceptions. They came here because they feel things are wrong and to that extent they're healthy, they're healthier than 99.9999% of the population, including most of you.
It's rightly said that we can only see ourselves and others clearly in times of crisis, when our very core is called forth by the emergency of the situation. And what showed in the crisis today among DC occupiers is what I would've expected to see, what I think we would've seen in the other occupies - spoiled brats, whining about anything and everything when they don't get their own way, for which they have no right, they haven't worked for a different America; they're not working for a different America now.
My brothers and sisters all, but with very few exceptions, no hope.
'DC Occupy - Fatal Flaw - No Standards' SL (vid, text)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmARabcS3qQ
'DC Occupy - Fatal Flaw - No Standards' SL
Shame on me, I never saw this and never voiced it to the few Souls of any promise that I saw in recent weeks and months, at Occupy. Part of it I have voiced strongly and frequently - that a notion they had of inclusiveness was certain doom to any meaningful outcome for their efforts. By way of analogy, I'd say - so you want to put together a surgical, a doctor, to care for your loved one, wants to put together a surgical team, you're going to hope that their criteria is going to feature inclusiveness? There were many occasions on which I put forth such an idea.
But what I'm seeing tonight and what I wish I had thought to say, to point out, to share, was that their approach was an indictment of, or a rejection of explicitly what King and Gandhi insisted upon. King and Gandhi would have no one in actions with them that weren't trained, that from their very soul didn't convincingly swear to uphold extremely high moral standards, extremely high behavioral codes, that flowed from those extremely high moral standards. Now these poor young folks, largely, have had nothing but the most deadly example from my generation that has taken selfishness, brutal, mindless selfishness to the level of religion, as this planet has never seen before. It would be amazing if these young folks figured things out, but they haven't.
And I wish I had the wisdom to share with them then, but I'm sharing it now, that thus far they have explicitly rejected what was a central tenet of the efforts King and Gandhi. No one participated in their efforts with them, except those who swore to uphold moral and behavioral standards that were explicitly laid out, and who had trained sufficiently that there was reason to believe that under pressure those behaviors would be manifest.
I have no illusion that anyone would've paid attention to me had I shared this. But that's not my responsibility, and by way of logical consideration, if they had heard and paid attention, I have no illusion they would have accepted or rejected - probably rejected. I don't know.
Three Tibetans 'in anti-China fire protest' in Seda BBC News
BBC News -
Three Tibetans have set fire to themselves in south-west China, reports say, in the latest apparent protest against rule from Beijing.
2.04.2012
Workers, not Catholic hierarchy, should choose their health care Washington Post
Washington Post -
Conservative religious groups, and in particular the Catholic Church, are outraged over President Obama's decision to require secular institutions run by religious groups to abide by employment laws.
VIDEO: Occupy DC: Occupy DC: Police give 3 months extreme restraint
Occupy DC: Police give 3 months extreme restraint Violence, Vicious Police Retaliation.
2.03.2012
'Folks ALWAYS KILL to defend the status quo. Hence, finding death preferable's a prerequisite for Progress.' SL (VID!!!)
'HOPES BORN WHEN DEATH'S PREFERABLE TO STATUS QUO.' SL
'The Matrix, Dead Poet's Society, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest... are, ARE the Truth of our Society... (more)
'The Matrix, Dead Poet's Society, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest... are, ARE
the Truth of our Society, and 99.99999999% of us will kill, if need be, to avoid
being disturbed in any way, from our secure place in The Matrix.' SL
the Truth of our Society, and 99.99999999% of us will kill, if need be, to avoid
being disturbed in any way, from our secure place in The Matrix.' SL
Strong jobs report pushes Nasdaq to 11-year high Reuters
Reuters -
By Rodrigo Campos | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rose on Friday, propelling the Nasdaq index to an 11-year high, after January's US employment report sailed past expectations, boosting hopes the world's largest economy has turned a corner.
''Failure's-Not-An-Option:' The Litmus Test between Unconditional and Conditional Brotherhood.' SL (no detail)
''Failure's-Not-An-Option:' The Litmus Test between Unconditional and Conditional Brotherhood.' SL
Israel spoiled latest round of talks on ... Washington Post
Israel spoiled latest round of talks on ...
Washington Post -
RAMALLAH, West Bank - The Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Sunday blamed each other for the impasse in newly launched peace efforts, raising doubts about whether the dialogue would continue just weeks after it began.
2.02.2012
Obama Wall Street Fundraising Evaporates As Donors Flee To Romney Huffington Post
Huffington Post -
The Huffington Post examined campaign contributions from four highly influential finance sectors to both Obama and Romney. Using categories compiled by CRP, the 20 most politically active commercial banks, hedge funds, securities firms and "private ...
Feds: Mid-Atlantic wind farms take step forward San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle -
By ALEX DOMINGUEZ, AP Offshore wind farms from New Jersey to Virginia took a big step closer to reality with the completion of a review that showed the renewable energy source would leave no major environmental damage, officials said Thursday.
While the Lip-Service-Left Fiddles: Lack of collective will on climate change: Manmohan Singh Economic Times
Economic Times -
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Thursday that "a lack of collective will" was hampering efforts to forge a common global front against the threat of climate change. Addressing the opening of a Sustainable Development Summit in New ...
States Mandate Insurers to Disclose Climate Change Risks SustainableBusiness
SustainableBusiness.com -
Insurance commissioners in California, New York and Washington State are the first to mandate that insurance companies report on the risks from climate change to their business and customers. How do insurers plan to deal with the rapidly rising risks ...
'My Religion: Christlikeness. Embodying Love. Jesus' Religion.' SL (no detail)
'My Religion: Christlikeness. Embodying Love. Jesus' Religion.' SL
'Unconditional Love is Brutally Conditional on Focusing Time, Attention.' SL (no detail)
'Unconditional Love is Brutally Conditional on Focusing Time, Attention.' SL
US set to be hit hardest by tropical cyclones TG Daily
TG Daily -
Tropical cyclones will cause $109 billion in damages by the end of the century, according to Yale and MIT researchers, because of economic growth as well as climate change. Global tropical damage is expected to double to $56 billion per year, ...
Leslie H. Gelb: Obama's Faster, Smarter Afghan Exit Daily Beast
Daily Beast -
Kudos for Obama and his team! They've announced a quick end to US combat in Afghanistan—a surprise decision of strategic skill and political courage, writes Leslie H. Gelb.
2.01.2012
Obama's money advantage is minimal Washington Post
Washington Post (blog) -
He documents that between hard money and PACs, Mitt Romney has essentially leveled the financial playing field with President Obama. After taking us through the math, he explains: That brings the combined Obama and Democratic outside group totals to ...
UN chief urges Israel to halt settlement construction in bid to salvage ... Washington Post
Washington Post -
RAMALLAH, West Bank - Israel must halt settlement building and present detailed proposals for a border with a future Palestinian state, visiting UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday, as he tried to persuade the Palestinians to continue low-level ...
KILL BABY, KILL: Rescue under way as European cold snap kills 79 CBS News
CTV.ca -
People walk through the historic center of Siena, central Italy, as snowfalls have been battering the country, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012.
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