CEOs Do Nothing More Valuable Than Anyone Who Thinks

CEOs Do Nothing More Valuable Than Anyone Who Thinks - Associated Content from Yahoo! - associatedcontent.com:

"CEOs Are Paid to Think with Some Acuity. Many Who Get Little or No Pay Have Comparable Powers. The Disparity is Related to Values that Are Egregious, Tasteless, Unpatriotic and Retro"

'via Blog this'


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Beyond Creed: From religion to spirituality.

Beyond Creed:

A new blog.

The foundation text of my theology as it has evolved over a half-century. It has the merit of having been written in the early 1980s, of resting like a good wine for several decades. Of not yet having a "commercial" publisher, though I have published it recently, as anyone who uses online booksellers can determine. It is available at iUniverse and on Kindle. I think Beyond Creed is self-explanatory. Since writing it, I know at least one major theological voice who is in basic agreement. In any case, the text is available as written here. Enjoy.

Ontological Values as a Proposition

Ontological Values as a Proposition - Associated Content from Yahoo! - associatedcontent.com:

"If We Float the Term "ontological Values" We Most Likely Elicit Widespread "duhs" or Else Find Ourselves at the Door of This or that Discipline Where the Phrase Has Some Reality and Context. As Here"

'via Blog this'

Why the Rapture is Rank Superstition

Why the Rapture is Rank Superstition - Associated Content from Yahoo! - associatedcontent.com: "Abba is About Values, Not Choosing a Handful Who Happen to Believe Some Odd Doctrine and Sweeping Them to Heaven While the Earth Goes to Hell"

'via Blog this'

Iconoclastic Jesus Family Values in Mark Three

Iconoclastic Jesus Family Values in Mark Three - Associated Content from Yahoo! - associatedcontent.com:

"First things first. Jesus has two characteristics plain in these early chapters of Mark.

1. Iconoclasm.

2. Sensitivity to hypocrisy and false double-bind religiosity. "

'via Blog this'

The values of Jesus are those of Abba's way

It is Impossible to Live by a Creed Which Has No Living Impact on One's Actual Values - Associated Content from Yahoo! - associatedcontent.com:

"Today we are witnessing the slow and gradual collapse of Protestantism in its denominational form.

It is impossible to live by a creed which has no living impact on one's actual values.

The values of Jesus are those of Abba's way, tolerance, helpfulness, democracy and non-idolatry."

'via Blog this'

Life is the goods and evils that we choose

Life is the goods and evils that we choose;

I bring a choice to topple all past choice.

A way our ways of wickedness to lose,

I say choose Abba only, sole and true.

For Abba transcends all that we create;

And Abba's way is written on our hearts. 

Every Evil Ever Done Had One of Two Causes

Every evil ever done had one of two causes

Accident which took life

Willed action that took life

Accident and will are the sole causes of what we call evil

That everything is ultimately good is a supposition

That can only be believed if experience makes it believable

Lives lived according to Abba's way

Believe in the ultimate redemption of all

Because of the experience of awareness of the ultimate unity of all things

In Abba

Thus those evils attributed to accident are ultimately

Redeemed and made good

And those evils that result from willful evil

Do not finally stand

Is this the meaning of resurrection

No

It is the meaning of the experience of ultimate unity

Resurrection is likewise a supposition

Its meanings are varied

In Abba's Way resurrection is seen as knowledge of the vindication of Abba

And of the way of Abba

In the face of the evil that results from actions for which we bear responsibility

All human beings bear some responsibility for willed evil

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The highest definition of "values"

I have spent most of my life pondering values, never once lapsing into the most common uses of that term. The most common use is monetary. The value put on goods and services. There is a second use of values. Take American values or family values. Code phrases for putting country first or promoting one ideal of the family.

There is another notion of values that is actually a celebration of  virtues or characteristics. An excellent example is honor. Honor is a virtue. It has no value in itself. No characteristic is intrinsically valuable.

The values I regard as both transcendent and immanent are universal. The root value non-idolatry represents a conscious and free decision to have no idols on this planet, to worship nothing and nobody.

Human progress is the gradual, painful overcoming of evil in the world. Evil can be defined as the conscious taking of life. And the accidental loss of life.

Non-idolatry, affirming that we live within a penumbra of what cannot be exactly or finally defined, is the root or core ontological value.

The three active universal values are tolerance, helpfulness and democracy. They operate interactively. Someone who fights for democracy will need to exercise tolerance almost every minute. Helpfulness is the very purpose of existence - love of all.

These values emerge from an encounter with the Jesus of Mark.

We are at a watershed. The revaluer of values works for the unprecedented. The unprecedented is a moral or ethical leap beyond the world which feasts on the idolatries of violence, intolerance, unhelpfulness and rule of the many by the few.

Ten Commandments for Charity

1. Charity is no substitute for democratic governance.

2. Charity should be concerned with achieving full justice.

3. Charity should embrace tolerance, acceptance of all persons and groups as having the same rights of all under the law.

4. Charity should genuinely help. Some charities, by suggesting they solve problems, merely exacerbate them by convincing the public that all is well when it is not.

5. Not for profit charities should observe strict standards regarding their conduct, their salary structure and their use of media.

6. Philanthropy aids tyranny when it fails to place universal democratic governance at the forefront.

7. Philanthropy should always act in accordance with the universal declaration of human rights.

8. The use of not for profit law to conduct political action under the guise of it being charitable is egregious and should be strongly opposed.

9. The global system at present is a mix between governments and not for profit enterprises of all sorts. Insofar as the world still suffers needless deaths each year because of the failure of all of these entities, the priority should be on supporting the spread of just democratic governance.

10. The values pledge applying to all charitable activity should be that it is not idolatrous, that it is tolerant, that it is helpful (enabling) and that it espouses and supports democracy.

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Paranoia in high places

Intel chair: "Chain" of Iran plots possible - CBS News: "(CBS/AP) WASHINGTON - The alleged plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to the United States was comically amateurish, but the U.S. government believes not only that it was approved at high levels in Tehran but also that it was not the only plot, CBS News correspondent Bill Plante reports.

"There may be a chain of these things," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Wednesday.

I remember when an Senatorial acquaintance of mine who was on the intel committee said that both conventions were terror targets --  back in 2004.

I concluded then and subsequently that these people are prone to paranoia.

I do not doubt that Iran has every reason to do what it does from its perspective. We are not Iran and we do much worse out in the open.

Were all nations alert to the most prophetic voices of all religions, they would lay down their lethal silliness and repent this very day. Anything consciously lethal is evil regardless of who does it.

We should limit our responses to proportional retaliation when lives have actually been taken.

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How Oligopoly Works

Banking Has Become an Oligopoly Instead of a Competitive Business -- And That's Really Bad News for Us 99% | Economy | AlterNet: "Only in an oligopoly, you have two or more firms calling the shots, and they love to do things contrary to the notion of a free market, like, say, colluding to raise prices. There are a few common signs that tell you when competition has left the building in a given industry. See if any of these look familiar."

We kissed good by to a free market long ago. What's left is what the song says - crumbs from the rich man's table. Shoddy by most measures.

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Occupy Wall Street Moves Uptown - Topix

Occupy Wall Street Moves Uptown - Topix:

Analyzing comments is interesting. The comment folk with 100os of recorded comments can be safely assumed to be making a life of this. Otherwise there is occasionally something interesting to think upon. What strikes me is that this is the best confirmation of all of Neitzsche's perspectivism. The solutions go in a circle all around.

'via Blog this'

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Alabama continues to disgust the nation

ACLU Report From Alabama | American Civil Liberties Union: "Before the enactment of H.B. 56, Gonzales mostly drove people between their homes and the airport. Since the law took effect on Sept. 28, families who are fleeing the state in fear of H.B. 56 have been asking him to drive them as far as New York and Indiana. These families have no other choice but to flee by car, because air and rail travel identification requirements might ensnare undocumented families with law enforcement."

'via Blog this'

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The hardest way of all starts this way

Abba's Way Four Steps - One - Associated Content from Yahoo! - associatedcontent.com: "Step one:

Turn to Abba within
and say this:

Abba I turn to you to start again
Please take the burden of all I have been
And set my feet upon your way
Help me and guide me day by day "

'via Blog this'

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Definition of Bully (Occupy is the answer to bullying)

Manhattan Bully Wars (1947):

bul·ly
n. pl. bul·lies
1. A person who is habitually cruel or overbearing, especially to smaller or weaker people.
2. A hired ruffian; a thug.
v. bul·lied, bul·ly·ing, bul·lies
v.tr.
1. To treat in an overbearing or intimidating manner. See Synonyms at intimidate.
2. To make (one's way) aggressively.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/tweak

I wrote Manhattan Bully Wars when bullying in my school in Manhattan was alive and well and unopposed. In 1947. The people who say bullies are after status are either reflecting something I have never detected or whistling in the wind. I see bullies as troubled just as I see Tea Party folk who carry weapons to meets and leftists who think i is cool to go armed. All such folk are troubled and they would be put ti shame were status conferred. The bullying people are talking about is actually a function of conformity which is a disease spawned in our schools largely because of they way they are set up and their often faulty presuppositions.

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Some churches walk the walk

Hi, friends,
   This Sunday members of the faith community will pilgrimage to Zucotti
Park to do some "Justice Caroling" @ 2:30pm. Please come and invite all
those who wish to join in.
   Clergy could please wear identifying garb - it'll help us find each
other as well as identify us to others.
   I am attaching the song sheet with a mission statement Second
Presbyterian Church has signed onto. Please duplicate enough for your group
and some to pass around. We'll bring @ 200.
   Thank you for all the work you do for justice every day. I hope to see
you and yours Sunday in the Park.
   Leslie Merlin
Second Presbyterian Church
Cap tip Joss
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Things are getting curious and curiouser

NBC/WSJ poll: Cain now leads GOP pack - politics - Decision 2012 - msnbc.com: "Fueled by Tea Party supporters, conservatives and high-interest GOP primary voters, former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain now leads the race for the Republican presidential nomination, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. And in yet another sign of how volatile the Republican race has been with less than three months until the first nominating contests, the onetime frontrunner, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, has plummeted to third place, dropping more than 20 percentage points since late August."

Cap tip Charles for the story and Bob for the headline

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The Wrong Way to "Occupy Everywhere" (Instructive Video)

If you really want to "occupy"

Good introduction to "A Pattern Language" | Beyond Pattern Language: "Good introduction to "A Pattern Language""

Look at the odd but salient video above or go out and buy the book, because everything we are fighting for today was thought up at many times by zillions of people and this book gathers it all, period.

Panflick: The Manhattan Bully Wars (1947)

Panflick: The Manhattan Bully Wars (1947) | Manhattan Bully Wars (1947): "Falstaff: Can honor set-to a leg? no: or an arm? no: or take away the grief of a wound? no. Honor hath no skill in surgery then? no. What is honor? a word. What is that word, honor? air. A trim reckoning!--Who hath it? he that died o' Wednesday. Doth he feel it? no. Doth be hear it? no. Is it insensible, then? yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the living? no. Why? detraction will not suffer it. Therefore I'll none of it: honor is a mere scutcheon:--and so ends my catechism. (Henry IV Part One V, I)"

New blog.

The current notion that bullies are after status is erroneous. Bullies are deprived and despondent souls driven to prove themselves by strength. As with everyone else they can only be freed by becoming aware of values embedded deep within, values that contradict received values, which Shakespeare makes clear in the text above.

Posthumous gift?

iOS 5 Now Available for Download: "Apple has just released iOS 5, the newest version of its mobile OS, to the public.

The updated OS is now available for download through iTunes 10.5. Apple announced iOS 5 in June at its Worldwide Developers Conference. The new OS includes a slew of new features including deep Twitter integration, a revamped notification system, an updated camera app, a revamped version of Safari and more."

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If you look closely, you'll see things are looking up

Thanks for the Obama video. 

Like FDR, he is beginning to sharply define his adversaries -- the dopes-- and rallying his constituency. 

Hopefully, this earlystart to the 2012 campaign 

will shore up the resolve of even some of the laggards in his own party.

 

I may be wrong but I think that I sense a recent shifting of emphasis 

among some members of the chattering class: 

more criticism,often snide, of the Republican  candidates 

and their  "issues" or competence, 

and most recently, Matt Bai's attempt to write about an Establishment initiative 

to either co-opt

or supplant the Tea Party. 

The Republican  Party has embraced so many nutty hardliners 

that the former is not likely and the latter too divisive a task.

 

If you look closely, you'll see things are looking up!

Cap tip Bob

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