2/21/12

Two Ways to Hijack the US Government


The Mitch McConnell formula 

Even if it gets us a credit downgrade, be so obstructionist that nothing can be done
Foster Obama hatred

The Current (Santorum) Formula

Offend and invade every woman in America to please a declining right wing bunch of creedal messianists
Add to Obama hatred

Both will receive their just reward
in November 2012

Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

The snide politics of Christian decline


Christianity in the United States is in decline
Mainline churches have consistently lost members since the 1950s
During the 1960s one could brush off the vocal evangelicals
Now evangelicals are vocal but their very vocality is a symptom of decline
They have sacrificed their Biblical anchor for a right wing agenda
This is snide politics
It cannot conceal decline
In 50 years the evangelical churches will suffer the same losses as the  mainline
The world is moving to a universal spirituality based on willed values
Democracy tolerance helpfulness non-idolatry
Jesus himself had no desire to foster a religion
Or to be an object of worship
He instructed worship of Abba alone
He had no interest in snide politics nor in a right wing political agenda

Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

Church Leaders Should Condemn Franklin Graham



Franklin Graham looks like his dad
I met his dad once
Billy Graham stands as a monument to responsible evangelicalism
Franklin Graham stands as a monument to the snide politics of Christian decline
The notion that the evangelical political program in 2012 has anything to do with what Jesus intended is beyond false

There was a time when I might have had a voice in all this but today all I have is the power of a word here and there
The mainline Protestant churches have undergone decline not merely for demographic reasons
They have lost a theological center
They have become consumed with survival and balkanized around "interest theologies"
There is no leadership
There is no prophetic voice
There is a passive yielding of the field to the likes of Franklin Graham

If there is any Protestant leadership left they should at least condemn Franklin Graham

Billy Graham's son sparks controversy with TV interview - Local News - Charlotte, NC - msnbc.com

"“I think you are going to have to ask President Obama,” Graham replied. “I think people have to ask Barack Obama. He’s come out saying that he’s a Christian. The question is, what is a Christian?”

When pressed on the question a second time, Graham said, “I cannot answer that question for anybody….I accept him at what he says. If says he’s a Christian, I accept that. I’m not going to say he’s not.”

But while Graham was hesitant to opine about Obama, he had no issues with saying Republican Presidential candidates Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich are Christian."

'via Blog this'


Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

What is a cyber-community

What is a cyber-community
A not-yet thing
A social network on the ground
Real

The community part is the following:

We live in it
We are face to face in it
It contains many levels of sharing
A household
A workplace
Recreational spots
Entertainment
Learning nodes (aka education)

It uses the ideas implicit in cyber
to create the actual physical reality around us

A cyber-community is a rejection of sprawl and the dominance of the car
It is walkable from end to end and side to side and level to level
It has only three or four levels
Instead of being apartments and houses it is modular spaces
Spaces that can be added to and subtracted from
Public and private
All in an eco-grid that makes the entire community sustainable

See also:

ShortFormContent at Blogger: Cyber community is my term for what I believe is an entirely new concept:



Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

The reason demand for gas is falling is no mystery

It's not just the price
It's also the end of the love affair with the car
It has to do with knowing the need to go beyond green
Green is our word small changes that won't work
Beyond green is the place where we are actually building a life that is new and different
Beyond green is where thoughts of a cyber-community begin


Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

Proof that power corrupts



Anyone can perform this experiment.
Listen to Rick Santorum utter a threatening lie
His voice changes
It has the timbre of unalloyed evil
It has the breath of corruption
It is a sign that cannot be hidden from those with ears to hear
Lying is a prelude to the very worst evils
Listen to him as he savors the word cull
Then see his boyish smile
And understand that if it were removed there would be a face of hate beneath it

Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

Affimative action on the chopping block

Justices to Hear Case on Affirmative Action in Higher Education - NYTimes.com:

'via Blog this'

Let's cut to the end. The end of this is the need to have Democrats in the White House until we have muted the capacity of Samuel Alito to move the Court to horrendous decisions. When you read about the threat to affirmative action, you may assume that the Court will act with impunity and roll back the clock. Changing the Court is our privilege by our exercise of the right to vote. Whatever you may think about the pasce of change under the President,. be fully aware the opposition will use every possible means of keeping you from the voting booth in 2012. Resolve now not to be lulled into quiescence or otherwise made impotent when it's time to choose.

I need to go to Coney Island now

1


I need to go to Coney Island now
To feel the sere wind wafting visions in thin air
And see the sounding ocean catching breath
And touch a house of cards inside my head
And find its sign perhaps beneath footsteps

2

I went to Coney Island in sere wind
Few people there the whole place boarded up
But I did not mind I walked ahead
Til ocean lapped my shoes
And gull shadows fell on fading footprints
And the water lapped
Silently
And I knew that I had been to everywhere

Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

Yo-Yo Ma, Suzanne Vega, etc. Spotify Playlist

Yo-Yo Ma, Suzanne Vega, Steven Sharp Nelson, Merle Haggard, John Williams, A3, Arvo Part, Bob Dylan & The Band, Irish Folk Song, Ripple (Dead)


And from yesterday:

ShortFormContent at Blogger: Joe Cocker. Mozart, Dylan, Schubert, Chelly Wright, etc. Spotify Playlist:

Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

Santorum Lies Innuendos and Insults

Rick Santorum's Five Craziest Statements Of The Week [Video] | National Memo | Breaking News, Smart Politics:

'via Blog this'

Ten times more dangerous than Romney and Romney is ten times mire dangerous that President Obama. Santorum could lead to a mass expatriation.

Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

Jeb Baggage and GOP Desperation

Desperate Fantasy: Can Jeb Bush Save The GOP? | National Memo | Breaking News, Smart Politics:

"Jeb soon did amass a fortune in real estate, mostly with the assistance of the Cuban-American community in South Florida. He returned the favor by seeking a presidential pardon from George H.W. Bush for the late Orlando Bosch, a murderous anti-Castro militant denounced by his father’s own Attorney General Richard Thornburgh as “an unreformed terrorist” responsible for killing dozens of innocent people.

Although he never hesitates to denounce government regulation and praise the unfettered free market, Jeb didn’t exactly reject the federal teat when one of his own investments went south during the savings-and-loan crisis. With an infusion of more than $4.5 million from the Treasury, Jeb and his partners managed to hold onto a downtown Miami office building in 1989 that they soon sold for $8.7 million. In other words, Bush benefited from a government “bailout.”"

'via Blog this'

Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

I Want Rachel To Succeed

Updating My Critique of Rachel Maddow - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com: "It is not just stridency. Maybe I am reflecting something too personal to warrant bringing up. I think I know where she is coming from.It is a quality of excitation that I do not like in myself and that bothers me in others.

It is early enough in Rachel Maddow's tenure for her to practice a few less-strident licks. And to depend on the salient quality of her relevant content to carry her show."

'via Blog this'

Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

So who will close when Mariano leaves?

Yankees closer Mariano Rivera strongly hints he will retire after the season | yankees.com: News: "Rivera strongly implies this will be final season"

'via Blog this'

So who will close when Mariano leaves
Some one who has a picture perfect pitch
And executes it almost without fail
And wins beyond the reach of everyone

The answer is that no one takes his place
Until that single pitch comes back to life
A youngster comes from nowhere suddenly
And cuts his way to immortality


Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

Equity Should Be Our Battle Cry

Equity should be our battle cry
Equity refers to ownership
Ownership is Abba's we don't care
Most crime and war stem from this ignorance
 
Equity should be our battle cry
Equity refers to how we share
Birth confers a share in everything
Our effort to deny this is our deepest sin

Equity should be our battle cry
But until all are given equity
We are merely whistling in the wind
And all our structures are prey to hypocrisy


Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

Skateboarding, NYC, 1960s PHOTOS

Skateboarding, New York, 1960s | Retronaut: "SKATEBOARDING, NEW YORK, 1960S"

'via Blog this'

Cap tip Alice

Lawyers on the block

The Bad News Law Schools - NYTimes.com:

'via Blog this'

Considering a career in law
One opening for nearly every two who do
Distorted promises from harried law school deans
And unemployment by the time you're through

In my opinion all education from start to finish is done. A return of a version of a Medieval gild system is what is needed. Apprenticeship in all realms. Sustenance and then suggess with manifested skill. The child and the adult should follow passion and interest to the proper sphere and find there the avenue needed to achieving skill. Everything else is added cost and middle-man rapaciousness. Stanley Fish seems to be somewhat bland these days. More groove needed.

Until China and Russia and US Act in Concert We Are Goners

Iran Warns of Pre-Emptive Action in Nuclear Dispute - NYTimes.com: "Without mentioning Israel directly, Mohammed Hejazi, the deputy armed forces head, said on Tuesday: “Our strategy now is that if we feel our enemies want to endanger Iran’s national interests, and want to decide to do that, we will act without waiting for their actions,” Reuters reported."

'via Blog this'

The failure we are facing is a breakdown of ethics and morality at the highest level. Until the "not so great powers" can decide to become great and set aside their regressive behavor, we are like passive sitting ducks in a pond. China and Russia bear the most blame for failures globally to enforce an ethic of tolerance, democracy, helpfulness and non-idolatry. What is intolerable is allowing the fabric of discourse to degenerate into violence.


The nations that most need to restrain themselves, beyond the three powers mentioned, are Iran, Syria and Sudan. All dictatorial regimes are inevitably inclined to regressive behavior. We are hanging in the balance.

Listen to Every Grain of Sand (Spotify)

Given OUR power, it is our task to raise global voices to force response and assert our rights which transcend those of nations that do not practice the willed values we have been given.



Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

RECCMENDATION Richard Gordon Quantum Touch

The Slow as Molasses Press