Somali Pirates

Piracy be relevant t` th` world we live in... both historically an` currently b`lieve `t or nay. When I began t` hear reports about Somali Sea dogs, I couldna help but think o` them featured in Th` Life Aquatic, LOL. "Do th` interns get glocks? Nay, they be havin` t` share one." :-) This inspired me t` write a seafarin` hearty song on me poetry blog :-) O` course, i couldna a done this without a th` use o` th` online english t` pirate translation software. Check 't ou' an' be havin' some fun wi' 't if yer into this sort o' thin' :-)

A Flood is Coming

A deluge of internet use is about to hit the United States in the coming months. While the world was watching the election the FCC set in motion a chain reaction that will open the floodgates of high speed internet access. It has been repeatedly pointed out recently that the US is trailing other developed countries in terms of high speed internet access per inhabitant also called broadband penetration. However, if technology is quick enough on the uptake this lag should be overcome in the near future. When I was a child our family had television reception only through the "antenna." We received ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS. That was it. All the remaining channels were white fuzz. On November 4th 2008 the FCC voted to open these so called "white spaces" for high speed internet access nationwide! What does this mean? It means watch out because Comcast, Time Warner, Verizon, AT&T, and the lots of communications big wigs are going to be acting like grumbling giants having their precious' taken from them. I don't know if these large telecom companies will have a head start in offering internet service through the giant wireless towers once designated solely for television signals. What I do know is that people will finally be able to simply purchase internet access alone. Gone will be the days of getting swindled into paying for basic cable or a phone line just because one wants internet access. This will bring the web to more households than ever before. Whole counties will become like coffeehouse "hot spots." Accompanying this flood of access will be a flood of usage and this will hopefully end any bureaucratic opacity the Bush administration has held onto for the last eight years. The CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, discusses with Ariana Huffington what increased internet use has done for politics and will continue to do to keep government honest. The age of citizen-fact-checkers is upon us. May we all stay skeptical and do our homework.

Amy Goodman at Democracy Now had the wherewithal to report on this momentous vote by the FCC despite being drowned-out by the signal to noise ratio of this year's historic election. She talks here with Timothy Karr of the media reform group Free Press.

When 'Buy Local' Means Inside Your Country

Small businesses have always been the backbone of America's economy and will save today's economy by using the opportunities only America can provide. Warren Buffet has said and it is well known that "ultimately the value of the stock market can only reflect the output of the economy." More broadly, the wealth of a nation depends most on its ability to produce. As mega-corporations such as Walmart and Nike increasingly import their good and use cheap foreign labor to produce their goods, we have seen a slow seeping of America's money into the banks of other countries. This scenario mirrors that of a lake whose flow out is greater than its flow in, eventually it dries up.

A stark example of this theory is the big three automakers: Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler. The auto-companies have shut down plant after plant in America while opening new plants in Mexico and other 'cheap labor' countries. Many Americans have found themselves looking for a new job due to these job exports. I will never forget the story i heard of a 19-year old college kid training a forty three year man to run a cash register at a sporting goods store because his job had been sent overseas. And many middle class American's find themselves in this situation. According to the US Census Bureau, 70% of America's economy comes from the non-goods producing sector (the service industry). As we replace our goods-producing jobs with service jobs more and more American money is finding its way into the hands of other countries, while the American middle class is making less money to spend on goods. It will be very difficult for America to thrive on a purely service industry based economy as foreign businesses get better at insurance, professional consultation, and banking. America must start producing more to keep cash in America.

Small businesses are the answer for keeping America's manifest destiny intact. Companies like AIG, Walmart, and GM all started small and got big because they were the best and brightest. As some of the mega-corporations succumb to the diseases of greed and mismanagement it is time for new companies to rise from the ground and inject capital into America once again. This will happen because small companies rely on and employ the American worker. This symbiotic relationship puts cash in the pockets of the American middle class, cash that it has historically been known to spend. The big question is, can the little guy win the fight in a room full of giants?

Small companies have an uphill battle to climb against the multi-national corporations who have the deep pockets to spend money on R and D and marketing. Also, a theme now of big companies has been to buyout, rather than compete with, the smaller companies. Despite this fact I will keep my faith in David with his slingshot against Goliath. Small business must prevail to save the American economy. I will support the local smaller guy to keep my dollar in America.

Thomas Paine - the Face of Sustainable Living!

The time is now upon all communities and each of us individually, to enact sustainable living practices. Establishing and promoting sustainable living is no longer a task for future generations, it is our current task. There are many faces of sustainable living. The new symbolic face of sustainable living will be Thomas Paine's! Check out how the Lewes pound will promote and raise awareness for sustainable living. Many of the aspects and prospects of sustainable living have been and will continue to be covered and discussed within the pages of this weblog.

Here I would like to touch briefly upon the local produce arm of sustainable living. Markets featuring local produce and other local goods are an integral part of many small communities and cultures, yet this concept has been abandoned in many modern communities. Supporting locally grown produce greatly reduces energy consumption, as food does not need to be shipped as far, it also strengthens communities and has many intangible values. The "100-mile market" concept is feasible for large modern cities. Often times the only critical piece missing is initiative! Check out this Ontario Project. What I like best about the homepage photo is the skyscrappers in the background. If you don't think this is possible in your community, think again! Check out what urban gardeners in Detriot are doing (Go to Day 9, Red State Roadtrip). If this doesn't inspire you to push for a project in your community then perhaps nothing will. Grassroots sustainable living projects are sprouting up in more and more communities. Green is NOT a buzzword, it is NOT the latest trend, it is the culture of our future! Initiate projects in your community, encourage new and ongoing projects, get involved and lend support! Via la revolutiones!

Does the Dalai Lama condone human sacrifice?

Disclaimer: After extensive research on this claim I have found no evidence of human sacrifice practiced or condoned by the current Dalai Lama. However, this claim was used in an attempt to convince me that Tibet is better off because of Chinese rule. The image to the right appeared in this week's issue of Nature, and reminded me of a debate I once had and all the memories of this most grueling disagreement came flooding back.

This article speaks of the Dalai Lama's desire and enthusiasm for interaction between Buddhists and scientists. Proponents of this type of scientific/spiritual collaboration make the point that, unlike western religions, Buddhism is unencumbered by an anthropomorphic deity in the sky and actually embraces empiricism over blind faith. An argument is made; in order to accomplish the "greatest good" an alleviation of human suffering is needed, a goal which Buddhism and science share.

The argument that I had surrounding the motives of the current Dalai Lama, the content of his character, and the nature of his religion began in part because of my blindly fervent defense of this man and the religion for which he stands. This argument is pertinent to the Dalai Lama's apparent interest in science because it took place inside a laboratory. My antagonist consistently claimed that the people of Tibet are wholly better off because of the occupation and that Chinese rule had made the more barbaric practices of “lamaism” (as he called Tibetan Buddhism) illegal. He went so far as to claim that the lamas (the high priests that surround the Dali Lama) had practiced human sacrifice up until the 1950’s.

Before I begin the explanation of the conclusions that followed I would like to preface the discussion with the introduction to Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason.

"I put the following work under your protection. It contains my opinion upon religion. You will do me the justice to remember, that I have always strenuously supported the right of every man to his opinion, however different that opinion might be to mine. He who denies to another this right, makes a slave of himself to his present opinion, because he precludes himself the right of changing it. The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is reason. I have never used any other, and I trust I never shall."

-Thomas Paine

Understanding why my friend held the opinion he did about the Dalai Lama required that I listen intensely to what he had to say precisely because it was so different than my own. The argument between he and I remained civil but lasted for 3 months after he had sent me an e-mail (I found the text on the web here) with the claims of human sacrifice backed by scholarly references. One such claim specifically accuses one of the high priests of Tibetan Buddhism or Gelug lama of making a large loaf of bread called a "torma" out of the following ingredients.

Torma (cake) made of buckwheat and blood;
1.) Five different sorts of meat, including human flesh;
2.) The skull of a child of an incestuous relationship, filled with blood and mustard seeds;
3.) The skin of a boy;
4.) A bowl of human brain in blood;
5.) A lamp filled with human fat with a wick made of human hair;
6.) And a dough like mixture of gall, brain, blood and human entrails.
In the same text it accuses the lamas of sacrificing their own subjects as recently as 1950.

"In AD1950 summer the Gelug lama made a huge torma of roughly three-yard high, claiming that the powerful demon Kshetrapala was invocated and sealed in it. They burnt it outside Lhasa town and bluffed Tibetans into believing that the demon as well as his accomplices was released to destroy the deity behind PLA, which was claimed to be a 'nine-headed Chinese demon'."

My initial instinct was to laugh at these accusations as Chinese propaganda, but I wanted to be as thorough as possible in the investigation. I inter-library loaned these references. Some came from obscure private libraries at Harvard. The only evidence I could find in all my research was reference to ancient Tibetan texts describing human sacrifice as part of the old "bon" mongolian traditions that mixed with Buddhism in the 1300s (de Nebesky-Wojkowitz, Rene: Oracles and demons of Tibet, the cult and Iconography of the Tibetan protective deities, Katmandu 1993). I found no modern evidence for human sacrifice in Tibetan Buddhism anytime close to 1950. My mentor stuck to his ideas though and we agreed to disagree, but I did learn that Tibet was not the Shangri-La that it is normally portrayed as in western media. However, the Dalai Lama has demonstrated that he is setting an example for the other religious leaders of the world both by appearing in this week's issue of Nature with a pipette in his hand and by being quoted as saying "Should science prove some Buddhist concept wrong, then Buddhism will have to change." Reestablishing the tarnished reputation of science will help our world emerge from the land of make-believe it seems to be now inhabiting.

A Microcosm of Communism in China

A Peace Corps volunteer in Guizhou (贵州), China shares his story of a first hand encounter with the Chinese government and its control over the press. Specifically, Dustin Ooley describes the government manipulating water supply to the school where he works in a blog post entitled Water Monopoly! (or Where is Teddy Roosevelt When People Need Him?). Particularly pertinent to TPG is the role that the reporter played, or in fact did not play in this scene. A resounding illustration of the functional role of an unfettered press in a democracy.

Cheers to Dustin for the composition and Phil for the heads up.

The culture wars hinge on reinforcing stereotypes. One popular stereotype is that liberals are communists, socialists, marxists, and what have you. Well, my friends, I would consider myself a liberal thinker but this story scares me. The issues that unify us will help end the culture wars and the most paramount of these issues is outlined in the first amendment. Liberty and justice for all requires free speech and a free press whether you are liberal or conservative.

Magnetic Island by ISABEL HOWLETT

In the spirit of celebrating the propagation of art and creativity across the web, I would like to draw attention to the inspiring work of Isabel Howlett. I appreciate Isabel's work for its often earthy-organic feeling and its seemingly biological influence.  The abstract piece above, loaded with delicious, juicy niblets and absolutely exploding with vibrant energy, effectively arouses the imagination while enticing an apatite for curious adventure. Magnetic Island of Queensland Australia must be a truly glorious landscape! Check out Isabel's paintings at her website www.isabelhowlett.co.uk.

Art Church

The Church of Beethoven in Albuquerque, New Mexico is described by NPR here.

"I have struggled so long in the arts. It's like you're crying in the wilderness. You're saying, 'Look at all this incredible music that really isn't getting out there to the extent that it should.'"
-Felix Wurman

He says he wants this idea to spread with Churches of Mozart, Chopin, Bach, Schubert, and Rachmaninoff. But why limit the idea to music and why call it a church. Gatherings celebrating music, writing, and visual arts of secular content could be the next step in the interconnectedness of the web manifesting in the real world.

This story reminded me of an article I read in Time magazine entitled "Sunday school for atheists." My favorite tidbit from this story was the description of the children singing songs like "I'm Unique and Unrepeatable, set to the tune of Ten Little Indians." Though I don't think organizations like these should be advertised as "for atheists only." Thomas Paine believed in one God just not any of the stories written about God over human history. A forum for people who want to socialize their children without having to sign up and take oaths to a code of beliefs should be more widely available in our United States under its metaphorical banner of FREEDOM.

Religious Displays on Public Land. Where do you stand?

The Supreme Court of the United States consists of nine justices, two of whom were appointed by a single democrat (Bill Clinton), while the remaining were appointed by republicans (Gerald Ford, Ronald Regan, George Herbert Walker Bush, and George W. Bush). Today these justices questioned both sides in a case about privately funded religious displays on public land. A small religious group in Pleasant Grove, Utah known as the Summum church (founded in 1975) requested that the city display a three foot granite slab outlining its core principles, the "Seven Aphorisms" right next to a monument listing the Ten Commandments that has stood on this public park since it was donated by eagle scouts in 1971.

After reading these aphorisms my initial thought was that the guy who came up with this religion (Corky Ra) took some physics classes in college, smoked some pot and made up this mixture of Gnostic Christianity and ancient Egyptian faiths (including the practice of mummification). Consequently, Corky is also the proprietor of the first federally bonded winery in the state of Utah where he brews "Nectar publications" an alcoholic holy drink for use in "meditation" by the parishioners of Summum. I would say Mr. Ra is on par with Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and L. Ron Hubbard as an up-and-coming American profit (I may have spelled that wrong). It occurred to me that many of the "aphorisms" are summed up by the Taoist yin and yang symbol representing a balance of opposites. I wonder if this case would have made it to the Supreme Court had a religious group wanted to erect a monument without words such as a giant yin yang.

While I initially thought that monuments like this on public lands should not be defended by the Supreme Court because this would mean that government is supporting specific religions I understand that this case is about equal representation in a public forum which has traditionally been upheld by the Supreme Court. This "public forum equality precedent" was set in 2005 when the Supreme Court approved the ten commandments on display within some public forums but not in others. The unapproved display was in Kentucky where the court pointed out that the ten commandments stood alone and were promoting a single religion, whereas the ten commandments carved in stone at the state capital building in Austin, Texas were permissible under the establishment clause of the constitution because in this instance the display was not blatantly promoting one religion over another. In the context of other markers throughout the capital grounds it was ruled that the ten commandments in Austin fit into an atmosphere of secular education about legal history or a public forum.

This 2005 precedent is coming back to haunt the justices this year with the case of Pleasant Grove v. Summum. It can be argued that the posting of these "aphorisms" next to the commandments would legitimize the commandments being there in the first place because it would say "hey, the government can allow religious displays as long as all those religions that want to be represented are represented equally and without preference."

I, like the Supreme Court, am torn on this case. On the one hand I do believe in maintaining freedom of speech even in the most obscure cases, but the conservationist in me does not want to see public green spaces littered with monuments to Zeus, Thor, Christ, or Ra. I do like art in public spaces and maybe these religious tenets can be considered as art. But in this context I do not think city governments have to erect any and all monuments or pieces of art offered to them, but if cities decide to start allowing some religious monuments to go up then they need to open the forum to any religion that wants to erect similar monuments.

During the winter of 2005 I was living in Fort Collin, CO and a local Rabbi wanted to place a menorah that he and his temple were sponsoring on public property near a Christmas tree for the eight days of Chanukah. The city of Fort Collins refused his request and this eventually became a nationally visible news story. My interpretation of this case is that the city of Fort Collins was preferentially allowing holiday displays that aligned with the beliefs of the majority of the city, while ostracizing a smaller religious sect. I felt that the constitutional rights of the Rabbi and his congregation were infringed on. In the case of the Summon religion and their granite slab I feel like the only fair thing to do is tell the city of Pleasant Grove to either remove all religious writings from the public land or allow those tasteful and aesthetically pleasing views of other religions to be erected as monuments of equal size and equal real estate value (we don't want to see the aphorisms of Summum on our way into the latrine). The city still has the right to refuse in this instance but has to be an equal opportunity censor.

I would not want the ten commandments or the aphorisms of Summon to greet me when I enter rocky mountain national park or any national park for that matter so I support the right of local governing bodies to say no to proposed plaques etc. but if a refusal is granted in one instance of a religious monument then there can be no religious monuments. It has to be equal exposure or none at all. This removes the potential appearance of government endorsement of religion.
Read more here here and here

Redemption

It only took a little over 200 years since this place was built.