Globalove Think Tank

I dream of a Star Trek world. This think tank will focus on creative actions
designed to initiate a global paradigm shift towards a world where racism, poverty
and war will be a thing of the past.

Month: December 2008

Enchanté

.a thank you to Oberon for inviting me here.

.this finds me at a time where i feel i am on the edge of understanding.
since i was very young, in my crib, i have had an inner sense and connection
with nature and i’ve held a most tender heart.
i would hear the crickets chirping while i lay in my crib and i would think…
“this is how night sounds”

i am unfulfilled. there is something i have to do for humanity
and it isn’t coming to me. i’ve known about it and told certain people
about it…but it evades me.
the little things i do, i hold to myself
i do these things on my own but it’s not enough.

i don’t know if i am supposed to wait for it to come to me
or if i am to seek it out.
i’m happy to be here, because i was found
and perhaps more inspiration will point me in the direction i need to be.

i have a fair vocabulary but i often find it difficult to express
feelings for which i can find no words
if some things i say make no sense, then i apologize.

love, amber

Addiction

for a few weeks in the fall i went along to a local church – their speciality is addicts, they have “programs,” people introduce themselves to the congregation by announcing their addiction – but when it came to my turn i said nothing

because if i stood up i would have had to say that it is money i am addicted to – and i think they would have thought i was putting on airs

the joke’s on us all eh?

Take (all) the capital

Lose the capitalism!
Those untrustworthy with money,
deserve no access to resources!

Merry Christmas

No advertising today for my blog.

So have a good one!

“Luis Pérez Photo”: Pic-of-the-Day:

Writings of Ryu: Anime Movie Review – Adolescence of Utena

Forgiving the Unforgiveable


Could you forgive someone who killed your family and contributed to making your life and the lives of thousands a living hell? I don’t know if I could but this lady did. She’s one of my new heroes. (The list gets longer every day.) Get to know Immaculée Ilibagiza and discover that forgiveness has the power to change not only the person who forgives, it has the power to change the world.

I Got You

You wanna change the world?

Sacrifice your life for your Gold Promise.
Create a Tradition of Solution for the world’s sake.
Revolutionize your Mind, think openly.
Let Good become Entropic, away with Evil.
click the title for more

Mewwy Kwissmass Ewybowwy

declaration of human rights

play on brother. play on sister. let’s make this world the best we can imagine it to be.

Why so crazy?

“Everyone knows there ain’t no sanity clause.”
~ Chico Marx

The Ambiguity of Fact

Michael Scherer breaks down the Obamanomics of Gay Marriage:

He suggests that laws preventing gay marriage are as unjust as laws preventing interracial marriage, the very union that led to his own birth. But he further argues that the best way to fight this injustice is to indefinitely cede the central moral argument–that in America all men (and women) must be treated equal–and rather score incremental victories that push the nation in the right direction. In Obama’s formulation, it would have been indefinitely acceptable for interracial couples to be denied the rights of civil marriage, if other progress was being made to advance racial equality. In the same way, it is indefinitely acceptable for gay couples to be denied the right to civil marriage, if other progress is being made to give gay couples similar rights. There is an unstated assumption here: If Obama is successful he will clear the way for a subsequent politician to support gay marriage, just as the broader civil rights movement cleared the way for an end to anti-miscegenation laws in 1967 by the (activist?) U.S. Supreme Court.

It’s the constant, trapped cycle we’re held hostage by thanks to religion: the ceding of real-world, fact-based truths in response to the moral absolutist outrage of the faithful. Time and time again, we’re asked to add nuance and ambiguity to an issue because of the belief of someone with no empirical evidence to support their claim.

Some things in this world are proven (beyond a reasonable doubt) and some are not. There is no ambiguity about the theory of evolution thanks to years and years of research and testing; there is no ambiguity about the reality of global climate change and there is no reasonable justification for the abridging of civil rights for a large percentage of the population. While Obama’s position is politically savvy, it’s still a compromise based on a false premise.

This is the crux of the dubious “bi-partisan coming together” mantra. You ultimately cannot find genuine “middle ground” with those whose beliefs paint the world in a stark black and white of good and evil. At some level, either the believer is remiss in her/his duty by not championing the cause of “righteousness” or we, the reality-based thinkers, are asked to sacrifice dignity for the sake of magic.

Excuse me if I have trouble with that idea.

The problem is that the believers can’t be asked to sacrifice anything because they’re unwilling; the moral absolutes of their systems of thought prevent such compromises; so it’s always the victims of their bullshit that have to suffer through “compromise” for the sake of perpetuating their absurdity.

For more, visit Rants, Raves and Rethoughts

A Short Love Story in Stop Motion by Carlos Lascano


A SHORT LOVE STORY IN STOP MOTION from Carlos Lascano on Vimeo.

Truth

There are only two ways of telling the complete truth: anonymously and posthumously.

– Thomas Sowell

Practicality in Education

“No issue is more pressing than education. … It is the civil rights issue of our generation” – Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education Designate at today’s press conference in Chicago, Ill.

I spend a lot of time in schools talking with students and what I’m forced to conclude is that anyone who finds themselves in the incongruous maze of today’s public education system for as many years as our children would be hard pressed to emerge a healthy, contributing member of society who looks back fondly on their time spent there.

There are a plethora of problems: deteriorating infrastructure, an outdated bureaucracy, over-worked and under-qualified teachers, and a pervasive sense that no one’s paying attention or listening.

While I value the post-ideological pragmatism exhibited by the Obama Cabinet appointments, I think the place where a pragmatic re-evaluation is needed most is the American education system. I frequently ask groups of students the question: “How many of you feel that what you learn in school is not at all related to your everyday life”. Every hand has gone up every time I ask it. What it tells us is that content is dated, unimportant and a big fat waste of time. Students are given materials they care little about as the prism through which to learn the skills necessary to survive in the world. The discerning student brain discards both out of sheer boredom.

And can we blame them for that? Humans naturally look for what’s essential. If we can’t see it, we ignore it.

Education needs to be relevant again. Every student needs to learn to read, think critically, know logic, basic computation and the ability to intelligently and thoughtfully express her/his thoughts in a variety of forums. Content is ultimately irrelevant, and so it ought to be selected based on the interests of students, rather than academics in ivory towers.

That’s real pragmatism.

We’ll see who has the stomach for it.

For more, visit Rants, Raves and Rethoughts

The Death of Consumerism

Reich begins to paint the new picture of our economy with a clarity that’s been lacking as of late while addressing the underlying assumption of the new found love of Keynes:

The first assumption is that American consumers will eventually regain the purchasing power needed to keep the economy going full tilt. That seems doubtful. Median incomes dropped during the last recovery, adjusted for inflation, and even at the start weren’t much higher than they were in the 1970s. Middle-class families continued to spend at a healthy clip over the last thirty years despite this because women went into paid work, everyone started working longer hours, and then, when these tactics gave out, went deeper and deeper into debt. This indebtedness, in turn, depended on rising home values, which generated hundreds of billions of dollars in home equity loans and refinanced mortgages. But now that the housing bubble has burst, the spending has ended. Families cannot work more hours than they did before, and won’t be able to borrow as much, either.

It’s what’s been missing from all these haphazard calculations in talking about the recovery packages that Congress and the Treasury have been passing and it’s a big part of the reason that everything remains frozen: people have changed. Americans have wizened far quicker than anyone thought to the new era of what Thomas Friedman calls the Climate-Energy-Era, the death of consumerism and the new birth of frugal living and conscientious buying. We’re certainly not completely there yet and educational outreach will be needed to fully prep the public for the coming shake-up of a system built on living beyond one’s means, but it’s a good sign.

What’s not so good is that all of the assumptions about what will get this economy moving again have to be rethought; freeing up credit won’t matter if people are cautious about using it (as they should be).

People have gotten smarter. Now the economy needs to catch up.

For more, visit Rants, Raves and Rethoughts

Head

fuel for thought?

The most logical support for the US auto industry is from
the oil companies and their record profits.
Have you heard anyone imply this connection?

Paradoxymorons

The asset holes dumped on their food.
So . . to start a new garden, of budding credit,
plow all debt under, as educational statistics,
and encourage tending the weeds as mulch.

“I like to watch” ~ Chauncey Gardener~Being There

Trailer Trash

The house sat like an industrial wart in the middle of an estate.
Tyre empties huddled rats in the cold comfort they were accustomed.

Beside the sink they kept a plastic bin to collect used tea bags.
Scratchy little ticks ran up and down stubby knees.


The children’s names were mumbles, insignificant little shits
Who gathered around in clumps near the park and the street.


You could get a camel through the fathers intellect.
Beer heavy belly with an encyclopaedic knowledge of soaps.
He lounged in a desperate chair that had died and been re-stuffed.
Whilst his lady wife, a loose term for a careworn child bearer,
Lulled her dried elbows in a water lacking suds.


The curtains hung like suspicion in cobwebbed threads.
Dead flies gathered in a testament to unnecessary house work.


Milk bottles fell where the hen pecked child had spent them.
On dirty floors and under crusty seats and beside the cracked door.


A fug of cigarette smoke suspended like death above their knees.
Outside a rancid rodent of a dog ran barking bitter obscenities.


The wind trembled before blowing past the corroded window frames.
A car sat blind eyed and belligerent in a craze of beer crates.


You could gather starlight in the sordid stains that fled the floor.
Forgotten mail ran riot around the broken post box.
Forgotten meals grew green on pitted porcelain plates.


The threat of random violence collected in dusty adjectives.
Expletive high and pointless with a raised ham fist to frighten.


Sundays travelled like Mondays in a redundant haze.
A growing feeling of age old apathy hung brooding and black.


The distant voices of people didn’t intrude beyond the fence.
Television had killed without malicious intent the need for speech.
Just grunts and nods that escaped dry lips and thin heads.
Life began at somewhere where the money went but not here.

.
.
.
All words by cocaine jesus

Desired things……..

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant, they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let not this blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore, be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams; it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

— Max Ehrmann, 1927

Lovers seeking for their other half

Us

All we need to do is think outside of the box.

To be above conventional thought is to win.
To win, against evil, for ourselves, for the world,

The Anti-Gay GOP

Andrew Sullivan sees why they might think it’s the way of the future:

“New polling on Prop 8 reveals the kind of political coalition that focusing on same-sex marriage has created for the GOP:

  • Evangelical or born-again Christians (85%) were far more likely than others (42%) to vote yes.
  • Three in four Republicans (77%) voted yes, two in three Democrats (65%) voted no, and independents were more closely divided (52% yes, 48% no).
  • Supporters of Republican presidential candidate John McCain were far more likely than those who backed President-elect Barack Obama to vote yes (85% vs. 30%).
  • Latinos (61%) were more likely than whites (50%) to vote yes; and 57 percent of Latinos, Asians, and blacks combined voted yes. (Samples sizes for Asians and blacks are too small to report separately.)
  • Voters without a college degree (62%) were far more likely than college graduates (43%) to vote yes.

The trouble for the GOP is that this is one of very few issues on which Asians, Latinos and blacks vote for them. But it reinforces the identity of the party as primarily that of white, less educated fundamentalist voters. I’ve no doubt there’s a place for such a party in American politics. I also have little doubt it will never be a majority.”

There is no way the GOP survives as a national party if it goes down this road. Too much of history is against it. And while the Latinos might seem to be a part of this coalition, they run for the hills once the rest of the coalition has a say on immigration.

However it’s the easiest route, and it’s the route that’s cost them this year.

The real touchstone will be the 2010 nominees.

For more, visit Rants, Raves and Rethoughts

UnEdit Life

Watching MTV’s latest documentary on Britney Spears, I started thinking about the latest trend in reality TV and the vicious editing that accompanies it.

What would real life be like without the cautious and dramatic editing of people trying to get a point across? What if we really could see a person unfiltered? I’m forced to wonder who in our celebrity culture would survive such a treatment.

For more, visit Rants, Raves and Rethoughts

Echoes

Of Hope


‘ho.ho.ho.pe”

I have hope that we finally can rise out of the Cold War and out of the quick Buick buck mentality and begin to find that it is one earth and that we all have one future.

We shall see, but I think despite the economy we have our heads out of the sand and can find something less material and more liberating and collaborative.

I had a bad cough all of November, got it the night Obama was elected. It was an O’Henry moment for O’Moi at the moment America shifted.

In all the despair I do see hope. I so want to see a change for the better. I cannot wait for January 20th and then for all of spring’s flowers.

For The Sake of Humanity

First of all I’d like to say I’m honored to be an author of the GlobaLove Think Tank.
Not many can say that, hahaha…
Secondly, the title, I guess is a link to my blog ‘For The Sake of Humanity’ and you should read it.
Global love is what we should all be advocating…Humanity will destroy itself at war, at conflict.

Humanity has to stop fighting against itself and this will only be brought together by all of us, since we all collectively are humanity.
Why don’t we do these things…

For The Sake of Humanity

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