I always dread the United States presidential elections. The candidates invariably display soft minds and hard hearts instead of firm minds and soft hearts. They wobble on issues with each new poll, hoping to please some newly-recognized demographic group that has strayed from the ranks. They say the most awful things about their opponents without [...]
Archive for September, 2008
Firm mind, soft heart
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged elections, presidency on September 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The spirit of our times?
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged zeitgeist on September 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Old people, of which I am one, always think young people are leading us straight to Hell. There is nothing new about that. My generation wore bell bottom pants and smoked pot. Currently we believe we are being dragged into the pit of despair by text messaging and body piercing. We are likely to survive both, [...]
What Central America teaches us about us
Posted in World peace, tagged Central America, language on September 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Central America, taken as a whole, is about 75% as big as Texas, yet it consists of seven countries, most which are in severe distress. The population of each country is more or less what we think of as enough people for a city in the United States.
This small patch of real estate has been [...]
Cupcake renaissance
Posted in In the News, tagged cupcakes on September 9, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The once humble cupcake is in the news. More precisely, designer cupcakes are in the news. The New York Times carried a story yesterday about the growing popularity of designer cupcakes in Los Angeles and New York. The designer cupcake isn’t new, but the rate of growth of trendy shops is. Joel Klein wrote about [...]
Old thoughts about war
Posted in World peace, tagged war, peace, protest music on September 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
A good while ago I posted an essay on my web site, 8John32, about the eery silence about the Iraq war. It’s so quiet now compared to the 60s and 70s. There is a consensus among informed critics of the press that mainstream journalism is under-reporting the war. More to my point at the time was [...]
Dealing with one’s circumstances
Posted in Books, Blogs & Films, Inspiration, Yoga, tagged circumstances, Khyentse on September 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Circumstance: 1 a: a condition, fact, or event accompanying, conditioning, or determining another Merriam-Webster online dictionary
There is a lot of talk where I work about people and their circumstances. The circumstances I hear about most often concern one’s readiness, or lack thereof, for retirement. When will you be ready? They like to ask.
I just finished reading an [...]
Red Cross is “in the soup”
Posted in In the News, tagged hurricanes, Red Cross on September 6, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The Red Cross has been borrowing money in order to respond to the needs of recent hurricane victims. Since hurricane Gustav was much less violent than the news media led us to expect, donors have breathed a premature sigh of relief.
The Red Cross is busy, and is spending borrowed money, according to an article in the [...]
What I learned by writing a peace plan
Posted in Books, Blogs & Films, Inspiration, World peace, tagged dictators, peace, war, World peace on September 6, 2008 | 1 Comment »
It seems so obvious to me how to create world peace that I thought I would spend some time writing it down. I set out on this project fully aware that if I know how to create world peace, a lot other people must also know. After all, we have the Dalai Lama and dozens of winners [...]
