Friday, June 27, 2008

Feature: Doorways

This week the stories that have caught my interest all seem to be related to the religious right lies which have been quite successful in turning this country into a fascist fundamentalist state, UNTIL NOW..
"The hens are coming home to roost."
( i am not sure of what this little saying means; but it "feels" right)!!!
http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307395788

“Jesus never wrote a book, but I recognize his handwriting in
Grand Theft Jesus. Like Jesus, McElvaine uses lively illustrations and a serious sense of humor to cleanse the temple of exclusive and exploitative religion.”
The Reverend Alan Storey,Calvary Methodist Church, South Africa


“We’re mad as Heaven, and we’re not going to take it anymore!” declares historian Robert McElvaine in this passionate and often hilarious rallying cry for sincere Jesus Followers. He lets the rest of society know that the extreme right wing won’t be allowed to speak for all Christians any longer. His whip-smart, take-no-prisoners polemic lays bare the Christian Right’s “Easy Jesus” creed, in which people who claim to accept Jesus get a free pass to lie in his name. Grand Theft Jesus exposes the televangelists and the leaders of megachurches as the people Jesus warned us about–the wolves in sheep’s clothing of our day."

"The religion that McElvaine calls ChristianityLite resembles schemes that promise “Lose weight without diet or exercise!” Its leaders say, “Be saved without sacrifice or good works!” Run by a crew of politicians, megachurch preachers, televangelists, hypocrites, and snake-oil salesmen, it has hijacked true Christianity and distorted it into something Jesus wouldn’t recognize. Its leaders have taken the generous and loving ideals of Christ and twisted them into a religion that advocates war and intolerance, values money above charity, preaches hatred instead of brotherhood, and promises “true” believers the keys to the gates of the kingdom of God–and to the bank vault."

"Jesus’ radical message of love and peace has been drowned out by the bluster, the hate, and the selfishness that often passes for Christianity in America. McElvaine names names in his list of “Leading Lites” who have earned spots on Jesus’ Ten Most Unwanted List and exposes the hypocritical (Ted Haggard), the disgraceful (Pat Robertson), and the shocking (Ann Coulter). Grand Theft Jesus blends outrage and humor in a compelling argument that will help to resurrect the real Jesus, who has been crucified and interred by the “Right Reverends” who recite the Apostles’ Greed, are pro-choice on wars of choice, and preach the Greater Gory of Christ."

About the Author

ROBERT S. McELVAINE is Elizabeth Chisholm Professor of Arts and Letters and chair of the Department of History at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi. He is the author of nine previous books and dozens of articles in such publications as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Newsweek. Visit his website at www.GrandTheftJesus.com.

“Grand Theft Jesus will annoy a lot of the sanctimonious neo-Puritans of the Religious Right–and that’s good! For everyone else, especially those seeking a full-throttled Christianity that actually reflects what Jesus taught, Robert McElvaine offers one heck of a ride.”
—The Reverend Barry W. Lynn, executive director, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and author of Piety and Politics

“Robert McElvaine reveals with startling clarity that much of the religious establishment in America has become like the religious establishment that betrayed Jesus: lusting for dollars and fame, obsessed with dubious doctrines and emotional slogans, all the while showing little of the concern for the poor or the oppressed that Jesus commanded. He powerfully argues that Christians must reverse the decline of their faith by re-embracing the biblical witness of Jesus in the gospels and actively rejecting the cheap grace being peddled in his name. Grand Theft Jesus is at times funny, at times infuriating, but always on target. It should be read by everyone who proclaims the name of Jesus.”
Dr. Obery M. Hendricks, Jr., author of The Politics of Jesus

“Jesus never wrote a book, but I recognize his hand writing in Grand Theft Jesus. Like Jesus, McElvaine uses lively illustrations and a serious sense of humor to cleanse the temple of exclusive and exploitative religion.”
—The Reverend Alan Storey, Calvary Methodist Church, South Africa

“Where there is hypocrisy, McElvaine calls it hypocrisy, and where the self-advertised speakers for God are ‘ungodly,’ they get unmasked. And he does this with memorable turns of phrase, no little wit, and seriousness of purpose.”
—Martin E. Marty, author of Pilgrims in their Own Land

“Grand Theft Jesus vigorously and passionately attacks the pseudo-Christianity so prevalent today, but does so from a Christian perspective. It makes its powerful case with humor as well as serious argument.”
—Harvey Cox, author of The Secular City and When Jesus Came to Harvard

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Feature: Shifters


http://www.jamesdobsondoesntspeakforme.com/ (go to this link and make a statement)

"Dr. James Dobson recently attacked Barack Obama for a 2006 speech that Obama gave on his Christian faith. "

"Does he speak for you? "
James Dobson doesn't speak for me."
"We are a coalition of pastors and other Christians, lead by Pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell who are standing up for our Christian faith and supporting Barack Obama. We are signing in our individual capacities and not on behalf of our churches or denominations."

Feature: Crossroads

YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS. // THE CONSTITUTION OF THE USA IS SLOWLY BEING REVISED. // THIS IS TO AVOID AMERICAN CITIZENS INTERFERENCE.
PAY ATTENTION!

Senator Feingold Will Filibuster FISA
Tuesday 24 June 2008
by: Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!
It's being described as the most significant revision of the nation's surveillance law in three decades. The Senate is preparing to vote on rewriting the nation's Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and giving immunity to phone companies involved in President Bush's secret domestic spy program. We speak with Senator Russ Feingold (D–WI), who has been the leading congressional voice against the Bush administration's warrantless spy program since it was exposed nearly three years ago.
"One of the greatest intrusions, potentially, on the rights of Americans protected under the 4th Amendment." - Senator Feingold blasts telecom spy bill. "

Monday, June 23, 2008

Feature: Shifters


Don't be tempted by the shiny apple
Don't you eat of a bitter fruit
Hunger only for a taste of justice
Hunger only for a world of truth
--All That You have is Your Soul
,
Tracy Chapman

Herstory; coming around to repeat itself.......herstorically interesting

By Melinda Grube http://www.matildajoslyngage.org/right.htm

Slavery and prostitution, persecutions for heresy; the inquisition with its six hundred modes of torture; the destruction of learning; the oppression of science; the systemized betrayal of confiding innocence; the recognized and unrecognized polygamy of man; the denial of woman of a right to herself, her thought, her wages, her children, to a share in the government which rules her, to an equal part in religious institutions-- all these and a myriad more, are parts of what is known as a Christian civilization.

Among the most important contributions Matilda Joslyn Gage made to the women’s rights movement was her bold challenge to the Church. A fearless and brilliant theoretician in this regard, she identified the misogyny of the historical and contemporary Christian Church as one of the great barriers to the cause of women’s freedom. During a time in which a woman’s virtue and worth were often tied to the strength of her (Protestant) Christian faith, Gage spoke and wrote openly of her beliefs in the separation of church and state, and of her support of alternative spiritualities and realities such as those found among the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), the Theosophists, and pre-Christian civilizations. Her writing, particularly that describing the “Matriarchate” in Woman, Church, and State prefigured the advent of the women’s spirituality movement nearly a hundred years after her death.

Through her creation of the Woman’s National Liberal Union, her contributions to The Woman’s Bible, and perhaps most significantly, her publication of Woman, Church, and State, Matilda Joslyn Gage left a legacy of radical feminist analysis of the relationship between women’s oppression and organized religion. Her seminal work as a feminist, a freethinker, and proponent of a gyno-centric spirituality is striking not only because it stands so clearly in advance of the dominant thinking of her time, but because it continues to challenge sexist boundaries and assumptions in contemporary America.

Following the termination of the Woman’s National Liberal Union, Matilda Joslyn Gage dedicated herself more fully to the completion of her major intellectual accomplishment, Woman, Church, and State, published in 1893. While Victorian morality forbade the discussion of human sexuality and its abuses, Woman, Church, and State exposed thriving child pornography and prostitution trade and the history of physical and sexual crimes against women and children in the Western world. Her descriptions of the sexual abuse of children earned her the attention of Anthony Comstock, renowned for his enforcement of obscenity laws. Gage was outraged by the moral hypocrisy of a “Christian” nation that would neglect its responsibility to protect children from sexual violence and then condemn her for bringing it to its attention. She saw this degradation of the bodies of children and women directly related to the Church’s attitudes toward human sexuality and its assertion of the inferiority and sinfulness of the female sex. As an historian, she unflinchingly chronicles the Church’s history of violent abuses of its power.

As a woman who had achieved much of her greatest and most important work in her post-menopausal life after her children were reared, and as a person who believed in the intrinsic worth of an individual unrelated to their usefulness to patriarchal design, Gage condemned the abuse of elderly women as much as that of young women and children. Her commentaries on the medieval witchcraft persecutions are not only an indictment of the witch trials, but also a commentary on the prevailing attitudes toward aging women in her time, and sadly, of our own. Additionally, her sympathies lie with the women persecuted as witches not just because they were innocent victims, but because many of them may indeed have been persons possessing woman-centered, pre-patriarchal wisdom, a wisdom Gage understood as fundamental to the wholeness of human expression, and a danger to patriarchal religion denying woman’s claim to herself.

"We discover a reason for this intense hatred of old women in the fact that woman has chiefly been looked upon from a sensual view by Christian men, the church teaching that she was created solely for man’s sensual use. Thus when, by reason of declining years, she no longer attracted the sensual admiration of man, he regarded her as having forfeited her life."

Feature: Doorways

Found this at: http://www.rangeragainstwar.blogspot.com/
it caught my mood.....

"Men are ruled, at this minute by the clock,

by liars who refuse them news,

and by fools who cannot govern."

--
"The New Name,"
G.K. Chesterton

Friday, June 20, 2008

Feature: Doorway

Grace and the Great Turning
by Joanna Macy
http://www.co-intelligence.org/Grace_Macy.html

"When you act on behalf of something greater than yourself,
you begin to feel it acting through you
with a power that is greater than your own.
This is grace.

Today, as we take risks for the sake of something greater
than our separate, individual lives,
we are feeling graced by other beings and by Earth itself.
Those with whom and on whose behalf we act

give us strength; and eloquence and staying power
we didn't know we had.
We just need to practice knowing that

and remembering that we are sustained; by each other;
in the web of life.
Our true power comes as a gift, like grace,
because in truth it is sustained by others.
If we practice drawing on the wisdom

and beauty
and strengths
of our fellow humans
and our fellow species
we can go into any situation
and trust
that the courage and intelligence required
will be supplied."

-- Joanna Macy

Feature: Shifters

Artist unknown to me....but absolutely amazing.

Happy Solstice....Happy Balance point...Go to your center and Be.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Feature: Doorways

My viseral reaction to the current social-political-environmental dilema has been one of anger, fear, uncertainty; a sorta get prepared for the end of the world as you know it scenerio....my spiritual reaction has been one of joy, trust, clarity, and compassion...i have been intellectually puzzled by this yin-yang for some time....at last...articulated so well...my question, prayers if you will, have been answered...
this is an amazing womyn, an amazing website..and more importantly...Hope on paper.
thanks Elaine....this is a true gift. Check out this delicacy...small taste below....

http://www.joannamacy.net/html/great.html
"The Great Turning is a name for the essential adventure of our time: the shift from the industrial growth society to a life-sustaining civilization.The ecological and social crises we face are inflamed by an economic system dependent on accelerating growth. This self-destructing political economy sets its goals and measures its performance in terms of ever-increasing corporate profits--in other words by how fast materials can be extracted from Earth and turned into consumer products, weapons, and waste.A revolution is underway because people are realizing that our needs can be met without destroying our world. We have the technical knowledge, the communication tools, and material resources to grow enough food, ensure clean air and water, and meet rational energy needs. Future generations, if there is a livable world for them, will look back at the epochal transition we are making to a life-sustaining society. And they may well call this the time of the Great Turning. It is happening now.Whether or not it is recognized by corporate-controlled media, the Great Turning is a reality. Although we cannot know yet if it will take hold in time for humans and other complex life forms to survive, we can know that it is under way. And it is gaining momentum, through the actions of countless individuals and groups around the world. To see this as the larger context of our lives clears our vision and summons our courage."

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

FEATURE: SHIFTERS

SIMPLE ACTIONS THAT WILL CHANGE THE WORLD. THIS IS ABOUT PEOPLE POWER!!!!
Detergent ban starts here July 1
For more information or to download the cards go to
www.ecy.wa.gov and click on “Clean water — phosphorus.”`
STORY TOLD BY:::::ISABELLE DILLS // BELLINGHAM HERALD

The dishwashing detergent aisle won’t look the same after July 1.
Detergent products, including major brands such as Electrasol and Cascade, will be removed from the shelves as part of a countywide ban making it illegal to sell or distribute dishwashing detergents containing more than 0.5 percent phosphorus.
The ban is directed toward residential use, and does not affect commercial or industrial use, state Department of Ecology spokeswoman Katie Skipper said. The ban will take effect statewide in 2010, but Whatcom and Spokane counties have been singled out to begin the ban this year.
A number of water bodies in Whatcom County, including Lake Whatcom and the Nooksack River, are considered impaired because oxygen levels are below state water quality standards, Skipper said.
Part of the pollution problem is caused by the phosphorus in waste water, Skipper said.
Phosphorus feeds algae blooms, and when algae die, their decay uses up oxygen, choking lakes and streams, suffocating salmon and other aquatic life, Skipper said.
Phosphorus can leak into water bodies through industry and wastewater treatment plants, storm-water runoff or even through faulty septic systems, Skipper said.
Skipper said this ban is about individual responsibility, reducing phosphorus on a house-byhouse level. She did not know if the ban would ever be directed toward commercial or industrial use.
In the meantime, local stores are preparing to provide lowphosphorus detergents for their customers.

Feature: Crossroads


This would be a dream team!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Former Vice President Al Gore Endorses Obama
By VOA News 17 June 2008
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., left, with former Vice President Al Gore, 16 Jun 2008Nobel laureate and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore has endorsed fellow Democrat, Senator Barack Obama, for president.Gore told supporters Monday at a rally in Detroit, Michigan, that Obama is the candidate to lead the country toward a better future.Gore said that over the next four years, the United States will face many challenges such as bringing American troops home from Iraq, fixing the economy and solving the climate crisis. He said Obama is the candidate best able to solve these problems and bring change to America.Gore won the Nobel Peace prize last year for his campaign against global warming.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Feature: Doorways


http://www.grandmotherscouncil.com/

THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF
THIRTEEN INDIGENOUS
GRANDMOTHERS

Statement of Alliance

WE ARE THIRTEEN INDIGENOUS GRANDMOTHERS who came together for the first time from October 11 through October 17, 2004, in Phoenicia, New York. We gathered from the four directions in the land of the people of the Iroquois Confederacy. We come here from the Amazon rainforest, the Arctic circle of North America, the great forest of the American northwest, the vast plains of North America, the highlands of central America, the Black Hills of South Dakota, the mountains of Oaxaca, the desert of the American southwest, the mountains of Tibet and from the rainforest of Central Africa.

Affirming our relations with traditional medicine peoples and communities throughout the world, we have been brought together by a common vision to form a new global alliance.

We are the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers. We have united as one. Ours is an alliance of prayer, education and healing for our Mother Earth, all Her inhabitants, all the children and for the next seven generations to come.

We are deeply concerned with the unprecedented destruction of our Mother Earth, the contamination of our air, waters and soil, the atrocities of war, the global scourge of poverty, the threat of nuclear weapons and waste, the prevailing culture of materialism, the epidemics which threaten the health of the Earth's peoples, the exploitation of indigenous medicines, and with the destruction of indigenous ways of life.

We, the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers, believe that our ancestral ways of prayer, peacemaking and healing are vitally needed today. We come together to nurture, educate and train our children. We come together to uphold the practice of our ceremonies and affirm the right to use our plant medicines free of legal restriction. We come together to protect the lands where our peoples live and upon which our cultures depend, to safeguard the collective heritage of traditional medicines, and to defend the earth Herself. We believe that the teachings of our ancestors will light our way through an uncertain future.

We join with all those who honor the Creator, and to all who work and pray for our children, for world peace, and for the healing of our Mother Earth.

For all our relations.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Feature: Shifters


“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.”

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Feature: Doorways

Three Cheers for Dennis.....a modern day warrior....courage, truth, justice.

Kucinich Introduces Impeachment Articles Against Bush Tuesday 10
by: Christopher Kuttruff, t r u t h o u t | Report
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) enumerated examples of "high crimes and misdemeanors" as justification for moving forward with impeachment proceedings against President George W. Bush late Monday on the House floor. (Photo: Stefan Zaklin / EPA)

Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) introduced 35 articles of impeachment against President George W. Bush late on Monday during a speech on the House floor.


Full story at Truth-Out................

http://www.truthout.org/article/kucinich-introduces-impeachment-articles-against-bush
Article I

Creating a Secret Propaganda Campaign to Manufacture a False Case for War Against Iraq.

Article II

Falsely, Systematically, and with Criminal Intent Conflating the Attacks of September 11, 2001, With
Misrepresentation of Iraq as a Security Threat as Part of Fraudulent Justification for a War of Aggression.
Article III

Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction, to Manufacture a False Case for War.
Article IV
Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Posed an Imminent Threat
to the United States. Article V Illegally Misspending Funds to Secretly Begin a War of Aggression.
Article VI

Invading Iraq in Violation of the Requirements of HJRes114.

Article VII

Invading Iraq Absent a Declaration of War. Article VIII Invading Iraq, A Sovereign Nation, in Violation of the UN Charter.
Article IX

Failing to Provide Troops With Body Armor and Vehicle Armor

Article X

Falsifying Accounts of US Troop Deaths and Injuries for Political Purposes
Article XI

Establishment of Permanent U.S. Military Bases in Iraq

Article XII

Initiating a War Against Iraq for Control of That Nation's Natural Resources

Article XIIII

Creating a Secret Task Force to Develop Energy and Military Policies With Respect to Iraq and Other
Countries
Article XIV

Misprision of a Felony, Misuse and Exposure of Classified Information And Obstruction of Justice in the Matter of Valerie Plame Wilson, Clandestine Agent of the Central Intelligence Agency
Article XV

Providing Immunity from Prosecution for Criminal Contractors in Iraq
Article XVI

Reckless Misspending and Waste of U.S. Tax Dollars in Connection With Iraq and US Contractors

Article XVII

Illegal Detention: Detaining Indefinitely And Without Charge Persons Both U.S. Citizens and Foreign
Captives
Article XVIII

Torture: Secretly Authorizing, and Encouraging the Use of Torture Against Captives in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Other Places, as a Matter of Official Policy
Article XIX

Rendition: Kidnapping People and Taking Them Against Their Will to "Black Sites" Located in Other
Nations, Including Nations Known to Practice Torture
Article XX

Imprisoning Children

Article XXI

Misleading Congress and the American People About Threats from Iran, and Supporting Terrorist Organizations Within Iran, With the Goal of Overthrowing the Iranian Government Article XXII
Creating Secret Laws
Article XXIII
Violation of the Posse Comitatus Act

Article XXIV

Spying on American Citizens, Without a Court-Ordered Warrant, in Violation of the Law and the
Fourth Amendment
Article XXV

Directing Telecommunications Companies to Create an Illegal and Unconstitutional Database of the
Private Telephone Numbers and Emails of American Citizens
Article XXVI

Announcing the Intent to Violate Laws with Signing Statements
Article XXVII
Failing to Comply with Congressional Subpoenas and Instructing Former Employees Not to Comply

Article XXVIII

Tampering with Free and Fair Elections, Corruption of the Administration of Justice

Article XXIX

Conspiracy to Violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965
Article XXX

Misleading Congress and the American People in an Attempt to Destroy Medicare

Article XXXI
Katrina: Failure to Plan for the Predicted Disaster of Hurricane Katrina, Failure to Respond to a Civil
Emergency
Article XXXII

Misleading Congress and the American People, Systematically Undermining Efforts to Address Global
Climate Change
Article XXXIII

Repeatedly Ignored and Failed to Respond to High Level Intelligence Warnings of Planned Terrorist
Attacks in the US, Prior to 911.
Article XXXIV

Obstruction of the Investigation into the Attacks of September 11, 2001

Article XXXV

Endangering the Health of 911 First Responders

Feature: Shifters

8.8.08 - A Day for Burma, Not Beijing:
China is the main supporter of the Burmese regime, and we are asking people to pledge to boycott those who profit from the Olympic Games. The goal is to get 1 million people to sign up - creating a loud international cry against the Chinese government. 8.8.08 is the 20th anniversary of the huge massacre of democracy activists in Burma during the 88 uprising, and has always been a solemn day for Burma. This is also the day that the Beijing Olympics will begin.

Pledge to Not Watch Today!

To get 1 million people signed up we will need a lot of help. Join the Street Team


Feature: Doorways

Interesting...filming began in 2003...Long before the world knew about Halliburton and Blackwater.....funny how universal consciousness works...hmmmm
http://www.firstlookstudios.com/films/warinc/

"A political satire set in Turaqistan, a country occupied by an American private corporation run by a former US Vice-President (Aykroyd). In an effort to monopolize the opportunities the war-torn nation offers, the corporation's CEO hires a troubled hit man (Cusack), to kill a Middle East oil minister. Now, struggling with his own growing demons, the assassin must pose as the corporation's Trade Show Producer in order to pull off this latest hit, while maintaining his cover by organizing the high-profile wedding of Yonica Babyyeah (Duff) an outrageous Middle Eastern pop star, and keeping a sexy left wing reporter (Tomei) in check."
Written by fmmini

Hear an interview from the producers here: http://www.goleft.tv/
click on War Inc.

Monday, June 9, 2008

Feature: Shifters

Find the full story here... a great source for Real News;;;
http://www.truthout.org/article/dan-rather-slams-corporate-news-conference

Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather delivered a blistering critique of corporate news on Saturday night at the National Conference for Media Reform hosted by Free Press.

The following are Dan Rather's prepared remarks:

" I am grateful to be here and I am, most of all, gratified by the energy I have seen tonight and at this conference. It will take this kind of energy - and more - to sustain what is good in our news media... to improve what is deficient... and to push back against the forces and the trends that imperil journalism and that - by immediate extension - imperil democracy itself."

"The Framers of our Constitution enshrined freedom of the press in the very first Amendment, up at the top of the Bill of Rights, not because they were great fans of journalists - like many politicians, then and now, they were not - but rather because they knew, as Thomas Jefferson put it, that, "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was and never will be."

"And it is because of this Constitutionally-protected role that I still prefer to use the word "press" over the word "media." If nothing else, it serves as a subtle reminder that - along with newspapers - radio, television, and, now, the Internet, carry the same Constitutional rights, mandates, and responsibilities that the founders guaranteed for those who plied their trade solely in print."

" It means that we need to be on the alert for where, when, and how our news media bows to undue government influence. And you need to let news organizations know, in no uncertain terms, that you won't stand for it... that you, as news consumers, are capable of exerting pressure of your own."

So what does this mean for us tonight, and what is to be done?

"It means that we need to continue to let our government know that, when it comes to media consolidation, enough is enough. Too few voices are dominating, homogenizing, and marginalizing the news. We need to demand that the American people get something in exchange for the use of airwaves that belong, after all, to the people."

" It means that we need to ensure that the Internet, where free speech reigns and where journalism does not have to pass through a corporate filter... remains free."

" We need to say, loud and clear, that we don't want big corporations enjoying preferred access to - or government acting as the gatekeeper for - this unique platform for independent journalism."

"And it means that we need to hold the government to its mandate to protect the freedom of the press, including independent and non-commercial news media."

" There is energy here, that can be equal to that task, but this energy must be maintained... if the press - if democracy - is to be preserved."

"Thank you very much, and good night."

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Feature: Doorways

From the Bioneers.....a message of Hope....Big Mama is waking up!!!

http://www.blessedunrest.com/

"A leading environmentalist and social activist's examination of the worldwide movement for social and environmental change

Paul Hawken has spent over a decade researching organizations dedicated to restoring the environment and fostering social justice.
From billion-dollar nonprofits to single-person dot.causes, these groups collectively comprise the largest movement on earth, a movement that has no name, leader, or location, and that has gone largely ignored by politicians and the media. Like nature itself, it is organizing from the bottom up, in every city, town, and culture. and is emerging to be an extraordinary and creative expression of people's needs worldwide."

"Blessed Unrest explores the diversity of the movement, its brilliant ideas, innovative strategies, and hidden history, which date back many centuries. A culmination of Hawken's many years of leadership in the environmental and social justice fields, it will inspire and delight any and all who despair of the world's fate, and its conclusions will surprise even those within the movement itself. Fundamentally, it is a description of humanity's collective genius, and the unstoppable movement to reimagine our relationship to the environment and one another.
"
Blessed Unrest

How the Largest Movement In the World Came Into Being
and Why No One Saw it Coming
352 pages, Hardcover, Viking Press New York

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Feature: Doorways

You Can End Mountaintop Removal----WE are all Related. We are all connected!!

http://www.ilovemountains.org/
Mountaintop removal is a radical form of coal mining in which entire mountains are literally blown up -- and it is happening here in America on a scale that is almost unimaginable.

Mountaintop removal is devastating hundreds of square miles of Appalachia; polluting the headwaters of rivers that provide drinking water to millions of Americans; and destroying a distinctly American culture that has endured for generations.

But mountaintop removal can be stopped -- with the help of people like you.

On this site, you can explore the National Memorial for the Mountains, watch a videoshare your prayers for the mountains and more.

Read a brillant piece by Robert Kennedy Jr. here: http://www.ilovemountains.org/cost_of_coal/87

And one from Wendell Berry here: http://www.ilovemountains.org/cost_of_coal/86

Feature: Crossroads

The next few posts are my embryonic attempt to document the absolute connection between the social-moral, cultural-spiritual-emotional ---and the political --governmental---corporate worlds. Now is the time we must be involved...even if involvement means we are just "Ablaza"....AWARE...BE AWARE.

The first one is here....MONSANTO---the chemical corporation.

If you care about our earth...watch this video...and tell all you know


"There's nothing they are leaving untouched: the mustard, the okra, the bringe oil, the rice, the cauliflower. Once they have established the norm: that seed can be owned as their property, royalties can be collected. We will depend on them for every seed we grow of every crop we grow. If they control seed, they control food, they know it - it's strategic. It's more powerful than bombs. It's more powerful than guns.
This is the best way to control the populations of the world." -Vandana Shiva The story starts in the White House, where Monsanto often got its way by exerting disproportionate influence over policymakers via the "revolving door". One example is Michael Taylor, who worked for Monsanto as an attorney before being appointed as deputy commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1991. While at the FDA, the authority that deals with all US food approvals, Taylor made crucial decisions that led to the approval of GE foods and crops. Then he returned to Monsanto, becoming the company's vice president for public policy.
Thanks to these intimate links between Monsanto and government agencies, the US adopted GE foods and crops without proper testing, without consumer labeling and in spite of serious questions hanging over their safety. Not coincidentally, Monsanto supplies 90 percent of the GE seeds used by the US market. Monsanto's long arm stretched so far that, in the early nineties, the US Food and Drugs Agency even ignored warnings of their own scientists, who were cautioning that GE crops could cause negative health effects. Other tactics the company uses to stifle concerns about their products include misleading advertising, bribery and concealing scientific evidence. (Excerpt from greenpeace.org) Please visit the official website for more information: http://www.arte.tv/monsanto

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Feature: Shifters

As I indulge in all things juicy and tasty....I am reminded of those beings whose love and service I am indebted......

Haagen-Dazs (yummy) is working with Us...to save the Bees....Check out the website----it is really nifty.
Honey bees have been all the buzz lately. The huge losses sustained by beekeepers all over the country and the still-unsolved mystery of the disappearing bees have brought these hard-working insects and their keepers to everyone’s attention. Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).