Sex Object

A fertility deity is a god or goddess in mythology associated with fertility, pregnancy, and birth. In some cases these deities are directly associated with sex, and in others they simply embody related attributes. (fertility deities)

moon shots

moon rising

JUNG ANd OTHER STORIES

Love Musings

Frequently, I meet people in relationships - serious, long term, committed relationships - who are clearly not well-matched. They don't see eye-to-eye, rarely agree about anything important, and, frankly, just don't seem to understand or like each other very well at all. And I ask myself why. And often times I ask them why.

"Because I love him."

Okay, fair enough. But why?

"We've been through a lot together."
"You can't help who you love."
"I can't imagine my life without her."
"He loves me more than anyone ever has."

And that all sounds very sweet, but where is the passion? Where are the soul-inspiring epic declarations of unity?

And what the hell does "You can't help who you love" even mean?!

Yes you can.

Here's how I think this situation comes about:

Boy meets Girl. Boy and Girl are lustily drawn together and become infatuated with one another. Often, Boy and Girl confuse infatuation with love and thus make bold declarations. After a time (3 months, one year), the infatuation receeds, leaving a comittment behind. Boy and Girl begin feeling restless and uneasy, start to bicker and have a few big fights. Now this is the time, in my humble opinion, at which a relationship should probably end. But it doesn't. Boy and Girl remember their earlier declarations of love and comittment and also remember past failed relationships as well as how lonely they were before they began dating. So they decide to "work through it."

Why?

"He loves me."
"I owe it to her."
"Relationships aren't easy."

So they buck up and, as is often stated, "make it work." Fast forward to two, three, four or more years down the road and we arrive at the beginning of the story. They've made it through so much: these fights, constant disagreements, clashing of personalities . . . forgiven one another and are still persisting in "making it work."

Oh, and along the way, they have grown to love each other.

This is not to say they are in love with each other. On the contrary; they have made up a cozy little room in their hearts for the other and have grown quite used to having it occupied. They love the idea of having a partner, a date for every holiday gathering, movie, and party. They live together and don't like to sleep alone. They are now financially dependant on the partnership. They have forgotten how to be alone.

But what about those huge character differences?

"He is trying."
"She has changed a lot since 'then.'"
"Nobody is perfect."

Sometimes Boy or Girl even blames it on him or her self, saying that he/she nags too much, expects too much, is too hard on the other, or deserves it due to something he/she has done in the past.

What about the fact that you feel like he/she just doesn't understand you? I ask.

Silence.

What about your lack of passion? Don't you miss that excited, butterflies-in-your-stomach feeling?

"Everybody knows that doesn't last forever."

Really? Everybody knows that?

I disagree.

Occasionally, I do meet a couple who are clearly in love. They've been together for years, sometimes even decades. He/she steals kisses from and glances at the other, they can't help but sit close to each other or touch one another as they walk down the street. Laughter is abundant, and often times they needn't say anything at all because they are so in tune with the twinkle of their lovers' eyes that all is understood.

Do you ever fight? I ask.

"No. Not really. I mean, we disagree sometimes of course, but we always work it out."

How?

"We talk about it. We communicate."

So you clearly understand one another.

"We are best friends." And they are typically answering me in unison!

Do you still get those butterflies when you see him?

"Of course!" and they share a kiss.

Was it love at first sight?

"For him it was," she might joke.

Or, "We pretty much knew right from the start."

So what is the difference? Why do so many people get it so wrong and so few get it so right?

My hypothesis is fear. We are afraid to admit we've made the wrong choice. We are afraid to leave someone we like well enough, someone whom we have grown to love - have taught ourselves to love - in search of the unknown "perfect" ONE.

So we settle. And because everyone else around us is also settling, we come to believe that's how it should be. That there is something wrong with us if we don't.

Sometimes either Boy or Girl decides to take a stand. Sometimes Boy or Girl decides to leave. But the other one convinces him/her to stay.

"Don't run away."
"We've come this far. We owe it to each other to try."
"I can change."

Love means never having to say "I will change." Love is unconditional. Love happens like lightning when two people are made perfectly for each other. They aren't perfect. No one is. But they are perfectly matched.

So what do we do?

I advocate honesty. Be honest with yourself. Demand butterflies. Seek love at first sight. Know that people don't change who they are. If something about the person you're seeing doesn't connect with you, do not wait it out.

Don't allow yourself to replace being in love with growing to love; if you do, you will find one day that you have settled, and, by that time, it will be so difficult to leave and start over that you will probably just stick it out.

And that is a tragedy.

Not only is it a tragedy for you, but it is also a tragedy for the soul mate for whom you are no longer available! And the example you are setting for your kids, your friends, and the world is that "good enough" is okay.

Take a stand against tragedy.

Even if it means getting back in "The Game." Even if it means hurting his or her feelings. Even if it means you will be broke, sleeping alone, homeless, lonely, a single mom or dad - whatever.

Because here's the big secret:

When you begin a path of truth, the entire universe conspires in your favor. Things start going right.

Love is just around the corner.

contemplation

Climate Change Mirrors an Earlier Era in Planetary History

Doctor Lee R. Kump, a professor of geosciences at Pennsylvania State University, has illustrated some disturbing parallels between the changes in global climate of today with a well-studied era in the planet’s past. At that time, about fifty-six million years ago, temperatures worldwide rose some five degrees Celsius in the course of a few thousand years. This period is referred to as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). At that time in the planet’s history the huge land mass known as Pangaea was in the final phase of breaking up into the current day continents. This process led to the formation of the north-eastern Atlantic Ocean. As a result, enormous volumes of molten rock were released producing intense heat. Carbon-enriched sediments that were close to the surface were subsequently burned releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, especially carbon dioxide and methane. In addition, it is postulated that the concomitant warming of the ocean seabed led to the release of vast quantities of frozen methane.
The cumulative effects of these changes were the following:
• Marked increase in global temperatures (as noted above)
• Climate zones shifted towards the poles both on land and in the ocean propelling the migration of living things to accommodate this change
• Within the ocean depths, acidity increased and the supply of oxygen diminished killing of many organisms there.
These changes are striking similar to what is being reported currently. In regard to the status of the oceans, an international workshop, sponsored by the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO), has recently met in Oxford, UK. Their goal was to study the impact of human-made stressors including warming, acidification and overfishing on the overall health of the ocean. The conclusions this international group of experts reached are quite alarming. In essence, they have concluded that the stresses imposed on the world’s oceans as a direct result of human activity may lead to “globally significant marine extinction.”
In addition, Doctor Kump has determined from his studies that, in fact, “global temperature today is rising much more quickly than it did during PETM.” If the current rate of increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases continues unabated, it is estimated that global temperature will increase by eight degrees Celsius by the year 2400. This kind of increase would profoundly and dramatically change the nature of life on the planet and drastically impact the possibility of continued human survival. This kind of change can only be averted by a global commitment to dramatic changes in human behavior and expectations. It should also be noted that it took some 200,000 years for the planet to cool down during PETM.

Atomic Cafe

The Art Of War

All warfare is based on deception...Sun Tzu

The Art of War is an ancient Chinese military treatise that is attributed to Sun Tzu (also referred to as "Sunzi" and "Sun Wu"), a high ranking military general and strategist of the Kingdom of Wu who was active in the late-sixth century BC, during the late Spring and Autumn period. (Some scholars believe that the Art of War was not completed until the subsequent Warring States period.) Composed of 13 chapters, each of which is devoted to one aspect of warfare, it is said to be the definitive work on military strategies and tactics of its time, and is still read for its military insights.

The Art of War is one of the oldest and most successful books on military strategy in the world. It has been the most famous and influential of China's Seven Military Classics: "for the last two thousand years it remained the most important military treatise in Asia, where even the common people knew it by name." It has had an influence on Eastern military thinking, business tactics, and beyond.

Sun Tzu emphasized the importance of positioning in military strategy, and that the decision to position an army must be based on both objective conditions in the physical environment and the subjective beliefs of other, competitive actors in that environment. He thought that strategy was not planning in the sense of working through an established list, but rather that it requires quick and appropriate responses to changing conditions. Planning works in a controlled environment, but in a changing environment, competing plans collide, creating unexpected situations. (read more)

sexploitation

she's not real
heavy rotation

Our Lady of Fátima

The Miracle of the Sun (Portuguese: O Milagre do Sol) refers to an event on 13 October 1917, when 30,000 to 100,000 people gathered near Fátima, Portugal, to witness an expected miracle. Three young shepherd children had predicted that at high-noon, the Blessed Virgin Mary would appear in the Cova da Iria fields.

According to many witness statements, after a downfall of rain, the dark clouds broke and the sun appeared as an opaque, spinning disc in the sky. It was said to be significantly duller than normal, and to cast multicolored lights across the landscape, the shadows on the landscape, the people, and the surrounding clouds. The sun was then reported to have careened towards the earth in a zigzag pattern, frightening some of those present who thought it meant the end of the world. Witnesses reported that their previously wet clothes became "suddenly and completely dry, as well as the wet and muddy ground that had been previously soaked because of the rain that had been falling".

Some of the witness statements follow below. They are taken from John De Marchi's several books on the matter.

"Before the astonished eyes of the crowd, whose aspect was biblical as they stood bare-headed, eagerly searching the sky, the sun trembled, made sudden incredible movements outside all cosmic laws — the sun 'danced' according to the typical expression of the people." ― Avelino de Almeida, writing for O Século (Portugal's most widely circulated and influential newspaper, which was pro-government and anti-clerical at the time Almeida's previous articles had been to satirize the previously reported events at Fátima).

"The sun, at one moment surrounded with scarlet flame, at another aureoled in yellow and deep purple, seemed to be in an exceedingly swift and whirling movement, at times appearing to be loosened from the sky and to be approaching the earth, strongly radiating heat." ― Dr. Domingos Pinto Coelho, writing for the newspaper Ordem.

"...The silver sun, enveloped in the same gauzy grey light, was seen to whirl and turn in the circle of broken clouds... The light turned a beautiful blue, as if it had come through the stained-glass windows of a cathedral, and spread itself over the people who knelt with outstretched hands... people wept and prayed with uncovered heads, in the presence of a miracle they had awaited. The seconds seemed like hours, so vivid were they." ― Reporter for the Lisbon newspaper O Dia.

"The sun's disc did not remain immobile. This was not the sparkling of a heavenly body, for it spun round on itself in a mad whirl, when suddenly a clamor was heard from all the people. The sun, whirling, seemed to loosen itself from the firmament and advance threateningly upon the earth as if to crush us with its huge fiery weight. The sensation during those moments was terrible." — Dr. Almeida Garrett, Professor of Natural Sciences at Coimbra University.

"As if like a bolt from the blue, the clouds were wrenched apart, and the sun at its zenith appeared in all its splendor. It began to revolve vertiginously on its axis, like the most magnificent firewheel that could be imagined, taking on all the colors of the rainbow and sending forth multicolored flashes of light, producing the most astounding effect. This sublime and incomparable spectacle, which was repeated three distinct times, lasted for about ten minutes. The immense multitude, overcome by the evidence of such a tremendous prodigy, threw themselves on their knees." ― Dr. Formigão, a professor at the seminary at Santarém, and a priest.

"I feel incapable of describing what I saw. I looked fixedly at the sun, which seemed pale and did not hurt my eyes. Looking like a ball of snow, revolving on itself, it suddenly seemed to come down in a zig-zag, menacing the earth. Terrified, I ran and hid myself among the people, who were weeping and expecting the end of the world at any moment." — Rev. Joaquim Lourenço, describing his boyhood experience in Alburitel, eighteen kilometers from Fatima.

"On that day of October 13, 1917, without remembering the predictions of the children, I was enchanted by a remarkable spectacle in the sky of a kind I had never seen before. I saw it from this veranda..." — Portuguese poet Afonso Lopes Vieira.

According to De Marchi, "Engineers that have studied the case reckoned that an incredible amount of energy would have been necessary to dry up those pools of water that had formed on the field in a few minutes as it was reported by witnesses."

De Marchi claims that the prediction of an unspecified "miracle", the abrupt beginning and end of the alleged miracle of the sun, the varied religious backgrounds of the observers, the sheer numbers of people present, and the lack of any known scientific causative factor make a mass hallucination unlikely. That the activity of the sun was reported as visible by those up to 18 kilometres (11 mi) away, also precludes the theory of a collective hallucination or mass hysteria.

Pio Scatizzi, S.J. describes events of Fátima and concludes: The solar phenomena were not observed in any observatory. Impossible that they should escape notice of so many astronomers and indeed the other inhabitants of the hemisphere. Either all the observers in Fátima were collectively deceived and erred in their testimony, or we must suppose an extra-natural intervention.

Joe Nickell, a skeptic and investigator of paranormal phenomena, claims that the position of the phenomenon, as described by the various witnesses, is at the wrong azimuth and elevation to have been the sun.

Jacques Vallée has contributed to the investigation of the Miracle at Fatima and Marian apparitions. His work has been used to support the Fatima UFO Hypothesis. Vallée is one of the first people to speculate about the possibility that the Miracle at Fatima was a UFO. This wasn't initially recognized as such due to lack of knowledge about UFOs at that time. It is believed by many that if they were aware of the UFO phenomenon that they would have initially assumed it was a UFO instead of a miracle. Vallée has also speculated about the possibility that other religious apparitions may have been the result of UFO activity including the Miracle of Lourdes and the revelations to Joseph Smith. Vallée and other researchers have advocated further study of unusual phenomena in the academic community. They don't believe that this should be handled solely by theologians. (read more) (video clip)

chemtrails...

love almighty

Upon a Rock, I Sit Reflecting

Wildflowers and light summer breezes
Gentle bird songs and sunshine warmth
Like a cold blooded lizard upon a rock
I find myself out of my element

Too bright are my colors
Too flashy my call
My answers too lengthy
My purse is too small

Boulders worldwide absorb the sun
Water is wet no matter the shade
Like a creature of earth I stand
Amazed at the kaleidoscope of life

Too bright are my colors
Too flashy my call
My answers too lengthy
My purse is too small

Elements are not discerning
Auspiciousness not circumstantial
Perception often skews the truth
Faith returns in silent observation

My colors are bright
My call a bit flashy
I answer with care
I live unabashedly.

bionic burger

why a Happy Meal won't decompose

Go

Gomoku is an abstract strategy board game and is also called Five in a Row. It is traditionally played with go pieces (black and white stones) on a go board (19x19 intersections); however, because once placed, pieces are not moved or removed from the board, gomoku may also be played as a paper and pencil game. This game is known in several countries under different names.

Black plays first, and players alternate in placing a stone of their color on an empty intersection. The winner is the first player to get an unbroken row of five stones horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. (read more)

Above Top Secret

House of Saud

When a modern-day “monarchy” commits the worst human rights violations on the planet, can we still call it a monarchy ..? Wouldn’t autocracy or totalitarian dictatorship be more appropriate ..? Saudi Arabia’s ruling family prohibits freedom of religion, speech and press. Beheadings and other barbaric punishments are part of their corrupt system of justice. Women are not even allowed to drive a car. Meanwhile, the House of Saud runs the world’s largest oil reserves like a personal bank account, occasionally tossing out billions to fight democratic reforms in the Middle East. Even the personal wealth of Osama bin Laden, which funded terrorist operations of al-Qaeda (including 9/11) ..was acquired through this kind of largesse from the House of Saud. Are these the people we want to sell billions of dollars worth of arms to? Of course we have no choice but to ignore the gravity of this political hypocrisy. With no coherent energy policy, our only option is to pretend these tyrants are our friends.

something wicked this way comes

Bhumisparsha Mudrā

Bhumisparsha Mudrā | photo of statue, June 23, 2011

Siddhartha resisted every temptation Mara could devise. The lord of desire had one final test. He demanded to know who would testify that Siddhartha was worthy of attaining ultimate wisdom. And his demon army rose up to support him. Siddhartha said nothing. He reached down and touched the ground, and the earth shuddered. Mara’s demons fled.

earth touching
This gesture calls upon the earth to witness Shakyamuni Buddha's enlightenment at Bodh Gaya. The right hand reaches toward the ground, palm inward.

मुद्रा
A mudrā (Sanskrit: मुद्रा "seal", "mark", or "gesture") is a symbolic or ritual gesture in Hinduism and Buddhism. While some mudrās involve the entire body, most are performed with the hands and fingers. A mudrā is a spiritual gesture and an energetic seal of authenticity employed in the iconography and spiritual practice of Indian religions and traditions of Dharma and Taoism.

TheBuddhaPBS's Channel - THE BUDDHA: Enlightenment, part 3

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whats more: Bhumisparsha Mudrā | Young Urban Zen | Dalai Lama | Science meets Buddhism

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happy birthday :)

Survivors

birth machine

"Birth Machine"

sculpture by H.R. Giger

it's a new day

Fannie Lou Hamer

Fannie Lou Hamer was born on October 6 1917; she was the daughter of Jim and Ella Townsend. She was one of twenty children – 14 boys and 6 girls. In growing up in Montgomery County, Mississippi, the young Hamer suffered from the twin insults of poverty and racism. One has to keep in mind the daunting cultural, economic and political realities that a black person faced in Mississippi at that time; Mississippi had the most repressive racist policies of that era.

Throughout the American South, African-Americans were subjected to the satellite of laws and customs that were instituted to actively repress blacks and enforce their inferior status. Collectively, these restrictive policies were referred to as Jim Crow. Some examples of Jim Crow included –
• Separate and unequal education
• Separate hotel, bathroom, restaurant and sports accommodations which even included drinking fountains
• Poll taxes and voter qualification tests specifically designed to exclude blacks from voting
• Laws outlawing mixed-race marriages.
In regards to the origin of the word Jim Crow, it seems to have first appeared around 1930. A white minstrel show actor, Thomas “Daddy” Rice, darkened his features using charcoal and danced a ridiculous dance to the lyrics of a song entitled, “Jump Jim Crow.” Some believe that Jim Crow was the name of a slave holder who “owned” the slave that Rice mimicked in his routine.

These were the conditions of life Hamer experienced as a girl and young woman. Her father was a Baptist preacher and a bootlegger, and her mother was a domestic servant. Jim and Ella Townsend were sharecroppers. The life of a sharecropper was one of hard work, poverty, exploitation and violence. Sharecropping was, in fact, an ante-bellum system designed to replace slavery with cheap labor. Although the institution of slavery had been abolished, the extreme economic disparity between the races was maintained. The landlord provided tenants with housing, food, seed and farm equipment from the owner’s plantation store at typically exorbitant interest rates and half of the crop. This system was designed to make it exceedingly difficult for the sharecropper to break free from this onerous system and get ahead. As a matter of fact, Hamer related a story that testifies to this system. There was a time when the Townsends were actually getting ahead when a white neighbor intentionally poisoned their animals when they were away. This singular event proved to be a major economic setback and undermined all the progress they had made.

Hamer started picking cotton when she was six - working twelve to fourteen hours per day. By the time she was thirteen, she was picking 200-400 pounds of cotton per day and receiving one dollar for her efforts. She had a markedly inferior education. The school year for black sharecroppers lasted for four months and was three months shorter than for their white counterparts living in rural Mississippi. The average expenditure for black children in the state of Mississippi was about twenty percent of what it was for whites. Hamer left school when she was twelve and joined the Strangers Home Baptist Church where she continued her education.

Her mother exerted the most powerful influence in her life. According to Hamer, “My mother was a great woman. She went through a lot of suffering to bring the twenty of us up, but she still taught us to be decent and to respect ourselves, and that is one of the things that has kept me going.” In her own admission, her faith contributed to her strength. One of the important lessons that Hamer learned from her mother was that hating made one weak, and that she should honor and appreciate her heritage. It was from her mother that Hamer learned the horrors of slavery. Her maternal grandmother, Liza Bramlett, was a slave and had twenty-three children; twenty of these children were the products of rape on the part of powerful white men.

Hamer ultimately became a remarkably influential civil rights leader. In appearance, Hamer seemed unassuming – she was short, stocky and walked with a limp. This limp resulted from an attack of polio she had as a child. She was desperately poor and lived in a house without hot water and no indoor toilet. The work on the plantation was arduous and exhausting. In striking contrast, the plantation owner’s dog had his own bathroom. Hamer was also known for her sense of humor – a quality that probably helped maintain her sanity under exceedingly trying conditions. As a married woman, she and her husband, Pap, often took upon themselves the care of other people’s children.
There was another dramatic event in her life that helped shape her thinking and her resolve to actively work towards a better world for her people. When she was in her early forties (1961), she went to the hospital to have a small uterine tumor removed. Following the operation, she discovered that she was sterilized involuntarily - her uterus had been removed. This was an outrage of major proportions to her, yet it was not a totally uncommon practice in regards to black women’s healthcare in that region of the country.

In 1962, the civil rights movement was well underway; Hamer was 44 years old and still was unable to vote. In Mississippi at that time, blacks were required to take a “literacy test” before being legally allowed to vote. The test was purposefully designed to exclude blacks from voting. As a result, she joined the struggle to gain the right to vote. At that time, blacks were relegated to being servants, working in the cotton fields, teaching in all-black schools, preaching or working as funeral directors. All aspects of social and economic life was under the iron-fisted control of whites. Those who attempted to defy the numerous prohibitions imposed on their lives were treated harshly and extra-legal and summary executions were quite common. The reality of lynching parties, a common phenomenon in the American South at that time, has been recently brought under public scrutiny. It was not unusual for black males to not only be lynched but also tortured and physically mutilated. It should be noted here that when the horrible fate of the young black Emmett Till came to light in the national press, the conditions of blacks in the American South became widely known.

On August 28, 1955, Emmett Till, a fourteen years old African-American boy from Chicago who was visiting relatives in the Mississippi Delta, was brutally murdered after allegedly flirting with a white woman. He was physically removed from his relative’s home and transported to a barn, where he was brutally beaten, mutilated and shot through the head. His body was subsequently disposed of in the Tallahatchie River, weighted with a 70-pound (32 kg) cotton gin fan tied around his neck with barbed wire. His body was discovered three days later. This event outraged the entire nation and helped to propel and energize the civil rights movement.
As a result of the extremely repressive conditions that plagued the black population, many fled to East St. Louis, the South side of Chicago, Gary Indiana or Detroit Michigan. It is the cumulative effect of these experiences that awakened Hamer to the horrific conditions of her people and made her determined to work tirelessly for change. She exclaimed that, “All of those things, when they would happen, would make me sick in the pit of my stomach and year after year, every time something would happen it would make me more and more aware of what would have to happen in the state of Mississippi.”

Young civil rights workers arrived in Rubeville in 1962. Mass meetings were organized. It was there that Hamer joined the drive to register black voters. The support of organizations such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) helped to mobilize the effort to improve the political and economic plight of the blacks by helping to shatter the feelings of isolation and powerlessness that individuals had come to accept as the inescapable reality of their existence. With a group of seventeen others, she traveled to Indianola, 26 miles from Ruleville, to register to vote. They were met with open hostility; as a matter of fact, a white crowd had congregated with some carrying guns in full view. Indianola was the birthplace of the White Citizens Council – an extremist group believing in white supremacy that was formed in response to the famous Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling that deemed segregated schools to be unconstitutional. It was a humiliating process. She and her colleagues were ordered to enter the registration office in pairs. Hamer was required to answer questions containing personal information that she understood could be used against her and her family, since this information would be made freely available to the White Citizens Council. This procedure was designed to intimidate. In fact, violence was subsequently perpetrated against members of her Rubeville community. Following this questioning, she and the others were required to take a so-called “literacy test” to qualify for voting. She was quizzed on section sixteen of the Mississippi state constitution. She, of course, failed in this first attempt. When she returned to the plantation, she was accosted by the owner, who demanded that she withdraw her registration for voting or face severe economic consequences. Refusing to be intimidated, she ultimately left the plantation and her family, at least for a time. She subsequently returned to Indianlola at a later date and passed the literacy test.

This marked a definitive turning point in her life. From this point on, she became very involved with SNCC and traveled with them. Hamer attended leadership training and voter registration workshops. She traveled with SNCC and became a fiery and eloquent spokesperson for the movement for black equality, especially in regards to voter registration. She also became an effective fundraiser. Hamer did this with remarkable courage, especially living in Mississippi in the midst of the horrors of Jim Crow as alluded to above. Her tenacity and courage were inspired by her moral convictions and to some extent by the bitterness she felt towards her oppressors. Her courage was undoubtedly accentuated by the hard life she led that helped make her extremely resilient.
The extent of the horror that Hamer had to endure in her struggle was made clear in the spring of 1963. Hamer, along with a group of other civil rights activists, boarded a bus that would take them across the state border to Georgia. Their purpose was to test the Interstate Commerce Commission ban on segregated bus terminals. Facing extreme and unbridled hostility, they ultimately decided to abandon their efforts and returned to Columbus, Mississippi. While awaiting their transfer to another bus that would take them home, they were physically accosted by the driver and forced to sit in the back of the bus. The next destination was Winona, Mississippi where some of the blacks got off the bus as a rest stop. When they attempted to eat at the lunch counter alongside whites, they met with overt and violent opposition and were eventually arrested by the local authorities and taken to jail. At the jailhouse they were separated into separate cells and horribly beaten. As a result of the injuries Hamer sustained, she was blinded in one eye and her kidneys were permanently damaged. Among those savagely beaten was a sixteen year old girl, June Johnson. They were then taken to court where they were charged and convicted of “disorderly conduct” and “resisting arrest.”

With the help of Julian Bond and the United States Justice Department, charges were brought against the offending officers, but they were tried in Mississippi with an all-white jury and the guilty police officers were deemed innocent of all charges – a verdict that was not unexpected. This was undoubtedly Hamer’s worst experience in her activist life. It did not deter her, however, from continuing in the struggle.

Hamer ultimately became nationally prominent. She launched a nationwide speaking tour that enhanced her national exposure and highlighted the plight of blacks in Mississippi. On April 26, 1964, some three hundred black citizens of Mississippi arrived in Jackson to form the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP). Hamer took on a prominent leadership role. The party formed a delegation that went to the 1964 Democratic Convention held in Atlantic City, New Jersey for the sole purpose of challenging the all-white Mississippi delegation. Ironically, the delegation ended up with wretched accommodations in a segregated hotel; Jim Crow existed in the North as well.
Hamer had numerous opportunities to emphasize the plight of the blacks in her home state; she was often on national television. These appearances did much to heighten the awareness of Americans to the evils of Jim Crow. The MFDP challenge made the likely Presidential nominee, President Lyndon Johnson, exceedingly nervous. Ultimately, through a series of political machinations, the MFDP lost their bid. Hamer left upset and embittered. By the 1968 Democratic National Convention, however, the Credentials Committee made a momentous policy decision – no delegation would be seated if blacks were excluded from electoral participation in their state.

Hamer continued working for the MFDP and appeared as a delegate to the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago as a member of the Loyalist Democrats that was a coalition of various black-affiliated groups including the NAACP and the MFDP. She spoke before one of the hearings at the Platform Committee and outlined her proposals for inclusion in the party platform - among these were land grants and low interest loans for cooperatives, a guaranteed minimum income, extended day care, comprehensive medical care, increased federal provisions for food programs and free higher education. In regards to foreign policy, she called for an end to the Vietnam War and the draft, renewed diplomatic ties to Cuba and China and an arms embargo imposed on the Apartheid regime of South Africa.

Hamer remained politically active, engaged and involved even when she was plagued by ill health and dying from breast cancer. She suffered considerably in her final days and was exceedingly poor. She had suffered both remarkable successes and serious political setbacks during her life, but she remained deeply involved in causes that touched the heart of her humanity and her generosity of nature. Hamer passed away in March of 1977; she left us a remarkable legacy. She served, unwittingly, as the moral conscience of the nation during her time, and continues to be an inspiration to those who actively work towards a better world.

terrible things

but what will they think?...


you ask your self...


"they'll think terrible things about me"...


what the hell did you think they were going to think?...


they think terrible things about you anyhow...


that's what thinking is about...


it's about terrible things...

Big Bucks, Big Pharma

U.N. Declaration on Sexual Orientation

The proposed United Nations declaration on sexual orientation and gender identity is a Dutch/French-initiated, European Union-backed statement presented to the United Nations General Assembly on 18 December 2008. The statement, originally intended to be adopted as resolution, prompted an Arab League-backed statement opposing it. Both statements remain open for signature and neither of them has been officially adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.

The proposed declaration includes a condemnation of violence, harassment, discrimination, exclusion, stigmatization, and prejudice based on sexual orientation and gender identity that undermine the integrity and dignity. It also includes condemnation of killings and executions, torture, arbitrary arrest, and deprivation of economic, social, and cultural rights on those grounds.

Voicing France's support for the draft declaration, Rama Yade asked: "How can we tolerate the fact that people are stoned, hanged, decapitated and tortured only because of their sexual orientation?"

The proposed declaration was praised as a breakthrough for human rights, breaking the taboo against speaking about LGBT rights in the United Nations. Opponents criticized it as an attempt to legitimize same-sex marriage, adoption by same sex couples, pedophilia (although all major psychological and scientific institutions have rejected such a link), and other "deplorable acts" and curtail "freedom of religious expression" against "homosexual behavior".

Homosexuality is currently illegal in 76 countries and punishable by death in five. In its 1994 decision in Toonen v. Australia, The UN Human Rights Committee, which is responsible for the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), declared that such laws are in violation of human rights law.

In 2003 a number of predominantly European countries put forward the Brazilian Resolution at the UN Human Rights Commission stating the intention that lesbian and gay rights be considered as fundamental as the rights of all human beings.

In 2006, with the effort of its founder, Louis George Tin, International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) launched a worldwide campaign to end the criminalisation of same-sex relationships. The campaign was supported by dozens of international public figures including Nobel laureates, academics, clergy and celebrities.

Among the first to voice opposition for the declaration, in early December 2008, was the Holy See's Permanent Observer at the United Nations, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, who claimed that the declaration could be used to force countries to recognise same-sex marriage.

However, Archbishop Migliore also made clear the Vatican's opposition to legal discrimination against homosexuals: "The Holy See continues to advocate that every sign of unjust discrimination towards homosexual persons should be avoided and urges States to do away with criminal penalties against them."

In an editorial response, Italy's La Stampa newspaper called the Vatican’s reasoning "grotesque", claiming that the Vatican feared a "chain reaction in favour of legally recognised homosexual unions in countries, like Italy, where there is currently no legislation."
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Change – Who Needs It?

I would like to pose the following question – How bad do things have to get before we collectively embrace the necessity for change? Whether we examine the human condition locally or broaden our view to encompass a more global view, we are, undoubtedly, a troubled species.
Within the boundaries of the United States, we are faced with some very daunting realities. I will attempt to enumerate some of them –

•One out of every four children currently lives in poverty
•1.4 million Residents of New York City depend on food banks and soup-kitchens (some 1200 exist in the city) for their nutritional sustenance. Thirty-seven thousand New Yorkers live in homeless shelters
•Over eighty thousand are reported homeless in the city of Los Angeles
•46.3 million Americans (15.4%) as of 2009 do not have health insurance as reported by the Center for Disease Control (CDC)
•There are 13.9 million (9.1%) individuals unemployed as of 2010. This number does not include those who are under-employed or have stopped looking for work
•The data regarding the severity of summer temperatures, violent storms and unusual weather conditions continue to show strong correlations with the unabated increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

This list is a relatively small one with a somewhat narrow focus. All these conditions continue to worsen while public monies flow unabated from those with little resources to the wealthy; the income gap continues to worsen. In spite of these data, many politicians are calling for simultaneous cuts in taxes - benefiting those who already have nearly everything - and a further degradation in public services including widely-used services such as Medicare. These same voices would like to unravel the remaining remnants of public programs that benefit the many, including Social Security.

How bad do things have to get before we collectively embrace the necessity for change? How much needless suffering is required before we begin to more equitably utilize all the resources available to us as a very wealthy nation?