Leo Kottke - Vaseline Machine Gun

A response to this week's Supreme Court ruling: The only gun I need.

20 Percent Wind

Wind power can play a major role in meeting America's increasing demand for electricity, according to a groundbreaking technical report (click here).

The report recommends that the nation sets a goal to implement a 20% Wind Scenario by the year 2030.

New wind power installations would increase to more than 16,000 MW per year by 2018, and continue at that rate through 2030. No technological breakthroughs are needed. In the 20% Wind Scenario, 46 states would experience significant wind power development.

The report finds that by 2030, the U.S. wind industry could:

• support roughly 500,000 jobs in the U.S., with an annual average of more than 150,000 workers directly employed by the wind industry;
• support more than 100,000 jobs in associated industries (e.g., accountants, lawyers, steel workers, and electrical manufacturing);
• support more than 200,000 jobs through economic expansion based on local spending;
• increase annual property tax revenues to more than $1.5 billion by 2030; and
• increase annual payments to rural landowners to more than $600 million in 2030.
  

Using more domestic wind power will diversify the nation's energy portfolio — adding wind-generated electricity at stable prices — and strengthen national energy security.

Lock and Load

Is it acceptable that 30,000 Americans are killed by guns every year — in the home, on the job, walking to school, at the shopping mall? The Supreme Court on Thursday all but ensured that more Americans will die. Furthermore, annually over 700,000 violent crimes involve handguns.

The Court declared that the Second Amendment guarantees individuals the right to bear arms for nonmilitary uses, even though the amendment clearly links the right to service in a "militia."

This is a decision that will cost innocent lives, cause daily pain and suffering and increase the costs of law enforcement. For example, as the court was getting ready to release its decision, a worker in a Kentucky plastics plant shot his supervisor, four co-workers and himself to death.

Constitutional rights are not absolute. The First Amendment guarantees free speech, but that does not mean that laws cannot prohibit some spoken words, like threats to commit imminent violent acts. The rights gun owners have to own guns should be balanced against public-safety interests.

This harmful decision, which hands the far right a victory, is a reminder of why voters need to have the Supreme Court firmly in mind when they vote for the president this fall.

Naked As We Came - Iron and Wine

For Pete and the impermanence of life.

The Impermanence in Everything

A grandmother visited the Buddha in the middle of the day, her hair, face and clothes wet. Her beloved grandson had just died.
The Buddha asked, "Visakha, would you like to have as many children and grandchildren as there are people in Savatthi (the nearby city)?"
"Yes, Lord," Visakha replied.
"But how many people in Savatthi die in the course of a day?"
Visakha answered, "Sometimes ten people die in Savatthi, sometimes nine...eight...seven...Sometimes one person in Savatthi dies in the course of a day. Savatthi is never free from people dying."
"So what do you think, Visakha: Would you ever be free from wet clothes and wet hair?"
"No, Lord."
The Buddha replied, "Visakha, those who have a hundred dear ones have a hundred sufferings. Those who have ninety dear ones have ninety sufferings. Those who have eighty...seventy...Those who have one dear have one suffering. For those with no dear ones, there is no suffering. They are free from sorrow, free from stain, free from lamentation, I tell you."
The sorrows, and lamentations, the many kinds of suffering in the world, exist dependent on something dear. We can love a wonderful person, or a enjoy a beautiful view or a field of colorful flowers, knowing that all of these things are impermanent. Our pain in life comes to us when we expect a permanence that doesn't exist.

Because the world needs to know : 350

The science is clear, and politicians argue over policy. Carbon dioxide is causing global warming and human activity is the cause of the rapid release of CO2.

Watch this 90 second animation to learn a little more. It's goal is to build an echo chamber so that the number 350 is heard everywhere, with increasing volume.

Nick Drake - Pink Moon

Nick Drake, who died in 1974 under unresolved circumstances, was an amazing singer/songwriter. Although he is of "my generation", I've only heard of him in the past two years. His songs are timeless, and could have been written last month. In addition to the great VW commercial, here is a nice link for the full song, with some pictures of Nick Drake.

(I have actually seen a pink moon, but won't spoil the moment.)

Ten Rules for Good Government

Jimmy Carter was the thirty-ninth president of the United States, serving from 1977 to 1981, and the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize.

I worked on his presidential campaign, and voted for him twice. I have read every book he has written, and each article that I've come across.

Click here to learn more about the work that he's done since leaving office, and how he's worked for human rights, global health and democracy around the world.

In the JATAKA stories, the Buddha gave 10 rules for Good Government, known as Dasa Raja Dharma. In my view, President Jimmy Carter embodied each and every one of these:

1. avoid selfishness,
2. maintain a high moral character,
3. be prepared to sacrifice his own pleasure for the well being of the citizens,
4. be honest and maintain absolute integrity,
5. be kind and gentle,
6. lead a simple life for the citizens to emulate,
7. be free from hatred of any kind,
8. exercise nonviolence,
9. practise patience, and
10. respect public opinion to promote peace and harmony.

Concluding his autobiography, Keeping Faith, President Carter provides a quote from Thomas Jefferson:

"I have the consolation to reflect that during the period of my administration, not a drop of the blood of a single citizen was shed by the sword of war."

A Sermon for Today

To many Christians, the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew, chapters 5, 6, 7) contains the central tenets of Christian discipleship.

Here are some excerpts which are important even to me, a Buddhist:

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God...Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven...Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment...But whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also... Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you...Judge not, that ye be not judged.

As a Buddhist, I cannot understand how too many tolerate or encourage war, oppression, and dominance when their Lord had a different view. These people aren't a fringe; I see examples each day in my commute, at work, or at family gatherings. Sometimes I'm shocked and frequently disheartened when I hear Christians spread fear, hatred and war. They were taught differently.

Fortunately, I have found, subscribe to and am enlightened by Sojourners, a Christian organization committed to social justice. We are all human and fallible, but these folks practice the great teachings of their Lord Jesus.

Jose Gonzalez - Heartbeats

This isn't as easy to play as it looks! That's the definition of a true guitarist. You can also check out the Bravia bouncy ball commercial, with this as a track (click here). Enjoy.

Problems aren't solved by delaying action

If you were mortally ill and the doctors had diagnosed the illness and prescribed a treatment, would you ignore them?

It’s very clear that our planet is warming -- warming is unequivocal. The odds are nine out of ten, that most of the warming is from increasing greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases are coming mainly from burning fossil fuel.

All life on earth is carbon based. You, me, the trees, the fishes and the birds -- everything. When oil or coal is burned and combined with oxygen, carbon dioxide is released. This is science, not politics.

Climate change and global warming isn't only about a few polar bears. It is about rainfall and snowfall and water supplies and irrigation and agriculture and food. A 10 or 20 percent change in rainfall is life or death for agriculture. So particularly in very dry areas, places like Africa where there isn’t much in the way of irrigation, it’s basically rain-fed or it doesn’t happen. Changes in rainfall will have potentially a very, very large impact. Last year, the Australian droughts have had a significant impact on their wheat production. American farmers, particularly in the West, are seeing similar trends.

Recently, more than 1,700 of the nation's most prominent scientists and economists released a joint statement calling on policy makers to require immediate, deep reductions in heat-trapping emissions that cause global warming. You can read their statement here.

The statement notes that acting quickly to cut global warming pollution would be the most cost-effective way to limit climate change. If the U.S. delays taking action, future cuts would have to be more drastic and would be more expensive. Smart reduction strategies now would allow the economy to grow, generate new domestic jobs, protect public health, and strengthen energy security.

As clear as the science is, our representatives in the Senate turn it into politics, and have delayed for another year any action.

A Thought Diamond

The book, As A Man Thinketh, has inspired me for the past twenty years. It is in my top ten list of books that have had the greatest influence in my thought, world view and life. I have read it many times, and would like to think that it has benefited my conduct and life.

The author, James Allen was born in England in 1864. He wrote this classic in a clear, polished and accessible language. It has the tone and texture of scripture, yet it transcends religion by speaking to the condition of all humanity. If you want to spend a few minutes with a "thought diamond", read this very brief book.

Here is a small sample:

"Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself. No such conditions can exist as descending into vice and its attendant sufferings apart from vicious inclinations, or ascending into virtue and its pure happiness without the continued cultivation of virtuous aspirations. And man, therefore, as the lord and master of thought, is the maker of himself, the shaper and author of environment. Even at birth the soul comes to its own, and through every step of its earthly pilgrimage it attracts those combinations of conditions which reveal itself, which are the reflections of its own purity and impurity, its strength and weakness.

"Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are. Their whims, fancies, and ambitions are thwarted at every step, but their inmost thoughts and desires are fed with their own food, be it foul or clean. The 'divinity that shapes our ends' is in ourselves; it is our very self. Man is manacled only by himself. Thought and action are the jailers of Fate - they imprison, being base. They are also the angels of Freedom - they liberate, being noble. Not what he wishes and prays for does a man get, but what he justly earns. His wishes and prayers are only gratified and answered when they harmonize with his thoughts and actions."

(Notes: The book's title is derived from Psalms 23:7. This book is in the public domain, and can be found on several websites. If you wish to read the entire book, click here.)