Cats In Sinks

There is a level of cuteness which human beings should agree never to try to achieve in risk of the entire universe imploding on itself with a big, "oooooohh, that's so cute!" Cats In Sinks brought us to the brink of implosion.

The Five Buddha Families

I identify the truths of descriptions of myself more through whether the negatives apply than whether I think the postives apply, since I often think I'm much more positively endowed than I actually am.

The Five Buddha Families:
When people manifest the neurotic quality of ratna, they can be arrogant, ostentatious, oppressive and emotionally needy.

Ratna - WARNING: annoying PDF file coming

Pride is definitely my primary obscuring emotion.

Five Buddha Families:
When the obscuring emotion of pride is purified the wisdom of equality emerges. This wisdom is associated with the second dhayani Buddha, Ratnasambhava. As soon as we are born, we develop a belief of self or ego which is thinking, “I am separate from others.” This feeling of separation from others leads to the disturbing emotion of pride because we begin to think that we are better or superior to others who are in a less fortunate position. From this we begin to believe that there are desirable or “good” things which are the things we believe in and “bad” or undesirable things which are the things others believe in. This then leads to pride and thinking that we are better than others are. As long as we hold onto this belief we will never be able to learn from others. To purify our pride we must give up our ego clinging to develop the wisdom of equality. When we are free from pride, the wisdom of equality which is associated with Buddha Ratnasambhava begins to arise. Buddha Ratnasambhava is gold in color with the color of gold representing his enriching qualities and he holds a wish-fulfilling jewel in his hands.
...
The Buddha Ratnasambhava has the quality of the purification of pride. Ratnasambhava is Sanskrit and in Tibetan he is sangay rinchenjungdan. The Tibetan word sangay means “Buddha” and the word rinchen means “precious” referring to all precious, good, and immaculate things. The word jungdan means “the source.” So Ratnasambhava is the source of all good qualities with these precious qualities being the absence of pride. When ego and pride have been removed, we are open to receive all the positive knowledge and qualities. This is the realization of Sangay Rinchen Jungdan. Knowing the meaning of Rinchen Jungdan, we can understand why his activity encompasses the enrichment of all precious qualities of realization. Ratnasambhava resides in the south and is yellow or gold in color. The color gold represents wealth and Ratnasambhava holds a wish-fulfilling jewel at his heart in his left hand. The wish-fulfilling jewel is a jewel that gives a person everything that he or she desires and so this also symbolizes enrichment. He is seated in the vajra posture of fulfillment on a horse’s throne representing the four bases or legs of miraculous powers that enables unobstructed passage everywhere. His right hand is in the mudra of giving supreme generosity, showing that he has pure generosity.
...
The seventh consciousness is the consciousness which clings to an “I” and makes a distinct separation between “I” and “others.” By dividing subject from object, the seventh consciousness causes us to desire well-being for ourselves. This separation leads to wanting the “I” to get what it wants at the expense of the “other.” This creates the disturbing emotions such as aggression, jealousy, and pride. We want to protect ourselves and this leads to aggression and anger. We also discover that others, especially those whom we feel aren’t as good as us, have what we want and this leads to jealousy. Finally, this separation causes us to feel that we are better than others in certain ways and this leads to pride. The seventh consciousness is thus the cause for our endless struggle in samsara. When this dualism is purified, the wisdom of equality is realized so that there is no clinging to a self and others, and all mental and physical activities are experienced impartially. This realization of the wisdom of equality is realization of the Buddha Ratnasambhava.

American Legion Declares War on Protestors -- Media Next?

Speaks for itself, I guess.

American Legion Declares War on Protestors -- Media Next?:
The American Legion, which has 2.7 million members, has declared war on antiwar protestors, and the media could be next. Speaking at its national convention in Honolulu, the group's national commander called for an end to all “public protests” and “media events” against the war.

'The American Legion will stand against anyone and any group that would demoralize our troops, or worse, endanger their lives by encouraging terrorists to continue their cowardly attacks against freedom-loving peoples,' Thomas Cadmus, national commander, told delegates at the group's national convention in Honolulu.

The delegates voted to use whatever means necessary to 'ensure the united backing of the American people to support our troops and the global war on terrorism.'

New direction for college rankings

The Washington Monthly College Guide - First Annual
"Other guides ask what colleges can do for you. We ask what colleges are doing for the country. "

Article from the Washington Post:
Not that they pay attention to rankings or anything, but Princeton and Harvard -- tied for first on U.S. News & World Report's latest "America's Best Colleges" -- will have to scroll down several places to find their names on a new ratings list based on community and national service.

The Washington Monthly, a District-based political magazine that has made a specialty of trashing the U.S. News rankings, plans to put on its http://washingtonmonthly.com/ Web site today its own college guide, with Harvard relegated to No. 16, far below No. 7 Texas A&M, and No. 44 Princeton humiliated by No. 34 Iowa State.
...
The Washington Monthly staff in the past has debunked the weighting and categories in the annual U.S. News list, citing a report in 2000 that the weightings lacked any "empirical or theoretical basis." But they have embraced similar statistical complexities, they say, to force higher education in a different direction. In an accompanying article, they say they hope this will encourage colleges to send more students into national and community service, spend more on beneficial research and try harder to enroll and graduate low-income applicants.

Problem with economists: No ethical variable

MaxSpeak, You Listen!: CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON:
Do markets really solve all problems? Most problems? Nothing ever goes wrong? I guess it depends on how you define 'wrong.' For instance, Amartya Sen wrote a book about poverty and famines which describes how markets solved the problems of people having no money to buy food: they die of starvation, the ultimate steady state.

If oil runs out, sure there will be substitutes. How fast will these come online, if they do? How much will they cost? What will be the costs of adjustment? Will that be fun? Who knows? Markets solve problems. Solutions do not exclude freezing in the dark, a new kind of equilbrium.

Nobody should be let loose in the wild with a Ph.D. in economics unless they've been required to take three or four courses in history, preferably taught by non-economists.

Response to God's Koan

And I guess Job made the appropriate response to God's koan by withdrawing the question and admitting the overwhelming limitation of human nature in comprehending God -- "The Tao that can be known is not Tao"

JOB, NRSV HEBREW BIBLE

A friend of mine has recently been considering some of the implications and ramifications of the story in the Book of Job.

In his considerations, he says that he may not be remembering the Book of Job correctly from his Bible School years. I don't know whether he is or not because from the stories I've been told by my wife and my mother-in-law, the stories told in Bible School or Sunday school or Christian schools are often warped and twisted and serve the needs of brainwashing a group rather than teaching the Bible. But because I believed that Bible Schools are often twisted, my friend's line of thought made me revisit the Book of Job (New Revised Standard Version & Complete Tanach with Rashi's commentary).

It was nothing like I remembered it.

It's not a story about Job and his relationship to the Hebrew God as much as it's a story of the relationship of his three friends to Job and to God. His three friends don't comfort Job but instead lambast Job for being impatient and for daring to question why God has let evil happen to him. They also pretend to ascribe understanding of how God thinks or would respond. And that is the focus of the narrative, not God-Satan-Job.

The whole narrative structure of the story is kind of complicated, and took me a while to parse, but I'm glad I did. The actual response from God is a little koan-like, hell it's a lot koan-like, in its elusiveness; and quite "Why do you keep thinking you can understand me?" Tao-like if the Tao talked back to people. The short story that frames the main dialogues (the story with Satan or The Adversary) is very folk-taleish and really doesn't seem like the main theme of the story at all, just a way of setting the stage, yet I'll bet that the framed story is the main thrust of many a Bible class.

(Just as an exercise, I sought out a Baptist ministry sermon on Job. Unsurprisingly, the four messages this minister gets from Job are 1. Satan's aim is to destroy our joy in God, 2. God aims to magnify his worth in the lives of his people, 3. God grants to Satan limited power to cause pain, and 4. Satan's work is ultimately the work of God. Three of the four messages that this minister gets out of this story are about Satan [insert fire and brimstone here].)

I should stop being surprised that the messages in the Jewish and Christian holy books are often as thoughtful as those in Eastern texts, certainly more thoughtful than I remember them to be.

JOB, NRSV HEBREW BIBLE:
The enigma of the suffering of the righteous and the good fortune of the wicked was one addressed by Israelite literature, both in the psalms and in other wisdom texts. Although not prominent in the book of Proverbs, it emerges more strongly in the later wisdom books of Ecclesiastes and Sirach. Several Psalms also address aspects of these issues (Ps 37; 39; 49; 73), but they do not exhibit the radical protest and questioning that one finds in the book of Job.

Distinctive to the book of Job is the way it situates these issues. The book is neither a treatise on innocent suffering, as often supposed, nor an apology for God's justice in the face of inexplicable human suffering. Rather, the principal theological issue that the book raises is, ironically, the question posed by the adversary in the divine council (see 1.9): Will mortals be religious ('fear God') apart from rewards and punishment? As the dialogue develops, however, the questions of divine justice that torture Job's mind are not satisfactorily met by the arguments of the friends. Job himself seeks to imagine a way in which he might go to trial with God for a vindication of his righteousness and perhaps an acknowledgment from God of God's mistreatment of Job (9.2-35; 13.13-28; 16.18-22; 19.23-27; 23.1-7; 31.35-37). Yet when God answers Job, it is neither as the friends have imagined God would speak nor as Job had hoped God would answer him. The meaning and significance of the divine speeches continue to be among the most debated issues of the book. Some interpret the speeches as a repudiation of a human's right to question God. Others understand them as a necessary correction to Job's too limited understanding of the nature of the cosmos as a place where all suffering can be reduced to legal categories of guilt or innocence. All agree that the extraordinary beauty of the poetry is part of its meaning. Perhaps the very elusiveness of the divine speeches implies that no answer from God to Job's questions can satisfy the human intellect. But as is known by anyone, that is not true to our experience as humans. We yearn for a response to the problem of evil, and continue to in part because the book of Job provided no answer for us. Yet the ending suggest that there is a resolution to be found in the depths of a pious life lived before a mysterious God.

The tyranny of reading

I really enjoyed reading this. And I guess that's what my blog is really about, relating those things that I really feel joy/hate/love/fear/anxiety/sorrow/emotion/etc. for.

Guardian Unlimited Books | By genre | The tyranny of reading: "However, it's fine for anyone to confess that they really can't stick shopping; one can even seem quite smug about it. Not so if you aren't keen on books. Reading must be about the only pastime that is pretty much universally seen as 'good' and virtuous - so to say openly that you don't like books puts you beyond the pale. For someone to say they don't care for reading labels them as some kind of thickie pariah, fair game for any insult. To decide any such thing on the basis of one single trait seems both sweeping and snobbish."

A conversation between critic and creator

Roger Ebert gave a zero-star review of a film called Chaos (as did several other movie critics). The director and producer wrote him a letter back and he responded. The exchange is telling about the moral level which Ebert perceives about the critic's role. I think my best friend will find the exchange fascinating.

:: rogerebert.com:
The 'Deuce Bigalow' review speaks for itself. The review of 'Chaos,' which has not yet received a wide national release, deserves some discussion. I received a provocative letter from Steven Jay Bernheim, its producer, and David Defalco, its director, that is printed in an advertisement in the Weekend section of the Chicago Sun-Times. I reprint their letter here, followed by my response (which reveals important plot details).

What Shall I Be: The Exciting Game of Career Girls

The pictures of everything, especially the Personality Cards ("You are overweight -- Bad for: Airline Hostess, Ballet Dancer, and Model" or "You get too excited -- Bad for: Airline Hostess and Nurse"), make the link leap worth it. This is the societial image of women's careers that little boys and girls 40 years ago had to grow up in.

bradley's almanac:
It's called 'What Shall I Be?', and I imagine that when the Bay Shore, NY-based Selchow & Righter Company sent it to toy store shelves in 1966 that they saw it as a progressive step. 'Let's get our little American girls ready for the wide-open working world!'.
[picture]
Looking at it now, nearly 40 years removed, it's mostly just a riot, or maybe kinda sad, depending on how far you think workplace gender equality has come since the mid-sixties.

Your goal? Be the first player to become a 'Career Girl' in your chosen field by collecting School Cards, Subject Cards, and Personality Cards that can either help or hinder you. The laughs start when you see what six future careers are available for young girls to choose from...
[picture]

Which browser/operating system/layout engine/etc. should I use?

Have I mentioned how much I love Wikipedia?

This is a collection of tables of general and technical comparisons for various types of software.
Category:Software comparison - Wikipedia

RssFwd : Reading RSS the way you are already reading your emails

Well, now, this free RSS feed to email service seems interesting:
This site allows anyone to subscribe to any RSS / Atom feed and receive the updates in their email inbox. You can get more technical information at the blog (e.g. download source codes, updates). I can be reached at choonkeat at gmail.

The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board Thinks You Are Stupid

I love it when people actually check hyperbolic claims such as "largest in history." I wish people would ask the question "So what?" more often.

MaxSpeak, You Listen!: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL BOARD THINKS YOU ARE STUPID:
'In case there was any remaining doubt in the Berkeley faculty lounge, the Congressional Budget Office has now confirmed that federal revenues will rise this year by more than $262 billion -- the largest single-year increase in tax revenues in American history.'

Wow! Such a milestone! But inquiring minds want to know, how many times in the past might such a wondrous event have occurred?

If you start with 1901, with apologies to Millard Fillmore and other ancients, it turns out the answer is 19 times. 19 times, the increase in revenues was 'the largest single-year increase in tax revenues in American history.'

What were some of these wonder years? If we skip past WWII, the first big year was 1969. The next was FY1977, for which we should credit President Gerald R. Ford. Jimmy Carter struck in 1979, and again in 1981. Next is Ronald Reagan in 1987, Clinton in 1994, 1997, 1998, and 2000. (Note: 1994 followed tax increases, 98 and 00 followed tax cuts.) Not until FY2005 does G. Bush break out of the pack.

Bush makes history - Five years, zero vetoes

Bush makes history - a five-year streak without saying 'no' | csmonitor.com:
Like pardons and executive orders, vetoes are among the cherished privileges of the Oval Office. Ike liked them. So did presidents Truman and Cleveland - and both Roosevelts.

But apparently not George W. Bush. In fact, well into the fifth year of his presidency, he has yet to issue a single veto.

It's a streak unmatched in modern American history, one that throws into question traditional notions of checks and balances.

Iraqi Chemical Stash Uncovered

Are we becoming responsible for the creation of everything in Iraq that we claimed was there before we invaded--but wasn't?

Iraqi Chemical Stash Uncovered:
Combined, the chemicals would yield an agent capable of 'lingering hazards' for those exposed to it, Boylan said. The likely targets would have been 'coalition and Iraqi security forces, and Iraqi civilians,' partly because the chemicals would be difficult to keep from spreading over a wide area, he said.

Boylan said the suspected lab was new, dating from some time after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. The Bush administration cited evidence that Saddam Hussein's government was manufacturing weapons of mass destruction as the main justification for the invasion. No such weapons or factories were found.

Grieving Calif mother's war protest gains momentum in Crawford

AP Wire | 08/10/2005 | Grieving Calif mother's war protest gains momentum in Crawford: "'Cindy Sheehan has become the Rosa Parks of the anti-war movement,' said Rev. Lennox Yearwood, leader of the Hip Hop Caucus, an activist group. 'She's tired, fed up and she's not going to take it anymore, and so now we stand with her.'"

A Martini party

Ooooh, I just got the idea for a martini party. But the star in this martini party would be the olive, not the gin or vodka. The party-goers task would be to choose the best olive variety to accompany a martini. For those up to the task, we could also choose the best olive with brine for a dirty martini. Mmmmmm...

I could have some Tanqueray, some Beefeater, some Bombay Sapphire, and some home-filtered vodka.

Maybe I could turn it into a board game night as well.

Holiday get-togethers

I adore my job right now. I work at Zingerman's, finally. My job is to talk to people all day about fine olive oil, imported and domestic award-winning cheeses, specialty cured meats from humanely raised (as possible as that might be, at least) and slaughtered cattle and pigs, traditionally baked bread with no corners cut to maximize profits, traditional 200 year old balsamic vinegars, imported mustards, single-estate coffees, rare varietals of honey, and heirloom paella or risotto rices from Spain and Italy. My job is to remind people of the virtues found in food raised in traditional pre-Industrial methods, artisanally produced by hand with ingredients dug, grown, or plucked from the earth. My job is to taste all of these products and to offer tastes of all of these products to my guests. And I'm expected to treat these guests with honor and respect for their intelligence and taste, reminding them that they can actually taste the difference between food in which the Goddess has been respected and food in which the Goddess has not. (Not that I tell my guests using the word Goddess, but I do when I talk to my co-workers because they respect my Wiccan beliefs.) In the long term, I'll have five paid weeks a year off, more unpaid if I want them. They will pay me to take classes about specialty foods, or how to run a business, or even how to go about buying my first home. They'll give me a 401k, they'll possibly help me own my own business someday, and they'll give me raises based on how much I'm learning as long as I'm giving good service to the guests.

I adore my job.

There is one thing that I do not adore about my job, however. My best friends are scattered throughout the country. Three of my best friends, Ryan, Jennifer, and Gabrielle, are in Oregon. Nicole is in New York. And their children, Elijah, Xander, and Hannah are growing up without knowing how special they are to me (except perhaps Xander) and without me seeing them grow up. Annalisa will soon be in Texas. I do not adore that. My choice to have my career in retail food has limited my ability to take vacations during the traditional eating holidays of the year (Tofurky Day and Yule) because most employees are expected to work during those holidays.

I look forward strongly to the time they can all come to me. I want to show off my city to them. I've seen New York, and I love it, it vibrates with life. I've seen Salem, and though my love is not there for the city, it is there for the state--one of the most beautiful landscapes I've seen and certainly an important root of my paganism. I want them to see my new home. My beautiful Great Lakes, my beautiful arbored city, and my beautiful Zingerman's. I want them to taste with me, my Parmigiano-Reggiano, my Pasolivo olive oil, for Jennifer my pancetta, my apple-wood smoked bacon, for Annalisa a German sausage that earns the capital "G," for Ryan a taste of La Tur, for Gabrielle a wasabi chocolate and a perfect Papua New Guinea coffee, for Nicole some sourdough and a tour of the world of Solomon's passions (I want to show you my passion in its full splendor, talking as if I was drunk and kneeling before you, praising the food around me), for all the children, traditionally made gelato from milk of a local dairy farmer with one herd.

I feel as if I will be missing holidays with you for quite a while. And I'm sad about that.

Stumbled on this

Thanks to Stumble! I ran into this collection of photographs of over 468 front pages from over 45 countries--daily.

Nice Quote from Emma Goldman

In Defense of Emma Goldman:
'ASK FOR WORK; IF THEY DO NOT GIVE YOU WORK ASK FOR BREAD; IF THEY DO NOT GIVE YOU WORK OR BREAD THEN TAKE BREAD'.
EMMA GOLDMANN.

2 cents a song

Micropayments and a rebuttal/response to micropayments.

Who does catering for The Food Network

"We're going to Ann Arbor to shoot."
"Ann Arbor? You mean we can eat Zingerman's food? Life is good."

Chef Brown is in the house:
About Brown, says programming director Allison Page, "He's our Bill Nye the Science Guy....
"He does so much research for every piece of information so each show has an air of authority to it."

While in town for the taping in March, Zingerman's -- one of Brown's favorite Michigan food stops -- catered meals to the Food Network crew at the Sims house. His only disappointment was not having time to stop at the deli himself.

"It's hard to talk about Ann Arbor without talking about Zingerman's," he says. "What's not to like there? I'm a hog for baked goods."