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“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, It is the only thing that ever has.”
Margaret Mead
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Sunday, January 31, 2010
a trip on the wayback machine
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1851 Gail Borden announces invention of evaporated milk
1865 Congress passes 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery in America (121-24)
1964 U.S. report "Smoking and Health" connects smoking to lung cancer
1955 RCA demonstrates 1st music synthesizer
1992 Sportscaster Howard Cosell retires
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1851 Gail Borden announces invention of evaporated milk
1865 Congress passes 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery in America (121-24)
1964 U.S. report "Smoking and Health" connects smoking to lung cancer
1955 RCA demonstrates 1st music synthesizer
1992 Sportscaster Howard Cosell retires
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Saturday, January 30, 2010
a few observations
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I thought it was a good thing for Obama to meet with Republicans and take their questions. While many pundits called this Obama in the lion's den, it reminded me more of Christ going to the temple.
In order for our country to survive, we have to work together. It's not enough to have the votes to pass or block something. That kind of control only allows one group to get its way.
What is really necessary for us is for all sides to work in concert to make the world better. That occasionally means moving a little off your position so all sides can come together to move forward.
As several of us often told a particular congressman we worked for: "What difference does it make if your position is right when you are the only person standing in the room?"
I hope that Obama cntinues to reach out to Republicans and tea baggers and everyone else to find plans that work to restore our nation and our world.
I also hope that these opposition groups have the courage to let their desire for what's best for us to move ahead of their pride and "my way or the highway" attitude.
We all have to play together in this sandbox. If we don't , the sand will fly and we'll be left with nothing.
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I am remembering one of the greatest spiritual leaders of all time today. Gandhi was a master practicioner of non-violence. Martin Luther King, Jr. took Gandhi's ideas and turned them into the Civil Right's Movement of the 50's and 60's.
Gandhi's spiritula influence cannot be over simplified. He refused to let creed or religious ideology get int e way of reminding everyone that regardles of race or creed or religious beliefs, we are all children of God.
He may have expressed this thought best when he said "One's own religion is after all a matter between oneself and one's Maker and no one else's."
How true. So many of us get caught up in the belief that our way of faith is the only true way, that all others are false and must be brought into our fold, lest their souls be lost.
How arrogant of any man to say that his or her way to God is the only way.
The sad part is so many chuches and faiths spend most of their time not feeding the poor, healing the sick, taking care of those who cannot care for themselves; instead they spend untold riches building monuments not to God, but to their particular faith. From the way churches build, you'd think the only way to God is through a building - the bigger the better.
There are two examples of churches living over their menas right now - Rick Warren's Sadleback Church and Robert Schuller's church in LA.
Both have massive debt and are cutting back programs and laying off people to staunch the flow of red ink.
If we spent more time and money caring for our fellow man instead of fighting each other like Crusaders, our world would be in a better place.
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I'm waiting patiently for my iPad. If it's Apple, I want it. I love my iPhone (most of the time) and love my laptop.
As someone who was an Apple employee when Jobs was CEO and when Scully took over I can say the Jobs years were the most exciting and productive.
Thinking and evangelizing and innovating were the top priority.
Thank God we have people like Jobs who continue to think and dream and execute their dreams.
Just think of the great things that could be accomplished if more companies encouraged people like Jobs.
We have become a nation of the status quo. Imagine what would happen if we lsited to Jobs. His inspiration and "go do it" attitude could be the spark to bring the US into another Golden Age.
We need more leaders like Jobs.
-
I thought it was a good thing for Obama to meet with Republicans and take their questions. While many pundits called this Obama in the lion's den, it reminded me more of Christ going to the temple.
In order for our country to survive, we have to work together. It's not enough to have the votes to pass or block something. That kind of control only allows one group to get its way.
What is really necessary for us is for all sides to work in concert to make the world better. That occasionally means moving a little off your position so all sides can come together to move forward.
As several of us often told a particular congressman we worked for: "What difference does it make if your position is right when you are the only person standing in the room?"
I hope that Obama cntinues to reach out to Republicans and tea baggers and everyone else to find plans that work to restore our nation and our world.
I also hope that these opposition groups have the courage to let their desire for what's best for us to move ahead of their pride and "my way or the highway" attitude.
We all have to play together in this sandbox. If we don't , the sand will fly and we'll be left with nothing.
-
I am remembering one of the greatest spiritual leaders of all time today. Gandhi was a master practicioner of non-violence. Martin Luther King, Jr. took Gandhi's ideas and turned them into the Civil Right's Movement of the 50's and 60's.
Gandhi's spiritula influence cannot be over simplified. He refused to let creed or religious ideology get int e way of reminding everyone that regardles of race or creed or religious beliefs, we are all children of God.
He may have expressed this thought best when he said "One's own religion is after all a matter between oneself and one's Maker and no one else's."
How true. So many of us get caught up in the belief that our way of faith is the only true way, that all others are false and must be brought into our fold, lest their souls be lost.
How arrogant of any man to say that his or her way to God is the only way.
The sad part is so many chuches and faiths spend most of their time not feeding the poor, healing the sick, taking care of those who cannot care for themselves; instead they spend untold riches building monuments not to God, but to their particular faith. From the way churches build, you'd think the only way to God is through a building - the bigger the better.
There are two examples of churches living over their menas right now - Rick Warren's Sadleback Church and Robert Schuller's church in LA.
Both have massive debt and are cutting back programs and laying off people to staunch the flow of red ink.
If we spent more time and money caring for our fellow man instead of fighting each other like Crusaders, our world would be in a better place.
-
I'm waiting patiently for my iPad. If it's Apple, I want it. I love my iPhone (most of the time) and love my laptop.
As someone who was an Apple employee when Jobs was CEO and when Scully took over I can say the Jobs years were the most exciting and productive.
Thinking and evangelizing and innovating were the top priority.
Thank God we have people like Jobs who continue to think and dream and execute their dreams.
Just think of the great things that could be accomplished if more companies encouraged people like Jobs.
We have become a nation of the status quo. Imagine what would happen if we lsited to Jobs. His inspiration and "go do it" attitude could be the spark to bring the US into another Golden Age.
We need more leaders like Jobs.
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A few thoughts from Gandhi
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Before the throne of the Almighty, man will be judged not by his acts but by his intentions. For God alone reads our hearts.
I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill.
Glory lies in the attempt to reach one's goal and not in reaching it.
I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ
It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings.
Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent then the one derived from fear of punishment.
-
Before the throne of the Almighty, man will be judged not by his acts but by his intentions. For God alone reads our hearts.
I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill.
Glory lies in the attempt to reach one's goal and not in reaching it.
I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ
It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings.
Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent then the one derived from fear of punishment.
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a short time ago
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1798 A brawl broke out in the House of Representatives in Philadelphia, as Matthew Lyon of Vermont spat in the face of Roger Griswold of Connecticut.
1815 Burned Library of Congress reestablished with Jefferson's 6500 vols
1933 The first episode of the "Lone Ranger" was broadcast on radio station WXYZ in Detroit.
1948, Indian political and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi was murdered by a Hindu extremist
1956 Martin Luther King, Jr's home bombed
1968 Vietcong launch Tet-offensive on U.S. embassy in Saigon
1969 The Beatles performed as a group for the last time in public in a 45-minute gig on the roof of their Apple Records headquarters in London during the filming of "Let it Be."
1972 Thirteen Roman Catholic civil rights marchers were shot to death by British soldiers in Northern Ireland on what became known as "Bloody Sunday."
2003 Richard Reid, a British citizen and al-Qaida follower, was sentenced to life in prison by a federal judge in Boston for trying to blow up a trans-Atlantic jetliner with explosives hidden in his shoes.
1798 A brawl broke out in the House of Representatives in Philadelphia, as Matthew Lyon of Vermont spat in the face of Roger Griswold of Connecticut.
1815 Burned Library of Congress reestablished with Jefferson's 6500 vols
1933 The first episode of the "Lone Ranger" was broadcast on radio station WXYZ in Detroit.
1948, Indian political and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi was murdered by a Hindu extremist
1956 Martin Luther King, Jr's home bombed
1968 Vietcong launch Tet-offensive on U.S. embassy in Saigon
1969 The Beatles performed as a group for the last time in public in a 45-minute gig on the roof of their Apple Records headquarters in London during the filming of "Let it Be."
1972 Thirteen Roman Catholic civil rights marchers were shot to death by British soldiers in Northern Ireland on what became known as "Bloody Sunday."
2003 Richard Reid, a British citizen and al-Qaida follower, was sentenced to life in prison by a federal judge in Boston for trying to blow up a trans-Atlantic jetliner with explosives hidden in his shoes.
Friday, January 29, 2010
something to muse upon
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"When you begin to touch your heart or let your heart be touched, you begin to discover that it's bottomless, that it doesn't have any resolution, that this heart is huge, vast, and limitless. You begin to discover how much warmth and gentleness is there, as well as how much space."
- Pema Chodron
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"When you begin to touch your heart or let your heart be touched, you begin to discover that it's bottomless, that it doesn't have any resolution, that this heart is huge, vast, and limitless. You begin to discover how much warmth and gentleness is there, as well as how much space."
- Pema Chodron
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a long long time ago
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1845 Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven" was first published, in the New York Evening Mirror.
1850 Henry Clay introduced in the Senate a compromise bill on slavery that included the admission of California into the Union as a free state.
1886 1st successful gasoline-driven car patented, Karl Benz, Karlsruhe
1900 The American League, consisting of eight baseball teams, was organized in Philadelphia.
1924 Ice cream cone rolling machine patented by Carl Taylor, Cleveland
1936 The first five members of baseball's Hall of Fame, including Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth, were named in Cooperstown, N.Y.
1996 6,138th performance of "Cats" is held in London, surpassing record of Broadway's longest-running musical, "A Chorus Line"
2002 In his first State of the Union address, President George W. Bush warned of "an axis of evil" consisting of North Korea, Iran and Iraq.
1845 Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven" was first published, in the New York Evening Mirror.
1850 Henry Clay introduced in the Senate a compromise bill on slavery that included the admission of California into the Union as a free state.
1886 1st successful gasoline-driven car patented, Karl Benz, Karlsruhe
1900 The American League, consisting of eight baseball teams, was organized in Philadelphia.
1924 Ice cream cone rolling machine patented by Carl Taylor, Cleveland
1936 The first five members of baseball's Hall of Fame, including Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth, were named in Cooperstown, N.Y.
1996 6,138th performance of "Cats" is held in London, surpassing record of Broadway's longest-running musical, "A Chorus Line"
2002 In his first State of the Union address, President George W. Bush warned of "an axis of evil" consisting of North Korea, Iran and Iraq.
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