http://playingforchange.com – From the award-winning documentary, “Playing For Change: Peace Through Music”, comes the first of many “songs around the world” being released independently.
Medical imaging of the brain during the decision-making process is fairly conclusive on the predominance of emotion in choosing outcomes, and the scientists who work in this field are on solid ground in saying that …
… In fact, people who lack emotions because of brain injuries often have difficulty making decisions at all, notes [neuroscientist Antonio Damasio of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.] The brain stores emotional memories of past decisions, and those are what drive people’s choices in life, he suggests. “What makes you and me ‘rational’ is not suppressing our emotions, but tempering them in a positive way,” he says.
“A fanatic is a man who consciously over compensates a secret doubt.”
“In contrast to the mystic, the physicist begins his enquiry into the essential nature of things by studying the material world. Penetrating into ever deeper realms of matter, he has become aware of the essential unity of all things and events. More than that, he has learnt that he himself and his consciousness are an integral part of this unity. Thus the mystic and the physicist arrive at the same conclusion; one starting from the inner realm, the other from the outer world.” ~Fritjof Capra The Tao Of Physics
Early next month, Congress will vote on additional funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The price tag: $79.2 billion.
Of that, only $3.7 billion will be spent on nonmilitary assistance.
That means that for every $20 the United States spends waging war in Iraq and in Afghanistan, our government spends less than $1 — less than $1! — to help the victims.
Tell them this profligate war spending must stop.Ask them to vote a resounding “NO!” to supplemental funding. We know military force doesn’t work. We should be funding refugee assistance … development … diplomacy. We need the tools of peace. Yet the United States spends $720 million a day in Iraq and $100 million a day in Afghanistan — and in 2008, only 4.4% of the money spent in Afghanistan went to U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) spending. If your members of Congress support the war in Afghanistan, remind them that even the Rand Corporation, a highly regarded source of research and analysis for the Department of Defense, states that our chances of military success in Afghanistan are 7%. It’s time to stop the mistake of Iraq and to fix it. It’s time to stop repeating it. Call Congress today and say NO to more war spending. Talk about peace and what it really means: cleanwater, education and jobs. A future without fear. Ask them to wage peace. Peace, Dee
To educate yourself for the feeling of gratitude means to take nothing for granted, but to always seek out and value the kind that will stand behind the action. Nothing that is done for you is a matter of course. Everything originates in a will for the good, which is directed at you. Train yourself never to put off the word or action for the expression of gratitude.– Albert Schweitzer
Mr. President, War Crimes Must Be Investigated
By Ruth Rosen, AlterNet Posted on April 20, 2009, Printed on April 21, 2009 http://www.alternet.org/story/137402/
The memos about torture released by the Obama administration are horrifying to read. Nothing new, here, but they are like a punch in the stomach all over again. This is my country? This is the nation that stands for freedom and decency? I understand why President Obama doesn’t want to prosecute those who believed they were acting under laws written by the Office of Legal Counsel. But that is not the only policy he and other Democrats can pursue. First, the men who wrote those memos should be investigated for disbarment. They acted in ways that are unconscionable and unprofessional, to put it mildly. Second, neither the President nor Congress should investigate these crimes. They must be pursued by a special independent investigator who has no political ax to grind. Now you may well ask, who approves of torture? Well, hardly anyone, except those in the Bush administration who justified or directed these war crimes. Third, how can we allow a sitting federal judge to remain on the bench–for life– when he provided legal justification for torture? I speak here, of course, of Jay.Bybee, who should resign or be impeached. Why do I feel so strongly about this? Because the country I care so much about has breached some of the most important international conventions in modern history and yet no major leaders have been held accountable. If the investigation goes straight to Vice-President Dick Cheney and President George W. Bush, then so be it. Remember the debate over whether President Ford should have pardoned President Nixon for his violations of the constitution? The best argument for that pardon was that Nixon HAD been held accountable and had to resign his office. He had, in short, received a serious punishment. President Obama’s instincts are right to avoid a drawn-out partisan conflict over the past. But if we are truly a nation of laws, committed to the decency and morality we embrace, we cannot let people who justify or commit torture and other war crimes to escape prosecution. Those who agree should make their voices loud, joining Amnesty International, the ACLU and many thousands of other Americans who will not allow war crimes to be committed in their name. Ruth Rosen is a historian and journalist who teaches public policy at UC Berkeley. She is a senior fellow at the Longview Institute.
“In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the
learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world
that no longer exists.”
– Eric Hoffer
“Do not value money for any more nor any less than its worth; it
is a good servant but a bad master.”
– Alexandre Dumas
“If all the economists were laid end to end, they’d never reach a
conclusion.”
– George Bernard Shaw
The Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra contains the best high school musicians from Venezuela’s life-changing music program, El Sistema. Led here by Gustavo Dudamel, they play Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10, 2nd movement, and Arturo Márquez’ Danzón No. 2.
About Gustavo Dudamel and the Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra
The Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra is the national high-school-age youth orchestra of El Sistema, made up of the best young musicians from throughout Venezuela. Gustavo Dudamel, himself a…Full bio and more links
“The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.”
Michelangelo
There has been much tragedy in my life; at least half of it actually happened.-Gandi
“You cannot be both unhappy and fully present in the Now.” ~Eckhart Tolle
You have to love Jazz for this.Aviashai Cohen Trio, Smash
Love is what makes the ride worthwhile.~Franklin P. Jones
“Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them to become what they are capable of being.” ~Goethe
“It is not my place to tell anyone what to do with their health. Rather it is to offer choices to allow that person to decide for herself or himself.” Dr. Michelle Schultz
“Simply do this: Be still, and lay aside all thoughts of what you are and what God is; all concepts you have learned about the world; all images you hold about yourself. Empty your mind of everything it thinks is either true or false, or good or bad, of every thought it judges worthy, and all the ideas of which it is ashamed. Hold onto nothing. Do not bring with you one thought the past has taught, nor one belief you ever learned before from anything. Forget this world, forget this course, and come with wholly empty hands unto your God.”
— from Lesson 189, “I feel the Love of God within me now.” A Course in Miracles
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