I had an useful/valuable realization last night: For me, it is almost always about the music and conversation. This applies many ways.

I think Descartes's rejection of the senses is really just secular Western philosophy's way of accommodating the European cultural bias toward body shame inherited from the Catholic Church's doctrines of original sin. He simply replaces an infallible God with infallible Thought. While I have deep respect for the power of abstract rational thought ( Read more... )

Brilliant and accurate:

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I feel like I've maybe figured out why it is that I haven't been able to articulate what's going on for me, and that's because I don't have anything figured out ( Read more... )

darthsunshine pointed me at this excellent (brief) article about the value of the American ideal. It's a few years old, but no less pertinent or poignant for the time between.

I've just received my second contact in about a month from people who were studying with my shamanic teacher that have now left her community. They were both folks who were pretty staunch supporters when I left about seven seasons ago. I didn't have a whole lot of contact with either of them; I assisted one's workshop, and was hosted by the other ( Read more... )

Corporations basically skewed the fuck out of the recovery so only they ended up with more money.

This quote is particularly telling:
“They threw out far more workers and hours than they lost output,” said Professor Sum. “Here’s what happened: At the end of the fourth quarter in 2008, you see corporate profits begin to really take off, and they ( Read more... )

http://www.gocomics.com/culdesac/2008/12/12/

Which is why you have to have a kid say it in the comic.

Remarkably enough, US undergrads aren't psychologically representative of our species-at-large. I know that's shocking, so take a second to chill out.

It's only taken, what, fifty or sixty years of research before someone thought of looking into this objectively? What's wrong with that picture?

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