Clipmarks | OsirisLocke's clips

Solidarity or Banker's Utopia

Wed, 14 May 2008 21:11:26 GMT

clipped by: OsirisLocke
clipper's remarks: An editorial I was shocked to see in the WSJ....

What kind of country are we to be? A land of equality? Or a bankers' utopia – where the law of the land has achieved mystical oneness with the higher law of classical economics, and devil take the bottom 80%.

NY Times - Neural Buddhists

Tue, 13 May 2008 20:49:47 GMT

clipped by: OsirisLocke
clipper's remarks: A Times editorial discussing the coming integration of science and internal realities, a la Ken Wilber and his ilk.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Over the past several years, the momentum has shifted away from hard-core materialism. The brain seems less like a cold machine. It does not operate like a computer. Instead, meaning, belief and consciousness seem to emerge mysteriously from idiosyncratic networks of neural firings. Those squishy things called emotions play a gigantic role in all forms of thinking. Love is vital to brain development.

The mind seems to have the ability to transcend itself and merge with a larger presence that feels more real.

This new wave of research will not seep into the public realm in the form of militant atheism. Instead it will lead to what you might call neural Buddhism.

Pulitzer for a Platano

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 18:34:40 GMT

clipped by: OsirisLocke
clipper's remarks: Way to go Junot!

Clip Source: web.mit.edu

Junot Díaz wins Pulitzer for 'Oscar Wao'

Sarah H. Wright, News Office
April 7, 2008

MIT professor Junot Díaz' critically acclaimed debut novel, "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao," enjoyed another wondrous round of literary praise today, winning the Pulitzer Prize for fiction just one month after receiving the National Book Critics Circle Award for best novel of 2007.

"I'm just so proud and overjoyed and happy to have finished this book at MIT, surrounded by so many brilliant colleagues and students," Diaz wrote in an email from Rome, where he is on a one-year fellowship.

Díaz spent 11 years writing the tale of Oscar Wao--a Spanish pronunciation of Oscar Wilde--a teenage Dominican who buries his broken heart and frustration in sci-fi novels and Star Trek action figures. Oscar's family lives much as Díaz' own family did, the author has said, balancing two lives, two cultures, in New Jersey and their native Dominican Republic.

I don't believe in atheists

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 19:25:11 GMT

clipped by: OsirisLocke
clipper's remarks: Our homegrown fundamentalists of all stripes are as big a threat as any to the Western enterprise. "Belief" is the problem; better to concern ourselves with self-knowing instead of moralizing.

Clip Source: www.salon.com

I don't believe in atheists

I write in the book that not believing in God is not dangerous. Not believing in sin is very dangerous. I think both the Christian right and the New Atheists in essence don't believe in their own sin, because they externalize evil. Evil is always something out there that can be eradicated. For the New Atheists, it's the irrational religious hordes. I mean, Sam Harris, at the end of his first book, asks us to consider a nuclear first strike on the Arab world. Both Hitchens and Harris defend the use of torture. Of course, they're great supporters of preemptive war, and I don't think this is accidental that their political agendas coalesce completely with the Christian right.

Living in Poverty?

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 19:31:36 GMT

clipped by: OsirisLocke
clipper's remarks: Could you crawl your way out of poverty with just $25 to start? I'm not sure I could; but hey as they say if you can make it here you'll make it anywhere...

Clip Source: www.lewrockwell.com

February 14, 2008

Living in Poverty?

Posted by Lew Rockwell at February 14, 2008 01:11 PM

One doesn't have to, said Andrew Fischer, somewhat controversially, in LRC. But now Adam Shepard proves him right.

Anti-War Candidates Are Top Recipients Of ‘08 Donations From U.S. Troops

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 20:24:54 GMT

clipped by: OsirisLocke

Clip Source: thinkprogress.org

Individuals in the Army, Navy and Air Force made those branches of the armed services among the top contributors in the 4th Quarter, ranking No. 13, No. 18 and No. 21, respectively. In 2007, Republican Ron Paul, who opposes U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, was the top recipient of money from donors in the military, collecting at least $212,000 from them. Barack Obama, another war opponent, was second with about $94,000.

The mystery, majesty, tragedy of the white-girl weave

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:00:19 GMT

clipped by: OsirisLocke

Clip Source: www.radaronline.com

Wrong Extension

The mystery, the majesty, the tragedy of the white-girl weave

By Edith Zimmerman

Tags: humor

McCain: Unfit for Duty?

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 03:51:15 GMT

clipped by: OsirisLocke
clipper's remarks: Only in America can a man who is a mockery of his party's purported ideology, and is no friend of those across the aisle, find himself on the road to the White House....

Clip Source: jblaque.livejournal.com

Unfit for Duty

Still think old "Straight Talk" is a friendly, centrist maverick qualified to take the helm at the White House?