Clipmarks | abailart's clips

Diminished by Words

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 00:33:06 GMT

clipped by: Sheroug

"The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them - words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they're brought out. But it's more than that, isn't it? The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away. And you may make revalations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you've said at all, or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried while you were saying it. That's the worst, I think. When the secret stays locked within not for want of a teller, but for want of an understanding ear."

- Stephen King

Tags: quote, stephen king

the father of modern theology?

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 15:57:33 GMT

clipped by: jimbo1000
clipper's remarks: an interesting point that resonates with me.

Clip Source: publicanchest.blogspot.com

It has been most fascinating to see all the connections between what Schleiermacher was doing in 19th Century Germany and what is going on in contemporary "emergent" theology. Basically, Schleiermacher boiled down religion to a, "feeling of absolute divine dependence." Religion is primarily a feeling while belief and action are at best, secondary. Scripture is not objective revelation then, it is only a conduit to nurture our inner feeling of dependence on God, other things can do this as well, Scripture is just the one of the best methods for Schleiermacher.

The Daffodil Principle

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:23:00 GMT

clipped by: egsnyder
clipper's remarks: For the past 10 years or so, the story of "The Daffodil Principle" begins to circulate at this time of year.

This is one of the most inspirational stories I've ever read. It deserves to be read and to be passed along!

Please "pop" it, and "Pay it Forward" -- tell 3 or more people about this great story.

Clip Source: www.raamakants.com

The Daffodil Principle!

"Who did this?" I asked Carolyn. "Just one woman," Carolyn answered. "She lives on the property. That's her home." Carolyn pointed to a well-kept A-frame house, small and modestly sitting in the midst of all that glory. We walked up to the house.

On the patio, we saw a poster. "Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking", was the headline. The first answer was a simple one. "50,000 bulbs," it read. The second answer was, "One at a time, by one woman. Two hands, two feet, and one brain." The third answer was, "Began in 1958."

Consumer Addiction and Unhappiness

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:06:14 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: <<<Sally Erickson reminds us, the patterns of behavior endemic to consumer society are so much more dangerous than substance abuse, because they are perpetuating a culture that is literally eating itself out of house and home. If addicts define insanity as doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results, this may be the clearest sign yet that consumerism is driving us all crazy.>>>

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

"An addict is someone who uses their body to tell society that something is wrong." --Stella Adler

"What most of us experience when it comes to addiction

is a pattern of continually seeking more of what it is we don't really want and, therefore, never being fully satisfied. And as long as we are never satisfied, we continue to seek more, while our real needs are never being met."

Consumption without need is the hallmark of addiction, and "consumerism" is defined as "the equating of personal happiness with the purchasing of material possessions and consumption." The pattern of out-of-control consumption in the United States, which per capita consumes 70 times more than India, with three times the U.S. population, is not qualitatively different from the well-known patterns of behavior of substance abusers. In fact, it looks as if the United States just finished with the worst binge of its life and is now cresting the peak of a wicked crash.

Tags: addiction, consumerism

Blog Standard Ill Manners of Small-minded Nerds

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 09:50:43 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: A.C.Grayling here discussing religious bloggers but maybe has a wider point.

Clip Source: commentisfree.guardian.co.uk

The blogosphere, as I once before described it, is the biggest lavatory wall in the world, on which anonymous graffitists scrawl their wit, wisdom, fatuities and futilities. Some ("some" being the operative word) of what appears there is very good. Much is garbage. Given that bloggers are probably a skewed section of the population - skewed towards the nerdy, get-a-life end of the spectrum, more male than not, in the younger age brackets - they are not a reliable sample of anything other than themselves. But even the obviously certifiable among them can sometimes prompt one to think, mainly about the lack of historical knowledge, the lack of logic, and the lack of an ability to read attentively (or indeed to read anything much apart from blogs, it seems) that some of them display.

anonymously they eject their streams of ad hominem bile

when the ideas they subscribe to are attacked, they attack the person who attacked their ideas; to small minds, a fair exchange.

Tags: ill mannered expression on internet sites

Never a bridesmaid,always a bride

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 09:19:06 GMT

clipped by: Aribeth

Clip Source: le-trash.com

Kimiko Yoshida: Never a Bridesmaid, Always a Bride

Photographer Kimiko Yoshida has been playing dress-up for a long time. She also snaps a lot of pictures of herself. Yet with all those costume changes, the character she plays is almost always the same.

Yoshida’s online gallery holds more than 150 stunning self-portraits of the artist dressed as brides from different cultures throughout history. Thought-provoking, even mesmerizing, these photos represent nearly 10 years of fantasy and personal discovery for an award-winning artist who’s literally married to her work.

Tags: art, artists, self-portraits, photography, photos

Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Date Saints Followers Rape Teenage Girls

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 08:29:59 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: (added after the seventh comment below): the accommodation test: for Christian or 'Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' try substituting X or Y, e.g. atheist, buddhist, conservative, hindu...
Editing, narrating, conjoining words, a few words, though based on 'facts' can stir outrage, pain, offence etc.

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Interviews with hundreds of children removed from a polygamist sect in Texas have revealed that several underage girls were forced into "spiritual marriage" with much older men as soon as they reached puberty and were then made pregnant, according to investigators.

A total of 416 children, mainly girls, have now been taken into state custody after five days of raids on the Yearn for Zion ranch in Eldorado, west Texas. Court documents reveal the children were removed for fear they were at risk of "emotional, physical and/or sexual abuse".

Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a 10,000-strong splinter sect

believes that polygamy for men is an essential religious practice.

Several of the teenage girls were found to have children or are pregnant. Many could not spell their last names or state their birth date.

Tags: religious violence, violence against females, male violence

Venezuela Drops the Simpsons for Kids

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 08:24:59 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Something the right in the US and the Left in South America have in common?

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

The Simpsons has been dropped from morning TV in Venezuela after being deemed unsuitable for children - and has been replaced by Baywatch.

The popular US cartoon about the yellow dysfunctional family was branded "inappropriate" and pulled by the country's television authorities.

The country's TV regulator said the saga of Homer Simpson, wife Marge and their three children flouted regulations that prohibit "messages that go against the whole education of boys, girls and adolescents".

It said that some unspecified complaints had been received from viewers.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

"I will not instigate revolution." That's what Bart has to write out repeatedly in an early episode of The Simpsons, which traditionally begins with him chalking up punishment lines on the class blackboard.

It went along with the notion that The Simpsons was a subversive show which annoyed teachers, parents and the establishment.

an anarchic and liberal-left assault on that idea of the family

Tags: simpsons

Left Wing Women are Uglier

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 08:18:50 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Right wing women are bimbos. So are the men.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Italian opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi has claimed that right-wing female politicians are better looking than their left-wing counterparts.

Mr Berlusconi, the centre-right's candidate in elections this weekend, was quoted as telling local media that the left had "no taste" in women.

Mr Berlusconi was quoted as saying that when he looked round parliament, he found that female politicians from the right were "more beautiful".

Last year, Mr Berlusconi was forced to apologise to his wife for flirting with other women after she demanded a public apology.

Tags: berlusconi, mysogony

Animal Dung Coffee

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 08:15:55 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

A gourmet coffee blended from animal droppings is being sold at a London department store for £50 per cup.

Jamaican Blue Mountain and the Kopi Luwak bean are used to create Caffe Raro which is thought to be the most expensive cup of coffee in the world.

Kopi Luwak beans are eaten, then passed, by the cat-like Asian palm civet, and sell for £324 a kilogram.

The blend is made from two rare coffee beans

Enzymes in their digestive system break down the flesh of the fruit before the animals expel the bean.

"The final roast colour is quite dark to ensure that the espresso is perfect for a smooth latte or cappuccino."

All profits from sales of the coffee at Peter Jones in Sloane Square in April will go to Macmillan Cancer Support.

Tags: dung coffee