AN EXPERIMENTAL LIFE
I've never undertstood people being willing to pay for training, college courses, a degree, certification, education, but who treat the money they've spent trying things out in life (experimentally) as money "lost" when they later choose another direction. Money spent on a house, and then you decide you don't want a house. Money spent on a degree, and then you decide you don't need the degree. … [Read more...]
For me, epistemology, judgment, and identity are the core variables that determine whether I engage people seriously or merely humour them. How do you deal with motivations and behaviors you don't understand? Do you superimpose meaning over them, thereby substituting an illusion for understanding, an assumption for reality, or do you allow yourself to remain in the dark and be comfortable with … [Read more...]
When I was younger, I bought into the sales pitch that zoos are rescuing animals from the jungles where, otherwise, they might be wiped out. Later, when we had more information about animal procurement, they changed their pitch. It became about 'raising awareness' so that people would care about protecting animals in those same jungles. I've come to believe zoos actually soften such awareness by … [Read more...]
It's never right to look at the family pet as 'just' an animal. It reflect a certain absence within the human being to do that - a missing component in the man, not the animal. It is the fundamental alienation from nature that Francis Schaeffer wrote about in Pollution and the Death of Man. "Dog" is often a derogatory term in this culture - you dog, man she's a dog, etc. It reflects the … [Read more...]
1. A fictional period that current Mediaeval historians (e.g. Cantor, Strayer, et al) reject, but which is useful for history teachers to justify spending only one chapter on an entire millennium. 2. A means of ensuring students have no significant understanding (beyond parroted platitudes) of the religious precedents that have determined, shaped, and evolved into the worldviews of their teachers. … [Read more...]
Ayn Rand said that money represents man's adding of value to the world, that it represents freedom or liberty in the sense that it makes the basis for human relationships - the footing on which they are placed - the fair exchange of voluntary contributions, rather than compulsion, force, obligation, debt, and control. In the words of Francisco d'Anconia, "money is the material shape of the … [Read more...]
I had to fight on this one. It's wrong. SQ 755 must go - Letter to Editor, The Tulsa World 11/14/2010 State Question 755 forbids Oklahoma courts from considering Islamic or international law and singles out one religion for disparate treatment. This is a violation of my rights as a non-Muslim, and robs me of the ground on which my own legal protections stand. If the state wants to ban … [Read more...]
You take a lot of flack for talking about the sentience of non-human animals. Fundamentalists, and Neo-conservatism (the deistic expression of that religion) after all, have a hard and fast wedge between humans and animals. Atheists who deny the soul and so can't distinguish brain from mind, have an even harder time with the inherent contradictions in that systems. But even suggesting the … [Read more...]
My own state requires that employers provide 2hrs off to vote, but some employers are saying they can't comply, because they can't afford to lose the coverage. Bullshit. If that's the case, they can't afford other national holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving. "I can't afford it" is another way of saying "it's not high among my priorities." On top of that, 2hrs may not be enough, given the … [Read more...]
You'll remember that back in April I told you about the New Futures Orphanage. Money was coming in so slowly that they had to eat it (as rice) and, especially with food costs being what they now are, they could never get together enough at once to buy farm animals and start sustainable agriculture. Their goal was $1000 to buy chickens and other sustainable food sources. This goal has been met, and … [Read more...]
We’ve got almost half of the $1000 needed to fund their orphanage food program. If ten people give $60, they’re funded! I first got involved with direct giving because of the New Futures Orphanage. I was scouring the net, looking for a way to reach the poor directly on limited funds, when I came across the [ blog ] run by volunteers at New Futures and knew that I had to help. Recently, the … [Read more...]
...be their Ark. The Oxfam Emergency Fund: Donate to help victims of the Myanmar Cyclone. Those who are least like us, who are not our people, who are most distant from our daily cares, are our strangers. Love is tested not by it's application to those who are most like us, but to those most estranged. … [Read more...]
If this week 40 people would give $25 each to New Futures Orphanage, instead of that same amount spread out over a year's time, the children could buy chickens, fish, plants, and other sustainable food sources that would last over a long time, and wouldn't have to eat the small increments of money coming in, while they're waiting, so that they have no future. If 20 of us could give $50 this week, … [Read more...]
I first got involved with direct giving to the poor because of the New Futures Orphanage. I was scouring the net, looking for just, real, and direct ways to impact the lives of the poor, with small funds. I came across a [ blog ] kept by an English teacher backpacking through Cambodia. She'd come upon an orphanage there that needed volunteers to teach some English to the children. Teachers would … [Read more...]
Note: This letter was sent by way of participation in an Oxfam Campaign and borrows content from a sermon by Sociologist Anthony Campolo on corporate responsibility. Golden Star Resources Ltd. 10901 W. Toller Drive, Suite 300 Littleton, Colorado 80127-6312 U.S.A. Dear Mr. Tom Mair, I read the reports from Oxfam (who is like the Mother Theresa of global care and relief agencies), and like a … [Read more...]
Please do not stop praying for Kenya. The poor, involved in microbusiness there, have been decimated. It's easy to suggest that somehow it's their fault, but it isn't. It's not your fault when armed gangs burn your tents and shacks to the ground, with everything you have, and kill people all around you. Below is a photo of Eunice Cherotich, someone I care about there, and a photo of Kenya in the … [Read more...]
Senator Constance N. Johnson Oklahoma State Senate, District 48 Senator Johnson, I am concerned about legislation introduced and planned for introduction in 2008 by State Senator Owen Laughlin of Woodward and others. The legislation concerns inmates in county jails and financial responsibilities for pre-existing medical conditions. Links at the bottom of this letter include the recent court … [Read more...]
I'm writing to ask that you intervene early, not wait, in the erupting situation in Kenya. I am deeply and personally concerned. … [Read more...]
One way of giving on behalf of colleagues and other professionals during the Holidays, is to give something related to their field of endeavour. For instance, for a training and education professional, you might give on their behalf to a school in Cambodia. Organizations like globalgiving.org and givemeaning.org make it easy to target a sector of charity (medicine, education, justice and human … [Read more...]
This is an excerpted letter of response I wrote to the COO of globalgiving.org -- she'd written to thank me for participation, mention some web traffic coming from my site, and ask how I'd learned of their organization. I responded to explain how, personally, I select the charities that suit my interests. Hi Donna, Here's the deal: It was a process. Like many people, I've gone years wanting … [Read more...]
I'm not political. But recently, I sent letters to each of my senators, and the representative for my district. This is an example of one such letter: Representative Fallin, I've lived in your district for about three years, but I'm less familiar with your work than I'd like to be; I'm writing to find out what you're doing about two things in particular - Sudan and Burma. And I'd like to urge … [Read more...]
Instead of gift cards this year, consider giving a charitable donation in the name of each recipient to kiva.org or oxfam.org. With kiva, you can print the photo and information about the recipient (and it will indeed be that exact person who receives your help) - it makes a wonderful card insert, and they will actually see your profile next to the person you helped when they go to the site. With … [Read more...]
New Futures orphanage in Cambodia [some more info]. Dazzline Stone School in Chennai, India [more ]. Warm Hearth orphanage and group home in Armenia [ more]. Others of our brothers, the poor. globalgiving.org and givemeaning.org: Promoting direct giving to the exceedingly poor kiva.org: Promoting direct, responsible microloans to raise the working poor out of poverty oxfam.org: … [Read more...]
Teach us to be responsible for one another. Enrich us with opportunities for compassion. Demonstrate for us the basic dignity of human survival. The poor are the orphan, the widow, the neglected, the enslaved, the kidnapped, the tortured, the trafficked, the impoverished, the abandoned and alone, the sick, the imprisoned, the immigrant (the stranger), and all who anywhere suffer or are in … [Read more...]
“Money is good for a few things: protect your family, liberate the poor, and make more money.” — Daniel DiGriz … [Read more...]