Massive rally at White House condemns Israel

Ashley Wells, Sheldon S., Wisdom Quarterly; CODEPINKla.org

Hey, White House, Buddhist monks agree: We need the change we were promised! (phayul)

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Massive Rally at White House condemning Israeli massacre in Gaza

Cool it in Gaza? - Hell no, we're killing 'em!

Washington, DC - CODEPINK (Women for Peace) joined the White House rally on Saturday, August 2, calling on the U.S. government to pressure Israel [and or the CIA and U.S. military-industrial complex] to stop the ongoing massacre and lift its illegal siege of Gaza in Palestine, Israel.

Gaza Strip ghetto, Palestine

CODEPINK activists carried large banners and conducted a mock cemetery with bloodied dolls and toys commemorating the loss of so many innocent Palestinian lives, especially children.

CODEPINK activists have engaged in actions across the country almost daily since the Israeli attack on Gaza began. They have protested at Israeli consulates across the country, been arrested for blocking the entrance of the Israeli Embassy in DC, rallied at U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s house, and more.

 

The U.S. gov't pushes for Israel's crimes.

With the toll in Gaza [now far] surpassing 1,400 deaths, 8,200 wounded, and 180,300 civilians displaced, activists are determined to keep pressure on the U.S. to end its arming, funding, and unconditional support for Israel and its war crimes.
 

In the past few days alone, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks by U.S.-owned F-16s, Apache helicopters, weaponized drones, tank shelling, and naval bombardment.

 

Actually controlling the media

The tiny Gaza Strip (home of 1.8 million civilian)’s only power plant was targeted by Israel's state-sponsored militants -- the fourth most powerful army in the world -- and blown up, schools were destroyed, U.N. shelters were illegally bombed and hospitals targeted after threat-warning that they would be shelled, and over 4,000 homes knocked to the ground, explains retired Colonel Ann Wright (with paraphrasing and augmenting by WQ). “We must take action to stop this!”

“As a Jew, a mother, a U.S. taxpayer, and a compassionate human being, I weep as I watch the massacre of so many innocent people, including hundreds of children in Gaza”

- CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin

“We must take our heartbreak and outrage directly to the White House,” Benjamin adds. The press contact for this action is Ali McCracken (860) 575-5692. More

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Control of the U.S. Media

Guns, sexism, and killing (cartoons)

Pat Macpherson, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly; Tom Tomorrow (thismodernworld.com)

Maybe it's women. Maybe it's men. Maybe it's guns. Maybe it's Republican men with guns who hate women. And maybe it's unresolved mental issues in the psyche of post-slavery America.

Exploit the incident in Tucson, Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, Sandy Hook, Boston...?

Maybe the "solution" is to kill more people? *Irony* Because mass shooters, who shoot themselves (as programmed) after their shooting spree, would think twice about shooting anybody if they knew we would kill them. Uh, wait. Joe Blow McCain makes so much sense when he talks to Hillary about Ukraine, Benghazi, and golf, and POWs, and Big Government.

• VIDEO: Cartoon violence and the Other F Word
• MUSIC VIDEO: Don't blame sexy Katy Perry!
• VIDEO GAME: Don't blame violent video games! (Rated M)
• There really is an MK-Ultra that makes mass shooters
• CIA runs many programs like it: black ops, psy-ops, mind control, Monarch Project, Phoenix Program, assassinations, pretexts, Project Paperclip, NSA Gen. Michael Aquino...

PBS News Hour says consider blaming popular violent video games, mass media, and our modern American war/sex culture (after Newtown, CT and Adam Lanza)

Women Hating (#YesAllWomen)

Ashley Wells, Pat Macpherson, Pfc. Sandoval, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Rebecca Solnit, Amy Goodman, Aaron Mate, Juan Gonzalez (democracynow.org)

UCSB and UCLA students mourn at candlelight vigil at UCLA on May 26. This deadly shooting rampage has sparked a conversation about gendered sexual violence in the U.S. just as the infamous bus rape did in India. Why do we tolerate the abuse of half the society? (David McNew/Getty Images/ksdk.com)

Maybe "not all men," but yes all women

Santa Barbara is grieving after a 22-year-old man [the privileged son of one of the makers of "The Hunger Games"] killed six UC Santa Barbara college students just after posting a misogynistic video online vowing to take his revenge on women purportedly for sexually rejecting him.

 

UCSB (Robyn Beck, AFP/Getty Images)

The massacre prompted an unprecedented reaction online with tens of thousands of women joining together to tell their stories of sexual violence, harassment, and intimidation. By Sunday, the hashtag #YesAllWomen had gone viral. 

In speaking out, women were placing the shooting inside a broader context of misogynist violence that often goes ignored.

In her new book, Men Explain Things to Me, author and historian Rebecca Solnit tackles this issue and many others. "We have an abundance of rape and violence against women in this country and on this Earth, though it’s almost never treated as a civil rights or human rights issue, or a crisis, or even a pattern," Solnit says. "Violence doesn’t have a race, a class, a religion, or a nationality, BUT it does have a gender." More

Yes, all women (Digital Vision/Getty Images)

(The Tennessean) Twitter users are responding by the thousands in the wake of a mass shooting in Isla Vista, California. Friday night by a man who pledged revenge on women who had rejected him. Suspected slayer [and self-proclaimed "alpha male"] Elliot Rodger killed six people before [allegedly] taking his own life. In YouTube videos and a manifesto he detailed a "war on women." More

Who are the Pope, Mary Magdalene? (video)

Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; Brooke Gladstone (OntheMedia.org)

Did I beat Miley Cyrus? That's all that matters.

This week, Time Magazine named Catholicism's current papal CEO and head of the Holy Roman Catholic Empire, Pope Francis, 2013's person of the year. Brooke Gladstone looks at the how the new Pope has been received by the media and how his messaging seems to have gone viral. through retweeting. (Martin Palmeri, Misa A Buenos Aires - Sanctus), guests: Daniel Burke, Maureen Fiedler, and Rocco Palmo. LISTEN: AUDIO

(Dsicovery/USAGnosticChurch) A documentary about Mary Magdalene and how incredibly important she is to the history of early Christianity and the modern world.

The spiritual couple: Radha-ji and Chrishna

Was Mary Magdalene murdered? Did the Catholic Church conspire to eradicate the holy bloodline from existence? To some Mary Magdalene was the wife or consort of Rabbi Yahshua (Jesus Christ), because every good rabbi would have taken a wife. The infamous Da Vinci Code has firmly put this idea back into the popular arena along with the idea of a holy bloodline descended from Jesus and Mary.

(RE) Who murdered Rabbi Jesus of Nazareth's wife?

Ancient Greek goddess

In this unique film we journey to places never before researched in connection with the story. We venture into the heart of ancient Lincoln, England, and uncover a tale so mysterious, so at odds with the accepted norm that we are forced to question everything we previously held to be true. 

The unknown texts are tracked down, a journey or treasure hunt across Lincoln County unfolds, and the final resting place of Mary Magdalene herself is discovered.

"How to Clear Your Mind" (Allure Magazine)

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; Andy Puddicombe (GetSomeHeadspace.com), Brooke Le Poer Trench (Allure.com, Oct. 2013 issue); ilanadonna (video)

Mind racing? Focus on something concrete -- like the sensation of touching something.
 

"Insider's Guide," p. 142 (Oct. 2013 issue)

The former Buddhist monk Puddicombe cofounded Get Some Headspace and is the author of Get Some Headspace: How Mindfulness Can Change Your Life in Ten Minutes a Day.

Everyone feels overwhelmed at some point... But what is the most profitable way to respond? We can react -- follow patterns dictated by habit, neurosis, or social conditioning. We can also respond purposefully, try a new way of coping, enter upon a mindful solution.

The thing is, we would first have to be aware. And the habit of bare awareness with clear comprehension (sati-sampajañña) is not the habit most of us have been developing. But it is the  good habit the Buddha recommended on the path to enlightenment.

Even on the path to mundane success, mindfulness is useful. There is no such thing as too much mindfulness. In the development of five crucial factors for success in meditation, there can be too much confidence (faith), there can be too much wisdom. One should temper the other. There can be too much energy, there can be too much concentration. These, too, should be balanced, one by the other. 

Definition
But the fifth, this sati, which we translate as "mindfulness" (bare awareness, thoughtless awareness, nonjudgmental awareness, vigilance, diligence, wakefulness, nondistractedness, effortless mono-tasking, nonforgetfulness, remembering to remember, childlike presence of mind or beginner's mind, etc.), cannot be overdone.

• Mindfulness has a separate meaning with which it should not be confused. "Recollection" or active-contemplation is the "memory" or remembering/bringing to mind side of "mindfulness." It is the turning, thinking over, pensively considering or "rotating" a theme in mind. This rotation (ratiocination, cogitation) is the actual meaning of the English word "meditation." The Buddhist word we commonly translate as "meditation" is bhavana, which has the much broader meaning of cultivation, development, or literally "bringing into being." There are three other words that might better be translated as "meditation" in this older English language sense -- janeti (from jhana, getting to "absorption"), kammatthana (field to be cultivated or worked or acted upon, from kamma, karma, one's meditation subject or theme), and anussati (pondering, recollecting, contemplating, from anu = "scrutiny" + sati = "mindfulness," i.e., long consideration or "consideration all the way around"). More

One is aware-and-clear as one goes about one's day, as one sits on a meditation cushion, as one thumbs through Allure and gets to page 142. Mr. Andy Puddicombe explains the rest, showing how just 10 minutes of practice a day can change a life.

(US.Macmillan.com) A former Buddhist monk with over 10 years of teaching experience, Puddicombe has been acknowledged as the UK's foremost mindfulness meditation expert. Like so many of his students, he began his own meditation practice as an ordinary, "busy" person with everyday concerns. He has since designed a program that fits neatly into a jam-packed daily routine proving that just 10 minutes a day can make a world of difference.

Beautiful Mindfulness

Is Allure good reading? Not really.

Body News: Beautified Minds 

(Allure/Lois B. Morris) Does plastic surgery actually make people happier? Yes... Ugh, actually it's hard to tell because we now cannot wipe these stupid expressions off our Botoxy faces.

Mood News: Open Minded

Can something as simple as twisting on a faucet or spinning the wheel on an iPod have a psychological impact? Hmm, let me hold my chin and scratch my head while I think about that. 

Body News: Mind, Body, Colds

(Allure/Kristin Sainani) Meditation and exercise help prevent colds and flu, research suggests. 

Mood News: Night Lights 

Does exposure to brightness at night affect your mind? 

Body News: Hunger Games 

A woman's mind-set while eating may influence her metabolism, surprising research has shown.

Mood News: Romance Risk

When women have romantic relationships on their mind, they're more likely to consider unhealthy ways of enhancing their appearance.

Mood News: Seeing More Clearly 

It's possible to improve your eyesight by changing your mind rather than your prescription. 

Insiders' Guide: How to Get a Great Facial

A facial can make or break your skin. Keep a few rules in mind and your skin will glow.

Scents of Self

Everyone knows fragrances [stink of chemical odorants and flavorants and pungent volatile organic compounds that harm the brain with excitotoxic effects. But did they know that...]

Beat me, my love! (video)

I. Rony, Wisdom Quarterly; Eve Libertine and Crass ("Bata Motel," Penis Envy); FEMEN

United we all stand, women and men, or surely divided we fall (femen.org)

WARNING: Violence against women, sexism, nudity, exploitative mainstream media images!

 

54% of abusers are boyfriends (Garry Knight/Slutwalk)

"Little girls of about six or seven were asked, 'What do you like to do?' Then some time later the same question was asked but in a different form: 'What do little girls like to do?'"

I've got 54321. I've got a red pair of high heels on. Tumble me over. It doesn't take much. Tumble me over. Tumble me; push! In my red high heels I've no control. The rituals of repression are so old. You can do what you like; there'll be no reprisal. I'm yours, yes, I'm yours. It's my means of survival.

 

Alert, everyone, alert! (femen.org)

I've got 54321. Come on, my love, I know you're strong. Push me hard. Make me stagger. The pain in my back just doesn't matter. You force-hold me above the ground. I can't get away. My feet are bound. So I'm bound to say that I'm bound to stay. Well, today I look so good just like I know I should. My breasts to tempt inside my bra, my face is painted like a movie star. I've studied my flaws in your reflection and put them to rights with savage correction. I've turned my statuesque perfection and shone it over in your direction.

 

She was asking for it? (Slutwalk)

So come on, darling, make me yours. Trip me over. Show me the floor. Tease me, tease me, make me stay. In my red high heels, I can't get away. I'm trussed and bound like an oven-ready bird. But I bleed without dying, and I won't say a word. Slice my flesh, and I'll ride the scar. Put me into gear like your lady car. Drive me fast. Crash me, crazy! I'll rise from the wreckage as fresh as a daisy. These wounds leave furrows as they heal. I've traveled them; they're red and real. I know them well. They're part of me, my birth, my sex, my history.

 

Death to patriarchy, sexism, and inequality (femen.org/en/about)

  

Topless protest for women's rights (examiner)

They grew with me, my closest friend. My pain's my own. My pain's my end. Clip my wings so you know where I am. I can't get lost while you're my man. Tame me so I know your call. I've stabbed my heels so I am tall. I've bound my twisted falling fall, beautiful mute against the wall. Beautifully mutilated as I fall. Use me; don't lose me.

 

American culture in Egypt

I've got 54321. I've got a red pair of high heels on. Strap my ankles, break my heels, make me kneel, make me feel. Turn, turn, turn like a clockwork doll. Put in your key, and give me a whirl. Tease me, tease me, the reason to play. In my red high heels, I can't get away. I'll be your bonsai, your beautiful bonsai, your black-eyed bonsai, erotically rotting. Will my tiny feet fit your desire? Warped and tied, I walk on fire.

 

Burn me out; twist my wrists. I promise not to shout. Beat me with your fists. Squeeze me, squeeze me, make me feel. In my red high heels, I'm an easy kill. Tease me, tease me, make me see. You're the only one I need to be me. Thank you, will you take me? Thank you, will you make me? Thank you, will you break me? Use me; don't lose me. Taste me; don't waste me. Use, lose, taste, waste.