Tao Urges Non-reaction to North Korean Provocation

This article was originally published by Technorati on 25 May 2010 as a Simply Spirited feature. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

Tensions are mounting along the DMZ between North and South Korea now that the latter has determined that a North Korean submarine took out one of its warships with a torpedo.

This is an act of war, without question. But no act could be more ripe for non-reaction than this one.

Bloomenthal's Vietnam Pretense Contrary to Tao

This article was originally published by Technorati on 24 May 2010 as a Simply Spirited feature. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

Out-going Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT) offered some bland words of support today for his would-be Democratic successor, Richard Bloomenthal.

"I can't think of a better legacy I can have in the Senate than to have Dick Blumenthal follow me in that job," Dodd said, speaking to reporters in Hartford.

Dodd's statement comes in conjunction with Bloomenthal's cursory apology for pretending to have fought in Vietnam.

Rand Paul's Views on Civil Rights Act Not in Keeping with the Tao

This article was originally published by Technorati on 21 May 2010 as a Simply Spirited feature. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

In a previous post, we detailed 8 Rules for Governing a Country from the Tao te Ching. There are at least 19 in all, along with other good advice of a general nature.

With election season in full-swing, it might be helpful to voters to have a guide for candidates based on their adherence to the Tao. And who better to start with than a candidate from my home state of Kentucky, Rand Paul, the much heralded would-be Senator backed by the Tea Party.

Paul is certainly welcome to his views, but his Libertarianism seems to have gotten the better of him just one day past his unexpected primary victory. He holds a stringent view of private property rights which stands at odds with the almost universally revered Civil Rights Act of 1964.

While purporting to agree with nine of the ten titles under the Civil Rights Act, he stands by past statements in which he has said that the title applicable to discrimination by private business entities tramples property rights and should have been modified.

This video is 10 minutes long. Maddow can't seem to believe that a person she clearly likes personally could be this inept as a politician, and she gives him extra time to hang himself. Which he does.

Is Rand Paul a racist? Absolutely not. Almost as bad for a politician, he's an ideologue.

Tao te Ching Says Stop Sniping at Political Leaders

This article was originally published by Technorati on 20 May 2010 as a Simply Spirited feature. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

President Obama's approval rating is hovering at or below 50%, which means, I suppose, that half the country or more disapproves of the job he's doing. Right-wing pundits are punditting that Tuesday's primary races signal his demise in 2012. Others are taking potshots at him for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, calling it his Katrina.

Left-wingers did this to Bush for eight years. Right-winger did it to Clinton for eight years before that. Perhaps there's a better way.

8 Rules for Governing a Country from the Tao te Ching

This article was originally published by Technorati on 20 May 2010 as a Simply Spirited feature. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

According to Lao-tzu, author of the Tao te Ching, rather than sniping at new political leaders, we're supposed to teach them about the Tao. (See Part 1 of this post)

The Tao Te Ching offers specific advice for those who would govern a country. Selecting a few of these would be as good a place to start as any in educating our President.

1. "When the Master governs, the people are hardly aware that he exists." Lao-tzu's advice: don't be over exposed in the media. Don't buy into the idea that you have to be in every news cycle. Do your work, do it well and voters will remember you in 2012.

Brown's Tirade Days Before Vote a Lot Like Susan Boyle

This article was originally published by Technorati on 28 April 2010. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

Anyone remember Susan Boyle? Of course you do. She's an international recording star now. England's Prime Minister Gordon Brown is showing shades of Boyle in the run-up to general parliamentary elections one week from today--and I'm not talking about his baritone pipes.

The parallels are uncanny: just days before an important vote, Boyle popped off at a couple of reporters in a hotel lobby, and it cost her the crown. But at least she had the decency to tell them what she thought of them to their faces.

Today, Gordon Brown on the campaign trail in northwest England popped off at a potential voter, and a sympathetic one at that. After the woman held forth on taxes, the national debt and immigration--all the usual stuff--Brown got into the back of his limo and rode away . . . with a hot lapel mic still in place.

Bizarre Hamas Psychological Warfare Cartoon Spurs Discussion of Non-Violent Protest

This article was originally published by Technorati on 26 April 2010. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

It seems odd (and cynical, it goes without saying), but Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organization that controls the Gaza Strip, has seen fit to release this video aimed at persuading Israelis--one supposes--to put pressure on their government to release 1000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, in exchange for one Israeli soldier, Sgt. Gilad Schalit, captured by Hamas in June 2006.

I don't think it will work.

Lessons Learned from Franklin Graham and the Pentagon's National Day of Prayer

This article was originally published by Technorati on 23 April 2010. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

Well it looks like the Franklin Graham-Pentagon National Day of Prayer imbroglio is over. After complaints from Muslim participants and a formal objection by a religious rights group, the Pentagon Chaplain's Office disinvited Graham from the May 6th service.

Perhaps the National Day of Prayer Task Force, which organizes the yearly Pentagon event, acted unwisely in selecting as its Honorary Chairman Graham, who has called Islam an "evil and wicked religion"; has said Muslims are "enslaved by their religion"; and has confirmed his opinion yet again that he believe that Islam is "just horrid."

The decision was especially ill-taken, given that the National Day of Prayer is meant to be an ecumenical endeavor.

Father of Slain Marine a Modern-Day Job

This article was first published by Technorati on 15 April 2010. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

Albert Snyder, father of Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder (pictured), a slain Marine whose 2006 funeral was picketed by members of the infamous Westboro Baptist Church, is a modern-day Job.

Like Snyder, the sons and daughters of the biblical Job were killed by a mighty wind. Like the biblical Job, Snyder has enjoyed the company of a set of "friends" who give him unwise counsel as to why travesty has befallen him.

In Snyder's case, these "friends" are a slightly deranged, thoroughly unconscious group of people who wish to advise him that his son's death came as the result of national tolerance of homosexuality. This message is not so much offensive as a shock to the collective faculty of logic, since the two are so utterly disconnected, especially while "Don't ask, don't tell" still holds sway.

In War of Words, Obama Essentially No Different

This article was originally published by Technorati on 4 April 2010.

He who sows the wind, reaps the whirlwind, to paraphrase the Jewish prophet Hosea. What goes around comes around. Karma.

In a "puffy" interview airing today on CBS's Sunday Morning, President Obama decries what he calls the vitriolic tone in Washington. "I am concerned," he says while strolling to the White House basketball court to take on Clark Kellogg in a game of POTUS (a variant of HORSE) "about a political climate in which the other side is demonized."

Isn't this the same Barack Obama who as a U.S. Senator from Illinois commencing in 2004 stood by while his predecessor, George Bush, was mercilessly demonized by so many of Obama's own party?

President's Exhortation to Common Religious Bond is Important

This article was originally published by Technorati on 4 April 2010.

In his Easter address on Saturday, President Obama highlighted spiritual themes in route to plugs for some of his most important policy initiatives. "All of us know how important work is," was one lead-in. "All of us value our health," was another. And finally, "All of us value education."

Promoting these issues, Obama mentioned non-believers, but on this weekend of the Jewish Passover and Christian Easter, the emphasis was on the "common bond" that unites all people of faith.

What is that bond? That bond is a philosophy. More specifically, that bond is a philosophy of the nature of reality.

Texas School Board Demonstrates Need for Guiding Principles in Education

This article was originally published by Technorati on 16 March 2010.

In a preliminary round of voting, a conservative majority of the Texas School Board voted on Friday to make decidedly right-leaning changes to requirements for social studies textbooks to be used state-wide over the next ten years, to the chagrin of the board's more liberal members. After a public comment period, the standards will be voted on by the full board in May.

As power-buying Texas goes, so go many smaller textbook markets across the country. This decision has repercussions for smaller states, regardless of their politics.

Proposed changes tentatively approved include discussion of the decline of the dollar and the abandonment of the gold standard; use of the term "free market" over the less friendly "capitalism"; highlighting of the founding fathers' Judeo-Christian beliefs; mention of country and western music as an important aspect of American culture (I'm not making this up); Newt Gingrich's Contract with America; and many other darlings of the right.