Monthly Archives: May 2010

yet another shot of the old tv in chinook motel, originally uploaded by gothopotam. In conceiving his famous symbolic allegory of humans as slaves chained to their seats, staring forever at images flickering on the wall of a cave, Plato could never have imagined how fantastically real his vision would one day become in a…
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Lady Justice, originally uploaded by nyghtowl. The teachings of the Oral Torah have always been clear that the karmic statement, “an eye for an eye”, was never meant to be taken as a literal decree allowing or codifying barbaric forms of punishment. Contrary to persistent misconceptions, it has always been understood as a requirement for…
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Aurora’s Perception or I Schrive When I See Technology, originally uploaded by Wonderlane. The physical make-up of our sense organs determines what we are able to perceive. Amongst the infinite number of electro-magnetic wavelengths, for instance, only a very few find receptor cells inside the retina of a healthy human eye: other creatures have receptor…
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Israel Flag | דגל ישראל,originally uploaded by RonAlmog. On Thursday, Israel will be the target of a propaganda assault. A flotilla of nine ships which set sail for Gaza from Cyprus earlier this week is scheduled to arrive. Here are some excerpts from an article you may want to read by Caroline B. Glick, the…
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,originally uploaded by dreamglow pumpkincat210. The answer to this question seems obvious enough. But this is one of those precarious occasions when we casually speak of something spectacularly ineffable as if we knew what it meant. We know a great deal about the many physiological and electrochemical processes that occur concurrently when we see something,…
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Goldie Hawn – hi res scan,originally uploaded by Alan Light. Goldie Hawn has started a project to get our schools to start paying attention to the emotional and social needs of our kids. This is, of course, exactly what the schools are not interested in as they spend every moment worrying about performance on standardized…
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postmodernism,originally uploaded by versionz. ‘Postmodernism’ is a reaction against Modernism, brought about by disenchantment with classical science and rationalism, and the kind of civilization that these things have wrought. Postmodernism accepts without question that our perceptions are all we can know of reality. This means that only subjectivity has any actual significance for us, since…
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Forbidden-fruit,originally uploaded by ideacreamanuelaPps. “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.”…
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National Day of Action in Defense of Public Education, originally uploaded by Fibonacci Blue. Millions of Americans have been persuaded that the purpose of education is to prepare our children to score well on standardized tests so that we can have more well-trained workers. As the standards movement gets stronger, we convince ourselves that being…
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Cronus, the ruler of the Titans, swallowed his children immediately after his wife Rhea gave birth, for Cronus was determined that no child should ever usurp his power: he had heard a prophecy from his parents, Uranus and Gaia, that a son would overthrow him just as he had overthrown his father. Therefore, he stayed…
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Capitalism,originally uploaded by Lorri37. Wealth is not a static quantity. If it were a static quantity, it would be true that the prosperity of one person can only come at the expense of someone else. But actually, in a capitalist system, new wealth can be created and increased, through entrepreneurial brilliance, innovation, and effort. This…
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An article in Scientific American, on the growing epidemic of childhood obesity and the overall effect on human health, points out several additional things. First, it’s not merely due to the sedentary effects of being a couch potato. It’s the advertisements themselves: “You might expect that watching TV, being a sedentary activity, is responsible for…
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Charming Cobras 2, originally uploaded by Laertes. The serpent has been given many meanings in the world’s mythology. It has been a symbol of wisdom and a symbol of evil, a symbol of God and a symbol of the Devil. In its ability to shed its skin and be ‘reborn’, it has been a symbol…
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‘God’, or ‘Divinity’, however you use these terms, is endless, infinite, and timeless, and as such is inherently indefinable and unknowable. But the Sacred Feminine aspect of the creation is the vehicle, the ‘Vessel’, through which the infinite Divine can be expressed in our finite world. And only the Sacred Feminine can lead the soul…
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Relativism is the contemporary belief (it has practically become a moral imperative) that there is no such thing as absolute right, truth, or good, but only the differing opinions of different people in different places and times. Decency demands that we must be “open” to them all, and they must all be equally respected. The…
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Kurt Gödel, the 20th century mathematician, proved that the axioms of mathematics cannot be finally and absolutely proved by the axioms of mathematics. Something, in other words, must be taken on faith: once an initial axiom is assumed, a consistent system can be built upon it, but Gödel’s theorem means that there is always room…
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In their deepest and most important sense, Mythology and Scripture are internal, psychological stories. Through allegory and symbol they weave the tale of a soul – your soul – that has descended into material life and must now do the necessary work to find its way home again. This inner journey, the basis of all…
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