The Home of Steven Barnes
Author, Teacher, Screenwriter


Thursday, May 15, 2008

Victory for love...

The California Supreme court just overturned the ban on gay marriage. Works for me.
##
Thanks for the Mommies commenting on Libertarianism. The majority of people I've heard speak about it genuinely seemed to believe that if you can't afford to pay the fire department, it doesn't matter if your house burns down. I want the smallest possible government, the same as anyone else. I've never met a single human being who told me he wanted "the largest possible government." The only question seems to be what services should be part of the Commons. Not an argument I have expertise in, although I've opinions, just like anyone else...
##
Notice with the Tibetans, people commenting about their resistance? Excellent. THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT. When you have a physical pattern that provides genuine benefits (especially for the sedentary) and you can't find five minutes for them, something is very, very wrong. And frankly, I have never seen a human being who was genuinely that busy, unless they were emotionally disturbed. So you get a damned fine chance to examine your thoughts, feelings, and ask yourself what the hell is really going on.
Now note: I'm not saying that the Tibetans are better than yoga--but I do think that the specific benefits have a better payoff per minute for the first 15 minutes. Mighty fine. Concentrate on breathing, and you have a meditation that works body, mind, and emotions just dandy. And DON'T advance faster than adding two reps a week--that's another way your ego tries to keep you from changing, by pushing yourself too fast, so that you can get hurt and say "gee, I tried..."
If you want faster results, start walking up hills, or taking an aerobics class, or weight training, or something. But as for the Tibetans...slow and steady.

12 comments:

Michelle said...

Thing is we don't have fire departments to stop folk's house from burning down, we have them keep other folk's houses burning down next to them.

What about the policy to stop forest fires? Because of this policy our forests in the US and Canada are dying out rapidly due to beetle infestations. Fires start rapidly because the dead stuff is not cleared away.

Anonymous said...

Well said Michelle. The Romans had the private fire departments and they burned down houses next door to the very wealthy to force them to pay more money.

Our modern fire department system was conceived by Benjamin Franklin.

Elzabet said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Elzabet said...

Second try.

RE: Tibetans Questions

1. Okay this is day four for me and I am finding that I prefer to do them in the morning but if my mornings get weird ((as they can with a 5 year old boy)) I just do them at night. Does that matter? Or is the point just to do them--keep the promise to myself?

2. When I do the leg raises it's starting to hurt. Good? Bad?

3. I get confused about breathing and get all tangled up trying to remember if I am supposed to be breathing out or in or what. Any clues for the clueless would be appreciated!

achoiceofweapons said...

I think it's a good thing that the court overturned the ban on gay marriage and set up a criteria of rules that churches and organizations could use as a guide so no ones rights are violated.

Anonymous said...

I love this post. The juxtaposition of a discussion of gay marriage with the performance of fire departments is perfect. I say this because to me worrying about a presidential candidates position on gay marriage given the current state of the world and this country is like debating whether firemen should be enforcing non-smoking laws when a forest fire is threatening 14000 homes in a residential area. For example currently the U.S consumes about 25% of the world's oil. If we start to employ alternative energy sources lets say that we could cut this in half. If rapidly advancing nations like China and India were to use the same alternative energy solutions, but come up to level of consuming half as much oil per capita as we currently do the world oil demand would be more than double current demand. This is just one of the problems I would be a lot more concerned about than same sex marriage.

Marty S

Steven Barnes said...

I care about gay marriage because I believe love is sacred, and believe that respect for the hearts of our fellow humans is the core of all good things in life--isn't pollution just the attitude that someone else will have to deal with it? Civil rights, Gay rights, the obligations of our citizens to each other...these things are as important to discuss as any other. After all, it will take the cooperation of many millions of people to make a change. The best way to motivate someone to change is for them to believe you care about them.
##

Steven Barnes said...

In general, exhale when the muscles contract (as the legs lift). Pain is a message that something is wrong. If you feel pain on a level of more than 3 (on a scale of 1-10) then seek modifications of the movement. Decrease the angle, flatten the back, whatever. Where is this pain experienced? Never ignore pain. Morning? Night? Doesn't matter. What does matter is consistency. Every day you eat, you should move your body. That's sure as hell how we evolved.

Josh Jasper said...

Marty - I say this because to me worrying about a presidential candidates position on gay marriage given the current state of the world and this country is like debating whether firemen should be enforcing non-smoking laws when a forest fire is threatening 14000 homes in a residential area. For example currently the U.S consumes about 25% of the world's oil. If we start to employ alternative energy sources lets say that we could cut this in half.

And yet anyone speaking out in favor of same sex marriage risks loosing out on voters who'd pick another 8 years of Bush over anyone who might OK same sex marriage. These are the "bitter" voters that Obama was talking about, and he's right about them. The Bush government, and the neoconservative movement has shafted working class America, but they're more concerned with gays then they are with jobs.

It's easy to motivate people who're economically suffering and living in cultural isolation to vote based on hate. Anyone who tells you differently is either lying, or ignorant of history.

Anonymous said...

Josh:
I am a right of center, republican leaning, person who is pro-life and anti=affirmative action. If a candidate has my position on these two issues they get two points. If they demonstrate an understanding of the economic problems and the foreign policy issues facing our country they get five points. If they have a reasonable plan to address these issues they get ten more points. The candidate with the highest score gets my vote whatever their party. That's why out of Hilary,Obama and McCain at the moment I am inclined towards Hilary in spite of her being more liberal on the social issue than I like.

Marty S

Steven Barnes said...

It seems to me that the problems of pollution and global warming are ALL about caring for other people, extending our humanity to them. Isn't it about caring for generations unborn? For people we've never met? I don't think it's an accident that the same side of the political spectrum advocates for gay rights and environmental issues. Caring about people is caring about people, period.

Anonymous said...

Steve: you say people care about environmental issues care about people. FALSE. You have a town of 4000 people. 2000 of those people are employed by the local paper mill the rest are married to those who work in the mill or supply goods and services to those in the mill. The state has given a variance on EPA color requirements that result in slightly darker color in the river. The environmentalists sue the state to enforce the EPA standard. The paper company is forced to meet the national standard and can't make money from the mill because of the requirement. They intend to close the mill. In desperation the people of the town buy the mill and the workers take salary. reductions in exchange for 45% of the profits. But under these environmental requirements there are no profits so the median income in the town falls to $28000 per year. The darker color was killing or sickening no people, fish, animals or plants. But these environmentalists, who care for people, were willing to devastate the town economically anyhow for the sake of the environment.

As a member of my company's environmental technology department I saw more ill conceived environmental suits than valid ones, although I did see some which were justified in my opinion.

Marty S