The Mystical World Of Rumi...

 


When you run after your thoughts, you are like a dog chasing a stick: every time a stick is thrown, you run after it. Instead, be like a lion who, rather than chasing after the stick, turns to face the thrower. One only throws a stick at a lion once.

Milarepa
“Just as it is known that an image of one's face is seen depending on a mirror but does not really exist as a face, so the conception of "I" exist dependent on mind and body, but like the image of a face the "I" does not at all exist as its own reality.

Nagarjuna


"Thanks to impermanence, everything is possible."    Nagarjuna

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On Raising the Debt Ceiling...

by: Les Carpenter Rational Nation U SA Purveyor of Truth Is anybody, and I mean ANYBODY in either party really serious about controlling the explosive rate of debt growth we have experienced since the 2008/2009 meltdown? I really think not. Mitch McConnell talking to Chris Wallace about raising the debt ceiling. Below the fold THINK PROGRESS weighs in. Content as expected from a far left publication. Meanwhile, over at CBS and Bob Schieffer's FACE the NATION Ted Cruz chimed in and actually made a bit of sense. Assuming of course he, and anyone else is really concerned with debt control or reduction. BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, now, just a minute. Just a minute. The government is approaching another deadline February 7, when it will run out of money unless Congress agrees to raise the debt ceiling. Will you agree to raise the debt ceiling, or will you demand something in return. SEN. TED CRUZ: Look, of course, we should do something. We shouldn't just write a bl
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How A Nation Can and Does Change...

by: Les Carpenter Rational Nation U S A Lib e rty -vs- Tyr a nny "Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in the United States." –Noah Webster, An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution, 1787 That was then. In an interview with the Daily Times Herald in Carroll, Iowa, state Rep. Dan Muhlbauer said governments should start confiscating semi-automatic rifles and other firearms. Muhlbauer, a Democrat from the western Iowa town of Manilla, is a cattleman and farmer. The newspaper reported that he owns a .410 shotgun, a .22 rifle and a .22 pistol. “We cannot have big guns out here as far as the big guns that are out here, the semi-automatics and all of th
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As the Liberal/Progressive Media and Blogosphere Attempt To Destroy Governor Chris Christie...

by: Les Carpenter Rational Nation U S A Purveyor of Truth As the liberal/progressive media and bloggers attempt to trash Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey over the George Washington Bridge lane closings, ostensibly because he is a formidable threat to their darling would be 2016 democratic presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton, there remains NO EVIDENCE he had any involvement or was aware of the actions by his underlings. If Governor Christie indeed had no involvement in the closings, and at this point is is prudent to assume he didn't, the valid question is... should he have known? If we believe an executive sets the tone and culture for his administration then indeed the actions of his loyal staff at least become somewhat understandable. Wrong, but understandable. From NorthJersey.com Nothing in the approximately 2,000 documents released on Friday by the Assembly committee investigating the matter suggest that Christie knew of the lane-closure scheme beforeh
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Recommended Reading, Thomas Piketty’s best-selling new book, “Capital in the Twenty-First Century”...

From: Les Carpenter Rational Nation USA Purveyor of Truth Time to shed the right -vs- left, socialism -vs- capitalism hyperbole and purchase Thomas Piketty's new book " Capital in the Twenty-First Century. " PARIS — Thomas Piketty turned 18 in 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell, so he was spared the tortured, decades-long French intellectual debate about the virtues and vices of communism. Even more telling, he remembers, was a trip he took with a close friend to Romania in early 1990, after the collapse of the Soviet empire. “This sort of vaccinated me for life against lazy, anticapitalist rhetoric, because when you see these empty shops, you see these people queuing for nothing in the street,” he said, “it became clear to me that we need private property and market institutions, not just for economic efficiency but for personal freedom.” (emphasis mine) But his disenchantment with communism doesn’t mean that Mr. Piketty has turned his back on the intellectual
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One of America's Greatest Pastimes, Early Polling...

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by: Les Carpenter Rational Nation USA Lib e rty -vs- Tyr a nny American's are an interesting bunch. Stubborn and fickle at the same time. Especially Republicans. But then again I question just why in the hell anyone is concerning themselves with the 2016 presidential race two years out? I guess it's because we're... Americans? Public Policy Polling - PPP's newest look at the Republican field for 2016 finds some big changes from our previous polling. Marco Rubio, who had led all of our polling since December, has dropped all the way to 6th place. Rand Paul now has the lead nationally, to go along with the leads he posted in our most recent Iowa and New Hampshire polls. And Ted Cruz has already hit double digits. The numbers are: Paul 16, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, and Paul Ryan each at 13, Cruz at 12, Rubio at 10, Rick Santorum and Bobby Jindal at 4, and Susana Martinez at 2. Cruz has proven to be such a darling to the far right that he actually already lead
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Illinois Democrats Move To Tighten Firearm Regulation/Restrictions...

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by: Les Carpenter Rational Nation USA Liberty -vs- Tyranny As the country struggles to understand, and come to grips with random acts of firearm violence by unstable and unbalanced individuals Illinois is already taking action to further regulate firearms. Like the millions of law abiding citizens I am torn between the right to bear firearms and finding the point at which it makes logical sense to restrict that right. In a modern society in which the tools of warfare are advanced beyond what the founders could possibly have envisioned, and the efficiency of modern armies are such that the citizens would stand no reasonable chance against the modern army, does the possession of semiautomatic assault weapons have any real purpose for the homeowner and sportsman? If deemed they do should they not be highly regulated and restricted to HELP reduce the incidents of tragedies like Sandy Hook? I certainly do not have the answers, nor do I believe the anti-gun crowd has the answers eith
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Is President Obama Preparing To Back Warren For 2016 Democratic Nomination For Prez?...

by: Les Carpenter Rational Nation USA Purveyor of Truth The New York Post is reporting that President Obama is quietly trying to convince Massachusetts extreme progressive Senator Elizabeth Warren to make a run for presidency in 2016. He has reportedly expressed privately concerns that his former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would if nominated and ultimately elected undo some of his policies. While Obama has publicly been non committal this report should surprise few given the aggressive campaign Hillary waged against Obama for the democratic party nomination in 2008. Clinton, while certainly a liberal is more centrist than her ex boss. Should Warren choose to toss her hat in the ring for 2016 with the President's blessings it will certainly energize the right and moderates who are given pause by her leftist views. It has been said by many talking heads and bloggers on the far right that Obama was the far left's socialist candidate (some even said he is a comm
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The Syria Solution: Obama Got Played by Putin and Assad, Or Did He?...

by: Les Carpenter Rational Nation U S A Lib e rty -vs- Tyr a nny Interesting possibility from the NEW REPUBLIC . This, apparently, is how diplomacy happens these days: Someone makes an off-hand remark at a press conference and triggers an international chain reaction that turns an already chaotic and complex situation completely on its head, and gives everyone a sense that, perhaps, this is the light at the end of the indecision tunnel. Speaking in London next to British Foreign Secretary William Hague on Monday, Secretary of State John Kerry said that perhaps the military strike around which the administration has been painfully circling for weeks could be avoided if Bashar al-Assad can "turn over every single bit of his chemical weapons to the international community in the next week. Turn it over, all of it, without delay, and allow a full and total accounting for that.” The fact that Kerry immediately followed with, “But he isn’t about to do it, and it can’t be don
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As the Melodrama Continues...

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by: Les Carpenter Rational Nation USA Liberty -vs- Tyranny As the nation watches (as well as the world at large) the United States House, led by the rEpublican false conservatives have us serfs standing at the cliff's edge as we look into the abyss. Perhaps, just maybe, the intransigent false conservatives are running out of time and their true motives are being recognized by the many who heretofore believed them. As more disgruntled past supporters turn their backs on the false conservatives maybe, just maybe they ought to look to history to find the ultimate result of their type of behavior and intransigence. Even a staunch Ayn Rand Objectivist has the ability to see beyond the present as he peers into the future. At least this one does. Echoes of our founding fathers are ringing in my ears as I write this. Eric Cantor, the intelligent yet blind House Majority leader may very well, and soon find himself the object of ridicule. As difficult as it might be for some to acce
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