Tonglen Practice: Turning Suffering Into Compassion...


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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Is Our Democratic Republic At Risk From Forces Both Foreign and Within?...

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We are moving this running post up to front page this evening where it will remain until January 3'rd 2017 when we will return to single posts, hopefully on a daily basis. There is much to do in getting the TRUTH out about Donald J Trump, a dishonest, totally self absorbed, and dangerous individual. He may be the president on January 20th but that does not mean thoughtful and concerned people shouldn't challenge Trump at every turn and fight his agenda whenever it runs contrary to their interests and those of their family. More to come. BTW, be sure to read today's entry, 12/28/16, below. this is just one example AND, it is just the beginning. You've probably noticed the brief posts of late. Posts with very short commentary by the weblolg administrator followed by an article that goes into the subject in much greater detail. This has been done purposefully following the rancorous 2016 election, and because its Christmas Time, soon to be a New Year.  This posting f...
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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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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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Ignoring the Likely Realities...

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Rational Nation U S A Purveyor of Truth A psychopathic 21 year old white male guns down 9 people in a historic black church in Charleston South Carolina, a crime most likely motivated by racism and hatred for African Americans and the right wing, in this particular incident Rick Perry, tries to frame the issue as one of drug use. Instead of talking about guns, Perry said, we should be talking about prescription drugs: “Also, I think there is a real issue to be talked about. It seems to me, again without having all the details about this, that these individuals have been medicated and there may be a real issue in this country from the standpoint of these drugs and how they’re used.” He said that such drugs are responsible for high suicide and joblessness rates, adding that “there are a lot of issues underlying this that I think we as a country need to have a conversion about... - Right Wing Watch Rather than recognizing the possibility and likelihood this was a racially motivat...
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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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As The Feds Ship Illegals To Massachusetts From The Southern Border...

by: Les Carpenter Rational Nation USA Purveyor of Truth As the crises on our southern border continues illegals are being shipped to Massachusetts by plane according to the Boston Globe . Apparently the feds have been keeping this operation "under the radar." Local law enforcement officials in the Bay State are growing increasingly concerned, as they rightly should. Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson is calling for sheriffs across America to "“mobilize” on the red-hot immigration issue and confront the feds over their failure to communicate with local officials." Illegal immigrants are being secretly flown to Massachusetts and kept in local lockups in an under-the-radar operation that has alarmed lawmen who are raising health and security concerns amid recent spikes in detainees coming up from Texas during the latest border crisis. “We’re all becoming border sheriffs now with these people being carted all over the country,” said Bristol County Sheriff...
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Damage Control???...

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by: Les Carpenter Rational Nation USA Lib erty -vs- Tyr anny President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton take part in the Transfer of Remains Ceremony marking the return to the United States of the remains of the four Americans killed in Benghazi, Libya. Molly Riley/DPA/Zuma It ain't a cover up but... Mother Jones - The latest revelations about the Benghazi talking points—as opposed to what actually happened at the US diplomatic facility at Benghazi , where four Americans died—do not back up Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham's hyperbolic and absurd claim that the Benghazi controversy is Obama's Watergate. But neither are they nothing. As ABC News reported on Friday morning, the most discussed talking points in US diplomatic history were revised multiple times before being passed to UN Ambassador Susan Rice prior to her appearances last September on Sunday talk shows. The revisions—which deleted several lines noting that the CIA months befo...
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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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On a Different Note and Looking Ahead...

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by: Les Carpenter Rational Nation U S A Purveyor of Truth America seems to be in perpetual campaign mode. No sooner than things start to settle in following a mid term or presidential election than the pols start preparing for the next election and the spinning starts in earnest. Leaving one to wonder just when our elected officials are actually working on our behalf. Call me the cynic but I cannot help but believe our politicians and leaders spend more time working to create the "world of smoke and mirrors" they want us to exist in for their sake than actually representing us and taking care of crucial matters that affect our nation and each and every one of us. So, today, I'm joining in the American Political Merry-Go- Round and predicting that Americans will once again get exactly what they (in their apathy) vote for. America, with its dismal voter turnout, low information voters, and political sound bite junkies, will pull the levers once again for those politic...
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Iraq and the Obama Almost Strategy...

by: Les Carpenter Rational Nation USA Purveyor of Truth President Obama, in his signature style is taking quarter measures to prevent immediate genocide by the ISIS in Iraq. Neither Obama or the western democracies are will to admit that the terrorist networks that adhere to the cult of Islam are determined to take control of the Middle East as well as the entire globe. Until they do, and take the necessary military action to crush every single one of the filthy lice ridden barbaric terrorist organizations this problem will forever be with us all. Even democratic Senator Feinstein recognizes ‘ It takes an army to defeat an army .' However she stopped short of addressing the core of the problem or offering any serious alternatives to the President's response. The Washington Post - PRESIDENT OBAMA was right to order military action to prevent a potential genocide in northern Iraq and to stop forces of the al-Qaeda-derived Islamic State from advancing on Baghdad or the...
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