Into The Bliss

laughingsquid: Dog Mourns at Casket of Fallen Navy SEAL...

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 19:43:59 -0400

laughingsquid:

Dog Mourns at Casket of Fallen Navy SEAL

Man’s best friend!

laughingsquid: 98 Year-Old Keiko Fukuda Is First Female 10th...

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 19:29:10 -0400

laughingsquid:

98 Year-Old Keiko Fukuda Is First Female 10th Degree Black Belt

98 years young! Female Judo Instructor

Stowe Boyd: UK PM Advocates Censorship And The Cessation Of Free Speech… Of Course

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 19:04:27 -0400

Stowe Boyd: UK PM Advocates Censorship And The Cessation Of Free Speech… Of Course:

stoweboyd:

So it has been widely reported that UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, has considered a crack down on social network tools, like Twitter and Facebook, when being used by those involved in unrest:

[W]e are working with the police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it…

It’s the US Constitution STUPID!

"I hope that our work exploring the effects of meditation training on attention, emotion regulation,..."

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 18:52:20 -0400

“I hope that our work exploring the effects of meditation training on attention, emotion regulation, brain function and health-related physiology contributes to people experience the great expanse of their own minds and the rich choices present in everyday moments to enhance well-being and understand our mutual interdependence.

In my other area of focus, I hope that our work examining how children with autism spectrum disorders process sensory information can contribute to a greater understanding of how the world appears to them, fostering connections that are often lost.”

- Clfford Saron, 2011 PopTech Science and Public Leadership Fellow (via poptech)
To all my friends…

kateoplis: Martin Zalba It’s a new day!

Sun, 07 Aug 2011 05:58:46 -0400

kateoplis:

Martin Zalba

It’s a new day!

Daddy’s little girl

Sun, 07 Aug 2011 05:54:15 -0400

Daddy’s little girl

Daddy's little girl

Sun, 07 Aug 2011 05:52:42 -0400

A family photo that shows a little girl beside her father and his fellow soldiers in uniform as they prepare to go to war has resonated well beyond the tight knit Bennethum clan.

Four-year-old Paige Bennethum really, really didn’t want her daddy to go to Iraq.

So much so, that when Army Reservist Staff Sgt. Brett Bennethum lined up in formation at his deployment this July, she couldn’t let go.

No one had the heart to pull her away.

(Source: nbcphiladelphia.com)

laughingsquid: Four Seasons In One Day Autumn Leaves

Sun, 24 Jul 2011 09:35:47 -0400

laughingsquid:

Four Seasons In One Day

Autumn Leaves

"Relationships are like yard sales. They look awesome from a distance but once you’re in one..."

Sat, 23 Jul 2011 07:43:14 -0400

““Relationships are like yard sales. They look awesome from a distance but once you’re in one its just a bunch of shit you don’t need.””

- The Mystic

"Being sad with the right people is better than being happy with the wrong ones."

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 01:01:05 -0400

““Being sad with the right people is better than being happy with the wrong ones.””

- The Mystic

WORDS...

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 05:51:16 -0400

Words alone can never bring out the essence of that thing we call life. The truth is far more subtle than that. Many have tried and failed to explain that which permeates all beings. The life essence is a substance which science cannot explain or touch. It baffles the brightest minds of philosophy and theology alike. It is beyond the human psyche to create or comprehend. So what are we to make of this mystery?

The immovable mind sees all things as they are. Accepts the unacceptable and follows the path of least resistance. Yet we long to know more. To endlessly question that which has no answer. To those who cannot sit still and let the world unfold, chaos is a true friend.

So into the wind we must go. With all our dreams and wishes. Basking in the radiance of a new day, awash in the myst of long forgotten worlds of some by-gone era in time. No matter the pain and sorrow we see and feel, at times so intense and overwhelming, that we shrink from the thought. Despite all our questioning despair, with our longing to be free from all the unknowns of this life, still we must persist in realizing that a purpose filled life results in fulfillment beyond words.

And that, my friends IS life.

"In life, we all have unspeakable secrets, irreversible regret, unreachable dreams and unforgettable..."

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 03:28:35 -0400

““In life, we all have unspeakable secrets, irreversible regret, unreachable dreams and unforgettable love.””

- The Mystic

Losing My Religion...

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 21:29:45 -0400

Austrian ‘Pastafarian’: License Photo Was A Win For Freedom From Religion

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Niko Alm

Niko Alm’s driver’s license.

Published: July 15, 2011

by Eyder Peralta

Nico Alm never actually thought he’d get the license in the mail. Three years earlier, amid a flurry of new European Union regulations, Alm decided he would take his driver’s license picture with a pasta strainer on his head.

As we reported Wednesday, Alm was testing a caveat in those new regulations that said headgear could only be worn for religious reasons.

Alm argued that he belonged to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and his religion required him to wear the spaghetti strainer on his head. And three years later, it arrived at his home: His license sporting a very serious picture of Alm with a plastic pasta strainer sitting sideways on his head.

We talked to Alm on the phone from Austria. All of this, he said, happened when he “spotted a privilege that I didn’t agree with.”

The result is, of course, humorous and it’s gotten worldwide attention and on our post, at least, started a series of hilarious pasta puns (“And people who discriminate against Pastafarians will be labelled antipasti?”). Perhaps it struck a chord because it pokes fun at government bureaucracy, perhaps because one man was able to pull a fast one on a set of regulations that overhauled European Union licenses, making them more like credit cards and much more serious, including a regulation that did not allow people to smile in their official pictures.

But, Alm notes, it also strikes at the tension between church and state:

“The Republic of Austria is still very closely attached, is trying to serve religion and churches without any apparent need,” Alm said. “And that’s just another thing I pointed out… that something is going wrong here that there is a part of the population that can exert certain special rights that people like me, that atheist people or non-believers cannot have.”

Alm says he is an atheist. He was baptized Roman Catholic but he was never a believer. He runs an advertising firm and this stunt could be portrayed as a powerful victory in the fight for religious freedom.

In the United States, for example, the American Civil Liberties Union has used the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause to argue in different states that Muslim women should be allowed to wear a hijab in their license photos.

But Alm says his aim — as an advocate “for the clean separation of church and state” — was to win one for freedom from religion.

“There shouldn’t be any special rights for anybody because of their religious belief or non-belief,” he said.

He also said, his protest isn’t aimed at religions. He said he is no way poking fun at people who take their religion seriously:

“I am ridiculing the authorities,” he said. “If anybody is offended there is nothing I can do, but I am offended too, if logic and reason is offended.”

Alm said his next step is to get the Austrian arm of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster officially recognized by the government. And if you’re wondering, Alm does really likes pasta. His favorite is called pici, a kind of thick spaghetti, which he hasn’t had outside of Italy. [Copyright 2011 National Public Radio]

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"Peace is not the absence of trouble, but the presence of GOD."

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 17:37:20 -0400

““Peace is not the absence of trouble, but the presence of GOD.””

- The Mystic

"You fail only when u quit trying."

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 17:34:09 -0400

““You fail only when u quit trying.””

- The Mystic

Dreaming...

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 05:13:43 -0400

We live in a world created from the stardust of imagination. The world of shadows and dreams. Where reality and fantasy are nearly indistinguishable. The fires of a long forgotten past smolder at our feet. In the embers of these truths we wander the earth living through dreams created by our own imagination.

We feel the need to dream our final destiny. To be in control. As if we were the creators of the world which existed before we were born. But try as we might the golden ring eludes us.

Once again we find ourselves in the grasp of the grim reaper as we are carried off into the darkness of our own making. But the light of truth is shining. Look around and you see sparkling glimpses radiating the glow of a world not yet discovered; not yet explored.

” You will find me when you search for me with all of your heart.”

Too phat!… No Mind No Matter

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 07:32:51 -0400

Too phat!… No Mind No Matter

Luver Boii

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 06:13:43 -0400

Luver Boii

Smile Awhile...4 Me!

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 21:02:55 -0400

I can feel it in my bones! My stomach is tied in knots. The quirky knowing that always precedes a most spectacular event. My body shivers as if I have been standing for days in the freezing rain. Winter in July! No other living soul seems to notice. But in quiet anticipation I’m screaming on the inside, “Don’t throw it all away!”

Our luv is a one of a kind. Beyond any logical explanation. Beyond the boundaries of space and time. Limitless Perfection. a world a universe, created in the mystical blackness of illuminated transcendency. Beyond words. Beyond life itself. So strong that it tears at the very fabric of the soul itself. We gaze speechless on the pile of ashes which was once the perfect union of two lives joined at the hip dancing the dance. Hypnotized by the steady glow of some romantic essence burning in hearts so young. So true. We were mere children. Big dreams with even bigger hopes. Ignorance IS bliss. At a time, in a moment when we had no doubts, no fear - we let it all just slip away.

If there is a lesson to be learned from all of this one might say it is this. This one truth. The final act in this drama called life. A kernel gleaned from the threshing floor of our lives - it is this: Three things always remain. Faith. Hope. Love. And the greatest of these is LOVE! Go. Find the balance in life. Let the light of Love be your guide.

Rock on!

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 04:14:32 -0400

Rock on!