tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83481042025-02-19T05:24:07.326-06:00Freely thinking about politics, society, and the general state of affairs in America.NeoLotushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02124288012388560456noreply@blogger.comBlogger283125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348104.post-75976996901542252072024-06-24T04:44:00.000-05:002024-06-24T04:44:50.970-05:00

I had been a fan, or at least deeply affected by, both the first season of Lonesome Dove: The Series, and especially the second season LD: The Outlaw Years. Not only did this series have real potential, it also had great depth in the story telling. There is a deep morality exhibited in the unfolding of the story without having to be lectured about it as it is done in The Rifleman. Not that there

NeoLotushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02124288012388560456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348104.post-45841804287496888212023-12-13T11:40:00.008-06:002023-12-13T11:49:19.966-06:00

When Dan Quayle was running for vice president with Bush Sr, I remember something he said about missing the days of yore, namely the '60s, and I agreed with him. There have indeed been great changes for the worse in our country since then. But he became vilified for expressing such feelings. I'm not sure where the criticism came from although I got the feeling it was from "liberals" and

NeoLotushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02124288012388560456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348104.post-51433649682672209912023-10-20T02:41:00.002-05:002023-10-20T02:59:01.554-05:00

When I learned in 6th grade in 1970 that there were/are two basic views about the universe: the Steady State universe and the Big Bang, I felt that that the Steady State universe was the correct view based on having grown up with Buddhism. I found it absurd to believe that the totality of the universe originated out of nothingness violates the laws of physics and stretches credulity beyond the

NeoLotushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02124288012388560456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348104.post-34524416647295483072022-06-13T02:56:00.000-05:002022-06-13T02:56:47.233-05:00

OMFG! I'm not even 10 mins into this audio recording and I hear the part where Johnny's been talking and I'm totally tracking what he's saying and he is exactly the kind of man I would want to be with, to just be with to talk and share this thing called life. Then at 9:25 I can hear it in his voice that exact moment when he knows there is zero connection with her when she corrected him about how

NeoLotushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02124288012388560456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348104.post-82433348726624235552022-01-28T02:16:00.000-06:002022-01-28T02:16:14.659-06:00

2A:6 Mencius said: "All people have a heart which cannot stand to see the suffering of others. The ancient kings had this heart which could not stand to see the suffering of others, and, with this, operated a government which could not stand to see the suffering of the people. If, in this state of mind, you ran a government which could not endure people's suffering, you could govern the realm as

NeoLotushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02124288012388560456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348104.post-84810058980109257612022-01-25T23:56:00.002-06:002022-01-26T00:28:19.448-06:00

Since no one reads here anyway, I'm just going to post this work in progress until I can get to it again. The top half is the good part. I posted this comment at a youtube video.  @ricoF  I agree about Nick's basslines having that special something. It goes way beyond words to describe, but it feels like making love through sound. True love, the kind that holds your soul

NeoLotushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02124288012388560456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348104.post-57763564272607757412022-01-22T23:13:00.002-06:002022-01-22T23:14:22.768-06:00

By Peter Daou:What's a Leftist? (https://www.directleft.com/p/whats-a-leftist)I really like his description. It also fits for what is a progressive. I also call it sane and humane. It encompasses the principles Confucians call humane government. Something devoutly to be wished.

NeoLotushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02124288012388560456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348104.post-10144696698066888572021-03-11T01:31:00.003-06:002021-03-11T12:38:30.753-06:00

https://www.facebook.com/nicholas.billing/posts/10159108964527929

NeoLotushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02124288012388560456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348104.post-85085818814427625952021-03-07T12:33:00.004-06:002021-03-07T12:37:59.986-06:00

I'm posting these here to find later."All I’m asking – all I want – is for similar empathy, similar understanding, to be extended to the many millions of women whose sole crime is wanting their concerns to be heard without receiving threats and abuse." ~J.K. Rowling (https://www.jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/)TERF wars: An

NeoLotushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02124288012388560456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348104.post-66760244169250241882021-01-25T22:54:00.001-06:002021-01-25T22:56:22.346-06:00

I don't really know how it happened. How what was once wholesome and where right and wrong were clearly known and shown in our culture and in the media. But then something put in motion an unwhoiesome way of thinking about things and how to see them. This is been pushing things a particular way that has landed where we are today. The shows and programs in my childhood in the 1960s and very early

NeoLotushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02124288012388560456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348104.post-43719714811026896462021-01-23T00:26:00.002-06:002021-01-25T23:13:51.545-06:00

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Trebuchet MS} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Trebuchet MS; min-height: 16.0px} 1-21-21 I'm watching SG-1 and listening to an awesome mix of the best music clips from both seasons of The Mandalorian.  SG-1 was on air for 10 years. I've watched interviews of the people who acted in and work on this show and it

NeoLotushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02124288012388560456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348104.post-29713272585404452032021-01-22T23:56:00.027-06:002021-01-26T00:42:05.757-06:00

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Trebuchet MS} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Trebuchet MS; min-height: 16.0px} Someone on my facebook feed posted this: Four functions of the mediaTo inform.To persuade.To entertain.To transmit culture. It seems to me that in a way when we demonize the media, which seems to have become a favorite pastime, we might

NeoLotushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02124288012388560456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348104.post-289729559058882852021-01-03T02:54:00.006-06:002021-01-26T00:31:51.993-06:00

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Trebuchet MS} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Trebuchet MS; min-height: 16.0px} What Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni have done is bring love back to the universe and make it the center of everything.The comment at this video says:I LOVE THIS. Our future looks promising. This inspires me, heals me, and invigorates me. I love

NeoLotushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02124288012388560456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348104.post-91584493967821857722020-06-19T10:58:00.005-05:002021-01-26T00:34:43.630-06:00

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Trebuchet MS} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Trebuchet MS; min-height: 16.0px} In those "early daze" SGI manifested a truly uncommon corporate culture largely because of the caliber of people who populated its community and because of its relatively small size. Many people there possessed the ever-shrinking ability to

NeoLotushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02124288012388560456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348104.post-63293622063408793392020-06-04T15:52:00.001-05:002020-06-04T15:52:49.783-05:00

Posted yesterday, June 3, 2020 Charlie Patton 23 hrs ·  In ancient times, the Chinese had a concept that they called the mandate of heaven. Heaven in their thinking was the source of the order we see in the world, both the natural world and the human world. Chinese governments until modern times had always been autocratic, but their philosophy of government early

NeoLotushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02124288012388560456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348104.post-2603415286135098512020-05-01T15:53:00.000-05:002020-05-01T15:53:16.441-05:00

Putting this here so I can find this website again along with the websites listed from Jay Treat at UPenn. This is a very well curated list. I even recommended CounterPunch back in March and it's listed now.  News, Views, and Tools for Progressives. https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~jtreat/progressive.html This is its own website but the man who started it is a real hero to me. He began "

NeoLotushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02124288012388560456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348104.post-22427795094509400062018-11-20T02:38:00.000-06:002018-11-20T02:57:46.789-06:00

  Politico: Pelosi’s bid for speaker imperiled as public opposition grows If I think about the more prominent Japanese clans I suppose the names of the legislators in the Politico article linked above might have a vague importance. But I don't want clans and I certainly don't want celebrities who do NOT actually do anything to govern our country with proper and

NeoLotushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02124288012388560456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348104.post-15413257663996775162018-10-29T15:24:00.001-05:002018-10-29T15:24:27.093-05:00

The poorest he that is in England hath a life to live as the greatest he … I think it’s clear, that every man that is to live under a government ought first by his own consent to put himself under that government; and I do think that the poorest man in England is not at all bound in a strict sense to that government that he hath not had a voice to put himself under. ~Col. Thomas

NeoLotushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02124288012388560456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348104.post-26162824695530304322018-10-29T13:35:00.000-05:002018-10-29T13:35:24.388-05:00

A year later and not much to show for it. Meanwhile, we have a new supreme court justice who thinks the president can be a dictator and can stop having elections. Who ever outed Dr. Ford and smeared Feinstein with it needs to be identified. On Democracy Now last year... Masha Gessen: Trump Doing “Incredible Damage” to Democracy While Media is Obsessed with Russia Probe

NeoLotushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02124288012388560456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348104.post-34642354200237920482018-10-29T13:18:00.000-05:002019-10-04T22:54:46.327-05:00

The whole thing about Russia is how the story went from emails being hacked, not leaked to ads on Facebook influencing voters. Mixed in is the notion that Toxic man is in the pocket of or dancing to the tune of Putin and not the Koch Brothers and the fossil fuel industry right here at home. The issue for me is the narrative about the election by the Democratic Party leadership as a

NeoLotushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02124288012388560456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348104.post-46381080393007781972018-08-30T23:48:00.000-05:002018-08-30T23:50:06.525-05:00

This building, the Sho-Hondo, was demolished in 1998 because of a huge rift between the new high priest at the time and the president of the lay organization. The building was absolutely iconic. It was very beautiful and embodied the hopes and dreams of millions of members to achieve world peace through the practice of Buddhism. Without this building at the head temple, it is not the same.I

NeoLotushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02124288012388560456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348104.post-46374468572093654962018-07-09T13:00:00.000-05:002018-07-09T14:41:50.983-05:00

This is video of man being shot in a parking lot in Torrance on June 1, 2018. Video link Here's how something similar was handled in Asia.  Cops disarms and hugs distraught man Who has the greater responsibility for keeping cool: cops or civilians? Read the article here. And lastly, whatever happened to cops being trained in martial arts instead of only shooting?

NeoLotushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02124288012388560456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348104.post-65431603033458288762018-05-30T13:11:00.001-05:002018-05-30T14:00:38.342-05:00

We have never needed this message more. This speech is the one clean spot we need to work from to clean up the rest of the mess we are in. Though they took his life 50 years ago they cannot silence his voice or his message of peace and humanity for all. It is now up to us to join together and put an end to the violence and truly establish liberty and justice for all. p.p1 {margin:

NeoLotushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02124288012388560456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348104.post-1145202720138629602018-05-28T04:49:00.000-05:002018-05-28T05:12:57.661-05:00

A whole lot of people talk about progress. They see progress as an increase in material wealth and a higher standard of living. This was indeed needed by a great many people. It is still needed by a great many more. But the true nature of progress does not lie in the material world alone. It must be accompanied by a similar increase in our moral and spiritual development. By moral and spiritual,

NeoLotushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02124288012388560456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8348104.post-26713022845823153262018-05-28T03:34:00.002-05:002018-05-28T03:38:02.528-05:00

Prince reigns at Coachella This is from 10 years ago. But at the restored LotusFlow3r website is a video of him performing 7 then sliding into Come Together with the bridge of having the audience shout "War, No More!" and then getting the audience to sing "Come Together, Yeah!." In the first week of learning about Prince I had the thought that to carry on his legacy to spread peace and love

NeoLotushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02124288012388560456noreply@blogger.com0