Domestic News

[Zircon]

I am impressed with your life's journey Oversoul. Seems like you've acquired a lot of insight regarding the human condition and have evolved. Learning what battles to fight puts you a step ahead of me. I've stepped in it often in my career as I tended to be a reactive person. I've become more open minded myself as one had to working in a liberal environment when living in Seattle.

That was a major shift in your life from being a lawyer to high tech. I must say that it was a very brave move in taking a chance like that. That you succeeded is to be applauded.

My family and I are Orthodox Christian so we're rather conservative as to the tenants of the world's oldest Christian faith. But in addition I have evolved somewhat myself. I have a strong bond with nature and its beauty. It may seem odd but sometimes I will talk to trees and plants. I am deeply bonded with the night and the stars and the universe. I view them as family. What caused all of this to include us to come into existence is a question to be debated eternally but I do feel the universe is the hand of God itself whatever God actually is. Life is everywhere. We just haven't found it yet. It may have found us but is very cautious. Hell, I'd be seeing how violent we are as a species.

Apparently the desire to seek, embrace and grow your very soul is quite strong with you. I wish you the very best in your search. More people need to make these personal quests. If they did we'd most likely live in a better world.

Your "mystical studies and practice". I don't know exactly what you mean. Have you adopted eastern religions or derivations of them in your quest for full understanding and incorporated them with the more traditional western faiths?

Can you elaborate a bit on your understanding regarding "ultimate mysteries of life and Being and Self" That is a rather ambitious undertaking. If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to hear some of your insight if it isn't too personal.

And yes, I too enjoy most of what C2C offers. I've been a listener since Art Bell's days when I was living in the Pacific Northwest. I even bought Cusco cassettes. Great late night listening when I'm out in my yard with a breeze blowing, stars glowing and a Mockingbird singing its songbook here on the Great Plains.

[aldousburbank]

I can live with whatever you respond with in the negative.

Your avatar looks like Dana Beal.  What's that aboot?

[guildnavigator]

I thought that that was Kinski?

[Zircon]

Your avatar looks like Dana Beal.  What's that aboot?

Its Filo from "UHF". Don't know the name of the actor. Great flick.

[ziznak]

Its Filo from "UHF". Don't know the name of the actor. Great flick.

YOU GET TO DRINK FROM THE FIREHOSE!!!!

[onan]

Its Filo from "UHF". Don't know the name of the actor. Great flick.

I think the actor is Anthony Geary. He was the heart throb of some soap opera in the 70's. Your avatar is a bit too small for me to be sure.

[onan]

Just to kind of balance the craziness.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/08/06/mississippi.hate.crime/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

It seems some white teenagers went a hunting...

To add the owen guy seems to have some stink on him. That doesn't justify hurting him but he has some stink

Anderson on the other hand was murdered because he was black.

[Zircon]

I think the actor is Anthony Geary. He was the heart throb of some soap opera in the 70's. Your avatar is a bit too small for me to be sure.

The name definitely rings a bell ... that is him (Geary). He was making Plutonium out of ordinary household products on UHF-62, "Mysteries of the Universe".

[Zircon]

Just to kind of balance the craziness.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/08/06/mississippi.hate.crime/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

It seems some white teenagers went a hunting...

To add the owen guy seems to have some stink on him. That doesn't justify hurting him but he has some stink

Anderson on the other hand was murdered because he was black.

Onan, nobody is going to say that white on black racism doesn't exist anymore. It does and is as disgusting - if not more so - when it occurs. One white on black incident usually wipes out or diminishes reporting multiple black on white crimes they way the media covers it.

I get the feeling that Black on White is expected but to a lesser extent than the overwhelming Black on Black that goes almost completely unreported except for the cities where it occurs. We get plenty of reports about Blacks or Hispanics killing each other down here. Almost always drug related.

But Onan, I believe you'll find a lot more reporting on the incident you refer to than when a white is attacked. If each and every incident of altercations between blacks and whites was reported I think you'd find it is far more prevalent to see blacks on whites.

[onan]

Onan, nobody is going to say that white on black racism doesn't exist anymore. It does and is as disgusting - if not more so - when it occurs. One white on black incident usually wipes out or diminishes reporting multiple black on white crimes they way the media covers it.

I get the feeling that Black on White is expected but to a lesser extent than the overwhelming Black on Black that goes almost completely unreported except for the cities where it occurs. We get plenty of reports about Blacks or Hispanics killing each other down here. Almost always drug related.

But Onan, I believe you'll find a lot more reporting on the incident you refer to than when a white is attacked. If each and every incident of altercations between blacks and whites was reported I think you'd find it is far more prevalent to see blacks on whites.

I dunno... it is much more complex than just gathering news stories. I hate to broach the subject due to the less than favorable view from "educated leftists". This is such a divisive issue. I stayed away for awhile due to my own biases. I have left alone statements in other threads with negative connotations against Morgan Freeman and others decrying some form of white guilt. I don't have the answers but I am leery of flavor of this thread. No one ever considers themselves bigoted. And I am not saying you or anyone else here is a bigot. But I am afraid this thread walks a very fine line.

And just to make my feelings clear... no one has the right to harm another without due cause. Twenty on one makes it hard to show any due cause.

[ziznak]

YOU GET TO DRINK FROM THE FIREHOSE!!!!

haha... i must have been blazed... thought you meant VHF lol

[aldousburbank]

If each and every incident of altercations between blacks and whites was reported I think you'd find it is far more prevalent to see blacks on whites.

It's not just an urban problem.  Out here in the sticks I see black ants whipping on red ants all too often.

[Oversoul]

I am impressed with your life's journey Oversoul. Seems like you've acquired a lot of insight regarding the human condition and have evolved. Learning what battles to fight puts you a step ahead of me. I've stepped in it often in my career as I tended to be a reactive person. I've become more open minded myself as one had to working in a liberal environment when living in Seattle.

Thank you for the compliments, Zircon.  It wasn't easy for me either.  I used to let my impulsive reactions surge out of control.  I thought that jumping the gun on every issue gave me a distinct edge over a potential adversary.  However, I realized that more often than not the argument was already half-lost when I lost my cool and my clarity or objectivity of mind.   It was getting to be quite an energy drain and a huge wear and tear on the emotions, to obstinately maintain a combative stance on nearly every matter of disagreement for which I held a valued opinion.  That's when I began to discover the importance of selecting my battles pragmatically.

I became determined to change all that by practicing greater awareness and by working on becoming less impulsive when such situations arise.  I learned to catch myself before jumping into the fray, to keep my cool, to weigh and evaluate the issue, and to simply back off and walk away when I decided to.  I eventually overcame the habit, as I cultivated listening skills with respect to both my own inner mental dialogue and what the other person is saying.  Those skills really became handy in my legal practice.  They also provided a lot of insights into human nature and the human condition over the years.

It is a skill to learn which battles to fight, and, like any other skill, practice makes perfect.  And perfect is mastery. 

That was a major shift in your life from being a lawyer to high tech. I must say that it was a very brave move in taking a chance like that. That you succeeded is to be applauded.

Thanks again for the compliment.  It is amazing what some firm resolve and "burning of one's bridges" can do.  It was tough, though.  I had to do a lot of self-study nightly at home, just to be capable of performing the computer tech requirements of a job by day.  Also, the learning had to be ongoing because of the new hardware, software and upgrades, and other hot tech stuff frequently coming out in the highly competitive marketplace.  I would not have succeeded were it not for the intellectual challenge, creativity, and the mental stimulation that came with a high tech career (Okay, I won't omit or deny the good pay.  ).  Once I started a tech project going, my absorption at work shifted to high gear: It felt like a rush, almost an addictive "high" experience.   :

My family and I are Orthodox Christian so we're rather conservative as to the tenants of the world's oldest Christian faith. But in addition I have evolved somewhat myself. I have a strong bond with nature and its beauty. It may seem odd but sometimes I will talk to trees and plants. I am deeply bonded with the night and the stars and the universe. I view them as family. What caused all of this to include us to come into existence is a question to be debated eternally but I do feel the universe is the hand of God itself whatever God actually is. Life is everywhere. We just haven't found it yet. It may have found us but is very cautious. Hell, I'd be seeing how violent we are as a species.

Apparently the desire to seek, embrace and grow your very soul is quite strong with you. I wish you the very best in your search. More people need to make these personal quests. If they did we'd most likely live in a better world.

You seem to be what is known as a Nature mystic or a natural mystic, as distinguished from a religious mystic.  I share your affinity for Nature and the universe, but I also think of myself as a religious mystic.  Personally, the distinction is more formal or academic than actual or real.  I tend to believe similarly with you that the universe (or any multiverse) is the manifest body or expression of an unmanifest, impersonal cosmic God.

You mention you and your family are Orthodox Christian.  I presume you are referring to the eastern Orthodox Christian Church(es) as distinguished from the western Roman Catholic Church and Protestant denominations?  The eastern church's theology has a wonderful teaching known as "deification" or "divinization" (apotheosis), which retains the mystical elements of the pristine Christian faith.  Are you familiar with this?  Unfortunately, in the western Christian churches, "deification" lost significance and eminence in their theology, to the serious detriment of the spiritual development and growth of many followers. 

How correct you are when you said: "More people need to make these personal quests," with reference to the individual's soul growth.  Sadly and tragically people fail to realize the necessity of soul growth as the next and final step in the evolutionary development of human consciousness and the human species.  This is the continuing evolution of the human species in the noosphere envisioned by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's phenomenology.  It is also the "consciousness evolution" interpretation given by Carl Johan Calleman to the Mayan calendar.

Your "mystical studies and practice". I don't know exactly what you mean. Have you adopted eastern religions or derivations of them in your quest for full understanding and incorporated them with the more traditional western faiths?

It is not that I have mix-matched aspects of eastern religious systems with those of the western faiths.  For now, let us say that I discovered for myself and came to understand the spiritual thread that weaves through all the world's major religious systems and distills their common essence and message into an authentic and pure mysticism of nondualist oneness.    This is the classic teaching of mystics down through the ages, many of whom are credited as founders of the religion which their respective followers institutionalized.  During the last century, it has resurfaced in our time as what is called contemporary mysticism.  Remarkably, it is this mystical flavor of spirituality which theoretical physics and other more recent fields of science are validating unintentionally.

Can you elaborate a bit on your understanding regarding "ultimate mysteries of life and Being and Self" That is a rather ambitious undertaking. If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to hear some of your insight if it isn't too personal.

I do not mind sharing the teachings of mysticism with you, Zircon.  You will be surprised to find out that truth and its mysteries are far, far simpler than anyone is willing to accept or believe.  It is a total paradox to the human mind -- too simple to be true!  Give me your e-mail address through the personal messaging feature here at CoastGab.  I will e-mail my reply to you.

And yes, I too enjoy most of what C2C offers. I've been a listener since Art Bell's days when I was living in the Pacific Northwest. I even bought Cusco cassettes. Great late night listening when I'm out in my yard with a breeze blowing, stars glowing and a Mockingbird singing its songbook here on the Great Plains.

I am imagining what you described... That must truly be a great late night to experience. 

[Zircon]

Oversoul, it is going to take me a bit of time to read and reread your elegant and lengthy response. I will attempt to respond to your post in a manner I hope will be as good as yours.

[Zircon]

First time I've heard the term, "natural mystic". I recall when discussing this with protestants I was referred to as a "deist". During my life I have always felt there was some force that permeated everything but I wasn't comfortable assigning a gender to it much less a man-made dogma. I was Christened a Roman Catholic back when I was a baby but never got baptized. Never asked why but I guess my father was disillusioned with the church. Didn't grow up a member of any organized faith. Grew up "agnostic".

Water changes its behavior/properties with your feelings. Plants can feel anger or appreciation. I can and do get to know wild birds and they get to know me. Mockingbirds in particular are one of my favorites They'll get within four feet of me and could attack as I'm not aware of their presence. I saved one of their hatching and placed it back into the nest. The mom was a bit frazzled as I held the bird but quieted down once I placed it back and moved away. We got along fine. Once when I was talking softly about how beautiful a morning it was, a male Northern Mockingbird uttered a very soft "koo". I repeated it and looked up over my right shoulder. He sat there as I continued to speak, tweaking his head and listening. Anyway, enough with the birds. Its beginning to sound weird.

After my family and I moved to Seattle, I met a very spiritual Russian by way of China and then Australia. After long discussions on theology and the Orthodox faith we "converted" to the Eastern Orthodoxy in the early 1980s.There is a deep reverence for ancient traditions including the teachings you mentioned. I find the priests and bishops to be at peace, pious and very understanding of others. Yes, I believe you and I have a similar assessment of the western faiths. I feel God is redesigned to serve man. Materialism and acquisition is a sign of God's favor seems to be an underlying philosophy far too often.

I feel nature is the manifestation of creation and do not have a problem with evolution in the slightest. After all, this "seven days" stuff is mistakenly misinterpreted as seven earth days of 24 hours each. I think a day to God can be several billions of our human years as time isn't a constraint to whatever passes as the All Mighty. Its God's timescale that is in play during "creation". I believe that evolution is creation. To think it took billions of years for a multicellular blob of goo to float in the primordial oceans is a miracle in itself. Of course, that assumes that life is a natural consequence given materials, planetary dynamics and motions and time.

I think this galaxy is populated with worlds in all phases of evolutionary development and probably hosts 50,000 technical civilizations. That might seem awfully generous but when you consider we've got 400 billion stars, most with planets well ... that is a very small drop in a very large bucket. I don't feel embracing science is in conflict with my faith as I am seeking to understand the universe using the capabilities God provided me in my life long quest. I am attempting to understand the workings of something much greater than myself. It is very humbling.

And I totally agree with you that the more physicists delve into theoretical physics and cosmology convergence is taking place with ancient teachings. I've always felt that "religion" and "science" were talking about the same thing. One explaining the "why" and the other the "how".

[Oversoul]

Your last post above was great, Zircon.  Straight from the heart.  I think our spiritual pathways are converging on a number of points.  Nice to be in the company of another traveler on the path least traveled.   

Judaeo-Christian scripture says that God made man in God's spirit image and likeness.  It looks more like man has conceptualized God in man's own human image and likeness -- with all the same human attributes -- an anthropomorphic God!  Quite ironic!  God must be sighing a lot. 

You say you communicate with mockingbirds.  I do with squirrels.  I used to live in an apartment complex with huge trees and lots of squirrels.  We, the familiar squirrels and I, would stop or slow down as we pass by each other to chat (truly).  It was cute how they'd nod or bob their heads to signify they agree, approve or understand as they responded.  Sometimes they complain about other squirrels or other animals.  Oftentimes they are just plain cheerful and happy going about their routines.  I know others who communicate with animals, too.  So, what else is new? 
   
Cheers!

[CozyRozie]

my advice:  say and do what you want and don't give a shit about what anyone else thinks.

?? Was this ever a quote in the Top-Right-Corner?

[CozyRozie]

*** Since this is a Domestic News Thread I like to post this question here??

Which of you fuckers did this ??

Release of 40k mink in Minnesota dubbed ‘domestic terrorism’ by sheriff
Published time: 19 Jul, 2017 04:17
https://www.rt.com/usa/396751-mink-farm-released-minnesota/

*Nearly 40,000 domesticated American mink have been released into the wild by trespassers,
and now a family-owned farm in Minnesota is scrambling to gather the small, semi-aquatic mammals.
Authorities have deemed the incident “a disaster.”
Stearns County Sheriff Don Gudmundson of Eden Valley is calling it “domestic terrorism.”
The FBI has joined the investigation and have concluded that an exterior fence was dismantled in three spots
by more than one person at Lang Farm, according to the St. Cloud Times.

Eden Valley is roughly 75 miles (120 kilometers) northwest of Minneapolis.*

The crime took place between 10:30pm Sunday and 5:30am Monday.
The business is saying it lost $750,000 dollars due to the released mink, according to KUSA.

The farm has 32 barns and around 38,000 mink lived in 20,000 cages, the SC Times reported.
According to the sheriff, hundreds of the furry critters have already died in the area, according to the Washington Post.

Evidence suggests the vandals parked about half a mile away from the farm on a township road.
They then released the mink from their cages.
In most cases, domesticated mink will not survive in the wild due to the lack of natural survival skills. The ones that do survive could negatively affect the wildlife they interact with, Gudmundson said, according to KUSA.

Gudmundson noted the area the mink have been released into and pointed to the vicious nature of the small animal.
He said they had been set free near a wildlife management area and on Tuesday morning,
a large number lot of the mink had died already due to heat, stress and lack of water.
Gudmundson believes that 10 chickens that were killed nearby probably died because of the mink.*


.../ my question is was there a Live persons Security on the farm ??
            with farm as such and with all the weirdos on BellGab they should have live security after workers are gone for the day.

[CozyRozie]

It's not just an urban problem.  Out here in the sticks I see black ants whipping on red ants all too often.

Obviously racist post