Brad’s Blog – Words – Page 10

The New Repuglican Party

May 8, 2016
Byron Carrier

When repugnant tactics work, it's time for Repuglicans to celebrate and use them. Republicans are in upheaval. How to bring in rude and annoying Tea Party Conservatives and the similar millions who like Donald Trump? I have an re-branding idea that could capitalize on this underlying attitude, claiming the traits that used to go unspoken. All republicans need to do is change one letter in their name, dropping the "b" in inserting a "g." The naive might think cleaving to the root word "repugnant" would…

March 23, 2016
Byron Carrier

Donald Trump excuses and sympathizes with his supporter who attacked a protester from behind, beating him up. Trump said the attacker was "fed up" with such disruption, as if the protester caused the attack. Don't dare protest or we'll beat you up, goes his implied threat. Further, he went on to say there are millions who are similarly fed up. Fed up with what? Perhaps constant irate anger without sensible content is wearing in them. A national brain imbalance of raging mid-brains has millions gone…

March 2, 2016
Byron Carrier

Griping at that 88th Academy Awards obscured the magnificent spectacle it was. The need to include more minorities, while important to admit and improve, shouldn't distract us from the reason to celebrate marvelous movies. That there is no proportional representation of blacks and other minorities is a problem in the midst of being admitted and addressed. It is an industry, like America, too slow to include and praise all of us. It lags and needs to be goaded, yes. But fixing entrenched racism isn't its…

February 14, 2016
Byron Carrier

Following on my earlier blog on Oregon Silliness, events dragged on, petered out and popped with the sad death of Robert Finicum. He may or may not have been shot reaching for his 45 in a tense stand-off. This was sad, but he's no martyr, and the tragedy should warn and redirect us all on the relevant issues. The impetus for outsiders to occupy the Malheur Wildlife Refuge was largely organized by Ammon Bundy, son of Cliven Bundy who had earlier (2014) mounted a tense…

January 11, 2016
Byron Carrier

Here in Oregon a group of armed men seized a remote federal wildlife refuge, some claiming they are patriots ready to kill and be killed protecting their freedom and land. How silly. They are angry because a father and son got longer prison sentences for arson, probably lit to cover up their poaching. What are the guns for? Do they intend to shoot the sheriff, or maybe the receptionist at the BLM, or anyone daring to object to their rude and childish tactics? In the…

January 6, 2016
Byron Carrier

We are born of, ride along with, and can slightly veer a vast momentum. From the cosmos to consciousness, we are in momentums we might veer. There's a cosmic momentum that launched atoms and galaxies billions of years ago; they hum and spin still and will continue. The rocks on Mt. Ashland seem solid and lasting, but peer inside closely enough and you'll see the momentum of elemental particles coming into and out of existence repeatedly. The electrons vibrate or spin reliably. Given enough time,…

December 22, 2015
Byron Carrier

I'll bet you're like me. I tend to think, "I know," and I do. But what I tend to not know is how much I don't know. There's not just all the information out there that I don't know, it's all the information in here that I barely remember. I can access only a bit of what I know, but even that large realm is only a bit of what I should know. You know things too, but you're like me, partial, limited, only a…

December 16, 2015
Byron Carrier

You gotta do to do. Big plans and bigger imaginations don't get it done. Drawers of files of information and ideas just get more crammed. Needs as wide as a round ball planet go neglected. I've taken in too much and given out too little of it. I gotta start somewhere, so I'll start here. I'll start by publishing to the entire world, knowing no one knows I'm doing it. I publish to all humanity, and not just for these decades, yet I'm alone so…

February 21, 2014
Byron Carrier

Friends know I’ve been spending lots of time learning about and addressing Global Warming. What is it? What to do? Here are my favorite sites for easy-to-picture, comprehensive, and reliable information. Click around on the many links in each for a fast and fun view of the slow and problematic predicament we’re in. You might want to visit and bookmark each now for easy reference later. From NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration): http://www.climate.gov/ From NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration); http://climate.nasa.gov/ The World Bank:…

January 24, 2012
Byron Carrier

Passion can fog the mind. We can get so roused or riled we no longer think clear or heed our conscience. We can get so swept up in lust, love or anger we think of nothing else. We can get so full of zeal we barely notice or care what it does to others. I’m not against passion. We need passion to enliven us. Like Rod Stewart’s song says, “Even the president needs some passion, passion.” The mild twinges of passion we get from watching…

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The dream of an Earthly Religion…

Earthly: our precious natural earth which allows us our bodies, lives, cultures and future.

Religion: from the old root words religare and religio, meaning “to bind back to the root and be whole again.” This does not assume we need to believe in God or the Bible. Rather, we should be well-related with our own bodies, each other, natural life, and natural existence as it actually is. If there is connection with divinity or God, it is in and through our bodies and beings that we relate primarily, not via scriptures, traditions, rituals, or supposed religious authorities. In short, by religion we mean “relating well with reality.”

The emphasis here is on the earthly. It is not an afterlife or an instead-of-life that interests us. Living well here on earth together does.

While we take our religious perspective and work seriously, we don’t want it to be stuffy. Too often, religions can be alien to the human condition rather than affirming of it. They can be demeaning and demoralizing, dull and bossy, ponderously pretentious. We lean more towards the fun and sexy, natural and lively, human and humane, thoughtful and pertinent.

Reality: the obvious and inescapable stuff of physical existence. We intend to enjoy and tend our lives in these bodies, for our time, in our cultures, for our singular and interrelated ecosystem. There may be more, but there is AT LEAST THIS of which we are born, in which we live, and into which we will die.

God or no-God is not the point; Earth is. Both believers and non-believers are welcome here, for we all share a common source, opportunity, and responsibility: life as it is and could be. This ranges from simply improving one’s own life to your helping save and restore Eden’s, not just to “sustain” it, but veering it to thrive as never before. If you value your life, each other’s, and Earth’s – welcome!

Learn more…

The New Repuglican Party

Trump’s Base Base

Academy Award Appreciation

From Silly through Sad to Sensible?

Oregon Silliness

Veering the Vast Momentum

Partial, Yet a Part

Gotta Start Somewhere

Global Warming Explained – 4 Good Resources

Passion’s Fog: a Review of “The Passion of the Christ” and “The Fog of War.”