Saturday, December 31, 2011

HAPPY KWANZAA!!!


Today is the 6th day of Kwanzaa.


Kuumba/Creativity

I sing like I feel.
Ella Fitzgerald

Create and be true to yourself, and depend only on your own good taste.
Duke Ellington

The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams.
Oprah Winfrey

Whatever your life's work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: "I'm with you, kid. Let's go."
Maya Angelou

Potential powers of creativity are within us and we have the duty to work assiduously to discover those powers.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

A man who has no imagination has no wings.
Muhammad Ali

Rapping billionaire prepares for Occupy the Rose Parade | The Raw Story

Rapping billionaire prepares for Occupy the Rose Parade | The Raw Story:

'via Blog this'

HAPPY SATURDAY!!!


Inhale all the love again, then exhale slowly and send all your love to the world, without any resistance... Your love is so great that you can send it to the entire world, and still it is endless.
~don Miguel Ruiz

Friday, December 30, 2011

The 50 Best Moments For Women In 2011

The 50 Best Moments For Women In 2011:

'via Blog this'

HAPPY KWANZAA!!!


Today is the 5th day of Kwanzaa.

Nia/Purpose

You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man.
Frederick Douglas

It is confidence in our bodies, minds and spirits that allows us to keep looking for new adventures, new directions to grow in, and new lessons to learn -- which is what life is all about.
Oprah Winfrey

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Determination and perseverance move the world. Thinking that others will do it for you is a sure way to fail.
Marva Collins

You can't hold a man down without staying down with him.
Booker T. Washington

There is no power on earth that can neutralize the influence of a high, simple and useful life.
Booker T. Washington

Picture Of The Day



Just Sayin.

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!


Imagine that the air is made of love. Every time you inhale, love is filling your lungs and every portion of your chest cavity.....Feel the love enter every cell, every organ, and every possible space. Feel your entire body being purified and cleansed.
~don Miguel Ruiz

Thursday, December 29, 2011

20 Quick Lessons to No-BS Self-Protection

This is probably one of the most important Martial Art Articles you'll ever read... at least I think so. Please click on the title below to go to the original article from RMAX International.

20 Quick Lessons to No-BS Self-Protection

As one who lived within violence and terror from childhood due to a special array of circumstances including physical and mental childhood disabilities, I dedicated my life to becoming “invisible.” Fighting back never worked for me as it only exacerbated the problem, leading to a worse ambush later. I didn’t want to fight. I wanted to be left alone, unmolested and unharmed.

When it comes to preparing yourself to deal with a violent attack, I advocate a doctrine of “unconditional survival.” Due to the inherent educational flaws in the American “martial art” approach, I assembled this desideratum to fill the gap between the technique-oriented training most Americans undergo in the dojo and the reality of the violent personal attacks.



If you intend to take a self-defense or martial arts course, none of what you read should be interpreted as an admonition to abandon that supplementary education. In the contrary, my list will help you make what you already know more accessible and effective should you ever find yourself in a suddenly violent situation.

In any physical conflict, your goal is unconditional survival. It is not to kill an assailant, nor to maim, injure or hurt him, for those are merely byproducts of pursuing your objective, which is freedom from harm - physical, mental and emotional. You must always hold true to your goal: to survive unconditionally, without question, at any cost. That does not include fighting; it does include appropriate application of fighting skill at the decisive moment.
If you do not need to employ your physical skills or defense tools (like mace, a knife or a gun) or if you need to refrain from using them, they should remain invisible. Since the goal of an assailant is to remove opportunities for you to defend yourself, only if you are attacked should you allow others to be aware of your ability or options.
By themselves, prearranged martial arts techniques are insufficient for self-protection. Unconditional survival demands extensive skill and preparation ranging from non-verbal communication to lethal force. Basically, if your only tool is a hammer, everything you see will be a nail (which means you’ll stimulate more conflict, not less.) If you understand only fighting skill, then when conflict arises you will fight, even if the situation could have been solved by other means. To become truly invisible to violence, you must have a spectrum of tools to defuse aggression.
Symmetrical training, like sparring, cannot be relied upon. Too many martial arts instructors teach you how to use your skills only against practitioners of the same style. More importantly, when you’re attacked it’s never with mutual consent; no bowing, squaring off, mental preparation for the bell, and gentlemanly rules. An ambush (being asymmetrical) has little to no resemblance to a sparring match. You should find “role model” scenario-based training to supplement any martial art training you choose to do.
Training should not involve any preconceived ideas about saving face or fighting fair. Survival is not about style, but about the reality of evasion and escape. Lie, cheat, wreak whatever chicanery necessary. Do everything possible to protect yourself and extract yourself from harm’s way. Even the courts indemnify you from this in your right to self-preservation. Withdraw when you can. It may be your most successful tactic and can save your life. In a fight, you will be lucky to leave unscathed, so if you can avoid the fight, do so at all costs. Violence avoided is a fight won.


The key to survival does not lie in memorizing a couple quotes from Eastern philosophy, slapping a few flashy kicks and submission holds together, and starting a new style. The key to survival involves uncovering your own self-worth and truly believing that you have a valuable contribution to the world which deserves protecting.
You must be prepared, both psychologically and physiologically, for the attack. Your awareness must be such that you have the ability to function under the intense strain of personal violence even though it will enable you to defuse or avoid 90 percent of all volatile situations. Your would-be assailant interviews you as a potential “safe” victim for him to attack; and you want your awareness to be sufficiently prepared so that you FAIL this interview!
If you fail to recognize the attack developing and are startled by it, you will not have access to your skills. If you allow your awareness to lapse and fade, you will become a victim of your own overconfidence. Violence starts much earlier than the physical manifestation of the attack. You must have complete training for detecting the pre-attack indicators so that you can avoid, prevent or distract violence before it unfolds. That can mean feigning submission and acquiescing to the demands of the assailant. Give up your wallet or purse; its contents do not equal your life or the life of a loved one.
Don’t spend all your training time in the dojo. Miyamoto Musashi, one of the greatest warrior-philosophers, stated in his Book of Five Rings: … “If you learn indoor techniques, you will think narrowly and forget the true way. Thus you will have difficulty in actual encounters.” True martial art begins when you leave your class, not when you enter it.
Martial sports are about technical skill, steadfastness, endurance, doggedness, durability and resilience. They have nothing to do with personal violence because they do not take place outdoors, in the dirt, in the rain, in the snow, on the concrete or in ambush simulations. Competing in combat sports can supplement your ability to defend yourself, but cannot replace it.


Most people have never fallen on anything harder than a mat. They have never kicked with their shoes on or punched a real person. They have probably not tried to battle from inside a vehicle, from within a crowd of civilians or in the company of untrained loved ones. Don’t fall victim to those pitfalls.
To prepare for an event, you must simulate it as closely as possible. Performance is in direct proportion to preparation. Moreover, the worst performance you have in training is the best you can hope for in combat. To increase your chance of survival, you must engage in overload practice. Your training simulations must be more difficult than the potential assault.
Merely because something is old does not mean it is valuable today. Ancient training methods are an excellent way of learning how people fought and trained in ancient times. Back then, people trained in unarmed fighting because oppressive rulers restricted weapons possession. Some ancient fighting methods are no longer effective because the 21st century has brought a new kind of threat. The assailant which confronts you is a new breed of felon more terrorist than criminal who feeds on the emotional trauma he inflicts.
Because of the weapons and methods used by modern criminals, you can no longer permit yourself the luxury of training only with your empty hands. You ought to adopt an integrated system that spans the continuum of defensive preparation, from non-verbal communication to interpersonal skill to less-than-lethal measures (like mace) to lethal force (included edged weapons and firearms.)
Its time to fight when the situation is no longer acceptable to you. Rarely do you have to fight. Rarely do you encounter a situation that is truly unacceptable. The obstacle is not that you fail to choose to fight, for it is not a choice but a fact that when something is unacceptable to you, you will act upon it in some form. The failure comes in realizing too late, and then you are playing “catch-up” with your very life, when you are surprised or not properly prepared with a flexible and comprehensive self-protection doctrine, you are not given the opportunity to enter the fight. If so, your actions may be inappropriate or insufficient. Anyone can successfully negotiate personal violence as long as he is given the ability to act appropriately.


What gives you the ability to survive is training within a doctrine that permits you to identify and assess a threat prior to the fight, one that derails psychological and physiological factors that inhibit your entrance into the fight, one that affords you access to your fighting skill should physical violence break out, and one that provides post-combat knowledge to address legal, medical and social concerns.
Your capacity for calmly recognizing an assailants probing process will determine your ability to survive. There are certain characteristics that are common to all attacks and certain brands of behavior common to particular types of belligerents. The attacker’s interview phase is one of these characteristics, where he is determining if you’re “safe” to attack. If you do not possess the calm repose and wherewithal to recognize that violence begins long before the fight, you will not have access to your fighting skill. If you fail to recognize the development of the attack, you may be able to muster the ability to do something about fighting, when prevention may have been the most effective solution.
Self-protection is not about fighting; it is about awareness and commitment. Awareness of your options and the composition of confrontation increases your survivability. Non-verbal training, eye and facial calibration, body carriage, postural and spatial constitution, gesticulation and verbal skill should be critical parts of your training.
During a physical confrontation that has obvious legal implications, the fight is over when the assailant is no longer a threat, even though the turmoil continues until the situation is resolved legally, socially, physically and emotionally. The law never supercedes your right to self-preservation. The legal system was created to perpetuate your survival, not inhibit or endanger it.
You should endeavor to end physical confrontation as quickly as possible. Keep your response simple and expedient. You do not have the luxury of being complex, especially in multiple-assailant engagements. Most of the time, you can end the problem by simply unbalancing your adversary and withdrawing tactically.
Fighting is something you do with someone; violence is something done to someone. Nothing you’ve ever done in your life, intentionally or accidentally, merits a suddenly violent attack to your person. Do not try to fight. You only have the impulse to fight, because you’re a good person, because psychologically, you believe in fairness and righteousness. Sudden violence is neither.

Believe in yourself, in your intrinsic goodness, and protect that essence as you would your own child, unconditionally.

Fresh Prince Beef: Carlton Explains What Happen With Aunt Viv! “She Went Nuts” [VIDEO]

Fresh Prince Beef: Carlton Explains What Happen With Aunt Viv! “She Went Nuts” [VIDEO]:

'via Blog this'

HAPPY KWANZAA!!!


Today is the fourth day of Kwanzaa.

Ujamaa/Cooperative Economics

Energy is the essence of life. Every day you decide how you're going to use it by knowing what you want and what it takes to reach that goal, and by maintaining focus.
Oprah Winfrey

The world cares very little about what a man or woman knows; it is what a man or woman is able to do that counts.
Booker T. Washington

No race can prosper until it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.
Booker T. Washington

No matter what accomplishments you make, somebody helps you.
Althea Gibson

Property is intended to serve life, and no matter how much we surround it with rights and respect, it has no personal being. It is part of the earth man walks on. It is not man.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Nothing will work unless you do.
Maya Angelou

Freedoms Lost Under G.W. Bush | BaltimoreChronicle.com

Freedoms Lost Under G.W. Bush | BaltimoreChronicle.com

by Chuck Baldwin


February 1, 2005--Supporters and apologists for President G.W. Bush will often assail my assertion that the Bush administration has done more to dismantle constitutional protections of our liberties than any president in modern memory. It seems that these people believe that until federal Storm Troopers knock down the doors of their homes and drag them off to the gulags, they have lost no freedoms. Nothing could be further from the truth.
If history is any teacher, it instructs us in the incremental process that elitists use to implement their totalitarian agenda. The first step is to use an incessant, highly orchestrated propaganda. For all practical purposes, the major media in the United States is providing that propaganda. At the national level, there is hardly any investigative journalism going on. Instead, the national press corps has become little more than lazy lackeys for the White House.

The second step is to lay the foundation for totalitarianism by passing legislation that may later be used against the citizenry. And that is exactly what the Bush administration has very successfully accomplished. It very adroitly succeeded where the Clinton administration failed.

For example, most conservatives would be surprised to learn that the Patriot Act and Department of Homeland Security was the brainchild of one William Jefferson Clinton. However, a recalcitrant Republican Congress denied Clinton the opportunity to implement these plans. Of course, with the Republican, G.W. Bush, serving as President, that same Republican Congress was all too eager to pass these bills into law.

Whether or not individual Americans have been personally subjected to tyranny as a result of lost freedoms doesn't change the fact that they have already lost these freedoms.
The third step is to demonize and marginalize anyone and everyone who opposes the government's plans and ambitions. Such opponents are characterized as "unpatriotic," "obstructionist," "uncompassionate," or even "ungodly." Once again, the Bush minions have very skillfully done just that. Anyone who dares to oppose or even question Bush must be regarded as enemies of America or even as enemies of God.

Of course, the last step is to begin using the power and force of government to physically silence or remove those who are determined to require such treatment. And, as Germany's National Socialists proved, by the time this happens, there is no one around who is capable of coming to the assistance of such people.

For those who are willing to objectively analyze Bush's actions and policies, the truth is clearly seen: this President has systematically put in place laws, policies, and bureaucracies that can, are, and will continue to strip the American citizenry of the constitutional protections of their liberties.

Following are examples of freedoms which President Bush and his fellow Republicans in Congress have already expunged (as reported by the Associated Press):

FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION: Government may monitor religious and political institutions without suspecting criminal activity to assist terror investigations.

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION: Government has closed once-public immigration hearings, has secretly detained hundreds of people without charges, and has encouraged bureaucrats to resist public records questions.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH: Government may prosecute librarians or keepers of any other records if they tell anyone that the government subpoenaed information related to a terror investigation.

RIGHT TO LEGAL REPRESENTATION: Government may monitor federal prison jailhouse conversations between attorneys and clients, and deny lawyers to Americans accused of crimes.

FREEDOM FROM UNREASONABLE SEARCHES: Government may search and seize Americans' papers and effects without probable cause to assist terror investigation.

RIGHT TO A SPEEDY AND PUBLIC TRIAL: Government may jail Americans indefinitely without a trial.

RIGHT TO LIBERTY: Americans may be jailed without being charged or being able to confront witnesses against them.

That good citizens are compliant and unconcerned regarding G.W. Bush's propensity to trample constitutional freedoms bespeaks a great ignorance or a great apathy, or both.
These rights have already been lost! Whether individual Americans have been personally subjected to the resultant tyranny or not doesn't change the fact that they have already lost these freedoms! This fact, alone, should be enough for any studious lover-of-liberty to be outraged.

HAPPY THURSDAY!!!


Once you find the inner silence in your mind, all of your senses will start to awaken...Feel yourself perceiving these sounds, creating beautiful emotions inside of you.
~don Miguel Ruiz

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Holiday Stories...

Please click on the title below to go to the original story, with video.

Priests, monks brawl in Bethlehem church | The Raw Story:

Instead of a peaceful gathering during the holiday season, some religious figures engaged in a contentious scene inside the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem on Wednesday morning.

According to the Associated Press, almost 100 Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic priests clashed inside the church, swinging brooms at each other.

Both groups fought over space during the cleaning of the church for Orthodox Christians celebrations in January. The fight was broken up by Palestinian police using batons and shields.

'via Blog this'

Joshua Spivak: 2011, the year of the recall - latimes.com

Joshua Spivak: 2011, the year of the recall - latimes.com:

'via Blog this'

The Worst Product Flops of 2011 - Yahoo! Finance

The Worst Product Flops of 2011 - Yahoo! Finance:

'via Blog this'

HAPPY KWANZAA!!!


Today is the 3rd Day of Kwanzaa.

Ujima/Collective Work & Responsibility

For if one is lost, all are lost -- the chain that held them would save all or none.
Toni Morrison

If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.
Maya Angelou

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.
Booker T. Washington

Our children must never lose their zeal for building a better world.
Mary McLeod Bethune

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!!!


Inner silence is a place of choice where every thought in the mind is created. It is the place where dreaming begins--a place where you can witness the creation of thought.
~don Miguel Ruiz

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Holiday Stories...

People Who Didn't Get What They Wanted For Christmas:

'via Blog this'

2011 Year-End Wrap-Up: R.I.P. | Videos | BET

2011 Year-End Wrap-Up: R.I.P. | Videos | BET:

'via Blog this'

Student-run project works to rebuild Navajo community | Berkeleyside

Student-run project works to rebuild Navajo community | Berkeleyside:

'via Blog this'

Training at 4am with Carmen Amara



Uploaded by CARMENAMARA on Dec 23, 2011
I am as fickle as a chameleon. I am in my focused moment and all of a sudden just feel the need to dance. Threw in a little flamenco...hope you enjoy my process to reach my goals.
Never give up guys.

Namaste,

Carmen Amara

www.carmenamara.com
Category:
Sports

Tags:
Train Training Strength Fitness Workout Physical Strength Power Exercise Physical Fitness Ups Arts flamenco dance Performing Social Media The Arts Bench Physical Exercise

License:
Standard YouTube License

Small Occupy Movements Across the Country Accumulate Victories | Truthout

Click on the title below to go to the original story.

Small Occupy Movements Across the Country Accumulate Victories | Truthout:


by: Rose Aguilar, Truthout | Report

In a recent San Francisco Chronicle piece, "Occupy movement must move toward the center," Tony Fels, associate professor of history at the University of San Francisco, writes that the Occupy "movement has reached a tactical dead end."

Demonstrators don't have nicely packaged sound bites; there's no go-to spokesperson; Occupy DC is one of the last camps standing. But the movement is far from dead.

Here in California, the movement is exploding. In a recent study called "Diffusion of the Occupy Movement in California," UC Riverside researchers surveyed 482 incorporated towns and cities in California and found that 143 - nearly 30 percent - had Occupy sites on Facebook between December 1 and December 8.

According to the study, many of the small and medium-sized towns are active with likes, posts and events on their Facebook pages. For example, the town of Arcata has about 17,000 people and 2,950 subscriptions on their page.

"The Occupy Barstow website proclaimed that Barstow is 'about as far from Wall Street as you can get.' But the Barstow occupiers probably did not know that there were also Occupy actions in Weaverville, Idyllwild, Calistoga, El Centro and many other small California towns, even in very remote areas," write professor of sociology Christopher Chase-Dunn and graduate student Michaela Curran-Strange.

And the majority of Occupy cities are not in the Northern, more liberal, part of the state. They are almost equally divided between the north and south.

"The north-south finding is interesting because most people believe that the political culture of Northern California is much more Leftist than that of Southern California," Chase-Dunn and Curran-Strange write. "Our findings suggest that this is no longer true, at least as indicated by the propensity to establish Occupy sites."

The study also listed several success stories within individual movements. Occupy Riverside activists helped an ex-Marine reoccupy the home that he and his family were evicted from as a result of foreclosure. Occupy Petaluma protesters successfully petitioned Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to suspend evictions during the holidays. Occupy Redding is supporting postal workers who are protesting job cuts.

UC Riverside researchers conclude that these actions, along with the recent port shutdowns, prove that "this movement has broad support and is capable of powerful collective action."

Occupiers are using their collective action in a myriad of ways. In Des Moines, Iowa, demonstrators are occupying President Obama's campaign headquarters, saying this is the only way their voices will be heard.

"We can't afford lobbyists, so we have to be our own lobbyists, and the lobbyist job is to go to the candidates and the politicians and advocate on the behalf of issues and people," said protester Kelly Griffins in an interview with WOI-DT.

On December 19, eight Occupiers were arrested at the Iowa Democratic Party headquarters in Des Moines. They took over the office to demand that President Obama veto the National Defense Authorization Act and the massive $1 trillion spending bill. The Occupiers were joined by Veterans for Peace and immigrant rights groups.

"They don't want to be here to listen to us. We decided to go to the state headquarters and make them listen to us," Occupy member Daniel Bragg said in an interview with The Des Moines Register.

On December 12, Occupy groups organized a coordinated shut down of ports along the West Coast, from San Diego, California, to Anchorage, Alaska. Ports in Oakland, California, Portland, Oregon, and Longview, Washington, were shut down.

The closures were intended to support the International Longshore and Warehouse Union in Longview, Washington, in their ongoing contract battle with the Export Grain Terminal. The union did not officially support the shut down, but many workers stood in solidarity with the demonstrators.

On that same day, Occupiers in Utah and Colorado expressed solidarity by attempting to halt trucks at Wal-Mart central distribution centers. More than a dozen Occupy Denver demonstrators were arrested at a distribution center in Loveland, Colorado. According to The Coloradoan, about 50 Occupiers waved signs accusing Wal-Mart of paying low wages and treating the country like a plantation.

In Utah, demonstrators targeted three Wal-Mart distribution centers by blocking the entrances with their bicycles. Demonstrators also entered the Tooele Wal-Mart store chanting that "low, low, prices come with high, high exploitation." According to Salt Lake City Weekly, demonstrators called on employees to "organize for their rights and revolt against their employers."

On December 7, demonstrators and Occupiers from 46 states across the country gathered in Washington DC to occupy the offices of their representatives as part of the "Take Back the Capitol" action. Demonstrators wanted to meet with their senators and representatives to discuss issues like income inequality, workers' rights and tax breaks.

A note on Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wisconsin) office door said, "Please knock. Only Scheduled Appointments will be admitted today."

That same day, 62 people were arrested after shutting down K Street, the home of Washington's lobbying firms. About a dozen more were arrested in front of the Supreme Court.

As we near the end of 2011, where do you think the Occupy movement should go from here? What's most effective? How should the Occupy movement move forward in 2012? What can the movement do to convince people watching from the sidelines to join the movement?




'via Blog this'

Los Angeles New Year's Eve Events

Los Angeles New Year's Eve Events:

'via Blog this'

Having fun while on vacation...Happy Holidays




Uploaded by CARMENAMARA on Dec 26, 2011
Burning calories while on vacation. You can too. Have fun. Namaste, Carmen Amara
www.carmenamara.com

Category:
Entertainment

Tags:
mobile

License:
Standard YouTube License

HAPPY KWANZAA!!!

Today is the second day of Kwanzaa.




Kujichagulia (koo-jee-chah-goo-LEE-ah): Self-Determination

All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible is their ideals are threatened.
Maya Angelou

It isn't where you came from, it's where you're going that counts.
Ella Fitzgerald

We can't rely on anyone but ourselves to define our existence, to shape the image of ourselves.
Spike Lee

Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong.
Ella Fitzgerald

Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not.
Oprah Winfrey

Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which one has overcome while trying to succeed.
Booker T. Washington

Every time you suppress some part of yourself or allow others to play yu small, you are in essence ignoring the owner's manual your creator gave you and destroying your design.
Oprah Winfrey

Every person comes into life seeking his name. This is the centrality of life. By one's name is not meant the name upon a birth certificate nor the name by which one's parents call him. Rather what isthe name by which God calls you?
Herman Watts

Don't put a ceiling on yourself.
Oprah Winfrey

HAPPY TUESDAY!!!


Between the end of one thought and the beginning of the next is a space. In that space you will find your inner silence.
~don Miguel Ruiz

Monday, December 26, 2011

HAPPY KWANZAA!!!


Today is the first day of Kwanzaa. Kwanzaa is a week-long celebration held in the United States honoring universal African-American heritage and culture, observed from December 26 to January 1 each year. It features activities such as lighting a candle holder with seven candles[1] and culminates in a feast and gift-giving. It was created by Maulana Karenga and was first celebrated in 1966–67.

Umoja (oo-moe-ja) Unity

1. "We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color." ~ Maya Angelou

2. "We have religious holidays and we have secular holidays. I see Kwanzaa as an opportunity for African-Americans to reaffirm ourselves if we choose to, a chance to rebuild and renew our focus. I see Kwanzaa as a holiday of the spirit." ~ Jessica Harris

3. "Kwanzaa is a pan-African celebration of heritage and culture and family and community. The principles and the manner of observing the holiday lift up traditional values that are key to our lives." ~ Janine Bell

4. "The seven principles of Kwanzaa -- unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith -- teach us that when we come together to strengthen our families and communities and honor the lesson of the past, we can face the future with joy and optimism." ~ President Bill Clinton

5. "Our children need the sense of specialness that comes from participating in a known and loved ritual. They need the mastery of self-discipline that comes from order. They need the self-awareness that comes from a knowledge of their past. They need Kwanzaa as a tool for building their future and our own." ~ Jessica Harris

6. "Kwanzaa is a holiday that should be celebrated by everyone, not just the black community." ~ Jacqui Lewis

7. "Kwanzaa isn't a replacement for Christmas or even Hanukkah. Kwanzaa has nothing to do with religion and while some may twist it to be political, in its nature it is not. Kwanzaa is not the tool of its creator. Kwanzaa has a life of its own. Kwanzaa is about the spirit of people -- all people regardless of color or race. Kwanzaa is a holiday of the human spirit -- not the divine. The two were meant to co-exist peacefully." ~ Author Unknown

Priorities....

At first, I was only going to post this picture, but I saw that You Tube video and I just had to post it too...



Holiday Stories...

Cops: Man who killed 6 relatives wore Santa outfit - US news - Crime & courts - msnbc.com:

'via Blog this'

Top 10 hilarious and surprising viral videos of 2011 | VentureBeat

Top 10 hilarious and surprising viral videos of 2011 | VentureBeat:

'via Blog this'

A Tribute to Yip Harburg: The Man Who Put the Rainbow in The Wizard of Oz

A Tribute to Yip Harburg: The Man Who Put the Rainbow in The Wizard of Oz:

'via Blog this'

HAPPY MONDAY!!!


Focus your attention on your inner silence, a place inside you that is the origin of everything that you are. It is a space between you and you, a little space of creation, a little space of multidimensional choices where the dream of life begins.
~don Miguel Ruiz

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Holiday Stories...




Uploaded by jeffdunham on Dec 7, 2011
The third and final video in our series of extended clips from Jeff Dunham's Very Special Christmas Special. This one features Achmed the Dead Terrorist...disguised as Santa Claus.

Watch the first and second videos in the series:
http://youtu.be/ifK-k8Ii8Xw
http://youtu.be/BaDG4VD7S8A

Jeff's latest stand-up special Controlled Chaos: http://amzn.to/ugXn4r

Controlled Chaos Tour Dates: www.jeffdunham.com

Jeff's Very Special Christmas Special: http://amzn.to/vl153t

Twitter: www.twitter.com/jeffdunham

Facebook: www.facebook.com/jeffdunham

Website: www.jeffdunham.com

Store: www.jeffdunham.com/shop

Category:
Comedy

Tags:
Jeff Dunham Santa Claus Achmed is Santa Achmed is Santa Special Very Christmas Funny Dead Terrorist Jingle Bombs Killing Politically Correct Silence Kill Keel You Incorrect Claus Grand Theft Camel JeffDunham Third Video Extended Clips Arrow Comedy Gta Auto Music Video Bill Guest Very Funny Barbara Special Part Christmas Special Person Needs John Part

License:
Standard YouTube License

Alaa Abdel-Fattah Freed: Egyptian Blogger Meets His Son

Alaa Abdel-Fattah Freed: Egyptian Blogger Meets His Son:

CAIRO -- A prominent Egyptian blogger accused of attacking soldiers during deadly clashes was released Sunday after nearly two months in detention, during which he became a symbol of the pro-democracy activists' struggle to end military rule in Egypt.

Alaa Abdel-Fattah's first stop after he was freed was Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the uprising that toppled longtime leader Hosni Mubarak in February. The square continues to be the focus of the campaign against the military, which took power after Mubarak's ouster.

Abdel-Fattah was accused of inciting violence and other offenses during clashes that killed 27 people Oct. 9, but he was never formally charged. He was arrested Oct. 30.

The arrest raised tensions between the activists who engineered Mubarak's ouster and the generals led by Hussein Tantawi, the deposed leader's defense minister for some 20 years.

Relations have since steadily worsened, hitting a new low this month when soldiers brutally beat and stomped on protesters, including women, in Cairo clashes that left at least 18 people dead and dozens wounded. Clashes between protesters and security forces have killed more than 100 people since Mubarak's ouster.

"We need to end military rule," Abdel-Fattah said, moments after his release outside Cairo's police headquarters. "We cannot just celebrate my innocence. We know from the beginning I am not the one who killed peopleWe have not gone after the real criminals who killed people," he said in remarks carried on Al-Jazeera TV.

A small crowd of supporters behind him chanted, "The people want the fall of the Field Marshal," referring to Tantawi.

On Sunday evening, hundreds of people demonstrated against the military while waiting at Cairo International Airport to greet a protester, dentist Ahmed Harara, who was arriving from Paris. He flew there for medical treatment to try to save his vision. The treatment failed, according to activists.

Harara, 31, lost an eye in the bloodiest day of clashes with security forces Jan. 28. Then he was shot in his other eye in mid-November by security forces during clashes near Tahrir Square that killed over 40 people. He also went to Tahrir Square with his supporters after arriving to Cairo Sunday evening.

Members of an advisory council set up by the military say the generals were now prepared to look into proposals to bring forward the date of their transfer of power to a civilian administration. According to the military's timetable, the generals would step down after presidential elections are held before the end of June, 2012.

Outside police headquarters Sunday, Abdel-Fattah cradled his newborn son Khaled, named after Khaled Said, whose death at the hands of police officers helped inspire the uprising that toppled Mubarak. Abdel-Fattah's wife gave birth to the baby while her husband was in detention.

His detention brought international condemnation, and activists said it was evidence that the generals were following the same authoritarian policies as the deposed leader.

Activist members of his family noted that at least 12,000 Egyptians have been tried before military courts since late January.

The decision to release Abdel-Fattah but ban him from travel also applies to 27 others accused of taking part in violent clashes with security forces Oct. 9.

That violence began when groups of stone-throwers attacked a crowd of Coptic Christians protesting an attack on a church in southern Egypt. Video showed the military moving in with force, and some of the protesters were run over by army vehicles.

Abdel-Fattah and his supporters dismissed the accusations that he incited violence, saying the military was trying to silence a prominent critic and to deflect blame.

The investigation of Abdel-Fattah's case was transferred to a civilian judge, who ordered his release Sunday. No reasons were given,

Abdel-Fattah, a leader of the 18-day uprising that ousted Mubarak in February, was Egypt's first blogger activist, launching a blog years ago organizing opposition to Mubarak. He was detained for six weeks in 2006 under Mubarak.

'via Blog this'

Holiday Stories...

Your Holiday Survival Guide to Staying Spiritually Centered | elephant journal:

To say holiday family gatherings can be challenging is…a gross understatement.

Take attendant seasonal stress, combine with deeply-ingrained behavior patterns rearing their ugly heads, mix in a few triggering personalities, a smattering of cultural conditioning, and finally toss in forced togetherness with people you might see (and begrudgingly at that) just once a year, and we’ve plenty to deal with right there.

Add a desire to express your spirituality, or moreover, share your enthusiasm over a spiritual awakening into this mix and it can be like throwing gasoline on a burning yuletide flame.

I don’t want to paint too bleak a picture or lapse into dysfunctional family stereotyping (easy as it would be to go there). Of course, not all families are dysfunctional nor geographically and emotionally disconnected. Yet the fact remains that family members estranged by time or distance often come home to roost at the holidays, making for uncommon interactions between people who don’t see one another on a regular basis. The holidays also involve more socializing than other times of the year do, and much of it happens in contexts that are ripe for confrontation, judgment, and argument.

If you’re newer to spiritual exploration, and especially if you’ve had a sudden and distinct spiritual awakening (as I did) religious holidays like Christmas and Chanukah and their ritual celebrations offer both challenge and opportunity, with more than a cup of nostalgia thrown in.

On the one hand, there’s the “before”: the you you were a year or two ago, going with the flow, talking the talk, walking the walk, singing the songs without question and in contented ignorance of anything beyond what you knew. On the other hand, there’s the “after”: the you you are now, which can range from confusion to “none of this makes sense anymore” to outright rejection of traditional religious or holiday norms.

Challenge

There you sit, having to explain to your family why maybe you’re not participating in the usual religious practices or don’t believe the same things about God that they still do. Maybe you can no longer comfortably and authentically conform to social rituals you used to easily embrace, like taking the kids to see Santa, sending holiday cards or buying gifts out of a sense of obligation or expectation.

The sometimes bitter irony is that your family members are both the people closest to you (the people most of us have deeply-rooted emotional desires to be unconditionally loved and accepted by) yet also the least likely to board your spiritual wagon train and come along for the ride. To them, you are who you’ve always been (and “God only knows” what it is you think you’ve discovered or what this enlightenment mumbo-jumbo is all about).

Some will be intrigued by you; some confused; some in complete denial that anything is different; and some downright antagonistic. (I’ve heard “we’re all tired of all this spirituality talk” from one close family member already.)

To you, they may as well be on another planet now. It can seem as though never the twain shall meet.

Opportunity

Lest we forget, I harken back to the opportunity aspect of the holidays. Love is infinite. Potential is infinite. Which means, everything is possible, even coming – and staying – out of the spiritual closet in the midst of perhaps the most traditionally religious time of the year and among your closest friends and relatives.

Before I share holiday (or anytime) survival tips for staying spiritually centered that have worked for me, it bears mentioning that people tend to use the holidays to make big announcements. They save up good news like impending engagements, marriages, new homes and babies to share with as many people at once as possible. It’s convenient but also exciting to convey what is typically perceived as universal good news that way.

Be aware however, that the opposite is also true. If you’re planning to make a big pronouncement, perhaps about your newfound spiritual orientation, sexual orientation, (change in any orientation), or something that might NOT be perceived as universally celebratory, you might want to think twice about doing it now. Just because everyone is convened more often and in greater number than usual doesn’t mean you need to make formal announcements about your personal life.

In fact, I encourage you to be the change you’ve grown into versus talk about it. You don’t have to stay in the spiritual closet, but you don’t have to come out both guns blazing either.

Five Tips for Spiritually-Centered Harmonious Holidays

Here are five bits of wisdom I’ve found make for harmonious, honest and authentic holiday gatherings (and relationships in general):

1. No preaching or converting. Put it out of your mind. Don’t try to recruit companions on your journey. It’s your journey and yours alone, and even if you have found conscious company in the form of a group or organization, don’t expect those in your daily life to instantly hop on board simply because you ask. This bears remembering. After all, if you’ve ever been on the receiving end of what sounded like preaching or being recruited, did you like it? Probably not. Ick.

You may be enthused about your journey and want more than anything for those closest to you to share the joy. It’s a pitfall almost everyone experiences at first. I’ve been there myself, and like most I had to learn the hard way that each person walks his own path in his own time.

After first discovering the bliss and benefits of meditation, I wanted more than anything to share that practice with my husband. He had zero interest. The more I cajoled and persuaded and pushed, the more he resisted until I finally stopped. Five years later, after actually watching me meditate (but otherwise be silent about it), he’s just starting to be interested.

Everyone walks their own path in their own time. Write that down on a post-it note and stick it in your pocket before your next family gathering. We’ll come back to this. .

2. Connect where and how you can. While you don’t want to preach or convert, that doesn’t mean you can’t meaningfully and spiritually connect with those around you. Do find what common ground you have and stand in it. Despite surface appearances, we’re all more alike than we are different. This is a time to focus on what you share with people, not on what divides you.

So your fundamentalist Christian cousin believes Mary conceived Jesus without intercourse and takes the Bible literally. Let her. Focus on the message rather than the minutia. The message of Jesus is love. The details of his life don’t matter (and 2,000 years later we can never know for sure what happened anyway); it’s his teaching that does.

So your mom gets uncomfortable when you start talking about your revised concept of God and wants to bake cookies. Change the topic and bake the cookies (unless you absolutely hate baking).

3. Be honest and authentic. You don’t have to justify, rationalize, or prove why you think or believe as you do. To be perceived as authentic, however, you do have to practice it. This can be uncomfortable at first, and difficult if not impossible in the midst of past conditioning and psychological family triggers.

Simply talking about your journey, or expressing particular teachings and insights can seem strange and daunting at first. It took me about a year of small, cautious conversations to be comfortable and open speaking and writing about spirituality and my journey in particular; and there will always be degrees of comfort and openness for most of us.

If asked, today I can calmly, truthfully and respectfully explain and convey my experiences, practices and beliefs without a) feeling I have to prove anything b) fear of judgment and c) expecting I’ll be perceived as a hippie or freak. I can allow others their experiences and beliefs, realizing it’s a “both/and” not “either/or” world.

You can always arm yourself with simple responses to questions about your spiritual journey, like “I’m exploring my spiritual side”, “I’m interested in asking deeper questions about life,” or “I wasn’t fulfilled by my past religion/tradition so I’m intelligently investigating other options.” Most people understand and respect a genuine quest for fulfillment, introspection and happiness.

There is no right or wrong, no you vs. me (although the ego would have us believe otherwise). Which leads me to the fourth tip:

4. Don’t, under any circumstances, argue about religion or spirituality. Sound too obvious? This can be a tough one for the spiritual seeker who may have experienced a radically expanded or shifted worldview as the result of direct spiritual experience vs. conventional religious teachings.

There you are, knowing from your own direct experience what spirit, God, and love are and wanting all others to experience and feel what you have, yet you’ll encounter many who haven’t even begun to explore direct spiritual experience or practice.

They’re on a religious or group-think train, blindly believing and repeating information they’ve been told vs. sharing first hand knowledge of what they have felt and done (clue: they probably don’t have any first-hand knowledge yet). They are not ready, or interested, in questioning the status quo. And that’s okay.

The reasons are many, but boil down to “everyone walks their own path in their own time”. (Remember the post-it note in your pocket?).

If and when you feel like arguing your point of view, stop. Breathe. Be silent. Listen. Especially if you’re surrounded by the highly intellectual, logical, or scientifically-minded people, forget it. You will lose.

Recognize any desire to win or prove a point as the ego’s need for superiority, and choose to rest in spirit instead. Remember your goals – to practice as you believe, to connect on common ground, to have harmonious happy holidays; not to win intellectual debates. That said, the greatest opportunity of the holidays awaits:

5. Savor kindred spirits. If the conversation does turn toward spirituality or your experiences and journey in particular, you may find a kindred spirit or two is genuinely interested and resonating with you. When that happens naturally, enjoy it! I guarantee you it will happen, and it will usually happen where and when you least expect it (holidays or otherwise). Case in point:

Since I first met my husband, who is from a large, close Mexican family, we’ve often celebrated Christmas (we were both raised Catholic) in Mexico. Talk about tradition. Although I was no stranger to the holiday, Christmas in Mexico was so novel to me that for years I really enjoyed it.

But over time I noticed the same “going through the motions” of the holiday that I would see Catholics practice at Christmas in the US. People showing up for church that day and ignoring their religion the other 364 days of the year. Singing songs with no meaning. Repeating the same traditions each year without knowing or questioning why. Eating the same foods. Not all people, but many.

Then one of my husband’s cousins began reading my blog, and we began discussing spirituality, our desire for deeper questioning, exploration, and a direct experience of source and spirit separate from what we’d been taught growing up. Through her broken English and my broken Spanish I found a kindred spirit in a country and context I least expected.

When you find a kindred spirit or two, be grateful for their company. Savor it.

Coming Out of the Spiritual Closet

I finally came to realize the artificiality of my perceived boundaries around spirituality; that any time, place or person can be a kindred spirit. I’d be at business conference cocktail hours and the conversation would turn to spirituality. I’d have lunch with a client and the conversation would turn to spirituality. I’d meet a stranger and the conversation would turn to spirituality. Until suddenly, it didn’t seem at all strange to talk about spirituality. In fact, even if I didn’t care to discuss it, it would come up.

It took a few additional years to realize what was happening. Like attracts like. The core of your being is love. Your ability to create is limitless. Your spirit is infinitely capable of forgiveness and mercy. Your essence is infinite.

When you are fully out of the spiritual closet, these aspects of self are reflected and resonating all around you. So just be yourself. Everything will be fine.

'via Blog this'

Dionysus: Born of a Virgin on December 25th, Killed and Resurrected after Three Days

Dionysus: Born of a Virgin on December 25th, Killed and Resurrected after Three Days:

'via Blog this'

Holiday Stories...

Here's a pretty nice video about christmas from the internet archive...

The Real Christmas Story : Caryl Matrisciana : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive:

'via Blog this'

Christmas 2011 Around The World (PHOTOS)

Christmas 2011 Around The World (PHOTOS):

'via Blog this'

SUNDAY SCHOOL VIDEO

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!


Christmas is a season for kindling the fire for hospitality in the hall,
the genial flame of charity in the heart.
- Washington Irving

Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind.
To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy,
is to have the real spirit of Christmas.
- Calvin Coolidge

May you have the gladness of Christmas which is hope;
The spirit of Christmas which is peace;
The heart of Christmas which is love.
- Ada V. Hendricks




Have a very merry Christmas!

Saturday, December 24, 2011

For you Libertarians Out There...



Twas the night before Christmas, and all over the net

Libertarian infighting, as good as it gets.

The young cats and rookies, the intellectual debtors

watch left and right scrum over racist news letters.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Should anarchists vote? Or is it a crock?

'Wendy's a statist!' Exclaimed Walter Block.

Anarchists, minarchists, a matter of degrees?

You min-mins are fascists! Awaiting kings decrees!
------------------------------------------------------
Atheist, Christian, Muslim or Jew

We don't fight over faith, like statists do.

We prefer to fight over who should be ruling.

And private vs public vs un-or-homeschooling.

--------------------------------------------
Taxation is theft, and all war is murder.

Further consensus? Good luck, cat herder.

Even semantics are points for a schism,

Call it free-markets, or capitalism?

-----------------------------------------------------

Austria or Chicago? Friedman or Mises?

Is Piekoff the pope, if Ayn Rand is Jesus?

Konkin or Rothbard? What's on your shelves?

Ah hell, what's the difference, Ron Paul twenty-twelve!

----------------------------------------------

So on Hayek and Murray, on Ron and on Ayn.

On Ludwig and Milton! on Bastiat and Heinlein.

Let's call a truce, friends, for just this one night.

Then on the 26th Libertarians FIGHT!

-Jim Object

Holiday Stories...






Uploaded by RohnertParkKarate on Dec 22, 2011
Pecoraro's Academy of Fitness & Kickboxing in Rohnert Park, California

www.rpdojo.com
www.AdamLandDVD.com

Santa trains his elves to be his own personal bodyguards.

Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!! Happy New Year!!!

www.rpdojo.com
www.AdamLandDVD.com
Category:
Sports

Tags:
Christmas xmas x-mas Santa clause elf elves holiday tree present jesus christ merry new year dojo north pole frosty the snowman snowballs reindeer reindeers martial art arts kickboxing boxing mma muay thai judo bjj taekwondo kung fu tkd bruce lee rocky balboa adam pecoraro pecoraro's academy batman superman twilight rohnert park california sonoma county santa rosa petaluma exercise fitness effort cotati Karate Martial Arts Mixed Belt Round Training Physical Fitness

License:
Standard YouTube License

Okinawans ion the island of okinawa,, Japan, eat fatty pork and cook with pork lard. But they get fat on fast food hamburgers and soda

Okinawans ion the island of okinawa,, Japan, eat fatty pork and cook with pork lard. But they get fat on fast food hamburgers and soda:

Okinawans becoming obese and diabetic

The Okinawans on Okinawa Island in Japan – famed for their longevity and good heatlh - are getting fat and sick. According to a Bloomberg report published in The Straits Times, half the men and a quater of the women in Okinawa are now overweight or obese. Diabetes in Okinawa is on the rise.

The reason for this? GIs' diet of American-style barbeque, hambugers and soda.

After the Second World War, the US established a military base in Okinawa and brought along 36,000 troops and over 100 fast food restaurants including McDonald's, KFC and A&W. Okinawans even started their own fast food chain, MOS Burger.

And so today, the Okinawans today eat at fast food restaurants up to three times a week, compared to the average Japanese who eats Western style fast foods only once a week.


Before 1945, however, Okinawans consumed mostly fish, soybeans, seaweed, vegetables. tofu and pork.
Okinawans eat pork lard

The report cited 100-year-old Ms Shizu Miyagi, who retains her traditional diet and... “often invites friends home to share a lunch of stewed pork leg, potatoes, rice and red beans.”

Pork leg is, of course, full of pork lard - saturated fat. In fact, the Okinawans cook mainly with pork lard. Yet all that saturated fat and cholesterol did not clog up their arteries. It did not give them heart disease, diabetes or other degenerative diseases, it did not even make them fat!

So what has changed?

Is it because they are now eating beef (in hamburgers) instead of pork? That's not the likely reason. The Koreans eat lots of beef, yet they, too, are relatively healthy with low rates of heart disease, cancer and obesity.

And it is not just the Okinawans or Koreans who lead healthy lives on a diet with plenty of saturated fat and cholesterol. The French too. And the Greeks, Swiss, Austrians... The extreme case would be the Masai of Africa. They eat only meat, blood and milk. No grains and veggies in their diet. Yet they, too, are healthy and free from degenerative diseases.

So what is it in the American fast food diet that makes people fat and sick?

A more likely culprit is the soda - incredible amounts of sugar in there. Another is, of course, the harmful trans fats present in the hydrogenated oils used by fast food restaurants for frying.

But I would say it is not any one element in the American diet that younger Okinawans have adopted. Rather, it is the entire system of preparing food US-style, a system that is highly processed, highly chemicalised and highly artificial.

Americans get themselves sick by consuming industrial “food”. But they cannot see their own mistakes and folly, so their scientists blame saturated fats and cholesterol, completely ignoring the fact that other cultures enjoy excellent health and longevity on a diet rich in saturated fats and cholesterol.

It is sad that the rest of the world is increasingly adopting the Standard American Diet (SAD).

But the greater tragedy is that learned scientists, doctors and health authorities all over the world - including Singapore - have all blindly embraced the American theory that saturated fats and cholesterol make people fat and sick.

Can't our scientists, doctors and health authorities think for themselves? Seems that all they do is swallow.

'via Blog this'

Holiday Stories...






Uploaded by AlJazeeraEnglish on Dec 24, 2011
Some US citizens affected by the country's financial crisis are having a difficult time celebrating Christmas without spending beyond their budgets.

But a few of them have already been paid a visit by so-called "secret Santas", who have been paying off the balance on unsuspecting shoppers' Christmas presents.

Al Jazeera's Roger Wilkison reports.

Category:
News & Politics

Tags:
al jazeera secret santas roger wilkison americasnews christmas toys

License:
Standard YouTube License

Why You Need to Eat More Lard (And These 5 Other Healthy Fats) | Rodale News

Why You Need to Eat More Lard (And These 5 Other Healthy Fats) | Rodale News:

Submitted by: Emily Main 2011-12-20 00:00

Olive oil is sooooo five minutes ago. People who are into healthy cooking oils and fats have moved on to duck fat, real lard, goose renderings, and coconut oil, according to a new report published by the market research firm Packaged Facts and the food trendspotters at the Center for Culinary Development.

Interest in these long-forgotten, more traditional fats is all part of the back-to-the-land movement that has triggered the growth of farmer's markets and reconnected people to whole fruits and vegetables, grass-fed dairy products, and pasture-raised meats, the report's authors note. It's no longer enough for top-line chefs and adventurous home cooks to eat grass-fed steaks; those steaks need to be finished with duck fat or real butter.
And it's not just the fact that these fats are traditional or come with a sense of nostalgia. Nutrition science is beginning to turn the idea that all fat is bad for you on its head, with high-profile nutritionists like Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health and a professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School, working to debunk the idea that low-fat diets are healthier. Many of the recommendations that we all follow regarding fat, he's found, are based on rather weak science that has been repeatedly questioned over the decades. That type of diet is also depriving people of a variety of nutrients found only in the animal fats and other cooking oils that have been demonized under the assumption that saturated fat is bad for you.

As a general rule, whatever kinds of fat you buy, keep your chemical exposures to a minimum by buying certified-organic plant oils and pastured or grass-fed animal fats.
Olive oil remains one of the healthiest oils you can drizzle over a plate of veggies, but if you're interested in branching out, here are 6 other healthy varieties of cooking oil now gaining traction in the culinary world:

• Ghee. Also known as "Indian clarified butter" or "drawn butter," ghee is butter that has been melted over a low temperature so that all the water content has boiled away and the milk fats have been skimmed off (check out our instructions on how to make your own ghee). What remains is a nutty, intensely flavored fat that withstands higher cooking temperatures than butter and can even be stored in your cabinets, rather than in the fridge (it won't go rancid). Indians believe it has healing qualities. And it's even more nutritious than butter: The process of creating ghee concentrates the conjugated linoleic acid—a healthy cancer-fighter that also prevents atherosclerosis (hardening of the heart's arteries)—found in the butter.

• Rice bran oil. Rice bran oil is quickly becoming the "go-to oil for fried food," the report found, particularly in high-end, independent, and ethnic restaurants. It tolerates a much higher cooking heat than canola or peanut oil, and like both of those, it's trans fat free. Health-wise, animal studies have shown that rice bran oil (which is made from the inner husks and germ of rice) can lower LDL ("bad") cholesterol levels, but it contains high levels of polyunsaturated fat, which go rancid quickly and need to be refrigerated to maintain shelf life.

• Lard & schmaltz. The prime example of fats we all thought were bad for us, lard and schmaltz (rendered chicken, pork, or goose fat) may have been wrongly demonized for years. The main fat in lard—oleic acid—is a monounsaturated fat linked to decreased risk of depression, says Drew Ramsey, MD, coauthor of The Happiness Diet (Rodale, 2010). Those same monounsaturated fats, which make up 45 percent of the fat in lard, are responsible for lowering LDL levels while leaving HDL ("good") cholesterol levels alone. Lard and schmaltz also tolerate high cooking temperatures—they're often recommended for frying—and have long shelf lives.

• Duck fat. Like lard, duck fat is high in monounsaturated fats, which make up 50 percent of its total fat content, with saturated fat making up just 14 percent (less than butter). Most of that fat is healthy linoleic acid, an essential fatty acid that keeps cells healthy, boosts calcium absorption, and aids in kidney function. Though it's still used mostly in high-end restaurants, it's showing up on specialty food store shelves and even some bigger retailers, such as Williams Sonoma. It can tolerate high cooking temperatures and has a long shelf life, but, like ghee, it has an intense flavor, so it's not a great all-purpose fat (and, considering the prices it goes for, you wouldn't want to use it every day, anyway!).

• Coconut oil. As with the other fats here, coconut oil's high saturated fat content (92 percent) has earned it an—undeserved—bad reputation over the years. "But there are a lot of health benefits that go beyond just what kind of fat it is," says Trevor Holly Cates, ND, a naturopathic physician with a practice in the Golden Door Spa at the Waldorf Astoria in Park City, Utah, and a board member of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians. For instance, coconut oil is high in lauric acid, a nutrient our bodies need to help our immune systems. One of the only other major dietary sources for lauric acid is breast milk. Coconut oils are very common now in regular and specialty grocery stores, so keep an eye out for them.

• Nut & seed oils. Rounding out the report's trendy fats are nut and seed oils, such as walnut, avocado, pecan, and pumpkin seed oils, which are showing up not just in regular grocery stores, but in chain and fast-food restaurants, as well. Each different nut or seed oil has its own unique chemical makeup, but most of them, with the exception of avocado oil, have high levels of polyunsaturated fats compared to the healthier monounsaturated fats. They're good for salad dressings, but they do go rancid quickly and shouldn't be used for cooking.

'via Blog this'

Inception becomes reality: People can teach themselves new skills in dreams | Mail Online

Inception becomes reality: People can teach themselves new skills in dreams | Mail Online:

By ROB WAUGH
Last updated at 8:38 AM on 22nd December 2011

The idea of the surreal Hollywood blockbuster Inception, where people travel through someone's dreams to 'plant' an idea in his head may not be so out-there after all.
Researchers at Yale have found that 'lucid dreamers' - dreamers who have 'waking dreams' that they control - are able to learn new skills in their dreams.
A team is now experimenting with the idea of 'training' people by telling them what to dream about.


People who can control their dreams can use the unusual ability to experience a sense of euphoria, as if they have accomplished something.
But new research hints that people can actually 'use' dreaming as a tool to learn.
Being in command of dreams opens up opportunities to manipulate them for learning and training - although it may not be quite as precise as learning to play the violin while asleep.
Instead, 'lucid dreamers' can control areas of their brain to open up and 'learn' while they sleep. What's more, it seems that merely being a lucid dreamer seems to give you an advantage.
Researchers from Yale University found that lucid dreamers perform better in a gambling task, designed to test a part of the brain important to emotional decision-making and social interactions, said a report in New Scientist this week.
Peter Morgan at Yale University and colleagues think that this region can be trained.
Morgan and his team are working on how to train people using dreams.
Morgan hopes to be able to improve a person's social control and decision-making abilities.
'We know that by engaging circuits in the brain we can change its architecture,' he says.
It's already been proven that people who practice tasks in dreams can be better at them in real life.
One Swiss study, led by Daniel Erlacher of the University of Bern, showed that lucid dreamers who 'practiced throwing a coin into a cup were better at the real thing when they woke up.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2077185/Inception-reality-People-teach-new-skills-dreams.html#ixzz1hSv4wGcM



'via Blog this'

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!!!


Believing in lies is how we get hurt; believing in lies is why we distance ourselves from the people we really love.
~don Miguel Ruiz

Friday, December 23, 2011

Holiday Stories...




The Year in Sports: A Tribute to Those Who Left Us in 2011 | News | BET

The Year in Sports: A Tribute to Those Who Left Us in 2011 | News | BET:

'via Blog this'

So, What's next for the Occupy Movement?

Occupy to Stop Companies and Stumps in Iowa, New Hampshire - ABC News:

By SUSANNA KIM (@skimm)
Dec. 23, 2011

"Occupy" protest organizers say they are using the winter to hone in on specific events and presidential campaign events instead of occupying town centers and financial institutions.

Caitlin Manning, 55, an Occupy Oakland organizer, said the group has two specific goals in January. First, it plans to occupy a building by Jan. 28, saying protesters are continually being "harassed" at their outdoor encampment at Oscar Grant Plaza for "ridiculous" legal reasons.

Second, the group is planning to stop a specific grain ship from docking to a port in Longview, Wash., in January.

Unlike the Occupy the Ports campaign on Dec. 12, which caused disruption in West Coast ports such as Oakland and Seattle, Manning said the upcoming disruption is targeting a specific grain company that is "wrongfully" using nonunion labor and will call attention to the negative role the company plays in global food production.

"We will be protesting and blocking profit-making because it is a highly exploitative corporation which has affected food production and distribution around the world," she said.

Occupy protesters have voiced their concerns at several presidential campaign events, including disrupting President Obama during a speech at a high school in Manchester, N.H., on Nov. 22, and occupying one of his campaign offices in Des Moines, Iowa, over the weekend. The Occupy protesters make it clear they do not endorse any particular candidate, and they do not discriminate based on party when it comes to criticism.



"I think the typical OWS person is really upset with both parties and the whole idea of a two-party system," Pete Dutro, an Occupy Wall Street finance committee member in New York City, said. "It basically has turned into a campaign club ... not about getting things done. It's about gathering resources to get elected."

This week, protesters heckled and held protest signs addressing Republican candidate frontrunners, Mitt Romney in Littleton, N.H., and Newt Gingrich in Des Moines. The candidates are campaigning in cities ahead of the first primaries. The Iowa caucus is on Jan. 3 and the New Hampshire primary on Jan. 10.



Ryan Hirsch, a self-described "concerned citizen" active in the Occupy New Hampshire movement, said Occupy the New Hampshire Primary will be a four-day event starting Jan. 6 that will include discussions, general assemblies and parades, to bring attention to a wide range of issues.

"I can't say there's any one particular issue other than the fact that the media is going to be there, so it's a great time for people to get the message out," he said. Plus, it will encourage people to register to vote. "Our main goal is to try to get more people more involved. They don't even have to get involved in the election, but just pay attention -- to the economy, war, civil rights."

Nick Espinosa, 25, an Occupy Minneapolis organizer, said the Occupy movement is "bigger than elections." They are still focusing on the "greed" of financial institutions and corporations that sparked Occupy Wall Street on Sept. 17.

"It's bigger than politics as we know it. It's a way to re-frame the way we look at these issues and the values we hold as a society," he said. "I hope to be part of a movement that pushes politicians to serve the interests of the people and not the corporations."

'via Blog this'

Holiday Stories...



Typical...

Obama Called ‘Skinny, Ghetto Crackhead’ On Fox News | TPMMuckraker:

'via Blog this'

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!


Many things can happen in life, many misunderstandings and conflicts. But every time we feel hurt, it is because we believe in something that is not even truth---something that may look like truth, but is not.
~don Miguel Ruiz

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Holiday Stories...



RAP NEWS X - #Occupy2012



Video description from You Tube:

Uploaded by thejuicemedia on Dec 21, 2011
http://thejuicemedia.com RAP NEWS episode 10: The year we've all been waiting for - 2012AD (or 13.0.0.0.0, if you ask a Mayan) - is finally here. What will happen? Will we see the poles shift or a paradigm shift? Will a rogue Sumerian planet smash into our solar system, plunging us into serfdom under the iron fist of a race of gold-hungry aliens? Or are the aliens already here? Or are all these merely humanity's collective projections of itself as it careens towards an ever-accelerating super-connected cyber-reality - whatever that means... One thing's sure, if 2011 was a prelude of things to come, 2012 is going to be one hell of a year. Now that it has arrived, are we ready? Join your host Robert Foster and his guests, Terrence Moonseed and General Baxter, as they conduct an in-depth rap analysis into the future, and humanity's place in it. Happy New YEAR!
____________________________________________
**RE-UPLOADERS: please wait until after Christmas!**

____________________________________________
** Free MP3 download & LYRICS: http://www.reverbnation.com/rapnews
** WEBSITE, full of info on juicy stuffs: http://www.thejuicemedia.com
____________________________________________
** SUPPORT Rap News to keep broadcasting rhyme and reason on the only remaining free frequency: http://thejuicemedia.com/donate - thanks!
____________________________________________
** CONNECT with us on Farcebook: https://www.facebook.com/rapnews
And Twitter: http://twitter.com/juicerapnews

____________________________________________
**** CREDITS ****

** BEAT: "Tancz Glupia" by Mateusz Schmidt "Matheo"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCFC9PmPcZ4
www.facebook.com/MatheoProductions
from LP "Sobotaz" by MC SOBOTA
Uploaded with permission

** We are hugely grateful to all of our collaborators for their time and patience: Our awesomely reliable and talented artist/designer, Zoe Tame from http://visualtonic.com.au for creating all the original artwork; Dave Abbot for syncing and chromakey. Ben Erwin for awesome on-location filming at Liberty Plaza, with the help of John Sidorovich and #Occupy protesters: Tim Pool, Radagast Istari Brown, Jessica, Darrell, Jake, Dan and others who shall remain 'anonymous'. Thanks to Lucy, Paula, Daniel, Adso and Taegan for Protester voiceovers; and Cepstral Dave for Anonymous voiceover. Trav and Nick for lights and tech assistance. Gilles Gundermann & Mily Langworth for props. Lucy & Caitlin for ongoing patience and support. Koolfy & Siltaar for creating English caption file. And a very special thanks to Clinton Fernandes who gave us time and space in his hotel room to shoot our special interview with the Professor, to whom we are also very grateful for being such an inspiration; and a sport. :)

Hugo & Giordano

____________________________________________
** TRANSLATIONS & SUBTITLES: Many thanks to our French friends, Koolfy and Siltaar, for sync'ing English closed captions. Gratitude towards our volunteer translators: Jonas Maebe for Dutch captions... (more coming soon)

If you'd like to translate Rap News into your language, please contact us first via our website http://www.thejuicemedia.com/contact

Category:
Comedy

Tags:
2012 Occupy Wall Street Anonymous Mayan calendar Nubiru Nibiru PlanetX Mckenna doomsday election news comedy parody satire Noam Chomsky Robert Foster

License:
Standard YouTube License