Showing posts sorted by relevance for query compassion. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query compassion. Sort by date Show all posts
Wednesday, August 23, 2017
Thursday, May 31, 2018
People Are Less Selfish Under Capitalism
ears ago, an MBA student of mine had immigrated from Albania after growing up under Communism. She shared with her classmates what she observed to be the most unexpected mindset difference between Americans and Albanians.
She got emotional as she explained how in Albania, charity was rare—caring for anyone other than yourself and your family was uncommon. In contrast, she experienced Americans as generous and caring.
My student described how exasperated she felt hearing the claim that capitalism leads to a survival of the fittest mentality. In her experience, it was the opposite; under communism, the mindset was to not care for others.
Today, she has more reasons to be exasperated. Among broad segments of society, the belief that capitalism teaches us to be so self-interested that we become uncaring about the welfare of others seems to be accepted as truth. As FEE editor Dan Sanchez observes, “Some go so far as to demand the abolition of capitalism in favor of socialism in order to fully restore benevolence and the intentional promotion of the public interest in the hearts of humankind.”
In her book, The Fear Factor, neuroscience professor Abigail Marsh observes, “Majorities of respondents polled in the United States and elsewhere believe that people are, as a rule, selfish, preoccupied with their own interest, and untrustworthy—and getting worse.”
However, widespread adoption of a belief does not make that belief true. Capitalism calls forth altruism.
The Nature of Humanity
Marsh demonstrates that “an overwhelming body of scientific data supports the conclusion that human beings are in no way fundamentally selfish or callous.” In all of us there is the capacity for compassion and, at the same time, the capacity for cruelty and aggression.
Perfect human beings are not possible. According to Marsh, the real question is, “When do we express compassion versus cruelty, and why, and to whom?”
Research findings indicate that “the United States is a more generous country than nearly any other nation on earth.” Confirming the observations of...
Wednesday, January 10, 2018
DEMS ADMIT THEY NEED ILLEGALS FOR THEIR VOTES
Democrats at the Left’s premier think tank have finally admitted in a leaked memo that illegal immigration is key to their party’s future electoral success.
Republicans may not be angels but they have never wielded compassion as a cudgel the way Democrats do. But this memo ought to end Democrats’ phony compassion shtick for all time. Power is the only thing that matters to them. They don’t care about America or Americans. They care only about winning. Honest observers have known this for years.
What did Democrats actually do this time to help solidify their image as the party of power over principle?
Specifically, the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a sister organization of the Center for American Progress, distributed a brief to allies Monday calling the so-called DREAMers, that is, illegal aliens brought to the country at a young age, a “critical component of the Democratic Party’s future electoral success,” the Daily Caller reports.
Democrats can’t win elections without cheating. They pushed the 1993 Motor-Voter law to make voter fraud easy to commit and difficult to prosecute. They oppose voter ID laws tooth-and-nail for the same reason. They changed immigration laws a long time ago so they could change the electorate by importing new voters.
That’s why left-wingers invented chain migration in the Sixties. It is a magic carpet that brings terrorists, public charges, and low- and no-skilled workers to the United States. Democrats rigged the game by modifying immigration law. The resultant tsunami of immigrants from authoritarian Third World countries over the past half century helped ...
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Saturday, July 18, 2020
Nike is laying off staff and announces a $790 million loss in its latest quarterly earnings
- Nike is laying off some of its staff, the company confirmed to Business Insider.
- CEO John Donahoe announced the news on Thursday in a companywide email, which Complex saw.
- The sportswear giant also on Thursday reported a net loss of $790 million for the fourth quarter, in part a result of pandemic-related store closures.
- "We are shifting resources and creating capacity to reinvest in our highest potential areas, and we anticipate our realignment will likely result in a net loss of jobs," Nike said in a statement.
CEO John Donahoe announced the layoffs — expected to occur in phases, starting in July — in a companywide email on Thursday. The email, which Complex saw, did not specify how many employees and which departments would be affected but mentioned that workers at Nike's retail stores, distribution centers, and manufacturing facilities were not expected to be among those laid off.
Donahoe said the layoffs were not related to the pandemic or costs but described them as an effort to restructure the "overburdened matrix" of the company, according to Complex.
Nike told Business Insider that any money saved would be "reinvested" in the company.
"Consumer Direct Acceleration is the next digitally empowered phase of our strategy," Nike said in a statement. "We are building a flatter, nimbler company and transforming Nike faster to define the marketplace of the future. We are shifting resources and creating capacity to reinvest in our highest potential areas, and we anticipate our realignment will likely result in a net loss of jobs."
The announcement came shortly after Nike reported a net loss of $790 million in the fourth quarter, partly the result of the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on stores across North America.
"These decisions are exceptionally difficult because they impact friends and colleagues at Nike," Donahoe wrote in the email, according to Complex. "You have my personal commitment that we will put people at the center throughout this entire process. We will support everyone impacted by this transition."
In its statement to Business Insider, Nike said, "We are committed to showing compassion and respect for our transitioning employees through thoughtful and robust severance practices, consistent with our company values, our legal obligations, the...
Monday, October 28, 2019
Survivors and victims on shocking state-sanctioned organ harvesting in China
Having hepatitis C may very well have saved Jennifer Zeng’s life.
In February 2000, she was arrested for being a Falun Gong practitioner and interrogated intensely about her medical history at a Labor Camp in China’s Da Xing County, she said. Zeng’s blood was drawn and she told them she had hepatitis C before she took up the spiritual practice.
“Twelve days later, my (cellmate) died as a result of forced feeding,” Zeng told Fox News. “Having hepatitis C might have unqualified me as an organ donor.”
It’s the stuff of nightmares. And it has been buried from public view, hard to prove, and shrouded beneath the cloak of silence for almost two decades.
But anecdotes and evidence are slowly bubbling to the surface that the organs of members of marginalized groups detained in Chinese prisons and labor camps are unwillingly harvested. Most affected is a spiritual minority, the Falun Gong, who have been persecuted for adhering to a Buddhist-centric religious philosophy grounded in meditation and compassion.
After 12 months of independent assessment of all available evidence, the seven-person China Tribunal panel – which was initiated by the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China (ETAC), an international human rights charity – delivered its final findings in June. The tribunal, chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice QC who led the prosecution of Slobodan Milosevic in the International Criminal Trial for the former Yugoslavia, stated with “certainty” that “in China, forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience has been practiced for a substantial period of time.”
“Forced organ harvesting has been committed for years, and Falun Gong practitioners have been one – and probably the main – source of organ supply,” the report concluded, pointing to the growing transplant industry already worth more than $1 billion.
The report underscored that there were “extraordinarily short waiting times for organs to be available for transplantation,” and numerous websites advertised hearts, lungs, and kidneys for sale – suggesting an on-demand industry. The Tribunal concluded that the commission of Crimes Against Humanity against Falun Gong and Uighurs had been committed.
Witness testimonies provided to the tribunal, and interviewed by Fox News, paint the picture of an unfathomably callous trade often performed when the victims are still alive....
Friday, January 17, 2014
The Story Of The Butterfly
A man found a cocoon of a butterfly.
One day a small opening appeared.
He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to squeeze its body through the tiny hole.
Then it stopped, as if it couldn't go further.
So the man decided to help the butterfly.
He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bits of cocoon.
The butterfly emerged easily but it had a swollen body and shriveled wings.
The man continued to watch it, expecting that any minute the wings would enlarge and expand enough to support the body, Neither happened!
In fact the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around.
It was never able to fly.
What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand:
The restricting cocoon and the struggle required by the butterfly to get through the opening was a way of forcing the fluid from the body into the wings so that it would be ready for flight once that was achieved.
Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives.
Going through life with no obstacles would cripple us.
We will not be as strong as we could have been and we would never fly.
This is the misguided compassion liberals want to spread...
More Interesting Stories, Amazing or Funny Things HERE
Then it stopped, as if it couldn't go further.
So the man decided to help the butterfly.
He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bits of cocoon.
The butterfly emerged easily but it had a swollen body and shriveled wings.
The man continued to watch it, expecting that any minute the wings would enlarge and expand enough to support the body, Neither happened!
In fact the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around.
It was never able to fly.
What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand:
The restricting cocoon and the struggle required by the butterfly to get through the opening was a way of forcing the fluid from the body into the wings so that it would be ready for flight once that was achieved.
Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives.
Going through life with no obstacles would cripple us.
We will not be as strong as we could have been and we would never fly.
This is the misguided compassion liberals want to spread...
More Interesting Stories, Amazing or Funny Things HERE
Saturday, December 30, 2017
New York Democrat Governor Pardons 18 Illegal Immigrants
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo mimicked California Gov. Jerry Brown’s approach to immigration Thursday, pardoning 18 convicted illegal immigrants who were facing deportation.
Cuomo, a Democrat, praised himself on Twitter for his compassion, before linking to a New York Times article supporting the move. Cuomo claimed the federal government is “tear[ing] families apart” with the current immigration policy and felt he was taking the “critical step” to defend those who were unfairly targeted.
While the federal government continues to target immigrants and threatens to tear families apart with deportation, these actions take a critical step toward a more just, more fair and more compassionate New York. nytimes.com/2017/12/27/nyr…
Brown faced backlash in the media Wednesday for his sanctuary state policy from a man whose son was killed by an illegal immigrant in 2010. Don Rosenberg lost his son Drew Rosenberg when Roberto Galo from Honduras ...
Friday, March 5, 2021
36-Year-Old Woman ‘is Gang Raped’ by Migrants ‘After Stopping to Talk to Them about Their Situation’
She learned about migrants the hard way.
A 36-year-old woman was allegedly gang raped by four migrants after stopping to talk to them about their situation in a cautionary tale for what is happening in the West as a result of the mindless embrace of tolerance and diversity.
The woman was reportedly accosted by the migrants while traversing Agua La Perra park in the town of Mogan on the Spanish holiday island of Gran Canaria. She was treated by a doctor at a hospital before reporting the crime, and Spain’s Civil Guard has apprehended four suspects after conducting an investigation.
While the West has been sold on diversity being a strength, the actual fruits of the new multicultural system being imposed by globalists tell a much different story.
Big League Politics has reported on how the refugee resettlement program that has flooded the U.S. and Europe with third-world migrants has been dictated based on bribes rather than legitimate humanitarian need:
The Democratic Party wants to dump thousands of so-called refugees into the United States, but a burgeoning scandal for the European refugee resettlement program may put the globalist scheme into jeopardy.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has been exposed for accepting bribes from certain migrants to facilitate their relocation into Western nations. Hamdi Abdullahi explained to NBC News how her children were robbed from her due to UN corruption.
“I’m like the walking dead,” she said.
Her four children were essentially kidnapped from her after her ex-husband paid off UNHCR resettlement officer David Momanyi. He took the bribe money to made sure she was estranged from her children. Her ex-husband and children are now living in Minnesota, as she sits in a UN refugee camp with 200,000 Somalis without her family.
An anonymous UN whistle-blower confirms that Abdullahi’s story is more than mere sour grapes. He claims to have personally collected tens of thousands of dollars from refugees on Momanyi’s behalf, proving that the resettlement program is about something far more pernicious than compassion.
Abdullahi’s ex-husband paid almost $20,000 in several installments according to the whistle-blower. Momanyi was described by refugees as “the architect of corruption and refugee resettlement problems.”
The UNHCR’s staff is denying the scandal, hoping to sweep it under the rug so they can continue the globalist plan to flood the West with the refuse of...
Friday, May 9, 2014
Pope Urges Governments To Stop Excluding Welfare Recipients From "Dignified labor"
Pope Francis urged the U.N. to "promote development goals that attack the root causes of poverty and hunger, protect the environment and ensure dignified labor for all."
Clearly, the Pope is signaling that he realizes that the root causes of poverty and hunger is free shit.
Governments should dignify the poor by putting them to work, redistribute wealth from social programs to wages and develop productive work habits that will attack the root causes of poverty (e.g. sloth and free shit).
Since we know, that capitalism reduces pollution and Marxism increases pollution, the Pope is clearly advocating the end of communist and socialist governments in favor of capitalism.
Clearly, the Pope is signaling that he realizes that the root causes of poverty and hunger is free shit.
Governments should dignify the poor by putting them to work, redistribute wealth from social programs to wages and develop productive work habits that will attack the root causes of poverty (e.g. sloth and free shit).
Since we know, that capitalism reduces pollution and Marxism increases pollution, the Pope is clearly advocating the end of communist and socialist governments in favor of capitalism.
From this point on America will have the cleanest highways and the safest borders with all these new border guards, and sanitary technicians that we can put to work.
If somehow the Pope is not saying this then he is a Marxist lackey. We know the pope is a compassionate man, Marxism is the opposite of compassion, therefore the Pope is not a Marxist.
Thursday, February 17, 2022
Seattle’s Transit System ‘Unusable’ due to Toxic Fentanyl, Meth Smoke
Liberal and progressive city Seattle is literally becoming toxic. Rampant with crime and drugs, it has become impossible for the average citizen to ignore. The Seattle Times reported Monday that local authorities have stated its transit system has become “unusable.”
The Times reported the transit system has become overloaded with reports of toxic fentanyl, meth smoke and volatile behavior. It has created a toxic work environment for employees and has scared off travelers.
In an attempt to turn things around, the city plans to release a new “Safety, Security and Fare Enforcement Initiative” in February. The initiative incorporates surveys and comments from 8,000 people.
The Times reports that plan hopes to improve the dangerous environment, welcome back commuters, but also show compassion to those who are doing drugs, and especially homeless people, as “a necessary step on its journey to becoming an anti-racist mobility agency” according to the King County website.
Complaints of smoke from narcotics use such as meth and fentanyl surged last summer, surpassing complaints about individuals using needles and smoking marijuana. The unarmed security monitors for the metro have zero authority to arrest or remove individuals from public transportation.
The Metro Transit Authority (MTA) has also shied away from using law enforcement against the homeless population after the death of George Floyd, which led to nationwide protests, some of the most violent and destructive of which occurred in Seattle.
Seattle Police Detective Patrick Michaud told the Seattle Times that police officers in the city do not regularly patrol the transit system, and illegal drug use is considered a “lower priority than violent crime.”
Transit operator Erik Christensen has reported six incidents of fentanyl, meth or heroin smokers snice just October. “We just want them off the bus. Just get them off the bus, so we can drive” said Christensen.
In Denver, drug use at the downtown train station was deemed “a lawless hellhole” in December due to the amount of public drug use. The Seattle Times reports “a television newscast aired a worker’s video of...
Monday, February 8, 2021
How ‘Socio-Emotional Learning’ Became Another Vehicle For Anti-White Racism In Schools
A learning focus popular in public schools has been converted into a vehicle for teaching critical race theory to elevate favored students based primarily on race.
If this weren’t worrisome enough to parents who thought that is their job, SEL proponents such as the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) are now brazenly trumpeting an even more troubling aspect of SEL: the opportunity to turn impressionable students into leftist activists.
To some extent, socio-emotional learning has always been a vehicle for introducing leftist propaganda in the classroom. CASEL counts among its funding partners the NoVo Foundation, which is “dedicated to . . . moving [society] from a culture of domination to one of equality and partnership.” NoVo focuses especially on abortion rights, LGBT interests, and left-wing economics.
Other SEL enthusiast groups include the Arcus Foundation, which is all about LGBT, especially T (transgender). The Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility offers resources for using SEL to develop leftist attitudes about topics such as climate change. These are the types of outfits churning out SEL curricula to shape children’s opinions and behaviors.
Until now, CASEL downplayed the leftist slant of socio-emotional learning, presenting schools and parents instead with a sanitized picture of teaching children compassion and responsibility. But in the era of Black Lives Matter, the mask is off.
In December the president and CEO of CASEL, Karen Niemi, announced that CASEL has revised its definition of and framework for “socio-emotional learning” to highlight the value of SEL as a weapon for social justice. Woke-speak pervades the new direction. In contrast to the previous fairly anodyne definition of SEL, the new one emphasizes student “identities” and “marginalization,” “equity,” “just communities,” and the “collective” rather than the individual.
Consider the focus on equity. “SEL advances educational equity,” the new definition emphasizes, and “can help address various forms of inequity.” To understand what’s wrong with this, you must understand the difference between equity and equality.
Equality was considered a good thing until recently, but now believing in equality proves you’re a racist. Equality means treating people the same; equity, by contrast, means treating some people better than others depending on the level of oppression they can claim for themselves or their ancestors or unrelated people with the same skin color or...
Monday, June 8, 2020
University agrees that black students should be graded differently
Students at the University of Washington are demanding that black students should not face difficult exams and time constraints because they are too “busy fighting for [their] rights to sit down and study”.
And the university thinks it is a good idea: It is currently advising professors to pass black students on the basis of race after an online petition gathered more than 26 000 signatures.
“You need to encourage and demand professors to accommodate their black students during this time. If UW truly understands our pain, UW will be a part of alleviating it,” the petition states.
Nicole McNichols, UW Psychology Professor told Campus Reform that she supported the move. “Obviously, I support the petition and absolutely believe the accommodations it requests should be honored by all faculty. Students need all of the support and compassion we can afford to give them right now.”
The email sent by McNichols to her students reads: “First, the remaining homework chapters are being put into review mode. Everyone will receive full points. Second, I have decided to drop everyone’s lowest exam score. This means that you may opt-out of taking Exam 3 if you just don’t feel up to it, (or if you [are] happy with your scores from exam 1 and 2).”
UW Senior Director of Media Relations Victor Balta said that all staff were asked “to consider...
“You need to encourage and demand professors to accommodate their black students during this time. If UW truly understands our pain, UW will be a part of alleviating it,” the petition states.
Nicole McNichols, UW Psychology Professor told Campus Reform that she supported the move. “Obviously, I support the petition and absolutely believe the accommodations it requests should be honored by all faculty. Students need all of the support and compassion we can afford to give them right now.”
The email sent by McNichols to her students reads: “First, the remaining homework chapters are being put into review mode. Everyone will receive full points. Second, I have decided to drop everyone’s lowest exam score. This means that you may opt-out of taking Exam 3 if you just don’t feel up to it, (or if you [are] happy with your scores from exam 1 and 2).”
UW Senior Director of Media Relations Victor Balta said that all staff were asked “to consider...
Thursday, September 10, 2020
Sunday, September 18, 2022
Martha's Vineyard Residents Were Having Total Meltdown, Turning on Each Other and Calling Out Friends
Members of the media have fallen all over themselves to claim that the residents of Martha’s Vineyard stand together like a rock in their angel-like hope that they can find a place amongst them for the illegals dumped by the dastardly “xenophobic” GOP Gov. of Florida, Ron DeSantis.
CNN, for instance, published a story lauding the cooperation of the residents of Martha’s Vineyard and how the community “responded” to the arrival. The story was full of notes on how the community came together.
Local media also lauded the hometown heroes, including the Vineyard Gazette, which published the tale entitled, “Vineyard Community Rallies Relief Efforts to Assist Stranded Migrants.”
Indeed, local authorities on the island that serves as home to the rich and famous tooted their own horn over their efforts to solve that shocking “humanitarian crisis” that beset their quiet island paradise.
That was all before the illegals were all shipped right back off the island, as Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz noted:
Still, were those compassionate stars of humanitarianism all so unified in compassion for their visitors?
Maybe not so much.
The liberal residents of Martha’s Vineyard enthusiastically support politicians such as Joe Biden, who espouse open-border policies that are swamping border states like Texas with tens of thousands of illegals weekly. In 2020, 9,763 residents voted for Biden and only 2,610 for Trump.
But the residents were not quite as pleased to have a few of the immigrants in their own backyards.
The behind-the-scenes arguing started almost as soon as GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis sent a plane loaded with 50 illegals to the island on Wednesday.
A Facebook group created for the island’s residents seems to have had a bit of dissent going on behind the scenes as residents bickered and pointed fingers at each other over the arrival of the uninvited guests.
TBDaily News gathered a grouping of some of the top comments as residents argued about the situation:
Friday, December 27, 2019
Jill Biden, meet Cpl. Ronil Singh and Deputy Brian Ishmael
The last time I checked, Joe Biden was running for president of the United States. But his wife, Jill Biden, demonstrated where the beltway Democratic couple’s allegiance and compassion are rooted this Christmas season: Mexico.
Biden traveled to a camp in Matamoros on the southern border this week bearing gifts and meals for Central American migrants — all hoping to trespass across the border illegally or exploit our asylum system with the help of “Open Borders Inc.” profiteers. Biden was accompanied by the executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley.
Holiday spirit or something else? Follow the money; find the truth.
For Catholic Charities, mass illegal and legal migration is a billion-dollar business. The behemoth nonprofit is a prime contractor for the Unaccompanied Alien Children racket created by President Obama, and it’s one of the nine lucrative government contractors for refugee resettlement. Its single largest source of “revenue”: the federal government. Taxpayers. You and me. Nearly 60 federal agencies fork over money to Catholic Charities, as well as international donors from the European Union to the United Nations to the governments of Austria, Columbia, El Salvador, Germany, Honduras, the U.K. and the World Bank.
Wall-bashing Pope Francis met with the U.N. secretary general to deliver a joint holiday message condemning opposition to the refugee camp explosion as a “sin.” The moral preening of border-busting elites who live behind gilded gates with 24/7 armed guards is unholy.
“Heart-breaking,” Biden sniffed, as she doled out goodies to those whom she undoubtedly hopes will be her husband’s future constituents. It’s “not who we are,” she intoned.
Now, lean in and listen more closely. Do you hear that? Yes, the silence. I’m talking about the thick, impenetrable wall of silence built by Catholic officials and Democratic leaders in the face of American suffering caused by immigration chaos.
Dec. 26 marks the anniversary of the brutal murder of Cpl. Ronil Singh at the hands of a Mexican gang member here illegally who was protected by “sanctuary policies” that obstruct local, state and...
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Collected Quotes from Albert Einstein
"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."
"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
"Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love."
"I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details."
"The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax."
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
"The only real valuable thing is intuition."
"A person starts to live when he can live outside himself."
"I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice."
"God is subtle but he is not malicious."
"Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."
"I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."
"The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."
"Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing."
"Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."
"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."
"Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds."
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."
"Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it."
"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."
"God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically."
"The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking."
"Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."
"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."
"The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible."
"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."
"Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school."
"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."
"Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater."
"Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity."
"If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut."
"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."
"As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."
"Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
"In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep."
"The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead."
"Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves."
"Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!"
"No, this trick won't work...How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?"
"My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind."
"Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever."
"The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking...the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker."
"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence."
"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed."
"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeeded be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."
"The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge."
"Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."
"You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat."
"One had to cram all this stuff into one's mind for the examinations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect on me that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year."
"...one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one's own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought."
"He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder."
"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us _universe_, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."
"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." (Sign hanging in Einstein's office at Princeton)
Copyright: Kevin Harris 1995 (may be freely distributed with this acknowledgement)
Sunday, May 22, 2016
Zuck vs. Trump: The Real Issue Is Immigration
In all the drama surrounding Facebook’s recent meeting with “leading conservatives” and notable Never Trump leaders such as Glenn Beck, Brent Bozell, and S. E. Cupp, it’s worth remembering that there is a real issue underlying the animus between Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump: immigration reform.
Donald Trump launched his bid for president on the issue of stopping illegal immigration, and once he took a commanding lead in the polls he never looked back.
That’s why it’s significant that Zuckerberg’s Facebook would be helping to define conservative “leadership” as having its base within the motley crew of Trump’s detractors.
Mark Zuckerberg was one of the high-tech leaders who came out strongly and publicly in favor of the “Gang of Eight” immigration reform bill. Zuckerberg lent not just his celebrity to the cause of promoting amnesty but also a significant amount of lobbying money.
As reported in The Hill, Zuckerberg even led a legal brief in support of Obama’s immigration policies in 2014:
The brief makes a business argument for Obama’s 2014 executive actions on immigration, saying they have the potential to increase gross domestic product by hundreds of billions of dollars over a decade if allowed to go forward.
‘Instead of inviting the economic contributions of immigrants, our immigration enforcement policies have often inhibited the productivity of U.S. companies and made it harder for them to compete in the global marketplace,’ according to the brief.
Zuckerberg’s concern on immigration reform, however, was not due to his compassion for the lettuce pickers and bed makers. Zuckerberg became an immigration reform proponent as part of his deal to get H-1B visas. As Time reported in 2013:
‘We have a strange immigration policy for a nation of immigrants,’ Zuckerberg wrote Thursday in the Washington Post. ‘And it’s a policy unfit for today’s world.’ Zuckerberg has joined forces with top executives and founders from Google, Yahoo and LinkedIn to launch a new organization called FWD.us, with the goal of influencing the current debate. Several top venture capitalists are also participating. ‘To lead the world in this new economy, we need the most talented and hardest-working people,’ Zuckerberg wrote. ‘We need to train and attract the best.’
Visa reform is particularly important for these tech titans because immigrants have played such an important role in Silicon Valley.
Remember, this all happened two years before Donald Trump announced his candidacy. Zuckerberg had laid down the gauntlet as an advocate for immigration reform, and Donald Trump’s candidacy represented an existential threat to both Zuckerberg’s political goals and financial investment in the immigration issue.
Anyone who doubts where the money behind the push for immigration reform comes from need only look at a report on who is financing the lobbying effort. A look at the top 10 list of immigration lobbying concerns shows the money came from tech companies looking to expand the H-1B program. As OpenSecrets reports:
The number of clients lobbying on immigration jumped in 2012, from 317 to 355, OpenSecrets.org data shows. That’s the highest level since 2008. Just as in 2011, the tech industry was the most active on this issue. Out of the top ten organizations filing the most lobbying reports that mentioned the issue, six were tech companies or trade groups. Their big concern has to do with wanting more visas for highly skilled workers in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields. While the national unemployment rate remains high, tech companies continually face problems in filling all of their available positions.
But in order for the tech companies to get what they wanted as regards H-1B’s, they had to make a deal with the likes of members of the Gang of Eight, such as Chuck Schumer and Marco Rubio. The deal as proposed by the politicians was straightforward: offer your support for the broader goals of immigration reform, and we will get you what you want on H-1Bs.
That was the deal that was made, which led to such spectacles as Mark Zuckerberg supporting a coding event for “dreamers,” or the illegal aliens who were ...
Thursday, July 16, 2020
Oprah Joins Plot To Convince Americans Their Country Is Racist
This effort to extend the 1619 reeducation program into popular culture is particularly dangerous because stories have the power to change minds through emotion instead of reason.
Oprah Winfrey is partnering with Lionsgate to turn The New York Times’s 1619 Project into feature films and television programs.
The 1619 Project is a series of essays and multimedia creations produced by The New York Times and one of their leading writers, Nikole Hannah-Jones. The purpose of the project is to reframe American history by claiming that America’s founding is based on racism instead of equality and liberty. Hannah-Jones’ goal in creating the project was to show how slavery and racism have had a lasting effect on all of America’s institutions.
Much of the 1619 Project is repackaged critical race theory, which argues that America and its laws, systems, and institutions are innately racist. This effort to extend The New York Times’s reeducation program into popular culture is particularly dangerous because stories have the power to change minds through emotion instead of reason.
The campaign to legalize gay marriage is a perfect case study in how entertainment can change the minds of a generation on a particular topic more quickly than any legislation or social protest movement. According to the Pew Research Center, in 2004 polls showed that 60 percent of Americans opposed same-sex marriage privileges, but by 2019 that number shrank to 31 percent.
Many social scientists agree it was the growing visibility of gay people in popular culture that was responsible for the shift, reports the Washington Post. Once people began to relate to and feel compassion for either fictional gay characters on shows like “Will and Grace” or actual gay people like Ellen DeGeneres, it wasn’t long before their minds swayed on related policies.
This is the power of pop culture. As is often said, it is more important to write the songs of a nation than its laws. As historian Wilfred McClay writes in “Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story,” “We need stories to speak to the fullness of our humanity and help us orient ourselves in the world. The impulse to write history and organize our world around stories is intrinsic to us as human beings. We are at our core, remembering and story-making creatures, and stories are one of the chief ways we find ...
Monday, October 19, 2020
Caravan of Trump Supporters Reportedly Stretches 30 Miles in Battleground State of AZ
With the presidential election looming, supporters of President Donald Trump went to great lengths to show their enthusiasm for his re-election.
In Arizona, where polls show a tight race, some of the president’s supporters said a caravan backing his re-election stretched for 30 miles, KSAZ-TV reported.
Republican Rep. Debbie Lasko of Arizona praised the caravan.
“Today, I was driving on I-17 in Phoenix and I came across an AWESOME caravan parade for President @realdonaldtrump! Arizona loves Trump and we’re ready to reelect him in November! #FOURMOREYEARS,” she tweeted.
Organizer Theresa Montoya said the event began small, but did not stay that way for long.
“It’s overwhelming and profound to see the support and the compassion and love for this president,” Montoya told KPHO-TV.
“This has taken a life of its own,” said Montoya. “We have a common goal and that’s to get the president...
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