While the Republicans have been stewing in their hate and pandering to the gun nuts at the NRA convention this week, Joe Biden is getting a rock start welcome in Ireland (Dropkick Murphys for his walk-out music).
That's a vile piece of writing. I didn't click the link because I don't even want to know who the hateful racist is who wrote it. That's not an argument or explanation, that's hate speech.
True, often reality is vile, but ignoring it is sort of like burying one’s head in the sand. Rewriting the reality for easier consumption, is the epitome of fake news.
That's a vile piece of writing. I didn't click the link because I don't even want to know who the hateful racist is who wrote it. That's not an argument or explanation, that's hate speech.
True, often reality is vile, but ignoring it is sort of like burying one’s head in the sand. Rewriting the reality for easier consumption, is the epitome of fake news.
I'm not going to debate the merits of that piece, nor comment on what your endorsement of it says about you.
But, please share it with some of those grandchildren you're so proud of, and maybe you'll find out how endorsing it makes you look.
That's a vile piece of writing. I didn't click the link because I don't even want to know who the hateful racist is who wrote it. That's not an argument or explanation, that's hate speech.
True, often reality is vile, but ignoring it is sort of like burying one’s head in the sand. Rewriting the reality for easier consumption, is the epitome of fake news.
On the contrary, I’ve gotten the message that PVW’s primary aim is to expand his understanding. His cup is always less than full, and I’ll share one with him any time.
I've been toying with the idea of just announcing that I'll be at some bar or restaurant in SO or Maplewood within walking distance of the train station some evening after work for anyone who wants to show up. After all these years, might be nice to talk to some people IRL.
“The minute she left the home of her Christian parents, who did not want her to be either gay or transgender, she would put on the costume of Aiden and become him. She prepared for many months for the shooting, researching other mass shooters throughout history.
She was spotted, dressed as Aiden, at a shooting range practicing to become a good shot. A Nashville woman who took the photo said, “I was like, there’s something weird here. I was just thinking, if something was to happen, I need a picture of this person.”
She needed Aiden to avenge the painful life of Audrey. This story is most noteworthy because we’re constantly being told transgender people are victims, not perpetrators. Are they now going to warn all of us that if we aren’t 100% compliant with “gender-affirming care,” we won’t only be causing suicide but, now, mass murder?
Best not to even discuss it, right? Best to just pivot to racism and guns. It’s cleaner. Tucker Carlson can be responsible for untold numbers deaths, but anyone on the Left can see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil when it comes to Audrey Hale.
Hale’s “manifesto” has not yet been released, so we can’t possibly know what mad scramblings will be revealed. We can only guess why she would do it. She was suicidal because anyone in the transgender community is told that if they can’t live as themselves, their only option is suicide.
Suicide is known to be a contagion, and yet they fling the word around willy-nilly. Hale was diagnosed with high-function Autism, meaning she might take what they were saying literally, with no way to tell that it is, at least partly, hyperbole.
Of course, for the Democrats who never let a crisis go to waste, this was the moment to double down on a ban on semi-automatic rifles. But how could they not talk about suicide since that is also the common link between all of these mass shooters?
This could have been a moment for Joe Biden or Kamala Harris to calm things down and reach out to those suffering right now with suicidal thoughts. This country has been through a lot; the statistics bear this out.
The number of suicides by guns dwarfs that of school shootings. This spike in 2020 and in 2021 likely had something to do with the isolation of lockdowns.
The rate of young people taking their own lives with firearms in the U.S. has increased faster than for any other age group, and the youth suicide rate is at its highest point in more than 20 years, according to a new gun violence prevention report by Everytown For Gun Safety and first obtained by ABC News.
Most gun deaths in this country are by handguns, not semi-automatic rifles. That is true of suicides or crime statistics. Throughout the 90s, gun control focused on handguns mainly because of gang violence.
Bill Clinton signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which banned semi-automatic rifles. The Columbine shootings occurred in 1999 before the ban expired in 2004. How did they explain it? Loopholes, they said.
Mass shootings using semi-automatic rifles have increased since then, but so has every other statistic related to handguns, crime, and suicide. I’m not sure what problem they’re trying to solve other than to rally their base.
In focusing exclusively on guns, the Democrats are missing the bigger picture of this perilous moment.
We Need to Talk About Riley Gaines
Throughout the drama unfolding in one America, with the “Tennessee Three” rallying the base, pivoting to racism (and guns), and the Transgender Day of Visibility was at the top of Biden’s agenda, Riley Gaines was bullied and harassed by trans activists just for exercising her right to speak about biological men competing alongside women in sports.
A champion swimmer whose dedication to the sport began at 12 years-old, Gaines trained hard at Kentucky State, becoming their most decorated swimmer. She was used to winning races. She knew her strengths and her weaknesses. Like most women, she is competitive and must know those who might beat her in a given race.
But never, in all of the years of training, was she told she would one day have to compete alongside a biological man as she did when swimming alongside Lia Thomas.
Thomas has all of the gifts that go along with having spent his/her whole life competing and training as a man - upper body strength, wider shoulders, bigger hands. There is no way for Gaines to have trained harder and gotten stronger to defeat a biological man.
In this video, Thomas says the quiet part out loud, that the most common misconception about her is that she transitioned because it would give him/her an advantage.
Making progress for trans-identified women means taking a step back for women like Gaines. It’s such a touchy subject that, according to this story in the Free Press, no one dares to stand up and speak out, though most women feel discouraged and frustrated by how this has suddenly been foisted upon them.
Why is this their burden to bear?
How has this gotten this far, and it’s left to a 22 year-old Riley Gaines to take such a brave stand and fight for all women who wish to compete and win in a fair race? Where are the Titans of feminism? Hillary Clinton? Kirsten Gillibrand? Kamala Harris? Jane Fonda? Oprah? Michelle Obama? Gloria Steinem? Killing off what’s left of the “Feminist” movement, that’s where.
Remember at the Women’s March that we proudly proclaimed, “The Future is Female,” only to wake up in 2023, to find the word “female” exclusionary?
Second-wave feminism was gutted because it was considered “white feminism,” white women being the majority (and still are). But now, there isn’t even a way to BE female. One is expected to “identify” as female.
But we are born female. We have periods. We ovulate. We get pregnant. We are only one of three mammalian species to go through menopause because older women are needed both for leadership and to help very young mothers with childbirth and with childcare. Mothers are connected to daughters through DNA:
Mitochondrial DNA is the circular chromosome found inside the cellular organelles called mitochondria. Located in the cytoplasm, mitochondria are the site of the cell's energy production and other metabolic functions. Offspring inherit mitochondria — and as a result mitochondrial DNA — from their mother.
During the Trump years, women soothed and championed each other and felt pride in their womanhood and feminism. The Woman’s March had some 3 - 5 million attending. Once Biden took office and the transgender movement mobilized, those women had nothing to anchor them anymore. They were purposeless, unseen, no longer celebrated.
Now, I watch those same women, the Hillary Democrats, embrace “antiracism” and go on and on about “white fragility” to have some purpose to their lives. Now, they’ve become mothers and allies of transgender people because their only value now is supporting men wishing to become women, just like them.
I have always respected and liked many trans-identified men and women. I use preferred pronouns. I have no problem with them doing whatever they want to do as adults. But I draw two hard lines. One is “gender-affirming care” on minors and the other is biological men competing alongside biological women, thanks to Riley Gaines.
Gaines isn’t the only woman speaking out who has become a target of rage and even attacks. Posey Parker was recently swarmed, spit on, and screamed at in New Zealand.
It’s time to say, “not through me.” Consequences or no consequences, it’s time to have the backs of these women out there with very little support from other women. I might not agree with everything they are fighting for, but I will fight for their right to say it.
Where There is a Will, There is a Way
Audrey Hale wasn’t the only 28-year-old who committed mass murder in recent months. Bryan Kohburger is also 28 years old and has been accused of sneaking into the home of young students in Moscow, Idaho, and stabbing four of them in under nine minutes.
There was no talk of banning long knives after that or warning young women about the dangers of displaying their beautiful bodies on Instagram tagged with their locations. The focus was squarely on the perp.
Darrell E. Brooks in 2021, drove an SUV into a parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, killing six people, including a child. He had been previously arrested for driving that same SUV over his ex-girlfriend and was let out on $1,000 bail.
Yet the conversation will never be that SUVs are too dangerous, so let’s eliminate them. And because Brooks was a Black man, it was too difficult of a subject for the legacy media, and it never became a major news story.
Mass shootings with manifestos attached are closer to acts of terrorism, not unlike suicide bombings, which kill hundreds every month.
And lest we forget, Timothy McVeigh drove a truck loaded with explosives into the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing hundreds, including 19 children.
Guns might be easier and faster, but they aren’t the only way to commit mass murder. What all shooters have in common is that they want to make the world suffer for their pain. If one method is eliminated, they’ll find another.
The Democrats want to talk about anything but the underlying cause for these shootings. It’s much easier to pivot to their comfort zone of racism and guns, anything to cast themselves as the good guys and the Republicans as the bad guys.
And if a shooter emerges that might contradict that message, the legacy media helps them bury it.
“The minute she left the home of her Christian parents, who did not want her to be either gay or transgender, she would put on the costume of Aiden and become him. She prepared for many months for the shooting, researching other mass shooters throughout history.
She was spotted, dressed as Aiden, at a shooting range practicing to become a good shot. A Nashville woman who took the photo said, “I was like, there’s something weird here. I was just thinking, if something was to happen, I need a picture of this person.”
She needed Aiden to avenge the painful life of Audrey. This story is most noteworthy because we’re constantly being told transgender people are victims, not perpetrators. Are they now going to warn all of us that if we aren’t 100% compliant with “gender-affirming care,” we won’t only be causing suicide but, now, mass murder?
Best not to even discuss it, right? Best to just pivot to racism and guns. It’s cleaner. Tucker Carlson can be responsible for untold numbers deaths, but anyone on the Left can see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil when it comes to Audrey Hale.
Hale’s “manifesto” has not yet been released, so we can’t possibly know what mad scramblings will be revealed. We can only guess why she would do it. She was suicidal because anyone in the transgender community is told that if they can’t live as themselves, their only option is suicide.
Suicide is known to be a contagion, and yet they fling the word around willy-nilly. Hale was diagnosed with high-function Autism, meaning she might take what they were saying literally, with no way to tell that it is, at least partly, hyperbole.
Of course, for the Democrats who never let a crisis go to waste, this was the moment to double down on a ban on semi-automatic rifles. But how could they not talk about suicide since that is also the common link between all of these mass shooters?
This could have been a moment for Joe Biden or Kamala Harris to calm things down and reach out to those suffering right now with suicidal thoughts. This country has been through a lot; the statistics bear this out.
The number of suicides by guns dwarfs that of school shootings. This spike in 2020 and in 2021 likely had something to do with the isolation of lockdowns.
The rate of young people taking their own lives with firearms in the U.S. has increased faster than for any other age group, and the youth suicide rate is at its highest point in more than 20 years, according to a new gun violence prevention report by Everytown For Gun Safety and first obtained by ABC News.
Most gun deaths in this country are by handguns, not semi-automatic rifles. That is true of suicides or crime statistics. Throughout the 90s, gun control focused on handguns mainly because of gang violence.
Bill Clinton signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which banned semi-automatic rifles. The Columbine shootings occurred in 1999 before the ban expired in 2004. How did they explain it? Loopholes, they said.
Mass shootings using semi-automatic rifles have increased since then, but so has every other statistic related to handguns, crime, and suicide. I’m not sure what problem they’re trying to solve other than to rally their base.
In focusing exclusively on guns, the Democrats are missing the bigger picture of this perilous moment.
We Need to Talk About Riley Gaines
Throughout the drama unfolding in one America, with the “Tennessee Three” rallying the base, pivoting to racism (and guns), and the Transgender Day of Visibility was at the top of Biden’s agenda, Riley Gaines was bullied and harassed by trans activists just for exercising her right to speak about biological men competing alongside women in sports.
A champion swimmer whose dedication to the sport began at 12 years-old, Gaines trained hard at Kentucky State, becoming their most decorated swimmer. She was used to winning races. She knew her strengths and her weaknesses. Like most women, she is competitive and must know those who might beat her in a given race.
But never, in all of the years of training, was she told she would one day have to compete alongside a biological man as she did when swimming alongside Lia Thomas.
Thomas has all of the gifts that go along with having spent his/her whole life competing and training as a man - upper body strength, wider shoulders, bigger hands. There is no way for Gaines to have trained harder and gotten stronger to defeat a biological man.
In this video, Thomas says the quiet part out loud, that the most common misconception about her is that she transitioned because it would give him/her an advantage.
Making progress for trans-identified women means taking a step back for women like Gaines. It’s such a touchy subject that, according to this story in the Free Press, no one dares to stand up and speak out, though most women feel discouraged and frustrated by how this has suddenly been foisted upon them.
Why is this their burden to bear?
How has this gotten this far, and it’s left to a 22 year-old Riley Gaines to take such a brave stand and fight for all women who wish to compete and win in a fair race? Where are the Titans of feminism? Hillary Clinton? Kirsten Gillibrand? Kamala Harris? Jane Fonda? Oprah? Michelle Obama? Gloria Steinem? Killing off what’s left of the “Feminist” movement, that’s where.
Remember at the Women’s March that we proudly proclaimed, “The Future is Female,” only to wake up in 2023, to find the word “female” exclusionary?
Second-wave feminism was gutted because it was considered “white feminism,” white women being the majority (and still are). But now, there isn’t even a way to BE female. One is expected to “identify” as female.
But we are born female. We have periods. We ovulate. We get pregnant. We are only one of three mammalian species to go through menopause because older women are needed both for leadership and to help very young mothers with childbirth and with childcare. Mothers are connected to daughters through DNA:
Mitochondrial DNA is the circular chromosome found inside the cellular organelles called mitochondria. Located in the cytoplasm, mitochondria are the site of the cell's energy production and other metabolic functions. Offspring inherit mitochondria — and as a result mitochondrial DNA — from their mother.
During the Trump years, women soothed and championed each other and felt pride in their womanhood and feminism. The Woman’s March had some 3 - 5 million attending. Once Biden took office and the transgender movement mobilized, those women had nothing to anchor them anymore. They were purposeless, unseen, no longer celebrated.
Now, I watch those same women, the Hillary Democrats, embrace “antiracism” and go on and on about “white fragility” to have some purpose to their lives. Now, they’ve become mothers and allies of transgender people because their only value now is supporting men wishing to become women, just like them.
I have always respected and liked many trans-identified men and women. I use preferred pronouns. I have no problem with them doing whatever they want to do as adults. But I draw two hard lines. One is “gender-affirming care” on minors and the other is biological men competing alongside biological women, thanks to Riley Gaines.
Gaines isn’t the only woman speaking out who has become a target of rage and even attacks. Posey Parker was recently swarmed, spit on, and screamed at in New Zealand.
It’s time to say, “not through me.” Consequences or no consequences, it’s time to have the backs of these women out there with very little support from other women. I might not agree with everything they are fighting for, but I will fight for their right to say it.
Where There is a Will, There is a Way
Audrey Hale wasn’t the only 28-year-old who committed mass murder in recent months. Bryan Kohburger is also 28 years old and has been accused of sneaking into the home of young students in Moscow, Idaho, and stabbing four of them in under nine minutes.
There was no talk of banning long knives after that or warning young women about the dangers of displaying their beautiful bodies on Instagram tagged with their locations. The focus was squarely on the perp.
Darrell E. Brooks in 2021, drove an SUV into a parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, killing six people, including a child. He had been previously arrested for driving that same SUV over his ex-girlfriend and was let out on $1,000 bail.
Yet the conversation will never be that SUVs are too dangerous, so let’s eliminate them. And because Brooks was a Black man, it was too difficult of a subject for the legacy media, and it never became a major news story.
Mass shootings with manifestos attached are closer to acts of terrorism, not unlike suicide bombings, which kill hundreds every month.
And lest we forget, Timothy McVeigh drove a truck loaded with explosives into the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing hundreds, including 19 children.
Guns might be easier and faster, but they aren’t the only way to commit mass murder. What all shooters have in common is that they want to make the world suffer for their pain. If one method is eliminated, they’ll find another.
The Democrats want to talk about anything but the underlying cause for these shootings. It’s much easier to pivot to their comfort zone of racism and guns, anything to cast themselves as the good guys and the Republicans as the bad guys.
And if a shooter emerges that might contradict that message, the legacy media helps them bury it.
wow.
you're really ramping up the hate these days, aren't you?
I can certainly understand how you might have an issue with the shooter’s parents, but how do I rate your wrath? The “manifesto” said to have been left behind, has not as yet been made public. So little motivation has been made public — don’t recall seeing even a photo of the shooter’s parents, or hearing of any comments from them.
Only thing we know for sure is that six innocent victims are dead.
I can certainly understand how you might have an issue with the shooter’s parents, but how do I rate your wrath? The “manifesto” said to have been left behind, has not as yet been made public. So little motivation has been made public — don’t recall seeing even a photo of the shooter’s parents, or hearing of any comments from them.
Only thing we know for sure is that six innocent victims are dead.
you can rate my "wrath" at zero. My disappointment and sadness are closer to 10 when I read such hateful stuff aimed at trans people and people on the autism spectrum.
you seem to be demanding an explanation as to why a bigger deal hasn't been made about Aiden Hale being trans as a motive for the shooting. And of course the right wingers are so upset that the racism of s many other mass shooters is discussed extensively.
why you ask? The answer should be obvious to you. How much white racism is the cause of misery in this country in the form of violent outbursts compared to violent outbursts by trans people? Is racism 1000 times more responsible for violence in the U.S. than being trans? Maybe a million times more responsible.
and as to the other passages regarding banning of knives or SUVs, they're just too damn stupid to deserve a response.
as to the fact that handguns are much more responsible for firearm violence than rifles, and the fact that must gun deaths are suicides, I'm glad to see your concern. Gun control advocates absolutely should be focusing on handguns as well as rifles. From your writing on the issue of guns, I hadn't thought you were on the same side of this issue as me. Good to see that you are.
when it comes to handguns the SCOTUS has really screwed over states like MA, NY, NJ, that had stricter laws on handgun ownership than most of the other states. And those states with stricter laws not coincidentally had rates of gun deaths at about 1/4 to 1/3 the national average.
but for some reason the SCOTUS justices think that it's proper for the states to decide for themselves on reproductive rights, but it's NOT ok for the states to decide for themselves what it means for gun ownership to be well-regulated.
but for some reason the SCOTUS justices think that it's proper for the states to decide for themselves on reproductive rights, but it's NOT ok for the states to decide for themselves what it means for gun ownership to be well-regulated.
The latest SCOTUS majorities have given their reasons: Gun rights are constitutionally protected, and reproductive rights aren’t.
but for some reason the SCOTUS justices think that it's proper for the states to decide for themselves on reproductive rights, but it's NOT ok for the states to decide for themselves what it means for gun ownership to be well-regulated.
The latest SCOTUS majorities have given their reasons: Gun rights are constitutionally protected, and reproductive rights aren’t.
I know. But that also requires them to ignore the words "well-regulated" in the Constitution with regard to guns. And to ignore this, also in the Constitution, with regard to laws restricting bodily autonomy:
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
the document literally says the absence of a mention of a right doesn't mean those rights don't exist. Somehow the "originalists" don't seem to want to acknowledge that the concept has existed from the beginning.
I get that they have reasons that they give, but they are just basically a post-hoc explanation for what they did out of ideological motivations and not sound legal motivations.
you can rate my "wrath" at zero. My disappointment and sadness are closer to 10 when I read such hateful stuff aimed at trans people and people on the autism spectrum.
you seem to be demanding an explanation as to why a bigger deal hasn't been made about Aiden Hale being trans as a motive for the shooting. And of course the right wingers are so upset that the racism of s many other mass shooters is discussed extensively.
why you ask? The answer should be obvious to you. How much white racism is the cause of misery in this country in the form of violent outbursts compared to violent outbursts by trans people? Is racism 1000 times more responsible for violence in the U.S. than being trans? Maybe a million times more responsible.
there's your answer to why.
Interesting bit uncovered while searching for objective journalism goals….
In his collection of spontaneous talks, ‘Ta Hui – The Great Zen Master’, Osho gave a powerful example of objectivity, in the sense intended here, from his own childhood:
‘It happened that in my village, between my house and a temple, there was a piece of land. For some technical reason, my father was able to win the case if he took it to court – only on technical reasons. The land was not ours, the land belonged to the temple. But the technical reason was this: the map of the temple did not show that the land was in their territory. It was some fault of the municipal committee’s clerical staff; they had put the land onto my father’s property.
‘Naturally in court there was no question; the temple had no right to say that it was their land. Everybody knew it was their land, my father knew it was their land. But the land was precious, it was just on the main street, and every technical and legal support was on my father’s side. He brought the case to the court.
‘I told him, “Listen” – I must have been not more than eleven years old – “I will go to the court to support the temple. I don’t have anything to do with the temple, I have never even gone inside the temple, whatever it is, but you know perfectly well that the land is not yours.”
‘He said, “What kind of son are you? You will witness against your own father?”
‘I said, “It is not a question of father and son; in the court it is a question of what is true. And not only will your son be there; your father I have also convinced.”
‘He said, “What!”
‘I had a very deep friendship with my grandfather, so we had consulted. I had told him, “You have to support me because I am only eleven years old. The court may not accept my witnessing because I am not an adult, so you have to support me. You know perfectly well that the land is not ours.”
‘He said, “I am with you.”
‘So I told my father, “Just listen, from both sides, from your father and from your son… you simply withdraw the case; otherwise you will be in such a trouble, you will lose the case. It is only technically that you are able to claim. But we are not going to support a technical mistake on the part of the municipal clerk.”
‘He said, “You don’t understand a simple thing, that a family means… you have to support your family.”
‘I said, “No, I will support the family only if the family is right. I will support whoever is right.”
‘He talked to my grandfather who said, “I have already promised your son that I will be going with him.”
‘My father said, “That means I will have to withdraw the case and lose that valuable piece of land!”
‘He said, “What can be done about it? Your son is going to create trouble for you, and seeing the situation, that he will not in any way be persuaded, I have agreed with him – just to make his position stronger so that you can withdraw; it is better to withdraw than to get defeated.”
‘My father said, “But this is a strange family! I am working for you all. I am working for you, I am working for my son – I am not working for myself. If we can have a beautiful shop on that land you will have a better, more comfortable old age; he will have a better education in a better university. And you are against me.”
‘My grandfather said, “I am not against anybody, but he has taken my promise, and I cannot go against my word – at least as far as he is concerned – because he is dangerous, he may put me in some trouble. So I cannot deceive him; I will say whatever he is saying. And he is saying the truth – and you know it.”
‘So my father had to withdraw the case – reluctantly… but he had to withdraw the case. I asked my grandfather to bring some sweets so we can distribute them in the neighborhood. My father has come to his senses, it has to be celebrated. He said, “That seems to be the right thing to do.”
‘When my father saw that I was distributing sweets, he asked, “What are you doing? – for what? What has happened?”
‘I said, “You have come back to your senses. Truth is victorious.” And I gave him a sweet also.
‘He laughed. He said, “I can understand your standpoint, and my own father is with you, so I thought it is better that I should also be with you. It is better to withdraw without any problem. But I have learned a lesson.” He said to me, “I cannot depend on my family. If there is any trouble they are not going to support me just because they belong to me as father, as son, as brother. They are going to support whatever is true.”
‘And since that time no other situation ever arose, because he never did anything in which we had to disagree. He remained truthful and sincere.
‘Many times in his life he told me, “It was so good of you; otherwise I was going to take that land, and I would have committed a crime knowingly. You prevented me, and not only from that crime, you prevented me from then onwards. Whenever there was a similar situation, I always decided in favor of truth, whatever the loss. But now I can see: truth is the only treasure. You can lose your whole life, but don’t lose your truth.”‘ (Osho, ‘Ta Hui – The Great Zen Master’, 1987, free e-book)
Interesting bit uncovered while searching for objective journalism goals….
In his collection of spontaneous talks, ‘Ta Hui – The Great Zen Master’, Osho gave a powerful example of objectivity, in the sense intended here, from his own childhood:
‘Many times in his life he told me, “It was so good of you; otherwise I was going to take that land, and I would have committed a crime knowingly. You prevented me, and not only from that crime, you prevented me from then onwards. Whenever there was a similar situation, I always decided in favor of truth, whatever the loss. But now I can see: truth is the only treasure. You can lose your whole life, but don’t lose your truth.”‘ (Osho, ‘Ta Hui – The Great Zen Master’, 1987, free e-book)
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‘It happened that in my village, between my house and a temple, there was a piece of land. For some technical reason, my father was able to win the case if he took it to court – only on technical reasons. The land was not ours, the land belonged to the temple. But the technical reason was this: the map of the temple did not show that the land was in their territory. It was some fault of the municipal committee’s clerical staff; they had put the land onto my father’s property.
‘Naturally in court there was no question; the temple had no right to say that it was their land. Everybody knew it was their land, my father knew it was their land. But the land was precious, it was just on the main street, and every technical and legal support was on my father’s side. He brought the case to the court.
‘I told him, “Listen” – I must have been not more than eleven years old – “I will go to the court to support the temple. I don’t have anything to do with the temple, I have never even gone inside the temple, whatever it is, but you know perfectly well that the land is not yours.”
‘He said, “What kind of son are you? You will witness against your own father?”
‘I said, “It is not a question of father and son; in the court it is a question of what is true. And not only will your son be there; your father I have also convinced.”
‘He said, “What!”
‘I had a very deep friendship with my grandfather, so we had consulted. I had told him, “You have to support me because I am only eleven years old. The court may not accept my witnessing because I am not an adult, so you have to support me. You know perfectly well that the land is not ours.”
‘He said, “I am with you.”
‘So I told my father, “Just listen, from both sides, from your father and from your son… you simply withdraw the case; otherwise you will be in such a trouble, you will lose the case. It is only technically that you are able to claim. But we are not going to support a technical mistake on the part of the municipal clerk.”
‘He said, “You don’t understand a simple thing, that a family means… you have to support your family.”
‘I said, “No, I will support the family only if the family is right. I will support whoever is right.”
‘He talked to my grandfather who said, “I have already promised your son that I will be going with him.”
‘My father said, “That means I will have to withdraw the case and lose that valuable piece of land!”
‘He said, “What can be done about it? Your son is going to create trouble for you, and seeing the situation, that he will not in any way be persuaded, I have agreed with him – just to make his position stronger so that you can withdraw; it is better to withdraw than to get defeated.”
‘My father said, “But this is a strange family! I am working for you all. I am working for you, I am working for my son – I am not working for myself. If we can have a beautiful shop on that land you will have a better, more comfortable old age; he will have a better education in a better university. And you are against me.”
‘My grandfather said, “I am not against anybody, but he has taken my promise, and I cannot go against my word – at least as far as he is concerned – because he is dangerous, he may put me in some trouble. So I cannot deceive him; I will say whatever he is saying. And he is saying the truth – and you know it.”
‘So my father had to withdraw the case – reluctantly… but he had to withdraw the case. I asked my grandfather to bring some sweets so we can distribute them in the neighborhood. My father has come to his senses, it has to be celebrated. He said, “That seems to be the right thing to do.”
‘When my father saw that I was distributing sweets, he asked, “What are you doing? – for what? What has happened?”
‘I said, “You have come back to your senses. Truth is victorious.” And I gave him a sweet also.
‘He laughed. He said, “I can understand your standpoint, and my own father is with you, so I thought it is better that I should also be with you. It is better to withdraw without any problem. But I have learned a lesson.” He said to me, “I cannot depend on my family. If there is any trouble they are not going to support me just because they belong to me as father, as son, as brother. They are going to support whatever is true.”
‘And since that time no other situation ever arose, because he never did anything in which we had to disagree. He remained truthful and sincere.
‘Many times in his life he told me, “It was so good of you; otherwise I was going to take that land, and I would have committed a crime knowingly. You prevented me, and not only from that crime, you prevented me from then onwards. Whenever there was a similar situation, I always decided in favor of truth, whatever the loss. But now I can see: truth is the only treasure. You can lose your whole life, but don’t lose your truth.”‘ (Osho, ‘Ta Hui – The Great Zen Master’, 1987, free e-book)
I love how often you post things that prove you have absolutely zero self-awareness
While the Republicans have been stewing in their hate and pandering to the gun nuts at the NRA convention this week, Joe Biden is getting a rock start welcome in Ireland (Dropkick Murphys for his walk-out music).