My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.

This is a passage I copied from Rational Mysticism: Dispatches from the border between science and spirituality by John Horgan.

“… does believe in enlightenment, which she defines as total self-transcendence, or waking from the meme dream. You become permanently mindful, in the moment, free from the bonds of self, even as you continue with the business of living. This is her understanding of the Zen aphorism Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.” p. 116

Today, as I go about my tasks, I’ll think about: Thirteen ways to avoid procrastination through the concentration of power:

Turn difficult tasks into games.

p. 143-7

Claims of cooperation and support from the military government of Myanmar for Democratic reforms are hollow. The generals may have moved their oppressive actions off the main streets of Yangon and into the provinces, but targeted arrests continue and opposition leaders remain in danger.

From Bloomberg:

“This repression belies the regime’s claims to cooperate fully with the United Nations, which has repeatedly sought an end to the detention of political activists,” spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement yesterday.

The regime yesterday ordered the closure of the Maggin monastery in the former capital, Yangon, where monks involved in the September pro-democracy uprising were earlier arrested, Agence France-Presse reported. The monastery was a sanctuary for people with AIDS in the country formerly known as Burma, the news agency said.

And it would likely be worse if world attention did not remained focused on Myanmar.

The junta has faced global condemnation since it deployed soldiers Sept. 26 to crush the biggest anti-junta protests in almost 20 years. Myanmar soldiers may have killed as many as 110 protesters during the crackdown, according to the UN.

As many as 700 people arrested during and since the September protests remain behind bars and another 1,150 political prisoners held before the uprising haven’t been released, Amnesty International said.

Which is all the more reason why we on the outside must continue to peer inward; to remind the dictators that they can’t act with impunity in the dark.

Part of being a good citizen of the blogosphere is visiting, reading and, most importantly, taking the time to leave a comment on other’s blogs. It’s all about the conversation. In the interest of setting an example I’ve decided to link to those blog posts that have compelled me to leave a comment.

2043 The $1000 bagel & all you could want for Chanuka
1507 Idiocracy: where we will be if…
1046 When online works better than print.
0909 If I laugh, just a little bit – am I being offensive?
1507 BREAKING: Special Midnight “Hickmania Green Jacket…”

I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is What Makes Us Moral?

There was no discussion of health insurance, education, the environment or any other issues that involve American society caring for the young, the weak and the helpless. The main Republican concern for members of future generations was about preserving them in utero and avoiding government spending that would create debt for them as taxpayers. Robert Stein

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.

A SPANISH Teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine. “House” for instance, is feminine: “la casa.” “Pencil,” however, is masculine: “el lapiz.”

The women won.

Sixty days ago I wrote that I thought that that statement by the Dali Lama that he was praying for the success of this peaceful movement and the early release of fellow Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, was an inadequate response to events in Myanmar. I suggested that instead, the Dali Lama ought to start his own march, the Yangon.

This week the Dali Lama took part in the Elijah Interfaith Summit of world religious leaders in the northern Indian city of Amritsar. There he said:

When I saw pictures of people beating monks I was immediately reminded of inside Tibet, in our own case, where just a few days ago monks were beaten by Chinese forces. I am fully committed and I have full support and sympathy for the demonstrators. [The military dictators] should be Buddhists. Please act according to Buddha’s message of compassion.

What would Gandhiji do?

My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.

This is a passage I copied from Rational Mysticism: Dispatches from the border between science and spirituality by John Horgan.

“The self is just a flowing story constructed by memes acquired from other people, and nothing more. “It is not a thing that can have consciousness and free will.” p. 114

Today, as I go about my tasks, I’ll think about: Handling papers only once is a good time management goal. p. 139

Simon Roughneen, who covered the September protests in Myanmar, thinks that the EU and American sanctions against that country are too timid and that the 40th anniversary meeting of the Association of South East Asian Nations was a missed opportunity to pressure the military dictatorship running the country.

Two months after cracking down on pro-democracy protests led by Buddhist monks, Burma’s military dictatorship remains in control. While many of the estimated 2000 peaceful protestors detained during the unrest have been released, arrests have continued in recent weeks, as the junta catches up with dissident monks on the run since the late September drama.

In the weeks since the protests, the military junta has refused to grant the International Committee of the Red Cross access to political prisoners, while hosting visits from UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari, as well as a UN human rights delegate.

The central message is that the military rulers are running a game on the world, pretending to reform, when it is actually digging in for more business as usual.

Bo Hal Tint said that it was “a double standard for the EU to want free trade but not pressure those who can in turn influence the junta. We want the EU to use every influence they have with those who prop up the junta in Burma – ASEAN. However, we appreciate the EU move to impose smart sanctions.”

As such, the EU Commission failure to link ASEAN trade talks with reform in Burma marks a missed opportunity to lean on Shwe and his cronies – if only by proxy.

Is there a plan to snatch the opportunity back?

A week ago yesterday I encourage all of you to go see The Golden Compass when it comes out at the end of next week. I did so only as a nasty reaction to a bit of pre-release christianist vitriol. I’ve now had a chance to read more widely about the movie and picked up the book on which it is based from the library this evening.

I still encourage everyone to go see the movie, but now for a more reasoned purpose.

As a matter of Free Speech.

Two winters ago C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was released. The movie was heralded as a triumph by Christians and christianists. Finally evil Hollywood has made a good Christian movie.

While it may have happened, I’m not aware of any non-Christian groups that encourage people to boycott the movie. In any case, a boycott, if it existed, had no affect on the viewing public. (The quality of the movie overall, however, did, but that is no blemish on Lewis’ writing.)

Now the flip side of Narnia, the world created by Philip Pullman, has been brought to the big screen. And I think that is as it should be. The response to distasteful or objectionable speech (and I use the term advisably here, I happen to own and enjoyed reading the Narnia books.) ought always to be more speech, and not censorship.

Free minds in a free society are always capable of reaching their own conclusions.

Children are a different matter. Parents have an obligation to act as filters. That function is perhaps their most important.

But I think anyone would be hard pressed to find an uncoached child who would identify Lewis’ PG-rated Christian themes in the Narnia books, any more than we, as children, picked up on the very adult jokes inserted in Disney and Warner Brothers cartoons.

I imagine the children will be just as safe watching The Golden Compass which is rated PG-13 so those seven-year-olds in pj’s shouldn’t be there in the first place.

I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is Leopold and Stephen have a day.

I feel like the last guy in the room to get a bad joke this morning in the wake of announcements in Baghdad and Iraq that there is a quid pro quo deal in which the U.S. will babysit the Shiite-dominated Al-Maliki regime indefinitely in return for giving U.S. entrepreneurs first crack at Iraq”s riches, which lest there be any doubt are its vast untapped oil reserves and not figs or palm-frond chachkes. Shaun Mullen

It’s been a busy week in Wally World: the Universe’s source of cheap plastic crap. On The Writing On The Wal — the blog USA Today says should be on its readers’ radar — Jonathan Rees, Robert Feinman, Peter Sayles and I continue our work dedicated to drawing back the curtain on the Bentonvile Behemoth’s corporate disinformation and other flackery.

BLACK FRIDAY…. SCENE 1… Watch…

BLACK FRIDAY…. SCENE 2… Watch…

NORTH CAROLINA TAX PAPERS NOT SEALED… Wal-Mart, which can”t figure out how to obtain product to sell at no cost, has turned to other avenues to reduce its costs of doing business and further increase its profits. The most recent tactic has involved creative accounting to avoid paying its taxes. Keep reading…

BLACK FRIDAY…. SCENE 3… Watch…

WAL-MART KNOWS ITS PLACE… That was the line that I liked the best from Rick Munarriz piece for the The Motley Fool. Munarriz is generally upbeat about Wal-Mart”s coming Chri$tma$ madness, but he”s definitely not upscale. Does Wal-Mart really think people will confuse cheap with chic? Keep reading…

BLACK FRIDAY…. SCENE 4… Watch…

BLACK FRIDAY…. SCENE 5… Watch…

BLACK FRIDAY…. SCENE 6… Watch…

BLACK FRIDAY…. WHERE WAL-MART IS LEADING… Watch…

THIS KID KNOWS HOW TO WALLOP WAL-MART… Rather than suffering hours of cold just to be crushed in the stampede of frenzied shoppers convinced they can prove their love and self-worth by buying cheap plastic crap from China, one girl decided to turn the Black Friday insanity into a positive experience… Keep reading…

BLACK FRIDAY…. SCENE 7… Watch…

WELCOME TO WAL-GAS… In an era that will increasingly be dominated by the price of gasoline, we all knew that it was just a matter of time before Wal-Mart, faced with consumers unwilling, or unable, to drive any distance to shop would go small, local and… Keep reading…

WAL-MART REJECTS 5,700+ IN CLEVELAND… In what can only be seen as a condemnation of the mayoral stewardships of Jane Campbell and Frank Jackson, and the total absence of leadership from its city council member past and present, Cleveland”s only Wal-Mart turned away more than 5,700 job applicants. Keep reading…

BLACK FRIDAY…. SCENE I’M DONE… Watch…

DID WAL-MART STIFF CLEVELAND…? The Wal-Mole formerly known as BBC American dropped me an email this afternoon. BBC was bothered by the 300 number the Wal-Flacks bantered about for the number of jobs at the Wal-Mart Supercenter at Cleveland”s Steelyard Commons. Keep reading…

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE SHOP… Robert wrote yesterday about the drop in dollars-per-shopper figure for Black Friday. And Wal-Mart is seriously on the case. What is its solution to shoppers having less money to spend? Why open more Wal-Mart stores 24/7 of course. Keep reading…

WAL-MART NOISY…? WHO”DA THUNK IT…? New Yorkers and other urban dwellers are resigned to the noise of trash cans banging at 4 a.m. and delivery trucks double-parked in the narrow streets, but in Carson City, Nevada, residents have a different standard: Keep reading…

BUY CHEAP PLASTIC CRAP… FRY A FAGGOT… Why, with all the hatred, pain, suffering and injustice in the world, has a tiny but shrill minority of christianists chosen to devote such copious amounts of their time, wealth and energy to battling a fantastical threat from homosexuals? Keep reading…

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.