I’m proud of the 50 Boulder, Colorado, high school students who’ve started walking out of the state-mandated pledge of allegiance and who have also substituted their own version, “which omits the reference to God and adds allegiance to constitutional rights, diversity and freedom, among other things.”

They argue, correctly, I believe, that the inclusion of the phrase “One nation, under God” breaches the constitutional separation of church as state.

It’s good to see young people standing up for the constitution and for religious freedom and showing more wisdom than their elders. Although reciting the pledge is optional, it’s divisive for students in a public school to have to listen to a state-sponsored theological message.

It sounds like a joke — 10 people are arrested and face up to 20 years in prison for (gasp!) smuggling empty soda cans across state lines and recycling them. “Lock ‘em up and throw away the key” not the first phrase that springs to mind.

Michigan has a 10c refund law whose proceeds are used to pay for environmental cleanup efforts. Clearly it’s bad for the state of Michigan if people are bringing thousands of empties into the state and cashing them in. In fact according to the article below the state loses $13 million each year.

Sure, it’s a crime and Michigan was being defrauded — but doesn’t it seem weird that recycling can be a crime?

Wouldn’t it make more sense to have a national recycling and refund law so that people wouldn’t be “smuggling” coke cans?

Suspects Arraigned In Pop Can Smuggling Ring - Local News Story - WDIV Detroit

According to an interesting item in the NYT today, Intelligent Design advocates continue to use outright deception in order to make their case. In this instance they appear to have lied in order to get scientists such as Richard Dawkins — a fierce ID critic — onto their film called “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.”

The ID hid the nature of the film from the participants.

Eugenie C. Scott, a physical anthropologist who heads the National Center for Science Education, said she agreed to be filmed after receiving what she described as a deceptive invitation.

“I have certainly been taped by people and appeared in productions where people’s views are different than mine, and that’s fine,” Dr. Scott said, adding that she would have appeared in the film anyway. “I just expect people to be honest with me, and they weren’t.”

Scientists Feel Miscast in Film on Life’s Origin - New York Times

This is a picture of some kids I photographed in Ethiopia. This was taken in a small town south of Awassa, where another couple, Stacey and Eric, were meeting the surviving family of the two girls they were adopting. People in Ethiopia generally are very leery about getting their pictures taken. The children are an exception! Even kids who’ve never seen their picture before are natural posers!

Three days ago Maia’s first tooth began to appear on the bottom right. I’d love to show you a picture but I don’t have one! She really doesn’t like it when I try to push her lip away so that I can get a look, and her tongue pushes forwards, her arms flail, and she turns her head away. I keep trying, she keeps squirming, and fortunately she keeps forgiving me.

I did manage to get a look the other day when she was asleep and at the moment there’s not much to see — just a thin line of enamel — but it’s very distinct to the touch.

She’s not showing any signs of discomfort with it. That all happened a few months back when she was chewing anything she could get hold of and producing copious quantities of drool. For some reason that more or less stopped several weeks back, and then the tooth appeared!

She’s also pulling herself up to a standing position.

She’s almost exactly 10 1/2 months old.

As part of the ongoing response to 9/11, inmates in Federal Prisons are now finding their access to religious books severely curtailed. The Department of Justice doesn’t want literature advocating violence to get into the hands of prisoners, but the sledgehammer being used to crack that particular nut has been a wholesale clear-out of prison libraries.

Only 150 Buddhist titles have been approved for use in prisons, despite the fact that Buddhism is one of the least likely faiths to advocate terrorism. If prisons happen not to have those 150 titles then inmates’ access to Buddhist titles will be next to impossible. It’s quite possible, for example, that some prisons have ended up with no Buddhist books at all, and that entire libraries, in many cases built up by donations from volunteers, have been entirely discarded.

I’ve been told by the chaplain of a Federal prison that he has no budget for religious titles and that he is constitutionally forbidden from purchasing them. For prisons to obtain the 150 approved titles will thus be a challenge.

It’s doubly a challenge when the list of approved titles is a secret!

There is no information on the Bureau of Prisons’ website (www.bop.gov) on who chose the list of books, what the criteria for inclusion were, or what titles have been approved. When I inquired by telephone I was told that I would have to submit a request under the Freedom of Information Act in order to find out which books are permitted. I was told that making the list publicly available on the website is “being considered.”

I regularly send Buddhist books to prisons and have no idea whether any of the books available to be are considered acceptable.

The heavy-handedness of the government coming up with lists of approved books is disturbingly Orwellian. The fact that the lists are not publicly available creates the double-bind that only charities can supply these books and yet charities are not told what books are allowed.

To send a message to the Director of the Bureau of Prisons, visit this site.

Prisons Purging Books on Faith From Libraries - New York Times

Burma’s Buddhist monks are continuing to spearhead protests against the military regime in Burma (Myanmar). This is very bad news for the regime given the high esteem in which bhikkhus are held in that country. It’s disturbing to hear that the dictatorship’s security forces have been using tear gas and firing warning shots.

Burma is ripe for a transition to democracy — the people have long been dissatisfied with the corruption of the regime and the destruction of the economy. The trick, if democracy is restored, will be keeping the military in line.

Monks Demonstrate for 2nd Day in Myanmar - New York Times

Rangoon, Myanmar, Sept. 19 (AP) — Stepping up their challenge to the military government, Buddhist monks staged a second straight day of protests Wednesday, briefly occupying a landmark pagoda in Rangoon, the main city, during one of several marches around the country.

In the western city of Sittwe, some 5,000 monks were said to have turned out for an anti-government demonstration even though a protest the previous day had been cut short when the authorities fired tear gas and warning shots.

The saffron-robed monks have become the spearhead of a movement that began on Aug. 19, when a few hundred citizens marched to protest a government increase in fuel prices.

The protests reflect pent-up opposition to the military dictatorship, and they have become the most sustained challenge to the regime in at least a decade.

Tuesday was the 19th anniversary of the 1988 crackdown in which the military seized power after violently crushing vast pro-democracy demonstrations.

The regime held a general election in 1990, but refused to honor the results when the pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy Party won. Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for more than 11 of the past 18 years.

Some monks have started a religious boycott, holding their black begging bowls upside down as they march in a symbolic demonstration that they will refuse alms from the authorities and their supporters. Ostracizing the regime carries strong significance for the country’s mostly Buddhist population.

In the Myanmar language, the word for “boycott” comes from the words for holding the bowl upside down.

About 500 monks in Yangon went to the Sule pagoda downtown after being turned away from the golden hilltop Shwedagon pagoda, whose gates were locked to keep them out. Followed by hundreds of onlookers and scores of plainclothes security officers, they marched about three hours to Sule.

The monks pushed past closed gates to briefly occupy the pagoda, witnesses said, and took over for about 30 minutes before leaving peacefully.

Update:
Also in the NYT: Myanmar Junta Feels Pressure From Monks

Amongst other interesting information:

• The protests were originally led by student leaders and pro-democracy activists, and it was after they were rounded up by the junta that the monks stepped in.
• The monk’s revolt seems to be a grassroots movement involving younger monks, and has not been organized by the religious establishment.
• A statement by monks in Rangoon reads: “The clergy boycotts the violent, mean, cruel, ruthless, pitiless kings, the great thieves who live by stealing from the national treasury. The clergy hereby also refuses donations and preaching.”
• The refusal to accept alms by members of the junta is a kind of “excommunication” and a serious statement of dissent.

Whoopi Goldberg: “Is the world flat?”

Shepherd: “Is the world flat? I don’t know.”

This is a funny (and scary) piece of video from ABC, in which Born-Again talk-show host Sherri Shepherd says she’s “never thought” about whether the world is flat or round.

Shepperd is either being dishonest (has she really never thought about whether the world is flat?) or is incredibly stupid (has she really never thought about whether the world is flat, and if not what exactly has she been thinking about her entire life). I’ll go for dishonest, since dishonesty seems to be a recurring trait in Born-Agains.

Kudos to the Huffington Post for highlighting the video.

Yeah, yeah. I know I’m early. But I was late last week so I’m making sure I’m on time.

Anyway…

Twilight. Rocking boat. Low light levels. Long lens. No tripod.

It can only add up to one thing. Impressionism!

Click on the image for a larger version.

Hundreds of Buddhist monks in central Burma have held a demonstration against the military government.

The monks in the town of Kyaukpadaung, north of Rangoon, marched through the streets chanting prayers.

It is the latest in a wave of protests across Burma that began last month, when authorities doubled fuel prices.

Monastic leaders have threatened to hold more demonstrations, starting on Tuesday, unless the military apologises for beating monks at an earlier rally.

The monks at that protest, in the town of Pakokku, held about 20 security officials captive for several hours to complain about their treatment.

For more, go to BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Burma monks stage fresh protests

See also: Monks Seize Troops In Burma Town

Three sentences into the Address by the President to the Nation on the Way Forward in Iraq we have one of those complete breaks with reality that makes you wonder how it is that 30% of the population still support such a delusive character.

It’s a doozie: “In Iraq, an ally of the United States is fighting for its survival.”

Hey, great! One minute Iraq is part of the “axis of evil” (a meaningless term since “axis” means “alliance” and there was no way Iran, Iraq, and North Korea were allies), then we invade, and now they’re our allies! Obviously invading a country is a good way to Make Friends and Influence People.

It’s a shame that our allies don’t want to be allied to us.

Read What They’re Saying in Anbar Province to get a sense of how well the “alliance” is going.

• Seventy-six percent said the United States should withdraw now — up from 49 percent when we polled there in March, and far above the national average.
• Every Anbar respondent in the survey opposed the presence of American forces in Iraq
• Every Anbar respondent called attacks on coalition forces “acceptable.”

Great allies, huh?

Added later: Anbar province of course is what is touted as being the great success story of the “surge” even though the strategy there (allying with Saddamist Sunnis who are opposed to Al Quaeda) wasn’t part of the surge strategy and seems to have happened more or less accidentally. Anbar province also includes only 5% of the country’s population. So let’s just get this clear — in the most successful example of the US occupation allegedly going right, every single resident surveyed thinks that the US should get out and that it’s OK to attack US troops.

Gary Cross, a professor of history at Pennsylvania State University, and the author of “Kids’ Stuff: Toys and the Changing World of American Childhood” looks at Mattel’s recall of China-made toys in today’s New York Times and argues that it may be time to “rethink the decision to allow the unrestricted advertising and cartoon promotion of toy lines that has produced year-round marketing and piles of plastic toys, bought and soon discarded.”

“After all,” he says, “we ought to be just as concerned about the impact of character licensing and toy advertising on our children’s psyche as we are on protecting them from ingesting leaded paint and magnets.”

He gives an interesting overview of the evolution of the toy industry, showing how the number of toys based on licensed characters (easily promoted in film and in TV programs that are essentially extended ads) shot from 10% in 1980 to 60% in 1987. That’s an astonishing rise in a short space of time, and as a result we now have toddlers being fully immersed in consumerism. This is an unprecedented level of indoctrination — and one that goes largely ignored.

The commercial pressure of course mainl comes from TV, which makes me doubly glad that we only watch DVDs in our household.

Responding to a collection of letters broadly critical of a piece by right-wing columnist David Brooks in the NYT (republished here), the following letter was published today. I’ve put in a few words of commentary:

“The Health Care America Wants” (letters, Sept. 10) highlighted arguments of readers who advocate for the flawed and extremely controversial single-payer system.

It’s only in the US that single-payer systems (AKA comprehensive, free public healthcare) are controversial. There’s no clamor in the UK or Canada to abolish the health care systems in order to move towards a US-style model.

There is however a considerable number of ordinary people in the US who favor changing the US system. 54% of respondents in an NYT/CBS survey said that “fundamental changes are needed” in the health care system. Thus, it’s the US healthcare system that is controversial.

After reading their submissions, I’m convinced that these writers are oblivious to the problems that accompany government-run care.

Virtually all countries with a single-payer model have been plagued by perilous problems, including substandard care, long waiting lists, loss of physicians, forced outsourcing and health care rationing.

There are problems with all healthcare systems. Those alluded to are, however, exaggerated.

Problems in the US: Insurers find it in their financial interest to deny care to people with serious illness. The majority of bankruptcies in the US are caused by healthcare costs. Most of those who went bankrupt had health insurance.

US healthcare is substandard compared to other industrialized nations. If you’re a woman in the US you’re more likely to have an unnecessary cesarean (because it earns more for the hospital). If you’re a woman in the US you’re more likely to die in childbirth than if you live in the UK or Canada. One American mother in 2,500 dies as a result of childbirth complications, compared to one per 29,000 in Sweden.

Your child is more likely to die. If you’ve reached the age of 60 you are likely to die sooner in the U.S. than you would in other industrialized nations

Healthcare in the US is rationed — to those who can afford it. Close to 50 million Americans have no healthcare. It’s been estimated that 16,000 Americans die every year because of untreated illnesses. Even for those who are insured in the US, healthcare is rationed by HMOs who decide what treatments they will pay for. Remember the guy in Sicko who had to decide which of his two fingers he would have re-attached? Remember the guy in Canada who had all five of his reattached — with no bill?

More important, the supposed administrative savings occur in the first year. After that, we still have a higher than inflation trend in the cost of health care and nothing to address that.

Um, no. Healthcare costs per person in the US are higher than elsewhere, without showing any substantial health benefits. In fact in many respects the health of Americans is worse than in other countries and getting worse. Americans are shrinking (and it’s not due to immigration).

Per capita in the US in 2003, $5,635. Canada, $3,003. By all measures, Canadians’ health is better and they live longer.

Maybe it’s better to have the same rate of inflation on half the amount? Or maybe the faster-than-inflation growth in HMO’s profits is factored in there somewhere?

The bottom line is that single-payer ignores the fundamental issue: this is not a “health insurance” crisis, it’s a “cost of health care” crisis.

Well it’s neither. To be sure, health care costs tend to rise. But to say there is no health insurance crisis is to be completely out of touch with the financial realities of all but the richest Americans.

But this is a moral crisis. In Canada and the US people believe that we should take care of the poor, the sick, the young, the elderly. In fact we should take care of everyone. In the US many people believe that you should take care of yourself and leave others to sink or swim. Not all believe that, because a large percentage of those in the US support the idea of universal healthcare, despite all the propaganda they’re exposed to (I can’t believe this writer didn’t play the “socialized medicine” card).

The US needs to take a good look at what kind of country it is. Many people in this country think of themselves as Christians, but if they were to find themselves in the shoes of the good Samaritan they’d walk past the sick man (or more likely drive past in their SUVs) and suggest that he needed to make wiser lifestyle choices.

An approach is needed that addresses the poor lifestyle habits of Americans, which drive the cost of health care. Until then, we will always be facing a health insurance crisis.

Many of the poor lifestyle habits of Americans are habits of poverty, such as not being able to afford vegetables and other healthy foods. Those bad habits are compounded by a lack of healthcare. In the UK, where there is universal health coverage, doctors can encourage better lifestyle choices. And obesity levels in the UK are lower than in the US.

Daniel Colacino
East Greenbush, N.Y., Sept. 13, 2007

The writer is president of the New York State Association of Health Care Underwriters.

Ah, there’s the sting. As Upton Sinclair said, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it.”

This article — A Window of Opportunity for Macs, Soon to Close (free registration required) in tomorrow’s New York Times (how current am I?) claims that only 3% of computers are Macs, and yet according to Wildmind’s site logs 10.79% of our visitors are Mac users. [Update: On this site it's even higher at 12.76%.]

Now the stats quoted in the article are said to come from an organization that monitors traffic to 40,000 websites. Maybe they’re inaccurate, maybe they’re not, but I know so many Mac users that I can’t believe they form such a low segment of the computing market. At 3% I should hardly know any other Mac users, but actually lots of people I know use them. Hilary, Candradasa, Dan Gordon, Parami, Suriyavamsa, Dhammarati, Vajramati, and Shuddhayu are friends who spring to mind. Three out of four of the laptops that regularly put in an appearance at the teachers’ meetings I attended at the University of New Hampshire this summer were Macs. Two out of my three teaching assistants planned to buy them.

The other possibility, apart from inaccurate stats, is that Mac users are more likely to meditate. That would fit both what I’ve observed on Wildmind and amongst my friends, who are mostly Buddhist or who at least lean that way.

I just got a laugh from my wife by using the above line. No, we don’t have some kind of non-traditional family framework, it’s just that Maia so far only knows one word, and it’s “dada,” which she uses indiscriminately for all adults. As her real dada I still get a thrill whenever she calls me that, and it doesn’t seem to dampen my adoration of her when Shrijnana walks into the room to be greeted with an enthusiastic set of dadas. Actually, Maia often calls me “hada,” which really gets the oxytocin flowing..

Dada is in fact her all-purpose word. She says what sound like whole sentences, which go like this: “dadada dada dadadada dadadada da dada da dadadada.”

Maia has also just learned how to push herself up to sitting, just a few days after she passed the 10 month stage. Both her dadas are very proud!

Kulananda is a member of the same Buddhist organization that I’m ordained into — the Western Buddhist Order. He recently wrote an article for use over on Wildmind, and the email exchanges we had concerning that writing prompted me to take a look at his other activities.

Kulananda’s a lovely guy — very intelligent and kind. He founded a Buddhist business which now has multi-million pound revenues. Although he started the business, Windhorse Trading (now known as Windhorse:Evolution), in a very Buddhist fashion he simply let go of it when it was time for him to move on. Windhorse:Evolution is a very unusual business in that it gives its profits to various charities.

I haven’t seen Kulananda much since I moved to the US and I found that under his “old” name, Michael Chaskalson, he’d launched a site promoting Mindfulness Stress Reduction, in which he has trained. In fact he has an MA in Mindfulness-Based Approaches from Bangor University in Wales.

The site’s well worth a look. It’s nicely designed (by a Buddhist, believe) and there’s a particularly valuable list of articles on mindfulness meditation that’s well worth checking out.

Yes, you heathen doubters who are doomed to the fiery pits of hell, we now have photographic evidence of the existence of doG. Who can deny His existence after seeing the glory and majesty of His handiwork!

Yey, and verily, it is true! He has in His infinite goodness given to the undoGly rabble a sign of His existence by presenting us with this miracle. But remember, if now having been offered proof of his reality you should henceforth continue to doubt, He shall in His infinite mercy send you to be roasted for all eternity.

doG be praised!

Happy Wordless Wednesday! (If you’re wondering why there are words in this post it’s because the home page format doesn’t really favor purely pictorial posts).

This is a stained glass window from the same monastery that last week’s beetle and the week before’s priest hail from.

If you click on the image you can see a larger version.

Digg sometimes throws up some very old articles that are well worth checking out. This one from Atlantic Magazine — Caring for Your Introvert is a case in point. It’s very well written, funny (it’s very tongue in cheek) and redresses some common misconceptions about introverts.

I’m an introvert and proud of it. As the article points out, being an introvert does not mean you’re shy. Generally people tell me I’m interesting company and I’m comfortable doing public speaking or being at a dinner party. What it does mean is that my batteries are recharged by solitude and being with people for extended periods of time is tiring. I like my own company (I find me interesting too!) and have to rest and recuperate after parties, teaching classes, etc.

My wife’s even more of an introvert than I am. In fact she’s off the scale on Myers-Briggs Type Indicator tests, while I’m only marginally an extrovert by that measure. Over the years I’ve gotten better at dealing with being in public and so I’ve been gravitating towards a balance between extroversion and introversion.

Anyway, enough about me. I’m not that interesting. Read the article. It’s excellent.

It’s increasingly tough in the US for ordinary people like George Bush and Tony Snow.

Mr. Bush, asked in an interview what his plans were for retirement, said, “I’ll give some speeches, just to replenish the ol’ coffers … I don’t know what my dad gets — it’s more than 50-75 [thousand dollars a speech] … Clinton’s making a lot of money.”

Perhaps it’s understandable that the guy is so focused on making money. After all we all know how tough it is when you’re down to your last $21 million, as Bush is.

And then there’s poor Tony Snow, who’s struggled for years to get by on the pitiful $186,000 he made annually as Bush’s press secretary. Again, we can all imagine how hard it is to scrape by on such a paltry sum. “I ran out of money,” he said. (Of course Mr. Snow has had health problems, but fortunately the excellent health care package that the White House offers will have saved him from utter bankruptcy).

Okay, sarcasm over.

The median household income in the US is $48,201, according to a report on the latest census figures. The poverty level for a family of four is a shade over $21,000. Now the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in the Boston area — not the most expensive part of the country — is currently $17,028. Add in utility bills bills and that takes you close to $21,000. So “poverty” in America is roughly defined as the level of income where a family of four in a major city can afford a roof over their heads but can’t afford even to eat. According to the the NYT, last year 36.5 million Americans were living in poverty.

This strikes me as a major moral problem. The US is fabulously wealthy, but the median household is just scraping by, and millions are suffering. The right wing answer to this — “get off your ass and get a job” — is completely facile. These people have jobs for the most part. Some of them have several jobs. If you think I’m exaggerating about conservatives’ cluelessness regarding the realities of everyday life for many Americans consider the following dialog:

President Bush: You work three jobs?

Woman: Three jobs, yes.

President Bush: Uniquely American, isn’t it? I mean, that is fantastic that you’re doing that. (Applause.) Get any sleep? (Laughter.)

“Get any sleep?” Priceless.

Yes, it’s uniquely American. In no other western country are you likely to find someone working three jobs. And even with those three jobs there’s a good chance that the woman President Bush had his clueless conversation with can’t afford to go to the doctor and would be bankrupt if she had to have a stay in hospital.

47 million Americans lacked health insurance coverage last year — this year the figure will be even higher. President Bush is adamantly opposed to the plans that many states have to expand the health cover that they make available to children whose parents can’t afford insurance. States are currently allowed to enroll children whose family income is up to 200 percent of the poverty level — $41,300 for a family of four (still well below the median income). At $41,300 a family can afford to rent an apartment, eat, run a car, and pay for essentials and a few luxury items, but health insurance — typically $1,200 a month for a family of four — is unaffordable. Only earning three times the poverty level would a family not be hard pressed to afford health insurance, the cost of which has been rising faster than inflation (or wage gains) for many years now.

One in four Americans say their family has had a problem paying for medical care during the past year [2006], up 7 percentage points over the past nine years. Nearly 30 percent say someone in their family has delayed medical care in the past year, a new high based on recent polling. Most say the medical condition was at least somewhat serious. NCHC

It’s simply appalling that families are forced to delay treatment for serious medical conditions because they can’t afford healthcare. This is just unthinkable in Canada or Europe.

A further expansion of State Children’s Health Insurance Programs would begin to reach people who can just about afford health insurance, and of course this would reduce the amount of money that health insurance companies earn, explaining Bush’s opposition. The ten largest health insurance companies in the US together made $21.2 billion profits in 2003. The latest figures I could find indicate that they made $6.98 billion profit for the first six months of 2005, representing a 21.2 percent jump on the same period in 2004. We’re told that the surging cost of health insurance is due to increasingly sophisticated technologies finding their way into hospitals, but clearly these rising profits have to be part of the problem.

So what we have is a multimillionaire who places the welfare of other multimillionaires above that of children. It’s morally obscene, especially coming from someone who purports to be a follower of Christ. Which part of “It’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven” does Mr. Bush not understand?

And is President Bush unfamiliar with Deuteronomy?

For the poor will never cease to be in the land; therefore I command you, saying, “You shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your needy and poor in your land.”

I’ll say “Amen” to that.