US Congress Expands New Anti-Protest Law

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News of Note: US Congress expands authoritarian anti-protest law

A bill passed Monday in the US House of Representatives and Thursday in the Senate would expand existing anti-protest laws that make it a felony—a serious criminal offense punishable by a lengthy prison term—to “enter or remain in” an area designated as “restricted.”

The bill—H.R. 347, or the “Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011”—was passed by unanimous consent in the Senate, while only Ron Paul and two other Republicans voted against the bill in the House of Representatives (the bill passed 388-3). Not a single Democratic politician voted against the bill.

What about our 1st Amendment right to peaceful assembly? With the Occupy movement sweeping the globe last year and the US Presidential election continuing to gain momentum, this bill has come at just the right time to squash any civil response or resistance. As John F. Kennedy famously said, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” I hope that it doesn’t ever have to come to that.

Creative Commons image by: Lutz

in Key Issues / News of Note  by 14 Mar 2012 0 comments

0.7 What Will My Life Be Like?

For more on A Course in Immortality…

Click here for 0.6 Did I Get It Right?
También en español The erotic is the universal foundation of personal growth in Love.

Through increasingly wise worship of the power of erotic joy you have been saved from uncertainty, apprised of your immortality, and harmonized with the absolute realities of Love, Truth, Goodness, and Beauty.

Compared to the lives of the unloving, who labor in erotic darkness, such a life will be exalting, inspiring, beneficial, and glorious, for it recognizes and adores joy as the divine gift that gives life its purpose.

You will gradually experience vitological integration with the cosmos as you grow spiritually, experiencing how your super-consciousness naturally works in harmony of purpose and action with all other consciousnesses.

Fear and doubt are erased from your life experience by the overwhelming power of erotic joy, attracting and harmonizing each part of your full person.

You are learning to perceive the harmonies of supreme existence and to join your actions in their creation.

The certainty of your actions, overriding personal prejudice and bias, motivates you further to understand the Truth of each occasion.

Always acting in the light of joy that flows from worshipful erotic engagement, you come to embrace the force of destiny engaging your experience.

Because you have chosen to live the Truth in every occasion and to set aside your personal desires in favor of the higher good, you grow to experience your choice or action as the circumstantial ideal, given the burden of history, the limitations of reality, and the force of destiny.

So it transpires that your experience of true and effective action powered by erotic joy reinforces your sense of personal salvation from uncertainty, further illuminating your vision of life eternal.

The power of erotic joy further enables you to joyously embrace the obligations of an endless life, both socially and individually.

In human social intercourse you experience the sharing of living Truth.

You will choose to unite with others in the worship of erotic joy as you experience the sharing of living Truth.

Worship affirms Truth and enlightens all your erotic experiences through an eternity of ever-heightened joy.

Know with the certainty of enlightened experience that you are guided to walk in the paths of joyful destiny and that whatever you do makes a difference.

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The basic process in taking each step remains the same, but we become progressively more practiced in its execution.

Worship Love in all its manifestations and you will always find Truth.

At each level of development, worship of erotic joy provides a way to express Love through literal action.

Along your path you will find and learn to appreciate new literal expressions of love, in which you worship the inner power of spiritual joy, while you also grow in understanding.

The erotic is the universal foundation of personal growth in Love.

Join me today and forever in the worship of the power of erotic joy.

Click here for 0.8 But I’m Not Dead Yet!

 

in A Course in Immortality / Cosmic Citizenship / Library / Transhuman Erotic Freedom  by 13 Mar 2012 1 comments

Santorum backs nullifying existing gay marriages

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News of Note: Santorum backs nullifying existing gay marriages

There are 18,000 married gay and lesbian couples in California and at least 131,000 nationwide according to the 2010 census, conducted before New York state legalized same-sex marriage in July.

Rick Santorum says he’ll try to unmarry all of them if he’s elected president

He would “unmarry” all same-sex marriages? Instead of listing reasons why gay marriage is a good thing and why it should have nothing to do with politics, I’d rather emphasize how terrible Rick Santorum is. I would normally disregard his comments as impossible or beneath me, but the nagging reality that we could have him (or someone with similar views) as president scares me senseless.

Santorum represents the magnitude of ignorance and hate many Americans still must overcome.

What do you think has caused these backwards ideologies to maintain so much face in America? What do you think we should be doing about that? We look forward to hearing your opinions.

Creative Commons image by: Gage Skidmore

in Key Issues / News of Note  by 12 Mar 2012 0 comments

The Sexual Freedom Project: Mass and Class

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Some children are very lucky to have one or more parent or relative they can have an open dialogue about sexuality with. Public schools and certainly religious-based education do not address key issues having to do with sexuality.

What are the main topics you thought were missing from your own sexual education?

Make a video, write a poem, song, or an essay — or even create an original work of art — and express your thoughts. If we feature your contribution on the site, we will send you a free VenusPlusX t-shirt to thank you.

Video by Tiye Massey.

in The Sexual Freedom Project / Videos  by 11 Mar 2012 0 comments

The Sexual Freedom Project: Born This Way?

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Are we all “born this way” or is it possible for us to evolve in our sexuality as we grow up? Do you agree that there is pressure even within the LGBT community to conform to the idea that our sexual orientation and gender identification is inherent, genetic, or otherwise predisposed? What does “born this way” mean to you?

Make a video, write a poem, song, or an essay — or even create an original work of art — and express your thoughts. If we feature your contribution on the site, we will send you a free VenusPlusX t-shirt to thank you.

Video by Tiye Massey.

in The Sexual Freedom Project / Videos  by 09 Mar 2012 0 comments

25 Anonymous Arrested, Infiltrated, and the Fallout

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News of Note: “Interpol: Suspected Anonymous Hackers Arrested“

“February 28, 2012

Interpol said Tuesday that 25 suspected members of the loose-knit Anonymous hacker movement have been arrested in a sweep across Europe and South America.

The international police agency said in a statement that the arrests in Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Spain were carried out by national law enforcement officers working under the support of Interpol’s Latin American Working Group of Experts on Information Technology Crime.

The suspects, aged between 17 and 40, are suspected of planning coordinated cyberattacks against institutions including Colombia’s defense ministry and presidential websites, Chile’s Endesa electricity company and national library, as well as other targets.”

While these arrests do not appear directly related to the Stratfor hack last December, their proximity to the recent Wikileaks release is quite advantageous for all entities that oppose Anonymous. Was it law enforcement’s technical prowess that resulted in these Anons getting caught?

“Anonymous hackers claim they were infiltrated“

“The GREAT majority of those implicated were people inhabiting the servers of anonworld.info, something that disconcerts us,” said the activist “Skao,” who identified herself as a law student.

In the communique released on its blog, Anonymous Iberoamerica said the 25 were snared not through “inteligence work or informatics strategy” but rather through “the use of spies and informants within the movement.”

As participation within Anonymous is accessible to just about anyone, anticipating their next move and even compromising those involved may have been quite easy for an informant.

How does Anonymous respond?

“Anonymous Retaliates For Interpol Arrests”

Anonymous launched a sustained distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that knocked Interpol’s public-facing website offline for several hours Tuesday.

Members of the hacktivist group Anonymous apparently took credit for the attacks via the AnonOps Twitter channel, which has served as a reliable source of Anonymous information. “Tango Down >> Free International Anons!” read one tweet, while another said, “Tango Down II 404 Interpol, #Anonymous is not a criminal organization.”

While taking down one website for a few hours is nothing compared to locking up 25 people for many years, I’m happy to see Anonymous maintaining its presence and an unstoppable attitude.

Will there be more arrests directly in response to the Stratfor hack? Again, I find myself cheering for the Internet hivemind, eager to see what happens next.

Creative Commons image: Source

in News of Note  by 08 Mar 2012 0 comments

Wikileaks Releasing 5+ Million Emails From Intelligence Company Stratfor

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On Monday Wikileaks began releasing the beginning of over 5 million emails taken from the Global Intelligence Company Stratfor. The information is believed to have been given to Wikileaks by Anonymous, who hacked Stratfor’s servers in December 2011.

According to Wikileaks:

On Monday February 27th, 2012, WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files, over five million e-mails from the Texas headquartered “global intelligence” company Stratfor. The e-mails date between July 2004 and late December 2011. They reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal’s Dow Chemical Co., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines and the US Defence Intelligence Agency. The emails show Stratfor’s web of informers, pay-off structure, payment laundering techniques and psychological methods.

What has been revealed so far?

As journalists continue to dredge through the leaked emails and more juicy details surface, we’re going to see Wikileaks, yet again, demonized as anti-American terrorists. People are fine with secretive intelligence companies selling US Intel to the highest bidder, but when Wikileaks reveals it for free, they’re terrorists. With only a few hundred emails revealed everyday, there is much more to come. I’m eager to see what gets revealed and beyond that, if anyone is going to be prosecuted over it. More to come.

in News of Note  by 04 Mar 2012 0 comments

Lesbian Judge No Longer Marrying Straight Couples

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News of Note: Gay Texas judge won’t marry straight couples

Tonya Parker, an African-American lesbian judge in Texas, refuses to marry straight couples until everyone in the state has the right to marry.

Turning away would-be newlyweds is “my opportunity to give them a lesson about marriage inequality in this state,” Parker told a meeting of the Stonewall Democrats of Dallas earlier this week.

She said it’s “oxymoronic” for her to perform a ceremony that can’t be performed for her.

Instead, she refers couples to other judges in the courthouse with an explanation along the lines of “I’m sorry. I don’t perform marriage ceremonies because we are in a state that does not have marriage equality, and until it does, I am not going to partially apply the law to one group of people that doesn’t apply to another group of people,” she told the meeting.

I’m very impressed to see a Judge using her authority to raise awareness about marriage equality. There is nothing discriminatory about what Judge Tonya Parker is doing, since she isn’t marrying anyone and she doesn’t have to. Tonya’s stance should serve as an example for us all. This type of integrity and moral leveraging is not common enough today.

in News of Note  by 02 Mar 2012 0 comments

The Sexual Freedom Project: A Culmination of Things

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In developing your sexuality, what kinds of messages do you find everyday, at home, in the media, at school, or on TV? What contradicts and what affirms you?

Make a video, write a poem, song, or an essay — or even create an original work of art — and express your thoughts. If we feature your contribution on the site, we will send you a free VenusPlusX t-shirt to thank you.

Video by Tiye Massey.

in The Sexual Freedom Project / Videos  by 01 Mar 2012 0 comments

Most single Christians are having sex

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News of note: A recent study reveals most single Christians are having sex. We undress why.

Dr. Jenell Williams Paris, an anthropologist and the author of The End of Sexual Identity: Why Sex Is Too Important to Define Who We Are, says the high rates of premarital sex are a call to the Church to live in reality.

“We need to talk to people as they really live in the world they really live in,” Paris says. “If rates of premarital sex are really that high, but we continue to talk as if the vast majority of people are virgins when they get married, weʼre out of touch. We need to address reality.”

And the reality is the numbers arenʼt going down. Of those 80 percent of Christians in the 18-29 age range who have had sex before marriage, 64 percent have done so within the last year and 42 percent are in a current sexual relationship.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, nearly half of all pregnancies in America are unintended. And of those, 40 percent end in abortion. More than 1 million abortions occur in the United States each year. But perhaps the most disturbing statistic for the Church: 65 percent of the women obtaining abortions identify themselves as either Protestant or Catholic (37 percent Protestant and 28 percent Catholic). Thatʼs 650,000 abortions obtained by Christians every year.

Why do people still go on about abstinence when so few people intend on practicing it? I agree that the high rates of premarital sex is a call for “the church” to live in reality. It is also a call for these projected virtues to be questioned. Remaining chaste until marriage represses one’s sexuality and significantly limits experience. I’m suggesting that everyone starts being honest with themselves, because our actions are speaking louder than words. Let us know what you think.

in News of Note  by 29 Feb 2012 0 comments