That doesn't mean they use them to the fullest, and GOPers are really, really into avoiding taxes. It's like a religion to them, and they are about to crush our economy to make more absurd tax cuts for their rich friends and sycophants.
558 karma · joined October 14, 2024
Sadly enough, I am of the same opinion, too. That is because true spiritual seeking must accompany humility and love for ALL others, not just of those of their tribe, and most religious practitioners fail that miserably. That is why universal compassion is the only real purpose of religion, as it is the target that we must all aspire to, or we will fall well short of the mark.
Most people of all ilks fall prey to selfish self-superiority, thinking incorrectly that their path is the only one that is "saved". They are just coldly and completely wrong. That is why one of the Masters said, "That which you do to the least of my brothers and sisters, that you have done unto me."
> I don't know how to promote empathy and compassion without relying on religious arguments.
I have settled on this fact: that no human being can survive the first years of their life without selfless, compasssionate care from adults in their orbit. This is the template for human life, but most people do not realize that this care should be attended to by every human being to every other human being as we grow older, where we are hopefully lucky enough to transition from the helped to the helper.
We know that those with a more comfortable upbringing tend to do better in life, financially, mentally, and physically. If we were to invest, as societies, in the "least of our brothers", we would essentially be the water that lifts all boats, and our entire world would flow more smoothly. The problem is that it would take those who have more to give more, and generosity is a virtue of the spirit that has its counterpart vice, greed, active in our being as well.
Every human being resides in the crux between the various vices they are susceptible to and the virtues they are presupposed to manifesting. It is incumbent upon us all to honestly search ourselves to find out in which ways we are less virtuous and then seek to become better. There are 19 pairs of vice/virtue pairs in the human being, so that's a lot of whack-a-mole to perform along our lives, but few of our fellows care enough to care enough about others to "Know thyself" deeply enough to do what Gurdjieff called "The Work".
Caring for the happiness of others is the best balm for not only our own spiritual development, but for the ills of the world.
Please remember that religion is always a personal affair, involving the internal relationship between the human being and our Creator. It does not enforce Its suggestions on our free will, which is truly given -- that's why there is so much mischief upon our world, and so much resulting suffering. As we Sufis say, "When you take one step towards God, It comes running."
Self-evolution is the act of manifesting the miracle of defeating our selfish ego over many battles with many losses and less victories. It is how we learn humility, grace, mercy, kindness, and compassion, among all the other virtues. Of course, that requires the person to truly want to become a better person; most people are simply satisfied that they perform certain practices in accordance with their traditions, but that ain't love and doesn't count for shit in the grand scheme of things.
As Rumi says, "The Way goes in."
Peace be with you, friend. I am at your service.
Much was made of the double rainbow that appeared when the queen died, and I say that was God saying, "Things are going to be better now, now that that evil bitch is dead."
Maybe if the royals weren't spending their world rapings on 13 pomeranians (or whatever), there'd be more money for the poors.
I do like Harry, though, he's got enough of his awesome Mum in him to counteract his father's evil.
And now King Donald is decimating America. Such is the way of kings, my friends.
How is it that my FF preference (something like 'Always show scrollbars') is regularly just ignored.
I want my scrollbars! And I wat `em fat and in my UI's color scheme!
And why the HELL would a web designer think this is a good idea. Maybe their beret and hipster pants are too tight?
Thanks for being here for my rant. I owe you one :-)
Yes, it just requires extra care when querying and handling the rows.
It's always just easier, if you can, to make it NOT NULL after prepopulating all rows' columns to the empty string (or real data).
Sometimes NULL is truly different than the empty string, but that, like you said, is just a kind of data.
With proof!
I have rarely been so impressed with a web tech.
6. ensure there are no nulls in firstname and lastname
7. alter the columns to be NOT NULL
Of course, some dbs (SQLServer?) infer NULL from the empty string, or am I misremembering?
Always having the columns be NOT NULL is a fundamental cheat, after always having a PK, or is that too old school for 2025?
And, it's a kleptocracy, more and more, for a very long time now.
CNN and NBC weren't always as bad as they are now, but their descent has been obvious and dramatic.
Some of them still employ democrats to some minimal extent, such as Jamelle Bouie at the NYT, but that's merely subterfuge, lest their bent be glaringly obvious.
If someone can name a large organization that is an exception to my first paragraph, I would be happy to learn of them.
Does anyone around here know of any?
Bueller?
God knew what those Catholic priests had been up to.
And now that my parents are in love with that orange demagogue, I see God's humor and justice.
My parents used to be good people, but I'm not sad, it's their choice, and we each reap what we sow, for good or ill, in perfect harmony with our choices. My phone is open to them, but they don't call, because -- evidently -- it's hard for a person to dial a phone with their head up their arse. One can only help the willing.
They have taught me that how one is in the beginning is not nearly as important as how one evolves and whereto. Once I stopped pitying myself, I stopped pitying others, and instead embraced empathy, compasson, and generosity.
Precisely. That's the biggest problem with closed-minded fools.
> That's just life.
Life is the result of what we choose, alone and in our groups, and groupthink creates a momentum that is hard to understand from within the group.
Only compassion gives us a clear and accurate perspective on life, my friend.
And that's a fact, and its not being a factor in this site's m.o. is precisely why it is the way it is, why it is staffed by whom it's staffed by, and why its founder has the Twitter profile picture he does and why he rails against DEI.
It's also why your opinions are so valued here, and why you don't understand what I said.
Perhaps you won't be so privleged some day and then you will begin to really understand what life is really about.
Without such a gift from life, you will most likely just continue to think you understand, while asking far fewer questions than you should.
What role does compassion play in your life? That is the most genius question you can ever ask yourself, and is really the only one worth either asking or answering.
That fact is never accepted as truth by those who already "know it all". Such is the way of "facts". Unless your knowledge base is founded upon compassion, nothing truly eloquent will be perceived as such. Such is human life, my friend. All the rest is just mammalian, when it comes to human beings in their groups.
Is your group founded on compassion? That you don't value it does not mean it is not the most valuable concept in the universe.
"The Way goes in." --Rumi
Yes, indeed.
That's why I have only flagged one or two posts, ever, but not because I was mad, but because the comment was just plain beyond the pale.
And my posts against portaying violent rape in film got flagged.
Make it make sense, because I understand the failure of this system because systems are my trade-in-craft.
The problem is that there is no one with power here that can come to the "little guy's" defence. There is no will around here for that kind of support, because the only people hired to wield such power are of like mind. DJT doesn't hire democrats, and this is no different.
Look at this comment section, and tell me this isn't an echo chamber.
Even though some of the lyrics have certainly not aged well, I do like its minimal aesthetic, and I was in Decatur, GA at the time, and it sure beat the crap Diddy and Mase were putting out at the time.
Side note: WCLK Clark Atlanta University radio station was the absolute best radio station I've ever heard, where I found my favorite music of all-time: AfroCuban jazz. Their Hip Hop and Jazz programs were fantastic. That's also where I learned of the magical spoken word intro version of Louis Armstrong's "What A Wonderful World".
"No one's musical education is complete."
Basically, he obscures interesting chord progressions of songs he finds by recording his own simplified version without the song's original rhythm. Then he takes his spreadsheet he made over years, of lyrical phrases he came up with that he thinks will sound good in a song, organized by number of syllables and where the accent lands. Then, finally, some time in the futuer, once he has forgotten the original song's construction, he takes out the chord progression and finds places to fit different kinds of lyrical phrases.
It blew us away to know that his lyrics have no meaning whatsoever. In fact, that particular song was the result of a conversation between two teachers he overheard at one of his children's end of year gettogether.
It is quite extraordinary, and he is quite good at it, though we have few Weezer songs in our playlist.
No one bullies harder than the nerds around here. Such a hateful bunch of ignorant fools.
Of course, that doesn't apply to everyone here, for sure -- some people are absolutely lovely, like DonHopkins -- but perhaps 90%.
But that's always the problem with majorities, they follow the lead of their leader, and damn their conscience and other points of view, wielding their power like a cudgel. They tend to bully minorities of every kind, especially ideological minorities.
"There is nothing more important than compassion, and only the truth is its equal."
I recommended them to see "Top Secret" when I was in 9th Grade. My Catholic parents!
They came home and my mother said, "We are never listening to a movie recommendation from you ever again."
My sophomore year, when getting a ride from my state champion teammate, I don't know what I said, but he just turned to me and said,
"McCall, you're a neeeerrrrrd."
It wasn't bullying, because I've never been bullied, but I was -- and am -- a nerd.
And, yeah, "Real Genius" got a lot of play on HBO back then. I especially loved the Lazlo storyline, and "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" is such a GREAT song.
Separately installed software? Not a bit of it.