Playing for Keeps — Derrick Jensen

Would we listen to nature if our lives depended on it?

PEOPLE WHO READ MY WORK often say, “Okay, so it’s clear you don’t like this culture, but what do you want to replace it?” The answer is that I don’t want any one culture to replace this culture. I want ten thousand cultures to replace this culture, each one arising organically from its own place. That’s how humans inhabited the planet (or, more precisely, their landbases, since each group inhabited a place, and not the whole world, which is precisely the point), before this culture set about reducing all cultures to one….

Playing for Keeps | Derrick Jensen | Orion Magazine

Extreme Buddhism

Extreme Buddhism | Home

Like “extreme” sports, we bring an urgency, intensity and exhilaration to the practices of self-discovery and the pathway to enlightenment that are distinctly non-ordinary.

Whatever happened to the Middle Path?

*hums*

Somebody’s gonna make a buck
Before th’ night is through
Nobody’s gonna get ‘er done
A’pushin’ for th’ truth….

Gay-Rights Battle Brewing Over 2010 U.S. Census

Gay-Rights Battle Brewing Over 2010 U.S. Census | Newsweek National News | Newsweek.com

For the first time in the centuries-long history of the census, the number of same-sex couples who self-identify as married—license or no license—will be tabulated and released to the public. The move is seen as both a friendly nod to the gay community—which had pinned its hopes on President Obama and has, at least in some quarters, been frustrated by a perceived slow response to gay-rights issues—and a boost to policy fights, from challenging laws that limit gay adoptions to the nationwide legalization of gay marriage.

Mind In The Forest

Too many words, but some nice imagery and ideas.

http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/5099/

Take the Plunge

Take the Plunge | Bill McKibben | Orion Magazine

On October 24, the people of the Maldives will hold the largest underwater political demonstration in history, a momentary intrusion of the noisy outside world into the quiet timelessness of the reef. I doubt the floating stingrays will mind, or the green sea turtles, or the clouds of parrotfish—they seem to look on with mild interest at everything that happens. But this will be a scene: 350 divers descending beneath the waves with signs and banners. A local photographer will snap a picture and swim to the surface and plug in his MacBook Pro and upload that image to a server. And there it will join thousands of other images piling in from all the other local places around the planet: …

Vatican creates new structure for Anglicans

The Associated Press: Vatican creates new structure for Anglicans

…the new canonical structure is a response to the many requests that have come to the Vatican over the years from Anglicans who have become increasingly disillusioned with the ordination of women, the election of openly gay bishops and the blessing of same-sex unions in the 77-million strong Anglican Communion. He declined to give figures on the number of requests that have come to the Vatican, or on the anticipated number of Anglicans who might take advantage of the new structure.

The new canonical provision allows married Anglican priests to become ordained Catholic priests — much the same way that Eastern rite priests who are in communion with Rome are allowed to be married. However, married Anglicans couldn’t become Catholic bishops….

Wasting Away: The Squandering of D.C.’s AIDS Dollars

Wasting Away: The Squandering of D.C.’s AIDS Dollars – washingtonpost.com

While the sick languished in alleyways and on park benches in the city with the nation’s highest AIDS rate, D.C. government allowed widespread waste and mismanagement to overwhelm the city’s AIDS services. A three-part documentary explores some of these groups and the lives impacted by a lack of care.

Nobel Geopolitics

Nobel Geopolitics | STRATFOR

The mechanism for awarding the peace prize is very different from the other Nobel categories. Academic bodies, such as the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, decide who wins the other prizes. Alfred Nobel’s will stated, however, that a committee of five selected by the Norwegian legislature, or Storting, should award the peace prize.