Four Year Plan's topics - tribe.net

What are you reading?

2005-04-14T10:07:03Z

Tell us what you're reading, how it is, and what it does for you to read it (yes its okay just to read as an escape, not everything has to be serious). For myself:

Kind of slowed down on the reading tip since moving recently but just picked up "The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Medicine" for a second read. Trying to improve my pulse readings. If you don't know the Yellow Emperor's Classic is seen as the bible of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Most books in the field are really just interpretations from it. A lot can be taken literally from it, but there is a lot of metaphor in it as well which fits in with the taoist tradition. I think a lot of the TCM schools go far too literal with it and fail to pass on the metaphorical meaning of it all but that's just my opinion. The translation I'm reading is by Ni Maoshing. The Ni family is one of my prefered sources for most taoist material but there are tons of others.

On the not reading yet but very interested in level, there's a new book by an acquaintance of mine's partner, John Abrahmson called "Overdosed America" which breaks down the pharmacutical industry in the states and how it is killing people for profit. Abrahmson broke the whole Vioxx scandal while writing this book. I reccommend it to anyone who has the chance to pick it up (can't get it where I am right now). Lot's of good information within.

posted in Four Year Plan - 4 replies

Here's a Four-Year Plan!

2005-02-13T23:01:12Z

http://store.yahoo.com/soundstruestore/af00758d.html

This is a blurb from Ken Wilbur about his research on meditation as just about the only way to raise our moral intelligence vertically about 2 notches. It's about going from ego/ethno-centric consciousness to world consciousness. It's very interesting! I hope you'll listen to it. He explains why this is so. It takes about 5 min. to listen to. The end is better than the beginning.

Disclaimer: just so you know, this is a little teaser to get us to buy his cd set. At any rate, it's still highly informative and beneficial.

posted in Four Year Plan - 0 replies

Education and Business

2005-01-21T19:10:10Z

Okay we're well into the year now. Time to step things up. John Taylor Gatto has a great book on the history of education in the U.S. called "The Underground History of the United States" which goes into great detail to describe how the public school system was designed to fuel industry not to educate the public. On his site he has a great break down on the illusion of the systems creators - http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/historytour/history1.htm

posted in Four Year Plan - 1 reply

Global Relocalization – A Call to Action

2005-01-06T06:58:07Z

Support this very important call to action!

"The imminent peaking of global oil production and the fact that natural gas production has already peaked in North America could be the catalyst for positive transformation of industrial society. It could also be a recipe for disaster...
"...seeking like-minded organizations, volunteers, and activists to create a coalition to support community relocalization projects and experiments, as well as online database access and community tools that can help streamline the relocalization process. We are also organizing conferences and creating a speakers bureau with energy, biosphere, and localization experts to help spread the word."

Check this link for full article and a list of ways you can get involved!
http://www.postcarbon.org/index.php?page=relocalization

posted in Four Year Plan - 2 replies

SQ3R

2005-01-05T03:42:55Z

This may not mean much to some of you but, this in itself was the number one reason for the change in my life at college and how i'm able to read about a book a day.

learning this formula increased my comprehesion and increased my grades... the real secret to speed reading (which i now do) is SQ3R when you know how the book is set up and go into to it with some background it's really amazing. ;)

Survey! Question! Read! Recite! Review!

http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/sq3r.html

http://www.ucc.vt.edu/lynch/TextbookReading.htm

http://www.studygs.net/texred2.htm

posted in Four Year Plan - 3 replies

A Department Of Peace

2005-01-03T03:50:37Z

Initiatives like this help me keep the faith..

-------

A Department Of Peace

by WALTER CRONKITE

With this nation embroiled in what threatens to be an interminable "War on Terrorism," an idea put forward last year by Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich has, for me, considerable appeal. Kucinich, who was the one candidate in the Democratic primaries to unfailingly promote the party's traditional Franklin Roosevelt liberalism, proposed the establishment of a Department of Peace.

Now he has introduced in the House HR 2459, a bill that would establish a Peace Department, adding a new cabinet post to the executive branch of government. The Department of Peace would "advise the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State on all matters relating to national security, including the protection of human rights and the prevention of, amelioration of, and de-escalation of unarmed and armed international conflict."

The secretary of peace would serve as a delegate to the National Security Council and also would "provide training of all United States personnel who administer post-conflict reconstruction and demobilization in war-torn societies." In other words, the Department of Peace, with a highly trained and dedicated staff, would be a constant, working counterpoint to the Defense Department and its expenditure of billions of dollars to perfect the weapons of war.

The department would act not only in an international context, but also in those areas of domestic policy that endanger the nation's well-being: the proliferation of automatic weapons and the violence in our schools, our homes and in our streets, where the intolerant prey on those whose lifestyles they find offensive. It might well come up with some new strategies for turning around our losing war on drugs, and it might also lobby Congress to put an end to the cruel and unusual punishment of small-time drug offenders called "mandatory sentencing." It would also advise the attorney general on matters of civil rights and labor law. But its primary importance, it seems to me, would be in international affairs, demonstrating to the rest of the world, to borrow the old motto of the Strategic Air Command, that "peace is our profession."

Now, to some, this is going to sound terribly naive, given the current state of things and the very real, hard-edged dangers that face us. But the naiveté just might lie on the other side with those who believe that military force and our policy of pre-emption are alone sufficient to make us safe. The fact is that there is nothing in this proposal that would weaken our military posture or our ability to strike terrorists and their havens and to do whatever is necessary for the defense of the United States.

But wouldn't it be an advantage to have a peer of the secretaries of defense and state whose primary responsibility it was to develop the methods and means of peaceful conflict resolution and to offer peaceful alternatives in the councils of war?

Wouldn't it have been an advantage in the run-up to the Iraq War to have had a cabinet officer whose department was responsible for training U.S. personnel in human rights, conflict resolution, reconstruction and the detailed planning necessary to restoring a durable peace; in short, to do what was so disastrously absent when our forces rolled into Baghdad?

Kucinich's bill is more elaborate and specific than I can spell out here. Right now it is a long way from realization, with only a few dozen congressional sponsors. It needs a lot more to move another step along the legislative process.

Actually, there is an urgency to its adoption. In this dangerous world, where the strength of the United States is needed to keep the peace, we need a visible manifestation of our intention to play that role, without the arrogance that cost us friends and allies among the nations and peoples of the world.

But no matter how far off it might be, it is an idea that deserves our attention. We can hope that Kucinich and those who are pioneers in supporting his bill stay the course and redouble their efforts.

It isn't enough to talk about peace.
One must believe in it.
And it isn't enough to believe in it.
One must work at it.

- Eleanor Roosevelt

posted in Four Year Plan - 1 reply

holiday season

2004-12-25T03:06:15Z

this is a hard time for me. my analytic mind can come up with a million reasons why the holidays are complete bullshit, but at the same time i cannot reconcile avoiding a time when the opportunity to come together with family and community occurs. in the long run i feel these gatherings should not need a 'holiday' to happen but the social condition is so that... well you get the picture.

take christianity by example. jesus was not born on christmas, a roman god was. and what saint is clause? beyond the commodification of holy days there begs the question of the historical significance of religion. this is not meant to shun religious belief but to really think analytically about it. a lot of religion is more socio political than theology. with christianity, constantine needed to ensure the support of the roman people in his conversion to christianity. one way of doing this was to make christmas coincide with a pagan celebration. to get of the christian backs, the baghadvad gita was written during a time when all of the men in india having read the sacred texts were choosing to become monks and head to the mountains. as such there was a shortage of males for labor in the cities. and so the gita was written to tell people that they need not be monks to fulfill their spiritual destiny. anything they did, even sweeping the streets, could be holy work.

politics not theology. and politics assume the people need policing. any thoughts?

posted in Four Year Plan - 2 replies

Year 1 is almost upon us...

2004-12-15T02:19:44Z

and, well, I have made my "New Year's resolution" in accordance with this four year plan... hell why wait for the new year? I started today by breaking out the neglected weight set and gave myself a good warm up session - to be continued... I forgot just how invigorating it can be.

Also, I resolved that my next move most certainly must be to finally ditch the car for something more practical. I hardly drive much these days and with insurance, gas prices, registration, and inspection the car as become much more of a liability anyway. So by mid January I will hopefully have that sold and be liberated of the unnecessary burden it has become.

I have already ditched the office job that made me adversely ill and zapped my will. to replace it, I hope to be getting a job right next door at the local nursery. There is surely nothing like working with your bare hands in the sun all day and the skills I develop there can only help move me in the direction I would like to take my life.

This four year plan is a great idea and I think that we can, to some degree at least, use this place as a support group to keep us all motivated (I hope that this is not out of line with the moderators intentions:). So what have you all been considering as we approach the first year of this "four year plan"?

posted in Four Year Plan - 3 replies

On the Health tip

2004-12-12T19:06:44Z

thanks Primus, this is a great tribe ;)

On the health tip, i wanted to share some resources...i think this is a very important step not only physically but, spiritually.

I say we can keep it simple; don't eat white food, don't cook your food, let go of meat, drink only water.

http://www.hacres.com/biblicalhealth.asp Intro

http://www.hacres.com/diet3.asp Most harmful foods

http://www.hacres.com/articles.asp?artid=111 Raw food (good)

http://michaelbluejay.com/veg/natural.html Humans are Not Designed to Eat Meat

http://www.celestinevision.com/99may.html Inner Light

http://www.nealhendrickson.com/mcdougall/030700pumeatinthehumandiet.htm History of Meat

http://www.thefigtreeonline.com/aboutus-biography.html Dr. Sebi

Dr. Sebi whose real name is Albert Baldwin (or Alfredo Bowman) is the Dr. Lisa Left Eye (TLC) had been visiting in Honduras and felt a need to tell the world about him.

http://www.vitamix.com/household/
Here's the secret... Vita- Mix, it's as strong as a jet propeller it can warm or chill it's amazing.

http://www.celestinevision.com/03august.html

Without realizing it, man has stepped into the arena in defiance of God/Universal Spirit and changed natural raw food made by God into a man-made, artificial, non-living, processed product we call "food."

Look at animals in nature and you will see they too have heart, lungs, kidneys, blood, flesh, bones, brain and so on, yet they are properly nourished and thrive on simple, raw foods provided by nature.

The cow, horse, and elephant eat grass or leaf and turn that raw material into everything they need to build and maintain a healthy, strong body. Yet man thinks he must improve on the way God made raw food.

even monkeys know you don't eat meat...

All food as found in nature is RAW, and consists of the same basic three elements: (1) naturally distilled water, (2) roughage or fiber, and (3) nutrients. The purest water known to man is found in raw fruits and vegetables, and water constitutes approximately 70% of our body. Roughage is necessary to keep the colon clean and functioning properly, while the lack of it causes constipation.

Nutrients make up the smallest part of plant life, but when received into our body in raw natural form provide all we need to be properly nourished. This is just as true in man as with the rest of the animal kingdom.

All edible raw plants consist of almost the same elements, differing only in proportions, color, and taste. All plant and animal life is but an ongoing exchange and circulation of atoms.

The seed sprouts, sends forth a shoot, develops branches and leaves, and ultimately bears the fruit (or vegetable). Then it is consumed by an animal or human and becomes skin, heart, liver, blood, etc., which eventually returns to the ground. It is an ongoing cycle that is repeated over and over again and has been since creation. But for this cycle to be complete and function properly, things must be in a raw, living form.

A scientist tries to analyze the nutrients, and tells us how many milligrams of each vitamin we need or how many grams of protein we need daily to be properly nourished. Then he takes these nutrients out of the natural foods or concocts similar nutrients artificially and sells them to us as vitamin, mineral or protein supplements. Then he tells us we need to take these manufactured, unnatural products in order to be properly nourished.

Addiction to cooked food begins shortly after birth when mother tries to force cooked food (usually cereal) into the mouth of the young child. The child detests the taste of this cooked food and usually will attempt to reject this dead food by spitting it out. But, in ignorance, the mother will continue to force that cooked food into the baby's mouth until accepted (thinking this is nourishment the baby must have to grow and be healthy). . . and thus the cooked food addiction begins.

This cooked food often produces crying by the baby as this unnatural food causes organs to be taxed to their limit trying to get rid of these toxic substances. Cooked food causes colic, restless nights, stomach ailments, fevers, rashes, swollen tonsils and glands, and more as that tiny baby's body reacts to this unnatural food substance that its DNA was never encoded to receive. One of the most cruel injustices we commit as parents is when we place cooked (pasteurized) milk, cooked cereal, and cooked baby foods into the beautiful living body of little children designed by God to be nourished only with raw, living foods!

posted in Four Year Plan - 2 replies

welcome thingy

2004-12-12T16:18:19Z

so i'm glad you all have decided to join me here. i think the description gives a pretty good idea of what we're working at so i won't repeat it. what i will say is that it is not necessarily easy. self-work never is. but it isn't until that self work has been done that social work becomes vibrant with real life.

use this space to provide support for each-other. for the first year the focus is physical health and education. on the health side i'm sure we are all at various stages, and so the point is to share what we know and ask what we don't. there is no right method other than the one that works for you, but asking may provide ideas about yourself that can be put to good practice. on the education side there is a lot to be learned and a lot to share. it should become a habit to learn something new everyday and when you can post it here.

alright i'm going to shut up now. thank you again for joining.

posted in Four Year Plan - 0 replies