Is homophobia associated with homosexual arousal?
Adams HE, Wright LW Jr, Lohr BA.
Abnorm Psychol. 1996 Aug;105(3):440-5.

Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens 30602-3013, USA.
Abstract
The authors investigated the role of homosexual arousal in exclusively heterosexual men who admitted negative affect toward homosexual individuals. Participants consisted of a group of homophobic men (n = 35) and a group of nonhomophobic men (n = 29); they were assigned to groups on the basis of their scores on the Index of Homophobia (W. W. Hudson & W. A. Ricketts, 1980). The men were exposed to sexually explicit erotic stimuli consisting of heterosexual, male homosexual, and lesbian videotapes, and changes in penile circumference were monitored. They also completed an Aggression Questionnaire (A. H. Buss & M. Perry, 1992). Both groups exhibited increases in penile circumference to the heterosexual and female homosexual videos. Only the homophobic men showed an increase in penile erection to male homosexual stimuli. The groups did not differ in aggression. Homophobia is apparently associated with homosexual arousal that the homophobic individual is either unaware of or denies.

PMID: 8772014 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] (cont...)

static : pulse from Samuel Cockedey on Vimeo.

inter // states from Samuel Cockedey on Vimeo.

Kyrgyz head for coalition rule
With 90 per cent of ballots counted, the nationalist Ata Zhurt party leads, but has just 8.7 per cent of the total vote. --aljazeera.com--
Last Modified: 11 Oct 2010 11:56 GMT


Five parties have passed the threshold to win seats in Kyrgyzstan's new parliament after an election aimed at shifting the strategic Central Asian nation away from authoritarian rule.

Holding a narrow lead with 93 per cent of the votes counted is Ata Zhurt, whose members include former colleagues of Kurmanbek Bakiyev, the ousted president. The Central Election Commission on Monday emphasized that the results are not final.

But with just 8.69 per cent of the share of the vote, the nationalist party would be unable to govern on their own as Kyrgyzstan attempts to form Central Asia's first parliamentary democracy.

The Social Democratic Party, which supports the interim government, was close behind Ata Zhurt on 8.09 per cent, while the pro-Moscow Ar-Namys party of ex-prime minister Felix Kulov was third on 7.48 per cent.

Al Jazeera's James Bays, reporting from the capital Bishkek, said the election results were "going to be very close" and as a result a "coalition will be formed".

"The preliminary results show that five parties all have a projection of between 20 and 28 seats in the new parliament." (cont...)

Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra feat. Nino Mochella - Kiss The Sky

John Lennon, Imagine

Ecuador President Correa Says U.S. `Extreme Right' May Be Behind Protests
By Nathan Gill - Oct 6, 2010
--bloomberg.com--

The “extreme right” in the U.S. may be behind recent protests in Ecuador and may have provided financial support to opposition political parties trying to destabilize the government, President Rafael Correa said.

The Obama administration, which supported Correa and called for an end to violence during a Sept. 30 police uprising, had nothing to do with the protests, Correa told reporters today at the presidential palace in Quito. The government has no evidence of ties between the protesters and U.S. groups and hasn’t accused any specific organization of involvement, Correa said.

Ecuador, South America’s seventh-biggest economy, remains under a state of emergency after police demonstrating against wage cuts trapped the president in a hospital for several hours as they demanded changes to a new public service law. Correa, who said he was the target of a coup attempt, accused former President Lucio Gutierrez and his brother Gilmar’s January 21 Patriotic Society Party, known as PSP, of fomenting the unrest that left eight people dead and 274 injured.

“The Patriotic Society and Gutierrezes are clearly behind this,” Correa told foreign journalists. Non-governmental organizations representing the “extreme right” in the U.S. may be financing opposition political parties and may have been involved in the protests, he said.

Chavez Accusations

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, in his Oct. 3 weekly column “The Lines of Chavez,” said the U.S. was behind the failed uprising in Ecuador and that the U.S. administration is supporting coups against an alliance of Latin American left-wing countries, known as the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas, or ALBA, which was formed by Chavez to counter U.S. influence in the region.

Gilmar Gutierrez, brother of Lucio Gutierrez and head of the PSP in congress, denied Correa’s accusations, saying the president was trying to eliminate his strongest political opponents.

“The accusations against us are absurd and ridiculous,” Gutierrez said today in a telephone interview from Quito. “They are pursuing innocent people. There wasn’t an attempted coup, this was a simple protest by police.”

No formal charges have been filed against either of the Gutierrez brothers, Gilmar Gutierrez said.

Correa said he will use the “victory” over the opposition to push political and economic reforms in the Andean nation, pledging today to “deepen and radicalize the citizen’s revolution.”

The Heart Sutra.
Translation by Edward Conze

Homage to the Perfection of Wisdom, the Lovely, the Holy!

Avalokita, The Holy Lord and Bodhisattva, was moving in the deep course of the Wisdom which has gone beyond. He looked down from on high, He beheld but five heaps, and he saw that in their own-being they were empty.

Here, Sariputra, form is emptiness and the very emptiness is form; emptiness does not differ from form, form does not differ from emptiness; whatever is form, that is emptiness, whatever is emptiness, that is form, the same is true of feelings, perceptions, impulses and consciousness.

Here, Sariputra, all dharmas are marked with emptiness; they are not produced or stopped, not defiled or immaculate, not deficient or complete.

Therefore, Sariputra, in emptiness there is no form, nor feeling, nor perception, nor impulse, nor consciousness; No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind; No forms, sounds, smells, tastes, touchables or objects of mind; No sight-organ element, and so forth, until we come to: No mind-consciousness element; There is no ignorance, no extinction of ignorance, and so forth, until we come to: there is no decay and death, no extinction of decay and death. There is no suffering, no origination, no stopping, no path. There is no cognition, no attainment and non-attainment.

Therefore, Sariputra, it is because of his non-attainment that a Bodhisattva, through having relied on the Perfection of Wisdom, dwells without thought-coverings. In the absence of thought-coverings he has not been made to tremble, he has overcome what can upset, and in the end he attains to Nirvana.

All those who appear as Buddhas in the three periods of time fully awake to the utmost, right and perfect Enlightenment because they have relied on the Perfection of Wisdom.Therefore one should know the prajnaparamita as the great spell, the spell of great knowledge, the utmost spell, the unequalled spell, allayer of all suffering, in truth - for what could go wrong? By the prajnaparamita has this spell been delivered. It runs like this:

Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond, O what an awakening, all-hail!

World Giving Index,

First Annual

--mothernaturenetwork.com--

Sept.22.2010

According to the first edition of the World Giving Index (WGI) released this month. Compiled by the Charities Aid Foundation and based primarily on information gathered through Gallup polling, the list is being called the largest study ever carried out into charitable behavior across the globe.

The ratings are based on data collected from Gallup's WorldView World Poll, a project continually being carried out in 153 countries that represents 95 percent of the world's population. Respondents surveyed in each country number anywhere from 500 to 2,000 individuals depending on population size and access to polling infrastructure, and those polled are a representative sample of individuals living in urban centers.

Bush vs Obama Tax Cuts, Rich get Richer courtesy Washington Post

Motorcyclist wins taping case against state police
SEPTEMBER 27, 2010
--baltimore sun--

A Harford County Circuit Court judge ruled this afternoon that a motorcyclist who was arrested for videotaping his traffic stop by a Maryland State Trooper was within his rights to record the confrontation.

Judge Emory A Pitt Jr. tossed all the charges filed against Anthony Graber, leaving only speeding and other traffic violations, and most likely sparing him a trial that had been scheduled for Oct. 12. The judge ruled that Maryland's wire tap law allows recording of both voice and sound in areas where privacy cannot be expected. He ruled that a police officer on a traffic stop has no expectation of privacy.

"Those of us who are public officials and are entrusted with the power of the state are ultimately accountable to the public," the judge wrote. "When we exercise that power in public fora, we should not expect our actions to be shielded from public observation."

FBI agents cheated on exam using answer sheets
27 September 2010 Last updated at 12:40 ET
bbc.co.uk

The FBI is being pressed to investigate further
FBI agents cheated on an internal exam by conferring, using crib sheets, and finding answers on computers, a Department of Justice probe has found.

Staff were required to take a test on their knowledge of new unified guidelines on domestic investigations.

Suspicions were raised when many passed the 90-minute exam in just 20 minutes.

The authors of the report said "a significant number of FBI employees engaged in some form of improper conduct or cheating".

After the controversial guidelines were introduced, staff were required to take 16.5 hours of classroom tuition and then take a 51-question computerised exam that was expected to take most people between 90 minutes and two hours.

They were allowed access to the guidelines while taking the test, which was mostly sat between May 2009 and January 2010.

The Office of the Inspector General was called in to investigate after 200 workers passed the test in under 20 minutes.

After interviewing staff in a number of field offices, investigators found people taking the exam had conferred, and that direct cheating had been employed.

In one field office, staff had exploited a lack of computer security to call up the answers to the test.

In another office, of 11 workers interviewed, three supervisors and four agents said they had used answer sheets for the exam. Some tried to justify the usage on the basis that these were "notes".

They also found that tutors were "training to the test", indicating which part of lessons would be on the exam by stamping their feet loudly during the relevant sections.

The Office of the Inspector General is recommending that those who directly cheated be disciplined and that there be a wider investigation than the small sample they spoke to.

This is what should be done by one who is skilled in goodness
And who knows the path of peace:
Let them be able and upright, straightforward and gentle in speech,
Humble and not conceited, contented and easily satisfied.
Unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways.
Peaceful and calm, and wise and skilful,
not proud and demanding in nature.

Let them not do the slightest thing that the wise would later reprove.
They should wish:

In gladness and in safety
May all beings be at ease.
Whatever living beings there may be,
Whether they are weak or strong, omitting none,
The great or the mighty, medium, short or small,
The seen and the unseen,
Those living near and far away,
Those born and to-be-born,
May all beings be at ease!

Let none deceive another, or despise any being in any state,
Let none through anger or ill-will wish harm upon another.

Even as a mother protects with her life her child, her only child,
So with a boundless heart should one cherish all living beings,
Radiating kindness over the entire world,
Spreading upwards to the skies, and downwards to the depths,
Outwards and unbounded, freed from hatred and ill-will.

Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down,
Free from drowsiness, one should sustain this recollection.

- Metta Sutta, from Pali Canon

when there is nothing left to burn, you must set yourself on fire - stars (from the song your ex-lover is dead)

"Vi veri universum vivus vici - translates-By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe"

Arcade Fire, We Used To Wait

IHMN

A man who had spent many years trying to puzzle out meanings went to see a Sufi and told him about his search.

The Sufi said, 'Go away and ponder this –IHMN
The man went away. When he came back, the Sufi was dead.

'Now I shall never know the truth!' moaned the puzzler.

At that the moment the Sufi's chief disciple appeared. '

If,' he said, 'you are worrying about the secret meaning of IHMN, I will tell you. It is the initials of the Persian phrase 'In Huruf Maani Nadarad' – which means, 'These letters have no meaning.''

viruscomix.com

Robert Nesta, Thank You Lord