Candace Owens exposes liar Erika Kirk

(Really American) The Erika Kirk rumors were true

Melania's tell-all book, Trump assassin arrest

Man held in apparent assassination attempt criticized Trump. This is what we know

(CNN) Sept. 15, 2024: A 58-year-old [white, patriotic, felon in possession of a gun, MAGA-like, American volunteer in the US Proxy-War in Ukraine] man was "detained" Sunday in connection with an apparent assassination attempt on golfer Donald Trump in Florida. Suspect Ryan Wesley Routh is a self-employed affordable housing builder in Hawaii who went on social media to weigh in on politics and current events, at times criticizing the ex-president. Routh, whom authorities suspect was planning to attack the MAGA leader as he cheated at a round of golf, posted comments on an X (Twitter) account linked to him, referencing the assassination attempt on Trump at a July rally in Pennsylvania. Routh tagged Joe Biden and VP Kamala Harris, in separate posts, encouraging them to visit those injured at the rally. #Trump #CNN #News #CIA

• ‘Looks like KARMA to me,’ says Hillary Clinton on Trump’s hush-money conviction (MSN)

Friend's tell-all book "Melania [Trump] and Me"

Georgia Slater (People/msn.com); Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

At least this time I didn't steal my speech from Michelle Obama (People/Chip Somodevilla/Getty).

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Melania Trump scolds the attention on "malicious gossip" after ex-friend's biting tell-all book

Foreign First Lady Melania Trump criticized "delusional & malicious gossip" on Thursday, the same week a former friend and adviser has been sharing scathing accounts of her time in the White House with the first lady.

Melania and Me friend's tell-all (Stephanie Wolkoff)

Trump, 50, did not specifically mention Stephanie Winston Wolkoff's new tell-all, Melania and Me, though she implied that the headlines Wolkoff's accounts have made — including revelations that Trump used a private email for government work, despite Pres. Donald Trump's criticism of U.S. Sec'y of State Hillary Clinton for the same crime [Lock him up, too!] — were distracting from more important issues.

"This afternoon I will be hosting a roundtable with some incredible citizens in recovery & the amazing organizations that support them," the first lady tweeted. "I encourage the media to focus & report on the nation's drug crisis, not on delusional & malicious gossip."

On Thursday afternoon, Mrs. Trump hosted a White House roundtable with the Office of National Drug Control Policy, commemorating National Recovery Month. Opioid addiction is one of the central parts of her [agrammatical] "Be Best" initiative focusing on children's welfare.

"The coronavirus pandemic has increased feelings of loneliness and sadness. For vulnerable populations, it has also increased the risk of substance abuse. But the American people are strong and always set up to help one another in times of need," the first lady said. More

Speak so that others want to listen (TED Talk)

Julian Treasure (TED, June 27, 2014); Ashley Wells, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

 

How to speak so that people want to listen

Ever felt like you were talking but nobody was listening? Julian Treasure is here to help fix that. This sound expert demonstrates some useful vocal exercises and shares tips on how to speak with empathy. He offers a vision for a melodious world of listening and understanding.

The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from TED Conferences, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Talks are on Technology, Entertainment, and Design -- plus science, business, issues, arts, more.

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"The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth" (book)

In a smart, entertaining, reassuring book that reads like fiction, New York Times bestselling author Alexandra Robbins manages to cross Gossip Girl with Freaks and Geeks and explain the fascinating psychology and science behind popularity and outcasthood.

Robbins reveals that the things that set students apart in high school are the things that help them stand out later in life. Robbins follows seven real people grappling with the uncertainties of high school social life, including:

• The Loner, who has withdrawn from classmates since they persuaded her to unwittingly join her own hate club;
• The Popular Bitch, a cheerleading captain both seduced by and trapped within her clique's perceived prestige;
• The Nerd, whose differences cause students to laugh at him and his mother to needle him for not being "normal";
• The New Girl, determined to stay positive as classmates harass her for her mannerisms and target her because of her race;
• The Gamer, an underachiever in danger of not graduating, despite his intellect and his yearning to connect with other students;
• The Weird Girl, who battles discrimination and gossipy politics in school but leads a joyous life outside of it;
• The Band Geek, who is alternately branded too serious and too emo, yet annually runs for class president.

In the middle of the year, Robbins surprises her subjects with a secret challenge -- experiments that force them to change how classmates see them.

Robbins intertwines these narratives -- often triumphant, occasionally heartbreaking, and always captivating -- with essays exploring subjects like the secrets of popularity, being excluded doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you, why outsiders succeed, how schools make the social scene worse -- and how to fix it.

The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth is not just essential reading for students, teachers, parents, and anyone who deals with teenagers, but for all of us, because at some point in our lives we've all been on the outside looking in. More

• Coast to Coast: The Psychology of Highschool
• Egyptian pyramids found by infra-red satellite images

• • • Inspiring Story of Woman Who Had Her Brain Completely Erased at Age 22

• • • • The Strangest Numbers in String Theory

Low Talk: How the ocean formed

Giant crack likely to create new ocean
A 35-mile rift in the Ethiopian desert is giving scientists a rare look at an epic process. Potential hazard

The Buddha mentioned 32 kinds of low or unprofitable talk -- which are distracting in the quest towards enlightenment. Were they of benefit, the Buddha would not have made them impermissible for monastics or spoken of their harm for ordinary people.

These topics of idle conversation are not without function, but they are evidently of little benefit. The function they serve is social. They will therefore endure as fixture of society, not likely to be eliminated anytime soon. Wise people will limit their involvement in such discussions if peace of mind and success in meditation is their goal. While it may indeed be interesting even useful to know what the "talk around the water cooler" is, it is distracting in the quest towards concentration (samma-samadhi, "right concentration," defined as the first four jhanas) and enlightenment.

Famously, the Buddha once made an analogy between how much a buddha knows and how much a buddha makes known. He did so by picking up a small handful of leaves and contrasting it with the number of leaves remaining in the large forest he was standing in at the time.

How oceans are formed is an interesting thng to ponder. It does not, however, lend itself to liberation, knowledge and vision of nirvana, or even mundane (temporary) respite from Samsara in terms of rebirth in exalted worlds. It amounts to "animal talk" (tiracchāna-kathā, low or beastly talk, idle or empty chatter, babble, gossip) meditators and monastics are wise to avoid:

• "Talk about kings and robbers, ministers and armies, danger and war, eating and drinking, clothes and dwellings, garlands and scents, relations, [vehicles], villages and markets, towns and districts, women and heroes, street [gossip], [gossip] by the well, about those departed in days gone by, tittle-tattle, about the world and sea, about gain and loss (A.X.6). The commentaries add four bringing the total to 32 subjects: talk about sensuous enjoyment, self-mortification, eternity, and self-annihilation" (Buddhist Dictionary, Ven. Nyanatiloka).

Buddhist "Wrong Speech"

There are Ten Courses of Unwholesome Conduct in Buddhism. As this list makes clear, there are more items related to verbal misconduct than to any other category of behavior.

1. PHYSICAL: killing
2. stealing
3. sexual misconduct
4. VERBAL: lying
5. slander
6. harsh speech
7. empty chatter
8. MENTAL: covetousness
9. ill will
10. wrong views (A.N., X, 206)

"Empty chatter" (often mistranslated as "gossip") in particular involves the following:

ANIMAL TALK (BPS Buddhist Dictionary term: tiracchana-katha)

This is the name in the texts for the following: "Talk about kings and robbers, ministers and armies, danger and war, eating and drinking, clothes and dwellings, garlands and scents, relations, chariots, villages and markets, towns and districts, women and heroes, street talks, talks by the well, talk about those departed in days gone by, tittle-tattle, talks about [the origin of the] world and sea, about gain and loss" (A.X., 69 ff.).

In the commentaries four further kinds [of unprofitable speech] are enumerated, thus bringing the number to 32, as mostly counted, namely: talk about sensuous enjoyment, self-mortification, eternity, and self-annihilation.

Such talk distracts and often obsesses the mind to no advantage. While some of these things may be important from time to time for persons to know, it is certainly of no profit to meditators and spiritual seekers (such as conscientious monastics).