Drug dealing vs. McDonalds (Freakonomics)

Steven Lewitt (TEDTalks, 1/16/07); Pfc. Sandoval, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The freakonomics of McDonalds vs. Drugs

(TEDTalks) Freakonomics author Steven Levitt presents new data on the finances of drug dealing gangs. Contrary to popular conception, he says, being a gang-member street-corner crack dealer isn't lucrative: It pays less than minimum wage. And your boss can kill you.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED (technology, entertainment, and design) Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers are invited to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes -- including speakers such as enlightened neuroscientist Jill Bolte Taylor, Sir Ken Robinson, Hans Rosling, Al "Loser" Gore, and Arthur Benjamin. TEDTalks cover many topics and science, business, politics, and the arts. Watch the Top 10 TEDTalks on TED.com, at ted.com/index.php/talks/top10.

Fired Ralph Garman explains L.A. radio (live)

Seth Auberon, Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly  UPDATED

• UPDATE: With lips firmly applied to Conway's b*tt, Ralph Garman came on the show to... Beg for a job? See if he could take Mark Thompson's place as a sidekick? Plead with the audience to write letters to Kevin & Bean at KROQ? To sell tickets to Hollywood Babble-On with Kevin Smith? No, he was just on to promote his own paid-access podcast, The Ralph Report. So if you miss your daily dose of sexist-racism and funny voices, check it out. Or not. So why was he fired from? New ownership was too cheap to pay him, he claims.

Ex-radio personality Ralph Garman (left) sits down with Christine Devine, FOX 11, for a full interview to explain why he was fired from KROQ's morning zoo "Kevin & Bean Show"

ORIGINAL STORY

We've only done a handful of stories on Los Angeles radio, starting with the demise of our beloved Loveline when Adam Corolla left Dr. Drew and was replaced by now fired Psycho Mike Catherwood.

When celebrities get fired, however, and we know something about it, that's a good time to publish a piece. And readers' responses, in terms of views more than comments, have been spectacular.

Who can understand the radio industry so close to Hollywood? Not us.

But fired veteran comedian Ralph Garman is about to explain his unceremonious dismissal from the L.A. morning zoo "Kevin & Bean Show" (now featuring Allie MacKay) over at KROQ 106.7 FM.

• Racist-sexist Ralph Garman fired by KROQ
• VIDEO: 1st sexual misconduct allegation comes out against Ralph Garman
• UPDATE: Mike Catherwood fired from Dr. Drew show

Ralph Garman, co-worker, and Lisa May

He may also shine some light on the firing of his friend and fellow comedian Catherwood from Dr. Drew's AM radio talkshow "Midday Live" (KABC.com) or the previous sacking of sports and weather gal and part time DJ Lisa May now on the new and improved Frosty Heidi and Frank Show. 

I have a podcast now, same thing

The lummoxes over at Alt 97 have little to recommend them except the ratings they claim and two funny bits "Craigslist Freak of the Week" and "Redneck News." Otherwise, they're as unlistenable as all the hits and metro talk on KISS FM. There is always our favorite station, Pacifica/KPFK.org (90.7 FM) and the increasingly corporate SCPR/NPR affiliate KPCC.org.

What's the news? Fired, fat, funnyman Ralph Garman is scheduled to appear on the very funny Tim Conway Jr. Show on KFI AM (kfiam640.iheart.com, the local Coast to Coast outlet 10:00 PM-5:00 AM).

• Ralph Garman interview by Tim Conway and Mark Thompson
• Tuesday, Feb. 13th, 2018, 6:00-10:00 PM
• (Available FREE worldwide online: kfiam640.iheart.com)

• VIDEO: Fired Ralph Garman BEGS for job (abc7.com)
• Mike Catherwood returns to KROQ and Swole Patrol podcast

The Christian Story of Job ("South Park")

Amber Larson, Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; South Park; TubeLoob

(South Park) The Book of Job suggests God causes men their pains, even if only to prove a point to his sidekick and hitman the devil, Satan/Lucifer/Beelzebub, and his henchmen the demons.

Job's Character and Wealth

BibleGateway.com (Judeo-Christian Bible, English Standard Version)

There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many [human] servants [slaves given by God?], so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east. 

Hey, baby, I'm godly and rich.

His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed^[a] God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually.

Satan Allowed to Test Job

"If God doesn't exist, then who wrote the Bible? Think about it!" Oy vey. She's not kidding.

.

Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord [plural gods], and Satan^[b] also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”  

God told Satan we could attack Job!

And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears [is in awe of] God and turns away from evil?” 

Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side?

You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. More

1. Job 1:5 The Hebrew word bless is used euphemistically for curse in 1:5, 11; 2:5, 9
2. Job 1:6 Hebrew the Accuser or the Adversary; so throughout chapters 1-2

(TL) Richard Dawkins (RIP), with the help of animation and new software, comes to life: The best reason to be a fear stricken Christian is the hypothetical question, "What if you're wrong?" If one believes atheism -- or any other religion -- one is in big trouble. The only safe thing to do is believe Christianity, cower in fear, ask no challenging questions, and just do as one is told. It's the Christian way. Is it any wonder membership rates and church attendance is dropping to such dismal depths?

• VIDEO: Richard Dawkins as a voice of "reason"
• PHOTOS: Almost naked, Taylor Swift, Victoria's Secret
• Corrupt U.S. Prison-Industrial Complex: Inmate, sex, drugs, and money fuel jail corruption
• Overpolicing Ferguson (but not policing themselves): Michael Brown's stepfather apologizes for angry comments
• PHOTOS: His and Hers (pinterest.com)
• Tommy the chimp is not a person, but corporations are 
  

  

  Help me! I'm being tormented by my captors.

  A chimpanzee is not a legal person, a New York appeals court has decided, saying that no matter how great apes are, they cannot give back to society in a way that merits human rights. Rejecting an animal rights group’s bid to expand the definition of “legal person” to chimpanzees, a five-judge panel found that although the animals are autonomous beings they do not take part in the societal bargains that guarantee rights like bodily freedom. In October the attorney Steven Wise, representing the Nonhuman Rights Project, made a case that a privately owned chimpanzee named Tommy was unlawfully imprisoned in New York...

Suffering: the Problem of Existence

Cttbusa.org; Wisdom Quarterly
PART I
The Teachings of Buddhism

Chapter One
Suffering: The Problem of Existence

Now what is the Noble Truth of Suffering?

Rebirth is suffering; old age is suffering; sickness is suffering; death is suffering; sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair are suffering; to be united with the hated is suffering; to be separated from the loved is suffering; not to obtain what is wished for is suffering; in general, identifying with the Five Constituents of Existence (physical form, feeling, perceptions, formations, and consciousness) is suffering.

The Truth of Suffering should be understood and penetrated. To say “problem” of existence implies that there is something wrong with life as we experience it.

What is the problem? The Buddha’s own life provides an insight.

The historical Buddha was born about 2,600 years ago in Kapilavastu, on the Indian frontier. His father was a ruler of one of the many clan territories (mahajanapadas) or loosely affiliated "states."

When he was born, brahmin seers predicted he would either become a great world-ruling monarch or a renunciate more interested in becoming a fully enlightened teacher than a ruler. As a buddha or sage, he would be able to teach countless living beings the path he rediscovered that leads to genuine happiness transcending all suffering.

His father the king, fearing his son might reject the throne, took special precautions in his son’s upbringing to prevent him from seeing the suffering of the world. The prince continuously enjoyed diverse pleasures -- music, dancing, sex, love, marriage, a child -- and luxuries and did not come into contact with its pains. Through his youth the Buddha-to-be enjoyed separate palaces for each season, a life resembling a heaven on Earth. More

Suffering is most people's only Teacher (video)

"I don't need it anymore. Suffering is a wonderful teacher. Suffering is most people's only spiritual teacher. And suffering deepens you. It gradually erodes the mind-made sense of self, the ego. And for some people the point arrives when they realize, 'I have suffered enough.' And that, for example, is the case with almost all the people who come to a retreat." - Eckhart Tolle

Why go in search of a solution?
Wisdom Quarterly

What brings us to the Dharma? It's nice to think we pursue the Quest out of some noble motivation, some unquenchable thirst for ultimate truth, or the altruistic desire to save all living beings. But it is often suffering that spurs the search. Siddhartha would not have left his three luxurious palaces if it were not for suffering and the realization that all existence for everyone is beset by this wide ranging problem ancient India called dukkha. So one needn't let the initial motive deter one. Make as much progress as possible while the motivation is present, learning and meditating, being kind to others and spreading the message that there really exists a "complete end of suffering" (nirvana). Wisdom Quarterly could always use help. For soon someone or something (workaholism, busyness, illness) will come along and distract us all over again. Or we'll resort to drinking and drug use. (What do you think that prescription is?) Or we'll sink into a misery unutterable and make everyone around us miserable. The downward spiral is tricky. It has been this way for countless lives.

Our Health and the Capitalist Economy

(AlternativeRadi.org) Prof. Stephen Bezruchka, M.D. explains with amazing clarity what is happening with:

• the American economy
• our health on account of it
• what's to come

PLAY

He speaks with so much sound and sense that one might imagine that Noam Chomsky and Michael Parenti were rolled into one.

• "Capitalism and Health" (#BEZS005)
• KPFK.org Radio Archives (Oct. 21, 7:00 am)
• Morning Review Wednesday with [David Barsamian]

AR: Michael Parenti "The Arrogance of Empire"
However, as Buddhism teaches, no condition is permanent. The seeds of America's eclipse are being sown now.

• Naomi Klein
• Howard Zinn
• Arundhati Roy
• Vandana Shiva

Zorba the Buddhist

(Image: zorbathebuddha.net)

(Haaretz.com) "A great thing has happened to us today. People won't understand how great it is, but it's the most important thing that ever happened to our company." Thus spake Ilan Ben-Dov to his brother Moshe, telling him that Samsung had agreed to license their company Suny to hawk its cellphones in Israel....

Suny was born in 1991 as an importer of Sega TV games. It began with annual revenues of NIS 8 million and net profit of NIS 300,000. Ben-Dov took it public in 2003, raising NIS 20 million. But the company really took off in 1998, when Samsung came into his life.

Ben-Dov has many friends and business acquaintances, but his idol is Nochi Dankner, today the leader of the IDB group, which among many other things owns Cellcom. Another thing they have in common is that both adhere to principles of Buddhism and maintain close ties with rabbis as well. Dankner called his private company Ganden, after a Tibetan monastery. Ben-Dov's holding company is called Tao or "the Way." More>>

When employers misbehave
Some companies can be disrespectful or downright rude when it comes to hiring. Common complaints

• How to interview your future employer
• Look for the "hidden job market"

Solutions: Job Woes

(unemploymentality.com)

"Worst Is Yet to Come:" Americans' Standard of Living Permanently Changed
Aaron Task (2/17/09)

There's no question the American consumer is hurting in the face of a burst housing bubble, financial market meltdown and rising unemployment.

But "the worst is yet to come," according to Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates, who believes American's standard of living is undergoing a "permanent change" - and not for the better as a result of:

• An $8 trillion negative wealth effect from declining home values.
• A $10 trillion negative wealth effect from weakened capital markets.
• A $14 trillion consumer debt load amid "exploding unemployment", leading to "exploding bankruptcies."

"The average American used to be able to borrow to buy a home, send their kids to a good school [and] buy a car," Davidowitz says. "A lot of that is gone." More>>

Instructor Renu Kansal leads students in practicing Bollywood dance steps in south Denver on 2/17/09. Drawn to the lavish dance numbers in films from India, or just bored with their gym workouts, people are flocking to Bollywood-style classes that mix traditional Indian folk dances with hip-hop moves. And the U.S. exercise industry is taking notice (AP/David Zalubowski).

DENVER – Drawn to the lavish dance numbers in films from India, or just bored with their gym workouts, people are flocking to Bollywood-style dance classes that mix traditional Indian folk dances with hip-hop moves. And the U.S. exercise industry is taking notice.

Long enjoyed by young people of Indian descent, and common in big cities on the coasts, Bollywood-style classes are popping up in regions of the country where Indian cinema is new and there aren't as many people of Indian descent.

Fans of Bollywood — an informal term for Hindi-language films, often romantic musicals — want formal instruction in the style marked by foot-stomping dance numbers that put folk moves and hip swings to pop beats. More>>

Unemploymentality: Fun Survival Tips

B.A. Stuart

The fine folks of the Unemploymentality [Blog] asked me to share some tips every once in awhile to help you enjoy your life without spending all your loot. So that’s what I’m gonna do. Why do I qualify to do this? I’m glad you asked. I’ve been writing to help others for five years now. And in just the past couple years I’ve had two books come out, Broke-Ass Stuart’s Guide to Living Cheaply in San Francisco and New York To get a better idea of what I do, check out brokeassstuart.com. But enough about me, let’s get to saving you money.