The Invention of "White" People (video)

Dr. J. Battalora (Philippe SHOCK Matthews); Seth Auberon, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly

Am I white? Latina Elsa Frausto, outgoing poet laureate of Sunland-Tujunga, California.

Epigenetics: Birth of a White Nation

Blue eyes (very light brown) make me white.

Birth of a White Nation is a fascinating book on race in America that begins with an exploration of the moment in time when "white people," as a separate and distinct division of humanity, were invented through legislation and the enactment of laws.

• [Epigenetics literally means "above" (epi) DNA instructions (genetics). It refers to the set of instructions -- directly in contact with the environment -- that tell the other instructions to turn on or off. We may have the gene for such and such, but whether or not it is ever activated depends on the epigene, as it were, that tells it to turn on or stay dormant. All of our physical potentialities at birth, if they are in the genes, will not be coming to expression except that the epigenetic code instructs it to turn on or stay off.] 

This book provides a thorough examination of the underlying reasons as well as the means by which "white people" were created. It did not previous exist in history. It also explains how the creation of this distinction divided laborers and ultimately served the interests of the elite.

The book goes on to examine how foundational law and policy in the U.S. were used to institutionalize the practice of "white people" holding positions of power. Finally, the book demonstrates how the social construction and legal enactment of "white people" has ultimately compromised the humanity of those so labeled.

AUTHOR

Author Dr. Jacqueline Battalora (sbpra.com)

Dr. Jacqueline Battalora (sbpra.com) is an attorney and professor of sociology, anthropology, and criminal justice at Saint Xavier University in Chicago.

As an anti-racist writer, educator, and trainer, she teaches courses in law and society having received her Ph.D. from Northwestern University, where her research was shaped by an interest in the social forces that make deep human connections across race so difficult to sustain. Her graduate training includes: theology, social ethics, sociology, and law.

Dr. Battalora’s approach to white awareness training is enhanced by employment experience that includes educator, corporate attorney, Chicago police officer, and coffeehouse co-owner. Her writings explore the enforcement of divisions between people specifically, the making of human difference in law.

Racist tragedy: white sword killer, NY (AP)

She is the author of the 2013 book Birth of A White Nation: The Invention of White People and Its Relevance Today.

Dr. Battalora was born in Scotland and lived in Belgium for six years before her family relocated to Victoria, Texas. The experience of attending high school and middle school in Texas formed her understanding of race in America.

Dr. Battalora speaks widely on the topic of the invention of white people in law and has been conducting white awareness and anti-racist training sessions since the mid 1990s. She has trained teachers as well as lawyers, judges, activists, corporate and law enforcement officials on the legal historical record of white privilege and its implications for work conducted today.

• Police: White sword killer went to NY to attack blacks
• Part I: Epigenetics of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome (PTSS) with Dr. Joy DeGruy
• Part II: Epigenetics: Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome (PTSS) with Dr. Joy DeGruy
• Epigenetics of Slave Breeding: Sex, Violence, and Memory in African American History
• Epigenetics of Racism with Jane Elliott
• The Epigenetics of Roots with Dr. My Haley
• Out of Darkness film review with Amadeuz Christ

Queen Hat; Egypt's female pharaohs (video)

Discovery History, 2017; Prof. Joann Fletcher; BBC, 2014; Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

 
PHARAOH HATSHEPSUT: The Queen Who Would Be King

The topic of this episode of Discovery History is the queen of Egypt who became pharaoh. Queen Hatshepsut ruled in her husband's stead for seven years after his death. When her son Tuthmosis III came of age, Hatshepsut refused to step aside. She continued her rule as one of the most powerful pharaohs of all time. Until modern discoveries were made, both her son and their patriarchal society successfully conspired to hide her name from history and to obscure her stunning achievements from future generations. With dramatic re-enactments and art works, the story of Hatshepsut is finally told.

Egypt's Lost Queens (BBC)


Prof. Joann Fletcher explores what it was like to be a woman of power in ancient Egypt. Through a wealth of spectacular buildings, personal artifacts, and amazing tombs, Prof. Fletcher brings to life four of ancient Egypt's most powerful female rulers.

She discovers the remarkable influence wielded by women, whose power and freedom in Egypt was unique in the ancient world. Throughout Egypt's history, women held the title of pharaoh no fewer than 15 times, and many other women played key roles in running the state and shaping every aspect of life. Prof. Fletcher puts these influential women back at the heart of our understanding, revealing the other half of ancient Egypt.

Secret Space Program, Inner-Earth, Antarctic

Corey Goode (Gaiam TV) via Light Dancing (Conscious Life Expo 2017, Los Angeles), Jimmy Church (Fade to Black/Coast to Coast); Pat Macpherson, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The world and this planet are not at all as we have been taught/brainwashed to believe.

(April 4, 2017) Corey Goode engages in disclosure at the Los Angeles Conscious Life Expo, Feb. 2017.

He gives a historical account of UFO (vimana)/extraterrestrial activities on Earth, in collusion with our behind-the-scenes government, in this well articulated and colorfully depicted Part 2 of his presentation.

He mentions his interactions with "blue avians" (garudas, suparnas in ancient Buddhist lore) as well as other things that could not be believed if it were not for the fact that he is a brave whistleblower coming forward to make sense of things happening all around us.

Conscious Life Expo

Speakers at the Conscious Life Expo 2017, Los Angeles (consciouslifeexpo.com)

UFOs in Ancient India's Ramayana

Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Wiki edit

Space aliens battle in the ancient epic poem The Ramayana (education.asianart.org)

"Rama's Journey," opaque watercolor and gold on paper (circa 1650) from Himachal Pradesh, India. School: Pahari. Display Dimensions: 17 1/8 in. x 13 7/32 in. (43.5 cm x 33.6 cm) Credit: Edwin Binney 3rd Collection Accession. Collection: The San Diego Museum of Art (sdmart.org).

Palatial space craft

This brilliantly composed painting celebrates the joyful reunion of Rama and Sita and their return home to mainland India after an exile of 14 years. The gold celestial chariot able to move with the speed of mind was summoned to Rama's presence. The reunited royal couple sits in the highest chamber. To the right of the painting, the grateful men and women of the city of Lanka come out to bid farewell, their eyes alight with adoration. Wondrous sea creatures wear expressions of delight, and the victorious monkeys and bears [yakkhas, yetis] rejoice as they cross the land bridge from the island of Lanka.

The Ramayana (Sanskrit रामायणम्) is an ancient Indian epic poem that narrates the struggle of the divine prince Rama to rescue his wife Sita from the "demon king" Ravana. Along with the Mahabharata, it forms the Sanskrit Itihasa.

The Mahābhārata is the longest known epic poem and has been described as "the longest poem ever written." Its longest version consists of over 100,000  couplets (śloka) or over 200,000 individual verse lines, and long prose passages. ...

At about 1.8 million words in all, the Mahābhārata is roughly ten times the length of the Ancient Greek Iliad and Odyssey combined, or about four times the length of the Rāmāyaṇa.

The Ramayana ("Rama's vehicle")

"Land bridge" between the countries is artificial, now submerged, but visible from above.

 

Rama forsaken by Varuna takes up Brahmastra

Towards the end of the epic Ramayana, Rama has rescued Sita from Ravana's clutches in [Sri] Lanka, a large island off the tip of India (Great Bharat).
 

A bridge has been built [the foundation of which can still be seen from the sky] from Lanka across the water back to the Indian mainland.

This "Adam's Bridge" (rāmasetu) to let Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana return home to Ayodhya (northern India, near the Himalayan foothills).

Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana

In the painting the residents of Lanka bid goodbye to the monkeys and bears, who helped in the battle to rescue Sita. The vimana, an airborne palace, is filled with these curious beasts. Rama and Sita look out from the top floor.
 

Rama and Lakshman confer with the leaders of the animal army. This set of Ramayana illustrations are among the earliest and most impressive narrative paintings from the Panjab Hills.

• Secrets of flight found in ancient Vedic texts long before Wright Brothers could fly (Hindutva.info)

Swastika = sun or vril energy

Strongly based in the imperial Mughal style the quality of execution and finish as well as the lavish use of gold being obvious hallmarks of the manuscript, the paintings also exhibit a wit and charm in the depiction of the animals and water creatures.

Ravana made his Lanka a city of gold. Still, the residents are grateful to be delivered from their "demon king." Rama has placed the kingdom in the hands of Ravana's good younger brother, and it is time to leave.
 

Ancient engineering: aerial view of Rama's bridge.

The army of bears [or possibly "bear-men," yetis, yakkhas] marches back across the bridge they built to reach Lanka. The monkeys would rather play in the water. And Rama has found an appropriate vehicle to cross: the pushpaka vimana.

This fabulous flying chariot, which is as big as a city, belonged to Kubera, the deity (deva) of wealth. It was stolen by Ravana. Now Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana ride it home, along with every monkey and bear who can clamber on.

The residents of Lanka and the creatures of the deep marvel at the vision of a golden city in the sky as it lights up the heavens.

This set of Ramayana illustrations is among the most impressive narrative paintings from the Panjab Hills. Source
 
Yetis/Yakshis are not Bears

Yakkhas ("ogres") are not bears but another kind of human, and Kubera is their leader.

• Mystery of the yeti deepens as DNA analysis refutes "bear" theory... (dailymail.co.uk, March 16, 2015) Mystery of the Yeti deepens: DNA analysis reveals "Abominable Snowman" hair does NOT belong to an unknown species of bear. 
• DNA analysis reveals that the Himalayan Yeti is NOT a polar bear's... (dailymail.co.uk, Dec. 18, 2014) A new analysis of "Yeti" hair samples by an Oxford geneticist [Sykes] suggests the mysterious animal is an extremely rare bear (pictured)...
• Yeti's a Bear, Say Scientists, But What Kind? (seeker.com, March 16, 2015) In legend, Yeti is a huge and furry human-resembling creature also referred to as the "Abominable Snowman," but in science, Yeti is just a bear.
• “Yeti” Just a Himalayan Bear? (The Scientist Magazine®) (the-scientist.com, March 17, 2015) Latest analysis suggests the Yeti is a known bear species, not the new, hybrid species suggested by a previous study.

When KARMA comes to fruition

Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly

Hey, it's my karma that got me these riches -- so I'll squander it whatever way I want.

 

The Buddha was known as a Karmavadin.

When someone is rich it is because at some time in the past (a moment before or aeons before) one engaged in karma, "intentional action," productive of wealth.

That wealth may come to fruition here in this short-lived life or in the deva realm of lesser celestial planes, where life is much longer and much more pleasurable.

The Buddha saw rich youth and turned to his attendant Ananda to comment what a pity it was that those born rich more often than not squander their opportunity to make good karma (merit) for the future or apply themselves to gain liberation from all suffering here and now.

They would have an easier time gaining enlightenment because their good karma, by coming to fruition now, could do so in terms of mental resultants (vipaka) and fruit (phala) for the benefit of an individual seeking enlightenment and nirvana. The devas -- on earth, in the sky, and in space -- have this advantage as well.
 

The Buddha, his pony Kanthaka, and Mary(?) (Ginger Mayerson/avenue50studio.org)

.

The problem for both is that they suffer from the ghostly-disease of addiction, attachment, greed, possessiveness, and the oppressive need for diversion to such a degree that they, oftentimes, can hardly think of renunciation (internally letting go) or asceticism (actually letting go).
  

The working out of KARMA is very complex, so much so that it is one of the Four Imponderables. To try to work out how an action will play out, or repeatedly pondering the question, would sooner make one come unhinged than lead to a full understanding.

But by meditation -- entering absorption then practicing for insight -- one can gain the power to directly see the working out of karma and its fruits particularly as it leads to various kinds of rebirths, welcome and unwelcome.

So important is the subject of karma (the idea that we are unwittingly the cause of our happiness and suffering and, more importantly, can learn to stop it) that the Buddha, in his day, was called a Karmavadin,* "a teacher of the efficacy of personal action."
  Was the Buddha a therapist or psychologist?
*“Psychotherapist” and “psychologist” did not exist as [jobs] or as titles in the Buddha’s time. During his life the Buddha was known as a karmavadin. This was aa teacher of karma (action), one who uncovers karma’s unwholesome root causes (hetu): greed, hatred, and delusion [and wholesome ones, too: nongreed, nonhatred, nondelusion]. The “Awakened One” revealed the conditional relations, causes/functions or reasons/motives, of experiential events in interpersonal contexts. He was a teacher of effective action devoted to summoning up in others the strength (viriya) needed for action resulting in increasing wholesomeness (Swaris, 1997).

World's Richest Teenager and Me (video)

Crystal Quintero (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly; Barcroft Network (video, summer 2016)

I was once a teen.

Mark Dolan goes in search of the richest teenagers in the world in this film. His journey takes him from the richest nation in the world, the USA, to Dubai, to the "Home of the Oligarchs," Russia, before ending up in Buddhist Thailand.

Along the way he meets a 17-year-old girl with unlimited credit card access and personal fitness coaches on demand, a teenage boy who rubs shoulders with Dubai’s royal family, an Oligarch’s daughter with her own chain of fashion stores, and Thailand’s version of Paris Hilton.

But what’s the best way for the richest parents in the world to bring up their children? And is there a way for them to allow their kids to tap into the family resources without spoiling them too much? For the full story, visit Barcroft.tv (Facebook). CREDIT: DRG

Moby at Vegan Meat-Up, April 12 (video)

CC Liu, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Soka.edu, Moby (moby.com)

(Moby LIVE) Vegan singer Moby performs his early hit "Thousand" (1,000 beats per minute) to a raving crowd at the V2000 Festival in Chelmsford, UK at the turn of the century (i.e., 2000).

A Safe Space for the Curious Carnivore

Moby in his VOID punk t-shirt (soka.edu)

Opening musical performance by electronica music star and notable vegan Moby, followed by discussion on the benefits of a whole-food, plant-based diet, with Moby, Farm Sanctuary Founder Gene Baur, Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Allison Argo, moderated by global sustainability leader Jaime Nack. The event culminates with a screening of The Last Pig, Argo Film's deeply immersive film that follows a pig farmer through his final year raising animals for slaughter.

(Argo Films) The Last Pig on murdering porcine beings to devour them

• Tickets: Meat-eaters FREE when accompanied by a vegan. Adult: $24.00, student/senior: $12.00, FREE for SUA students/employees.
• EDUCATORS: Organized student groups are eligible for free tickets and transportation subsidies.

• More info: conversations@soka.edu
• Vegan lifestyle books, films, recipes, restaurants, resources
• Presented by Critical Conversations at Soka, Performing Arts Center

"The Private Life of Pigs" (documentary)

Real Stories (facebook.com); Crystal Quintero, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

.

The film, "Babe" the Pig

Jimmy Doherty embarks on a quest to reveal the hidden lives of farmyard animals. He visits a farm in Dartmoor to find out about pigs, the smartest creatures on the farm. How sensitive is a pig's nose? Why can they find truffles (prized mushrooms) underground? How do piglets find the right teat to feed from? Pigs are very intelligent, as kind and cute as Babe, but can they recognize themselves in a mirror like humans? More

• Twitter.com/realstoriesdocs 
• Instagram: @realstoriesdocs
• All3Media queries at: realstories@littledotstudios.com

April: National POETRY Month (video)

Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; NPR.org; rapper Vince Staples (hiphopdx.com)

Shakespeare Notebook Found

"Shakespeare Comedies and Tragedies"

(Newser/NBC News Radio) You never know what you're going to see on the BBC's Antiques Roadshow. The things people find buried in their attics are sometimes complete junk and other times breathtakingly valuable. A tiny notebook apparently falls in the latter category, and the appraiser's reaction to it is garnering press. It was brought onto Sunday's show by a descendant of 18th-century antiquarian John Loveday, and the BBC reports it left expert Matthew Haley, head of books and manuscripts at Bonhams, "trembling," as he put it. It's a matchbox-sized notebook titled "Shakespeare: Comedies and Tragedies" that was written "in a 17th-century hand" featuring detailed "scientific, scholarly notes" in Latin. And while it's no van Dyck painting, Loveday estimated its worth at... More

Explore NPR's poetry reviews, interviews, and more (npr.org/series/144967617/poetry)

Explicit! "Prima Donna." Is it "poetry"? No, not likely, except that anything can be. It's vital, meaningful, dramatic, and tells us something about the real world, just like good poetry does.

 

"April is the cruellest month," T. S. Eliot says in his famous poem "The Waste Land." He was probably referring to the fact that a bad poem can seem like a long and unbearable thing, whereas a good one can be as long as it wants and yet the reader wants more. Think of Coleridge's "Rime of Ancient Mariner," for example. Everyone loves poetry; it's just that not everybody knows it. So here's one of the best:

Finding Emily Dickinson in the power of her poetry

(PBS NewsHour, March 8, 2017) Who was US poet Emily Dickinson? A new exhibition at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York takes a closer look at the iconic American cultural figure through her poems and the remnants of her life and finds a less reclusive woman than we thought we knew. Jeffrey Brown reports.

"Jabberwocky"

By Lewis Carroll

I hate poetry! Reminds me of English 1B and AP classes. Why can't we rap! Woop-woop!

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand;

Long time the manxome foe he sought—

So rested he by the Tumtum tree

And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,

The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,

Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,

And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through

The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!

He left it dead, and with its head

He went galumphing back.

“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?

Come to my arms, my beamish boy!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”

He chortled in his joy.
 

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe. 

Source: The Random House Book of Poetry for Children (1983) via The Poetry Foundation

Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (poetryfoundation.org)

...At length did cross an Albatross,

Through the fog it came;

As if it had been a Christian soul,

We hailed it in God's name.
 

It ate the food it ne'er had eat,

And round and round it flew.

The ice did split with a thunder-fit;

The helmsman steered us through!

And a good south wind sprung up behind;

The Albatross did follow,

And every day, for food or play,

Came to the mariner's hollo!
 

In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,

It perched for vespers nine;

Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white,

Glimmered the white Moon-shine.'
 

'God save thee, ancient Mariner!

From the fiends, that plague thee thus!--

Why look'st thou so?'--With my cross-bow

I shot the ALBATROSS. ... More

The Students of Marianne Moore

By Siobhan Phillips (Poetry Foundation)

Reading the ugly history of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, where the poet taught (PF)

• Articles (poetryfoundation.org)

Native poetry: The Freedom of Real Apologies

Layli Long Soldier, Krista Tippett (onbeing.org)

Layli Long Soldier on what remains of tribal land (Tenille Campbell/onbeing.org)

.

A single voice of integrity and searching can be a window into a whole world. Layli Long Soldier is a writer, a mother, a citizen of the U.S. and of the Oglala Lakota Nation. Her book of poetry, WHEREAS, is an innovative response to the congressional resolution of “Apology to Native Peoples,” which was tucked inside the 2010 Department of Defense Appropriations Act. She offers entry points for all -- to events that are not merely about the past and to the freedom real apologies might bring. More

Vince Staples (as heard on NPR, April 2, 2017) "Senorita" WARNING: Explicit! Disturbing imagery from Long Beach City, Los Angeles County, California.

April Fools Day PRANKS (comedy)

Editors, Wisdom Quarterly; Spanked Silly, Roman Atwood, FouseyTube (youtube.com)

"It's all fake news. We have to censor it!"

First of all, don't do it. Second, if you ignore this warning, at least do it right; plan ahead, no amateurs. Third, study. What is the origin of this day?

Let us go to the font of all-knowing wisdom for an answer: April Fools' Day is celebrated every year on April 1st by playing practical jokes and spreading hoaxes. The jokes and their victims are called April fools. [April is the cruellest month.]

Don't do me like that!


Remember, turnabout is fair play

"Tell me this is a joke!" Homer

People playing April Fool jokes expose their prank by shouting, "April Fool!" at the end of it.

Some newspapers, magazines, and other published media report fake stories (more than usual, you know, Onion-style satire), which are usually explained the next day or below the news section in small letters.

Although popular since the 19th century, the day is not a public holiday in any country. Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (1392) contains the first recorded association between April 1st and foolishness. More

When things go wrong...keep filming

Mom, we're going to release our own sex tape? - The hell you are, Roman! Not my daughter!

• VIDEO: Roman Atwood makes amends
• Cool vegan restaurants in Pasadena
• Musician Moby and Soka: Vegan Meat Up Musical performance by electronica star and vegan Moby, followed by discussion on the benefits of a whole-food, plant-based diet, with Moby, Farm Sanctuary Founder Gene Baur, Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Allison Argo, moderated by global sustainability leader Jaime Nack.
• Best Veggie Eating Guide (Happy Cow)
• The ART of Studio 50, Highland Park, CA
• Kid sex on Facebook leads to arrests in Chicago An arrest warrant has been issued for a second teenage boy in the sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl that was streamed live on Facebook, and further arrests are expected, police said.