Chat Spot

[Steve Plonk]

Thanks for the update, Ron, & Zero Hero...Apparently, I may be having trouble with my browser &/or router, because the Amazon ad for TVs is still on that site address.

I don't do "facebook", but I know someone who does, so perhaps I can be befriended, etc. I don't really know, but I think my router thing needs
to be adjusted soon.

Yes, folks,it's amazing how many people, whom you really don't know, get on
the social sites...Chat Spot is supposed to be such a site here in Studio Eight.
Thanks to all who read and post here. We may chat about any old thing, or
we may make profound speech... But try to keep it relatively short, as I have suggested. I hope to see Litkicks.com up and running soon...

[Steve Plonk]

Update: The prose section of Litkicks.com is up & running...However, "Action Poetry" is still being redesigned & will be back shortly. Asher didn't say exactly
when, but these things take time... I like the redesign of the prose section...

[stilltrucking]

all my relatives are short

[Steve Plonk]

My relatives come in various sizes. Most of them are Democrats.

[RonPrice]

My relatives also come in various sizes; half of them live in Canada and the other half in Australia. Of course, everyone is related to everyone. If one goes back 30 generations I think it works out to more than a billion just in one's own family, and its the 12th century---there were not a billion on the planet until about 1830. I'll have to check that one out myself. Cheers.-Ron

[Steve Plonk]

Yep, If we go back far enough, Ron, we're all cousins in the flesh...It is amazing
how many folks are in the USA now. In my youth there were only 150 million...
Now there are more than 320 million people in the USA! Food for thought...
So many billions on the earth...

Too many people are starving...We, in the developing countries live a charmed existence in comparison...Just saying...
Does the teeming humanity right off Australian shores, in Indonesia, ever give
Aussies pause for worry?...That's why, in my view, it is great to have a large
sounding board, like the United Nations, to let nations discuss things that worry them...Even if their views aggravate us...

Goes without saying, I guess, that we all need to
be on the best relations with each other as possible...A bit more peace-making
is needed, in my view. The better relations thing is a two-way street. Benevolence needs to come from the other side(s), too. I periodically pray
that folks, even neighbors, will try to get along better.

[RonPrice]

FYI, Steve......

In the context of the broader Post-2015 processes, the Baha'i International Community brought together representatives of UN and civil society organizations to explore themes such as the vision of human prosperity, systems of community empowerment, processes of education, and the structure of global institutions. Participants from UNICEF, INTRAC, International Movement ATD Fourth World, CAFOD, CIVICUS, the Asian Development Bank, Stakeholder Forum and other organizations considered ways in which moral and ethical considerations.....go to this link for more: http://www.bic.org/
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UN Expert Group Meeting on "Promoting Empowerment of People in Achieving Poverty Eradication, Social Integration and Full Employment and Decent Work for All" Focus on role of civil society in promoting empowerment at UN Expert Group Meeting
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Subject: Social and Sustainable Development
New York—4 October 2012—At a recent UN Expert Group Meeting for the Commission for Social Development, Mr. Ming Hwee Chong, Representative of the Baha'i International Community, participated and presented a paper on behalf of the NGO Committee for Social Development. The Meeting was held in preparation for the upcoming 51st....go to the link mentioned above, FYI, Steve.---Ron Price, Tasmania

[Steve Plonk]

Thanks, Ron, for the info & links...

Did anyone out there, in Studio Eight, watch the first two debates on TV?
Everyone appears to be making themselves scarce & I was wondering if
anyone else, on this site, takes the time to watch.

[RonPrice]

We saw them, the debates, in Australia. I've been watching them on and off since 1960 when I was in my teens. I have never been impressed with partisan politics, Steve, not in my teens and even more after 50 years. That is why, by my late teens, by the mid-1960s, I began to look around for some way of organizing society that had a future. It continues to remind me of the late Roman Empire when Christianity was on the rise and the empire in decline.

Western parliamentary democracy has been in decline for at least a century. Some turned to communism, some to fascism, some to dictatorship of various kinds, some to a wide range of what you might call individualist positions with no partisan agenda. Some turned to new religious movements for a handle on where they and their society should and could go. I turned to the Baha'i Faith over 50 years ago and now take what you might call a dispassionate interest in the game. For more on my general views go to: http://www.bahai.org/misc/politics

How anyone can take the game seriously bemused me in 1960 and it still does. Millions still take it seriously and millions don't. I am in the "don't camp." As the sociologist C. Wright Mills wrote in 1960 liberalism and socialism as philosophies of government have no future---but the game will go on and on for their adherents.-Ron

[Steve Plonk]

Folks, Take time out to pray for those in the east coast of the United States
who are in the path of Hurricane Sandy & the monster snowstorm in the
Appalachian Mountains, which has now joined up with it. This system is being called the "Frankenstorm". It is probably the worst storm ever to hit those areas...Our part of the southern U.S. is going to get "wrap around" effects in form of snow in the mountains...Probably two feet of snow before it is all over with. Everyone, stay warm, dry & above all: safe from harm...

[RonPrice]

I encourage those who live in areas that are prone to hurricanes, those violent, tropical cyclonic storms, especially of the W North Atlantic; as well as cyclones, and typhoons with the same characteristics, but with different names where they appear(Cyclones- Indian Ocean;· Typhoons- Pacific Ocean,) as well as sunamis and areas bordering oceans everywhere ---where ocean levels rising may cause serious problems in the decades to come---to consider relocating in the next decade or two.

There are many safe areas on the planet. Anyway here are two prayers for those who are or might be victims of nature's storms:
--------------------------------
I have risen this morning by Thy grace, O my God, and left my home trusting wholly in Thee, and committing myself to Thy care. Send down, then, upon me, out of the heaven of Thy mercy, a blessing from Thy side, and enable me to return home in safety even as Thou didst enable me to set out under Thy protection with my thoughts fixed steadfastly upon Thee.
There is none other God but Thee, the One, the Incomparable, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.
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O God! Refresh and gladden my spirit. Purify my heart. Illumine my powers. I lay all my affairs in Thy hand. Thou art my Guide and my Refuge. I will no longer be sorrowful and grieved; I will be a happy and joyful being. O God! I will no longer be full of anxiety, nor will I let trouble harass me. I will not dwell on the unpleasant things of life.
O God! Thou art more friend to me than I am to myself. I dedicate myself to Thee, O Lord.
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[Steve Plonk]

Ron, Great contemporary prayers for Hurricane Sandy victims & snowstorm victims of the "FrankenStorm". Thanks for posting them.

[RonPrice]

Thanks, Steve....I trust your hopes and aspirations politically are realized today. I watch with dispassionate concern.-Ron

[Steve Plonk]

Obama is our President. We voted him in four more years with 50.3 % of the USA's national popular vote & Obama won the majority in the "electoral college".
I helped vote Obama back in. I stood up for the "99%" !

[RonPrice]

I did not vote since I am not an American and I have lived in Australia for more than 40 years. Baha'is take their civic responsibilities seriously and uphold the authority of established governments through loyalty and obedience to the laws of their country. While participating in elections for their government, they abstain from partisanship, and so do not join political parties or factions. Baha'is may serve their government in administrative posts but do not accept political appointments or run for elected office. Such service reflects the practice within the Baha'i community, which holds elections for its administrative councils that are entirely without nominations or campaigning. This view represents 99.9% of the Baha'is in the international Baha'i community.-Ron Price, Tasmania