Anthology of Ideas

Little green Tadpole Alone in a water bucket Silence Splash Trickle Chipmunk digs the ground Buries a little green acorn Soon to be a tree Large lone maple tree Emperor of the meadow Who does it rule over Wind whistles through trees Boughs and branches sway from it A black hawk flies straight Far above the clouds Where heaven ends earth begins Beauty no one sees

The line between safe and free speech is quite thin, or so Susan Estrich claims. In reality the line is actually non-existent because in stopping free speech you also stop the basic foundation of the constitution. However occasionally, under the correct circumstances it is more important to stop the speech, for whatever reason, than ensure the right to the same speech. Because even if it does deny the freedom of speech, it can also prevent the spreading of speech that would likely cause death or injury.

History has shown us that it takes as much government influence to protect free speech as it does to deny it. The government sometimes seems like a spinning top; one moment it is denying a form of free speech and another it is protecting a different form of free speech. For a large part of the last century the government, more specifically the FCC, had a policy called the Fairness Doctrine, this policy forced the media to be unbiased and give fair and balanced reports on political issues.

The major differences between Mahayana tradition and Theravadan tradition in Buddhism include the number of Buddhas, the proper language to use for religious texts, the number of bodhisattvas, and the acceptability of adaption of local custom. Mahayana Tradition recognizes an infinite number of Buddhas who are able to help people achieve enlightenment or, for the lay followers, pray to in times of need. Theravadan tradition however only recognizes Gautama Buddha and prior Buddhas as legitimate.

It was getting to the point that every time I considered adding a new section to the website I would have to modify my custom CMS. Thus I have switched to wordpress. Goodbye custom CMS I’ll miss you.

I’m a voracious reader; in fact, too voracious. I can’t write about most of the books I read because I go through them too quickly. But I’m going to try to write a blurp for every worthwhile book from now on.