Proof that there is a God:  Rachel Maddow gets her own TV show!

Wanker of the Day: Conservative radio host Mike Gallagher for arguing that lesbian adoptions will inevitably lead to the legalization of adoptions by pedophiles.

Majority of middle class supports progressive policies.

I couldn't have said it better

Time For A Real Offensive Against Terrorism  Obama keeps talking sense.

"Today, we will focus on nuclear, biological, and cyber threats -- three 21st century threats that have been neglected for the last eight years."

McToughLovin’ Funny video making points.

More below.

From The 77% Weekly
The 40 Out Of 52 Weeks A Year Newsletter
of Rabbi Brian & Religion-Outside-The-Box

Paradoxicality

By Rabbi Brian Zachary Mayer

(This article is scheduled to be printed in Presence Journal this winter.)

Introduction, etymology, and some history

Paradoxicality. Chances are you aren't familiar with that spiritual-religious word. And that's understandable, given that it isn't used often. In fact, most dictionaries don't even provide a definition for it. Nonetheless, paradoxicality is one of the greatest tools for having an adult understanding of religion, the Bible and God.

My friend Nagy is a Zen priest who volunteers in correctional facilities.

He told me about something he does that I want to share with you.

I will ask an inmate, "What's your job here?"

Let's say they answer me, "I bake bread."

I tell them, "No, that is not what you do."

When they look up at me for clarification, I explain, "You don't bake bread, you provide nourishment for the community."

From The 77% Weekly
The 40 Out Of 52 Weeks A Year Newsletter
of Rabbi Brian & Religion-Outside-The-Box

Loving yourself and others.

• Would you tell someone that they look terrible?
• Do you routinely tell people that they ought to dress differently, live somewhere else, or eat different foods?
• Can you imagine telling a stranger that they ought to have achieved more than they have?

From The 77% Weekly
The 40 Out Of 52 Weeks A Year Newsletter
of Rabbi Brian & Religion-Outside-The-Box

Control — or suffer!

If you have ever felt a bit under the weather and stared glassy-eyed at the myriad of choices of over-the-counter cold remedies available at a pharmacy, you know how overwhelming choices can be.

This "confusion of choice" was recently proven in a study where doctors were asked what they would choose for a patient who seemed to need surgery but had one non-surgical, medical option that could be tried first. Almost 50% said they would have the patient try the non-surgical option. But when the same situation was presented again, this time with two non-surgical options, the percentage of doctors who said they would have the patient try either non-surgical choice dropped to just over 25%!

Choices can be overwhelming.

From The 77% Weekly
The 40 Out Of 52 Weeks A Year Newsletter
of Rabbi Brian & Religion-Outside-The-Box

Stop!

Part of the human condition seems to be that we try to improve everything around us — that we are infrequently content with the realities of life.

We try to improve things... but why?

Often it’s because it makes us feel important and involved.

We needn't do so much.

Really.

From The 77% Weekly
The 40 Out Of 52 Weeks A Year Newsletter
of Rabbi Brian & Religion-Outside-The-Box

Friend of God.

PLEASE NOTE: Some readers of The 77% Weekly have told me that they have a hard time when I use the word God as they don't believe in an external, ultimate being. That's cool. But, if you are one of those readers, I still want you to read this article and think about your answers. Remember, I'm not trying to convert anyone to have any particular God beliefs -- the mission of Religion-Outside-The-Box is to help you find and be with (the) God (of your understanding). Thinking about God in the way this spiritual-religious exercise presents God can help you figure out what you do and don't believe. -RB

(A spiritual-religious chicken or the egg situation.)

We are all aware, at least on some level, that we ought to strive to be present -- to be, in the words of Ram Dass, "here" and "now."

But so few of us do.

Here's a simple exercise -- a sort of spiritual-religious mad-libs -- to help.

Fill in the following sentence:

I am ___ (insert: feeling) that ____ (insert: apparent cause of the feeling).

People blather on about how the price of things used to be reasonable or how you used to be able to do this or that and it wasn't a problem, but now... well, now you just can't buy things like you used to and you can't just do things the way that you used to.

I wonder why this is happening right now.