Mens sana in corpore sano: a sound mind in a healthy body – a very good motto that is. The saying comes from the Roman Juvenal, and it applies as much today as it did two thousand years ago, of course. I’ve alternated, myself, between being a certified bon vivant,
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Writings of J. Todd Ring: Thought for a day – or a life
Don’t live for what you can get – live for what you can give. Better the thought left for reflection -but if we need a musical accompaniment, or a lyrical expression of the thought, here is one. Bless you. Make it shine.
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: BBC speechless as trader tells truth: “Collapse is coming… and Goldman Sachs rules the world”
Move your money now – put it into gold, silver, and if you can, more importantly, a piece of land that can feed your family, tools for self-reliance such as solar and wind energy, seeds and garden tools, a trailer, teepee, yurt or cottage, in cas…
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Message to the ruling 1%….. When Popular Science runs a story about the global domination of the corporate elite, you know you’re fucked
Science confirming the obvious: a recent study by systems analysts shows a tight knot of control over the global economy by a handful of corporate giants, mostly banks – and of course, the billionaires who control those corporations. This is why …
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Why Occupy Wall Street does NOT need the Democratic party
Some people are now calling for Obama and the Democratic Party to get behind (or is that take over or co-opt) the Occupy Wall Street movement; this at best a strategically unwise misdirection of energies, I would argue, and at worst, a dangerously naiv…
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Occupy Wall Street: The emerging global pro-democracy movement, where it stands, what it means, and where we go from here
The Occupy Wall Street movement, which has already become a global grassroots populist pro-democracy movement, if we have eyes to see, has clearly already won a broad and growing base of support. What is needed now, I believe, is to further clarify and…
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The struggle is not between left and right – it’s between democracy and corporatism
We must unite the people now, or the people and democracy both will lose. Not only are partisan loyalties and divisions increasingly irrelevant and out-moded, but divisions along ideological lines of left and right are also outmoded and largely obsolet…
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Occupy Wall St. – Letters to friends and family, and an overview of what is unfolding now
What is happening is momentus. It could go wrong, it could fizzle out, or it could be co-opted, but at present, by all I can see, it is hopeful: here are a few letters I sent to friends and family on the subject, that aimed to clarify and also to empow…
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Obama, Kucinich and Class Warfare: civil war in America or democratic renewal – these are the choices at hand
“I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.” – Thomas Jefferson “There is a class warfa…
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Reclaiming democracy for the common good – and for the survival and future of our children: the political economy of environmental sanity and democratic renewal
Yesterday, September 27, the Global Footprint Network declared as Earth Overshoot Day: the day that humans have used up all renewable resources available for the year. Not good. This obviously cannot continue. Limitless growth in material consumption a…
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Public poll on the state of democracy: please respond – your views and your voice matter!
Please answer the following question below, share this poll with friends, and leave your comments as well if you wish. (Naturally, of course you can only vote once! This poll aims to be as democratic as possible!)
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Earth Overshoot Day – cause for a pause to reflect
Yesterday, September 27, the Global Footprint Network declared as Earth Overshoot Day: the day that humans have used up all renewable resources available for the year. Not good. This obviously cannot continue. Limitless growth in material consumption a…
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Get a diaper – `cause you’re gonna wet yourself over this…and other marketing hype and assorted drivel
The amazing, fantastic, hyper-good stuff we have for you today, oh my God!! You better get a diaper, or at least a towel, `cause you’re just gonna wet your pants when you see THIS!!!!! (Brought to you by your corporate masters and a slick and sleazy …
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The schizoid nature of the Western world: Overcoming the root paradox of Western civilization – and our own minds
The Western world is still trapped in a paradox and a self-contradiction of our own making: we are schizoid with regards to the body, the material world and to our physicality. On the one hand, we have, as people of the modern world, embraced our physi…
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Word to the bland, blasé and banal – apathy is living death
A song came on the radio today that I have loved all my life – except this time, it was a cover, and it spoke something to me that I would like to share. It was a jazz cover of “Ode to Billy Joe.” That might be fine, and might work well, but the …
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The Real Meaning of 911: This is not a war on terror – it is a war on democracy
A brief overview of the past ten years, and where we stand now 911 marked the beginning, not of a global war on terror, as the official story line goes, but the rapid and massive escalation of a long-standing global war on democracy. This is the…
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Judging by the cover
It’s an easy fault, and we all have done it: judging the book by the cover – making assumptions without bothering to find out what the real story is, or who the person is we’re slagging aloud or in our thoughts – often without e…
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Why isn’t Wall St. in jail? And come to think of it, why isn’t Obama?
I don’t usually repost other people’s writings, but this article is too hard-hitting and important to pass up. If we want to understand better what is wrong with the economy and politics, this sheds more than a little light, and confirms th…
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Self-Power and the Power of the Enlightened Ones
Self Power, Other Power II – from Zen Philosophy, Zen Practice, by Thich Thien-An – excerpts The methods of self-power and other-power were both originally taught by Sakyamuni Buddha, the founder of Buddhism. According to the teaching of the Buddha…
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Health Notes: Pesticides shown to cause Parkinson’s – as well as other diseases
Go organic, eat well and take your anti-oxidants! A new study from the University of Missouri School of Medicine shows that pesticides are a major cause of neurological degenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s. The basic finding is that toxins …
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