Planetary heroes
by Roedy Green ©1996-2008 Canadian Mind Products
Al Gore, Clinton’s Vice President, has made two enormous lifetime contributions to the planet:
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recommend book⇒This Season’s People | |||||||||||||||||
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| ISBN10: | 0-913990-05-1 | |||||||||||||||||
| ISBN13: | 978-0-913990-05-6 | |||||||||||||||||
| publisher: | Book Publishing | |||||||||||||||||
| published: | 1976 | |||||||||||||||||
| by: | Stephen Gaskin | |||||||||||||||||
| My copy of this book has totally fallen to pieces I have read it so often. Stephen is a hippie guru. He argues strenously for both inner and outer honesty and taking responsibility for the care of the entire planet. I have read my copy of This Season’s People so many times it has literally fallen apart. He founded a community called The Farm in Tennessee. He ran for US president in 2000. I met him several times when he came to visit Vancouver. Reality bends a little in his presence. | ||||||||||||||||||
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“In the province of the mind what one believes to be true, either is true or becomes true within certain limits. These limits are to be found experimentally and experientially. When so found these limits turn out to be further beliefs to be transcended. In the province of the mind there are no limits.”I read hundreds of books trying to make sense of my weird experiences. Dr. John Cunningham Lilly (1915-2001) seemed to have some understanding, though his experiences were mostly drug induced and he seemed to take as cosmic absolutes what appeared to me to be some very arbitrary classification schemes. We shared an interest in dolphins and floatation tanks. I went to see him and his wife Toni at Esalen and later went to work on his project Janus communication with dolphins project in 1979.
~ Dr. John Lilly
Oprah has made a lot of money and has spent it to help blacks and women. I like her because of her warm and common sense. Someone once said that if God decided to incarnate again, He would appear as a black woman. Oprah would not be that bad a model. She gets better looking with every year she ages. I want to emulate her. She has proved herself a skilled negotiator, leader and organiser. She would be great as president of the USA.
He made non-violence work. Gandhi’s godson let me into his private museum of Gandhi memorabilia. Boy did that man write a lot of letters! See my collection of quotations.
The fact we are still here we owe primarily to this man whose loyalty to his planet was greater than his loyalty to his country.
This man helped me more than any other put my life back together. I went to see him every Christmas right up to his death.
An independent intelligent mind.
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recommend DVD⇒Manufacturing Consent - Noam Chomsky and the Media (1993) | ||||||||||||||||
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| by: Mark Achbar, Peter Wintonick | |||||||||||||||||
| Classic documentary where Chomsky holds forth. | |||||||||||||||||
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recommend DVD⇒Noam Chomsky - Distorted Morality: America’s War on Terror? (2002) | ||||||||||||||||
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| by: Wea Corp | |||||||||||||||||
| Documentary where Chomsky holds forth. | |||||||||||||||||
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recommend DVD⇒Power and Terror - Noam Chomsky in Our Times (2002) | ||||||||||||||||
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| by: John Junkerman | |||||||||||||||||
| Documentary where Chomsky holds forth. | |||||||||||||||||
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recommend book⇒Hegemony or Survival : America’s Quest for Global Dominance | |||||||||||||||||
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| ISBN10: | 0-8050-7688-3 | |||||||||||||||||
| ISBN13: | 978-0-8050-7688-2 | |||||||||||||||||
| publisher: | Holt Paperbacks | |||||||||||||||||
| published: | 2004-08-12 | |||||||||||||||||
| by: | Noam Chomsky | |||||||||||||||||
| This is about hypocrisy, primarily American, over the decades, pretending to be acting out of humanitarian motives while mass butchering for relatively minor self interests. It is a bit a shock how the USA bullies the world quite shamelessly. It is also a bit of a shock how ridiculously paranoid the American administration is. The USA often retaliates, not out of threat, but merely to punish lack of sufficient subservience. It is a book you have to read in small bits so not to get too depressed. Consider though, that the world of international relations has always been thus. All you are doing is seeing it with the cloak of respectability removed. Nothing has actually changed — just your understanding. | ||||||||||||||||||
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recommend book⇒Failed States : The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy | |||||||||||||||||
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| ISBN10: | 0-8050-7912-2 | |||||||||||||||||
| ISBN13: | 978-0-8050-7912-8 | |||||||||||||||||
| publisher: | Metropolitan | |||||||||||||||||
| published: | 2006-04-04 | |||||||||||||||||
| by: | Noam Chomsky | |||||||||||||||||
The three characteristics of a failed state are:
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recommend book⇒Ten Reasons Against War with Iraq | |||||||||||||||||
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| ISBN10: | 1-85984-501-0 | |||||||||||||||||
| ISBN13: | 978-1-85984-501-1 | |||||||||||||||||
| publisher: | W. W. Norton | |||||||||||||||||
| published: | 2002-11 | |||||||||||||||||
| by: | Milan Rai, With Noam Chomsky | |||||||||||||||||
| War Plan Iraq brings together the arguments that can shake George W. Bush and Prime Minister Blair’s determination to start an illegal war with Iraq. Despite Washington’s claims that the only options are inaction or invasion and that "inaction is not an option," War Plan Iraq demonstrates that inspection is an option, and that inspection and monitoring are the only way to ensure real disarmament in Iraq. For the Bush Administration, UN weapons inspectors are an obstacle to war; they are part of the problem, not part of the solution. War Plan Iraq uncovers Washington’s hidden role in the collapse of the first UN weapons inspection agency, UNSCOM, and the paralysis of UNSCOM’s successor, UNMOVIC. Based on the popular ARROW Anti-War briefings, War Plan Iraq rigorously dissects official propaganda and exposes government lies. Milan Rai demonstrates that Bush’s claims to change the regime in Iraq, despite intentions to impose another Sunni general to replace Saddam Hussein, are not in fact a regime change, but a leadership change. He also shows that the war would be in violation of international law; that there is no hard evidence that Iraq possesses any weapons of mass destruction; that there is no substantiated connection between the government of Iraq, September 11th, and the al Qaeda network; that the proposed war carries a high risk of triggering a humanitarian disaster in Iraq, especially for the Kurds of northern Iraq; and that the war could precipitate a world recession with dire consequences for the world’s poor. Iraq’s neighbors, the ones most at risk from Iraq’s weapons, are against the proposed war, as are top military professionals in Britain and the US, many international organizations and countries around the world, and a great majority of people in the US and the UK. | ||||||||||||||||||
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recommend book⇒Imperial Ambitions : Conversations on the Post-9/11 World [American Empire Project] | |||||||||||||||||
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| ISBN10: | 0-8050-7967-X | |||||||||||||||||
| ISBN13: | 978-0-8050-7967-8 | |||||||||||||||||
| publisher: | Metropolitan | |||||||||||||||||
| published: | 2005-09-15 | |||||||||||||||||
| by: | Noam Chomsky, David Barsamian | |||||||||||||||||
| As usual this book has the right spitting angry, spouting ad hominems, but not a word to counter a thing Chomsky says. It covers American imperialism from Kosovo to Iraq. | ||||||||||||||||||
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His early movies of marine life set my life path wanting to protect it. He was no one-shot wonder. Year after year he did something amazing to astound the public with the beauty of the underwater world. One of the biggest disappointments of my life was finally getting to a coral reef, in Bali, but being too sick to go snorkeling.
He has tirelessly and successfully presented the case for environmentalism for decades. He married Tara Cullis, a girl I palled around with in high school. He is Canada’s best known scientist from his years hosting the CBC’s The Nature Of Things. He is the author of dozens of books. His latest is A Lifetime of Ideals only availble in a few stores yet though you could get it via The David Suzuki Foundation.
Briony Penn is a local Victoria resident, energetic environmentalist. She manages to put out a weekly newspaper column, a weekly TV show, Environmental, and raise two kids. She is funny and upbeat, not in the least fitting the stereotype of a tree hugger.
Svend was the gay member of parliament for Vancouver Burnaby for many years. He vigorously champions left-wing causes when everyone else seems to have lost their steam. I want him to become Prime Minister of Canada. He tabled a Humanist Association petition asking to have irrelevant references to God taken out of the Canadian constitution. That got him in a lot of hot water with the Christian loonies and, to my disgust, with the NDP party. My Mom and Svend talked often. He phoned me once. I am leaving my personal copy of A Guide to the Naive Homosexual to him in my will.
He makes nature documentaries that are completely fascinating.
Jobs, unlike his rival Gates, appreciates technical beauty. He is the genius behind three great machines:
Not only could he speak in a way that still stirs hearts decades after his death, he was courageous. He did what had to be done even though it cost him his life.
Even after years of imprisonment, he swallowed his bitterness, and avoided ping pong retribution against the Afrikaners who had oppressed the blacks of South Africa.
He wrote sci fi novels that describe, with wonder, beautiful possible futures. They don’t rely on cowboy soap opera plots to hold your attention.
He founded a religion that has lasted thousands of years. What is more remarkable is that his followers have been remarkably tolerant of adherents of other religions. Thailand, the land of smiles, is a Buddhist country.
Jack Lemmon was an actor who died 2001-06. He did two roles that astound me. One was in Some Like It Hot. I laugh myself silly every time I see that movie. The other movie was The China Syndrome. He was so believable as the plant manager. That movie likely saved us from having to experience such a disaster in real life.
Leonard is a poet and singer I have loved since my teens. His songs reflect the strangeness, beauty, torment and mystery of existence. Leonard sent my sister Daphne a card.
Robera Flack is a singer. I especially like her early work in First Take. I don’t let myself listen too often. Her voice makes my heart raw.
Bach was a baroque era composer. He is incomparable.
Eddie is an under-rated comic genius. His Coming To America makes me laugh years after seeing it when I recall scenes like the waterlogged petal throwers in the barber shop.
Woody Allen is a film-maker. My favourites are Sleeper, Hanna and Her Sisters and Radio Days. He makes me nostalgic for times I never experienced. Sleeper is up there with Some Like It Hot as one of the funniest movies ever made.
His Star Trek Next Generation series has greatly helped liberalise the attitudes of the young by showing a utopian future world where the sexual equality is taken for granted, and money is no longer needed. Even the most scary monsters turn out to be much like us once we understand them.
Roy is an Indonesian singer now living in the Netherlands. His singing Wind Beneath My Wings is one of the high points of my life. He was my lover for about a year.
Joan Baez was one of the first people to protest the Vietnam War. She put up with huge amounts of abuse from the right to do it. Even after America woke up and saw the foolishness of the war, ordinary citizens continued to revile her. She came to speak at UBC. I went to see her. She wanted to talk politics. People wanted her to sing. She refused. I admired her gumption.
Ralph Nader has been a tireless consumer and safety advocate since I was a kid. He tackles all manner of issues from Microsoft’s monopoly, to air pollution to world trade. When you feel discouraged and ask "What can one person do?" have a look at Ralph Nader.
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recommend book⇒Love Medicine and Miracles: Surgeon’s Experience With Exceptional Patients | ||||||||||||||||
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| ISBN10: | 0-06-091983-3 | ||||||||||||||||
| ISBN13: | 978-0-06-091983-2 | ||||||||||||||||
| publisher: | Harper | ||||||||||||||||
| published: | 1990-05-04 | ||||||||||||||||
| by: | Bernie Segel | ||||||||||||||||
| Bernie has written numerous books especially this one. He demystifies and deterrifies the process of dying, at the same time showing you how to soldier through a major illness. | |||||||||||||||||
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