Here is your podcast — it covers the death penalty and the equinox chart. I’ll write an introduction in the morning. From what I am seeing on CNN and MSNBC, the Supreme Court has not acted — Georgia has the execution hold but could proceed if it wanted. My understanding of how these death penalty cases pan out when they get to the court, individual justices are assigned to regions of the country. However, if that justice is unavailable or if that justice wants to defer to a larger discussion, they may do so. I don’t know which justice is assigned to Georgia, which is in the 11th circuit of the federal courts. The truth is that the ways of the Supreme Court are somewhat mysterious.
Update at 10:21 pm — Reuters and others are reporting that the Supreme Court denied a stay of execution. The matter went to Clarence Thomas, who is the circuit justice for this circuit. He referred it to the full court and Davis did not get the five votes that he deeded. It looks like the execution will go ahead.
Here is your program in the old player and a downloadable archive.
Lovingly,
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,,you’re cool man.. most of the time I just talk to myself on these pages, workin’ through headspace..
..Don’t ever worry about me, or you.. we’re all cool.
Your friend,
Jere
Hey, Jere – I don’t understand what you are saying. Who are the cats? Am I being paranoid, or did you read my post as an argument for killing? Let me know if that is what you are saying, because, if so, I would like to clarify. (I haven’t even eaten meat, fish or eggs for almost 40 years – a decision primarily predicated on a commitment to non-violence.) Kat
..I know how to kill. I don’t do it. I won’t. I don’t agree with murder.. it’s not my bag.. I’d die before I killed.. Straight up.. ..You could put a gun to my head and I’d laugh at you… So… You comin’ to life?
..I gotta freakin’ sober up.. My hands shake too much..
I got way too much work to do before I get off this plane..
Hey cats.. I wish you all luck,.. and hell, if you’re ever in the Sacramento area, look me up.. I’m sure I can afford us coffee or tea..
Your friend,
Jere
Mystes – Leonard Cohen’s wonderful song, Anthem, came to mind as I read your insightful comment. And, Eric-your podcast was very moving.
“Anthem”
The birds they sang
at the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don’t dwell on what
has passed away
or what is yet to be.
Ah the wars they will
be fought again
The holy dove
She will be caught again
bought and sold
and bought again
the dove is never free.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
We asked for signs
the signs were sent:
the birth betrayed
the marriage spent
Yeah the widowhood
of every government —
signs for all to see.
I can’t run no more
with that lawless crowd
while the killers in high places
say their prayers out loud.
But they’ve summoned, they’ve summoned up
a thundercloud
and they’re going to hear from me.
Ring the bells that still can ring …
You can add up the parts
but you won’t have the sum
You can strike up the march,
there is no drum
Every heart, every heart
to love will come
but like a refugee.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
That’s how the light gets in.
That’s how the light gets in.
Good comment, Kat. I’d add that the ‘anxiety’ is allayed when another being dies for another reason. Have you ever had to sacrifice a mammal? I have, several times. Or been on the scene when someone is actually expiring?
At the moment that a person finally shuffles off the last of the biological functions, the very end opens a clear aperture – a break or gap in the continuity of our delusory states. It is quite lovely, a kind of silken nothingness, and for those who really can’t grasp what just happened, extremely seductive. I can see why there are entire industries devoted to it. It is lightning in a bottle, a puff of nirvana.
Unfortunately, nirvana stolen in this way, is a drug like any other. And our shaky legal system seems to secretly imbibe from the same bottle. Cf Troy Davis, who was, in the end, the perfect lamb. Man, when he went, did you hear the crystal bells ring out? Someone got OFF on that…
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Regarding the question as to why humans kill other humans, a very interesting and incredibly important Pulitzer Prize winning book on this subject is by Ernest Becker “The Denial of Death.” (Over thirty years, I have read this book many times – and every time, it seems to be a completely different book . CS Lewis said something to the effect that only books where this phenomenon occurs should be considered literature.) Anyway, on important point he makes is that being conscious spiritual beings in a body that we know is going to die, puts every one of us into baseline existential state of anxiety until and unless it is resolved through some maturing consciousness expansion.
In the meantime, most of us spend most (if not all) of our lives attempting to avoid this anxiety, using multiple means. One of the most primitive mechanisms of avoidance is by killing other people. Having done so, the killer can have symbolically conquered death and gets some brief respite from anxiety. There have been some tests done to test Becker’s hypothesis. One was where researchers asked Judges to complete a questionnaire prior to giving a hypothetical judgment on a prostitute. (They did not know what the research was actually about.) Embedded into the questions for half of the judges were questions that would unconsciously raise the issues of their own death. The judges who were reminded of their own death prior to giving sentence gave significantly stiffer sentences then the judges who were not reminded of their death.
In other words, they had an unconscious impulse to defend themselves against the remembrance of their own death by punishing another human. Kat
Pls use the old player.
Stell,
I had to reboot and then I could hear it all. It was difficult though because the podcast doesn’t have a fast forward or rewind feature like other ones do. I had to keep clicking on it so many times to get back to that 25 minute mark my finger got numb!
I thought Firefox was the bomb!
I think the podcast is like 44 minutes ..there’s more
The podcast stopped at 25 minutes, right in the middle of your sentence about looking at the astrology. Is there more to it or is my Firefox messing up again?
thanks. I needed to hear this.
((sigh………………………………………………………………))
I could say more but it’s probably all the things you would say or are thinking.
peace.
A legitimate government has no need for the death penalty. An illegitimate government has every need for the death penalty. Tonight, the Supreme Court has ruled on the legitimacy of our government. It’s more than sad.