Edgar Allan Poe is said to have called the 1841 story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” his first “tale of ratiocination.” Many today agree with his assessment and consider that Poe classic to be literature’s first detective story. Poe didn’t actually use ratiocination in “Rue Morgue,” but the term does appear three times in its 1842 sequel, “The Mystery of Marie Roget.” In “Marie Roget,” the author proved his reasoning ability (ratiocination traces to ratio, Latin for “reason” or “computation”). The second tale was based on an actual murder, and as the case unfolded after the publication of Poe’s work, it became clear that his fictional detective had done an amazing job of reasoning through the crime.
The #1 bestseller and fastest selling autobiography of all time, “Private Parts, ” will be released on March 14 as a major motion picture from Paramount Pictures and Rysher Entertainment. This is the event Stern’s millions of fans have been waiting for. Yes, The King of All Media is back, letting it all hang out in his outrageous new movie. And here is the book that tracks the odyssey. In “Private Parts” Stern spills his life story, from his dysfunctional beginnings to his unlikely, turbulent rise to super stardom. In the process, he shares his views on everything from foreign policy to fatherhood and Madonna to masturbation, with lots of lesbians in between. No matter whose side you’re on — Cher’s “I hate him. He’s just a creep, ” or Stallone’s “I love him. I really love him” — Stern’s brutally frank “Don’t ask, I’ll tell” tome spares no group or institution. Studded throughout with Howard’s favorite photos, pickings from the Hate-Mailbag and illustrations, this is the original, in-your-face manifesto complete with movie art that will once again have fans storming the bookstores…and everyone else running for cover.
Howard Stern is an American radio host, humorist and media mogul. Stern hosts The Howard Stern Show four days a week (Monday–Thursday) on Howard 100, a Sirius Satellite Radio station.
The self-proclaimed “King of All Media” has been dubbed a shock jock for his highly controversial use of scatological, sexual, and racial humor. Stern has said that the show was never about shocking people, but primarily intended to offer his honest opinions on a gamut of issues (ranging from world affairs to problems among his own staff). Though controversial, he is the highest-paid radio personality in the United States and the most fined personality in radio broadcast history.
He is best known for his national radio show, which for many years was syndicated on FM radio stations (and a few AM stations) throughout the United States until his last terrestrial radio broadcast on December 16, 2005. He began broadcasting on the subscription-based Sirius satellite radio service on January 9, 2006.
In addition to radio, Stern moved into publishing, television, feature films, and music. He has written two books, Private Parts, which he adapted into a film, and Miss America. Stern’s television endeavors include a variety show on New York City’s WWOR-TV, a nightly E! show documenting his radio broadcasts, a similar CBS program that competed with Saturday Night Live for a time, “Howard On-Demand” for digital cable subscribers in various markets, and Son of the Beach, a parody of Baywatch for FX which Stern executive produced.
In 2006, Howard Stern was elected into Time Magazine‘s “Time 100: The People who shape our world” and was ranked #7 in Forbes Magazine‘s 2006 annual Celebrity 100. On February 13, 2007, Stern became engaged to his long-time girlfriend, model Beth Ostrosky.
SKEPTICAL = disbelieving, mistrustful, doubting; an attitude of doubt or a disposition to incredulity either in general or toward a particular object
QUESTION: Are you skeptical about something?
STORY: What are you skeptical about? I am skeptical about 5G. 5G is the fifth-generation technology and cellular phone companies began deploying it worldwide in 2019. Yet, no real scientific testing has been done on the safety of electro-magnetic-radiation flowing through our bodies. The Dalai Lama says: “With the new era in biogenetic science, the gap between moral reasoning and our technological capacities has reached a critical point. It is now almost impossible for ethical thinking to keep pace with these changes. Much of what is soon going to be possible is less in the form of new breakthroughs or paradigms in science than in the developments of new technological options combined with the financial calculations of business and the political and economic calculations of governments.” While Artificial Intelligence appears to be stunningly intelligent, it is a machine and it differs from humans in that it can’t be skeptical. AI doesn’t doubt or question the truthfulness of something. When humans doubt something, psychologists refer to this as “metacognition” – or the ability to think about your thinking – to recognize when you might be wrong or when it might be wise to seek a second opinion. Our conscience tells us when something feels wrong or right. We must listen to our conscience.
QUOTES
“Conscience is the organic link in the human biological instrument connecting us with the Mind and Heart of the Creator.” ~ Red Hawk
“The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race. It could take off on its own and re-design itself at an ever increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete and could be superseded.” ~ Steven Hawking
“The real danger is not that machines are more intelligent than we are – but that we will overestimate our latest thinking tools, prematurely ceding authority to them far beyond their competence.” ~ Daniel Dennett
“We are most inclined to overvalue science & technology.” ~ Thane
EXERCISE
STOP.
Sit quietly. Assume an erect posture. Sense the breath.
Sit calmly and bring to mind something you are skeptical about.
Get your pen and paper and write words or draw lines expressing yourself being skeptical about something and then listening to your conscience.
Move forward into your day honoring yourself for being willing to be curious.
“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” — Rumi
I know, we hear this all the time, ‘love is not found outside, but within.’
It has become a cliché in the spiritual community, but what does that really mean for our everyday lives? I have yet to read something to truly explain the depth and significance of this sentence.
Let us first begin by examining what is love for most of us.
Many of us approach love primarily from an egocentric viewpoint. Our chief concern often revolves around being loved by our partners, friends, and family.
The central issue is about being lovable, which typically involves being admired and accepted in the external world.
Our quest for love is a quest for acceptance.
And acceptance is always something external. Even if you struggle to accept yourself, the aspects of yourself that you find difficult to accept have been rejected by your external environment. Without external rejection, self-acceptance becomes obsolete.
Romantic love: Conforming to ideals
We often see love as something outside ourselves, something that can be given by another, possessed, and clung to.
In our quest to be loved, we tend to adhere to external expectations.
For many men, this involves striving for success, ascending the social ladder, and accumulating power and wealth as a means to gain love and acceptance.
On the other hand, a path frequently pursued by women centers on enhancing physical attractiveness. This pursuit encompasses meticulous attention to appearance, fashion, and beauty routines, all aimed at maintaining youth and allure.
In this context, the concept of love becomes conflated with notions of power, popularity, and physical attraction.
Explore YouTube, and you’ll notice a trend: channels appealing to men frequently emphasize hustling, and wealth accumulation, and are centered around themes of relentless effort and motivation. As for women — just take a look at the beauty industry.
Consequences
This adherence to external standards of success often leads to an unhealthy attachment to these ideals, fostering anxiety and fear. The underlying fear of not being ‘good enough’ and consequently not being loved can lead to profound distress and sorrow in life. Individuals who feel they fall short in these domains might experience depression, rooted in a belief that they are unlovable.
It’s important to note that these emphases are also biologically driven. Women are naturally inclined to seek traits in partners that promise security and care for their offspring. Similarly, men often view beauty and youth as indicators of a healthy lineage, ensuring the survival of their genetic material posthumously.
These dynamics of biological attraction result in a cycle of mutual exploitation, where men objectify women for sexual gratification, and women view men as providers of security and means for procreation.
Is love something to be found outside?
Yet, Rumi points out that our attention should be on addressing the internal obstacles that hinder our capacity to love.
The primary barrier to experiencing love is not the lack of external affection, but rather the internal defenses we erect.
Love is not an external pursuit but an internal transformation. It is not something we can get from others but something that flows naturally from within ourselves.
We desperately long to be loved because our hearts are empty. An empty cup wants to be full; however, a heart that is full of love never seeks someone to fill it up. Instead, it radiates love, never asking anything back.
Rumi encourages a shift from seeking conditional love — based on the specific criteria and expectations outlined above — to cultivating a more unconditional form of love that is accepting and all-encompassing.
We love because hence we do not love at all.
“Why do you love me?” we tend to ask our partners. “I love you because you are smart, beautiful, hard-working, and take care of me,” are some of the usual responses.
Our love is not love, but a transaction, an exchange. In the words of Jiddu Krishnamurti:
If I love you because you love me, that is mere trade, a thing to be bought in the market; it is not love. To love is not to ask anything in return, not even to feel that you are giving something.
As long as this transaction meets the conditions set by both parties, we say we love each other. Yet, the moment there is any deviation, there is great pain and frustration.
This phenomenon is not limited to romantic relationships; it is also prevalent in friendships and parent-child relationships. Upon careful observation, it becomes clear that the conflicts and the ensuing pain in these relationships stem from one factor: expectations.
This pain is there to wake us up to the fact that what we seek is not love, but attachment. We seek someone to cover up our feelings of utter isolation. We seek someone to fulfill our desires.
Rumi’s quote is a call to turn inward and do the necessary inner work to remove the obstacles that prevent us from being love itself.
The only barrier to love: Time
All these barriers are products of time; they are the past with our traumas and the future with our expectations.
Our past traumas close off our hearts to avoid being hurt again.
Yet, as Rumi said:
“The cure for pain is in the pain.”
“The wound is the place where the light enters you.”
The pain from our past holds the answer, the light, the wisdom. We get hurt because we expect, and we expect because we are selfish, hence having no love in our hearts, only desire.
Love is the ending of time. And with time, fear ends.
Even if one finds ‘love’ externally, that love always comes with fear — the fear of that love coming to an end. That fear is the future, the expectation, the demand for permanency in an impermanent world.
Yet, love has nothing to do with all that.
Love is pure presence. It is a state of constantly letting go, meeting every person with a fresh, clear mind, not chained to past trauma, memories, and grievances.
Love is truly a state of being — being truly alive, here and now.
The question then arises:
Can an ambitious person, who is constantly living in the future, ever truly know love?
What about an overthinker, someone riddled with anxieties and fears?”
The moment we begin to see that there are infinitely many kinds of beautiful lives, we cease being captive to the myth of normalcy — the cultural tyranny that tells us there are a handful of valid ways to be human and demands of us to contort into these accepted forms of being. But the great hoax is that they are Platonic forms — the real reduced beyond recognition into the ideal, an ideal too narrow and symmetry-bound to account for the spacious, uneven, gloriously shambolic reality of being what we are.
Any idea of the normal currently in circulation is not an accurate map of what is customary for a human to be. We are — each one of us — far more compulsive, anxious, sexual, tender, mean, generous, playful, thoughtful, dazed, and at sea than we are encouraged to accept.
Given how opaque we are to ourselves most of the time, how encased our rawest emotional reasons are in elaborate cathedrals of rationalization, we struggle to imagine that anyone else could possibly see, understand, and accept the dazzling complexity with which we live inside. “Does what goes on inside show on the outside?” the young Van Gogh wrote to his brother. “Someone has a great fire in his soul… and passers-by see nothing but a little smoke at the top of the chimney.” Meanwhile, we move among other chimneys — all the taller built by the artful self-masonry of social media — from which we intuitively infer, even if we rationally understand this to be an illusion, that the fires burning in others are far tamer than those roiling in us; that they live with far lesser levels of confusion and complexity; that we are, in other words, not normal by comparison. De Botton writes:
We simply cannot trust that sides of our deep selves will have counterparts in those we meet, and so remain silent and shy, struggling to believe that the imposing, competent strangers we encounter can have any of the vulnerabilities, perversions, and idiocies we’re so intimately familiar with inside our own characters.
A healthy culture, he suggests, calibrates this mismatch of perception and reality by inviting us into the inner worlds of others, worlds just as shambolic as ours — worlds into which literature uniquely invites us.
In those moments when our culture fails to calibrate our insecurities and instead assails us with its mythos of normalcy, in those moments when we lack the psychological skills and emotional resources to face our elemental vulnerabilities with equanimity, tenderness, and patience, we might experience a breakdown. With his singular talent for consolatory perspective-pivoting, De Botton suggests that a breakdown is not a failure of our growth-process but assuring evidence of our ongoing search for better understanding and tending to ourselves:
A breakdown is not merely a random piece of madness or malfunction; it is a very real — albeit very inarticulate — bid for health and self-knowledge. It is an attempt by one part of our mind to force the other into a process of growth, self-understanding and self-development that it has hitherto refused to undertake. If we can put it paradoxically, it is an attempt to jump-start a process of getting well — properly well — through a stage of falling very ill.
[…]
In the midst of a breakdown, we often wonder whether we have gone mad. We have not. We’re behaving oddly, no doubt, but beneath the agitation we are on a hidden yet logical search for health. We haven’t become ill; we were ill already. Our crisis, if we can get through it, is an attempt to dislodge us from a toxic status quo and constitutes an insistent call to rebuild our lives on a more authentic and sincere basis. It belongs, in the most acute and panicked way, to the search for self-knowledge.
Illustration by Margaret C. Cook for a rare 1913 edition of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. (Available as a print.)
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Aries filmmaker Akira Kurosawa was one of the greats. In his thirty films, he crafted a reputation as a masterful storyteller. A key moment in his development as an emotionally intelligent artist came when he was thirteen years old. His older brother Heigo took him to view the aftermath of the Great Kanto earthquake. Akira wanted to avert his gaze from the devastation, but Heigo compelled him to look. Why? He wished for Akira to learn to deal with fear by facing it directly. I think you Aries people are more skilled at this challenging exercise than all the other signs. I hope you will call on it with aplomb in the coming weeks. You may be amazed at the courage it arouses in you.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): “When a mountain doesn’t listen, say a prayer to the sea,” said Taurus painter Cy Twombly. “If God doesn’t respond, direct your entreaties to Goddess,” I tell my Taurus friend Audrey. “If your mind doesn’t provide you with useful solutions, make an appeal to your heart instead,” my Taurus mentor advises me. This counsel should be useful for you in the coming weeks, Taurus. It’s time to be diligent, relentless, ingenious and indefatigable in going after what you want. Keep asking until you find a source that will provide it.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Gemini philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson offered advice that’s perfect for you right now. He said, “Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.” Here’s what I will add. First, you very much need to commune with extra doses of beauty in the coming weeks. Doing so will expedite your healing and further your education—two activities that are especially important. Second, one way to accomplish your assignment is to put yourself in the presence of all the beautiful people, places and things you can find. Third, be imaginative as you cultivate beauty within yourself. How? That’s your homework.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): I bet that sometime soon, you will dream of flying through the sky on a magic carpet. In fact, this may be a recurring dream for you in the coming months. By June, you may have soared along on a floating rug over ten times. Why? What’s this all about? I suspect it’s one aspect of a project that life is encouraging you to undertake. It’s an invitation to indulge in more flights of the imagination; to open your soul to mysterious potencies; to give your fantasy life permission to be wilder and freer. You know that old platitude “shit happens”? You’re ready to experiment with a variation on that: “Magic happens.”
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): On February 22, ancient Romans celebrated the holiday of Caristia. It was a time for reconciliation. People strove to heal estrangements and settle longstanding disagreements. Apologies were offered, and truces were negotiated. In alignment with current astrological omens, Leo, I recommend you revive this tradition. Now is an excellent time to embark on a crusade to unify, harmonize, restore, mend and assuage. I dare you to put a higher priority on love than on ego!
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): My poet friend Jafna likes to say that only two types of love are available to us: too little and too much. We are either deprived of the precise amount and quality of the love we want, or else we have to deal with an excess of love that doesn’t match the kind we want. But I predict that this will at most be a mild problem for you in the coming weeks—and perhaps not a problem at all. You will have a knack for giving and receiving just the right amount of love, neither too little nor too much. And the love flowing toward you and from you will be gracefully appropriate.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): If the devil card comes up for me in a divinatory Tarot reading, I don’t get worried or scared that something bad might happen. On the contrary, I interpret it favorably. It means that an interesting problem or riddle has arrived or will soon arrive in my life—and that this twist can potentially make me wiser, kinder and wilder. The appearance of the devil card suggests that I need to be challenged so as to grow a new capacity or understanding. It’s a good omen, telling me that life is conspiring to give me what I need to outgrow my limitations and ignorance. Now apply these principles, Libra, as you respond to the devil card I just drew for you.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): A taproot is a thick, central and primary root from which a plant’s many roots branch out laterally. Typically, a taproot grows downward and is pretty straight. It may extend to a depth greater than the height of the plant sprouting above ground. Now let’s imagine that we humans have metaphorical taproots. They connect us with our sources of inner nourishment. They are lifelines to secret or hidden treasures we may be only partly conscious of. Let’s further imagine that in the coming months, Scorpio, your taproot will flourish, burgeon and spread deeper to draw in new nutrients. Got all that? Now I invite you to infuse this beautiful vision with an outpouring of love for yourself and for the wondrous vitality you will be absorbing.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Behavioral ecologist Professor Dan Charbonneau has observed the habits of ants, bees, and other social insects. He says that a lot of the time, many of them just lounge around doing nothing. In fact, most animals do the same. The creatures of the natural world are just not very busy. Psychologist Dr. Sandi Mann urges us to learn from their lassitude. “We’ve created a society where we fear boredom, and we’re afraid of doing nothing,” she says. But that addiction to frenzy may limit our inclination to daydream, which in turn inhibits our creativity. I bring these facts to your attention, Sagittarius, because I suspect you’re in a phase when lolling around doing nothing much will be extra healthy for you. Liberate and nurture your daydreams, please!
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): “Education is an admirable thing,” wrote Oscar Wilde, “but it is well to remember that nothing worth knowing can be taught.” As I ponder your future in the coming weeks, I vociferously disagree with him. I am sure you can learn many things worth knowing from teachers of all kinds. It’s true that some of the lessons may be accidental or unofficial—and not delivered by traditional teachers. But that won’t diminish their value. I invite you to act as if you will in effect be enrolled in school 24/7 until the equinox.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): The planets Mars and Venus are both cruising through Aquarius. Do they signify that synchronicities will weave magic into your destiny? Yes! Here are a few possibilities I foresee: 1. smoldering flirtations that finally ignite; 2. arguments assuaged by love-making; 3. mix-ups about the interplay between love and lust or else wonderful synergies between love and lust; 4. lots of labyrinthine love talk, romantic sparring and intricate exchange about the nature of desire; 5. adventures in the sexual frontiers; 6. opportunities to cultivate interesting new varieties of intimacy.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Unlike the Pope’s decrees, my proclamations are not infallible. As opposed to Nostradamus and many modern soothsayers, I never imagine I have the power to definitely decipher what’s ahead. One of my main mottoes is “The future is undecided. Our destinies are always mutable.” Please keep these caveats in mind whenever you commune with my horoscopes. Furthermore, consider adopting my approach as you navigate through the world—especially in the coming weeks, when your course will be extra responsive to your creative acts of willpower. Decide right now what you want the next chapter of your life story to be about. You can make it what you want.
Homework: What helpful tip would you like to deliver to the person you will be a year from now? Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by the pen name Mark Twain November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910) , was an American writer, humorist, essayist, entrepreneur, publisher and lecturer. He was praised as the “greatest humorist the United States has produced,” with William Faulkner calling him “the father of American literature.” Wikipedia
Sloan Churman • Sep 26, 2011 www.facebook.com/sarahmchurman I was born deaf and 8 weeks ago I received a hearing implant. This is the video of them turning it on and me hearing myself for the first time 🙂 Edit: For those of you who have asked the implant I received was Esteem offered by Envoy Medical.
Police in Owasso, Oklahoma, are investigating the death of a 16-year-old student who died after being involved in a fight with other students in a high school bathroom
Non-binary student dies after school bathroom altercation in Oklahoma
National headlines from ABC News:
OKLAHOMA CITY — Police in Oklahoma are investigating the death of a 16-year-old student who died a day after an altercation in a high school bathroom that may have been prompted by bullying over gender identity.
Neither police nor school officials have said what led to the fight. But the family of Nex Benedict says there had been harassment because the teen was nonbinary.
No cause of death has been released for Benedict, an Owasso High School student in suburban Tulsa who used they/them pronouns. Benedict was able to walk out of the bathroom after the Feb. 7 fight but was taken to a hospital by their family, sent home that night and then died the next day after going back to the hospital.
“What we’re really waiting on is the cause of death, and, of course, we need the toxicology report and the autopsy from the medical examiner’s office for that,” said Owasso Police Lt. Nick Boatman, who said detectives are interviewing staff and students at the school to learn more about what happened.
Nex Benedict’s mother, Sue Benedict, told The Independent the teen suffered bruises all over their face and eyes after they and a transgender student got into a fight in a school restroom with three older girls.
“I didn’t know how bad it had gotten,” Sue Benedict told the outlet.
Malia Pila, Nex Benedict’s sister, described her sibling as a “wonderful child that impacted all of us in ways that are difficult to truly articulate in their importance.”
“We’re deeply, deeply sad about their passing,” she wrote in a text message Wednesday to The Associated Press.
Sue Benedict said in a statement on a GoFundMe page set up to help cover funeral expenses that the family was still learning to use the teen’s preferred name and pronouns.
“Please do not judge us as Nex was judged, please do not bully us for our ignorance on the subject,” she wrote. “Nex gave us that respect and we are sorry in our grief that we overlooked them.”
Owasso police said in a statement on Tuesday that Nex Benedict died on Feb. 8, the day after the fight at the high school. Boatman said investigators will forward the results of that probe to the local district attorney to determine what, if any, charges should be filed.
When asked if the students involved in the fight could be charged with a hate crime, Boatman said: “All crimes and charges will be on the table.”
School officials in Owasso, a suburb about 13 miles (20 kilometers) northeast of Tulsa, said in a statement a physical altercation occurred in a restroom and that students were in the restroom for less than two minutes before the fight was broken up by other students and a staff member.
After the fight, each of the students “walked under their own power to the assistant principal’s office and the nurse’s office,” and school officials recommended to the parent of one of the students involved that they visit a medical facility for further examination.
Police said they were not notified of the altercation until the student arrived at the hospital, and that a report was taken at that time. Police said the student was rushed back to the hospital the following day, Feb. 8, and was pronounced dead.
Oklahoma’s Republican-led Legislature has passed several new laws targeting transgender and nonbinary people in recent years, including bills that prohibit children from receiving gender-affirming medical care and prohibiting the use of nonbinary gender markers on birth certificates.
Gov. Kevin Stitt also has signed bills that prohibit transgender girls and women from playing on female sports teams and prevent transgender children from using school bathrooms that correspond to their gender identity.
Stitt’s office released a statement Wednesday on behalf of the governor and his wife, Sarah.
“Sarah and I are saddened to learn of the death of Nex Benedict, and our hearts go out to Nex’s family, classmates, and the Owasso community,” he said. “The death of any child in an Oklahoma school is a tragedy — and bullies must be held accountable.”
Among the many anti-trans bills being considered this year in Oklahoma are measures to ban gender-affirming care for adults, prohibit school employees from using a student’s preferred pronouns if they don’t correspond with the sex assigned at birth and prohibit state laws or executive orders that recognize any gender besides male and female.
Oklahoma’s Superintendent of Public Schools, Ryan Walters, also has embraced anti-trans policies and faced bipartisan blowback after he appointed a right-wing social media influencer from New York known for posting anti-trans rhetoric to a state library panel. One of Chaya Raichik’s posts on her Libs of TikTok account on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, last year showing an edited video critical of a public school librarian in Tulsa led to several consecutive days of bomb threats to schools in the district.
“Policies that discriminate and hateful rhetoric spewed by state officials against transgender youth make our schools less safe and deny youth like Nex the future they deserve,” ACLU Oklahoma said in a statement.
In a statement Wednesday, Walters said he mourned the loss of the Owasso student and that he would “pray for God’s comfort for the family and the entire Owasso community.”
—
Reporter Philip Marcelo contributed from New York.
Consciousness, sexuality, androgyny, futurism, space, the arts, science, astrology, democracy, humor, books, movies and more
Any idea of the normal currently in circulation is not an accurate map of what is customary for a human to be. We are — each one of us — far more compulsive, anxious, sexual, tender, mean, generous, playful, thoughtful, dazed, and at sea than we are encouraged to accept.
