বুধবার, ১০ অক্টোবর, ২০১২

Weekly Meditations for Healthy Sex (Oct. 10 - 17) - Huffington Post

It's vital for mindful acts of emotional and sexual intimacy to steadily develop as a daily practice for healthy sex. To that end, Center for Healthy Sex has created daily meditations to help you reach your sexual and relational potential. (You can subscribe for free here.)

Many people dwell on defects in relationships; their brains seem wired to repeat unfortunate patterns. With this same dwelling attention focused on healthy solutions, we can rewire our psychological patterns in order to receive and share healthy sexual love in the present. Here are three meditations on the themes of testing, fantasy, and self-esteem for you to ponder and practice this week.

Meditation 1: Testing

"Perhaps all the questions we ask of love, to measure, test, probe, and save it, have the additional effect of cutting it short." -- Milan Kundera

Trust is often tested instinctively in relationships. This is different than taking conscious measures to test a partner's trustworthiness, because the very act of testing trust is a contradiction. Testing reveals that you don't trust. Whenever you set up obstacles as a form of test for a partner, really what you're doing is setting up obstacles. For lovers to successfully get past your obstacles to pass the test, this just means that you've trained them to allow obstacles in the relationship.

We test ourselves when we test others -- do we operate from the greater good, or from a place of ego and preconception? They say you teach what you most have to learn, and it's also possible you test what you most have to comprehend. Any test we consciously set for others is going to be steeped with subjectivity. In scientific methodology, this is called "confirmation bias." Perhaps life delivers enough tests so that we don't have to add any trick questions. A healthy way to evaluate trust with a partner might be to observe how they respond to life's challenges. It can also be a great test to allow simplicity... to tolerate intimacy, security and safety with another person, and to build trust.

Daily healthy sex acts

  • Your deepest innermost self always knows just what you need to do. Trust yourself to act accordingly.


Meditation 2: Fantasy

"The poet is in command of his fantasy, while it is exactly the mark of the neurotic that he is possessed by his fantasy." -- Lionel Trilling

Being possessed by sexual fantasies to the degree that you're avoidant of your partner or the possibility of a connection with another will create problems in your relationship over time. Healthy sex requires a solid level of presence where creativity and imagination can playfully emerge between two people. Being held hostage by recursive sexual fantasies or pornographic images in your head will not allow you to be unconstrained with your partner.

In contrast, when you're present with your partner, you can co-create your fantasies. And, when you're in command of your fantasies, you can play them out, talk about them afterward, learn from each other about what was arousing, what worked, what didn't, or what may have been problematic. Use your sex life consciously and as a way to grow and change yourself.

Daily healthy sex acts

  • Learn about your psyche and inner patterns by challenging your fantasies and asking, "Are these old patterns or traumas I'm acting out?" or are they "arousing and congruent with who I am as an adult person today?"
  • Share your insights with your partner in service of deepening your intimacy with yourself and with one another.


Meditation 3: Self-esteem

"Divine is Love and scorneth worldly pelf,
And can be bought with nothing but with self." -- Sir Walter Raleigh

Our culture is so transactional that sometimes the idea of esteem seems to be a means to an end. This end result is whether or not one is worthy, whether one will make it, whether people approve, and what one can amass -- currently this is still the dominant paradigm in our society. But esteem doesn't have to be a means to an end. It's a process in itself. Esteem is that little voice in our head that rates everything and values and judges; our narrator, our witness, it tells us what we're doing. Because this voice is so private, it seems like it's permissible. It seems like we can handle the voice. But it becomes the filter and informs our reality and the actions we take. It's such an intrinsic filter, it's hard to imagine life without it. We're soaking in it. It automatically seems like reality itself -- and in this, that's how powerful it is.

Endow yourself with healthy self-esteem. What is the tone in your life that radiates or makes you shine, where you feel whole or feel your heart? That feeling tone, when you receive it from others -- that's the tone we want to practice with ourselves. That's where we want to live with ourselves. It doesn't happen from the outside in. That's why it's called self esteem.

Daily healthy sex acts

  • Write yourself a loving letter. Let yourself know all those traits you appreciate. Anything that hasn't been said about how great you are, let it be said now. Mail yourself the letter and imagine your surprise to read it!
  • Do a positive play-by-play of your successful actions today whenever you have the opportunity. "You are a vision of health brushing your teeth. You make the best coffee, and I love the way you savor every drop. You are a dynamo!"


For more by Alexandra Katehakis, M.F.T., click here.

For more on conscious relationships, click here.

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Follow Alexandra Katehakis, M.F.T. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/sexaddexpert

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alexandra-katehakis-mft/sex-meditation_b_1895238.html

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Leisure Reading at Scott Library - Jeffline

magazine coversHave a few minutes to relax? Scott Library offers a collection of more than fifty popular magazines for leisure reading. These cover many interests including news, food, travel, fashion, hobbies, and popular health. The magazine collection is currently shelved on the 2nd floor of Scott Library near the Reference Desk. The following magazines have been added this year:

Other titles in the collection:

  • Advocate
  • Arthur Frommers Budget Travel
  • Atlantic Monthly
  • Audubon
  • Better Homes and Gardens
  • Bicycling
  • Bon Appetit
  • Car and Driver
  • Conde Nast Traveler
  • Consumer Reports
  • Cooking Light
  • Details Magazine
  • Discover
  • Ebony
  • Entertainment Weekly
  • Esquire
  • Field & Stream
  • Food and Wine
  • GQ
  • Harpers Magazine
  • Health
  • India Perspectives
  • India Review
  • Men?s Health
  • Mental Floss
  • Mother Earth News
  • Motor Trend
  • National Geographic
  • New Yorker
  • O, The Oprah Magazine
  • Out
  • Outdoor Life
  • People
  • Philadelphia Magazine
  • Popular Mechanics
  • Popular Science
  • Real Simple
  • Scientific American Mind
  • Self
  • Smithsonian
  • Sports Illustrated
  • Taiwan Panorama
  • Taiwan Review
  • Time
  • Vanity Fair
  • Wired
  • Yoga Journal

?In addition, the library has copies of the following newspapers:

  • Philadelphia Business Journal
  • Philadelphia Inquirer
  • New York Times
  • Wall Street Journal

Source: http://jeffline.jefferson.edu/aisrnews/?p=3262

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Blood Rites, In need of characters~

Ruled by a powerful hunger for the flesh, blood, souls, and even the desires of the Human population these creatures fight amongst themselves for dominance over the hours after dusk.

As of right now, Blood Rites only has two RolePlayers other than myself. It has a short and concise plot and six different species. All of the species are ones that we all know, however, I have added my own twists to each one. You can read about the aforementioned twists by clicking on the link at the top of the post.

Myself and another RolePlayer started posting today, so there won't be too much to get caught up on.

I hope you will take a look! :)

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/RRQem0eJT3k/viewtopic.php

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Math Responds to Romney (talking-points-memo)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/254268587?client_source=feed&format=rss

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মঙ্গলবার, ৯ অক্টোবর, ২০১২

Israeli forces strike Gaza targets after rocket salvo

By NBC News wire services

Israel said it struck targets in the Gaza Strip on Monday after Palestinian militants fired rockets at southern Israel in what they said was a response to an Israel airstrike that wounded two militants and eight bystanders.

Meanwhile,?the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, citing The Associated Press, said the Israeli air force flew mock raids over southern Lebanon after a mysterious unmanned aircraft was shot down over Israel over the weekend.


An Iranian military official was quoted as saying Monday that the drone's incursion exposed the weakness of Israeli air defenses, but did not confirm or deny Israeli charges that Tehran and southern Lebanon-based Shiite militia group Hezbollah were behind it.

Jamaluddin Aberoumand, deputy coordinator for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said the incident indicated that Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile defense system "does not work and lacks the necessary capacity," Fars news agency reported.

Israeli officials says a drone missile they shot down may have been saying on crucial sites. NBC's Duncan Golestani reports.

The Iron Dome system, jointly funded with the United States, is designed to shoot down short-range guerrilla rockets, not slow-flying aircraft. It intercepted more than 80 percent of the targets it engaged in March when nearly 300 rockets and mortars were fired at southern Israel, the Pentagon said at the time.

The drone was first spotted above the Mediterranean near the Gaza Strip to the west of Israel, said military spokeswoman Avital Leibovich. An Israeli warplane shot it down above a forest near the occupied West Bank.

Israeli parliament member Miri Regev, a former chief spokesman of the military, wrote on Twitter it was an "Iranian drone launched by Hezbollah."

Israeli defense officials have not confirmed the charge.

On at least one occasion, Iranian-backed Hezbollah has sent a drone into Israeli airspace. Also, in 2010, an Israeli warplane shot down an apparently unmanned balloon in the Negev near the country's Dimona nuclear reactor.

More Middle East & North African coverage on NBCNews.com

Sunday's flyover by Israeli jets appeared intended to demonstrate to Hezbollah that Israel retained air?superiority, according to the AP.

On Monday, the Israeli army said it had targeted "Hamas terror activity sites and terrorist squads responsible for the rocket fire"in Gaza, but gave no details.

Gaza hospital officials said one Islamic Jihad militant thought to have been involved in the rocket attack had been wounded by Israeli tank fire east of the town of Rafah.

Residents of the town of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip said an Israeli tank fired at the suspected launch area, slightly wounding four children and damaging a mosque minaret and a water tower.

The Israeli army says 470 rockets have been fired from Gaza this year, 10 in October alone.

Full international news coverage on NBCNews.com

The armed wing of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist faction that controls the Gaza Strip, said it had carried out the latest rocket attack with the militant Islamic Jihad group.

It was the first time since June that Hamas had acknowledged launching rockets at Israel.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said some rockets had landed harmlessly near the border with the Gaza Strip.

An Israeli air strike on Sunday was aimed at two Palestinian militants, one of whom was critically wounded, as was one of the bystanders.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

More world stories from NBC News:

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

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Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/08/14289249-israeli-forces-strike-gaza-targets-after-rocket-salvo?lite

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Christopher Yuan ? Placing My Identity in Christ, Not My Sexuality ...

[Ed. Note:? Finally, a gay man who states without equivocation that he is more than gay; he is a Christian with gay ideation.? How does his Christianity speak to the subject of the Bible and prohibitions against homosexuality?? This is a clear explanation, not an excuse and sweeping under the carpet of a clear reading of Scripture.? A good read.? Cheryl M. Wetzel]

http://www.christianpost.com/news/christians-with-same-sex-attractions-weigh-in-on-homosexuality-bible-debate-82467/

By Nicola Menzie , Christian Post Reporter

October 1, 2012|4:25 pm

Unlike Matthew Vines, I was not raised in a Christian home and believed homosexual, romantic relationships were not sinful. I became aware of my attractions toward other men when I was nine but hid them until I came out in my early twenties while in graduate school pursuing a doctorate in dentistry. My mother was devastated but through this incident, she became a Christian. Although her initial response was rejection, after coming to Christ she could do nothing other than love her gay son.

After many years of running from God and rebelling against my parents, I was incarcerated for drug dealing and received the news that I was HIV+. I found a Bible in the trash can and began reading it. I confided with a prison chaplain who told me that the Bible does not condemn homosexuality, and he gave me a book by gay historian, John Boswell.

Like Vines, I too wanted to reconcile faith with sexuality. With that book in one hand and the Bible in the other, I had every reason to accept Boswell?s assertions to find biblical justification for homosexuality. But surprisingly, I felt Boswell?s interpretations did not line up with the plain reading of Scripture. So I turned to the Bible alone and read every verse looking for positive support for romantic, homosexual relationships. I couldn?t find any.

What changed my mind wasn?t the six ?clobber passages? which mention homosexuality. It was realizing that I had placed my identity and focus on the wrong things ? my sexuality and pursuing a same-sex, romantic relationship. But God calls Christians to put their identity in Jesus Christ alone. God says, ?Be holy, for I am holy.? I needed to pursue a life of holiness, not heterosexuality or homosexuality.

After my release from prison, I attended Moody Bible Institute receiving a degree in the Bible with an emphasis in biblical languages and also completed a masters in biblical exegesis from Wheaton College Graduate School for a total of four years of biblical Hebrew and four years of biblical Greek. I am now an adjunct instructor of the Bible at Moody Bible Institute while pursuing a doctorate of ministry at Bethel Seminary (St. Paul, Minn.).

Exegesis (literally ?to draw out?) is the critical interpretation of a text requiring knowledge of the original language in which a text is written. Many begin with a presumption and superimpose their predetermined conclusion upon a text. This is eisegesis (?to draw in?) which is the opposite of exegesis. Matthew Vines? entire argument hinges upon his presumption that the Bible doesn?t specifically address loving, same-sex relationships. Although there is no direct mention, the Bible does condemn it in its universal prohibition against all homosexual sex and romantic relationships.

In Romans 1:26-27, Paul draws from well-known Greek philosophers and Hellenistic Jewish authors to universally condemn all homosexual sex and romantic relationships. ?Unnatural? or para fusin is used by Plato, Philo and Josephus to refer to homosexual sex per se, not merely lustful, homosexual relationships. In addition, ?nature? or fusis is found in Wisdom of Solomon, 3 Maccabees and 4 Maccabees. In each occurrence, fusis refers to nature (in general), a characteristic or origin ? never as ?customs? as Vines asserts.

Most importantly is Paul?s appropriation of the Levitical condemnation against all homosexual sex and relationships in 1 Corinthians 6:9. Paul created a word ?arsenokoitai? directly from Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 in the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible). The first half of Leviticus 20:13 from the Septuagint reads: ?kai hos an koimethe meta arsenos koiten gynaikos.? Any good Hellenistic Jew familiar with the Torah and the Septuagint would make an unmistakable connection between ?arsenokoitai? and the universal condemnation of all homosexual sex and romantic relationships found in Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13.

Even if Vines? presumption is true that the Bible doesn?t specifically address loving, same-sex relationships, the absence of evidence is not evidence to the affirmative.

Finally singleness, voluntary or involuntarily, is not a curse. Paul states in 1 Corinthians 7 that singleness is good. This does not contradict Genesis 2:18, ?It is good for a man not to be alone.? New Testament scholar Barry Danylak states, ?When Genesis 2:18 affirms that it is not good to live alone, marriage is given as a provision. But this does not imply that marriage was designed to be the sole provision for one?s aloneness.? Singles can develop deeper (but non-romantic) relationships which would otherwise be more difficult if married. Jesus, who was single, teaches in Mark 3:31-35 that family in the New Covenant extends beyond our immediate biological family.

Voluntary or involuntary singleness is not the same as being alone, nor is it ?incalculable pain and suffering? as Vines states. Paul exhorts believers in 1 Corinthians 7 to find contentment in whatever situation we find ourselves in ? whether voluntarily or involuntarily. Contentment should never be predicated upon another person, but solely in Christ Jesus and a life fully surrendered to Him.

Christopher Yuan (www.christopheryuan.com) is author of ?Out of a Far Country: A Gay Son?s Journey to God, A Broken Mother?s Search for Hope.? Yuan, who has a heart for those working through issues of sexuality and those living with HIV/AIDS, also teaches at Moody Bible Institute, speaks locally and internationally to youth, on college campuses, in churches and in prisons.

Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/christians-with-same-sex-attractions-weigh-in-on-homosexuality-bible-debate-82467/#FCkKOqBLEcHGHYgH.99

Source: http://www.anglicansunited.com/?p=14094

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Freeze, drought take bite out of fall tourism

In this photo taken Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2012, a fall seasonal display sits on a hay bale at the Schaefers family corn maze near Mayflower, Ark. Devastating spring freezes and this year's historic drought have taken some of the charm out of rustic fall destinations, leaving some corn mazes too short for labyrinth duty, orchards virtually devoid of U-pick apples and fall colors muted. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)

In this photo taken Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2012, a fall seasonal display sits on a hay bale at the Schaefers family corn maze near Mayflower, Ark. Devastating spring freezes and this year's historic drought have taken some of the charm out of rustic fall destinations, leaving some corn mazes too short for labyrinth duty, orchards virtually devoid of U-pick apples and fall colors muted. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)

In this photo taken Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2012, farmer Bob Schaefers walks from the exit of a trail through his corn maze near Mayflower, Ark. Devastating spring freezes and this year's historic drought have taken some of the charm out of rustic fall destinations, leaving some corn mazes too short for labyrinth duty, orchards virtually devoid of U-pick apples and fall colors muted. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)

In this photo taken Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2012, Bob Schaefers checks a sign at his corn maze near Mayflower, Ark. Devastating spring freezes and this year's historic drought have taken some of the charm out of rustic fall destinations, leaving some corn mazes too short for labyrinth duty, orchards virtually devoid of U-pick apples and fall colors muted. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)

(AP) ? Devastating spring freezes and a historic drought have stripped some charm from rustic fall destinations, leaving some corn too short to create mazes, orchards virtually devoid of apples and fall colors muted.

Extreme weather has forced agritourism ventures in the heart of the country to scramble to hold onto their share of an industry that generates hundreds of millions of dollars each year.

Pat Schaefers, who runs Schaefers Corn Maze near Lollie, Ark., hopes visitors to the farm's two mazes won't mind that the corn is just 6 to 8 feet this fall ? up to 4 feet shorter than the wall of corn families and school groups normally pay to get lost and turned-around in.

"It's just not up to par," she said of the corn in her two mazes. "It's not anything like it's been in past years."

Yet Schaefers was one of the lucky ones. Even though the corn in her 30 acres of mazes is shorter than normal, she was able to open them for a seventh year thanks to a summerlong irrigation effort at the 1,000-acre farm she owns with her husband, Bob.

Sam Brown, who owns A-Maizeing-Farms in Mayfield, Ky., said the summer drought and 100-degree days ruined his farm's 20-acre corn maze, leaving stalks knee- to waist-high ? far too short for use as a maze. Instead, he's offering a petting zoo, pedal cart races and hay rides.

"The object of our maze is to find hidden checkpoints, and our checkpoints literally would have been taller than the corn in some of the fields," he said. "It would have pretty much been pointless."

For many farms and orchards, autumn is the peak agritourism season as families seek out a taste of rural life with outings to explore corn mazes, take hay rides and pick their own apples or pumpkins. Tourism generated about $566 million for more than 23,000 U.S. farms in 2007, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's most recent agriculture census ? a survey conducted every five years.

But just like farming itself, agritourism can be stung by the weather.

Apple orchards across the Midwest and New England suffered huge losses when blossoms lured into early bloom by a warm March were killed in April freezes.

Indiana apple growers have had one of their worst crops in eight decades. Many orchards canceled their U-pick apple seasons and shipped in apples from out of state or traded varieties with other orchards to meet customers' demand.

Tuttle Orchards, a central Indiana farm with 30 acres of trees, lost all but about 10 percent of its apple crop in April. Mike Roney, who co-owns the orchard near Greenfield, Ind., said it might have been the worst freeze damage ever at the farm his family has owned for 84 years.

At Crane Orchards, a 120-acre top U-pick tourist destination in Fenville, Mich., co-owner Rob Crane said just 5 percent of his apple crop survived the icy nights on his family's fifth-generation farm a few miles from Lake Michigan. With so few apples, its normal 60-day U-pick season shrank to a couple of weeks, and the last trees were picked clean before October.

Despite the lack of apples, Crane is hoping people still come to the farm for a hay ride along its lake and rolling hills, to navigate its corn maze or indulge in fruit pies and other homemade treats served at its restaurant.

"The fall is about making memories, family gatherings and outings to see the colors. It's that inner clock that's ticking that wants you to do that before winter," Crane said. "We're hoping people still come and do that."

The colors won't be so bright in some places. Felicia Fairchild, executive director of the Saugatuck/Douglas Convention and Visitors Bureau in southwestern Michigan, said some drought-stressed trees in her area dropped their leaves early.

But despite a less brilliant landscape and lack of apples, she expected bustling fall business in an area often called the "Art Coast of Michigan" because of Saugatuck and Douglas' art galleries, shopping and bed and breakfast inns along Lake Michigan.

"I don't think it's going affect our business at all, but it always adds to it if there's really beautiful foliage," Fairchild said.

Others in the industry took steps to ensure their fall seasons weren't a total loss.

Greg Hochstedler, who owns the 160-acre Boondocks Farms about 30 miles east of Indianapolis, canceled his corn maze this year because the June planting time coincided with sweltering 100-degree days and the worst drought in decades.

"It was too dry, too dusty. It would have been a waste of seed," Hochstedler said.

Instead, he's focused on hosting fall weddings to make up some of the revenue usually generated by about 5,000 people who pay to get turned around in the corn labyrinth.

The farm has held about a dozen weddings this fall at its 4,000-square foot pavilion, which has walls that can be rolled up to reveal views of the surrounding countryside.

"That's why we call it Boondocks Farms ? we're out in the boondocks," Hochstedler said.

Roney, the Indiana orchard owner, found a bright spot in his pumpkin patches, which were irrigated and emerged from the drought with a fine crop.

"We actually have one of the best pumpkin crops we've ever had as far size goes and quantity," Roney said. "I don't know why that is ? maybe they just liked the heat."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-10-08-Drought-Fall%20Tourism/id-9705d1a971454d9d9076a3597614a790

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