Epic Guide|Mostly Harmless

Thomas Merton was a trappist monk from the 60’s. He advocated social change. He led anti-war and anti-nuclear development movements. He met with the Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hanh to promote peace with people of other religions. He talked about the irony of the fact that Catholics were more concerned with birth control than the war. Maybe we should think about our priorities as a nation…Maybe the religious right should stop fighting gay marriage and start fighting for more important issues like poverty, war, and social justice. Maybe leftist thinkers should stop trying to attack Bush’s intelligence and integrity and offer some solutions to crisis relief, healthcare and education.

“We have only to open our eyes and look about us to see what our sins are doing to the world, and have done. But we cannot see. We are the ones to whom it is said by the prophets of God: ‘Hearing hear, and understand not; and see the vision, and know it not’”

- Thomas Merton

 Our sins have much to do with preoccupation.

The Seven Storey Mountain - Thomas Merton

The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living - Dalai Lama

 Peace Is Every Step : The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life - Thich Nhat Hanh

NEW YORK — Paul Tagliabue is retiring as NFL commissioner in July after more than 16 years on the job.

The 65-year-old commissioner has led the league since 1989, when he succeeded Pete Rozelle, and had recently signed a two-year contract extension to complete the television and labor deals.

He finally got that done 12 days ago, finishing the most arduous labor negotiations since the league and union agreed on a free agency-salary cap deal in 1992. - ESPN

I think that Tagliabue has done a great job.  Starting with the keeping the league together though some tough negotiations over the last few player deals.  He also needs to be commended for the toughest drug programs in all of sports.  It is great the NFL hasn’t had the same sort of issues as Major League Baseball.

These are the fish that Jon is so facinated about.

A great piece of art, the real look at American taxes. This is a great visual look at how much our government spends. I’m not surprised at the military spending, that is to be expected during a war, and after 911. It is much more disgusting how much our country spends on entitlements, so take a look.

Click on the Death and Taxes artwork to see a larger view.

Our best friend, T.O., Terrell Owens finds himself a new team. I will always remember the good old “place the ball on the star” move. It was always better than the “Sharpe” thing, and a lot better than the crap T.O. dished out to Philadelphia. The final word, Owens will help the Cowboys, and I think he’s tired of being the bad boy. Here’s a good ESPN story on T.O.

Basketball - man, the more I watch basketball, the more I wonder, “what am I doing with my time?” We’ll at least I didn’t pick Kansas to go deep. I do think that the Gonzaga guy is pretty good, and I have them going deep.

Brett Favre, I love the guy, but I think that he will retire.

Baseball - I’m tired of the World Baseball League of “Don’t Try To Hard”. How can they call themselves American when they lose to a bunch of teams, Canada, Korea, Mexico, and we stole a game from Japan. They don’t want to loose there pay check, but they don’t mind loosing respect.

Canada? How the hell do we loose a baseball game to Canada? Give me a break!

I love this photo of a USC cheeleader celebrating Texas’ touch down, especially with like 1000 people behind her saying “what the $%9%@ just happened?

Epic Guide’s coverage of the Ferrari Enzo on PCH, you can read the previous posts, Million-Dollar Ferrari Crashes in Malibu. More Twists and turn in the Malibu Crash

A videotape apparently shot from inside the rare $1 million Ferrari that crashed in Malibu last month may shed new light on who was actually driving the speeding sports car, it was reported Thursday - North County Times
The sources said that Ferrari owner Stefan Eriksson and the other man in the car, identified by authorities as Trevor Karney, had a video camera rolling as they raced on Pacific Coast Highway on the morning of Feb. 21 at speeds in excess of 162 mph. - KTLA

• Get the Facts about the Ferrari Enzo Crash

• Watch the Ferrari Crash Video
  

This is a Daily Randon Funny Picture.

Epicureanism is a philosophy based upon Epicurus teachings. The basis for the philosophy was in materialism, or the idea that the only true existence is in atomic matter, which would sharply contrast idealism.  Epicureanism philosophy died when Constantine approved Christianity.  One of the more famous modern day Epicurean idealists was our own, Tomas Jefferson, whose own tombstone states that he was for Religious Freedom, which may suggest, that he was not much of a Christian.

I do not think Epic Guide subscribes much to this philosophy, however, one of the main Epicurian tenants was that Epicurus and his followers shunned politics, which Epic Guide parallels in many ways.

• http://www.twinleaf.org/articles/jeffersonia.html
• http://www.monticello.org/reports/people/short.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicurian
• Epicurus Greek Guy
• Epicharmus, other  Greek Guy

Jeremy, here’s my response to your comment.

“Anno Domini (”In the Year of the Lord”), abbreviated as AD or A.D. defines an epoch based on the traditionally-reckoned year of the birth (or actually Incarnation) of Jesus of Nazareth.

This Christian era is currently dominant all around the world in both commercial and scientific use.

Presently, it is the common, international standard, recognised by international institutions such as the United Nations and the Universal Postal Union.
This is due both to the tradition and to the fact that the solar Gregorian calendar has long time been considered to be astronomically correct.

Further more, a monk invented the calendar, therefore, why should people strip the meaning out of the original work to suit their purpose? The original works include A.D. /B.C. If someone wants to rename it, they should make there own calendar.

The Anno Domini system was developed by a Scythian monk named Dionysius Exiguus in Rome in 525, as an outcome of his work on calculating the date of Easter. Byzantine chroniclers like Theophanes continued to date each year in their world chronicles on a different Judaeo-Christian basis — from the notional creation of the World as calculated by Christian scholars in the first five centuries of the Christian era. These eras, sometimes called Anno Mundi, “year of the world” (abbreviated AM), by modern scholars, had their own disagreements. No single Anno Mundi epoch was dominant. One popular formulation was that established by Eusebius of Caesarea, a historian at the time of Constantine I. The Latin translator Jerome helped popularize Eusebius’s AM count in the West. Another formulation, dominant in the East during the early centuries of the Byzantine Empire, was developed by the Alexandrian monk Anninus.