Wofford College to host presidential forum in October

Sam Harrelson on September 16, 2015

The school will host the Commander-in-Chief Presidential Forum, featuring Republican presidential candidates, from 7 to 9 p.m. on Oct. 15 in Leonard Auditorium. All major Republican candidates have been invited to participate in the event, part of the Hipp Lecture Series on International Affairs and National Security. The event is co-sponsored by the S.C. Republican Party, and will be moderated by former S.C. Gov. David Beasley. It will be free and open to the public.

Source: Wofford College to host presidential forum in October | GoUpstate.com

Go Wofford!

Now you can donate to a political candidate through a tweet. Why aren’t churches using this?

Sam Harrelson on September 15, 2015

We’ve teamed up with Square to enable anyone in the US to make a donation directly to a US candidate through a Tweet, starting today. This is the fastest, easiest way to make an online donation, and the most effective way for campaigns to execute tailored digital fundraising, in real time, on the platform where Americans are already talking about the 2016 election and the issues they are passionate about.

Source: Political donations, now through a Tweet | Twitter Blogs

I wonder if this will get any coverage during tomorrow night’s Republican Presidential Debate?

Regardless, you can also send me money at my “cashtag” if you’d like to test the system: $samharrelson.

But seriously… why don’t more churches and non-profits use this??

 

Of Mice and Men

Sam Harrelson on September 12, 2015

“The eighteen minutes that Joe Biden spoke with Stephen Colbert produced the most public and painful demonstration of emotional honesty by any politician in months, if not years. Biden could never speak in a campaign quite the way that he spoke on Colbert. But a version of that would be powerful, and it was impossible not to see, in the Biden interview, a rebuttal to Trump’s moment in America—to the notion of self-promotion as success, of cruelty as candor, of empathy as weakness.”

Source: Biden, Alone in a Crowd – The New Yorker

“I fully think apologizing is a great thing,” the famously self-assured Trump replied before winning the studio audience’s applause by adding: “But you have to be WRONG. … I will absolutely apologize sometime in the hopefully distant future if I’m ever wrong.”

Source: Donald Trump gets rich with his humorous ‘Tonight Show’ turn

Run, Joe.

U.S. Poverty Shifts Since 1960

Sam Harrelson on September 10, 2015

“Since President Lyndon B. Johnson launched the War on Poverty 50 years ago, the characteristics of the nation’s poor have changed: A larger share of poor Americans today are in their prime working years and fewer are elderly. In addition, those in poverty are disproportionately children and people of any age who are black, Hispanic or both.

But perhaps just as striking is that the geographic distribution of the poor has changed dramatically, too. A new Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data finds that the South continues to be home to many of America’s poor, though to a lesser degree than a half-century ago. In 1960, half (49%) of impoverished Americans lived in the South. By 2010, that share had dropped to 41%.”

Source: How the geography of U.S. poverty has shifted since 1960 | Pew Research Center

Thinking Religion: Jesus on the Kinsey Scale

Sam Harrelson on September 3, 2015

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Thomas Whitley and Sam Harrelson discuss the Prayer of Jabez, Sex and the Bible, pansexuality, the Pope’s new chair, and why Islam isn’t limited to the originating text.

Source: Thinking Religion: Jesus on the Kinsey Scale | Thinking.FM

Follow Up:

Show Notes:

Resurrect My Soul

Sam Harrelson on September 1, 2015

It turns out that the problem of wisdom is not easy to solve. Acquiring it is dangerous. The individual who pursues true insight is, to use Nietzsche’s phrase (though the perception goes back at least as far as Plato), untimely. That is, he strives to be ahead of his time in his perceptions, albeit sometimes basing his thoughts on the intellectual achievements of the past. He is out of joint with his moment, and the result often is the enmity of others. People do not like his ideas, which seem to be an indictment of the way they are living. The thinker is a walking criticism of the lives of the rest, as Socrates showed. He paid with his life.

Source: Why We Need to Resurrect Our Souls

Working on an episode of Thinking Daily now with this as the soapbox.

1 in 7 people on earth used Facebook on Monday

Sam Harrelson on August 27, 2015

We just passed an important milestone. For the first time ever, one billion people used Facebook in a single day.

On Monday, 1 in 7 people on Earth used Facebook to connect with their friends and family.

A more open and connected world is a better world. It brings stronger relationships with those you love, a stronger economy with more opportunities, and a stronger society that reflects all of our values.

Source: Mark Zuckerberg – We just passed an important milestone. For the…

Of course, that means 6 in 7 people on earth didn’t use Facebook.

That means that there are lots of people who choose not to use Facebook in the developed world.

More critically, that means there are many people in our world that don’t have access to the internet or devices that can access the web (or Facebook if you please).

Companies are working to crack this nut for their own bottom lines but also the improvement of humanity. Access to information and the ability to communicate near instantaneously with someone on the other side of our planet (and eventually beyond) will be an amazing issue to cover in the coming decades.

It’s incumbent upon all of us now to make sure the internet is as welcoming and transformative as it should be for everyone (whether old or new user).

“The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.”

Sam Harrelson on August 11, 2015

I got into a discussion today with someone from an opposing politician’s team, I think. I was using my script, and I think he was using a script, too. Answers from a can. It felt weird to have a futile discussion between liars. I wonder what that person really believes? Anyway, I just thought people should know not to take the political things they read on here too seriously. If you want to have a genuine discussion about that, keep it in person or on facebook where you know the people you’re talking to. If you’re doing it on an anonymous forum, you’re probably being marketed to.

Source: I get Paid to Chat on Reddit : offmychest

#advancedgaming

 

Is Apple Supporting Terrorism?

Sam Harrelson on July 31, 2015

“Wittes and Bedell argue that Apple’s decision to “move aggressively to implement end-to-end encrypted systems, and indeed to boast about them” after being “publicly and repeatedly warned by law enforcement at the very highest levels that ISIS is recruiting Americans” — in part through the use of encrypted messaging apps — could make the company liable if “an ISIS recruit uses exactly this pattern to kill some Americans.”

Source: Obama Administration War Against Apple and Google Just Got Uglier

The wars of the future will be fought between increasingly archaic nation states and corporate states just as the Glorious Revolution and the French Revolution (and in part the American Revolution) signaled the decline of monarchies in Europe.

Civilians Using Handguns in Self Defense

Sam Harrelson on July 28, 2015

The NRA likes the idea of training so much that it’s floated the idea of mandatory firearms training for school children. On the other hand, it’s opposed laws requiring mandatory training for gun purchases. Many states allow concealed carry without any training or permit for people as young as 16. Most states don’t require gun owners or purchasers to even be licensed, much less trained. And a handful, like Arizona, have passed laws prohibiting localities from imposing their own training requirements.

Source: Watch what happens when regular people try to use handguns in self-defense – Washington Post

I grew up around guns in our home and the homes of my friends (and the occasional gun rack on the back glass of pickups), and hunting culture. I understand the sentiment that guns are tools and can be used for evil just like any other tool. What I don’t understand is the resistance from some groups to legislate mandatory licensing and training (similar to what we do with automobiles).

If you’re really of the “government wants to take away our guns” so we need to hold up the 2nd amendment as our way to preserve freedom persuasion, I’d argue that a citizenry that is licensed and trained to handle firearms is a much bigger threat to “the government” than the current situation.