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The people behind the knife should be behind bars for life




Baby boys are being brutally tortured every 25 seconds in the United States.

Let’s not mince words about it. That’s what circumcision is – torture, sexual assault, genital mutilation, unconscionable child abuse, and possibly the worst violation of human rights in history.

The mother of an only-daughter, I really had no reason to research circumcision I had no idea of the horrors it entailed until recently. One of the moms in our peaceful-parenting play-date group enlightened me in the park last week. She sent me a few links, and I dove in. What a can of worms…

The video, produced by Animal Equality, an international animal rights organization, has gone viral with 35 million views on Facebook.

Depression is not a natural disease. It’s a disease caused by our high-stress, industrialized lifestyle, psychologist argues.

A couple of years ago, I came across a story about a mother who still breastfeeds her 5-year-old daughter. I’m not really sure why it was newsworthy, but people were shocked to discover a woman feeding her small child the same way all mammals have for millions of years.

All kinds of bloggers picked up the story, and busybodies left comments calling the dedicated mother every name in the book — “gross” … “disgusting” … “indecent” … “unnatural” … “sinister” … “perverse” … “what’s wrong with the world.”

The most disturbing accusations hurled at this woman were those of “pedophilia” and “child abuse.”

Cob or “adobe” houses are cheap, energy efficient, termite-proof, fire-proof, earthquake-resistant, non-toxic, beautiful and can last thousands of years.

Images of a cob house built for under $250 in England two years ago have been re-circulating the internet lately, inspiring tiny-house-enthusiasts and back-to-the-landers with hope that living off the grid on a low budget might not be too far out of reach.

“What’s your goal with this new website?” an old friend asked yesterday. “I have no idea,” I laughed nervously.

An ambitious and determined young man (whom I used to work with at a conservative “think tank”), he was not impressed. He is the kind of guy who is serious about “success,” about setting goals and achieving them, about moving the benchmark to new heights, about planning for a happy future.

“What do you mean ‘you have no idea!?'” he asked, laughing, but almost offended by my idiocy.

Agriculture is wiping out the world’s oldest hunter-gatherers

The Hadza have been living peacefully, happily and sustainably in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa for at least 100,000 years. Their home, around Lake Eyasi, in Tanzania, has been called “the cradle of mankind.” A Harvard anthropologist calls them “the strongest link” we have to 2 million years of human evolution. Thanks to the spread of agriculture to nearly every corner of the earth, that link is about to disappear.

With the help of teachers like Alan Watts, Osho and Eckhart Tolle, I discovered the secret to bliss about two years ago – living in the moment.

After a lifetime of religious indoctrination, this was a difficult concept to grasp. I’d always been taught to live for the moment was a sin. I was supposed to suffer now and live later, serve my time for the “Lord” and get my reward in heaven.