Saturday, February 28, 2009

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Obama Attends Wizards Game, Watches Them Defeat His Hometown Bulls Top
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama took a break from politics Friday to sit courtside at a basketball game between his hometown team Chicago Bulls and the Washington Wizards. Obama's been on a winning streak in politics, but that didn't help his Bulls. The president pumped his fist and grinned when the Bulls scored some of their points. But he was largely subdued, clapping politely, with his Chicago team losing for much of the game. Obama left the match early with about four minutes remaining _ and his hometown team trailing about 17 points. Though he has called himself a fan of the Bulls, Obama got a hearty welcome from Wizards fans when he arrived at the Verizon Center. Officials slightly delayed the game, waiting for his entrance. Once he entered, fans gave him a standing ovation and flashed their cameras. Obama sat courtside across the court from the Wizards in seats that are usually taken by season ticket holders. White House senior adviser David Axelrod chose his seat in another section right before Obama entered. Once the game was under way, Obama chatted much of the time with a Chicago friend, and shook hands with fans as they passed in front of him. He stayed in his courtside seat for most of the game, but he left with 47.8 seconds left in the first half to make a visit to Wizards owner Abe Pollin's suite. Obama returned to his seat by the court in the second half. Obama got up to leave with just under 4 1/2 minutes left, not staying to endure the 113-90 final score of the winning Wizards. Obama had already welcomed the Bulls into town Thursday, when the team visited him at the White House and presented him with a jersey. ___ Associated Press writer Howard Fendrich contributed to this report. More on Barack Obama
 
Warren Buffett Admits To Major Mistake In Annual Berkshire Letter Top
OMAHA, Neb. — Billionaire Warren Buffett says he made at least one major investing mistake last year by buying a large amount of ConocoPhillips stock when oil and gas prices were near their peak. The famous investor recounted his errors in his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders released Saturday morning. Berkshire increased its stake in ConocoPhillips from 17.5 million shares in 2007 to 84.9 million shares at the end of 2008. Buffett says he did not anticipate last year's dramatic fall in energy prices, so his decision cost Berkshire shareholders several billion dollars. Buffett says he also spent $244 million on stock in two Irish banks that appeared cheap. But since then, he's had to write down the value of those purchases to $27 million. ___ On the Net: Berkshire Hathaway Inc.: http://www.berkshirehathaway.com More on Warren Buffett
 
Lindsay Lohan And Sam Ronson's Mid-Air Makeout Session Top
On our Virgin Atlantic flight from Los Angeles to London, we were just a few seats away from the loved-up couple - and we didn't know where to look as they kissed, cuddled and giggled their way through most of the 10-hour flight. At one point we even caught 22-year-old LiLo texting sweet nothings to DJ Sam on her in-flight entertainment handset - despite sitting eight inches away from her. We weren't the only passengers to witness their amorous antics. An elderly couple celebrating their 44th wedding anniversary were stunned when Lindsay gave 30-year-old Sam a passionate kiss. More on Lindsay Lohan
 
No Doubt To Perform On "Gossip Girl" Top
No Doubt, the rock band that Gwen Stefani fronted before embarking on her solo career, will make an appearance on the teen-friendly series "Gossip Girl" on May 11, performing Adam and the Ants' "Stand and Deliver," the group announced on its website. The show airs at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT on the CW. More on Gossip Girl
 
Will Bunch: Obama's Plan Is About Dreams, Not Dollars Top
Except for that election thing last November (oh yeah, and that primary thing earlier last year) I guess President Barack Obama just can't win. For the first month of his presidency, his critics said that by telling the truth about the devastated U.S. economy, he was spreading way too much gloom, that he was scaring consumers away from spending and businesses away from investing. Then on Tuesday, Obama delivered an address to a joint session of Congress , and it wasn't just audacious -- the man did write a book called "The Audacity of Hope," remember? -- but downright bodacious. He told America that we can cure cancer, harness energy from the wind and from the sun, and send more of our children to college than any other nation. And so those same cynics who just said the new president was too doomy and gloomy now asked: Oh yeah, and how to plan to pay for all of that hope? Which is why the poor guy just can't win. Specifically, the Wall Street Journal: " How's he going to pay for it ?" Newt Gingrich said he actually liked Obama's rhetoric but in the next breath calls it a " higher-tax, weaker-economy, fewer-jobs " blueprint. Matt Drudge seems to have ceased being...well, whatever Matt Drudge is exactly, to become a mathmatician, informing us all that Obama wants to spend $11,833 for every man, woman and child in America , that he wants to raise taxes by $1 trillion. None of them seemed to be listening to what the speech was really about on Tuesday, because it wasn't really about dollars at all. It was about dreams. Just take one of the most talked-about passages of the speech, where the president said that we "will launch a new effort to conquer a disease that has touched the life of nearly every American, including me, by seeking a cure for cancer in our time." Some ridiculed the line as out-of-place, over-the-top. The Politico quipped , sort of, that Obama "laid out an agenda Tuesday that would do just about everything but cure cancer.Actually, he promised to try that too." Right-wing bloggers were much more harsh. It's true -- Barack Obama cannot cure cancer. By as president, he has the power to do something else that's almost as amazing: To help America to dream big again. Curing cancer is incredibly important, but the real goal is to convince America that we are still the kind of can-do nation that can virtually wipe out a disease, just as we were the nation that put the first man on the moon, invented the computer and then went out and created rock 'n' roll just for fun. My generation, Barack Obama's generation, was born into a nation that thought it could do anything, only to watch that fade in a matter of a few short decades -- finally crushed, seemingly, by a sledgehammer of addition to foreign oil, Wall Street hucksters, and evan cynical torturers. Remember President John K. Kennedy? On May 25, 1961, he told America : "First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth." Our new president was just three months old when JFK uttered those words, a prediction that came true thanks to a massive effort, supported by government yet creating thousands of jobs in private industries (as well as some vital down-to-earth high technology). And it gave the nation something else: A lofty goal...and a common purpose. Did you hear echoes of Kennedy when Obama said on Tuesday : "By 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world." Because I did. I heard a dream. Over the last three decades, we've all been grappling with the meaning of the American Dream, the meaning of hope. I learned this over the last year as I researched my new book, " Tear Down This Myth: How the Reagan Legacy Has Distorted Our Politics and Haunts Our Future ." A key to the Reagan myth was that the 40th president -- who told Americans reeling from stagflation and a hostage crisis overseas -- told the nation frequently that " America's best days lie ahead ." His audience was receptive -- but under his Randian, government-is-the-problem philosophy it was a quick and slippery slope from Reagan's so-called sunny optimism to rampant consumerism, to magical thinking that there is plenty of oil and no need for energy research. America's best days were really rooted in the common purpose of something like the moon mission, something that was lost under Reaganism , especially as practiced by wayward disciple George W. Bush. Make no mistake, Obama believes in honest accounting and he seems sincere about sharply reducing the deficit once our economic crisis has passed . But inherently he knows that it in a weird kind of way it may not matter a great deal in the long run if the deficit is $500 billion or $10 trillion, that America is worthless without our capacity to dream, to set impossibly lofty goals and then achieve them. And why wouldn't he know that, since he knows that the dreams of another man , Dr. Martin Luther King, were so important in getting him to the position he is in now. Times change, issues change. We've been to the moon and we've marched slowly toward racial equality. But to be America, we will still all need to learn to dream, all over again. More on Barack Obama
 
Plane Makes Emergency Landing In Romania Top
TIMISOARA, Romania — A Romanian plane carrying 51 people made a safe emergency landing in western Romania on Saturday and all the occupants escaped injury, officials said. The Carpatair flight's front landing gear became stuck and the plane circled Timisoara International Airport for almost two hours, using up its fuel to avoid a potential fire before it landed on a 200-yard (200-meter) long bed of foam laid out by firefighters, officials said. At least 10 ambulances and three fire engines were waiting for the stricken plane, the emergency department said. Dan Andrei, the airline's vice president, said, "the plane came down on the side wheels; it braked sharply and at a low speed it came on its front belly, while the front landing gear remained stuck." The company said the two Moldovan pilots _ Iurie Oleacov, 37, and Leonid Babischi, 47 _were highly experienced. "We did our job without feeling like heroes," Oleacov told journalists later. "We weren't scared, we are trained for these kinds of situations. ... All the passengers are OK. They were calm." He said the two pilots first knew they had problems with the landing gear about six miles (10 kilometers) from the airport and alerted the aviation authorities there. The Saab 2000 aircraft was carrying 47 passengers and four crew members on its flight from the Moldovan capital, Chisinau, to Timisoara, airport spokeswoman Carmen Stoica said. Romanian border police, who deal with international customs, said the plane was carrying 11, Romanians, 23 Moldovans, nine Italians, two Greeks and two Germans. The crew is Moldovan. Timisoara ambulance chief Iancu Leonida said no one was hurt, but people were very frightened. "There are no injured people, although some might have minor scratches, but they are very scared and traumatized," he said. "They are being given medical care." Realitatea TV broadcast footage of passengers hugging and kissing people who had come to meet them at the airport. One unidentified female passenger with gray hair and tears in her eyes told the TV the passengers did not know about the landing gear and had thought there was a problem with ice and fog. The airport was closed for 2 1/2 hours Saturday morning after the incident. A Romanian Transportation Ministry team arrived in Timisoara to investigate the incident.
 
Dying Jade Goody Checks Into Hospice Top
LONDON — The spokesman for reality television star Jade Goody says she will be spending the weekend in a hospice in eastern England after suffering hallucinations. Spokesman Max Clifford says Goody went to the St. Clare Hospice in Essex late Friday night to allow doctors to correct the balance of drugs for her cancer treatment. Clifford says she is expected to stay for a few days. Goody last weekend got married in a televised wedding extravaganza that helped transform the brash 27-year old from a much-mocked star to an exemplar of bravery following her cancer diagnosis. Doctors say Goody only has weeks to live. She decided to sell the rights to her wedding and earn as much as possible to fund her sons' education.
 
Obama To Lobbyists: I'm Ready To Fight (VIDEO) Top
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama challenged the nation's vested interests to a legislative duel Saturday, saying he will fight to change health care, energy and education in dramatic ways that will upset the status quo. "The system we have now might work for the powerful and well-connected interests that have run Washington for far too long," Obama said in his weekly radio and video address. "But I don't. I work for the American people." He said his ambitious budget plan, unveiled Thursday, will help millions of Americans, but only if Congress overcomes resistance from deep-pocket lobbies. "I know these steps won't sit well with the special interests and lobbyists who are invested in the old way of doing business, and I know they're gearing up for a fight," Obama said, using tough-guy language reminiscent of his predecessor, George W. Bush. "My message to them is this: So am I." Some analysts say Obama's proposals are almost radical. But he said all of them were included in his campaign promises. "It is the change the American people voted for in November," he said. Nonetheless, he said, well-financed interest groups will fight back furiously. Insurance companies will dislike having "to bid competitively to continue offering Medicare coverage, but that's how we'll help preserve and protect Medicare and lower health care costs," the president said. "I know that banks and big student lenders won't like the idea that we're ending their huge taxpayer subsidies, but that's how we'll save taxpayers nearly $50 billion and make college more affordable. I know that oil and gas companies won't like us ending nearly $30 billion in tax breaks, but that's how we'll help fund a renewable energy economy." Passing the budget, even with a Democratic-controlled Congress, "won't be easy," Obama said. "Because it represents real and dramatic change, it also represents a threat to the status quo in Washington." Congressional Republicans continued to bash Obama's spending proposals and his projection of a $1.75 trillion deficit this year. Almost every day brings another "multibillion-dollar government spending plan being proposed or even worse, passed," said Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., who gave the GOP's weekly address. He said Obama is pushing "the single largest increase in federal spending in the history of the United States, while driving the deficit to levels that were once thought impossible." ___ On the Net: Obama address: http://www.whitehouse.gov More on Obama Budget
 
Jennifer Lopez And Marc Anthony Sue Over Baby Carriage Ad Top
LOS ANGELES — Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony have filed a federal lawsuit against the makers of high-end baby carriages over the unauthorized use of their images. The couple filed the suit Wednesday in U.S. District Court against Silver Cross, saying use of their images on the Silver Cross Web site to market the carriages has caused irreparable damage to both Lopez's and Anthony's public images. They also maintain there's harm to Lopez's production company as well as her product and apparel lines. The couple believe they have suffered in excess of $5 million, which they are seeking in addition to both a preliminary and permanent injunction against Silver Cross. After-hours phone calls seeking comment went unreturned.
 
Bruce Willis Sued For $4 Million Top
LOS ANGELES — Actor Bruce Willis and his production company are being sued in Los Angeles for $4 million for breach of contract. The lawsuit filed Friday alleges Willis Brother Films agreed on a contract with three companies to produce the feature film "Three Stories About Joan," which Willis was to star in and direct. The lawsuit alleges that on Sept. 29 Willis quit as director without notice in violation of the agreement. Phone calls to Willis' publicist and attorney were not immediately returned. Henry Gradstein, attorney for the companies suing Willis, says the courts will resolve the matter. He had no further comment. The plaintiffs include Foresight Unlimited, Signature Entertainment Group and Three Stories Productions.
 
Anne Naylor: 3 Keys To Personal Accountability And Creating A Better Life Top
"Some favorite expressions of small children: "It's not my fault. . . They made me do it. . . I forgot." Some favorite expressions of adults: "It's not my job. . . No one told me. . . It couldn't be helped." True freedom begins and ends with personal accountability." Dan Zadra Last weekend, I woke up to a beautiful sunny morning. Over my coffee, I read a friend's blog and in it the link to a video, showing in clear and graphic detail the enormity of the global economic crisis. My heart sank. My stomach felt leaden. Could this news item ruin my day? Do you ever feel like this - overwhelmed and darkened by the news? I chose to close up the computer and go out for a walk in the fresh air. My mood changed. I felt better. I got on with the day and enjoyed it. Had I not made the move, I could well have spiraled down into apportioning blame and finding fault with those who seem responsible for the financial mess - politicians, business leaders, bankers - making myself more miserable in the process. There are things outside of myself over which I have no control. What choices do I have? 1. We are not accountable for what happens beyond our control. We can choose how we respond to it. "I am responsible. Although I may not be able to prevent the worst from happening, I am responsible for my attitude toward the inevitable misfortunes that darken life. Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have - life itself." Walter Anderson So what is this gift of life that we have? In the chapter Exercising Freedom of my last book, SuperYou: Be The Best You Can Become , I was exploring the fears that drive addictions, compulsions, obsessions and aversions. On the final edit, it came to me that the greatest fear we have is that of getting in touch with our deepest feelings of love. We are each of us richly endowed with a gift of love that sustains us throughout our lives. 2. Loving ourselves is the basis for personal accountability. I believe that many of us are more powerful than we dare to imagine. In Russell Bishop's article on accountability , he invites us to consider the possibility that we create, promote or allow everything that happens to us. If that were so, how can we learn from our mistakes of the past? With love, we would not punish ourselves. We would treat ourselves kindly, with compassion, as we would a dearly loved child, then make wiser choices for the future. Learning comes more easily with love. The past is over. There is nothing you can do to change the past. With love, you can forgive the past - and be free not to repeat old mistakes. We were born with eyes in the front of our heads. If we were meant to live in the past, with blame and fault-finding, we might have eyes in the back of our heads. We are designed to move forwards. Our bodies are articulated better for forward movement. We can create the future we truly want. Yes, we can. 3. We can create a better life - for ourselves and others. "Become a possibilitarian. No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see possibilities - always see them for they're always there." Norman Vincent Peale Yesterday afternoon, after several hours slaving over a hot computer, I went out for a walk along the sea front. A sunny afternoon. School half term. Kids on roller blades, skate boards, bicycles, tricycles, scooters, some of them moving at considerable speed. Walking along was quite hazardous. Then I got to thinking: what an amazing and life changing invention - the wheel. Further along on my walk, I came to where a software group is holding a congress. Huge posters everywhere announcing: Virtually Anything Is Possible . Amazing how life can echo our thoughts. They say that necessity is the mother of invention. What are some ideas you have for changing and improving things around you? In my last week's post, Pupadup4oBama commented: My husband and I are both currently unemployed...but I feel like I have so many ideas about what I want and can do. It's exciting and scary, but that's what makes it exciting. Here speaks a Possibilitarian. One of my Possible Dreams is to communicate, through speaking and writing, my vision for a happier, healthier, wealthier world. One of the steps I am taking is writing these posts. This is a great time for magnificent Dreams - what are yours? I would love to learn about visions you have, and how you are making them happen in your life. "Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in, forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day, you shall begin it well and serenely..." Ralph Waldo Emerson Anne offers Clear Results Consultations to people facing turning points in their lives and gives monthly Possible Dream Meetings. A pdf copy of the Clear Results Self-Assessment is available on request; and a pdf copy of the Guidelines for Possible Dream Meetings that can be run in any home. I would love to hear from you, either as a comment here or contact me at Clear Results : More on Health
 
Julia Moulden: How To Make A Good Living (Even In A Recession) Top
Kevin Jones is one of the good guys. Not the kind with the white Stetson pushed back on his head ambling into town to save the day. A modern-day hero who's leading us out of the wild west and into the new world. Kevin is a social entrepreneur. What's that? Someone who applies the approaches and spirit of the entrepreneur - things like innovation, leadership, tenacity, risk-taking, and vision - to help drive social change. Rather than focusing exclusively on making money, these entrepreneurs are driven to achieve social goals - like helping people start small businesses and secure access to health care, education, and clean water. I wrote about social entrepreneurs last week. Kevin co-founded Good Capital [ goodcap.net ], a firm that invests in social enterprises and gives them the tools and guidance they need to succeed. He's also the brains behind Social Capital Markets (SoCap), the world's first conference to bring institutional and individual investors together with social entrepreneurs. "We're bringing foundations, development agencies, and social venture funds together, to get them out of their silos and into a space where they can see what each other is doing, and how they might work together." This year, the conference happens in San Francisco on September 1 - 3. [ socialcapitalmarkets.net ] And now Kevin is going to the Skoll World Forum. Held at Oxford University in March, the Forum been called "Davos for social entrepreneurs." Kevin will be part of a panel on "Innovations in Social Finance." I'll be writing about the conference [ skollworldforum.com ] -- including how you can observe sessions and read about what's going on in real time -- and the organization behind it, the Skoll Foundation [ skollfoundation.org ] Kevin is also inspiring others to find their own way into this exciting work. He told me that there were a lot of men and women at the first SoCap conference who were looking at their careers in new ways. "People are asking if they can have a bigger impact - baby boomers, for instance, are wondering if there's something more meaningful." And what about younger people? "There are lots of registrants who were in their early thirties who are wondering whether working for Goldman Sachs or McKinsey is the only option, or if there's another way to go if you want a career in finance," he adds. He says that there are lots of emerging opportunities for people who want to work in social finance and social entrepreneurship (including a growing number of funds), and that the field is only going to expand. "From what I can see, this downturn is an opportunity," he says. "The previous way of doing business has fallen apart so catastrophically that people are incredibly open to new ideas." Which brings me to how Kevin became a New Radical (New Radicals are people who've discovered ways to leverage their skills and put them to work on the world's greatest challenges, for more, please see archived articles ). "I was a successful entrepreneur and was about to start my latest venture when my 21-year-old daughter asked me 'What's your life about, dad?'" That question sent him on a voyage of self discovery -- "I wanted to be able to answer the question in a way that was meaningful to both her and me" -- that included sitting on not-for-profit boards. Then, he did some direct service, working with Columbia University's Jeffrey Sachs in Mozambique . "Both experiences were important work, and gratifying in real ways," Kevin told me. "But I came to realize that neither was a good fit for a fast-moving serial entrepreneur." Kevin began to ask himself what his skills were. "I realized that I'm the kind of person who can get attention and attract capital and I understand business. And that I wanted to use these talents in whatever I was going to do next." Then, out of the blue, the phrase "social enterprise" appeared on his radar. It was his Eureka moment, and he hasn't looked back. • Spirit of National Service One of the best ways for an emerging New Radical to get experience, gain an understanding of a new sector, and discover which skills are in high demand is, as Kevin's example shows, to do some direct service. If you caught President Obama's speech to the Joint Sessions of Congress, you may have noticed his call for an expansion of voluntary service opportunities. ServiceNation is a great starting point for your search. [ bethechangeinc.org and servicenation.org ] Please share your thoughts on social entrepreneurship, New Radicals, and how you might make a "good" living by commenting below. Or email me at julia@wearethenewradicals.com. Julia Moulden's new book is called, "We Are The New Radicals, A Manifesto for Reinventing Yourself and Saving the World." She has written speeches for North America's leaders since 1985. More on President Obama
 
Tara Stiles: Yogi In The War Zone Top
I started talking with Justin Blazejewski on Facebook, where I meet most of the quality people I connect with these days. I was doing a free yoga class in Central Park last summer and Justin was trying to make it. He was doing the Dharma Mittra teacher training program at the time. Dharma is one of my heroes. Any student of his is a friend of mine. Clicking through Justin's Facebook pictures, I found two categories that are pretty common among people who practice yoga: pictures with your friends hanging out, and yoga pose pictures, usually taken in fun public places. Justin has a bunch of good time pictures with his pals, mostly adorable girls. Then there are the yoga pictures, many of them at the beach, where a big percentage of Facebook yoga pictures seem to wind up. Justin didn't opt for a simple tree pose or meditation picture. His shots are mostly super-complicated backbend poses, including one in Ganda Bherundasana. That means he's lying on his stomach, with his feet coming over to rest on his head. It's a tricky one. (See photo.) Dharma Mittra students often have incredibly flexible spines. Maybe it's an emphasis on certain poses Dharma teaches. I think it also has to do with the openness, compassion and unconditional love that Dharma shows his students. In turn they have a way of broadcasting it to everyone they contact. More evidence that our bodies are the product of our behaviors and our thoughts. Or even that all three are really the same thing. Openness coupled with unconditional love has an interesting physical benefit, more room in the spine and insane back bending ability. On the other side, closing off to others closes off your own body. It starts in your shoulders and your spine, and creates pain, which is no good. Another reason to be nice! Justin never made it to my Central Park summer class. But he got back in touch after I opened Strala on 5th and 22nd, conveniently close to Dharma's school on 3rd and 23rd. We messaged back and forth a few more times, and I think we almost ran into each other on the street once, but there still was no yoga exchanged. I had an instinct to message Justin a few weeks ago to see if he wanted to come by for a class. A regular yoga practice has taught me to listen to my instincts more. He replied rather quickly, like all good Facebook addicts. He told me he had just returned from Afghanistan that morning. A yogi in the war zone? What? This is a story I had to hear firsthand. I asked Justin if he would let me talk to him in person about his experiences with yoga and the war. He said he was coming to the city for a week (he lives in DC) to take Dharma's classes, and he'd happily stop by the studio to speak with me. Justin is a good-looking all-American kid. (see photo) His posture is perfect, not like a rigid soldier, more like a relaxed but attentive yogi. Any weirdness you might expect from a New York yoga-type was completely absent. Justin was simply who he is, and completely transparent. He was refreshingly unaffected and kind. And that's what yoga is about anyway, being the best version of you. Self-realization. Justin seemed to radiate all of that so simply, even upon first meeting. Justin has been to Afghanistan and Iraq seven times in the last year. He was born Jan 11, 1979, grew up in Buffalo New York, enlisted in the Marines when he was 18, and is now a Senior Field Engineer for Raytheon. He gets hired to fix satellites on military bases. They like him for the job because of his double qualification as a Marine and an engineer. Justin travels to bases, fixes satellites, and knows what to do when they get attacked. "Which happens," he explained to me as simply and calmly as I would ask him "Would you like a glass of water?" Justin's started practicing yoga a few years ago. He practiced Tae Kwon Do for years and his teacher taught him yoga poses. At the time he thought they were just stretches. He had a lower back injury that needed surgery. Instead Justin started yoga classes, which healed the injury and pain. He took a Dharma Mittra class, felt drawn to Dharma, and wanted to be around that kind of yoga. He came back from a mission with some cash, bought himself a flat screen and signed up for the Dharma Mittra teacher training, not really knowing if his intent to teach, or simply deepen his practice. I was dying to ask Justin how he felt about yoga and war. Did his yoga practice help him deal with stress? Did he teach yoga at the bases in Afghanistan and Iraq? I wanted to hear his thoughts in general about the war, and where it is going. What he told me next, I'll never forget. "Yoga has taught me to kill with compassion." He delivered the statement simply. I had to take a moment to wrap my head around it. He said so many of the guys fighting are killing with hate and fear. He has learned in the moment before he needs to kill someone in combat, how to love that person fully, unconditionally. Um...wow. I wasn't expecting that one. We read lines like this in books. Justin is field-testing it. I was expecting something more along the lines of yoga helping deal with stress and anxiety. He says it helps with that too. He told me how he would go to the roof of the base to meditate. One of those times a rocket flew close by his head without hurting him. He says if he can meditate in that kind of environment, then it's doing good things for him. I asked Justin how he practiced yoga while he was in the war zone, and if he taught others. Justin explained what he was doing as planting the seed in people. He said, "They can see my calm and peace and my connection with God and they want to know how they can be the same way." We talked about religion and yoga. He understands yoga not as a religion, but a practice at realizing who you really are. That is powerful. Justin said he likes to mess with friends on his Facebook page by changing his religious views to God, then Jesus, then Krishna, then Shiva, and on and on. They're all the same. Justin said he's careful with how he talks about his yoga to each person. Everyone is different. Everyone's world is different. If he talks about yoga in terms of God to his Jewish friends they flip out and argue with him. So he finds a way without using the word God. When he talks to his Catholic Mom and sisters about Krishna, they are worried he is in a cult. So he leaves out the mythology. Justin practices in a space where people can see him, so if they want to join they can. Often it will turn into an informal class with Justin teaching some poses and breathing techniques. Justin studies his approach and language of teaching just as much as the practice. He explains how he can reach soldiers dealing with post traumatic stress in a way that the "experts" can not. Justin can understand what the've been through because he's been through it. He can also teach them how to deal because he has found a way through yoga. Justin explained to me how they have no release of the pain, death, and fear. He said he's teaching them to let go of it with yoga practices. That's amazing. I was on the edge of my seat to hear Justin's views on mixing yoga and non-violence with war and violence. His stories and reflections once again were completely unexpected. He told me he has difficulties talking about war and his role in it to some of his yoga friends who believe only in non-violence. Justin reflected and researched if it was possible to be a Brahman (a yogi) and a warrior (a soldier). In history and mythology there are many examples of both, but Justin wondered where he fit in. Justin told me how the Brahman's karma is to practice yoga. Their whole life they will meditate and practice yoga and non-violence. But without warriors to protect them, the Brahmans would have no land on which to practice. Justin explained how present day is similar. He paralleled the story of the Brahmans to how yogis are able to exist in New York City practicing non-violence and peaceful living. But we need warriors to protect us, or our freedoms might not continue forever. Justin identifies with the stories of warriors. He has a tattoo of Arjuna on his right wrist. In Hindu mythology, Arjuna was a master archer and played a central role in the conflict between the Pandavas and the Kauravas. Arjuna was reluctant to take part in the battle because of the slaughter he knew he would cause, which included many of his relatives. He was persuaded by Lord Krishna to change his mind. Lord Krishna and Arjuna talked about issues involved in war, courage, a warrior's duty, the nature of human life and the soul, and the role of Gods. Justin reads and absorbs the classic texts, citing the Bhagavad Gita as one of his guides. He likes to take in the texts in their purest form, and he's not a fan of too many interpretations. Arjuna embedded in Justin's wrist makes perfect sense. His contemplations are similar in their depths, and bring clarity into his present. I asked Justin how he felt the war in Afghanistan is going and when and how does he see it ending. I don't know what I expected to hear, maybe something about a time table and strategy. Again Justin's answers surprised me with humanity and compassion, leading our talk in a completely different direction. Justin talked a bit about corruption in Pakistan and terrorist safe havens, but I realized that war strategy updates weren't the best thing I could extract from our talk. Unlike what we can read and watch about Afghanistan, Justin's stories haven't been drilled into our minds in the form of sound bites. He described the tired and weathered faces of the Afghan people and how for the first time, in his experience, he is seeing hope shine from their eyes. In an interview with Rachel Maddow, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said the same thing about seeing hope for the first time in the Afghan people. Justin told me about the young girls playing without burkas in the streets. Some of the older women still wear them but Justin says it's because they are just accustomed to it. They wouldn't feel comfortable changing now. I asked Justin what he plans to do now? He said he is tired of traveling for now. He said he met a great girl. He wants to spend some time hanging with her and practicing yoga. More on Yoga
 
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