May 2009 Archives
This is EXTREME Bizarro World.
What is compassionate about two terms which resulted in a quagmire in the middle east with millions dead, maimed or homeless, and a near-depression that is resulting in foreclosures, teacher layoffs and other misery?
Even Clarence Thomas has written that he is "empathic" and David Brooks writes in the NY Times that a judge without empathy cannot be objective, but here is an opposing viewpoint from the Wall Street Journal. Conservatives are divided on "empathy" - not their strong point in the first place.
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | understanding |
| Synonyms: | affinity, appreciation, being on same wavelength, being there for someone,communion, community of interests,compassion, comprehension, concord, cottoning to, good vibrations, hitting it off, insight, picking up on, pity, rapport, recognition, responsiveness, soul, sympathy, warmth |
| Notes: | empathy denotes a deep emotional understanding of another's feelings or problems, while sympathy is more general and can apply to small annoyances or setbacks sympathy means the stimulation in a person of feelings that are similar in kind to those that affect another person; empathy means a mental or affective projection into the feelings or state of mind of another person |
| Antonyms: | apathy, misunderstanding, unfeelingness |
In the United States, Christian Fundamentalists such as the Falwell-inspired culture police at Liberty University are in the news, as when they forbid students from affiliating with the Democratic Party. A commencement speech by the Christian President is considered controversial, as is his appearance, at a Catholic University, because of a moral issue. This very President was widely criticized for having the middle name Hussein and for having lived in a Muslim country and for having Muslim relatives.
Church has increasingly encroached on State to the extent where one candidate came from a Christian belief system which is heretical to the Pentecostal Church and which believes the earth is less than 5000 years old. A popular female pundit who professes to be a Christian uses hate speech routinely and advocates violence, along with the belief that all Jews and Muslims must convert to Christianity or die. At least there are millions of moderate Christians who would find much of the above abominable and who prefer to live in peaceful coexistence with those of other faiths or beliefs. At least that is my hope.
Don’t sow thorns; for they will prick your feet
If you shoot arrows at others,
Know that the same arrow will come back to hit you.
Don’t dig a well in another’s path,
In case you come to the well’s edge
You look at everyone with hungry eyes
But you will be first to become mere dirt.
Humans are all one body,
Whoever tortures another, wounds himself.
Silenced Majority Portal also.
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