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Sunday Stillness March 29, 2020Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Bhakti, Changing Perspectives, Depression, Dharma, Faith, Gratitude, Healing Stories, Hope, Life, Loss, Love, Meditation, Mysticism, Pain, Peace, Poetry, Suffering, Tragedy, Wisdom, Writing, Yoga.
Tags: Guy Johnston, Hilary Tann, meditation, R. S. Thomas, Sabbath, Savasana, stillness, Sunday, yoga
4 comments
"Moments of great calm,
Kneeling before an alter
Of wood in a stone church"
– from "Kneeling" by R. S. Thomas, with accompanying music composed by Hilary Tann, featuring Guy Johnston
From the very moment we are born, we are moving towards stillness. Since the practice is a reflection of life (and "how we do yoga is how we do life"), it makes sense that the moment we hit the mat…we are moving towards stillness. Savasana, the seat of the corpse or Dead Man's Pose, is the peak pose for almost every practice – even when it is not advertised as such – and despite the t-shirts, it is the pose that most often gets skipped (or shorted).
So, what are we missing?
To find out what we're missing, let's very intentionally and very deliberately move towards stillness. Join me on the Zoom mat, Sunday at 2:30 PM for a 65-minute practice featuring the poetry of R. S. Thomas (b. 3/29/1913), a man once described as " a poet of…the unanswered prayer, the bleak trek through darkness…."
Sunday's playlist is already posted on Spotify and will be available on my YouTube channel. If you're interested in the inspiration behind the music, check out this Kiss My Asana post from 2019.
FLASHBACK FRIDAY!! March 27, 2020Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Art, Bhakti, Changing Perspectives, Daoism, Dharma, Donate, Faith, Gratitude, Healing Stories, Hope, Life, Meditation, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Movies, Music, Mysticism, One Hoop, Suffering, Taoism, Texas, Twin Cities, Vairagya, Wisdom, Writing.
Tags: Brett Bailey, cherry blossoms, mono no aware, sakura, Shahid Nadeem, streaming yoga, World Theatre Day, yoga, Zoom
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"We gather to weep and to remember; to laugh and to contemplate; to learn and to affirm and to imagine"
– Brett Bailey, Stage Director from South Africa, World Theatre Day Message Author 2014
In As You Like It, William Shakespeare famously wrote, "All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts." Art imitates life, which sometimes imitates art (because art can inform our lives). That overlap between inspiration, those being inspired, and those creating the inspiration is one of the beautiful things about art. It's what makes art alive.
Today, however, the theatres are dark. The front of house is empty. There are no children, über-fans, or well-heeled patrons waiting in the green room, the wings, or at the stage door. On the big stages, there is only a single "ghost light" in place to make sure no one falls in the pit . . . and yet, social distancing means there is no one in danger of falling in the pit. It's heartbreaking for so many artists and dedicated audience members, and people like me. For most of my adult life, before I started teaching yoga, my professional life was spent behind the scenes – quite literally keeping track of exits and entrances. I worked on legit theatre, musical theatre, dinner theatre, classical and modern dance, as well as opera and musical revues. I worked in different parts of the world; with artists from all of the world, and Friday night was always a big night.
Even if one company was in rehearsals or in a layoff period on Friday, another theatre was performing. Theatres are usually dark on Monday nights. Not Friday nights. Especially not this particular Friday night, as it happens to be World Theatre Day. Since it was initiated in 1961 by the International Theatre Institute, World Theatre Day has been celebrated on March 27th by performing artists all over the world. Today, many theatres will not celebrate. Others have moved their celebration online.
Each year, an artist is selected from a different host country to write a message about theatre's enduring role in the world community. This year's message was written by Shahid Nadeem, Pakistan's leading playwright and the head of the renowned Ajoka Theatre, who partially focused on the spiritual and transcendental power of theatre.
"Our planet is plunging deeper and deeper into a climatic and climactic catastrophe and one can hear the hoof-beats of the horses of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. We need to replenish our spiritual strength; we need to fight apathy, lethargy, pessimism, greed and disregard for the world we live in, the Planet we live on. Theatre has a role, a noble role, in energizing and mobilizing humanity to lift itself from its descent into the abyss. It can uplift the stage, the performance space, into something sacred."
– Shahid Nadeem, Playwright from Pakistan, World Theatre Day Message Author 2020
It's weird (and heartbreaking) to think no one in my former role will be asking people to turn off their cellular devices – unless someone jokes about the fact that so many tonight will be watching their "theatre" on their cellular devices. It's weird (and heartbreaking) to think something I have always taken for granted is suddenly not existing as it did.
And yet, if I learned nothing else from doing live theatre, I definitely learned about the temporal nature of things. Everything changes. That's one of the beautiful – and also one of the most challenging – things about live theatre. It is always changing. You can have the best, most exhilarating performance of your life, followed by one where everything is just a little off. You can have a horrible final dress rehearsal, followed by a standing ovation on opening night. As a professional – onstage and backstage, as well as front of house – part of the job is to stay in the moment.
Staying in the moment requires being fully present with everyone and everything in the moment. We can look back later and work on fixing what went wrong. We can marvel at the unscripted audience reaction we want to figure out how to cultivate again and again. But, right here and right now it is time to turn up the music, turn down the lights, and breathe. The curtain is going up on this day in our lives, and what happens next can be (will be) simultaneously beautiful and heartbreaking. Like the cherry blossoms (sakura).
Flashback Friday: Today in 1912, First Lady Helen Herron Taft and Viscountess Chinda Iwa, wife of the Japanese ambassador to the United States, each planted a cherry blossom tree on the north bank of the Tidal Basin in West Potomac Park. These trees were part of a larger shipment of cherry blossoms meant to replace the ones initially given as a gift of friendship between the two countries. Normally, at this time of year, thousands of people can be found in D. C. celebrating the brilliance of these trees, just as thousands normally celebrate in parts of Japan and China. Normally….But, today the cherry blossoms are in bloom, while most people are inside, watching the beauty on their screens.
In Japan the fact that blossoms peak at one end of the island at the same time the blossom season is ending on another part of the island is a great illustration of mono no aware (literally "the pathos of things" of "sadness of things"). The fact that we can see this beauty even as we are socially distancing might also be considered the "sadness of things." However, that very literally translation doesn't quite work in English because it almost precludes appreciation of the beauty. The Japanese phrase is about simultaneously holding/celebrating/appreciating the beauty and the pain of the change that brings loss. Please check out the following links if you are interested in reading my take on mono no aware as it relates to YIN Yoga (April 5, 2017) or the physical practice of yoga and meditation (April 8, 2019). NOTE: While both posts include a bit of practice, only the 2017 includes a complete (YIN Yoga) practice.
Right now, I am appreciating the beauty of being able to share this practice online. I am also very much aware that this too shall change; however, I endeavor to stay in the moment. With that said, I am currently planning to host 7 online classes as follows:
MONDAY 5:30 – 6:45 PM for Common Ground
TUESDAY 12:00 – 1:00 PM & 7:15 – 8:30 PM (both) for Nokomis Yoga
WEDNESDAY 4:30 – 5:30 PM for Nokomis Yoga & 7:15 – 8:15 PM for Flourish
SATURDAY 12:00 – 1:30 PM (Nokomis)
SUNDAY 2:30 – 3:30 PM (Nokomis)
Everyone is welcome to join any class (although you will need to register in advance for the Flourish class). All online classes will currently be on ZOOM and I will post the meeting IDs on my "class schedule" late Friday afternoon. Each class will have a different ID, but that ID will be the same each week.
If you are new to yoga or new to vinyasa, please send me a message (myra at ajoyfulpractice.com) before joining the group. I apologize to my YIN Yoga folks, but at this time I am not streaming any full YIN practices, I will, however, continue to post or link you to the practice.
Those who are able may purchase or renew a package on my online store. Anyone can also make a donation (in lieu of a package) to Common Ground Meditation Center. (Donations are tax deductible.) If you plan to purchase a Nokomis Package please note that there is a discounted package for students, seniors, Healthcare Providers, and First Responders.
I want you to practice; so don't let any financial issues be an obstacle you can't get over! If you need it, I got you.
THROWBACK THURSDAY! March 26, 2020Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Books, Buddhism, Changing Perspectives, Depression, Dharma, Faith, Fitness, Gratitude, Healing Stories, Hope, Karma Yoga, Life, Loss, Love, Minneapolis, Music, Mysticism, One Hoop, Pain, Passover, Philosophy, Poetry, Religion, Robert Frost, Suffering, Tantra, Tennessee Williams, Texas, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tragedy, Twin Cities, Wisdom, Writing, Yoga.
Tags: chesed, Counting of the Omer, inspiration, kabbalah, Life, Love, loving-kindness, Robert Frost, Tennessee Williams, truth, yoga
4 comments
"Lonely . . . When so many are lonely as seem to be lonely, it would be inexcusably selfish to be lonely alone."
– Don Quixote in the Prologue to Camino Real by Tennessee Williams (b. 3/26/1911)
Just because we are alone – and in some cases lonely – is not a reason to go it alone. Tennessee Williams wrote, "For time is the longest distance between places." "Throwback Thursday" is a way to look back, but we can't actually go back in time, we can't bridge that distance of which Williams speaks. We can, however, bridge the physical distance of social isolation by reaching out (virtually speaking, of course).
Call, text, email, write a letter, make a chalk drawing, or use any of a variety of technological advances to connect to a stranger or a friend. Remember, we are all in this together – and we will succeed or fail based on how we are together, even when we are apart. Remember, in A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche DuBois says, "I always depended on the kindness of strangers." Right now, we are all Blanche…but we are also those strangers.
Love/ loving-kindness (chesed in Hebrew) is an aspect of the Divine. In fact, not only is it one of the ten ways (according to Jewish mysticism) that G-d is revealed to the world, it is one of the 7 aspects people contemplate if they are counting the Omer during Passover. Just like in Eastern philosophies, like yoga, Kabbalism associates loving-kindness with the arms (specifically, the right arm). As you go through your practice – or through your day – bring awareness to how you use your right arm. Are you using it to express your heart or withhold your heart?
"(1) If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn't love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. (2) If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God's secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn't love others, I would be nothing. (3) If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn't love others, I would have gained nothing."
– 1st Corinthians 13:1 – 3 (the part just before all the "famous parts" people use in weddings, movies, and songs)
Consider, for a moment, that when Saint Paul and Sosthenes wrote their letter to the church in Corinth, before they spoke of what love was, they spoke of what love was not. This is very similar to passages which appear in the Upanishads, ancient Sanskrit texts, where a teacher – and then his spouse – point out that the Divine is not this or that (neti, neti) thing that is so obvious. The Divine is not (just) what is obviously seen, but what is unseen, what is felt. (Yes, yes, but neti,neti: this is not the throwback you're looking for.)
We can never really know how much it means to someone when we do something nice for them simply out of the kindness of our hearts. They can say thank you a million times – and we may even feel the sincerity of their gratitude – and yet that feeling pales in comparison to the love they felt from the kindness.
"Something we were withholding made us weak
Until we found out that it was ourselves
We were withholding from our land of living,
And forthwith found salvation in surrender."
– excerpt from the poem "The Gift Outright" by Robert Frost (b. 3/26/1874)
For Throwback Thursday, here's last year's post about the birthday authors I typically include in today's practice.
While I am not teaching today (Thursday), I am going to spend part of today and Friday updating my schedule to reflect streaming classes I will start offering Saturday – Wednesday.
Right now I am planning to offer seven (7) classes on Zoom. These are (mostly) during times when I had studio classes and they will be (mostly) open for anyone to attend. You can purchase or renew a package on my online store or you can make a donation to Common Ground. (Donations are tax deductible and I will receive the bulk of the donation.)
I want you to practice; so don't let any financial issues be an obstacle you can't get over! If you need it, I got you. Yoga means union.
Walk with me…a mile, or 54. March 24, 2020Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Buddhism, Changing Perspectives, Dharma, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Faith, Gandhi, Gratitude, Healing Stories, Hope, One Hoop, Pain, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Suffering, Tragedy, Uncategorized, Yoga.
Tags: body prayer, inspiration, Martin Luther King Jr, MLK, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Selma to Montgomery, yoga
2 comments
Thank you to everyone who helped me beta test Zoom on Sunday! More streaming classes are coming and I will post a recording of the class later this week.
In the meantime, remember this: 55 years ago today, Tuesday, March 24th, Civil Rights protesters stepped into Montgomery County (Alabama). The next morning they would stand in front of (but not on) the steps of the Alabama State Capital Building. It had been a long journey…even longer than the 5 days and 54 miles it took them to arrive from Selma, Alabama. And as he stood in front of (but not on) the steps of the capital, Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke of how much longer the journey would be.
For anyone who is interested, here are two (2) posts I wrote (in January 2019 and January 2016)about the experience of some of those marchers, and how it works out on the mat.
It's Bach's Day Too! March 21, 2020Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Abhyasa, Bhakti, Books, Buddhism, Changing Perspectives, Dharma, Faith, Fitness, Gratitude, Healing Stories, Hope, Karma, Life, Meditation, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Music, Mysticism, One Hoop, Pain, Peace, Philosophy, Suffering, Tragedy, Twin Cities, Vairagya, Wisdom.
Tags: Johann Sebastian Bach, kriya yoga, Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, Philosophy, Ram Das, samadhi, Swamij, yoga, yoga sutras
5 comments
"[Music] should have no other end and aim than the glory of God and the re-creation of the soul, where this is not kept in mind, there is no true music, but only an infernal clamour and ranting."
– Johann Sebastian Bach (b. 1685)
According to the Old Style / Julian calendar, March 21st, is the anniversary of the birth of the composer Johann Sebastian Bach. Born in 1685, Bach's statement about music also works as a statement for yoga: [Philosophically speaking, yoga] should have no other end and aim than the glory of God and the re-creation of the soul, where this is not kept in mind, there is no true [yoga], but only an infernal clamour and ranting. People who think of yoga only as a form of exercise are often surprised that there's more. One can only imagine their surprise if the walk into one of my classes – especially on My March 21st, when the playlist starts with Bach and then becomes a soundtrack for other events that correspond to this date in history. Imagine their further surprise when all of that is just the background to a deeper practice.
On Saturdays I typically teach a 90-minute practice at that is primarily attended by a dedicated group who are interested in the yoga philosophy as well as asana and asana philosophy. For the past few years, we start in January and "build a practice from the ground up" physically as well as philosophically. Physically, we start with the beginning of a specific practice or sequence and either explore it for about 30-weeks before continuing to a new practice built on the original or, as we did this year, we start with a basic set of poses and start building around it. Philosophically, in years past, we have explored the 8-limbs of yoga, as well as how the 7 chakras correspond with 7 yoga paths (hatha, tantra, karma, bhakti, mantra, yantra, and jnana). Last year, we started moving through the Yoga Sutras – which worked perfectly as there are 51 sutras in the first chapter.
This year, we started physically moving through the warm-up and asanas that Ram Dass illustrated in Be Here Now, and just recently started using that sequence as a "finishing sequence." (If you've been attending the Saturday practices and/or are familiar with the sequence, that's your practice today.)
Philosophically, we decided to continue last years work and make our way through the second chapter of the Yoga Sutras. Today, March 21st, is the 12th Saturday of 2020. I am including a bit of background for those who are just now joining this journey and a bit of last week's commentary since so many had to miss the class. For more on the sutras, you can check out Swami J's website or purchase the series of books by Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, PhD – both associated with the traditions of the Himalayan Masters.
Yoga Sutra 1.1: atha yogānuśānam
– "Right here, right now (in this auspicious moment), yoga (or union) instruction begins"
Yoga Sutra 1.2: yogaścittavŗttinirodaha
– "Yoga (or union) ceases the fluctuations of the mind"
The first chapter of the Yoga Sutras is the "Chapter (or, more literally, Foundation) on Concentration" and Patanjali begins by explaining how the mind works; atha, right here, right now. In this present moment each of our minds is processing multi-bazillion bits of information/sensation – which results in a constant fluctuation of the mind (cittavŗtti). This restlessness and agitation of the mind, in turn becomes restlessness and agitation in the body – and this becomes obstacles to the practice (or to our goals). At the same time, he explains that our thoughts fall into two (2) categories: afflicted thoughts (i.e., thoughts which cause pain) and not afflicted thoughts (which may ease pain, or at least not cause pain). Finally, Patanjali explains how to work the mind – using the mind's own ability to concentration/meditate – in order to rest the mind and, therefore, the body.
This is why, I often say, "What happens in the mind happens in the body. What happens in the body happens in the mind. And both affect the breath." If you take a deep breath in (right here, right now) and a deeper breath out (right here, right now). You not only bring your awareness to the present moment (right here, right now; every time you consciously inhale and every time you consciously exhale) – you also, affect the body and the mind. In fact, that is one of ten practices Patanjali describes in the first chapter: focus on your breath.
Yoga Sutra 2.11: dhyānaheyāstadvŗttayah
– "Meditation destroys the mental tendencies (associated with affliction/pain)"
The second chapter of the Yoga Sutras is (the "Chapter (or, more literally, Foundation) on Practice. It is basically Patanjali – way back in the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th BCE – recognizing and acknowledging that everyone on the planet can't just drop into a deep-seated meditative state. So he starts explaining the elements of kriya yoga ("yoga in action") and how the practice of training the senses, exploring within, and letting go of aversions and attractions attenuates the effect of afflicted/pain-producing thoughts. To do this, however, he first gives us a deeper understanding of how afflicted thoughts produce pain.
"Samskaras – the drivers of our mental tendencies – manifest in the form of memory. We are able to remember something because the subtle impressions related to the object have been store in or mind. Because they are hidden beneath thick layers of the forces of time, the mind is not aware of their existence. But like a seed that lies dormant until spring brings moisture and warmth, samskaras awaken when the conditions inside and outside the mind are conducive."
– Pandit Rajmani Tigunait's commentary on sutra 2.11
Using seeds as a metaphor or a simile for our thoughts, words, and deeds is a very common teaching tool. In previous weeks, the metaphor I used was a backpack containing a still soft, but sculpted, piece of clay. Let's say you've molded a little figurine (whatever comes to mind) or a tiny cup; but, something causes you to place the molded clay into your backpack. For some reason, the clay stays in your backpack, getting tossed around, even a little mushed, as you go about your days. Every once in awhile you brush your finger across it when you're looking for something and you think, "What's that? Oh, yeah…." And whatever emotions you were feeling in relation to making the piece, or having to toss it in your bag before it was finished, flash up.
Later, you might even pull the piece of clay out, notice that it's smashed and decide to completely smash it and start again or restore it to some close proximity of what you did before. Someone else could feel it or see it or see you remolding it and have a completely different experience, but this is your experience – and now this new layer of experience is attached to the clay, just like the oils from your skin. Even if you "buy a new backpack," a piece of the clay finds its way inside. (YS 2.10) Unless, of course, you have "trained your senses, explored within, and given up your aversions and attractions – in which case you can discard the clay when you switch backpacks or you can recognize what it was and decide to treat it as a fresh piece of clay ready for a new project. (YS 2.11)
Yoga Sutra 2.12: kleśamūlah karmāśayo dŗşţādŗşţjanmavedanīyah
– "The reservoir of our actions is rooted in affliction/pain that is experienced in seen and unseen lives"
For anyone wondering: Nope, I had no idea this week's sutra was going to keep us firmly grounded in the "seen and unseen." Previous translations I've used for comparative analysis talk about "current life and future life," "this life and the lives to come," and "at the time of the action or (another time)." The bottom line, though, is still the same.
All of our experiences, thoughts, words, and deeds have consequences. Some consequences occur "immediately" and we easily see the connection between cause and effect. Other times, there is the distance of time, space, memory, and/or ignorance (or lack of awareness), which causes the connection to be "unseen" by us. Yet, cause and effect is still there, and so it becomes even more important to recognize that, as Pandit Tigunait points out, "Impure karmic impressions cloud our mind with desire, greed, confusion, and anger, and become the drivers of negative, destructive actions. Pure karmic impressions create a positive mental atmosphere, awakening virtues such as love, compassion, kindness, and selflessness, which then become drivers of positive, constructive actions…. Causing intense pain to someone who is fearful, diseased, or stingy engenders a highly, negatively charged karmic reality. Betraying someone who trusts you or harming a high-caliber soul committed to intense austerity also engenders a highly potent negative karmic reality. This potent negative karma ripens quickly."
We don't always have control over our circumstances, but we always have control over our actions (thoughts, words, and deed). We don't, however, make decisions in a vacuum. Part of the practice is recognizing that are current actions are informed by our previous experiences, thoughts, words, and deeds – and what we do in this moment, is going to inform what happens to us (and what we do) in our next moments… even if that moments are years away.
Happy First Friday of Spring! March 20, 2020Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Books, Buddhism, Changing Perspectives, Depression, Faith, Healing Stories, Hope, James Baldwin, Life, Loss, Meditation, Men, Minneapolis, Minnesota, One Hoop, Pain, Peace, Poetry, Religion, Suffering, Tragedy, Uncategorized, Vairagya, Yoga.
Tags: Alison McGhee, Franz Wright, hatha yoga, inspiration, silence, somatic, somayoga, vinyasa, yoga
4 comments
"The long silences need to be loved, perhaps more than the words which arrive to describe them in time."
– from God's Silence by Franz Wright
Yes, it is hard to believe: Yesterday was gray, rainy, cold – even snow for some – and it was the first day of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere. I know, hard to believe. Some folks had forgotten all about Spring, it seems. Still others were expecting it to bring some great change… And maybe it did. But, like the old saying (April showers bring May flowers) implies, we have to wait for the beauty.
In waiting for the beauty of being able to offer a video practice inspired by Franz Wright, I was reminded that Wright's collection after winning the 2004 Pulitzer Prize was entitled God's Silence. I haven't read it (yet), but I am suddenly fascinated by the idea of 144 pages worth of Franz Wright poetry curated around the idea of "God's Silence." Notice, that's 144 pages – not 144 poems. (Poets everywhere are now doing the math.) This is the kind of the thing that gets me oddly excited, especially right now, because there is so much I want to know!
I want to know if he is referring to silence that is the response to a prayer or a request (or even a curse); the silence that precedes an answer; the silence that follows the answer (when the questioner is dumbfounded or in awe of the response); the silence when one is pondering the best way to phrase something and therefore measuring their words; the silence of shock (can we shock God?); the silence of disappointment; the silence of wonder; the silence when no one is around; the silence of sleeping children; the silence between one breath and the next; the silence of meditation; the silence of peace; the silence honoring the dead; the silence just before a newborn declares itself alive; or….The list goes on. He could be talking about all of the above. Or none of the above. There are so many possibilities!
What I know is that he starts off with "The telephone ringing / in the deserted city ––– " and and that one of the poems is called "Solitary Play: Minnesota, 1961." I feel like this is where we are at, and I'm here for it.
"You survive this and in some terrible way, which I suppose no one can ever describe, you are compelled, you are corralled, you are bullwhipped into dealing with whatever it is that hurt you. And what is crucial here is that if it hurt you, that is not what's important. Everybody's hurt. What is important, what corrals you, what bullwhips you, what drives you, torments you, is that you must find some way of using this to connect you with everyone else alive. This is all you have to do it with. You must understand that your pain is trivial except insofar as you can use it to connect with other people's pain; and insofar as you can do that with your pain, you can be released from it, and then hopefully it works the other way around too; insofar as I can tell you what it is to suffer, perhaps I can help you to suffer less."
– James Baldwin speaking at Community Church in NYC on Nov. 29, 1962
Besides an ultimate love for poetry that gets you through hard times (because you realize someone has been through harder – or, as hard of a time), maybe one of the reasons I'm here for it is because part of my practice involves silence. The kind of silence and stillness that can make people uncomfortable, because it is so powerful. But, simultaneously, the kind of silence and stillness that is the epitome of peace. When Patanjali codified the philosophy of yoga in the Yoga Sutras, he wrote, "yogash citta vritti nirodah." Yoga ceases the fluctuations of the mind.
Perhaps, God's silence.
It's 2 days late and $2 dollars short, but I offer you a video of Wednesday's practice (inspired by Franz Wright). It's nowhere near perfect, but I hope it brings you a moment of peace, a moment of ease. I hope it brings you stillness and yes, silence.
When Somethin's Not Right It's Wrong March 19, 2020Posted by ajoyfulpractice in 108 Sun Salutations, Baha'i, Buddhism, Changing Perspectives, Hula Hoop, Life, Loss, Love, Meditation, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Music, Pain, Religion, Suffering, Surya Namaskar, Twin Cities, Wisdom, Yoga.
Tags: Alvin & the Chipmunks, Andy Greene, Bob Dylan, Equinox, meditation, Rolling Stones, Spring, Vernal, yoga
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"I've seen love go by my door
It's never been this close before
Never been so easy or so slow
I've been shooting in the dark too long
When somethin's not right it's wrong
You're gonna make me lonesome when you go"
– "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome" by Bob Dylan (covered by Shawn Colvin, Elvis Costello, Miley Cyrus (with Johnzo West) and a host of other artists)
Happy Spring Everyone! Also, I offer many blessings to those of you who are finishing the 19-Day Bahá'i Fast, and many blessings to all.
Thursday is normally my day off – unless I'm subbing prenatal yoga – and a great day for me to work on my own seated meditation practice. I had planned on posting some meditation audio recorded by my friend-who-is-my-twin; however, as I ran into some technical issues getting Wednesday's video ready, I'm a little behind schedule.
But, fear not! I still have something fun for you! In addition to being the Spring Equinox, today is a special day for Bob Dylan fans. Today (March 19th) in 1962, Bob Dylan released his self-titled debut album. As Andy Greene points out in a 2012 Rolling Stones article, Bob Dylan's Bob Dylan came out when everybody – and I mean, everybody – was doing the twist. So, dust off your favorite Bob Dylan vinyl, add a cover (or two) of Bob Dylan songs made famous by other artists, and either practice some twists – open twists if you're pregnant; do the twist; or (in honor of the Vernal Equinox) practice 108 Sun Salutations.
"I see my light come shining
From the west down to the east
Any day now, any day now
I shall be released"
– "I Shall Be Released" by Bob Dylan (covered by Nina Simone, The Band, and a host of other artists)
A Prize-Winning Solution March 18, 2020Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Books, Buddhism, Changing Perspectives, Depression, Faith, Gratitude, Healing Stories, Hope, Life, Loss, Love, Meditation, Men, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Music, One Hoop, Pain, Poetry, Religion, Suffering, Tragedy, Uncategorized, Vipassana, Yoga.
Tags: Alison McGhee, discernment, Franz Wright, heart, Hope, kindness, loneliness, Poetry, yoga
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"I am in no way different from anyone else, that my predicament, my sense of aloneness or isolation may be precisely what unites me with everyone."
– Franz Wright
It seems very fitting to me, somehow, that what we sometimes think of as one of the hardest days of the week – Hump Day – during this first week of major league social distancing coincides with the anniversary of the birth of a man who wrote about isolation, loneliness, longing, and death intersecting with kindness, love, faith, and hope. If you are not familiar with Franz Wright, born today (3/18) in 1953, then you might be interested to know that he is the son-half of (I believe) the only father and son to win Pulitzer Prizes in the same category and that Chicago Tribune critic Julia Keller once described one of his collections as being "ultimately about joy and grace and the possibility of redemption, about coming out whole on the other side of emotional catastrophe," while Denis Johnson supposedly compared his poems to "tiny jewels shaped by blunt, ruined fingers – miraculous gifts." I know, that's a lot to take in (and you might need to read that Va. Woolf-like sentence again). The thing is; I think we are in the middle of a Franz Wright poem. So, brace yourself.
I first came across Wright's poem "Solution" in a 2015 blog post written by Alison McGhee, a New York Times bestselling author who writes and teaches up the street from me. In the post (which I strongly recommend), McGhee wrote about an encounter she had with someone best described as her exterior opposite. Yet the interior movements of the heart, all of our hearts, are ultimately the same – something both McGhee's short post and Wright's poem illustrate bluntly, beautifully, and miraculously.
Franz Wright's "Solution" is something we could all use right now.
"What is the meaning of kindness?
Speak and listen to others, from now on,
as if they had recently died.
At the core the seen and unseen worlds are one."
Wright's poems are full of natural spirituality and that oftentimes "heartbreaking human conflict between religion and spirit. The final line of the poem reminds me of 2 Corinthians 4:18 where Saint Paul wrote, "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." NOTE: The New Living Translation translates this passage as "So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever."
Start seated or lying on your back. As your move through your practice today, focus on what is unseen. What are you feeling in your heart, in your mind, in your body? How does what you feel move, shift, and change as you inhale – and, especially, as you exhale? Is what distracts you from this present moment seen or unseen, temporary or eternal? At one point in your body (or mind) does everything – including your breath – overlap and become one?
Prior to this week, Wednesdays were one of my busy days, because I would teach three (3) classes in three (3) different locations: a 60-minute YIN Yoga practice, a 60-minute open-level vinyasa practice, and a 60-minute "slow flow" vinyasa practice. My "Franz Wright inspired" sequences would be heart, lung (as Wright died of lung cancer), and core focused, with some emphasis on arm movements and position since arms are an extension of the heart chakra and also contain the heart and lung meridians.
As I am not currently able to post three (3) different practices, the YIN Yoga link above directs you to a Bernie Clark playlist on YouTube. I have posted a 60-minute vinyasa playlist (see here or below) for anyone who wants it and will email a Soma Yoga/Vinyasa practice to people who normally attend the studio classes.
(This is freely given and freely received. I do not own the rights to these songs, but highly encourage you to buy them!)
"Soon, soon, between one instant and the next, you will be well."
– from "Nude with Handgun and Rosary by Franz Wright
Let's Do That 90-Second Thing! March 16, 2020Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Books, Buddhism, Changing Perspectives, Depression, Faith, Hope, Loss, Meditation, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Pain, Peace, Pema Chodron, Philosophy, Suffering, Uncategorized, Vairagya, Vipassana, Yoga.
Tags: COVID-19, Flourish Pilates, insight, inspiration. 90 seconds, Jill Bolte Taylor, meditation, Nokomis Yoga, Pema Chodron, Sully Sullenberger, Vipassana, YMCA
3 comments
"From everything I saw, knew, and felt, my decision had been made: LaGuardia was out. Wishing or hoping otherwise wasn't going to help."
– from Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters by Chelsey B."Sully" Sullenberger
We all experience moments where things don't go as planned or as we want them to go. As Chelsey "Sully" Sullenberger said, "Not every situation can be foreseen or anticipated. There isn't a checklist for everything." In these moments, we can second guess ourselves, recriminate ourselves, or we can trust what we feel, and then move forward.
Sometimes it is really easy to follow our intuition. At other times we have to practice listening to that still, silent voice inside of our own heart. At other times, we just have a sense of knowing that we must trust our gut and or the funny feeling in the pit of our belly or low back. My whispers of intuition usually happen around books, or discussions about books – and occasionally with music. It happened on September 10, 2001 (when I felt a strong urge to buy a small copy of the The Art of War). It happened at the end of last year during a conversation about the work and life of Ram Das (when I kept insisting he had died, on the day he was actually dying). And, in a similar, roundabout serendipitous and easily chalked up as a coincidence fashion, it happened when I was trying to figure out the appropriate tone and content for my first COVID-19 blog post.
I had an idea – one we will undoubtedly visit later – but I was worried it would come off as a little to flippant and cavalier. I also wanted to make sure there was space within the frame for good information. And, in my musings, I remembered that my new housemate had given me a copy of Pema Chödrön's Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change. Note: This was not the only gift in the form of a book that I received last year – or in previous years. And, honestly, I didn't really remember the title or the titular subject. However, something whispered for me to get the book.
The second featured quote, at the beginning of Chapter One, was Shunryu Suzuki Roshi's simile comparing life to stepping into a sinking boat. And from that river flowed the rest of the blog post.
Sunday night, when faced with the news that my classes at the Douglas Dayton YMCA and Flourish have been cancelled, I felt the desire to go deeper. {On your next inhale, go deeper.}
Pema Chödrön writes, "In My Stroke of Insight, the brain scientist Jill Bolte Taylor's book about her recovery from a massive stroke, she explains the physiological mechanism behind emotion: an emotion like anger that's an automatic response lasts just 90 seconds from the moment it's triggered until it runs its course. One and a half minutes, that's all. When it lasts any longer, which it usually does, it's because we've chosen to rekindle it.
The fact of the shifting, changing nature of our emotions is something we could take advantage of. But do we? No. Instead, when an emotion comes up, we fuel it with our thoughts, and what should last one and a half minutes may be drawn out for 10 or 20 years. We just keep recycling the story line. We keep strengthening our old habits."
Essentially, we throw more fuel on the fire and (literally) light it up again.
What happens if, instead of adding fuel to the flame, we just spend 90 seconds watching the light flare up… and then go out? What happens if, as we do in meditation and as we do our physical practice of yoga, we just breathe into the moment? What happens if the only story we tell is the non-story, that "doing the 90 seconds thing" story that is no story, only experience. (Someone in Chödrön's circle refers to it as the "one-and-a-half minute thing," so think of it however it works for you.)
You can settle into a comfortable position, set a timer, and do this on your own. Or, you can click below (or here if the video doesn't show on your phone) and do it with me. Either way, the idea is to breathe and feel what you feel, for 90 seconds, without adding any story: no value judgments, no interpretations, and no explanations.
Its 90 seconds. If you practice on the mat with me, you know you can do just about anything for 90 seconds.


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Pan Borneo Hotel Kota Kinabalu successfully held its Christmas lighting ceremony on Tuesday, 10 December 2019. Nearly 100 people comprising of invited business partners and clients, in-house guests and media friends were in attendance.
At 7pm, the lighting ceremony was held in the hotel swimming pool area at level 3M. The event was officiated by Member of Parliament, YB Tuan Awang Husaini Bin Sahari, accompanied by the hotel general manager, Liew Kui Fah to light up the Christmas house and trees around the hotel to mark the exciting festive celebration at Pan Borneo Hotel Kota Kinabalu.
All guests were treated with hot and chilled beverages, Christmas cookies and cakes, festive treats – delicious traditional roasted whole turkey with stuffing, Scandinavian style baked meatloaf, roasted marinated lamb, smoked duck salad, meat pates and much more that has surely made everyone feel merry during the event.
The event was entertained by the melodious sound from the choir group performances by the Sacred Heart Cathedral Kota Kinabalu Choir and friends performing classic festive songs, a 2-piece D'sound Band and a surprise visit by Santa and Santarina distributing Christmas goodies to all the guests.
With the officiating of the hotel Christmas lighting, Pan Borneo Hotel team is excited to share the joy and warm of Christmas with everyone!
A Classic Christmas! Buffet Dinner
Date: 24th December 2019
Time: 6:30PM to 12AM
Venue: The Coffee House, Level 3M
Tis' the season to share the warmth and joy of the festive holiday at Pan Borneo Hotel Kota Kinabalu!
Early Bird Rate
Purchase period 1st to 15th December 2019
RM80 adult
RM60 senior citizen
RM40 child (6 to 12 years old)
Children below 5 years are free of charge
Normal Rate
RM118 adult
RM78 senior citizen
RM58 child (6 to 12 years old)
Children below 5 years are free of charge
New Year's Eve Buffet Dinner
Date: 31st December 2019
Time: 7:00PM to 1AM
Venue: The Coffee House, Level 3M
Usher in the New Year by spoiling yourselves dazzlingly with our well-prepared buffet sprea! Featuring a succulent roast lamb that meat lovers always rave about, come dine with us as we serve you with endless array of dishes.
Early Bird Rate
Purchase period 1st to 20th December 2019
RM90 adult
RM70 senior citizen
RM45 child (6 to 12 years old)
Children below 5 years are free of charge
Normal Rate
RM128 adult
RM88 senior citizen
RM58 child (6 to 12 years old)
Children below 5 years are free of charge
New Year's Eve Pool Party – Countdown to 2020!
Date: 31st December 2019
Time: 9:00PM to 1AM
Venue: Swimming Pool, Level 3M
Entance Ticket
Purchase period now to 31st December 2019
RM35 nett per person
For voucher purchases, guest may contact us directly by calling 088 327 788 or WhatsApp 012 878 9027

subset: commoncrawl


text:
$20.00 PER YARD $25.00 Sold Out
With the wind of his daughter Helena's love at his back, Matthew created Loved To Pieces. Her love for flowers and his love for paper piecing fused into a world where florals and EPP geometrics play against an array of blue tones with touches of vibrant pinks and subtle greens.
Collections: Art Gallery Fabrics, Deal Of the Week, Knits, Knits & Sweat, On Sale!, Yardage
Type: Knits


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Ireland Powerscourt Estate
Dating to the 13C, this beautiful estate retains most of its 18C reconstruction, as well as boasting gorgeous surrounding grounds.
Powerscourt Estate
Plan your perfect trip to Ireland!
Easily create an itinerary based on your preferences: Where to visit? For how long? What to do there?Plan your trip


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After all these years, it's finally dawned on me what the most worthless invention in the world is. The funny thing is, this invention has swept the Western world faster than it takes American politicians to point fingers at everyone but themselves (that's pretty fast!). You may think I speak of the Pet Rock, but even the Pet Rock has more worth than this invention. With the Pet Rock I at least get companionship, which makes me feel better about myself as a person (and less lonely). This invention is much more worthless.
What makes an invention not worthless? It adds value to your life in some way, shape or form (be it time, money, environment, or *cough* feelings). Enough dancing around; below is the most worthless invention known to mankind:
So let's break it down…
The big picture first:
How many times have you used one of these (any variant of these), and still wiped your hands off on your pants as you exit the restroom?
Truthfully speaking? For me it makes, oh let's see, 100% of the time my pants get molested. So 100% of the time, I have to take the time to finish a half-assed job that a machine has promised to do, by wiping my hands on my pants. Hell, I could fart on my hands and they would air dry faster…
So to the obvious point: it doesn't work to begin with. It's like loading up a Mars-bound rocket ship with all this gucci shit, like over-the-top life-support, treadmills, gourmet food, video games with plasma TV's… but if the thing's too heavy to take off and get to Mars, then I'm pretty sure the rocket fell well short of its goal. This machine has only one goal: to dry your hands. And that it does NOT do, no matter how cutting-edge it is.
So even though it can't even do what it's been invented to do, perhaps there's some other saving grace that I'm just completely overlooking. Let's evaluate this a little deeper to see just what value this invention does add…
Press the button and you get 30 excruciating seconds of jet-decibel noise and hot air. The 30 seconds expires and the water that could have left my hands must've gotten transferred to my ear canal, because I now can't hear so well… and my hands are still wet (maybe not out-of-the-pool wet, but still I-got-caught-in-a-downpour wet). 30 seconds. I timed it. I can pee faster than the time it takes to dry my hands off with this glorified hair blower. What time value is added in that?
It takes me 5 seconds to wipe my hands dry with a cloth or paper towel.
No time savings here. Winner: my pants (or paper towels)
This thing (per the label in the picture) uses 2300 watts to operate. I could *almost* get back to the year 1955 on 2300 watts! Ok, not really. However, in the 30 seconds the thing is running, about 18 watt-hours of electricity used (2300 watts / [30/3600]hrs) – that equates to paying about 0.5¢ per use (which means, if you actually want dry hands, you're probably talking 2¢ and 2 minutes of your life that you can never get back). The newer machines seem to have gotten the energy down to about 1600 watts to not dry your hands – about 0.3¢ per use.
Now let's buy a carton of recycled paper towels. Here we have 4000 recycled paper towels for $26. One paper towels costs 0.6¢ per use.
In terms of fully drying your hands, we're looking at 1¢ regardless of the method. Winner: too close to call… (but factor in this and time, and I think my pants still have quite the edge)
I have to admit, figuring out the environmental impact of each is next to impossible. For one, there are so many variables to take into account (like what goes into manufacturing, lifespan of use, pollutant byproducts, and energy for sustained usage). Secondly, almost all the studies done were conducted by research teams that were sponsored by these air drying companies. For example, this MIT study seemed promising until I realized it was sponsored by Dyson, and guess what won out as the most environmentally friendly? The Dyson, of course… sounds pretty suspect to me. If the findings indicated anything else, I bet the research would have been shuffled under the carpet of non-existence.
The most unbiased research I could find (and I couldn't even get the actual numbers or spreadsheet) was here, stating
…standard hot-air dryers use 5% less energy than paper towels in the first year, and about 20% less over five years. If high-efficiency dryers like the Airblade really provided acceptable drying in ten seconds, then they'd use 80% less energy.
Additionally, there are claims made by the-sky-is-falling environmentalists and hand drying companies that paper towels leave a greater carbon footprint than air dryers (whatever that means – cow farts probably overtake even the mighty paper towel in terms of carbon footprint). Their "research" also shows paper towels create a few tons of extra waste and about 100 felled trees per city per year.
Vague, I know. But I'll concede this one with a little skepticism. Winner: The World's most worthless invention
But allow me one last shot of defiance: canoes have almost a zero-carbon-footprint whereas the airlines, I'm sure, have a staggering carbon footprint… so which are you going to utilize to visit England or go on a vacation to Hawaii, huh?
And now for the kicker, which I didn't even think about until I got pissed off enough to research why these hand dryers seem to be all the rage.
Hygiene and Comfort:
People wash their hands in order to prevent infection and kill unwanted bacteria. Of course, after you wash your hands you must dry your hands. I found a study done in Australia that was published in a peer-review journal… sounds pretty unbiased to me. I find the results almost quite humorous.
Air dryers almost encourage bacteria to grow on your hands! That's right. Bacteria thrive in moist environments, and when you don't dry your hands all the way with these worthless inventions, you are increasing the amount of any given bacteria remaining from the soap-sudded wash. Rubbing your hands together underneath the air squirt further exacerbates the spread. Moreover, the air driers agitate airborne bacteria offering a chance of contamination throughout the immediate area. Lastly (according to this report), the air driers are more likely to cause your hands to become irritated, excessively dry (apparently well after use, since these machines barely do any drying), rough, and red.
In contrast, paper towels were found to actually reduce the amount of bacteria on the hands after washing, especially in the fingertip area, while leaving aerosol bacteria to themselves to settle elsewhere (rather than continually stir them up).
The paper says it all in the conclusion: "from a hygiene standpoint, paper towels are superior to air dryers." Winner: paper towels, with my pants a close second…
This is almost too funny to be true! So if you accidentally peed on your hands and want a little residual to take home with you, definitely use a hand dryer.
Where do we stand now, after ignoring the "does it work" test and evaluating any value this invention can add to our lives? I think it's quite clear that it barely adds any value whatsoever. So why do these stupid things plague every bathroom?
Ok. I'm off my soapbox…


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I'm trying to establish SSL/TLS secure connection for my PostgreSQL v9.4.17 DB running on Windows 10 Enterprise 2016 LTSB. I have openssl installed in my machine to create certificates.
Unfortunately, I was not able to find any step by step guide for the same for Windows OS.
I would be grateful if somebody could let me know step by step procedure to setup ssl for PostgreSQL running on Windows OS.
Hi Akash,
By presuming that certificates are created at your end using openssl.Please find the below Server side steps to enable SSL on PostgreSQL 9.4.17.
Step1.Edit the below parameters in postgresql.conf file
ssl = on
Step2.you need to make sure the below files are present inside Postgres data directory with proper permissions and privilege.
server.crt (server certificate)
server.key (private key)
Step3.Start the database services.
Step4:To confirm whether SSL is configured properly or not run the below command:
psql.exe -p <port> -h localhost
If you get an output like below then the SSL is configured at your erver side.
SSL connection (protocol: TLSv1.2, cipher: ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384, bits: 256, compression: off)
Type "help" for help.
For more information on this please refer below link.
Kindly let us know how it goes at your end
Hi venkatagarine,
I'll give it a try and update you ASAP.
Thanks for your help.
If it's not too much can you please explain what needs to be done on the client machine?
I understand we need to add the certificate to the certificate store, but in particular which store?
Is there anything other procedure that needs to be done on top of this?
Hello Akshay,
Thannk you for your response. As certificates are created by OpenSSL. We don't need to configure anything from client end.
In case you wish to test connectivity using SSL then you may verify using below command.
psql "sslmode=require host=localhost port=<port> user=<user>"
In addition to above, You may want to add/replace entry in pg_hba.conf file for "hostssl".
Thanks & Regds,
Ninad Shah
Hello Venkat,
I was able to do the steps that you have listed and was able verify that SSL was configured for PostgreSQL.
But, I created a C# application and tried opening the connection using Npgsql connection connection string, I was getting exception. I have set SSL Mode=true and Trust Server Certificate=true in the connection string. But I get an exception stating:
key=value argument incorrect in ConnectionString
Parameter name: ssl mode
Can you please let me know if I'm making some mistake here?
Hi Akash,
The exception you have received is due to invalid value has been provided for the parameter "SSL Mode".
The valid values for the "SSL Mode" parmeter is "Require,Prefer, Disable".
Also, find the below link for the reference:
Can you please try it once with the above options and let us know if you face the issue again.
Hi Saurabh,
You're right, I made a typo or I got confused with the values for SSL Mode and Trust Server Certificate.
But I was able to open a connection to my DB, using the parameter SSLMode=Require.
It was mentioned in the npgsql documentation that if we are using self signed certificate, we need to add Trust Server Certificate=true in the connection string.
But, using this I got the similar error stating wrong value for key. So, I removed the parameter from the connection string and I was able to open connection. Quite a contradiction, as I have used self signed certificate here.
Also, from my client application also, I was able to connect to my DB server by adding SSLMode=Require in the connection string.
But, I'm not able to understand, how client was able to create the connection as I have not added the server certificate in the client machine's certificate store. Is client machine accessing the data directory of Postgres in the server machine to get the certificate and verifies it before opening the connection?
Also, I'm pretty sure current setup does the Server authentication. What needs to be done for the client authentication?
Hi akashvijayaraj,
If you are passing Trust Server Certificate parameter as true that means you are requesting to ignore the check whether server's certificate is valid. Make sure you have done proper settings to enable ssl.
For you second request which was regarding client autehtication , you have to enable specific parameters in postgresql.conf and modify the pg_hba.conf file to enable authentication with client certificates.
Below is the link which will help you understand this :
Hi nshah,
I have a bunch of questions here. Hope you'll help me out here.
Why is that we need not configure anything from client end when we are using OpenSSL?
Without the CA's certificate how's client verifying the Server's certificate?
Shouldn't we keep the CA's certificate in the client machine?
If we are using Trusted Root CA signed certificate how's the procedure different?
Thanks in advance
Hi Akash,
Please find below in-line comments regarding your concern :
1 :- Why is that we need not configure anything from client end when we are using OpenSSL?
Ans :
PostgreSQL has native support for using SSL connections to encrypt client/server communications for increased security.
This requires that OpenSSL is installed on both client and server systems and that support in PostgreSQL is enabled at build time.
2:- Without the CA's certificate how's client verifying the Server's certificate?
Ans :
If the server requests a trusted client certificate, libpq/client will send the certificate stored in file ~/.postgresql/postgresql.crt in the user's home directory.
The certificate must be signed by one of the certificate authorities (CA) trusted by the server.
A matching private key file ~/.postgresql/postgresql.key must also be present.
The private key file must not allow any access to world or group; achieve this by the command chmod 0600 ~/.postgresql/postgresql.key.
On Microsoft Windows these files are named %APPDATA%\postgresql\postgresql.crt and %APPDATA%\postgresql\postgresql.key, and there is no special permissions check since the directory is presumed secure.
The location of the certificate and key files can be overridden by the connection parameters sslcert and sslkey or the environment variables PGSSLCERT and PGSSLKEY.
3:- Shouldn't we keep the CA's certificate in the client machine?
Ans :
Presuming the client is on Windows :
To allow server certificate verification, the certificate(s) of one or more trusted CAs must be placed in the file %APPDATA%\postgresql\root.crt.
Certificate Revocation List (CRL) entries are also checked if the file %APPDATA%\postgresql\root.crl exists
File : %APPDATA%\postgresql\postgresql.crt
Contents : client certificate
Effect : requested by server
File : %APPDATA%\postgresql\postgresql.key
Contents : client private key
Effect : proves client certificate sent by owner; does not indicate certificate owner is trustworthy
4:- If we are using Trusted Root CA signed certificate how's the procedure different?
Ans :
By default, PostgreSQL will not perform any verification of the server certificate.
The client must be able to verify the server's identity via a chain of trust.
A chain of trust is established by placing a root (self-signed) certificate authority (CA) certificate on one computer and a leaf certificate signed by the root certificate on another computer. It is also possible to use an "intermediate" certificate which is signed by the root certificate and signs leaf certificates.
Once a chain of trust has been established, there are two ways for the client to validate the leaf certificate sent by the server.
1. If the parameter sslmode is set to verify-ca, libpq will verify that the server is trustworthy by checking the certificate chain up to the root certificate stored on the client.
2. If sslmode is set to verify-full, libpq/client will also verify that the server host name matches the name stored in the server certificate.
The SSL connection will fail if the server certificate cannot be verified. verify-full is recommended in most security-sensitive environments.
You may refer below URLs for further information
1. https://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.6/static/libpq-ssl.html
2. https://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.6/static/ssl-tcp.html
Hope this helps.!


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If you're a fan of cooking shows or even just competitive reality shows, then you've probably heard of MasterChef. But did you know that A+E Networks® Asia has commissioned an Asian version of the hit series, which will debut on Lifetime later this year? And did you know that they're still casting to see who the first season's participants will be?
So if you love cooking, you should give it a shot! And if you don't cook but know someone you'd love to cheer on because you know she or he would be perfect for the show, you should definitely share the information (and the love) with your friend(s). The series is set to run for 15 episodes and will be filmed in Singapore, and it will include an as-yet-to-be-named panel of three judges.
Interested? Head on over to masterchefasia.com and learn about the requirements, rules, and regulations for joining the show. Then all you have to do is submit your application form, photo, and video. Hurry, though, as the casting call ends on Monday, March 16, 2015. Visit masterchefasia.com for more details about the show. You can check out the poster below too.


text:
« AnteriorContinuar »
God's judgment on covetousness.
vineyard. My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: 2 And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a .. therein; and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. 3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. 4. What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? 5 And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: , I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up ; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down : 6 And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: i will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. 7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant : and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry. 8 || Wo unto them o house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth ! 9 In mine ears, said the Lord of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and #. without inhabitant. 10 Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of a homer shall yield an ephah. 11 "I Wo unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them : 12 And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of his hands. 13 T Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst. 14 Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it. 15 And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled:
God's judgment on injustice.
ed in judgment, and God that is holy shal. e sanctified in righteousness. 17 Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat. 18 Wo unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart-rope: 19 That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it! 20 T. Wo unto them that call evil good, and i. evil; that put darkness §: and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter | 21 Wo unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight ! 22 Wo unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle "o. : 23 Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him 24 Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. 25 Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them : and the hills did tremble, and their carcasses were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. 26 || And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth; and behold, they shall come with speed swiftly: 27 None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none jo neither hail the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken : 28 Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses'hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind. 29 Their roaring shall be like a lion, they shall roar like 3. lions: yea, they j roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it. 30 And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea : and if one look unto the land, behold, darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in o heavens thereof.
16 But the Lord of hosts shall be exalt
The vision of Isaiah.
temple. 2. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he cover
ed his face, and with twain he covered his
and said, of
feet, and with twain he did fly. 3 And one cried unto another, Holy, holy, holy, is the LoRD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. 4 And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 T Then said I, Wo is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. 6 Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: 7 And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin
§o I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.
9 || And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, o shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.
11 Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate;
12 And the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.
13 || But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil-tree, and as an oak whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.
ND it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Re: maliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it. 2 And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind. 3 Then said the Lord unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou, and Shearjashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the u j' pool in the highway of the fuller's #. : - .
ISAIAH. Thaz comforted—Christ promised. high and lifted up, and his train filled the
4 And say unto him, Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be faint-hearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah. 5 Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son Remaliah, have taken evil counsel against thee, saying, 6 Let us go up against Judah, and vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal : 7 Thus saith the Lord God, It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass. 8 For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin: and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people. 9 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son. If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established. 10 || Moreover, the Lord spake again unto Ahaz, saying, 11 Ask thee a sign of the LoRD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above. 12 But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord. 13 And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also 14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. 15 Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. 16 For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings. 17 || The Lord shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father's house, days that so not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria. 18 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. 19 And they shall come, and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns, and upon all bushes. 20 in the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired, namely, by them beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the feet: and it shall also consume the beard. 21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep;
Syria, Israel, &c. threatened. CHAP. VIII, IX. Christ's birth and kingdom.
22 And it shall come to so the abundance or milk that they shall give that he shall eat butter: for butter and hone shall every one eat that is left in the land. 23 And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, it shall even be for briers and thorns. 24 With arrows and with bows shall men come thither; because all the land shall become briers and thorns. 25 And on all hills that shall be digged with the mattock, there shall not come thither the fear of briers and thorns: but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of lesser cattle. CHAP. VIII. OREOVER, the Lord said unto me, Take thee a great roll, and write in it with a man's pen concerning Mahershalal-hash-baz. 2 And I took unto me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah. 3 And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and bare a son. Then said the Lord to me, Call his name Mahershalal-hash-baz. 4 For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father, and my mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria. 5 T The Lord spake also unto me again, saying, 6 Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son; 7 Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks: 8. And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel. 9 || Associate yourselves, O ye people, and yeshall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of sarcountries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; girdyourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. 10 Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand : for God is with us. 11 * For the Lord spake thus to mo with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, 12 Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor
13, Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself, and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. 14 And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 15. And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken. 16 Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my "...". 17 And I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him. 18 Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion. 19 || And when they shall sa unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? 20 To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. 21 And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward. 22 And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to
darkness. CHAP. IX. EVERTHELESS the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun, and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in alilee of the nations. 2 The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land .# the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. 3 Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. 4 For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the . of his oppressor, as in the day of Milan. 5 Forevery battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire. 6 For unto us a child is born, unto us 4 son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be
be afraid.
called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty
The judgments upon Israel.
God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. 8 * The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel. 9 And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, that say in the pride and stoutness of heart, 10 The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars. 11 Therefore the Lord shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him, and join his enemies together; 12 The Syrians before, and the Philistimes behind ; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. 13 || For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the Lord of hosts. 14 Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one *}; 15 The ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail. 16 For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed.
17 Therefore the Lord shall have no
joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows: for every one is a hypocrite and an evil-doer, and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. . 18 TI For wickedness burneth as the fire; it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke. 19 Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire : no man shall spare his brother. 20 And he shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm : 21 Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh : and they together shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
-issyria to be broken. CHAP. X
O unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed; 2 To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless! 3.And what willye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory? 4 Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned *5 but his hand is stretched out still. 5 || O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indig. nation. 6 I will send him against a h ritical nation, and o the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. 7 Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few. 8 For he saith, Jire not my princes altogether kings? 9 Is not Calno as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Da. mascus? 10 As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria; 11 Shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols? 12 Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the LoRD hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks. 13 For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man : 14 And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people: and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth; and there was none that .4 remnant shall be saved.
moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or
magnify itself against him, that shaketh it!
as if the rod should shake itself against them that list it up, or as if the staff should } were no wood.
16. Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord
of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness;
and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire. 17 And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and §. his thorns and his briers in one day; 18 And shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body: and they shall be as when a standard-bearer fainteth. 19 And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them. 20 || And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. 21 The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God. 22 For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness. 23 For the Lord God of hosts shall make a consumption, even determined, in the midst of all the land. 24 || Therefore thus saith the Lord GoD of hosts, O my people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian : he shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lift op his staff against thee, after the manner of Egy
t. 25 #. yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction. 26 And the Lord of hosts shall stir up a scourge for him according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb : and as his rod was upon the sea, so shall he list it up after the manner of Egypt. 27 And it shall come to pass in that day. that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing. 28 He is come to Aiath, he is passed to Migron; at Michmash he hath laid up his carriages: 29 They are gone over the passage: they have taken up their lodging at Geba; Ramah is afraid; Gibeah of Saul is fled. 30 List up thy voice, O daughter of Qallim : cause it to be heard unto Laish, o o Anathoth. f 1 Madmenah is removed; the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee. 32 As yet shall he remain at Nob that day: he shall shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem. 33 Behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts shall lop the bough with terror: and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down,
CHAP. XI. The peaceable kingdom of Christ.
ND there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots: 2 And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord ; 3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord : and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears : 4 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for #. meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. 5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. 6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. 7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice's den. 9. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all | holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LoRD, as the waters cover the sea. 10 || And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious. 11 And it shall come to pass in that ''. that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. 12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the o: of Judah from the four corners of the earth. 13 The envy also of Ephraim shall deso and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. 14 But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they
and the haughty shall be humbled.
shall lay their hand upon Edom and


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Treasury Yields Rise as Global Stocks Recover
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RELATIVE CALM RETURNED to the credit markets last week, resulting in Treasury yields retracing about half their declines that followed the sharp global market selloff the prior week.
Even as subprime lender New Century Financial (ticker: NEW) appeared headed toward bankruptcy, the tumult in that sector seemed to ease in tandem with the uptick in the equity market. Credit derivatives tied to the sector (the ABX-HE triple-B-minus tranches, to be specific) continued the rebound first noted in last week's column. It's probably no coincidence that the markets for these risk assets stabilized as the yen reversed part of its recent jump vs. the dollar, which took some of the pressure off positions financed by borrowings of the Japanese currency (the now-notorious yen-carry trade).
Most of the rise in Treasury yields followed Friday's release of employment data that, while spot-on with most of the published estimates, were above the whisper numbers being bandied about on trading desks. Nonfarm payrolls rose by 97,000 workers in February on top of an upwardly revised January increase of 146,000, originally estimated at 111,000.
Those data, along with a 0.1 percentage point downtick in the unemployment rate (which is derived from a separate survey) to 4.5%, vastly lowered the odds being placed in the futures on a near-term rate cut by the Federal Reserve, to 32% from 66% just a day earlier.
In the Treasury market, the yield on the benchmark 10-year note rose to 4.585% from 4.507% a week earlier, but was still below the 4.672% level of two weeks prior, just before the global equity markets hit an airpocket. The yield on the two-year note, which is most closely tied to expectations about Fed policy, rose to 4.657% from 4.546% the previous Friday but stayed below the 4.796% of two weeks earlier.
The jobs report showed the economy "is not bad but not great," says Joseph M. Balestroni, head of the domestic high grade corporate bond group at Federated Investments. But with the Fed unlikely to ease, he deems the 10-year Treasury too richly priced in the 4.50% range.
Amid the turbulence in subprime mortgages, the best value in the investment-grade market can be found in the mortgage-backed securities issued by U.S. agencies such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, he adds. As usual, these MBS failed to participate in the fast and furious flight to quality rally in Treasuries because of expectations of increased refinancing activity as mortgage rates dropped.
Essentially, the Fannies and Freddies didn't budge, widening their spread over Treasury yields as the latter declined. These triple-A securities yield about a percentage point over Treasuries, while single-A corporates provide only a 0.90% cushion. And Fannie and Freddie aren't about to be LBO'd.
THERE'S A FATE WORSE than debt, Hillary.
The junior senator from New York sounded the alarm that the burgeoning holdings of U.S. debt by foreigners increase the nation's "economic vulnerabilities." Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, charged that the Bush administration's policies have caused an "erosion of U.S. economic sovereignty."
In a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Clinton suggested establishing some sort of benchmark for foreign-held U.S. debt that would trigger action by the president. Indeed, she said the recent global market selloff was a "wake-up call" on the problem, Bloomberg News reported.
Placing restrictions on overseas ownership of U.S. government securities, as the senator suggests, would effectively solve the problem of growth in America's foreign debt. But the cure would be vastly worse than the ailment, on the order of a lobotomy for a headache.
The real danger posed by foreign purchases of U.S. debt isn't that it is growing; it's that it may stop because global buyers will have had their fill of our paper.
Indeed, far from imperiling the U.S. economy, this foreign capital is keeping it afloat. The purchases of U.S. government debt that so alarms Clinton may be lowering long-term interest rates by 90 basis points (0.90%), according to estimates in a 2006 National Bureau of Economic Research working paper.
More fundamentally, restrictions on the free flow of international capital could imperil the U.S. economy, just as the Smoot-Hawley tariff of 1930 helped set off the Great Depression by killing international trade.
If this recycling of capital is cut off, interest rates would rise and the dollar would fall in a vicious circle, resulting in a severe recession. The growth in foreign indebtedness that so worries Clinton would be curtailed, but the economy would be crippled.
So, Hillary, be careful what you wish for if you want America's foreign debt curbed.
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