Very often we are forced to retract our staunchly held positions after confidently vouching for the truth of what are really opinions and beliefs masquerading as facts. In this book Nellie and Jacob begin by exploring how our interpretations of what we individually perceive and conceive must coincide if we are to speak meaningfully about what is in our world: tables, minds, colours, processes, etc.

They consider basic ways of knowing and their relationship to what is out there and what is in our minds. They examine the validity of our inferences and predictions: why q does not follow from p as the newspaper editorial alleges, and why we can anticipate tomorrow's sunrise. They ponder the gap between the language of time and the logic of time and why now cannot be a split instant during which nothing can happen, but must be a certain period during which some things do happen.

They inquire into how our moral choices relate to their perceived causes and effects, and how our lives are built around our predictions and our knowledge of apparent causes and effects. They also discuss the bodily and mental natures of their own identities, what meanings to attach to the different stages of their lives, and the possibility of life after death.

Within the United States and throughout the world, there is an abundance of rhetoric about the importance of education. The idea that education is vitally important seems obvious. However, often missing in the rhetoric is a true appreciation of the depth and complexity of what it actually means to be "educated." How does education happen? The Ethics Class offers no clear cut answers. What it does offer is an open-ended exploration of this depth and complexity through conversation, poetry, and metaphor. It is simply one possible exploration. Topics include, among others: responsibility, character, indoctrination, acting vs. being, emotion, spirituality, relationship, and rationality.

At this moment in human history basic questions about humanity and the state of the world seem particularly poignant. Addressing these questions intelligently may be necessary for all of our survival. The Ethics Class ponders what it might mean to "intelligently address."

Goethe researcher Katharine Mommsen draws the reader into the fascinating life of Germany's greatest literary genius, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832). We discover how ordinary items such as the food we eat or the beverages we drink, and everyday activities like hiking, ice-skating, horseback riding, dancing the waltz, and music-making acquire fresh meaning within Goethe's own pantheistic life philosophy. He directed his wisdom toward keeping body and soul healthy, lively, focused, and strong as a basis for a fuller life - for him it became an essential part of the poet's worldly gospel. This book which is composed around hundreds of excerpts from Goethe's works, correspondences and conversations transcends biography, and shows us the poet's art of living in its richness in wit and wisdom, goodness, and love for humanity.

An in depth look at the effects of the new morality on America and its people. From misconceptions concerning the founding fathers to the lies and treachery of modern bureaucrats.

Proponents of same-sex marriage contend that the inclusion of homosexuals in the definition will have little negative impact upon the heterosexual conventions of marriage and family. Some say the impact will be liberating. Others believe the consequential erosion of theistic values in the affairs of state will only make society better. This book argues that these conjectures are misleading and will in the end be proven false and damaging, should same-sex marriage be adopted. In reality, both personal and national level decisions on same-sex marriage are a test of belief and conviction.

This book takes the issue of homosexuality out of its "rights-based" context and looks at same-sex relations from a broader perspective- within the philosophical framework of what feminist Diana Alstad calls the "planetary battle" or the "morality wars" over "who has the right to decide what's right?" The thesis of this book is that acceptance of same-sex marriage will symbolize state preference for the beliefs of secularism, humanism, and free sex ethos, over traditional theistic-based, Judeo-Christian values.

Worse, the legislated merger of same-sex and opposite sex societal spaces under one definition of marriage will signify that the homosexual lifestyle is the same culturally, morally, and ecologically as the heterosexual way of life. In fact they are an anathema to each other.

This book equips and leads the reader to face his or her philosophy of life, before deciding on issues like same-sex marriage. The reader discovering a very complex, multi-faceted, and interlocking set of issues will face the question, "From where do we draw our moral wisdom?" Secularist (Pivot of Civilization) and Christian (Rivet of Life) worldviews are developed and their relative merits in facing key issues of the day are studied. The institutions of marriage and family will be cast in far-reaching perspective.

The book will detail the potentially harmful ramifications of such a huge move away from theism and also show the societal benefits of an exclusive and distinctive definition of same-sex union, in keeping with recognition of a separate and unique homosexual minority lifestyle.

This slim volume achieves the nearly impossible. Thirty years of hard work are represented in a package that manages three things; it offers a comprehensive moral theory that solves many of the ancient puzzles of moral philosophy; it does so in language that is jargon-free and understandable by any attentive reader, and finally it is a complete reference book for any number of disciplines.

Lawyers can learn that honesty is a moral virtue, amongst other things. Teachers can use it as a textbook for teenagers. The book can also be useful for the penal system. It should be very useful for introductory philosophy courses, and a number of other uses.

But most importantly, the ordinary thoughtful person will find it a guide to a sane and happy life. For example it gives a rational approach to anger management by distinguishing between rational anger and irrational anger, something most anger books fail to mention. Guilt is another moral emotion that can be treated rationally. Most people feel guilty about the WRONG wrong things! Much of what goes awry in marriages is a failure of one or both of the partners to use proper moral reasoning; understanding the moral aspects of a partnership, can reduce the intense emotionality of family quarrels.

We all make moral judgments all the time, but most of the time quite unconsciously, and often we make a moral judgment first and then twist the facts around to suit our judgment. Obviously we should examine the facts first, and then make a moral judgment, one not based on the untutored conscience, but on solid moral reasoning. There are numerous other common fallacies, many of them created by eminent philosophers, such as Immanuel Kant, John Stuart Mill, and David Hume, and we should all be aware of these fallacies. The Catechism is a set of appended questions, which help to apply the theory present in this little powerhouse of a book.

We will never accept that a trickle is an equitable compensation for labor and skills while you live in leisure based on lack of equitable compensation for labor and skills. I try to draw the socio-philosophical foundation on which this logic arises, and suggest a new socio-philosophical foundation that not only provides for equitable compensation for labor and skills, but is most logical for the leisure class, considering all variables. I don't think I let any philosophy be taken for face value, and I don't think I have held any philosophical punches back, in favor of either side of this quagmire. This said I do explore the deepest roots I can, and start off with those roots. I think I bring these roots to the most immediate significant conclusions. My only rational purpose can be that you enjoy this book, and take the time to come to a realization of the questions I present. From such a distance, it would be vain of me to think I can influence the answers to those questions in any way but to present logic and fact.

The author of this irreverent seminal work proposes that a self-righteous attitude of intolerance backed up by force has caused us as a species to plan and construct a Final Planetary Holocaust. He points to compulsive objectives by a group of dedicated people, which he refers to as 'Barbarians' gathered on purpose, to accomplish a self-assigned mission for the annihilation of the human phenomenon. This is serious stuff and obviously no bedtime reading for sure.

He submits that this planetary genocidal project is not only in progress but has now begun to accelerate toward its overall goal-insisting further that, we inexplicably continue to deny the existence of this scenario of malfeasance altogether despite the spectacle of horror, fright, cowardice, callousness, and violence, there for us all to witness.

A situation, he insists, is generally denied particularly by those of us, who as members of the Western Tradition are for the moment exceptionally located in that quieter area of the eye of the storm, so to speak. A spectacle nonetheless made blindingly obvious and which consists of famines, nuclear arsenals, environmental collapse, territorial and food wars, destruction of marginal nations, devastation of the ozone layer, unprovoked crimes, morbid existence, poverty, rapacious consumption of natural resources for unethical profit, genocides, tribal warfare, etc.

As if to make matters worst, he states that, all of this is carried out with our approval, simply because most of us refuse to be responsible and accountable for setting our personalized meanings, values and standards of thought and behavior in a cooperative pursuit of our bliss while respecting everyone's Inalienable Individual Rights at all times and regardless of circumstances.

Yet, he offers a scenario for hope based on sane and kind behavior, while accomplishing this in the pursuit of our individualized bliss.

The approach in this work resembles that of putting a puzzle without all of the parts-yet possessing a sufficient number of these in order to present a reasonable image of the message conveyed-in a sort of McLuhanesque manner. This helter-skelter style is tied together with several key words and concepts such as The Republic of the Barbarians, The Commonwealth of the Ings, The Ing Point, HID Syndrome, Article of Violence, Axioms of Dichotomies, etc.

A truly fresh and different way of observing our social, historical and political realities.

This book is written for a general audience but it remains philosophically serious though humourous in tone. Animals rights is a serious matter of concern for law makers but common ethical propositions are often dead wrong. Animals do not need rights to be treated decently and human rights are always prior to animals.

Morning Coffee is a place to sit back, relax, and get your head wrapped around the day. It's a time and a place that becomes comforting. It becomes a habit, a good habit, and a place to maybe think about things that you wouldn't normally have time to consider. It's a place and a time to look beyond your own situation and to thoughtfully ponder where you are at, where you are going, and maybe how to get there from here.

Morning Coffee is a friendly place, a refuge from the rest of the world for at least a few minutes out of the day. It's a place out of our past...and a place to look towards the future. That timeless place between dusk and dawn, a place to consider ways of meeting that future without fear.

Morning Coffee is home, a refuge and sanctuary, however fleeting and temporary, from the storms of life. It is a place to get your mind and soul refreshed for the day ahead. It is a place wherein you know that you aren't alone, and for a few minutes at least, you are a part of something beyond yourself.

Morning Coffee is a place to refresh and a place of relative peace.

Morning Coffee is community and acceptance. You're home here.

Leave all that stress and discomfort and pain at the door for a bit, kick back, relax, have a good cup of coffee and visit for a bit. We'll get things sorted out.

What People Are Saying about Morning Coffee:

I love this stuff. Great job. I loved your context on changing the world. I often say my job here today is not to change the world but to change your minds and then let you change the world. Thanks again and stay in touch. I see you are in South Dakota. Greetings from Chicago. Kind of the same type of city but different (sounds like something you would say).

-Al.

The true fundamental nature of reality and the nature of 'who and what' a human being is, is dealt with in a refreshing and inspiring way. The future of humanity is bright and beautiful, not dull, depressing and painful. The whole is not greater than the sum of its parts when it is applied to being human. No civilization is greater than any single individual that comprises that civilization, not if the civilization is to be great or to remain great.

Honoring and respecting the diversity seen among all people and natural systems, will open the way to make 'unity out of diversity' possible for us here on planet earth. The patterns in nature are object lessons; however, Human Operations Manual shows us that we must look deep within ourselves with a sincere yearning to know and to understand what is before us.

We will all be pleasantly surprised and encouraged when we honestly allow ourselves to embark on the 'journey' proposed in this manual; for each of us must make the decision of when to begin, and that decision is ours and ours alone. The surprising thing that will be noticed after taking the plunge into self-discovery is that, it is only by being truly vulnerable, not afraid to be ourselves, that we will be able to own the power that is already ours.

Many shy away from anything that mentions God, Creator, Heavenly Father or anything that sounds 'religious.' It must be understood that religion is a personal quest of self-discovery that only you and you alone must make when you are ready. So, for those who are 'God-shy' it is advised that if any such terms are encountered they can be substituted with 'First Principle,' or 'That which was First,' or anything similar that suits your fancy; for indeed, you will still gain new insights that can direct you to higher truths about yourself and the world you live in.

Our nations across this Great Island, now called North America, continue to have an obligation to the Creator to care for and protect our lands for seven generations into the future. This obligation remains a sacred sacrament.

--George Manuel, former President,
Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs

The first law of ecology states that everything is connected to everything else. This book will touch on many things, but the connecting purpose for everything discussed here will be the survival and well-being of Mother Earth and the life which depends on her.

My motivation for writing this essay came from two stimulating sources-the extreme danger threatening our world in the twentieth century and the extraordinary opportunity beckoning to us as we enter the twenty-first.

Ever since World War II we have been receiving authoritative warnings from deeply concerned scientists and other profound thinkers. More than half a century ago, in 1946, Albert Einstein sent out a memorable but anguished message to the world:

The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe. ¹

The danger we now face is certainly daunting. At the same time a commensurate opportunity is opening up. An effective response to that extreme danger is not only necessary but also possible. By taking bold, responsible action to change our modes of thinking we have an exhilarating opportunity now to redirect our course away from unparalleled catastrophe toward survival, together with other priceless benefits. Now is the time for us to appreciate and take full advantage of this opportunity.

Waging Peace
Genuine peace demands far more than the mere absence of war, beneficial as that would certainly be for all life. Peace is the very antithesis of war, but waging peace and waging war do have much in common. Both call for high courage, training, apprenticeship, skill, imagination, cooperation, sacrifice, fortitude, dedication, and persistence--with invigorated ingenuity--in the face of disappointing setbacks.

Waging peace means planning and doing all the work required to inspire respect for our planet, recognition of the dangers we face, and acceptance of responsibility--like the responsibility assumed over scores of centuries by most aboriginal peoples--responsibility for the next seven generations of life on earth.

This book approaches the extraordinary dangers of our era as challenges to be translated into a catalogue of the specific work that must be done for the survival and well-being of our own and future generations.

In spite of many persuasive predictions that gloom and doom will overtake us in the twenty-first century, that will not happen unless we continue to belittle or ignore the warning signals so generously provided for us in the twentieth century.

Instead we can achieve joy and hope in abundance when we begin to make full use of our opportunities to keep this planet habitable and life worth living.

How can we do it?
In the following chapters I offer an action plan for survival of life on earth. Although I have great confidence in this proposal, I do not want readers to begin with any false or exaggerated expectations. This plan of mine is only a draft and it is wide open to improvement. Some individual or group may transform this proposal into a workable blueprint with many more details all figured out. Maybe some coalition of non-governmental organizations will even develop an entirely new plan, a better plan, and then take the first steps toward implementing it.

In the beginning I was deeply concerned about the wasteful extent of unemployment in Canada and around the world, especially tragic when there is so much necessary work right in front of us that is not yet being done. As this action plan developed further, however, the main purpose became clear: concentrate first on getting the urgently needed work underway. Then virtually full employment will follow naturally as an inevitable by-product of actually doing all this work that is absolutely essential for life.

This action plan emphasizes two complementary priorities: first, to identify the specific work that needs to be done and secondly, to invent ways to pay for it in spite of the deficit hysteria and the taxpayers' revolt which now prevent governments from financially supporting the work of preparing for enduring peace the way they have always provided whatever money was required to prepare for war.

We know there is lots of work to be done, although much of the most desperately needed work is non-profit. We know there is lots of money in the world, although an astonishing amount of it is held at present by a minority of wealthy people and corporations.

The action plan will begin with a year of research to identify the work that must be done and to invent realistic ways to provide enough financial support to pay for it.

For readers already familiar with the bad news
Some readers are already well aware of the many attempts by distinguished citizens of the world to document our unprecedented global predicament and to help us all understand that any effective response to these discomforting dangers will require bold-even revolutionary-changes in our modes of thinking, in our ways of living, and in our ways of earning a living. These readers may want to move directly to the action plan beginning in Chapter 2. People who are not familiar with the increasingly dire warnings of our day may find them overwhelming at first, but I hope they will begin with Chapter 1 anyway. It provides the disturbing but absolutely necessary motivation for exploring what we can do about this danger. By facing facts squarely we can better appreciate that we have an enormous amount of work ahead of us and not much time left before our responsive action which is already too little might also become too late.

Good news
Virtually full employment across Canada and around the world will be a fortunate-even priceless-by-product of waging peace for a living. Full employment is required for genuine peace as much as it has always been considered necessary for total, all-out war. Many of our worst problems, including financial deficits, will become far more tractable in a global climate of universal, meaningful, dignified employment.

This book is about the opportunities we now have available to us, unprecedented opportunities to discover, imagine, develop and invent unprecedented solutions to the unprecedented problems that confront humankind at this turn of the millennium.

I am simply transforming a horrible old warning attached to Dante's Hell into a warm invitation to readers of this book. Instead of "All hope abandon, ye who enter here,"² I suggest as soon as you turn this page:
abandon despair, all ye who enter here.

Notes

1. (a) Albert Einstein, quoted by Mike Moore, "Midnight Never Came" in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. November/December 1995, pp. 16-27. On page 27 the quotation reads, "In May 1946, Albert Einstein, one of The Bulletin's more notable godfathers, looked toward the future and said: 'The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.'"

(b) Albert Einstein, a telegram to The New York Times on May 24, 1946, in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, New York: Oxford University Press, 1992, p. 268. This quotation reads, "The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalled catastrophe." The development of atomic energy became possible through Einstein's own brilliant scientific wor