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Posted by A.J. Mahari on October 19, 2009 · Leave a Comment
The focus on weight loss promoted by a bloated and dysfunctional diet industry causes many New Year’s resolution ideas and media-based stories to focus on people of size in ways that promote fat phobia. Size and self acceptance would be a much more productive New Year’s resolution on the part of everyone.
Filed under Body and Self, Culture, Self Improvement · Tagged with aj mahari, body image, diet industry scam, eating disorders, fat, fat acceptance, fat fit, fat prejudice, media thin is in spin, new year's resolutions promote fat phobia, obesity, shame, weight obsession in culture
Posted by Irene S. Roth on October 19, 2009 · Leave a Comment
What Are We Doing When We Pray? On Prayer and The Nature of Faith, a book by Vincent Brummer. Brummer’s book is a concise and sophisticated book which addresses the practical question of whether prayer makes a difference in the lives of believers. Brummer addresses a classic difficulty that was initially raised by Kant and other philosophers and theists about whether prayer is only a private mental exercise or something much more than this. Brummer argues that, for believers, prayer has the power to transform the ordinary into something extraordinary. Prayer is more than a bunch of words that believers utter to God. Prayer is a way of opening our lines of communication with God on a deep level by telling God our wishes, desires, deep-seated fears, and disappointments. Prayer is a unique way of communicating with God that isn’t really possible by any other means.
Filed under Books & Reviews, Culture, Religion · Tagged with believers, Dialectic Magazine, faith, hope, Irene S. Roth, praying, religion, Vincent Brummer, what are we doing when we pray, what is prayer
Posted by A.J. Mahari on October 18, 2009 · Leave a Comment
The very autonomy that philosophy can give us the freedom to discover and experience is feared by many. We want to be free of our unresolved issues and our pain or discomfort but we are often afraid to part with what is familiar long enough to experience something new.
Filed under Culture, Dialectic Eclectic, Philosophy, Self Improvement · Tagged with adaptable life philosophy, aj mahari, Dialectic Magazine, dialectics, Kantianism, paradox, philosophy, Self Improvement, self psychology, transcendental dialectic
Posted by A.J. Mahari on October 18, 2009 · 1 Comment
Colorado Sheriff Jim Alderden reported today, in a news conference, that not only was the Balloon Boy a hoax but apparently a scam possibly backed and funded by a reality television show. The television show or reality-tv outlet or company was not named.
Filed under Culture, Media, News · Tagged with aj mahari, balloon boy, CNN, Dialectic Magazine, Heene family, hoax, reality tv, sheriff Jim Alderden, wife swap
Posted by A.J. Mahari on October 18, 2009 · Leave a Comment
The Balloon Boy Bamboozle was busted wide open as a hoax after all and right out of the mouth of young Falcon Heene on Larry King Live. There were suspicions beforehand but when Falcon Heenie answered Wolf Blitzer’s question, on CNN’s Lary King Live, about why he hid so long by looking to his father and saying, “… you said we did it for the show” it wasn’t only his words that gave up the hoax but his father’s body language and fumbling around attempting to avert what Falcon had blurted out.
Filed under Culture, Media, News · Tagged with 15 minutes of fame, aj mahari, balloon boy, balloon boy incident a hoax, celebrity, CNN, culture of distraction, Dialectic Magazine, Heene family, Heene family to be charged, Larry King Live, narcissistic culture, pop culture, state of cultural values, Wolf Blitzer
Posted by A.J. Mahari on October 14, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Sarah Maria
Author of Love Your Body, Love Your Life: 5 Steps to End Negative Body Obsession and Start Living Happily and Confidently – How many times have you waited for something to change so that you could finally start feeling beautiful? If you are like most women, the answer is “all the time.”
Filed under Culture, Self Improvement · Tagged with body obsession, Dialectic Magazine, emotional, Love Your Body, Love Your Life, meditation, overweight, Sarah Maria, self esteem, self help psychology, spiritual, women and body image
Posted by Irene S. Roth on October 7, 2009 · Leave a Comment
How Free Can Religion Be? Bezanson’s book provides an insightful and accessible analysis of complex social and constitutional issues. Throughout the book, Bezanson demonstrates a deep appreciation for the difficult task that the Supreme Court faces in trying to strike an appropriate balance between religion and law. The core of legality is experience but not logic. The Supreme Court gives life to the law. Religion guarantees non-establishment and freedom from exercise and it represents the Supreme Court’s not the Constitution’s idea of religious freedom. The Supreme Court basis its decisions on the logic and reason of the history, text and purposes of the Constitution. To not do this is to fail to exercise its power properly and within necessary limits. The Supreme Court is largely loyal to logic and reason. However, despite this, it is also deeply divided. Congress cannot make laws respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting its free exercise. Logic and reason usually mark the Court’s decisions, though they have competed at a fundamental level since the beginning of time.
Filed under Books & Reviews, Culture, Spirituality · Tagged with balance between religion and law, book review, court and religion, Dialectic Magazine, How Free Can Religion Be, Irene S. Roth, Randall P. Bezanson, relgious freedom, religion, secular government, separation of church and state, social insitutions
Posted by Irene S. Roth on October 6, 2009 · 1 Comment
Review of the book, God Without God: Western Spirituality Without the Wrathful King by Michael Hampson – God Without God seeks to explore what happens to the Western spiritual tradition when the God of presumptive monotheism is removed. Far from being destroyed or diminished, the tradition flourishes in its liberation. It emerges from its captivity as an egalitarian, humanistic spirituality that challenges and defies all earthly powers in its celebration of the realm of the spirit, and the realm of the divine. In acknowledging God who is the ground of all being, we find ourselves in profound communion with the whole human race, for there is only one humankind, only one creation, and only one ground for all being.
Filed under Books & Reviews, Culture, Spirituality · Tagged with Acts of the Apostles, book review by Irene Roth, Christianity, compassionate and loving God, Dialectic Magazine, God Without God, Jesus of Nazareth, monotheism, prayer, religion, seventh sacrament, sin, spirituality, western spirituality, Western Spirituality Without the Wrathful King by Michael Hampson, Yahweh Elohim
Posted by A.J. Mahari on October 5, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Adhering to the paradox of the quest to air “Dirty Laundry” while at the same time sweeping the past and its pain under the proverbial rug is a sure-fire way to deny your own individual evolution – your own personal enlightenment. It is not an authentic way to live your life. It is a painful and limiting way to live your life. It is a paradox that if not resolved, more often than not, results in a polarization that does not promote mental health or healthy relationship styles.
Filed under Culture, Self Improvement · Tagged with A.J. Mahari life coach, authentic self, codependence, Dialectic Magazine, healing, healing childhood pain, Mental Health, narcissism, paradox, personal change, personal enlightenment, Personal Growth, recovery, Self Improvement, wellness
Posted by A.J. Mahari on October 5, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Self Improvement, self growth, and getting to know more about who you authentically are require a willingness to learn more on a conscious level. The seeking of more understanding needs to be a conscious choice to embrace more awareness. Awareness that will unfold to you on this journey through the mystery of all that you might not yet fully understand about your self. Do you find that there are aspects of your life that just seem to defy your understanding in actual and purposefully consciously aware ways? Are you a seeker of more personal enlightenment when it comes to aspects of your relationships, your attitude, your moods, and your over-all choices in your life?
Filed under Culture, Self Improvement · Tagged with A.J. Mahari, choice in life, culture of personal awareness, Dialectic Magazine, integrity, mystery of understanding, paradox, Personal Growth, personal responsibility, power of now, radical acceptance, Self Help
Posted by A.J. Mahari on October 5, 2009 · Leave a Comment
What’s in a size? What is it that drives the media machinery that reflects our values and fears back to us reasonably accurately and has resulted in such fat-phobic and sizist cultures? What’s in a size has all to do with numbers that people manipulate to try to control what sells in this materialistic consumer-driven consumptive world.
Posted by A.J. Mahari on October 5, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Is main-stream media distorting information as the result of seeing its own reflection in what is a cracked mirror view? Does this view distort what is reported? It seems that many of the news and information shows, and yes even the odd entertainment-news show that I watch does in at least some small way turn the attention of what they are paying attention to back on themselves lately. What’s up with this media on media thing? It can’t really be honest introspection can it?
Posted by A.J. Mahari on October 4, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Love Your Body, Love Your Life: 5 Steps to End Negative Body Obsession and Start Living Happily and Confidently. So much has been written on the topic of weight gain, eating disorders, and body image, and, by all appearances, the problem is getting worse. Statistics show that 95% of women dislike their bodies and their physical appearance, and now this rampant dissatisfaction has extended to men as well. Once thought to be the focus of teenage girls, studies are showing that eating disorders are increasingly prevalent among middle-age adults, and even beyond.
Filed under Body and Self, Culture, Self Help, Self Improvement · Tagged with 5 Steps to End Negative Body Obsession and Start Living Happily and Confidently, anorexia, body image, Borderline Personality Disorder, bulimia, compulsive overeating, Dialectic Magazine, eating disorders, emotional pain and eating disorders, fat, Love Your Body, Love Your Life, myths about diet and body image, myths about obesity, negative body image, obesity, orthorexia, overweight, pregorexia, Sarah Maria, Sexual Abuse, toxic relationships, transform adversity into opportunity, verbal abuse, weight gain
Posted by A.J. Mahari on October 4, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Dialectic Magazine by nature of its mandate and mission has roots in being media itself. Media is a much more prolific presence in many forms. Nothwithstanding our status as a small part of what is considered to be media, we will be examining the role, influence, nature, and effects of media on how people feel about themselves and the world in which they live.
Posted by A.J. Mahari on October 4, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Dialectic Magazine will also have a significant focus on many aspects of culture. This includes the effects of pop culture on our everyday lives. Culture, according to its definition within anthropology is the sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings and transmitted from one generation to another. Culture also refers to sub-groups of like-minded individuals, for example, in the way that culture can be defined as the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group: the youth culture or the drug culture.
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