When calculated as a percentage of income the neediest become the most charitable.

Those who earn less than $20,000 become twice as charitable as those who earn $100,000 even though they donate one fourth as much.

The most common reason for upper income people not giving to charity: They can’t afford it.

[via Charity: Who Cares? on Mint.com]

For those of you who are statistics junkies and like looking at fancy charts and graphs about things, this survey by Mint.com about who gives to what charities, what types of charities are donated to and a bunch of other demographic information in a fancy, easy-to-read format will be a quick and easy read.

For those of you looking to make last-minute donations as a gift alternative or for year-end tax offsets, Mint wisely recommends Charity Navigator as a good resource for finding causes to donate to where the most money goes toward the actual cause rather than to administration costs.

Have a merry Christmas, friends. Hope you don’t get too much junk you don’t need.

Here continues a series where I discuss the podcasts I like to listen to. Because I’m sure you all care a great deal what it is I’m grinning like a kid about while I’m driving down the freeway. Perhaps you’ll find something interesting to listen to that will help you explore the world around you, or maybe just make you laugh.

If you are a discoverer of music, like myself, All Songs Considered is an invaluable resource. If you can spare 30 minutes a week to hear five or six full songs that host Bob Boilen (who I recently interviewed for Ghettoblaster Magazine) picks out of all the CDs that are mailed to him every week. He considers himself a curator of music, and the show is the product of his time and focus.

Aside from that, Bob and his crew travel the country and go to shows by the bands they like, then streams them on NPR’s site soon after for free. Boilen himself was at the Radiohead show in Santa Barbara that I went to last year.

Can I have your job, Bob? Cause… yeah, that’d be awesome.

I’ll keep this short: if you like music, and you want a quick, free and enjoyable way to get a few new samples every week, All Songs Considered is for you.

The other day my friend Brett wrote in defense of using violence in a last-resort situation to solve problem. He addressed it in a mature way that I completely understand and, while I am writing to support pure pacifism instead, it’s not meant to be in opposition to him directly (and not the least bit personal), but more of a devil’s advocate response. Well, sort of. I currently haven’t decided exactly where I stand when it comes to violent measures “when necessary.” So I’m partially writing to get an idea out that’s been bouncing around my head, too.

First off, this argument is founded on general Christian ideology, so if that’s not how you swing, read on only for your own entertainment.

In America, Christians glorify the martyrs of the faith in other parts of the world. We stand in awe of those willing to stand up for their faith and die for it, then sit comfortably and question why it is that American Christians rarely die for theirs. It’s because it isn’t threatened here, in the land of free worship. But I argue that it is still threatened, albeit indirectly.

There is a fair amount to support the idea that Jesus taught pure pacifism. Not an idea closed to reasonable debate, but it’s a substantial point made in the New Testament. If that side is taken, then we should, ideally, not cause harm others when our safety and the safety of those around us is threatened. Instead, we should take the “third way” (as Shane Claiborne calls it in Jesus for President [see my review]) and respond unexpectedly, however that may be.

When we talk about peacemaking and the “third way of Jesus,” people inevitably ask bizarre situational questions like, “If someone broke into your house and was raping your grandmother, what would you do?” We can’t exhaustively troubleshoot every situation with nonviolent “strategy,” but what we can do is internalize the character and spirit of Jesus. We can meditate daily on the fruit of the Spirit and pray that they take root in us. Then we can trust that when we encounter a bad situation, we will act like Jesus.

At one festival, I was asked after a talk, “What would you do if you lived in Darfur and had a gang of young men running at you with machetes?” I though such a strange question deserved an equally far-out answer, so I said, “I’d take off my clothes and run around like a chicken, squawking wildly and pecking at the ground with my mouth.” I figure the chicken response is about as likely to disarm a mob of young hooligans as my trying to fight them. Either response would be ugly, but I’d opt for the former. I’ve already decided that the next time I get jumped, I’m going to turn some backflips and act like a ninja. Or I might just get on my knees and start speaking in tongues. Either seems as likely to hold promising results. At any rate, these aren’t solutions for the tragic situations of brothers and sisters in areas like the Sudan. Without a doubt, protecting the innocent is one of the strongest arguments for redemptive violence. A bunch of folks running around like naked chickens is not a solution to the crisis there. But the story of my friend Celestin [who continued to teach forgiveness and reconciliation, to eye-opening results, after militant Rwandans killed many in his church family] is. After all, Jesus didn’t say, “Greater love has no one than this, to kill to protect the innocent.”

The end idea is this: if we truly believe Christ’s teachings, and it is true that he asked for our peace and pacifism, we are martyrs if we stand up for that belief in any situation where our physical safety is threatened by another person.

Is this easy to do? No, not at all. But I’d wager that, if a nonviolent movement of Christians were to rise in this country, someone would take notice and perhaps see something in our faith that hasn’t been seen in quite some time through the inevitably martyrdom that would occur, even if not in great numbers. Something that goes beyond lots of words and cheesy attempts at evangelism and actually gets at the core of our faith and our humanity.

Defensive violence makes sense in a logical world where our own survival is of the highest value. But if our faith is what defines us, then it is for it that we should be willing to die, even when given the opportunity to fight back.

My friend Matthew recently started a community of bloggers doing what he calls “Poetry Wednesday.” The idea is simple: post your favorite poetry (yours or someone else’s) on Wednesdays. And that’s it. So here’s mine.

Like Lilly Like Wilson

By Taylor Mali

I’m writing the poem that will change the world,
and it’s Lilly Wilson at my office door.
Lilly Wilson, the recovering like addict,
the worst I’ve ever seen.
So, like, bad the whole eighth grade
started calling her Like Lilly Like Wilson Like.
ŒUntil I declared my classroom a Like-Free Zone,
and she could not speak for days.

But when she finally did, it was to say,
Mr. Mali, this is . . . so hard.
Now I have to think before I . . . say anything.

Imagine that, Lilly.

It’s for your own good.
Even if you don’t like . . .
it.

I’m writing the poem that will change the world,
and it’s Lilly Wilson at my office door.
Lilly is writing a research paper for me
about how homosexuals shouldn’t be allowed
to adopt children.
I’m writing the poem that will change the world,
and it’s Like Lilly Like Wilson at my office door.

She’s having trouble finding sources,
which is to say, ones that back her up.
They all argue in favor of what I thought I was against.

And it took four years of college,
three years of graduate school,
and every incidental teaching experience I have ever had
to let out only,

Well, that’s a real interesting problem, Lilly.
But what do you propose to do about it?
That’s what I want to know.

And the eighth-grade mind is a beautiful thing;
Like a new-born baby’s face, you can often see it
change before your very eyes.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, Mr. Mali,
but I think I’d like to switch sides.

And I want to tell her to do more than just believe it,
but to enjoy it!
That changing your mind is one of the best ways
of finding out whether or not you still have one.
Or even that minds are like parachutes,
that it doesn’t matter what you pack
them with so long as they open
at the right time.
O God, Lilly, I want to say
you make me feel like a teacher,
and who could ask to feel more than that?
I want to say all this but manage only,
Lilly, I am like so impressed with you!

So I finally taught somebody something,
namely, how to change her mind.
And learned in the process that if I ever change the world
it’s going to be one eighth grader at a time.

Taylor Mali is a personal favorite poet. I enjoy slam poetry and poems that are better when recited live. So here’s Mali performing it:

Dr. Thorpe also said that if the incidence of obesity fell to its 1987 level, it would free enough money to cover the nation’s uninsured population.

(via Health Care Savings May Start in Employee Diets in the New York Times)

File this one under “news I am not at all surprised to hear, but am glad for the affirmation anyway.”

I’ve talked a lot about food this year for some reason. And health care has been a national concern since Obama strolled in the front door in January. So someone helping us tie the two together in a way that’s been needed for a long time is a welcome thing to see.

I read somewhere once that if you take a fast food meal, factor in the cost of weight gain (new clothes, gas mileage, etc.) and negative effect it has on your health in the long term, the meal would actually cost more than an equivalent meal made up of fresh produce that many claim is “too expensive.”

Another challenge for the new year: find a partner and make a bet to not eat fast food all year. Keep each other accountable and make the wager high if you lose the bet (kinda like I did).

Here continues a series where I discuss the podcasts I like to listen to. Because I’m sure you all care a great deal what it is I’m grinning like a kid about while I’m driving down the freeway. Perhaps you’ll find something interesting to listen to that will help you explore the world around you, or maybe just make you laugh.

People tease me sometimes for listening to NPR on my clock radio in the morning. In my own defense, beyond the often-teased demeanor of their on-air personalities, they have some of the best content on the radio waves these days.

Also, I don’t pay much attention to the news on weekday mornings; I’m too tired when I wake up to notice much beyond the general idea of each headline. It’s the weekend content that I enjoy waking up to. And NPR’s crowning moment is Sunday morning at 11, when This American Life comes on.

Granted, I’m generally not paying close attention, but the stories are always intriguing. Ira Glass and company poke and prod the questions we never think to ask (like “what are people doing in the middle of the night while most of us sleep?”), then go find people who have experience and stories to tell about that question.

I recently started downloading podcast episodes more regularly on my Droid, (hence this series) so I’m hearing This American Life in full every week now. I have to say, it’s a highlight that makes my car rides and gym visits something I actually get excited about. Go figure, right?

This American Life is modern storytelling. In our complicated western world, we often lose track of some of the details and personalities behind the scenes of everyday life, and we don’t hear about the vast majority of the strange things that go on around us because nobody is telling the story. Ira Glass and company are here to help us change that.

I wonder the same thing about folks who check for new email every 5 minutes, follow 5,000 people on Twitter, or try to do anything sane with 500 RSS feeds.

Some graze unlimited bowls of information by choice. Others claim it’s a necessity of remaining employed, landing sales, or “staying in the loop.” Could be. What about you?

How do you know when you’ve had “enough?”

Not everything, all the time, completely, forever. Just enough. Enough to start, finish, or simply maintain.

(via Enough by Merlin Mann on 43 Folders)

After I read this short essay by Merlin Mann, I got rid of a good handful of the news feeds I was reading in Google Reader. My life already feels better, and has continued to for the week or so since I did it. Turns out I didn’t need up-to-the-minute headlines on Tiger Woods’s love life and fifty funny headlines a day from Fark and The Onion. If I’m aching for a funny headline, I can always peek at the site sometime. But I don’t need it every day. I certainly don’t miss it yet.

I also did a big cleanup on Twitter recently that has made it a simple joy again. Something to fill in gaps for a quick bit of communication or an enjoyable tidbit of a friend’s day. It’s not something I feel like I have to check every five minutes any more just to keep up. Turns out I don’t need to keep up with every move every band and person I know at every moment.

Suggested goal: Sometime before the new year, go through the websites, email newsletters, Twitter accounts, news feeds, newspapers, magazines and social networks that take your attention and ask yourself whether or not each of them is essential to your daily survival. Try to get rid of a third or even just a quarter of it. Then open your eyes to all the things you have time for with those extra moments.

She was forced to have sex with hundreds of men before she turned 10. After such a brutal past, what does her future hold? In a Marie Claire exclusive, Sreypov Chan tells her phenomenal life story.

(via Diary of a Sex Slave: Child Prostitution in Cambodia)

Have I ever told you about my sister? I don’t think I have. Not on my blog, at least.

Jessica works in Pattaya, Thailand: a city renowned for its prostitution problem. For many severely perverted men around the world, this is a great place. For most everyone else, it’s one of the darkest places on earth.

My sister’s job in Pattaya is to play music and hang out in bars on Walking Street (the central location for most of the city’s prostitution) and elsewhere around town, befriending prostitutes and pointing them to resources to help them get out of the endless cycle and into a safe, healthy job. She also runs a church for many of the women who have escaped the sex industry.

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to visit Jessica and see what she does in Pattaya. We went to her church, strolled Walking Street (during daylight hours) and got a feel for her life. She deals with stories similar to Sreypov Chan’s all the time.

If I hadn’t known it before, those couple days that I got to see Pattaya proved to me that my sister is strong. If you want more stories, not just bad ones, but the happy endings, you should check out her blog. (And, she didn’t ask me for this, but if you would like to make a donation to fund what she’s doing there, you can do so here. It’d make for a damn good Christmas gift.)

And so begins a series of sorts where I discuss the podcasts I like to listen to. Because I’m sure you all care a great deal what it is I’m giggling like a little kid about while I’m on the treadmill at the gym.

Merlin Mann is my hero. I stumbled across him a few years ago while he was in the blogger spotlight as the writer behind 43 Folders, a site for people who want to be more productive at their desk (in other words: nerds).

More recently he resurfaced as Twitter champ hotdogsladies, which is how I discovered his banter-filled podcast You Look Nice Today: a journal of emotional hygiene.

When I say banter, I mean banter. The show has no purpose but to entertain, and topics are nearly indeterminable. Mann talks (via Skype, I assume) with his friends Scott Simpson and Adam Lisagor, both of whom I know very little about.

These men are professional shit-shooters. They seem to pick up each others’ cues like professional improv comedians, always accepting their peers’ realities and adding to them.

I am willing to admit that this last episode had me giggling like a mad man in my car driving around town the other day. They talk about such random things (such as their awkward, nerdy attempts at fitting in/being cool growing up), and yet still make it easy to identify with. And they talk a mile a minute, so you barely have a moment to figure out what’s going on before they’re on to the next thing. You just have to accept the absurd and enjoy it for what it is. And it is enjoyable.

If you’re looking for some (PG-13 to R-rated) comedy to fill a half hour of your week (or month, as the case has been lately), You Look Nice Today will hit the spot. I always look forward to the next episode and get excited when I have a spare 30 minutes to savor every moment.

And that is why You Look Nice Today is a Podcast I Like.

The other day I was reading about absurdism. Actually, I take that back: I was reading a comic about absurdism. Close enough, right? Right.

Completely coincidentally, it’s apparently an idea that none other than Søren Kierkegaard is partially responsible for.

The fundamental idea behind absurdism is this: finding the meaning of the universe is impossible because no meaning exists (as in, the universe is cold, dark and unforgiving). Therefore, to attempt to find meaning is absurd, and the only ways to “win” (if you want to call it that) are:

• Commit suicide
• Adopt a set of religious beliefs (aka “philosophical suicide,” since religion requires faith, which is the opposite of pure logic, which is the foundation of philosophy)
• Accept the absurd

In other words, you can either give up or learn how to fake it.

Granted, this is all founded on the idea that the universe is meaningless, which is the point to argue here, and I would in some sense argue against it. But maybe that’s because I don’t want to wear a tutu and hand out hot dogs at a water polo game.

And so ends yet another pointless exploration into the world of philosophy by yours truly. I hope it has been sufficiently educational. And perhaps this will help make more sense of Albert Camus’s The Stranger, should you pick it up again (or for the first time) in the near future.