roarscottrooster

journal 1: FASCIST.10.15.6

2007-05-23T20:31:00.000-07:00

Journal: FASCIST

Today’s Compilation, Collection, Assortment, Hodgepodge, Jumble, Heap, Mound, Knoll, Hillock, Hummock, Mount, Stack, Hoard, Mountain, Stockpile, Pile, Quantity, Measure, Computation, Bundle, Bag, Package, Wrap-Up, Load, Shipment, Weight, Medley, Jumble, Mishmash, Mixed Bag, Combination, Blend, Amalgamation, Permutation, Variation, Variant, Grouping, Consortium, Mass, Set, Anthology, Collected Work, Album, Folder, File, Case, Crate, Bird Cage, Coop, Container, Urn, Jug, Pot, Bud Vase, Bottle, Sleeve, Sheath, Dossier, Record, Documentation, Trace, Witness, Testimony, Indication, Signal, Indicator, Warning Sign, Pointer, Cursor, Baton, Rod, Shaft, Pipe, Whistle, Screech, Squeal, Howl, Yelp, Wail, Scream, Shriek, Yell, Bellow, Holler, Bawl, Roar, Snarl, Growl, Bark, Woof, Yap, Rumble, Shout, Twitter, Conduit, Medium, Instrument, Gadget, Thingamajig, Gizmo, Thingy, Thing, Thingamabob, Doohickey, Widget, Doodad, Device, Machine, Equipment, Contrivance, Set-Up, Plot, Plan, Machination, Means, Wealth, Way, Resources, Property, Assets, Possessions, Chattels, Goods, Wares, Stuff, Utensil, Apparatus, Appliance, Implement, Mechanism, Agent, Tool, Cylinder, Tube, Beam, Ray, Dowel, Wand, Hint, Clue, Statement, Report, Heading, Book, Assemblage, Craze, Fad, Article, Object, Mania, Fixation, Obsession Complete: 10.15.6

“Looks like Jesus
Throws like Mary
Loyal like Judas.”

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Fight Global Warming
www.fightglobalwarming.com
If every family switches 2 or 3 light bulbs with compact florescent bulbs, it’s like taking 3.5 million cars off the road!

Amy Goodman interview, 9.8.6
www.alfranken.com
http://www.midwestvaluespac.org/category/MVP-News/

Democracy Now
www.democracynow.org
www.tour.democracynow.org

Bush Bumper Stickers
www.bushbumperstickers.com

American Humanist Association
www.americanhumanist.org
Humanist values are part of a progressive society/culture.

www.airamerica.com: the most listened to (internet broadcast) in the world

Crock news: Those people who thought that they were voting for Jerry Springer on Dancing With The Stars find out that they were, actually, voting for gay marriage rights in Idaho.

An Inconvenient Truth film

“What the poor/disenfranchised are experiencing (at the bottom) will, eventually, catch up with the rich (who are at the top)!” Loss of peace and prosperity is inevitable because of those who don’t pay attention & don’t care (self-fulfilling prophesy).
-2004 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai
www.pbs.org Tavis Smiley

10.15.06>
Work hard, play hard, rest easy. – Rev. Michael S. Piazza

10.2006>
Foldiers Coffee Crystals is the only decaffeinated coffee that is (truly) decaffeinated (it does not have caffeine in it); all other decaffeinated coffees (actually) have caffeine! Five cups of decaffeinated coffee is equal to one or two cups of “caffeinated” coffee.

9.2006>
70% of the American people believe that Bush should be impeached if he lied to the American people (in going to war)!

There’s no difference between Osama Bin Laden killing infidels and George W Bush killing Iraqi’s.

9.2006>
Our troops have gone from (being) “heroes” to (being) “monsters.”
The Ground Truth film

Bush is a dictator, fascist, neo-conservative.

We, now, have no chance of stopping the insurgent violence in Iraq.

9.2006>
526 (million), 737 (thousand), 396 people, worldwide, are against the policies of the Bush administration.

Bush talking to the terrorists, quoting:
“I will never forget your face; I will kill you, your brothers, your mother, and your sisters.”

Bush created a war for the benefit of his cronies, and he put into positions of authority officials who are stupid, incompetent, greedy.

9.8.6>
“ABC-(with) Katy Couric nightly news mini-series” is a docu-drama that has a political intention/direction, and it’s starting out very badly; the American public is not accepting it at all. The mini-series may be dropped, all together.

Part of protection of this country is protection of the values of this country. On the other hand, “Bush (cabinet)” is authoritarian.
We have an embarrassing president, he’s intellectually lazy, he’s squandered the unity that we had (in the world behind us); he says that he uses lawful interrorgation techniques, but they (the Bush Gov’t) torure, kill, and humiliate people/prisoners.
He says that the capture of individuals is related to the captures of others, but information is information that they already knew and had.
In the 911 report, it says that the 911 attacks occurred on 9.10.6 (not 9.11.6); it’s lies, incompetence, and stupidity!
He (Bush) hijacked 911 for his own petty political purposes;
Karl Rove went to the RNC, and he said, “oh, we can use this!”
they smeared Max Cleland,
they cut taxes on the wealthiest Americans, twice, and
they shoved the sacrifice to troops and the country

www.loosechange911.com
36% of the American public believe that the (overall) gov’t (and players) was either complicit or directly involved in the 911 (destruction) event.
The question is “where are the people that were on the plane that (supposedly) hit the Pentagon?”
The gov’t allows its people to die for strategic purpose/reasoning.
Conspiracy: Con – together
Spiracy – breathe
To breathe together, to begin with; disclosing secrecy; we’re talking about a basic issue of trust; it’s a basic idea, about how we think of ideas, our ideas are different, wondering if we are right or wrong; we go through curiosity, alternative thinking, annoyance, moving beyond, doubt, suspicion, paranoia, wanting/desiring the truth; we suffer from fear, helplessness
It’s obvious and evident that it was controlled demolition; the destruction of the WTC.

Karl Rove is an agnostic, and yet he is a “winner at all cost” regarding anti-gay agenda, political luncheon, pro(organized)-religion/religious domineerance, active psychological damage and public harm, master plan for absolute power, establishment of permanent majority, collapse of social security.
The real test is in Fall (election) of 2008

The White House Report, on 9.5.6, says that the “war on terror” has nothing to do with the war in Iraq. So why are we at war in Iraq, then? But, in the Press, Bush only talks about how we must support the war in Iraq, and any war (at that)!

Bush wasn’t “elected” president, he was “selected” president.

The “agent for change,” currently, is through/by the democrats; republicans are going to vote democratic because they want something new. You can’t have a one-party rule in America.

G.W.Bush is loved/liked solely for his money; for fundraisers. As soon as fundraisers are held, “get out, George!”

The Bush gov’t has made secret (retroactively) the number of nuclear bombs we have; they don’t want us to know!

“Traditionalism, conservatism: the kind of ‘crap’ our forefathers fought against!”

8.2006>
Too many people voted for G.W.Bush because they were republicans/fundamentalists, not because they thought that he (Bush) was “smart.”

8.2006>
37 million Americans live below the poverty line; less than $20,000 yearly income
12% of the American population lives below the poverty line
46.6 million Americans without health insurance
More American will die (this year) of disease than any terrorist act.
We must vote for national health and life insurance for every person

8.2006>
People (all over the world) are more afraid of America (government) than they are afraid of the “terrorists.”

We’ve got to save Congress by voting and wanting to put a break on the runaway policies of the right.

8.29.6>
One year anniversary for hurricane Katrina (in Mississippi) New Orleans flood (8.29.5).
Very little has been done about cleaning up New Orleans, over the past 365 days; it’s:
- political (about politics). Louisiana was a blue (democratic-leaning)
state; now, it’s a red (republican-leaning) state.
- a race issue, obviously.
- not “how can we clean up the city?” It’s “we will not clean up the city;
cleaning up New Orleans (so that the ‘blues’ will return) will not
happen.”
- about money; the government does not want to spill out the money to
clean up New Orleans and help the people of New Orleans. But
the government only helps those who will benefit the republican
party, and the rest of the city suffers. Between Bush, FEMA, and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagan, New Orleans will not be rebuilt. In the past year, Bush only visited New Orleans at the time of the flood, and now, at the one-year anniversary (because it’s an election year).
- about poverty; most of the low-income people of New Orleans are
black. Government doesn’t want another “9th ward.” No one seems interested in rebuilding neighborhoods where poor people or middle class live. They wont clean up, and they wont rebuild. But if they rebuild, it wont be for low-income; they don’t want to (and they wont) rebuild for the low-income. They will rebuild for those who can afford the (much higher) cost of living.
What has died, which is greater than New Orleans dying, is confidence in government.
There’s no accountability; While it’s (only) a picture-op, Bush talks of post-Katrina “progress,” but there is no progress (at all), of coarse!

8.2006>
Do 130,000 innocent civilian lives have to be taken (through war); is it social justice?

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8.23.6>
The Bush administration is nothing but lies, incompetence, arrogance, ignorance, and stupidity; Bush listens only to Rumsfeld (for war advice), and Rumsfeld listens to no one but himself. They are only breaking the military (down), leaving it with nothing (our military is left with only broken down and old equipment, and with nothing – like body armor - to protect the soldiers). The people don’t want a (totally) incompetent government. The direction that we have gone is not the direction that we should or want to be going; it isn’t working, but Bush and Rumsfeld intend to keep going (the same direction), without interruption.

8.22.2006>
Virtually everyone believes that the war in Iraq was a colossal failure and a horrible mistake.

8.22.2006>
Because of Bush, we have never been as unsafe as we are today; the entire world hates America more and more every day because of what Bush has done over the past 6.5 years. Because of Bush and the gov’t (of republicans), terrorism has grown to a number of terrorists unidentifiable. Bush is incapable of protecting us because of what he has created. He has made everything worse for us, and he blames it on the democrats; but the democrats are not in power; the war is Bush’s war (the Republican’s war); the mess is Bush’s mess (the Republican’s mess), and Bush refuses to end the war, as he refuses to end the mess! Because of what we’ve done in Iraq, we’ve created the terrorist organizations and other threats (that were created by the Bush administration), and Bush only wants to continue in creating more terrorism, more destruction, more suffering, more death. We’re the “bad guy,” now; that’s what Bush has done to/for us all!

August 22, 2006>
Bush up to 42% in approval rating (?) because of the events of the last two weeks!

August 21, 2006 (Bush, in a press conference)>
“We’re not leaving (Iraq), so long as I’m the President.” So, for the next 2.5 years, at least, war will go on, because it’s what Bush wants.

July, 2006>
Drinking milk is linked to getting testicular cancer, cervical cancer, & breast cancer; babies can drink milk (ie: breast-milk), but when babies stop breast-feeding, a human is not supposed to drink milk. Soy milk or Rice milk is good to drink, though.

7.11.6>
The American deficit>
A $296 billion deficit

7.6.6>
Joe Lieberman:
“Lie”berman
“Low”berman
“Loser”man
He’s in with the republican “control” gov’t, and he won’t admit to it!
He sounds too much like Dick Cheney (about supporting the war).

www.keeler2006.com
www.swift.com

Spring, 2006>
A developing monarchism; Americans trying to make a “King” out of G. W. Bush!
Bush has made “signing statements” on 750 laws (in the last five yrs), saying that he’s not bound by the laws; the 750 laws he’s signed, over his time of Presidency (since January, 2001), do not apply to him (so he thinks).

Christians kill each other in the name of their religion.
The Ku Klux Klan killed (christian) blacks.
The Southern Baptist Convention says that women should submit to their husbands.
Women wore the letter A if they committed adultery.
“Christians, in China, are tortured and killed, because there is no (accepted) religion in China.
People in their own “right” religion think that all other religions are condemnable and wrong.
Jesus is used as a “warrior” in fundamentalist Christianity, as a leader of all wars, killing, destruction, etc.

Terrorists can’t destroy America or the world people’s; only we, fundamentalist Christians and society can destroy America and the world/earth/all of life (a self fulfilling prophesy).

“When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad.” – Abraham Lincoln, speaking about his “religion.”

6.02.06>
2 million of our citizens behind bars.

Language is thinking; you cant think without language.

G. W. Bush has the worst presidential ratings since 1945.

“(Rush) Limbaugh is an idiot.” Idiot: a person who doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

6.02.06>
A disclosed 6 Guantanamo Bay, Cuba prisoners are being forced-fed, up from (a, last week, disclosed) 4.

America will no longer have the right to privacy. The government is working against us; against our civil/human rights.
If we cannot have freedom of expression, religion, beliefs, etc, then why have an America?

“Every Bush administration official/thug is a liar.”

6.02.06>
G. W. Bush, in a press speech on Monday, 06.05.06, to introduce/support a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, prohibiting states from recognizing gay/lesbian/transgender marriage rights.
And there is a push across the country for a constitutional ban on American-flag-burning.

Abstinence from complacency and inaction

6.02.06>
Government monitoring our emails, which websites we go to, our online chatting, our surfing the web, IMing, etc, and retaining the information for up to two years. Government is telling the (internet & phone) companies to release this information, or else they will be forced to release the information.
Government is monitoring citizens’every phone call, (records kept) for three years.

5.17.06>
Republicans trying to pass, in secret, a constitutional amendment banning the rights of gays/lesbians to marriage rights & all the rights of heterosexuals in marriage.

5.17.06>
“You have/need no civil liberties/rights if you’re dead.” – Pat Robertson

There’s a quote of the sort:
“If you are okay with the loss of freedom and liberty for the desire/support of ‘peace’ and war, then you deserve none of it (freedom, liberty, peace, and social justice).” - Abraham Lincoln

“If all Americans want is security, they (American’s) can go to prison; there, they have food, water, shelter, and clothing.”

5.15.06>
Bush’s approval rating at 29%.

Currently, with republicans holding majority/power over every level of government, there is no accountability.

5.9.06>
Karl Rove is, definitely, going to be indited (probably, by Friday, 5.12.06). The issue, here, is “accountability;” not impeachment. On the issue of “accountability,” the democrats will regain control of the house and senate, come the November, ‘06 elections.
If he’s indited, he won’t stay on the administration payroll; he’s gone.

5.9.06>
Iraq is a total loss, at this point. The Iraq war is a complete loss. Soon, hundreds or thousands will die, daily. The American invasion has does so much harm that there is no changing the chaos, death, violence, and destruction that has resulted from it (the invasion/war).

5.9.06>
Bush’s job approval rating is “flat-lining;” The White House/Bush administration is on life support!
The rating’s are in a free-fall!
31% of Americans approve of Bush’s job.
Bush’s disapproval rating is 65%.
32% of republicans think that Bush isn’t doing a good job.
Cheney’s job approval rating’s are in the teen’s.

5.4.06>
The 33% of Americans (or so) who support Bush: they are “the fringe;”
the rest of us, we’re “the majority,” respectively. The fringe are out there “on a limb,” waco, extremist, insane, ignorant, destructive, violent, hateful, etc.

5.4.06>
Cruz Hernandez – now, the oldest man in the world, 128 yrs old.

4.30.06>
The gov’t wont release Guantanamo Bay prisoners, for “fear they’ll be ill-treated by their respective countries!”

4.21.06>
The Pentagon discloses that 30% of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been cleared to leave the prison; that’s 141 of the 490 people there. The U. S. govt says that it’s unable to make arrangements for them to leave. They were cleared to leave the prison as early as Dec. ’04, but are not being (allowed) let to go.

……………………………………………………………………………………………

The Great San Francisco Earthquake –

7.8 on the rector scale.
The stalwart pioneers of 1849, entered SanFrancisco. Since 1849, there have been 6 great fires in San Francisco.
The greatest natural disaster suffered by a North American city: The April 18th, 1906, San Francisco earthquake.
In San Jose – everyone homeless
In 1906 (about 450,000 population), 1/3 of San Francisco (population) was born on foreign soil, and 1/3 were foreign immigrants.
The Chinese (China Town) were hated/despised; much prejudice.
All of the City Hall (politicians) were corrupt.
Fake marble columns (in the remains), in City Hall, discovered; corrupt politicians pocketed the $7 million, it cost, for the fake columns.
The underwriters knew of the inevitable, since much of the city was built of wood; politicians wouldn’t listen.
The quake broke (almost) all water mains throughout the city.
People were shot for wanting to save their possessions.
Looters were shot on sight.
“Obey orders, or get shot.”
Soldiers, themselves, were seen looting.
The “ham and eggs fire;” the fire starter (wanting breakfast) unaware the chimney was damaged from the earthquake.
Black dynamite and powder, in the hands of unexperienced officials, started fires.
Fortunes, factories, homes swept away.
Over 3000 dead, as the city burned for several days; burned out. The hills lay bear.
The main post office survived.
15,000 horses died in harness, worked to death, in reconstruction of San Francisco.
Rich and poor started over, working together.
The Chinese returned from segregated camps, to start over.
28,000 buildings were destroyed.
20,500 buildings replaced them
The new city was, and world’s fair, somehow, seen as invincible; there were no guarantees to “invincibility.”
A new City Hall was a symbol of formed city gov’t.
The city was, completely, rebuilt within 3 yrs after the great earthquake and fire.
(New Orleans can’t even be rebuilt - after the September, 2005 hurricane/flood destruction - because of government theft/corruption, and because of government complacency and inaction!)
……………………………………………………………………………………………

The oil is supposed to pay for the Iraq war, but there’s been (absolutely) no “oil” money seen to pay for the war, and oil is more expensive as the peoples money is going to the big oil companies through the energy policies drafted (by the big oil companies).

All vehicles should be required to have a fuel efficiency of 35-40 miles per gallon. We, then, wouldn’t be spending as much, and we wouldn’t be using as much.
Exxon-Mobile profits are up 42.6% since last year. No one should be profiting during a “time of war.”
General Motors profits down 478%
Ford Motor Co profits down 42%
Excess profits should be used for development of alternative resources.

It’s predicted: “people are killing each other for gas/fuel; it’s set for August, ’06!”

Crude oil is 12 cents per gallon. The great increases in oil prices are the profit margins that these oil companies are instituting.

The gov’t knows full well that drilling (for oil) is not the answer.

4.25.06>
32% (CNN poll) of the country, now, supports the President and Bush administration.
33% (FOX poll)
34% (ABC poll)
34% (American Research Center poll)
35% (Pew Center poll)

Bush says that he’ll make sure oil companies don’t “price gouge,” and that those who price gouge will be prosecuted. But prices have increased 100% during Bush’s 5 yrs in office. All Bush wants to do is allow for more drilling for (more) oil; exactly feeding the addiction that Bush says that we (America) have. It’s Bush who is the oil addict, as he destroys and axaserbates the situation and makes it (all) worse (for us all).

4.25.06>
Bush allowed for energy policies to be drafted by the oil companies, and there were massive tax cuts to the oil companies; it’s why gas prices are so high, today. It’s a bankrupt energy policy, and the only people not bankrupt are the oil companies.

4.24.06>
It, now, costs 1.4 cents to make a penny; zink prices have gone up.

America sits on 3% of the worlds oil reserves, and America consumes 25% of the worlds oil reserves.
America is 2% or 3% of the world population. So, America is the problem! It’s crazy what policies America has. We’re the addicts, and the problem. We need an alternative fuel. Once G. W. Bush became President of America, the oil companies drafted the energy policies for America, which Bush allowed.
If Bush nukes Iran, within minutes, they’ll (Iran will) blow up the oil fields. Then, look to see what fuel prices will become! We must not be (so) focused on oil, but demand on an alternative, more “natural” fuel!

S.U.V.’s (sport utility vehicle’s) are all about (being) gas guzzlers, and Bush begged Americans to purchase S.U.V’s.
Hybrids (electric, gas) are the new mode of transportation (vehicle).
We have a tremendous energy crisis.
All buildings and homes need to be built with geo-thermal energy efficiency.

4.19.06>
Tens of thousands of Chinese die every year because of lack of human/civil rights; China is the emerging super power, with the help of American gov’t and American corporate power/force.

Currently, there are about 90,000 protests/rally’s, yearly, worldwide.

4.19.06>
America has a $200 billion trade deficit with China, as of 2006.

1 0ut of every 4 people on the planet is from China; 25% of the world population.

04.19.06>
Thanks to the Bush administration, 70% of America’s waterways are too polluted to consume (eat) the fish. In the state of Ohio, none of the waterways can be eaten out of because of excessive pollution.
The state of Idaho has worse pollution than all of the state of California.

“If this were a dictatorship, it would be so much easier, just so long as I’m the dictator.” – G. W. Bush

04.17.06>
“I am ‘the decider,’ and ‘I decide’ best.” - G. W. Bush, on refusing to dismiss Donald Rumsfield (force Donald Rumsfield to resign) from the White House administration
Bush could have said “decision-maker”, rather than “decider,” but he’s not “smart/witty,” and quite (always) “clueless.” Also, in “decider,” he intends on being a dictator. Also, in “decider,” he is the one responsible for those innocent Iraqi citizens (men, women, children, and babies) being gunned down, bombed, chemical-weapon affected, and murdered.

“We’ve made thousands of ‘tactical mistakes.’” – Condoleeza Rice

There’s a category between truth and lying, perhaps, and it’s called ‘spin.’

G. W. Bush said that “there’s no doubt that Saddam Hussein has chemical and biological weapons.” Of coarse (and he knew it) he was lying because there was no such intelligence but intelligence showing just the opposite (that Hussein had no w.m.d.).

Building military bases all over the world is not going to serve any purposes.
Cheney could, just, go out to Iraq and shoot people in the face!
Why does Cheney go out hunting? Because he wants to look like a “man.”

04.14.06>
According to a senate report, there’s a new (super secret), Vatican-like (city), with reinforced walls, 104 acre, U.S. embassy, in Baghdad, Iraq, being built; take that, New Orleans; it’s a new “King George, Texas, castle” project.

“Bush’s brain is a ‘chemical lab.’”

Is this a global war on terror? We’re spreading empire. We’re begging the President not to do stupid, insane, crazy things! Is this what the country has come to?

“They’re turning murder into art.”

4.14.06>
You won’t be seeing President G. W. Bush saying, “I’m the president of the United States of America, and I did cocaine (back in college or whenever);” though he did, and, perhaps/probably, does (cocaine).

Vietnam was run by Robert Strange McNemera; since then, he (McLemera) was forced to resign (in 1968), he’s apologized, and he’s admitted that he was arrogant, that no one knew better than him, and no one could change his mind;
Donald Rumsfield (and the entire Bush crime family/regime) is in the same situation, now.

“You have to bring ass to get ass.”

Bush is acting against the interests of the nation and the world, and nothing can stop him, so he thinks.

04.14.06>
There will be a (nuclear simulation test) 1.4 million lb, 700-ton (non-nuclear), conventional explosive bomb/device blast (about 90 miles from Las Vegas, Nevada), on June 2nd, 2006 (06.02.06), which will produce a 10,000 foot high mushroom cloud, and will have no radio-active reaction. This is a test so that gov’t can, then, build a nuclear bomb to drop on Iran, very soon. Can the President, without Congressional support, declare war in Iran? No.
And there’s no consensus amongst democrats and republicans in Congress (House and Senate).
Perhaps, Bush is going to declare himself “Supreme Leader;” what if he declares martial law, and refuses to leave the White House in January, 2009?

War settles nothing. Gov’t isn’t about service; it’s about self-service.

We spend more in Defense (military) spending than the combined net income of all American corporations.

They say our country is geared toward an “arms economy.”

4.14.06>
G. W. Bush filed his taxes, and his reported income for the past year was $735,180.00, more than $300,000 above (two times) his annual presidential salary; he has to pay almost $188,000.00 on that amount, in federal taxes.
Vice President Dick Cheney’s tax return is a refund of $1.9 million because of overpayment of taxes.

The lies, incompetence, greed, and stupidity of the Bush crime regime; www.impeachbushgame.com

How can we prevent nuclear proliferation of rogue states? Because of “long war,” under G. W. Bush, we’ve created a horrible situation.

(Jan. 1993) Start of Clinton’s term, the poverty rate was 15.1%
(1997) Half way through Clinton’s term, the poverty rate was 13.7 %
(Dec. 2000) End of Clinton’s term, the poverty rate was 11.3%
(Jan. 2001) Start of G. W. Bush’s term, the poverty rate was 11.3%
(Feb. 2005) Half way through G. W. Bush’s term, poverty rate was 12.7%
(Dec. 2008) End of G. W. Bush’s term, the poverty rate is --%

The (top-ranking) corruption, and “chicken-hawks:”
G. W. Bush, Carl Rove,
Richard Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfield,
Scott McClellan,
Condoleeza Rice,
John Ashcroft,
I Scooter Lewis Libby
Paul Wolfowitz

“Cheney should not be listened to on Iraq, and Rumsfield should step down.”

Giving false statements (lying, withholding information) to a federal individual is a felony.
Associates of Bush, and Bush himself, have (all) committed felony.

Bush said, in a press conference, that Saddam Hussein, absolutely, has a weapons program; a lie! Bush knew that there was no evidence of weapons programs.
Bush said that Saddam Hussein must disclose and destroy a weapons program, and that Saddam Hussein refused to disclose and destroy.
Bush said that because Saddam Hussein refused to disclose and destroy any weapons programs, that it was reason to occupy and attack Iraq.

A Swedish study (on marriage), supposedly showed that marriage declined drastically because of gay marriage; the stats are “irrefutable,” so said. There was no Swedish study, actually. The Swedish, just, are less known to marry.

Bush Senior and Bush Junior orchestrated 9.11.01 World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks.

The Vietnam war was just another atrocity committed by the American gov’t against a third world country, who never did anything to us; and they (the vietnamese) kicked our ass. We had no business being there; no justification, whatsoever.

4.14.06>
As a whole, (now with the shea law, and under muslim “authority”) women (in Iraq), now, are worse off than under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein (they have to stay at home, they have to quit their jobs, etc).

4.14.06>
The war in Iraq is the great moral issue of the day (today); it influences everything.

“We need a new secretary of Defense.”

4.13.06>
6 (retired) military command major generals, now, requesting/calling for the resignation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfield (over the Department of Defense) because of his misleadership and mismanagement of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, and Iraq war. Rumsfield may feel accountable, but he’s, probably, not going to resign, unless he’s forced (by the White House administration) to resign.
Things Rumsfield & gov’t did wrong:
a. They were supposed to “dump” the (Saddam Hussein) regime, and then leave, but they haven’t left (Iraq).
b. They never sent enough troops, and they didn’t send troops that were scheduled to go to Iraq.
c. They invaded cities/towns on the way to Baghdad, and they weren’t supposed to do that, for they are, now, responsible for rebuilding those places they’ve attacked and destroyed, and they are responsible for rebuilding every place they’ve attacked and destroyed, but they are not rebuilding.
d. They haven’t stopped the looting, and they haven’t turned on the electricity and water.
e. Rumsfield and his acolytes never acknowledged reality, and never acknowledged their mistakes.

4.14.06>
The Omaha, Nebraska Legislature is (in order to better education to what the “communities” want/expect), likely, to pass a bill that segregates public schools into black-people schools, white-people schools, and Hispanic-people schools; this legislative bill is very harmful and socially destructive.

4.12.06>
Yesterday, the first NYC police officer died from exposure to the chemicals in the air on 9.11.01 related to the NYC World Trade Center collapse, rescue effort, and cleanup effort.

The “Mobile weapons labs” (in Iraq) - George W. Bush referred to as w. m. d. - are, actually, (giant) sand toilets.

There’s another planet in space, known as George, named after King George (?), otherwise known as Uranus. The planet is not really seeable, but is (like) a star.

Related information; on the web sites:
www.sweetjesusihatebilloreilley.com
www.madowonline.com (Rachel Madow, www.airamericaradio.com)
www.jeryspringerontheradio.com
www.alfrankenshow.com
www.joshritter.com
(Act Now to Stop War & End Racism) A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, www.answercoalition.org, info@internationalanswer.org

More Quotes:

“I’m just going to shut up; I know nothing about nothing, oh yes!” – Anna Nicole Smith

journal 2: THANKSGIVING NOTE.11.23.6

2007-05-23T20:22:00.000-07:00

2006 Thanksgiving Note:

11.23.6, morning

I hope that all is well and of goodness with you and your friends, family, and loved ones.

Hi, to all my friends, from the Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia “metroplex.”

It’s a rainy, drizzly day, here, today; I guess, perfect, for thanksgiving day!

I left Dallas on the 8th (Wednesday) of November, with my roommate (Matt);
we traveled in separate cars to York, Nebraska (about a 620 mile trip from Dallas) to visit a college friend of mine (Bonnie) & her family.
Matt returned to Dallas on the 13th (Monday);
I headed my way to DC on the 14th (Tuesday), with my ’89 Civic CRX hatchback (“sticker mobile”) packed to the “fullness;”
with a bottle of Vivarin;
driving 23 hrs “straight/gaily directly;” about 1300 miles (from Nebraska)
getting “pulled over” by two “very conservative” Indiana police officers (for my going the same speed as two 18-wheelers next to me!), my receiving only a warning; the officers searching my packed car for drugs and finding none (except my
*Equate Complete Multi-Vitamin, Multi-Mineral, Dietary Supplement capsules,
*High Potency B-Complex 50 Dietary Supplement capsules,
*Daily Total One, with Maxi-Sorb, Iron-Free Daily Dietary Supplement Preservative Free Vegetarian capsules,
*Enhancing Mental Concentration Attentive chewable wafers,
*Calm & Calmer Anti-Stress Formula (with Relora, Rhodiola Rosae & L-Theanine) Dietary Supplement capsules,
*Nordic Naturals Ultimate Omega EPA & DHA capsules);
listening to their comments, praises, accolades, and criticism on my bumper stickers;
arriving at & crashing at Daniel & David’s home (at 10 am EST) in Takoma Park, MD (10 minutes from where I currently live), for a Wednesday day & night;
(Wednesday afternoon, the 15th) driving to the Mount Vernon (Alexandria, VA) Wal-Mart store to meet with Personnel, management, and schedule my hours;
(Thursday, the 16th) viewing and moving into where I now live: 3301 Powder Mill Rd
Adelphi-Hyattsville (the Adelphi area of Hyattsville!), MD 20783-1033;
note: if you’d like to write me, I’m at either Adelphi or Hyattsville; you can write
whatever you wish to!
connecting my phone/internet on the 16th (Thursday evening);
beginning work with Wal-Mart on Saturday, the 18th, working day hours, now, anywhere between 7 am and 11:30 pm (there are no 24 hr Wal-Mart Superstores in the Maryland-Virginia metroplex, except about 45 or 50 miles out of the DC metroplex; there are no stores in Washington DC!).

The Mount Vernon, Alexandria store that I’m working at, the store manager (Greg) used to be a manager at the Cockrell Hill (West) Dallas store that I was at for two years; it is good to have him as a store manager, really, of which I’m “glad!” He’s a great guy!

Yes, I’m living in the DC metroplex, currently! I’m:
living in Adelphi-Hyattsville, Maryland,
working in Alexandria, Virginia, and
“playing/‘living’” in the Wa DC “metropolis!”

I live 30 miles from work (as a cashier at Wal-Mart). I love the coworkers, customers, and work environment, there! Perhaps, in the future, I’ll move to the (Mount Vernon) Alexandria, VA area so that I’m close to work!

The weather has been chilly (in the 30’s), as of yet; quite different from Dallas weather! So far, I’m enjoying the change. Fall season is very beautiful/gorgeous, here. I’m here for (more) “political action” in DC and NYC; yes, I’ll see our stupid President out of office, when the time comes! So far, I’ve (just) been working, driving, learning the area (!), meeting people (new friends), aquainting myself with the 9 roommates, etc (amongst the roommates, there are two couples).

I live in a 1960’s house, (December, 05) gutted and remodeled (in the past 10 months), beautiful home (that I found available to rent through http://www.craigslist.com/). It’s a 8-bed-room, 4-bath-room, 2-kitchen, 2-floor home. I find it very pleasant, living here, and the other residents (here) are very nice/great! They’re all black people; I’m the only one who’s gay, and white! I find it great/fun to be of “interest” to others (make them happy, “perplexed,” or whatever”)! One of my refrigerator magnets is of this naked guy laying on his stomach, with his legs spread apart, on a air mattress, in a swimming pool, and the roommates love it (there on the kitchen fridge)! His white butt is so tight and cute! Another magnet reads, “Don’t call me queer, call me enchanted!”

Yes, I can always return to Dallas, where all my (good) friends are at! My roommate, Matt, is (still) there (with his “new/sexy” house lover/husband), and the address, there, remains, along with half my belongings (in the hall closet &) all over the apartment (peace flags, rainbow flags, ribbon, beads, necklaces, bracelets, erotic art, newspaper clippings, slinkies, toys, psychedelic colors, floral/flowers, 1970’s sheet draperies, pink-purple lights glorious/abundant, pink rocks in the fishy bowl, “fishiness” swimming, green ivy rooting in water awaiting their planting, fruit, etc)!

In Dallas, every Thanksgiving season, I was able to attend Jim’s & Sam’s home and all of Jim’s “gourmet” cooking, and fun amongst about a dozen other friends, prior to going to work, that (graveyard) night! Of coarse, much, I am sad to not get to attend that this year since I’m very far away!

This afternoon, I’ll be going to a friends’ friends home, amongst about a dozen people, and having dinner. And I’ll be returning to my place of residence to a house full of roommates and their friends & family; with tons of food, baked chicken, salads, bourbon turkey, stuffing, potatoes, yams, shecuan green beans, corn, macaroni & cheese casserole, cheese & crackers, salted peanuts, oreo cookies, chocolate chip ice cream, chocolate cake, chips, wine & dine, eating, and drinking, television football (of coarse, no interest, on my part, in that!), tons more food, and “fun!”

This is only some of what I can write to you, but I’ll close, for now, so that I can get this out to you prior to the end of the “official” “thanksgiving day!”

Blessings to you and yours, always, on this thanksgiving time and all days.

Love & peace & happiness

……………..
Scott Burbridge

2601 Hudnall St. #219
Dallas, TX 75235
214.443.7983

3301 Powder Mill Rd
Adelphi-Hyattsville, MD 20783-1033
240.297.9684
roarscottrooster@yahoo.com
sbroost@yahoo.com
……………..

JOURNAL 2

If every family switches 2 or 3 light bulbs with compact florescent bulbs, it’s like taking 3.5 million cars off the road!

Humanist values are part of a progressive society/culture

Crock news: Those people who thought that they were voting for Jerry Springer on Dancing With The Stars find out that they were, actually, voting for gay marriage rights in Idaho.

“What the poor/disenfranchised are experiencing (at the bottom) will, eventually, catch up with the rich (who are at the top)!” Loss of peace and prosperity is inevitable because of those who don’t pay attention & don’t care (self-fulfilling prophesy).
-2004 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai
http://www.pbs.org/ Tavis Smiley

10.15.06>
Work hard, play hard, rest easy. – Rev. Michael S. Piazza

10.2006>
Foldiers Coffee Crystals is the only decaffeinated coffee that is (truly) decaffeinated (it does not have caffeine in it); all other decaffeinated coffees (actually) have caffeine! Five cups of decaffeinated coffee is equal to one or two cups of “caffeinated” coffee.

9.2006>
70% of the American people believe that Bush should be impeached if he lied to the American people (in going to war)!

There’s no difference between Osama Bin Laden killing infidels and George W Bush killing Iraqi’s.

9.2006>
Our troops have gone from (being) “heroes” to (being) “monsters.”
The Ground Truth film

Bush is a dictator, fascist, neo-conservative.

We, now, have no chance of stopping the insurgent violence in Iraq.

9.2006>
526 (million), 737 (thousand), 396 people, worldwide, are against the policies of the Bush administration.

Bush talking to the terrorists, quoting:
“I will never forget your face; I will kill you, your brothers, your mother, and your sisters.”

Bush created a war for the benefit of his cronies, and he put into positions of authority officials who are stupid, incompetent, greedy.

9.8.6>
“ABC-(with) Katy Couric nightly news mini-series” is a docu-drama that has a political intention/direction, and it’s starting out very badly; the American public is not accepting it at all. The mini-series may be dropped, all together.

Part of protection of this country is protection of the values of this country. On the other hand, “Bush (cabinet)” is authoritarian.
We have an embarrassing president, he’s intellectually lazy, he’s squandered the unity that we had (in the world behind us); he says that he uses lawful interrorgation techniques, but they (the Bush Gov’t) torure, kill, and humiliate people/prisoners.
He says that the capture of individuals is related to the captures of others, but information is information that they already knew and had.
In the 911 report, it says that the 911 attacks occurred on 9.10.6 (not 9.11.6); it’s lies, incompetence, and stupidity!
He (Bush) hijacked 911 for his own petty political purposes;
Karl Rove went to the RNC, and he said, “oh, we can use this!”
they smeared Max Cleland,
they cut taxes on the wealthiest Americans, twice, and
they shoved the sacrifice to troops and the country

http://www.loosechange911.com/
36% of the American public believe that the (overall) gov’t (and players) was either complicit or directly involved in the 911 (destruction) event.
The question is “where are the people that were on the plane that (supposedly) hit the Pentagon?”
The gov’t allows its people to die for strategic purpose/reasoning.
Conspiracy: Con – together
Spiracy – breathe
To breathe together, to begin with; disclosing secrecy; we’re talking about a basic issue of trust; it’s a basic idea, about how we think of ideas, our ideas are different, wondering if we are right or wrong; we go through curiosity, alternative thinking, annoyance, moving beyond, doubt, suspicion, paranoia, wanting/desiring the truth; we suffer from fear, helplessness
It’s obvious and evident that it was controlled demolition; the destruction of the WTC.

Karl Rove is an agnostic, and yet he is a “winner at all cost” regarding anti-gay agenda, political luncheon, pro(organized)-religion/religious domineerance, active psychological damage and public harm, master plan for absolute power, establishment of permanent majority, collapse of social security.
The real test is in Fall (election) of 2008

The White House Report, on 9.5.6, says that the “war on terror” has nothing to do with the war in Iraq. So why are we at war in Iraq, then? But, in the Press, Bush only talks about how we must support the war in Iraq, and any war (at that)!

Bush wasn’t “elected” president, he was “selected” president.

The “agent for change,” currently, is through/by the democrats; republicans are going to vote democratic because they want something new. You can’t have a one-party rule in America.

G.W.Bush is loved/liked solely for his money; for fundraisers. As soon as fundraisers are held, “get out, George!”

The Bush gov’t has made secret (retroactively) the number of nuclear bombs we have; they don’t want us to know!

“Traditionalism, conservatism: the kind of ‘crap’ our forefathers fought against!”

8.2006>
Too many people voted for G.W.Bush because they were republicans/fundamentalists, not because they thought that he (Bush) was “smart.”

8.2006>
37 million Americans live below the poverty line; less than $20,000 yearly income
12% of the American population lives below the poverty line
46.6 million Americans without health insurance
More American will die (this year) of disease than any terrorist act.
We must vote for national health and life insurance for every person

8.2006>
People (all over the world) are more afraid of America (government) than they are afraid of the “terrorists.”

We’ve got to save Congress by voting and wanting to put a break on the runaway policies of the right.

8.29.6>
One year anniversary for hurricane Katrina (in Mississippi) New Orleans flood (8.29.5).
Very little has been done about cleaning up New Orleans, over the past 365 days; it’s:
- political (about politics). Louisiana was a blue (democratic-leaning)
state; now, it’s a red (republican-leaning) state.
- a race issue, obviously.
- not “how can we clean up the city?” It’s “we will not clean up the city;
cleaning up New Orleans (so that the ‘blues’ will return) will not
happen.”
- about money; the government does not want to spill out the money to
clean up New Orleans and help the people of New Orleans. But
the government only helps those who will benefit the republican
party, and the rest of the city suffers. Between Bush, FEMA, and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagan, New Orleans will not be rebuilt. In the past year, Bush only visited New Orleans at the time of the flood, and now, at the one-year anniversary (because it’s an election year).
- about poverty; most of the low-income people of New Orleans are
black. Government doesn’t want another “9th ward.” No one seems interested in rebuilding neighborhoods where poor people or middle class live. They wont clean up, and they wont rebuild. But if they rebuild, it wont be for low-income; they don’t want to (and they wont) rebuild for the low-income. They will rebuild for those who can afford the (much higher) cost of living.
What has died, which is greater than New Orleans dying, is confidence in government.
There’s no accountability; While it’s (only) a picture-op, Bush talks of post-Katrina “progress,” but there is no progress (at all), of coarse!

8.2006>
Do 130,000 innocent civilian lives have to be taken (through war); is it social justice?

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8.23.6>
The Bush administration is nothing but lies, incompetence, arrogance, ignorance, and stupidity; Bush listens only to Rumsfeld (for war advice), and Rumsfeld listens to no one but himself. They are only breaking the military (down), leaving it with nothing (our military is left with only broken down and old equipment, and with nothing – like body armor - to protect the soldiers). The people don’t want a (totally) incompetent government. The direction that we have gone is not the direction that we should or want to be going; it isn’t working, but Bush and Rumsfeld intend to keep going (the same direction), without interruption.

8.22.2006>
Virtually everyone believes that the war in Iraq was a colossal failure and a horrible mistake.

8.22.2006>
Because of Bush, we have never been as unsafe as we are today; the entire world hates America more and more every day because of what Bush has done over the past 6.5 years. Because of Bush and the gov’t (of republicans), terrorism has grown to a number of terrorists unidentifiable. Bush is incapable of protecting us because of what he has created. He has made everything worse for us, and he blames it on the democrats; but the democrats are not in power; the war is Bush’s war (the Republican’s war); the mess is Bush’s mess (the Republican’s mess), and Bush refuses to end the war, as he refuses to end the mess! Because of what we’ve done in Iraq, we’ve created the terrorist organizations and other threats (that were created by the Bush administration), and Bush only wants to continue in creating more terrorism, more destruction, more suffering, more death. We’re the “bad guy,” now; that’s what Bush has done to/for us all!

August 22, 2006>
Bush up to 42% in approval rating (?) because of the events of the last two weeks!

August 21, 2006 (Bush, in a press conference)>
“We’re not leaving (Iraq), so long as I’m the President.” So, for the next 2.5 years, at least, war will go on, because it’s what Bush wants.

July, 2006>
Drinking milk is linked to getting testicular cancer, cervical cancer, & breast cancer; babies can drink milk (ie: breast-milk), but when babies stop breast-feeding, a human is not supposed to drink milk. Soy milk or Rice milk is good to drink, though.

7.11.6>
The American deficit>
A $296 billion deficit

7.6.6>
Joe Lieberman:
“Lie”berman
“Low”berman
“Loser”man
He’s in with the republican “control” gov’t, and he won’t admit to it!
He sounds too much like Dick Cheney (about supporting the war).

http://www.keeler2006.com/
http://www.swift.com/

Spring, 2006>
A developing monarchism; Americans trying to make a “King” out of G. W. Bush!
Bush has made “signing statements” on 750 laws (in the last five yrs), saying that he’s not bound by the laws; the 750 laws he’s signed, over his time of Presidency (since January, 2001), do not apply to him (so he thinks).

Christians kill each other in the name of their religion.
The Ku Klux Klan killed (christian) blacks.
The Southern Baptist Convention says that women should submit to their husbands.
Women wore the letter A if they committed adultery.
“Christians, in China, are tortured and killed, because there is no (accepted) religion in China.
People in their own “right” religion think that all other religions are condemnable and wrong.
Jesus is used as a “warrior” in fundamentalist Christianity, as a leader of all wars, killing, destruction, etc.

Terrorists can’t destroy America or the world people’s; only we, fundamentalist Christians and society can destroy America and the world/earth/all of life (a self fulfilling prophesy).

“When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad.” – Abraham Lincoln, speaking about his “religion.”

6.02.06>
2 million of our citizens behind bars.

Language is thinking; you cant think without language.

G. W. Bush has the worst presidential ratings since 1945.

“(Rush) Limbaugh is an idiot.” Idiot: a person who doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

6.02.06>
A disclosed 6 Guantanamo Bay, Cuba prisoners are being forced-fed, up from (a, last week, disclosed) 4.

America will no longer have the right to privacy. The government is working against us; against our civil/human rights.
If we cannot have freedom of expression, religion, beliefs, etc, then why have an America?

“Every Bush administration official/thug is a liar.”

6.02.06>
G. W. Bush, in a press speech on Monday, 06.05.06, to introduce/support a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, prohibiting states from recognizing gay/lesbian/transgender marriage rights.
And there is a push across the country for a constitutional ban on American-flag-burning.

Abstinence from complacency and inaction

6.02.06>
Government monitoring our emails, which websites we go to, our online chatting, our surfing the web, IMing, etc, and retaining the information for up to two years. Government is telling the (internet & phone) companies to release this information, or else they will be forced to release the information.
Government is monitoring citizens’every phone call, (records kept) for three years.

5.17.06>
Republicans trying to pass, in secret, a constitutional amendment banning the rights of gays/lesbians to marriage rights & all the rights of heterosexuals in marriage.

5.17.06>
“You have/need no civil liberties/rights if you’re dead.” – Pat Robertson

There’s a quote of the sort:
“If you are okay with the loss of freedom and liberty for the desire/support of ‘peace’ and war, then you deserve none of it (freedom, liberty, peace, and social justice).” - Abraham Lincoln

“If all Americans want is security, they (American’s) can go to prison; there, they have food, water, shelter, and clothing.”

5.15.06>
Bush’s approval rating at 29%.

Currently, with republicans holding majority/power over every level of government, there is no accountability.

5.9.06>
Karl Rove is, definitely, going to be indited (probably, by Friday, 5.12.06). The issue, here, is “accountability;” not impeachment. On the issue of “accountability,” the democrats will regain control of the house and senate, come the November, ‘06 elections.
If he’s indited, he won’t stay on the administration payroll; he’s gone.

5.9.06>
Iraq is a total loss, at this point. The Iraq war is a complete loss. Soon, hundreds or thousands will die, daily. The American invasion has does so much harm that there is no changing the chaos, death, violence, and destruction that has resulted from it (the invasion/war).

5.9.06>
Bush’s job approval rating is “flat-lining;” The White House/Bush administration is on life support!
The rating’s are in a free-fall!
31% of Americans approve of Bush’s job.
Bush’s disapproval rating is 65%.
32% of republicans think that Bush isn’t doing a good job.
Cheney’s job approval rating’s are in the teen’s.

5.4.06>
The 33% of Americans (or so) who support Bush: they are “the fringe;”
the rest of us, we’re “the majority,” respectively. The fringe are out there “on a limb,” waco, extremist, insane, ignorant, destructive, violent, hateful, etc.

5.4.06>
Cruz Hernandez – now, the oldest man in the world, 128 yrs old.

4.30.06>
The gov’t wont release Guantanamo Bay prisoners, for “fear they’ll be ill-treated by their respective countries!”

4.21.06>
The Pentagon discloses that 30% of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been cleared to leave the prison; that’s 141 of the 490 people there. The U. S. govt says that it’s unable to make arrangements for them to leave. They were cleared to leave the prison as early as Dec. ’04, but are not being (allowed) let to go.

……………………………………………………………………………………………

The Great San Francisco Earthquake –

7.8 on the rector scale.
The stalwart pioneers of 1849, entered SanFrancisco. Since 1849, there have been 6 great fires in San Francisco.
The greatest natural disaster suffered by a North American city: The April 18th, 1906, San Francisco earthquake.
In San Jose – everyone homeless
In 1906 (about 450,000 population), 1/3 of San Francisco (population) was born on foreign soil, and 1/3 were foreign immigrants.
The Chinese (China Town) were hated/despised; much prejudice.
All of the City Hall (politicians) were corrupt.
Fake marble columns (in the remains), in City Hall, discovered; corrupt politicians pocketed the $7 million, it cost, for the fake columns.
The underwriters knew of the inevitable, since much of the city was built of wood; politicians wouldn’t listen.
The quake broke (almost) all water mains throughout the city.
People were shot for wanting to save their possessions.
Looters were shot on sight.
“Obey orders, or get shot.”
Soldiers, themselves, were seen looting.
The “ham and eggs fire;” the fire starter (wanting breakfast) unaware the chimney was damaged from the earthquake.
Black dynamite and powder, in the hands of unexperienced officials, started fires.
Fortunes, factories, homes swept away.
Over 3000 dead, as the city burned for several days; burned out. The hills lay bear.
The main post office survived.
15,000 horses died in harness, worked to death, in reconstruction of San Francisco.
Rich and poor started over, working together.
The Chinese returned from segregated camps, to start over.
28,000 buildings were destroyed.
20,500 buildings replaced them
The new city was, and world’s fair, somehow, seen as invincible; there were no guarantees to “invincibility.”
A new City Hall was a symbol of formed city gov’t.
The city was, completely, rebuilt within 3 yrs after the great earthquake and fire.
(New Orleans can’t even be rebuilt - after the September, 2005 hurricane/flood destruction - because of government theft/corruption, and because of government complacency and inaction!)
……………………………………………………………………………………………

The oil is supposed to pay for the Iraq war, but there’s been (absolutely) no “oil” money seen to pay for the war, and oil is more expensive as the peoples money is going to the big oil companies through the energy policies drafted (by the big oil companies).

All vehicles should be required to have a fuel efficiency of 35-40 miles per gallon. We, then, wouldn’t be spending as much, and we wouldn’t be using as much.
Exxon-Mobile profits are up 42.6% since last year. No one should be profiting during a “time of war.”
General Motors profits down 478%
Ford Motor Co profits down 42%
Excess profits should be used for development of alternative resources.

It’s predicted: “people are killing each other for gas/fuel; it’s set for August, ’06!”

Crude oil is 12 cents per gallon. The great increases in oil prices are the profit margins that these oil companies are instituting.

The gov’t knows full well that drilling (for oil) is not the answer.

4.25.06>
32% (CNN poll) of the country, now, supports the President and Bush administration.
33% (FOX poll)
34% (ABC poll)
34% (American Research Center poll)
35% (Pew Center poll)

Bush says that he’ll make sure oil companies don’t “price gouge,” and that those who price gouge will be prosecuted. But prices have increased 100% during Bush’s 5 yrs in office. All Bush wants to do is allow for more drilling for (more) oil; exactly feeding the addiction that Bush says that we (America) have. It’s Bush who is the oil addict, as he destroys and axaserbates the situation and makes it (all) worse (for us all).

4.25.06>
Bush allowed for energy policies to be drafted by the oil companies, and there were massive tax cuts to the oil companies; it’s why gas prices are so high, today. It’s a bankrupt energy policy, and the only people not bankrupt are the oil companies.

4.24.06>
It, now, costs 1.4 cents to make a penny; zink prices have gone up.

America sits on 3% of the worlds oil reserves, and America consumes 25% of the worlds oil reserves.
America is 2% or 3% of the world population. So, America is the problem! It’s crazy what policies America has. We’re the addicts, and the problem. We need an alternative fuel. Once G. W. Bush became President of America, the oil companies drafted the energy policies for America, which Bush allowed.
If Bush nukes Iran, within minutes, they’ll (Iran will) blow up the oil fields. Then, look to see what fuel prices will become! We must not be (so) focused on oil, but demand on an alternative, more “natural” fuel!

S.U.V.’s (sport utility vehicle’s) are all about (being) gas guzzlers, and Bush begged Americans to purchase S.U.V’s.
Hybrids (electric, gas) are the new mode of transportation (vehicle).
We have a tremendous energy crisis.
All buildings and homes need to be built with geo-thermal energy efficiency.

4.19.06>
Tens of thousands of Chinese die every year because of lack of human/civil rights; China is the emerging super power, with the help of American gov’t and American corporate power/force.

Currently, there are about 90,000 protests/rally’s, yearly, worldwide.

4.19.06>
America has a $200 billion trade deficit with China, as of 2006.

1 0ut of every 4 people on the planet is from China; 25% of the world population.

04.19.06>
Thanks to the Bush administration, 70% of America’s waterways are too polluted to consume (eat) the fish. In the state of Ohio, none of the waterways can be eaten out of because of excessive pollution.
The state of Idaho has worse pollution than all of the state of California.

“If this were a dictatorship, it would be so much easier, just so long as I’m the dictator.” – G. W. Bush

04.17.06>
“I am ‘the decider,’ and ‘I decide’ best.” - G. W. Bush, on refusing to dismiss Donald Rumsfield (force Donald Rumsfield to resign) from the White House administration
Bush could have said “decision-maker”, rather than “decider,” but he’s not “smart/witty,” and quite (always) “clueless.” Also, in “decider,” he intends on being a dictator. Also, in “decider,” he is the one responsible for those innocent Iraqi citizens (men, women, children, and babies) being gunned down, bombed, chemical-weapon affected, and murdered.

“We’ve made thousands of ‘tactical mistakes.’” – Condoleeza Rice

There’s a category between truth and lying, perhaps, and it’s called ‘spin.’

G. W. Bush said that “there’s no doubt that Saddam Hussein has chemical and biological weapons.” Of coarse (and he knew it) he was lying because there was no such intelligence but intelligence showing just the opposite (that Hussein had no w.m.d.).

Building military bases all over the world is not going to serve any purposes.
Cheney could, just, go out to Iraq and shoot people in the face!
Why does Cheney go out hunting? Because he wants to look like a “man.”

04.14.06>
According to a senate report, there’s a new (super secret), Vatican-like (city), with reinforced walls, 104 acre, U.S. embassy, in Baghdad, Iraq, being built; take that, New Orleans; it’s a new “King George, Texas, castle” project.

“Bush’s brain is a ‘chemical lab.’”

Is this a global war on terror? We’re spreading empire. We’re begging the President not to do stupid, insane, crazy things! Is this what the country has come to?

“They’re turning murder into art.”

4.14.06>
You won’t be seeing President G. W. Bush saying, “I’m the president of the United States of America, and I did cocaine (back in college or whenever);” though he did, and, perhaps/probably, does (cocaine).

Vietnam was run by Robert Strange McNemera; since then, he (McLemera) was forced to resign (in 1968), he’s apologized, and he’s admitted that he was arrogant, that no one knew better than him, and no one could change his mind;
Donald Rumsfield (and the entire Bush crime family/regime) is in the same situation, now.

“You have to bring ass to get ass.”

Bush is acting against the interests of the nation and the world, and nothing can stop him, so he thinks.

04.14.06>
There will be a (nuclear simulation test) 1.4 million lb, 700-ton (non-nuclear), conventional explosive bomb/device blast (about 90 miles from Las Vegas, Nevada), on June 2nd, 2006 (06.02.06), which will produce a 10,000 foot high mushroom cloud, and will have no radio-active reaction. This is a test so that gov’t can, then, build a nuclear bomb to drop on Iran, very soon. Can the President, without Congressional support, declare war in Iran? No.
And there’s no consensus amongst democrats and republicans in Congress (House and Senate).
Perhaps, Bush is going to declare himself “Supreme Leader;” what if he declares martial law, and refuses to leave the White House in January, 2009?

War settles nothing. Gov’t isn’t about service; it’s about self-service.

We spend more in Defense (military) spending than the combined net income of all American corporations.

They say our country is geared toward an “arms economy.”

4.14.06>
G. W. Bush filed his taxes, and his reported income for the past year was $735,180.00, more than $300,000 above (two times) his annual presidential salary; he has to pay almost $188,000.00 on that amount, in federal taxes.
Vice President Dick Cheney’s tax return is a refund of $1.9 million because of overpayment of taxes.

The lies, incompetence, greed, and stupidity of the Bush crime regime; http://www.impeachbushgame.com/

How can we prevent nuclear proliferation of rogue states? Because of “long war,” under G. W. Bush, we’ve created a horrible situation.

(Jan. 1993) Start of Clinton’s term, the poverty rate was 15.1%
(1997) Half way through Clinton’s term, the poverty rate was 13.7 %
(Dec. 2000) End of Clinton’s term, the poverty rate was 11.3%
(Jan. 2001) Start of G. W. Bush’s term, the poverty rate was 11.3%
(Feb. 2005) Half way through G. W. Bush’s term, poverty rate was 12.7%
(Dec. 2008) End of G. W. Bush’s term, the poverty rate is --%

The (top-ranking) corruption, and “chicken-hawks:”
G. W. Bush, Carl Rove,
Richard Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfield,
Scott McClellan,
Condoleeza Rice,
John Ashcroft,
I Scooter Lewis Libby
Paul Wolfowitz

“Cheney should not be listened to on Iraq, and Rumsfield should step down.”

Giving false statements (lying, withholding information) to a federal individual is a felony.
Associates of Bush, and Bush himself, have (all) committed felony.

Bush said, in a press conference, that Saddam Hussein, absolutely, has a weapons program; a lie! Bush knew that there was no evidence of weapons programs.
Bush said that Saddam Hussein must disclose and destroy a weapons program, and that Saddam Hussein refused to disclose and destroy.
Bush said that because Saddam Hussein refused to disclose and destroy any weapons programs, that it was reason to occupy and attack Iraq.

A Swedish study (on marriage), supposedly showed that marriage declined drastically because of gay marriage; the stats are “irrefutable,” so said. There was no Swedish study, actually. The Swedish, just, are less known to marry.

Bush Senior and Bush Junior orchestrated 9.11.01 World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks.

The Vietnam war was just another atrocity committed by the American gov’t against a third world country, who never did anything to us; and they (the vietnamese) kicked our ass. We had no business being there; no justification, whatsoever.

4.14.06>
As a whole, (now with the shea law, and under muslim “authority”) women (in Iraq), now, are worse off than under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein (they have to stay at home, they have to quit their jobs, etc).

4.14.06>
The war in Iraq is the great moral issue of the day (today); it influences everything.

“We need a new secretary of Defense.”

4.13.06>
6 (retired) military command major generals, now, requesting/calling for the resignation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfield (over the Department of Defense) because of his misleadership and mismanagement of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, and Iraq war. Rumsfield may feel accountable, but he’s, probably, not going to resign, unless he’s forced (by the White House administration) to resign.
Things Rumsfield & gov’t did wrong:
a. They were supposed to “dump” the (Saddam Hussein) regime, and then leave, but they haven’t left (Iraq).
b. They never sent enough troops, and they didn’t send troops that were scheduled to go to Iraq.
c. They invaded cities/towns on the way to Baghdad, and they weren’t supposed to do that, for they are, now, responsible for rebuilding those places they’ve attacked and destroyed, and they are responsible for rebuilding every place they’ve attacked and destroyed, but they are not rebuilding.
d. They haven’t stopped the looting, and they haven’t turned on the electricity and water.
e. Rumsfield and his acolytes never acknowledged reality, and never acknowledged their mistakes.

4.14.06>
The Omaha, Nebraska Legislature is (in order to better education to what the “communities” want/expect), likely, to pass a bill that segregates public schools into black-people schools, white-people schools, and Hispanic-people schools; this legislative bill is very harmful and socially destructive.

4.12.06>
Yesterday, the first NYC police officer died from exposure to the chemicals in the air on 9.11.01 related to the NYC World Trade Center collapse, rescue effort, and cleanup effort.

The “Mobile weapons labs” (in Iraq) - George W. Bush referred to as w. m. d. - are, actually, (giant) sand toilets.

There’s another planet in space, known as George, named after King George (?), otherwise known as Uranus. The planet is not really seeable, but is (like) a star.

Related information; on the web sites:
http://www.sweetjesusihatebilloreilley.com/
http://www.madowonline.com/ (Rachel Madow, http://www.airamericaradio.com/)
http://www.jeryspringerontheradio.com/
http://www.alfrankenshow.com/

(Act Now to Stop War & End Racism) A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, http://www.answercoalition.org/, info@internationalanswer.org

More Quotes:

“I’m just going to shut up; I know nothing about nothing, oh yes!” – Anna Nicole Smith

journal 3: DECIDER. 1.26.7

2007-05-23T20:15:00.000-07:00

Journal 3: "DECIDER"

1.26.7

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The following transcription is from the movie-documentary Good Night & Good Luck:

(G. W. Bush is another “escalating” McCarthy.)

“Good night and good luck.” – Edward R. Murrow

To tell a story of an era; it’s real powerful for younger people to be aware of.

“Most truths are so naked that people feel sorry for them and cover them up, at least a little bit.” – Edward R. Murrow

“I love to be around people who (can) stick their neck out; I love it; (they) who were scared and did it anyway. I love being around that; it’s heroic, and they got nothing for it, you know. They don’t end up rich, they don’t end up in some mansion, somewhere, they do it because it’s the right thing to do.” – George Clooney

Fred was caring, he did every story as if his life depended upon it. He went from one life to the next life, regularly, with full blast. Each film: he worked on hard, it became a crusade. No matter what he demanded of you, you did it because you believed in what he was doing; he believed in it and you believed in it. We, all, layed our lives down for Fred.

“No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices.” – Edward R. Murrow

It was a (very) different era, where people were fearful. In elementary, in New York City, every day, I wore dogtags (to school) because of the assumption that there would be a nuclear attack. Every kid in NYC would do that
It was a fearful time; everybody knew that; what could you say or couldn’t you say? And that’s hard to translate into today’s world!

This was real; people were terrified of the nuclear bomb, they were terrified of losing their jobs, and to have somebody step up and call for everybody to walk out of the shadows, that were not afraid, right now, and so many people stepped out; it was like 70% of the country, and they had no idea.

“Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn’t mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.” – Edward R. Murrow

Up until then, there hadn’t been a controversial program, no shows like this.

Their lives and their futures were at stake, but more important than that was that they knew what was at stake for the country, and that if they missed, that they would be subjected to 15 more years of escalating McCarthy’s.

If we miss, our near future will be filled with escalating McCarthy’s.

They were collecting film on McCarthy, wherever he went, and it’s when do we have enough, when is it alright to go

WHEN WE GO AFTER THE MCCARTHY, IT’S DO OR DIE.

“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, (I think) the soul of America dies with it.” – Edward R. Murrow

(The soul of America dying is inevitable.)

Ed agonized for a long time over whether or not he had the right to use this tremendous engine of power to go against one man, and I think that he resolved that by saying that this man who had been running roughshot over American liberties has all the protections that he needs from the constitutional rights he was trampling on.

And there was the question, why haven’t you done something about it, already, and so they were getting it from both sides.

“Our job is to question authority; it’s our duty, our patriotic duty to question.” – George Clooney

“No government ought to be without censors and where the press is free, no one ever will.” – Thomas Jefferson

“There are two (truly) great moments/points in (television) history:
Walter Cronkite stepping/coming out from behind his desk, just coming back from Vietnam, pointing at Vietnam, and saying that Vietnam (just) does not work, that it’s a civil war that’s been going on for a thousand years and that we cannot win it.
The other:
Murrow said it aloud, taking on McCarthy; when a lot of people were against McCarthy, but you needed it said out loud; Murrow said it out loud, when nobody was doing it, but writers were doing it, and broadcast journalists that were doing it, and it had immediate impact.” – George Clooney

When that show was over; actually, when Talbert, the Secretary of Defense reinstated Redoulavich, that really made them realize the power that was instrumental. They knew that it would have a huge impact. Actually, they didn’t have much time to think about what impact it would have on (the evolution of) television and broadcast journalism.

If television is not allowed to do investigation as well as entertainment, that television will distract, delude, entertain, and insulate us from realities of the world. –

The overall environment, today, in the environment of television and the news is pretty frightening, and we ought to be horrified by that.

“We are in the same tent as the clowns and the freaks – that’s ‘show business.’” – Edward R. Murrow

The initial responsibility given to the FCC to (initially, the two networks, and then) the three networks was: “we’re going to give you 30 minutes that belonged to the people, we’re going to lease them to you.”

“And your job is, every six hours, you owe a half an hour news just to give back to society,” and for 30 years or so, that worked out well.

There always was this sort of this trying to balance the news, making money, and the news never really did make money, and they did realize (somebody realized) that they could make money on the news, and in doing that, they decided that they had to flash it up and make it more about entertainment. All of a sudden, news content went out, and suddenly, we’re watching stuff that has (absolutely) no news value on the news, not just local news

Television news has diminished very considerably, and that’s very sad because some of the people who are still in the industry, from its beginning, want to tell it straight, real, and important rather than watering it down with entertainment tidbits.

We can be unhappy with the state of television, and (very) disenchanted.

In 1965, or 1966, after the Senate Vietnam hearings, when CBS refused to air the Vietnam hearings, in favor of a fourth rerun of an “I Love Lucy” episode, at that time, it’s clear to everyone that this medium was making too much money at doing its worst to do its best.

The media: it’s making too much money at doing its worse to do its best.
It’s about speed, and competition; it’s a rush to get the story out there, to beat other people to it. It was the same problem in 1958; Corporate (still) has the money, and money (still) has some connections, here.
The fall of media and the role of broadcast journalism: it’s about capitalism; (the point is) we have to be better than that (capitalism).

They didn’t just come out and say that McCarthy is a terrible man; they put his words on the air, what he was saying, what was the truth, and everything was researched (fairly) well, but they could not be caught being careless with the facts; today, everybody is careless with the facts.

“The speed of communications is wondrous to behold. It is also true that speed can multiply the distribution of information that we know to be untrue.” – Edward R. Murrow

We need an open discussion about responsibility (of the truth). People (journalists) came to the set, and they kept trying to politicize this, saying, ‘oh this is all about today,’ Guantanamo Bay, and the right to face your accuser, and the truth is, that is absolutely, there is a fact that there are parallels that are (truly) amazing, but it’s also about a responsibility for the truth.

This film is a reminder to a generation who doesn’t remember or care much about broadcast journalism, about the potential and the power of the medium.

Watching it happen and it being done very well is not ad equated, it’s not old, it doesn’t seem wrong to me.

“We cannot make good news out of bad practice.” – Edward R. Murrow
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American gov’t is evil
American media is complicit
American public is idiotic

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Read The Nation
http://www.readthenation.com/

The reality keeps going (carries on), regardless of what G. W. Bush says!

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No one “goes” alone; we’re born alone, no one dies alone – (Psychic) Sylvia Browne

We have angels and spirit guides, in our lives; we never become angels; we don’t have ghosts – (Psychic) Sylvia Browne

“Be who you are, and say what you feel,
because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.”
– Dr. Seuss

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I wont go down in history as having, ever, voted for or supported George W. Bush and his ways! And I wont go down in history as, ever, having supported the troops.

Dissent is the American way!

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Speaking of levers, Archimedes famously said, "Give me a place to stand, and I can move the earth." Over the centuries, many people, from Descartes to Thomas Paine, have mined the line for meaning, but none as movingly, to my mind, as Robert F. Kennedy, in describing obstacles to change: "First is the danger of futility; the belief there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world's ills -- against misery, against ignorance, or injustice and violence. Yet many of the world's great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man. A young monk began the Protestant reformation... It was a young Italian explorer who discovered the New World, and 32-year-old Thomas Jefferson who proclaimed that all men are created equal. 'Give me a place to stand,' said Archimedes, 'and I will move the world.' These men moved the world, and so can we all."-- from RFK's DAY OF AFFIRMATION speech (well worth reading once you get past the preamble).

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1.25.7: Pass a Clean Miniumum Wage Bill
Yes, they did it again. The Senate defeated a clean minimum wage increase that is nearly 10 years overdue.
A majority of senators—54—voted to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 without handing out more business tax breaks. But the mostly Republican opponents of a clean minimum wage increase filibustered the measure, and it takes 60 votes to end debate on a filibustered bill. Now the Senate will take up a minimum wage bill that includes tax breaks and other giveaways President Bush wants—and it’s expected to pass.
So, once again, millions of minimum wage workers have to wait for a raise while the House (which passed a clean minimum wage increase) and Senate work out the differences between their versions of the legislation.
Low-wage workers have been at the back of the line long enough.
Tuesday night, in his State of the Union Address, President Bush claimed the economy “is on the move” and growing. Not for minimum wage workers, that’s for sure. The real buying power of their paychecks is at the lowest point in more than 50 years. Today, a full-time minimum wage worker makes just $206 a week, $10,712 a year—far below the poverty line for even a small family.
Businesses have gotten $300 billion in tax breaks since the last time minimum wage workers got a raise. It’s time to demand a clean minimum wage increase.
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http://www.now.org/
NOW CALLS FOR END TO WAR IN IRAQ; READY TO MARCH ON SATURDAY
NOW encourages its members and supporters to come to Washington, D.C., on Saturday, Jan. 27. The Bush-Cheney administration apparently did not hear the voters' message; they are doing exactly the opposite of what the voters called for. So we are coming to visit them, right here on their doorstep, knocking on their door, voicing our opposition to their plan to escalate and continue to occupy Iraq.
BUSH'S STATE OF THE UNION SPEECH: CAREFUL WORDS OBSCURE OLD AGENDA: NOW President Kim Gandy responds to Bush's State of the Union speech: "He didn't extend his conciliatory tone to the programs he offered, or to the ones he didn't offer. And warm words can't change the sorry shape the country is in, after six years of Bush and a Republican-led Congress in charge."
BOTTOM LINE: LOW MINIMUM WAGE MEANS MILLIONS OF WORKING POOR: The minimum wage is a women's issue. Women are twice as likely as men to be working at minimum wage, and that rate is even higher for women of color. Today over nine million women are at the bottom of the wage ladder, paid less than $7.25 per hour.
LOOKING FORWARD TO THE 110TH CONGRESS
New faces, new leadership, and renewed hope for equality, fairness, peace and prosperity are on the horizon, and NOW has our "to do" list ready.

HOUSE APPROVES FEDERAL FUNDING FOR STEM CELL RESEARCH
The House passed, by a bipartisan vote of 253-174, a bill that would allow federal funding of stem cell research utilizing donated human embryos, and would have the effect of greatly expanding the number of stem cell lines available to researchers. "Congress is finally dealing with important issues concerning women's health and economic survival," says NOW President Kim Gandy.

ROE V. WADE AT 34: A PILLAR OF REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM
NOW President Kim Gandy says, "We have endured more than three decades of challenges and roadblocks from a well-funded opposition, and our rights are more tenuous than ever -- but we are determined to fight."

BELOW THE BELT: REIGN OF CONTEMPT IS ALMOST OVER
In her biweekly Below the Belt column, Kim Gandy writes: "Decades from now, when this country finally catches up with the rest of the developed world with regard to women's rights, we will look back on the Bush presidency as a temporary detour from our long history of building democracy one right and one freedom at a time. The eight years of mis-rule by this President will be seen as a profound embarrassment that was eventually overcome. I guarantee it."

Democrats Are Not Deductible For Federal Income Tax Purposes!
http://www.now.org/
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“Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.” – Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Environmental groups urge Honduran government to solve
killing of activists

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/22/america/LA-GEN-Honduras-Slain-Environmentalists.php

http://www.ran.org/ Rainforest Action Network
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras: Eleven environmental groups announced Monday that they have sent a letter to President Manuel Zelaya demanding a full investigation into the killing of two Honduran activists.
Activists Heraldo Zuniga and Roger Ivan Murillo Cartagena were fatally shot on Dec. 20 in the central Honduran town of Guarizama, 150 kilometers (93 miles) east of Tegucigalpa in the province of Olancho, a region being rapidly deforested near the Nicaraguan border.
The two men were local leaders in the Environmental Movement of Olancho, or MAO, which opposes logging by timber companies.
The organization alleged in a news release that Zuniga and Murillo Cartagena were shot by four police officers in front of several townspeople. Both men reportedly had received death threats from logging companies in the nearby town of Salama, MAO said.
The letter, signed by 11 environmental groups including the Center for International Environmental Law, Global Witness and Greenpeace Spain, said that eight environmental activists have been killed in Honduras since 1995, including five in Olancho.
The letter said the Honduran government needs to case of the two men's slaying "the thorough attention and due process it requires to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice, and do everything in your power to prevent this from ever happening again."
Julio Cesar Marin, Zelaya's spokesman, said the president "was very busy" and had no comment on the case.
Upon taking office last year, Zelaya, who is from Catacamas in Olancho province, vowed to put an end to illegal logging.
About 50 percent of timber in Honduras is illegally harvested; the U.S. is the primary market for its pine and mahogany products, the letter said.
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1.2007
6.6 million American workers currently earn the minimum wage -- and more than 80% of them are adults.

1.15.7
(U. S. Census Bureau):
Single Life89.8 million Number of unmarried and single Americans in 2005. This group comprised 41 percent of all U.S. residents age 18 and older.
54%: percentage of women (in America) without a husband; single; unmarried; live without partner!
60%Percentage of unmarried and single Americans who have never been married. Another 25 percent are divorced and 15 percent are widowed.

1.2007
“I ask the American people to ‘sacrifice’ every time they turn on their television sets, sitting on their couch, eating a donut, and they see the images of the Iraq war.” – G. W. Bush
What the hell is the President thinking?
He’s a coke-head

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* “There never was a good war or a bad peace.” – Benjamin Franklin

* Mommy, I’m Scared of the Government!

* Bush Lied, Thousands Died

* They may call it
Democracy for Iraq;
I call it
Killing for Oil

* Dumb & Dumber: George H. W. Bush, & George W. Bush

* Back Off! I’m Allergic To Republicans

* How about We Keep Democracy & Export Bush

* Impeach the Bastards: Bush, & Cheney

* STUPID PEOPLE DESERVE A STUPID PRESIDENT

*Screw War

*Screw Cheney, & The Stupid One, Too!

http://www.progressivetalk1260.com/

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1.18.7
Bush say’s that it’s American’s fault for the lack (or failure) of “security,” lack of “success” in the country;
that if the troops had more “advanced-weaponry,” that the result would, then, be fewer troop & civilian death/casualty in Iraq, “security,” & “success!!!”

1.18.7
A $9 Trillion war debt/deficit, thanks to the fear monger’s, & warmongers!

1.18.7
Bush is above Congress!
Bush is above the Geneva Accord!
Bush is above the Constitution!
…to make an illegal war!

1.17.7
Bush has “reversed” on the Domestic Spying, Phone-Wire-Tapping Program, (now) giving it over to the Federal Courts to “authorize!”
And, now, Bush is going to “focus” on “health-care,” another apparent reversal!

1.12.7
It’s Bush’s mess, with our kids, and our money!
It’s called “playing the home game!”
We must “go forward,” not backward;
upward, not backward;
forward, forward, upward, upward, swirling, swirling;
swirling toward “human liberty,” & “freedom.”
Blowing each other up, killing each other, giving the President & his cronies & the neo-cons & the Corporatists their billions & billions & billions & billions of $ in their pockets, their wallets, their kitchen cabinets, their drawers, their freezers, & their bank accounts;
MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY!
OIL, OIL, OIL, OIL, OIL, OIL, OIL, OIL!
BILLIONS, BILLIONS, BILLIONS, BILLIONS, BILLIONS, BILLIONS, BILLIONS!

1.12.7
A 26% approval rating on the war in Iraq! Who are these stupid “approvers” & “supporters” of the President? It’s because of those who live by fear, are brainwashed, & who bring us all to our own decimation & death, living by “advanced-weaponry,” weapons of mass destruction, killing, & fear!

1.12.7
We are “escalating,” & starting WWIII, Bush’s psychotic WWIII “plan,” an illegal war, a war planned & manufactured by the “Unitary Executive Power/Branch” of the Oval Office!
No one can stop Bush; he does what he wants to do, gets the billions of $ that he wants for the war that he wants!

A Top Quote of 2006:
“I’m the ‘Decider,’ and I decide what’s best!” – G. W. Bush

1.12.7
Condoleezza Rice
CondaLIEza Rice
CondaLIAR Rice
CondaSLEEZA Rice

1.12.7
Troop boost means longer tours!
This is supposed to keep/make us safer!!!???
It’s (completely) against logic & common sense!

1.12.7
IMPEACH BUSH; HE IS SO OUT OF CONTROL!!!!!!!

1.11.7
“There were 744,000 homeless people in the United States in 2005, according to the first national estimate in a decade.” A majority of the homeless were single adults, but about 41% were in families.

On the day of President Kennedy’s assassination, George H. W. Bush was in Dallas!
On 9.11.01, George H. W. Bush was in Washington, DC, with Osama Bin Laden’s brother!

Good News: The Bush Administration, on 1.10.7, eased post-9-11 security restrictions that have been used to prevent thousands of asylum-seekers and refugees from gaining entry to the United States.

1.11.7
Health care: Wide split in access to health care, with poor, minority, and uninsured patients, generally, receiving the poorest care.

1.11.7
Media matters: Bill Krystol: “I wish Bush had said a little more about ‘winning’ and a little less about ‘helping the Iraqi’s’!”

1.11.7
Gawker: Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice (caught on tape): “my FOX Guys, I love every single one of them!”

1.11.7
Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell (R-KY), will filibuster any resolution against Iraq escalation.

It’s all an agenda of moving beyond Iraq & into everywhere; terror, terror, terror; made/manufactured out of America!

1.11.07
Think Progress: Chris Matthews battles White House Press Secretary Tony Snow over Iran attack, says he fears “extra-constitutional war.”

http://www.thinkprogress.org/

1.11.7
Economy – Congressman who complained about five-day workweek tells poor Americans to work longer hours: Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) made headlines, last month, after complaining about Congress’ new schedule (defending the 109th Congress’ three-day work week) that required members to work five days a week: “keeping us up here eats away at families,” Kingston told the Washington Post! “Marriages suffer. The Democrats could care less about families – that’s what this says!” Yet, on Wednesday, 1.10.7, Kingston offers this advice to Americans living in poverty: “work longer hours!” During House debate over the minimum wage, Kingston said raising the minimum wage would do nothing for poor Americans. Instead, if people marry & work longer hours, “they would be out of poverty,” he said! “It is an economic fact!” Kingston is wrong. The annual salary for full-time workers earning the federal minimum wage “still leaves a family of three about $6000.00 short of the poverty threshold.”

1.10.7
If 140,000 troops in Iraq cannot solve the “problem,” how can 161,500 (21,500 troop increase) be the “resolution?”
Bush wants a 21,000-24,000 troop increase!

1.10.7
On The View television “talk” show, Barbara Walters referred to Donald Trump: “that poor, pathetic man!” And Rosie O’Donnell high-fived Barbara!
Donald Trump has “lost it!” He wont stop his rants & raves!
Ratings of The View have gone up, while ratings of The Apprentice are falling!
Rosie & Barbara are giving Donald a terrible wedgy, and “the girls” are winning!

1.10.7
The Conservatives & Republicans are inept between the ears!

Rather than “on board,” I’m “off ship” when it comes to the President’s “plans.”
1.10.7
The government (Department of War, or Defense Department) boosting U. S. Military strength, planning a 92,000 military troop increase over the next 5 years. Military recruiters, for the future, will be swarming every High School and College Campus & University, “heaving in the dough; raking in the young, naïve, & brainwashable!”

1.10.7
(what’s termed) “Patriot missiles” being used; FOR WHAT!!!??? Shooting “something” out of the sky!!!???

Bush didn’t win Ohio; he stole it! He stole both Elections (2000, & 2004)!

1.10.7
Republicans & Bush didn’t want to make the world “safer,” they don’t want to make America “safer,” and they haven’t ever cared about “security!” They refused to implement any of the conditions of the 9-11 Commission;
now, 128 Congress “persons” voted against making the world safer; voted against the implementation of the conditions of the 9-11 Commission!

1.10.7
I can see Bush’s & Conservative’s “agenda:”
sending troops
“escalating” Iraq war
moving on to Iran war, & on to wars everywhere else, too!
Wow, they’re so “compassionate!”

1.10.7
Military “experts” are saying that the Iraq & Afghanistan “wars” are “not right,” and that troop increases are not the answer! BUT THE MILITARY “EXPERTS” ARE “WRONG,” AND THE PRESIDENT IS (ALWAYS) “RIGHT!”
President G. W. Bush doesn’t need Congressional authority/support for the war in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Iran, and all wars everywhere else!
President G. W. Bush doesn’t need Congressional authority/support to get what ever he wants!
There’s more “madness,” & death, & destruction; there’s more than ever!

1.10.7
An increase or 20,000 (or whatever) troops only means more of the same “terror,” more of the same death & destruction, more of the same violence & madness!
AND BUSH DOES NOT MIND, OR CARE, AS LONG AS IT’S NOT HIS DAUGHTERS & SONS (AS TROOPS); AS LONG AS IT’S NOT CONGRESSPERSONS SONS & DAUGHTERS (AMONGST THE TROOPS)!

1.10.7
SUGGESTIONS, from “the boots on the ground” & military experts, MEAN NOTHING to Bush & his cronies & neo-cons! Suggestions are not listened to!

1.10.7
Nanci Pelosi say’s, NO MORE SMOKING IN THE SPEAKERS LOBBY!

1.10.7
The Federal Minimum Wage Increase: moving on up from 5.15 (hrly), to 7.25 (hrly); a $2.10 raise! NOT ENOUGH!

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1.9.07
Unless 2/3 of the Congress disapproves of G. W. Bush’s plans to increase the military troops in Iraq (in the next couple of weeks) by at least 20,000, Bush is going to do it anyway. There is no doubt that, even if the majority of politicians and Americans are against Bush’s wishes, Bush will do what he wants, and he listens to no one but to those who think like him and support him. Even if Congress doesn’t give him any money, he already has the money going to “his war;” he will do what he wants, and he will get what he wants, until the end of 2008; then, he can pass it all onto the next President, give it all to the next President, and blame it all on the next President!

This Iraq war, from its beginning, has (always) been “planned chaos!”

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1.07
An “escalation” of war, and an “escalation” of troops!!!???
Why not an “escalation” of teachers & educators & education (in America, in Africa, everywhere)!
Why not an “escalation” applied to (universal, accessible):
social services
health care
employment
food
clothing
shelter
environmental care & nurture
wildlife & endangered wildlife care & nurture
Why not an “escalation” applied to seeking an end to:
Defense
living by guns, & living by weapons of war and mass destruction
terror
ignorance
naivety
stupidity
greed, gluttony, & ego
violence, destruction
disease, death
homelessness, hunger
privatization
the sale of our nation
marketization, & consumerism

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1.07
True-Conservatism, neo-cons (neo-conservatives), fascists, the religious-right-wing, & Corporatism have taken over the Republican Party!

Who was fired the day after the (November 7th, 2006) Election?
Donald Rumsfeld!
Republican Congress didn’t do their job; there was no oversight!
Now, with a new Congress, there will be oversight!

Government-sponsored terrorism & war was born on the wings of lies!

1.07
It’s about the Unitary Executive Power, about what the Bush crime family wants, about what the Bush’s will get because it’s what they want. And they are in power. Screw the people & those who (really) care! The Bush administration will listen to no one but themselves.
It’s about a developing dictatorship!

(CMS) Critical Mass of Stupidity: G. W. Bush

What the Bush’s fear is the possibility of the military men & women turning on the gov’t!
The only “national security” is the respect of oil, power/control, $, authoritarianism, and a developing dictatorship!
I’ve been waiting for a “civil war” since 2001, and it hasn’t happened!

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Is to conspire a problem? Is seeking the truth a problem? The problem that there is with conspiracy theorists is that people can’t handle the truth.
Do we (all) want the lies, continuously, or shall we have the truth!?
Do we want the facts, or not!?
Do we want justice to be inevitable, predictable, expected, foreseeable, to be expected, to be anticipated, usual, unavoidable, certain, or NO!?
Do we want the truth of 9.11.01, or the truth of any tragedy!?
“The truth can set us free!”
Do we (all) want the:
G. W. Bush Administration & “This War:”
unlawful (illegal, banned, illicit, illegitimate, criminal, dishonest,
unauthorized, unconstitutional, undemocratic, prohibited)
activity,
atrocities, aggression, antagonism, annihilation, abhorrence, attack,
animosity, absurdity,
bloodbath, bloodshed, baseness, bribery, brutality, bring shame on,
badness, bad judgment, blow,
callousness, cold-bloodedness, corruption, cruelty, carnage,
carelessness, crookedness, crime, craziness, con, circus, chaos,
charade, corruptness, catastrophe, confusion, cataclysm,
collapse,
damage, debacle, deficient, deficit, degeneracy, deluge, decadence,
deceit, deceitfulness, deception, degradation, detestation,
depravity, deprivation, devastation, deviation, digression,
dirtiness, disagreement, disgust, disgrace, dishonesty, dishonor,
dissipation, dissoluteness, disruption, disorder, disorderliness,
display, disarray, disaster, duplicity,
enmity, evil, excess, evilness, embarrassment,
fraudulence, falsehood, fabrication, felony, fault, futility, folly, failure
foolishness, fiasco, fruitless, farce, fraud,
hostility, heartlessness, hatred, heedlessness, haste, humiliation,
hopeless, hardship,
ill will, inducement, irresponsibility, inconsistency, insensitivity,
inattention, indiscretion, injudiciousness, iniquity, idiocy,
irrationality, illogicality, ignominy, impiety, insanity,
ineffective, indignity, imprudence, ignobleness, immorality,
killing,
licentiousness, lack of remorse, lawbreaking, lunacy, ludicrousness,
lacking,
malevolence, malice, massacre, mass destruction, murder,
mercilessness, misconduct, misdemeanor, madness, mental illness, mess, materialization, manifestation, mockery, mendacity, misfortune, mayhem,
negligence, nonsensicality,
opposition, obliteration, offense, outrageousness,
profligacy, pitilessness, pointlessness, preposterousness, pretense,
recklessness, ruin, rivalry, repugnance, ruthlessness,
sleaze, self-indulgence, slaughter, spite, squandering, shamelessness,
sham, stupidity, scarce, sordid details, squalor, short, shambles, sickness, shame, spectacle, simulation, show, senselessness, sin,
thoughtlessness, travesty, transgression, trouble, tragedy, terror,
unreliability, unruliness, unscrupulousness, useless, unkindness,
unsuccessful, unproductive, untruthfulness, unpleasantness, upheaval
violence, vain, vice, vileness,
wickedness, wastefulness, wantonness, wrongdoing, wreckage,
Do we want the particulars, details, specifics, information, the whole story, essentials, data, truth, or don’t we?
Do we crave, covet, yearn for, seek, desire, fancy, imagine, picture, conjure, consider, visualize the truth of any disaster!?
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“The truth can set us free!”

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1.07
“…I encourage you (all) to go shopping more.” – G. W. Bush
What planet is he (Bush) on?
He wants to send more of us to war (for him) in Iraq, &, also, he wants us to not think about it (so much, or at all), & shop more!
Bush has had no interest, ever, in meeting with the family members or relatives or friends or anti-war advocates of those military men & women who have either died or have been injured in the Iraq war. He has never once met with Cindy Sheehan or any one else who really cares, because he doesn’t care!
Our gov’t is blood-soaked, & oil-soaked.
Democracy is for the gov’t, by the gov’t, screw the peoples. Screw Democracy; it’s yours, if you can find/keep it!
“And I encourage you (all) to go shopping more.” – G. W. Bush

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1.07
A black man is more likely to become the next President, or to get elected President, than a woman, & a women is more likely to become the next President, or to get elected President, than a Mormon; a Mormon’s rating’s are (real) low!

1.07
Hey, Congress:
Impeach Bush!

War is not the answer!
Bush lied, thousands died!
Save the Bill of Rights!
Save the Constitution!
Fund education & schools & universities, not war!
Fund health care, not war!
Fund social services, & the social net, not war!
Fund the economy, not war!
Fund environment, & wildlife, not war!

1.07
News station provides fitting caption at the bottom of television screens all over the country:
Breaking News:
Bush: One Of The Worst Disasters To Hit The U. S.

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Protests/rallies I’ve attended:
Sunday, August 30, 2004, NYC (about 1 million in attendance)
Anti-war
Anti-Bush

Saturday, September 24, 2005, WA DC (about 750,000 in attendance)
Gather on the Mall
Anti-war
Anti-Bush

Tuesday, February, 2006, 7 pm WA DC (about 1,000 in attendance)
http://www.worldcantwait.org/
Gather at the Capital
Impeach Bush

Saturday, April, 2006, 11 am, NYC (about 500,000 in attendance)
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/, United For Peace & Justice
Anti-war
Anti-Bush

Thursday, January 4, 2007, 12 noon, WA DC (about 700 in attendance)
http://www.worldcantwait.org/
Gather at Upper Senate Park (Delaware & Constitution, just North of the
Capital)
War crimes, torture, crimes against humanity, treason, fraud, corruption, murder:
reasons for impeachment
Bush Must Go; Impeach Bush
Voices for Impeachment
Bring the troops home, now
Anti-war
Congress reform

Saturday, January 27, 2007, WA DC (about 500,000 in attendance; estimated by peace
group organizers)
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/, United For Peace & Justice
Gather on the Mall
Impeach Bush
Bring the troops home, now
Anti-war
Congress reform

Saturday, February 17, 2007
http://www.troopsoutnow.org/, 212.633.6646
This month (or in March), Congress will vote on Bush’s request for more than
$100-billion-plus for war; we must force Congress to vote NO; it’s time to
move from protest to resistance.
“No More $$$ for War” Day
Congress Vote “No!” To More War Funds
$$$ For Jobs, Housing, Healthcare, Education, NOT WAR!
End The Occupation; Bring The Troops Home, Now!

Saturday, March 17, 2007, 12 noon, WA DC (about 000,000 in attendance)
http://www.answercoalition.org/
http://www.troopsoutnow.org/, 212.633.6646
Gather at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (Constitution Gardens – 21st St.
& Constitution Ave. N. W.)
March On The Pentagon (on the 4th Anniversary of the war)
Time To Move From Protest To Resistance; Force Congress To Vote No To War
Funding
Immediate, unconditional, & complete withdrawal from Iraq; U. S. OUT NOW!
End Colonial Occupation & Imperialist Aggression from Africa to Asia, from Iraq
to Palestine, to Afghanistan, to Haiti, to the Philippines, to Puerto Rico
No New Wars Against Iran, Syria, Somalia, or North Korea, & everywhere
Hands Off Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, & Lebanon
Solidarity with Immigrant Workers & Katrina Survivors
Stop The War At Home
Stop Racist Police Terror
Stop ICE Raids
Military Recruiters Out Of Our Schools, Universities, & Communities
No Draft
Education, Not War
Fund people’s needs, not the war machine
Anti-war
Shut down Guantanamo

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http://www.votetoimpeach.org/
Save the Bill of Rights & the Constitution: Impeach Bush, Now!
http://www.impeachbush.org/

1.07
$400 billion cost of Iraq war, & G. W. Bush wants another $100 billion (for the Iraq war, in 2007, as well as an increase of up to 50,000 more troops)!
3000 American troops dead
650,000 Iraqi’s dead
The Democrat Congress have taken off of the table any interest in impeaching Bush & Cheney! Democrat Congress, moreover, have warmed to the idea of increasing troops in Iraq!

12.2006
The democratic party, & being liberal, is the main stream!
What's more, the majority support stem cell research!

Pandering to the religious right-wing & waco’s is what G. W. Bush does best! Of coarse, moreover, cutting taxes benefiting the top 1 and 2 percent (those who make more than $1,000,000.00, annually) will benefit him, furthermore!

12.2006
“Conservatives” fear Nancy Pelosi & her work in San Francisco! After all, San Francisco is known for the Spirit of St Francis! For San Francisco is known for being about inclusion, diversity, generosity, caring, giving, health care, small business, human/civil/equal rights. What Nancy Pelosi has done for & with San Francisco, conservatives & the religious right-wing fear she could do for all of America and for the world!

12.2006
Our President has done everything in his assembly & power to construct/craft America & the world utmost unsafe, including putting up a record deficit, and the ruination of the U. S. A. Treasury!
The Bush administration & the republicans can’t manage finances!
A $400 billion budget deficit, & moving on up to half a trillion $ budget deficit!
It’s treasonous to cut taxes (that has benefited the richest 1% & 2%) in a time of war!

http://www.airamericaradio.com/, where truth & common sense rule!

12.06
After all, what are we, as a nation, all about, without the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, which G. W. Bush (and the Bush administration) has (entirely) ignored, unobserved, disregarded, overlooked, & trashed! Under Bush and his stupid, ugly cronies, the Constitution, & the Bill of Rights, is without being seen!

G. W. Bush knows nothing.
G. W. Bush is nothing.
G. W. Bush does nothing.
G. W. Bush gives nothing.
G. W. Bush thinks nothing.
G. W. Bush reads nothing.

12.06
Hey, listen up:
THE “MORAL” VOICE GETS A LITTLE LOUDER!
THE “MORAL” VOICE GETS A LOT LOUDER!

12.29.2006
$400 billion spent in the Iraq war, so far; $9 billion unaccounted for!

Steven Baldwin called into Air America Radio, on 12.29.6, at about 10:35 pm, and he explained his perspective of how the Devil/Satan is the “God” of this world/earth! Contemplate (& be perplexed on) that perspective!

12.29.6
According to three Arab networks, Saddam Hussein was executed, tonight; 10:20 pm, EST, by hanging!
Saddam Hussein was Caucasian/white.

Let me tell you:
Sit on something sharp, & rotate!
Jesus was against state-sanctioned capital punishment!
Jesus was against state-sanctioned execution!
Jesus was against, violence, warring, & killing!

Can people follow the being/life of Christ!? He was a liberal!

12.2006
Presidential contenders for 2008, in order of popularity:
Barrack Hussein Obama
Hillary Clinton
John Edwards

12.27.06
Currently, there are more euros circulating than American dollars.
What does it mean?
Americans are getting poorer, as the world is getting richer!

12.2006
The most feared & dangerous person, in the world, is G. W. Bush.
Bush outpolled the Devil (or Satan), as biggest villain (of the world)!
Bush is a bigger villain than the terrorists of the world; Bush is THE TERRORIST of the world!

Despotism will fail! Despots make the worse decisions rather than the best decisions.

12.2006
We are, now, not supposed to know the age of the Grand Canyon. In any circumstance, tourists of the grand canyon should not be told the age of the grand canyon because the Bush administration wants people to believe in the “creation” hypothesis, or that the grand canyon was, supposedly, formed by the floods of the time of Noah & his ark. Forget about geological forces! And forget about the fact that the earth is a living organism! No, there are no geological forces, and no, there is no science, according to the Bush’s & right-wingers!

12.2006
This global-warming x-mas (this year):
the Spanish bears are not hibernating
the polar bears are drowning
and, by the year 2048, sea life will die

Most republicans, today, are authoritarian. Militarism is authoritarian, destructive, & evil.

Hideous, heinous right-wingers, Republicans, & Corporatists, want to nuke the whole world.

12.28.7
After having retired from the military (army), a couple of years ago, today, Steve Henderson was ordered, by letter, to report for duty in Iraq. He refuses to report for military duty, again (especially, in Iraq), and he is appealing the order.

12.27.7
Today, 12.27.6, a 28 yr old (army) man was killed by military police, after refusing to report for duty in Iraq; he committed a “death-by-cop.” After serving in Afghanistan and returning home in 2005, the military was making him, now, go to Iraq, and he refused to come out of his father’s house & report for duty in Iraq. Even while the police knew that he didn’t volunteer his self to go to Iraq, they (military police) were going to gas him out of his fathers house, but he turned his gun on a military police officer, and he was shot dead. Apparently, he was willing & would rather die than go to Iraq.

Currently, somewhere between 500-1000 military troops have gone AWOL (during this war in Iraq)!

G. W. Bush & Dick Cheney have broken law after law, and have committed crime after crime against the American Constitution, time after time, repeatedly; they have broken down & dismissed/trashed every avenue of the Constitution,, they’re trashing the Bill of Rights, and (both of them) are deserving of impeachment. They are guilty of treason, fraud, corruption, murder, etc.

G. W. Bush is an illegal & illegitimate President. And as a cocaine snorter/addict, he’s got a permanent straw stuck up his nose!
It’s “old news,” that our current (U.S.A.) President is a coke-head!
Bill Clinton has said that he has never “inhaled.”
Senator Barrack Hussein Obama, Presidential candidate/contender, has said that, as a kid, he (frequently) inhaled.

12.2006
Discovered/found in questionnaire’s & survey’s done over the years:
88% of women born in the 1940’s had engaged in pre-marital sex.
91% of women born in the 1950’s, 1960’s, & 1970’s (as well) engaged in pre-marital sex.
Pre-marital sex goes way back, & (you can determine that) anyone, in particular, can not control (what is) “human nature,” and “human behavior!”

12.2006
The biggest “cash crop” in the world is pot (also called marijuana, 420, weed, wild plant, wild flower, tidy, hoe, pick over, dig over, quarry, prepare, grass, grassland, lawn, meadow, prairie, pasture); $35 billion, (annually) yearly (anyone want to give some of that “profit” to “good causes!?”).
Why don’t we (all), just, legalize marijuana (and medical marijuana), after all the pain & suffering “hypocrites” have caused human lives, in addition!? Legalize weed.

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12.2006
Yes, I (Scott), can (proudly) admit that I have tried (a single, very small, microscopic, little, miniature puff of) pot (marijuana, 420, weed, or grass, in other “terminology”), once, in college (at Abilene Christian University), and I coughed; so I am not a “druggie!”
I, once, tried a tiny, minute, minuscule infinitesimal, diminutive portion (one puff) of a cigarette, back in 6th grade (1982, roughly), and I coughed! Thus, I am not a “cigarette junkie/ho!”
And I can (proudly) admit that I have never, ever, tried any other drug in my entire life, nor ever will! Yes, I am not a druggie!
And I can (proudly) admit that I have (only) tried drinking beer or a margarita, (maybe) a dozen times in my life (socially, at a party here and/or a party there), & I have only been drunk (to the point of wanting to throw up my “gluts”), once (1 time, at the age of 26; spring of 1995); so I am not an alcoholic!
And I am not a heterosexual; thank Creator!
I’m not “straight!”
I’m not a murderer!
I’m not a warrior!
I hate sports!
I hate football!
I don’t play violent video games!
I don’t watch horror films!
I don’t watch violent films!
I don’t watch Hollywood-made films!
I love Independent film!
I love stage theatre (plays), & musicals!
I love art galleries & museums!
I’m, now, none other than a (practicing &) happy vegan!
I’m not for unending war, or war after war, or any war!
I’m not a supporter of the Bush (Crime) Family/Regime,
I’m not a gun owner, & never will be! And I’d like a country without guns &
weapons!
I’m not a segregationist!
I’m not a Ku Klux Klan member!
I’m not a skinhead!
I’m not an excluder!
I’m not a supporter of another “Berlin Wall,” such as a wall to keep out immigrants or non-American citizens!
I’m not for ignorance, naivety, ruin, death, poverty, hunger, homelessness, famine,
disease, & drought!
I’m not for a mind of greed, marketization, & consumerism!
I’m for alternative fuel!
I’m against environmental destruction!
I don’t believe in such “places,” or “seats,” or “chairs,” or “spaces,” or “sitting rooms,” as “Heaven,” or “Hell!” I do not believe in such a place after death being, either “Heaven,” or “Hell!” To be more clear, I do not believe in either “Heaven” or “Hell!” I do believe in our personal choices of either making “heaven,” or “hell,” for others’ lives, during our time (on earth)! And what we sow is what we reap.
I no longer celebrate x-mas, or Easter, or holidays (for that matter), or valentine day, or my own b-day.
I don’t buy McDonalds, or Exxon-Mobil, or CVS; evil, evil, evil!
My employer being Wal-Mart, I only buy (from Wal-Mart) what I absolutely need (&
not what I want!), like detergent (for clothes), energy drinks, dental floss, etc. I
shop Wal-Mart as very little as possible.
YES, I’m, now, a practicing vegan, as of 1.1.2007; only eating what is “good for the body,” healthy, natural, & organic; no more carbonated sodas, no more (or not much) breads, not much pasta!
I contribute, with all my heart & mind, to recycling everything (that I can recycle), without contributing to land-fills, as much as possible; I’d rather “collect” what’s recyclable then throw it in the trash can, which I never do!
I am for libertarianism; I can consider myself not only a liberal, but also a libertarian!

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Avoid, ax, asphyxiate, assassinate, avert, annihilate,
banish, bowl, batter, break down, barricade, break up, bind, bring an end to, blotch,
blow apart, bang, bump off, bang, break, blemish, blot, blight, bludgeon, blow
up, beat, bulldoze, ban, bar, bring to a standstill, bring to an end, bring to a
close, bring to a halt, block,
contract, clog, cause the downfall of, crack, curb, condemn, conquer, crash, chuck,
contain, clout, cuff, cast out, cut down, close, carve, cut, conclude, counterfoil,
constrict, choke, cease, cut a swathe through, chop, confiscate, conquer, crush,
compress, cut to strips, cut up, criminalize,
drop, detach, disengage, dissolve, disunite, disorder, disband, drive away, deny,
detonate, draw to a close, dwindle, divorce, disconnect, drive around the bend,
dribble away, dry up, depose, dissipate, defeat, divest, deprive, dissociate from,
disfigure, demolish, diminish, decrease, deface, desecrate, douse, drudge,
destroy, despoil, douse, drag down, decimate, devastate, demolish, do away with,
damage, delay, deter, drive down, demolish, destroy, disallow, defeat,
discontinue,
ebb, expel, emit, evict, eject, exile, expel, eliminate, exasperate, ease, explode, end
execute, eliminate, end, eradicate, exterminate, extinguish, eliminate,
encumber,
fritter away, fissure, flay, flog, fix, foil, finish off, fling, fracture, finish, flush out,
forbid, flatten,
gash, garrote, grind, grate, get rid of,
hang, hold back, hew, hurl, heave, hammer, hack up, hash, hodgepodge, hold back,
hamper, hamper, heave down, haul down, hinder,
impede, impound, interdict, inhibit,
jam, junk,
kill, knock, knock down, knock over,
lift, lacerate, loosen, liquefy, limit, let fly, lob, lash, lessen, lay waste,
minimize, mallet, melt, mar, muddle, mash, make ineffective, make illegal, mess up,
macerate, mince
obstruct, oust, oppress, overthrow, overshadow, overwhelm, obliterate, obstruct, outlaw,
overcome, overpower,
part from, put a stop to, puree, put to death, prevent, pitch, pummel, put to death, push
down, plod, pound, pound, punch, pulverize, pull down, purge, prohibit,
prevent, proscribe,
quench,
recede, resign, repress, rope, rip apart, red mark, reduce in size, restrain, reduce to
pulp, ravage, rupture, rid, remove, rise above, reduce to rubble, remove, rip,
remove, reduce, reject, raze, ruin, roll out, ravage, rule out, rid, rout,
stop working, shut, send away, sever connections with, smudge, stem, stifle, sink,
sluice, strike, suspend, slash, sever, strangle, stifle, suffocate, slake, snuff out,
shrivel, suppress, spank, sledge hammer, swill out, separate from, seize,
sequester, strip, scythe, scrap, shrink, smash up, smash to smithereens,
suffocate, stop, slaughter, slash, satiate, squash, subdue, strike, shatter, smash,
stamp out, slice, snuff out, smother, stub out, sever, shred, spoil, stall, shred,
slow down, stop,
topple, thrash, terminate, tarnish, throttle, throw away, trounce, tack hammer, tramp,
take away, trim down, throw, trample, trudge, thump, thrash, tear up, take out,
trounce, turn off, take away, tear down, trash, thwart,
unseat, undo, unfasten, unknot, unfasten, untie, unbutton, unwrap, undo,
veto,
withdraw, whip, wallop, wash out, whittle, wreck, wipe out, wreak havoc on, wash out,
yank:
the Bush Regime,
the criminal justice system,
the prison system,
the death penalty,
the police system,
the Department of Defense,
TSA (Transportation Security Administration),
National Security,
Homeland Security,
the “Patriot Act”!
American government,
the Bush administration,
the Pentagon,
the IRS,
the FBI,
the CIA!

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IMPEACH, ACCUSE, BRING TO COURT, BRING BEFORE THE COURT, INDICT, PROSECUTE, ACT AGAINST, TAKE LEGAL ACTION, ARRAIGN, HAVE UP, CHARGE, ALEGE, INCRIMINATE, CAUSE TO LOOK GUILTY, CULPABLE, RESPONSIBLE, BLAMEWORTHY, ACCOUNTABLE, AT FAULT, IN THE WRONG, ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE LAW, IMPLICATE, LINK, CONNECTION, RELATION, ASSOCIATION, RELATIONSHIP, LINKAGE, TIE, BOND, CONNECT, ATTACH, FIX, UNITE, HOOK-UP, ACCUSE, LAY THE BLAME ON, DROP SOMEBODY IN IT, GIVEAWAY, CONVICT, CRIMINAL, CROOK, OFFENDER, PRISONER, VILLAIN, FIND GUILTY, SEND DOWN, CONDEMN, ACCUSATION, ALLEGATION, INDICTMENT, CLAIM, BLAME, FINGER-POINTING, PUT ON TRIAL:
THE BUSH CRIME REGIME

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………..…… !!!Heaven: !!!where is it, !!!and how do we get there?!!! ………………...
If heaven is, supposedly, about love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, gentleness, no more suffering, being like Christ, knowing only good, “milk,” “honey,” etc, then why (on earth) do the religious right-wing, conservatives, fundamentalists, & ignorant – in their ever increasing/growing “religious” fervor – inflict (directly or indirectly, through voting or not voting) so much:
harm,
suffering,
segregation,
exclusion,
closed-ears,
naivety,
ignorance,
narrow-mindedness,
elimination of equality,
annihilation of human/civil rights,
eradication of health care,
obliteration of education,
homelessness,
hunger,
disease,
ruin,
demolition,
damage,
violence,
America’s (chemical & biological) WMD (weapons of mass destruction),
pain,
war,
death,
hatred,
revenge on others of the earth,
(including) environmental destruction,
famine,
disease,
hunger,
homelessness,
selfishness,
greed,
jealousy,
envy,
marketization,
consumerism, etc!
And to think that they (the “anti-Christ”) can speed up the (so it seems) “return of Christ” by destroying the earth, and destroying the peoples and all of life/creation on the earth! So, again, what’s heaven!? It’s (a living) hell that people create, bathe, & envelope themselves in!

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12.22.6
Currently, just 12% of the American people support G. W. Bush with his attention to increasing the number of American military troops in Iraq. Things are not quite right at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, WA DC; G. W. Bush is “nuts,” crazy, insane, negligent, idiotic! He will not listen to the American public, he will not listen to his cabinet members, he will listen not to his Administration, he will not listen to Congress, he will not listen to the press, he will listen to no one. At the “push of a button,” he can & will end life on earth (for he does not care for anyone but his self)! He has only 12% of American support behind him, currently, and he does not care & will not listen to others. 100 Billion more dollars will go to increasing/“supporting” the troops (now), we’ll be far further in debt, many thousands more men, women, & children will lose their limbs and/or lives, many thousands more will commit suicide, & no justice will be seen!

Military troops are not allowed to get/receive psychiatric or psychological help, or else they will be seen as weak, losers, or incapable to do/be what they’re supposed to do & be! In every past war, and of all military men, the men have had to “toughen up,” be strong, not let it get (so much) to them! Thus, everyday, military troops are committing suicide, jumping off of the Brooklyn Bridge (or other objects all over the country)! Some of them are stopped from hurting or killing themselves, but far too many are not allowed to receive help, and commit suicide because they are not allowed to get help & because of what they have to go through. It seems to be human nature to shun those people who are seen to be ill, weak, suffering, dying, hurt, mangled, unattractive, and send them to their death! Often, in a brief moment, they wonder why they are doing what they are doing (committing suicide), but they have no where else to turn because no one ever cares, anymore!

The republicans have never, anymore, wanted full count of all votes (of voters), and they want to intimidate voters, harass voters, and deny access to voters’ ability to vote. And we know all about voter fraud, the tampering of electronic voting machines, votes being electronically switched from democrat votes to republican votes!
Democrats, (at least) we know, always want a full count of the votes (of all voters); democrats want everyone to have their chance & right to vote, without being intimidated or harassed, without the possibility of their vote being (electronically) changed to republican, and without being denied access to voting! Democrats always want a full count, and they want honesty, integrity, equality, justice.

12.14.6
All of the problems that we have today, & the war in Iraq, it’s because (and the fault ) of the democrats and the liberals and the press, according to Tom Delay, the republicans, and the conservatives. Bush’s unpopularity (& peoples hatred for Bush); it’s the fault of liberals & democrats! It’s the liberals & democrats to blame for all of the problems that we have today!

“Conservatives,” meet Responsibility; Responsibility, meet “Conservatives!”

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11.27.6
Christmas was, originally, a pagan celebration, so I hear! The Christmas tree was a pagan tradition. The burning of the yule log was a pagan tradition. Christians (Christianity) incorporated it into being about the birth of Christ, and about decorations, Santa Claus, elves, gifts (presents), greed, and marketization/consumerism. “Christmas,” now, is (ultimate) self-destruction!
I’m through with “Christmas;” I’m done with the living by the consumeristic, materialistic, destructive, brain-washing, marketization cycle of it; not to live by its strangulating grip/death-hold, anymore! Now (in my personal life), there’s no more Santa & elves & reindeer, no more songs, no more x-mas tree, no more ornaments, no more lights, no more spending of money, no more candy, no more “stupidity!” Now, I’m free to celebrate the life of Christ without being brain-washed into having to purchase gifts for others, (now) no longer forgetting all about what Jesus was and is all about (in his life of not being held captive by the ways of the “world;” loving the poor, caring for the poor & homeless & hungry, giving to the outcast/despised/hated/reviled, living for those who are sick & ill & have experienced funding cuts in healthcare & funding cuts in education & cuts in human/civil rights & cuts in the social service network). What 90% of Americans have made of “Christmas” & who celebrate “Christmas,” I do not participate in! War on “Christmas.”
http://www.waronxmasmanual.com/
X-mas is about shopping being the national hobby for “Christians.” People make it a capitalist holiday. It, in essence, is nothing about Christ, but about Santa, trees, garland, gift-swapping, pretty lights, etc! At least, this is so for those who love x-mas!

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Interesting information:
Asthmador cigarettes: a cure for asthma (by smoking cigarettes)!

The slave trade was a crime against humanity, and the prison system is crime against humanity.

11.28.6
60 million people in America make $7.00 hrly, according to taxes and economics

11.28.6 News:
The Australian Wheat board, during “oil for food:” $1.8 billion in illicit funds

11.2006
John Kerry meant (in saying about education and studying hard and doing good) that G. W. Bush is intellectually lazy, stupid, and (completely) uneducated, only caring about secret prisons, torture, war, death, destruction of democracy, destruction of peace, destruction of civil/human rights, social injustice, and murder, rather than caring about & building up education, health care, social services, human rights, and social justice.
Kerry’s statement:
“Make the most of education, study hard, do your homework; otherwise, you end
up in war & Iraq!”

Books to purchase:
Between Two Worlds
The Other Side of War

11.28.06
On the internet (& all over the world), the most hated, the most despised, the most reviled, the most dangerous person in the world: George W. Bush!
According to the republicans, neo- conservatives, Corporate, and religious-right-wing, it’s the fault of the democrats, liberals, and the press!

Don’t blame me, I voted democratic; I’ve always voted democratic, since 1989 (high school graduation)! – Scott Burbridge

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From "The Speeches of Adolph Hitler Vol. 1"
"The national government will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests. It will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality. Today Christians stand at the head of our country.We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit. We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theatre, and in the press--in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of liberal excess during the past few years." (more here)

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Nutball Insane Christians Chuck Shepherd's News of the Weird (.962)
WEEK OF JULY 16, 2006
LEAD STORY
The Texas insanity-defense law requires that a delusional person acting under "orders" from God be judged not guilty by reason of insanity, but that a delusional person acting under "orders" from Satan be considered sane, according to prominent forensic psychiatrist Park Dietz (according to a June USA Today story). Thus, Dietz believed that Andrea Yates (at press time being retried in Houston) knew that drowning her kids upon command of someone "without moral authority" (such as Satan) was wrong and thus that she did not qualify for insanity-law protection. Dietz later concluded the opposite in another Texas child-killing case because God had supposedly assured that mother that her kids would be better off dead. [USA Today, 6-20-06]
Can't Possibly Be True
· During his 17 months' federal incarceration in Atlanta, Wayne Milton sneaked out nights at least 50 times in order to continue the high-stakes mortgage-fraud business that had landed him in jail in the first place. In May, he received a fresh, 20-year sentence for having bribed the prison guards who allowed his freedom. The smooth-talking Milton (who deftly quoted the Bible, preying on small-town preachers in the South) is such a relentless promoter that within days of his re-incarceration, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitutional report, he was secretly recorded on a prison phone lining up another mortgage loan. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 5-31-06]
· Inexplicable: (1) The Rhode Island Supreme Court in June affirmed a $400,000 judgment for Charles Lennon, 68, who had sued the now-bankrupt Dacomed company after his Dura-II penile implant remained constantly erect for 10 years. Lennon said embarrassment had forced him to become a recluse. (2) In Waupun, Wis., in June, a 36-year-old man filed a police complaint against a female bartender at the Alcatraz Pub because she injured him by aggressively nuzzling him to her bosom during horseplay at the bar. [Tampa Tribune-AP, 6-23-06] [Fond du Lac Reporter, 6-19-06]
The Continuing Crisis
· Speaking to an international medical meeting in Prague in June, Israeli fertility doctor Shevach Friedler said his research team had found that women exposed to brief entertainment by clowns were successful at in-vitro fertilization at almost twice the rate of women who had no clown exposure. Friedler, who is also a trained mime, attributed the difference to greater stress reduction. [MSNBC-Reuters, 6-21-06]
· In June, three protesters dressed in clown suits broke a lock at a supposedly secure North Dakota missile facility and attacked the top of the underground housing that holds a live Minuteman III missile by beating it with hammers and painting anti-nuclear slogans on it. They were arrested within minutes, but publicly, the government seemed unalarmed that the trio had broken in so easily. [Minot Daily News, 6-30-06]
Unclear on the Concept
Joseph Weir, 23, who confessed to New York City police in May to forcibly licking the feet of as many as 70 women, said he didn't mean to hurt anyone but just wanted "to make them laugh and smile and open to talk to me." "I get on my knees, grab their feet and bow," he said (according to a New York Post story). "I compliment women, I bow to them." [New York Post, 5-11-06]
The Meek Win a Few
(1) In June, British worker Mr. Sivanadian Perananthasivam was awarded three months' paid leave plus medical expenses after proving that a supervisor had used two colloquial terms for the man's posterior during an angry office exchange. (2) The Supreme Court of Canada affirmed in June that a woman divorced seven years ago is still so fragile from her husband's leaving her that she should continue to get spousal support (in spite of Canada's no-fault divorce law). (3) Two New Jersey schoolboys separately complained recently that in yearbook sports photos, a tiny portion of their genitals can be seen up the legs of their shorts. (A Colts Neck High School student's lawsuit was dismissed in June, and a Phillipsburg High School student is pondering a lawsuit, even though a school official ordered the offending page ripped out of all books.) [News Ltd. (News.com.au), 6-14-06] [Globe and Mail-Canadian Press, 6-20-06] [Express Times (Easton, Pa.), 6-13-06]
Fine Points of the Law
(1) The Michigan Supreme Court ruled in June that a marijuana user need not actually be intoxicated to violate the state's "operating (a vehicle) under the influence" law if the prosecutor can prove that the psychoactive ingredient THC was still in his system. (2) A federal judge in Albany, N.Y., dismissed a state prisoner's lawsuit that claimed that housing two inmates in a cell designed for one was cruel and unusual punishment. The judge rejected the petitioner's toilet-smell argument by using the Pythagorean Theorem to show that the odor-wafting-distance difference was minimal. [South Bend Tribune-AP, 6-23-06] [ABC News-AP, 6-5-06]
People Different From Us
(1) Enrique Mora of Montclair, Calif., said that within a few days of his gold detector's having sounded in his front yard, he had dug a hole six stories down (but had come up empty). He said he had only planned to dig three or four feet, but got "carried away," according to a June Associated Press report. (2) Martinsburg, W.Va., physician John C. Veltman, 52, was arrested in May after he (likely intoxicated) commandeered a backhoe and hit a building and a tree and crashed through two fences. Veltman allegedly told an arriving police officer, "I am a (expletive omitted by the Martinsburg Journal) medical doctor, and you are below me." [KNTV-TV (San Jose, Calif.)-AP, 6-14-06] [Martinsburg Journal, 5-16-06]
Least Competent People
A 25-year-old American from Boston, in Hanover, Germany, for World Cup matches, was forced to report sheepishly to police that he had no idea which hotel he had checked into or where it was. According to a Reuters report, the man, reportedly sober, remembered being driven past a park and a Mercedes dealership, but since there are several of those in Hanover, police had to drive him around town for an hour until he finally recognized the building. [Reuters, 6-23-06]
Update
In December, News of the Weird reported on a Welsh inventor's sound device called the Mosquito, which takes advantage of young people's greater audio range and emits a sound annoying to them but which most adults do not notice, which the inventor used to drive young hoodlums from their hangouts without disturbing adults. Recently, the inventor, Howard Stapleton, introduced a youth-friendly spinoff: a cell phone ringtone ("Teen Buzz") that is audible to most young people but not noticeable to most adults (who might prefer ringtone silence). [The Times (London), 6-12-06]
Chutzpah!
(1) The Nigerian government began recently to warn its citizens traveling to Europe that those countries are full of scam artists. (The travel advisory mentioned pickpocket schemes, but apparently European e-mail scams are less of a problem.) (2) General Motors executives, trying to explain the dwindling stock market value of the company, have repeatedly complained of oppressive pension benefits owed under United Auto Workers contracts; however, according to a June Wall Street Journal investigation, GM's fund for worker pensions is "overstuffed with cash," while its fund for executive pensions is $1.4 billion in the red and getting worse. [Reuters, 6-22-06] [Wall Street Journal, 6-23-06]
Thinning the Herd
(1) A 23-year-old woman and her 27-year-old companion were accidentally run over and killed, apparently while standing in a far left lane of Interstate 10, arguing (Ocean Springs, Miss., June). (2) A 46-year-old man, breaking through a bedroom window in the home of his estranged wife in violation of a restraining order, accidentally slashed an artery and bled to death (Milwaukee, June). (3) A 51-year-old man, trying to drive around a traffic jam on Interstate 10 as he was fleeing a gas station where he had just pumped $60 worth of gas without paying, fatally struck another car (with only minor injuries to the other driver) (Welsh, La., June). [Biloxi Sun Herald, 6-27-06] [WLS-TV (Chicago)-AP, 6-17-06] [Baton Rouge Advocate, 6-22-06]
Thanks This Week to Lisa Rutter, Tim O'Rourke, David Horchak, Mike Berenshteyn, Jamie Anderson, Steven Passen, David Weiss, Emory Kimbrough, Michael Duhe, and Sarah Langmack, and to the News of the Weird Editorial Advisors
(Visit Chuck Shepherd daily at http://newsoftheweird.blogspot.com/ or http://www.newsoftheweird.com/. Send your Weird News to WeirdNewsTips@yahoo.com or P.O. Box 18737, Tampa, FL 33679.)
COPYRIGHT 2006 CHUCK SHEPHERD
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John Adams proclaimed the United States Government a secular one in the "Treaty of Tripoli" signed in 1797. "The United States is not a Christian nation any more than it is a Jewish or a Mohammedan nation."

http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/summer97/secular.html

Little-Known U.S. Document Signed by President Adams Proclaims America's Government Is Secular
by Jim Walker

Some people today assert that the United States government came from Christian foundations. They argue that our political system represents a Christian ideal form of government and that Jefferson, Madison, et al, had simply expressed Christian values while framing the Constitution. If this proved true, then we should have a wealth of evidence to support it, yet just the opposite proves the case.
Although, indeed, many of America's colonial statesmen practiced Christianity, our most influential Founding Fathers broke away from traditional religious thinking. The ideas of the Great Enlightenment that began in Europe had begun to sever the chains of monarchical theocracy. These heretical European ideas spread throughout early America. Instead of relying on faith, people began to use reason and science as their guide. The humanistic philosophical writers of the Enlightenment, such as Locke, Rousseau, and Voltaire, had greatly influenced our Founding Fathers and Isaac Newton's mechanical and mathematical foundations served as a grounding post for their scientific reasoning.
A few Christian fundamentalists attempt to convince us to return to the Christianity of early America, yet according to the historian, Robert T. Handy, "No more than 10 percent-- probably less-- of Americans in 1800 were members of congregations."
The Founding Fathers, also, rarely practiced Christian orthodoxy. Although they supported the free exercise of any religion, they understood the dangers of religion. Most of them believed in deism and attended Freemasonry lodges. According to John J. Robinson, "Freemasonry had been a powerful force for religious freedom." Freemasons took seriously the principle that men should worship according to their own conscious. Masonry welcomed anyone from any religion or non-religion, as long as they believed in a Supreme Being. Washington, Franklin, Hancock, Hamilton, Lafayette, and many others accepted Freemasonry.
The Constitution reflects our founders views of a secular government, protecting the freedom of any belief or unbelief. The historian, Robert Middlekauff, observed, "the idea that the Constitution expressed a moral view seems absurd. There were no genuine evangelicals in the Convention, and there were no heated declarations of Christian piety."
George Washington
Much of the myth of Washington's alleged Christianity came from Mason Weems influential book, "Life of Washington." The story of the cherry tree comes from this book and it has no historical basis. Weems, a Christian minister portrayed Washington as a devout Christian, yet Washington's own diaries show that he rarely attended Church.
Washington revealed almost nothing to indicate his spiritual frame of mind, hardly a mark of a devout Christian. In his thousands of letters, the name of Jesus Christ never appears. He rarely spoke about his religion, but his Freemasonry experience points to a belief in deism. Washington's initiation occurred at the Fredericksburg Lodge on 4 November 1752, later becoming a Master mason in 1799, and remained a freemason until he died.
To the United Baptist Churches in Virginia in May, 1789, Washington said that every man "ought to be protected in worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience."
After Washington's death, Dr. Abercrombie, a friend of his, replied to a Dr. Wilson, who had interrogated him about Washington's religion replied, "Sir, Washington was a Deist."
Thomas Jefferson
Even most Christians do not consider Jefferson a Christian. In many of his letters, he denounced the superstitions of Christianity. He did not believe in spiritual souls, angels or godly miracles. Although Jefferson did admire the morality of Jesus, Jefferson did not think him divine, nor did he believe in the Trinity or the miracles of Jesus. In a letter to Peter Carr, 10 August 1787, he wrote, "Question with boldness even the existence of a god."
Jefferson believed in materialism, reason, and science. He never admitted to any religion but his own. In a letter to Ezra Stiles Ely, 25 June 1819, he wrote, "You say you are a Calvinist. I am not. I am of a sect by myself, as far as I know."
John Adams
Adams, a Unitarian, flatly denied the doctrine of eternal damnation. In a letter to Thomas Jefferson, he wrote:
"I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved -- the Cross. Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced!"
In his letter to Samuel Miller, 8 July 1820, Adams admitted his unbelief of Protestant Calvinism: "I must acknowledge that I cannot class myself under that denomination."
In his, "A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America" [1787-1788], John Adams wrote:
"The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature; and if men are now sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves of artifice, imposture, hypocrisy, and superstition, they will consider this event as an era in their history. Although the detail of the formation of the American governments is at present little known or regarded either in Europe or in America, it may hereafter become an object of curiosity. It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the influence of Heaven, more than those at work upon ships or houses, or laboring in merchandise or agriculture; it will forever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses.
". . . Thirteen governments [of the original states] thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone, without a pretence of miracle or mystery, and which are destined to spread over the northern part of that whole quarter of the globe, are a great point gained in favor of the rights of mankind."
James Madison
Called the father of the Constitution, Madison had no conventional sense of Christianity. In 1785, Madison wrote in his Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments:
"During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution."
"What influence, in fact, have ecclesiastical establishments had on society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the civil authority; on many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny; in no instance have they been the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wish to subvert the public liberty may have found an established clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate it, needs them not."
Benjamin Franklin
Although Franklin received religious training, his nature forced him to rebel against the irrational tenets of his parents Christianity. His Autobiography revels his skepticism, "My parents had given me betimes religions impressions, and I received from my infancy a pious education in the principles of Calvinism. But scarcely was I arrived at fifteen years of age, when, after having doubted in turn of different tenets, according as I found them combated in the different books that I read, I began to doubt of Revelation itself.
". . . Some books against Deism fell into my hands. . . It happened that they wrought an effect on my quite contrary to what was intended by them; for the arguments of the Deists, which were quoted to be refuted, appeared to me much stronger than the refutations; in short, I soon became a through Deist."
In an essay on "Toleration," Franklin wrote:
"If we look back into history for the character of the present sects in Christianity, we shall find few that have not in their turns been persecutors, and complainers of persecution. The primitive Christians thought persecution extremely wrong in the Pagans, but practiced it on one another. The first Protestants of the Church of England blamed persecution in the Romish church, but practiced it upon the Puritans. These found it wrong in the Bishops, but fell into the same practice themselves both here [England] and in New England."
Dr. Priestley, an intimate friend of Franklin, wrote of him:
"It is much to be lamented that a man of Franklin's general good character and great influence should have been an unbeliever in Christianity, and also have done as much as he did to make others unbelievers" (Priestley's Autobiography)
Thomas Paine
This freethinker and author of several books, influenced more early Americans than any other writer. Although he held Deist beliefs, he wrote in his famous The Age of Reason:
"I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my church. "
"Of all the systems of religion that ever were invented, there is no more derogatory to the Almighty, more unedifiying to man, more repugnant to reason, and more contradictory to itself than this thing called Christianity. "
The U.S. Constitution
The most convincing evidence that our government did not ground itself upon Christianity comes from the very document that defines it-- the United States Constitution.
If indeed our Framers had aimed to found a Christian republic, it would seem highly unlikely that they would have forgotten to leave out their Christian intentions in the Supreme law of the land. In fact, nowhere in the Constitution do we have a single mention of Christianity, God, Jesus, or any Supreme Being. There occurs only two references to religion and they both use exclusionary wording. The 1st Amendment's says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. . ." and in Article VI, Section 3, ". . . no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."
Thomas Jefferson interpreted the 1st Amendment in his famous letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in January 1, 1802:
"I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State."
Some Religious activists try to extricate the concept of separation between church and State by claiming that those words do not occur in the Constitution. Indeed they do not, but neither does it exactly say "freedom of religion," yet the First Amendment implies both.
As Thomas Jefferson wrote in his Autobiography, in reference to the Virginia Act for Religious Freedom:
"Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed by inserting "Jesus Christ," so that it would read "A departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;" the insertion was rejected by the great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohammedan, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination."
James Madison, perhaps the greatest supporter for separation of church and State, and whom many refer to as the father of the Constitution, also held similar views which he expressed in his letter to Edward Livingston, 10 July 1822:
"And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in shewing that religion & Govt will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together."
Today, if ever our government needed proof that the separation of church and State works to ensure the freedom of religion, one only need to look at the plethora of Churches, temples, and shrines that exist in the cities and towns throughout the United States. Only a secular government, divorced from religion could possibly allow such tolerant diversity.
The Declaration of Independence
Many Christians who think of America as founded upon Christianity usually present the Declaration as "proof." The reason appears obvious: the document mentions God. However, the God in the Declaration does not describe Christianity's God. It describes "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God." This nature's view of God agrees with deist philosophy but any attempt to use the Declaration as a support for Christianity will fail for this reason alone.
More significantly, the Declaration does not represent the law of the land as it came before the Constitution. The Declaration aimed at announcing their separation from Great Britain and listed the various grievances with the "thirteen united States of America." The grievances against Great Britain no longer hold, and we have more than thirteen states. Today, the Declaration represents an important historical document about rebellious intentions against Great Britain at a time before the formation of our independent government. Although the Declaration may have influential power, it may inspire the lofty thoughts of poets, and judges may mention it in their summations, it holds no legal power today. Our presidents, judges and policemen must take an oath to uphold the Constitution, but never to the Declaration of Independence.
Of course the Declaration depicts a great political document, as it aimed at a future government upheld by citizens instead of a religious monarchy. It observed that all men "are created equal" meaning that we all come inborn with the abilities of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That "to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men." The Declaration says nothing about our rights secured by Christianity, nor does it imply anything about a Christian foundation.
Treaty of Tripoli
Unlike governments of the past, the American Fathers set up a government divorced from religion. The establishment of a secular government did not require a reflection to themselves about its origin; they knew this as an unspoken given. However, as the U.S. delved into international affairs, few foreign nations knew about the intentions of America. For this reason, an insight from at a little known but legal document written in the late 1700s explicitly reveals the secular nature of the United States to a foreign nation. Officially called the "Treaty of peace and friendship between the United States of America and the Bey and Subjects of Tripoli, of Barbary," most refer to it as simply the Treaty of Tripoli. In Article 11, it states:
"As the Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Musselmen; and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."
The preliminary treaty began with a signing on 4 November, 1796 (the end of George Washington's last term as president). Joel Barlow, the American diplomat served as counsel to Algiers and held responsibility for the treaty negotiations. Barlow had once served under Washington as a chaplain in the revolutionary army. He became good friends with Paine, Jefferson, and read Enlightenment literature. Later he abandoned Christian orthodoxy for rationalism and became an advocate of secular government. Barlow, along with his associate, Captain Richard O'Brien, et al, translated and modified the Arabic version of the treaty into English. From this came the added Amendment 11. Barlow forwarded the treaty to U.S. legislators for approval in 1797. Timothy Pickering, the secretary of state, endorsed it and John Adams concurred (now during his presidency), sending the document on to the Senate. The Senate approved the treaty on June 7, 1797, and officially ratified by the Senate with John Adams signature on 10 June, 1797. All during this multi-review process, the wording of Article 11 never raised the slightest concern. The treaty even became public through its publication in The Philadelphia Gazette on 17 June 1797.
So here we have a clear admission by the United States that our government did not found itself upon Christianity. Unlike the Declaration of Independence, this treaty represented U.S. law as all treaties do according to the Constitution (see Article VI, Sect. 2).
Although the Christian exclusionary wording in the Treaty of Tripoli only lasted for eight years and no longer has legal status, it clearly represented the feelings of our Founding Fathers at the beginning of the U.S. government.
Common Law
According to the Constitution's 7th Amendment: "In suits at common law. . . the right of trial by jury shall be preserved; and no fact, tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States than according to the rules of the common law."
Here, many Christians believe that common law came from Christian foundations and therefore the Constitution derives from it. They use various quotes from Supreme Court Justices proclaiming that Christianity came as part of the laws of England, and therefore from its common law heritage.
But one of our principle Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson, elaborated about the history of common law in his letter to Thomas Cooper on February 10, 1814:
"For we know that the common law is that system of law which was introduced by the Saxons on their settlement in England, and altered from time to time by proper legislative authority from that time to the date of Magna Charta, which terminates the period of the common law. . . This settlement took place about the middle of the fifth century. But Christianity was not introduced till the seventh century; the conversion of the first christian king of the Heptarchy having taken place about the year 598, and that of the last about 686. Here then, was a space of two hundred years, during which the common law was in existence, and Christianity no part of it.
". . . if any one chooses to build a doctrine on any law of that period, supposed to have been lost, it is incumbent on him to prove it to have existed, and what were its contents. These were so far alterations of the common law, and became themselves a part of it. But none of these adopt Christianity as a part of the common law. If, therefore, from the settlement of the Saxons to the introduction of Christianity among them, that system of religion could not be a part of the common law, because they were not yet Christians, and if, having their laws from that period to the close of the common law, we are all able to find among them no such act of adoption, we may safely affirm (though contradicted by all the judges and writers on earth) that Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law."
In the same letter, Jefferson examined how the error spread about Christianity and common law. Jefferson realized that a misinterpretation had occurred with a Latin term by Prisot, "*ancien scripture*," in reference to common law history. The term meant "ancient scripture" but people had incorrectly interpreted it to mean "Holy Scripture," thus spreading the myth that common law came from the Bible. Jefferson writes:
"And Blackstone repeats, in the words of Sir Matthew Hale, that 'Christianity is part of the laws of England,' citing Ventris and Strange ubi surpa. 4. Blackst. 59. Lord Mansfield qualifies it a little by saying that 'The essential principles of revealed religion are part of the common law." In the case of the Chamberlain of London v. Evans, 1767. But he cites no authority, and leaves us at our peril to find out what, in the opinion of the judge, and according to the measure of his foot or his faith, are those essential principles of revealed religion obligatory on us as a part of the common law."
Thus we find this string of authorities, when examined to the beginning, all hanging on the same hook, a perverted expression of Priscot's, or on one another, or nobody."
The Encyclopedia Britannica, also describes the Saxon origin and adds: "The nature of the new common law was at first much influenced by the principles of Roman law, but later it developed more and more along independent lines." Also prominent among the characteristics that derived out of common law include the institution of the jury, and the right to speedy trial.
Christian Sources
Virtually all the evidence that attempts to connect a foundation of Christianity upon the government rests mainly on quotes and opinions from a few of the colonial statesmen who had professed a belief in Christianity. Sometimes the quotes come from their youth before their introduction to Enlightenment ideas or simply from personal beliefs. But statements of beliefs, by themselves, say nothing about Christianity as the source of the U.S. government.
There did occur, however, some who wished a connection between church and State. Patrick Henry, for example, proposed a tax to help sustain "some form of Christian worship" for the state of Virginia. But Jefferson and other statesmen did not agree. In 1779, Jefferson introduced a bill for the Statute for Religious Freedom which became Virginia law. Jefferson designed this law to completely separate religion from government. None of Henry's Christian views ever got introduced into Virginia's or U.S. Government law.
Unfortunately, later developments in our government have clouded early history. The original Pledge of Allegiance, authored by Francis Bellamy in 1892 did not contain the words "under God." Not until June 1954 did those words appear in the Allegiance. The United States currency never had "In God We Trust" printed on money until after the Civil War. Many Christians who visit historical monuments and see the word "God" inscribed in stone, automatically impart their own personal God of Christianity, without understanding the Framers Deist context.
In the Supreme Court's 1892 Holy Trinity Church vs. United States, Justice David Brewer wrote that "this is a Christian nation." Many Christians use this as evidence. However, Brewer wrote this in dicta, as a personal opinion only and does not serve as a legal pronouncement. Later Brewer felt obliged to explain himself: "But in what sense can [the United States] be called a Christian nation? Not in the sense that Christianity is the established religion or the people are compelled in any manner to support it. On the contrary, the Constitution specifically provides that 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.' Neither is it Christian in the sense that all its citizens are either in fact or in name Christians. On the contrary, all religions have free scope within its borders. Numbers of our people profess other religions, and many reject all."
Conclusion
The Framers derived an independent government out of Enlightenment thinking against the grievances caused by Great Britain. Our Founders paid little heed to political beliefs about Christianity. The 1st Amendment stands as the bulkhead against an establishment of religion and at the same time insures the free expression of any belief. The Treaty of Tripoli, an instrument of the Constitution, clearly stated our non-Christian foundation. We inherited common law from Great Britain which derived from pre-Christian Saxons rather than from Biblical scripture.
Today we have powerful Christian organizations who work to spread historical myths about early America and attempt to bring a Christian theocracy to the government. If this ever happens, then indeed, we will have ignored the lessons from history. Fortunately, most liberal Christians today agree with the principles of separation of church and State, just as they did in early America.
"They all attributed the peaceful dominion of religion in their country mainly to the separation of church and state. I do not hesitate to affirm that during my stay in America I did not meet a single individual, of the clergy or the laity, who was not of the same opinion on this point"
-Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835
Bibliography
Borden, Morton, "Jews, Turks, and Infidels," The University of North Carolina Press, 1984
Boston, Robert, "Why the Religious Right is Wrong About Separation of Church & State, "Prometheus Books, 1993
Boston, F. Andrews, et al, "The Writings of George Washington," (12 Vols.), Charleston, S.C., 1833-37
Fitzpatrick, John C., ed., "The Diaries of George Washington, 1748-1799," Houghton Mifflin Company: Published for the Mount Vernon Ladies Association of the Union, 1925
Gay, Kathlyn, "Church and State,"The Millbrook Press," 1992
Handy, Robert, T., "A History of the Churches in U.S. and Canada," New York: Oxford University Press, 1977
Hayes, Judith, "All those Christian Presidents," [The American Rationalist, March/April 1997]
Kock, Adrienne, ed., "The American Enlightenment: The Shaping of the American Experiment and a Free Society," New York: George Braziller, 1965
Mapp, Jr, Alf J., "Thomas Jefferson," Madison Books, 1987
Middlekauff, Robert, "The Glorious Cause," Oxford University Press, 1982
Miller, Hunter, ed., "Treaties and other International Acts of the United States of America," Vol. 2, Documents 1-40: 1776-1818, United States Government Printing Office, Washington: 1931
Peterson, Merrill D., "Thomas Jefferson Writings," The Library of America, 1984
Remsburg, John E., "Six Historic Americans," The Truth Seeker Company, New York
Robinson, John J., "Born in Blood," M. Evans & Company, New York, 1989
Roche, O.I.A., ed, "The Jefferson Bible: with the Annotated Commentaries on Religion of Thomas Jefferson," Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1964
Seldes, George, ed., "The Great Quotations," Pocket Books, New York, 1967
Sweet, William W., "Revivalism in America, its origin, growth and decline," C. Scribner's Sons, New York, 1944
Woodress, James, "A Yankee's Odyssey, the Life of Joel Barlow," J. P. Lippincott Co., 1958
Encyclopedia sources:
Common law: Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 6, "William Benton, Publisher, 1969
Declaration of Independence: MicroSoft Encarta 1996 Encyclopedia, MicroSoft Corp., Funk & Wagnalls Corporation.
In God We Trust: MicroSoft Encarta 1996 Encyclopedia, MicroSoft Corp., Funk & Wagnalls Corporation.
Pledge of Allegiance: Academic American Encyclopedia, Vol. 15, Grolier Incorporated, Danbury, Conn., 1988
Special thanks to Ed Buckner, Robert Boston, Selena Brewington and Lion G. Miles, for help in providing me with source materials.

ARTICLE XI FROM THE TREATY OF TRIPOLI

SIGNERS OF THE TREATY OF TRIPOLI
According to the Constitution's 7th Amendment: "In suits at common law. . . the right of trial by jury shall be

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Leading A Spiritual Life
Christian, Jewish, Muslim, & Buddhist Perspectives
http://www.explorefaith.org/

Are you an atheist?
Join other atheists & agnostics at the Council For Secular Humanism
http://www.secularhumanism.org/

Essential New Book –
Can the gov’t really take your home away from you?
http://www.cato.org/

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journal 4: SUV'S SUCK TERRORIST OIL.1.26.7

2007-05-23T20:11:00.000-07:00

Journal 4: SUV’S SUCK TERRORIST OIL

Jesus HATES Your SUV
SUVs Suck Terrorist Oil

SUVs [heart] Terrorist Oil

1.26.7

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2003 –
www.sylvia.org, get daily email messages; book: Phenomenon

Sylvia Browne predictions:
Sarah Jessica Parker leaves Matthew Broderick!

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Dissent is the American way!

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Google: Grannies Brigade
www.grannypeacebrigade.org

QUOTE
Jun 24, 2006 8:04 pm US/EasternGranny Brigade Bringing Anti-War Message To D.C.Seniors Poised To Ruffle Feathers Over Next 10 DaysMagee HickeyReporting(CBS) NEW YORK They're back. Those opinionated octogenarians who made headlines last fall by trying to enlist in the military to stop the War in Iraq.Now, they're heading to Washington D.C. for the Fourth of July. With wheelchairs, walkers, canes and pictures of their grandchildren on their backs, the Granny Brigade was back in Times Square, the scene of their arrest last fall for blocking the entrance to the Military Recruitment Center to stop the war. This time, they're kicking off a 10-day trek to the nation's capital. "We want to wake up an apathetic American public," Joan Wile, the Brigade's founder said. "Maybe they're against the war, maybe they're not. But they're totally indifferent."LINK

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1.2007 –
Judge Judy is worth $95 Million!

1.26.7
80% of American’s oppose Bush’s handling of the war in Iraq, & disagree with the “Escalation” Plan of Bush’s.

1.26.7
This isn’t just about an increase/”escalation” of troops (in Iraq)! It’s an “agenda” to KILL, KILL, KILL; killing innocent Iraqi’s & innocent Iranian’s, killing Iranian agent’s/operative’s, killing everyone who doesn’t deem a “threat!”
The “response” of Iranian’s will be an “escalation!”
This is about Terror, War, Violence, Death, Injustice; Bush doesn’t care!
It’s an “induction” of Nuclear War and Violence “Not Yet Known!”
This is about Billions, Billions, Billions, Billions, Billions, Billions, Billions, Billions, Billions, Billions, Billions, Billions, Billions, Billions, Billions, Billions, Billions, Billions, Billions, Billions, Billions, Billions, Billions, Billions, Billions, Billions, Billions, Billions, Billions, Billions, Billions, Billions, Billions, Billions, Billions, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY in the pockets of those who are in POWER: George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, & the Bush Regime!

1.26.7
Today, the 26th of January, Bush say’s that not Congress or anyone will stop him from what he wants to do (in his “Escalation”-Plan), for he is “The Decider!” “I’m The Decider; I Decide What’s Best”

1.25.7
Bush say’s that, because of a lack of “advanced-weaponry,” it’s American’s fault for the “insecurity” & the “unsuccess” in the war, in the world, and in America!
“They” already use their “advanced-weaponry”, & Bush is the World’s #1 Terrorist, the most feared, hated, despised, violent, & dangerous person on this Earth; Bush is the Creator/Manufacturer of Terror, & Terrorism!

1.24.7
67% of American’s oppose Bush’s handling of the war in Iraq, & his handling of everything!

At the start of the war in Iraq, March of 2003:
57% of black men were for the war in Iraq!
70% of Americans were for the war in Iraq!
67% of black women were against the war in Iraq!

1.23.7
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 12 to 9 a “Resolution” condemning Bush’s war-in-Iraq Troop Surge/“Escalation!”
A majority of Congress, also, oppose a troop “escalation!”
A majority of Americans oppose a troop surge/“escalation!”

Dick Cheney tells Reporters that the Resolution WILL NOT change the President’s mind on how to handle “things” in Iraq! WHAT A SURPRISE!!!!!!!
Nothing, & no one, will stop Bush from getting what he wants!
Bush is creating more terror, death, violence, “escalation,” more likelihood/probability/possibility/chance of nuclear war, more world-hatred of America or American Gov’t!

1.2007
Israel, India, Pakistan, & Jordon all have Nuclear Weapons, currently, all because the American Government helped them to develop and attain them (the Nuclear Weapons)!

1.23.7
John Kerry decides that he’s not running for the 2008 Presidential Election!

1.2007
Protect Southern Methodist University (SMU); Highland Park (Dallas), Tx
www.protectsmu.org
Bush is forcing his Presidential Library on SMU!
The Southern Baptist Convention is THE ONLY religious organization that/who supported Bush’s Iraq War; no other religious organization supported Bush’s Iraq War!
The Methodist’s & religious leaders& students & professors do not want the Presidential Library on the SMU University Campus because they do not want to honor G. W. Bush. Moreover, the Library would be filled with “lies” & “deception” in its books!

1.23.7
Bush wants Democrat’s (& Congress) to:
Balance the Budget!
Deal with Global Warming!
Raise Taxes, in order to Pay For Health Care!
Everything he can not & has not dealt with!

Bush wants Congress to create their own Iraq-War “Plan!” (And he wont listen to anybody but to what he insists & intends!!!!!!!)

1.23.7
We have Anarchy in Iraq, & it’s getting worse!

1.23.7
We have an American Government of fascism, totalitarianism, despotism, dictatorship, repression, oppression, tyranny, absolutism, autocracy, authoritarianism, absolute rule, unitary executive supremacy, subjugation, domination, monocracy, power, control!

1.23.7
There is no sign of the violence & death diminishing in Iraq!
What principles does the Bush Doctrine stand for!!!???
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1.23.2007
By a majority of American’s, currently, G. W. Bush is NOT trusted in a time of war! And he is not trusted in his handling of the Country, & World!

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http://www.guerillastickers.com/christian_right.htm

Jesus Hates Your SUV

SUV’s Love Your Terrorist Oil

SUV’s Suck Terrorist Oil

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Tell Congress:Stop the Escalation - Stop Funding the War!

On January 4th , Congress began the 2007 session with new leadership ready to take the reins. The problem is, the new Congress doesn't look very different than the old Congress that we supposedly voted out of office. Nancy Pelosi said that she won't defund the war, President Bush is asking for at least $127 billion more to waste on our failed venture in Iraq, and now Bush is proposing an escalation of US troops. Although voters expressed a clear mandate to end the war in Iraq, our leadership is continuing the violence in our name and with our tax dollars.
We think this is an unacceptable betrayal of American voters, so VotersForPeace is working with several peace organizations to remind the new Congress that we will no longer tolerate destroying lives and wasting money for war.

We have the power to prevent war!
We have the power to act!
We have the power to end occupation!

Humanize the earth!

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Plan your trip to DC for the MARCH ON WASHINGTON, January 27-29, 2007: Join tens of thousands of Americans in this act of solidarity! Go to www.unitedforpeace.org to connect with people in your area who are attending, sign up on ride boards, volunteer on the day of the event, or assist the outreach effort.

Bush-lovers bow down to the altar(s) of religious tyranny, & fascism, totalitarianism, oppression, despotism, repression, & dictatorship; the Antonym is Democracy!

January 22, 2007
Another DUMB@$$ AWARD wiener
Souza: F.D.R. ‘Indirectly Responsible’ For September 11
Eyeing the Enemy: Dinesh D’Souza looks left
D’Souza in the sky with diamonds

DUMB@$$ AWARD wiener #511: Dinesh D’Souza
Prominent conservative intellectual Dinesh D’Souza has released a book titled “The Enemy at Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11.”….[O]n The Colbert Report, D’Souza repeated the right-wing attack that President Bill Clinton “did absolutely nothing” to fight global terrorists. Stephen Colbert jokingly asked, “Doesn’t some of it lie at FDR’s doorstep? Doesn’t things like Social Security and Medicare and LBJ’s Great Society, doesn’t some of that send the wrong message to our enemies?”….D’Souza answered, “Indirectly, yes,” explaining that “FDR gave away Eastern Europe through Yalta, and then the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, the Muslims had to fight back and that’s where bin Laden got his start.”
Man, I do not possess the vocabulary to express the depths of my disgust with the latest TPRS DUMB@$$ AWARD wiener. There are few things more reprehensible than stooping so low as to place the “blame” for 9.11 on a segment of the population whose ideology and political philosophy you happen to disagree with.
Dinesh D’Souza is one of the (not so) new breed of Conservative intellectuals (think Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Laura Ingraham, etc., ad nauseum, ad infinitum) who not only see themselves as intellectually superior to Liberals, they’re also completely convinced of their own moral superiority. In D’Souza’s mind, Liberals are responsible for the ills of the world, and only Conservatives have the moral and intellectual wherewithal to clean up the mess. This is just about the worst sort of self-righteous egotism imaginable.
When last I checked, 9.11 was carried out by 19 Islamofascist thugs determined to strike a blow against the Great Satan. As far as I can tell, no Liberals were involved. Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton and Barney Frank weren’t involved, and I was also otherwise engaged. Yet D’Souza sees no hypocrisy in blaming what he calls “cultural Liberals” for 9.11…as if support for gay marriage, abortion rights, and a fair, workable Medicare drug plan for senior citizens means we deserved what we got.
Continue reading "Another DUMB@$$ AWARD wiener" »
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January 22, 2007
If you need me, I'll be playing "frogger" in rush hour traffic on Hwy. 146
Blue Monday: The unhappiest day of the year
If you are feeling a little down then you can take solace in the thought that things are unlikely to get any worse. Today, say experts, is the unhappiest day in the entire year. Unpaid Christmas bills, nasty weather, and failed New Year’s resolutions combine to make January 22 the gloomiest in the calendar.
OK, so the weather’s been grey, cold, and dreary. We haven’t seen the sun in what seems like dog-years. Christmas is over, the next decent holiday (at least one that I get off) is Memorial Day, and I need a vacation. Other than that, life’s a &^%$#@! cakewalk.
This time of year, with the short days and the long holiday-bereft span, things seem a bit bleak. Combine that with the cold, dreary weather, and the fact that today is Monday…and I probably don’t have to elaborate, since I seriously doubt I’m the only one feeling this way.
At least now I can blame my malaise on something other than my own ennui, lethargy, and inertia. Thank God for science, because now I no longer have to take personal responsibility for my crappy frame of mind. Yes, now I have something I can attribute all of this to. This doesn’t necessarily make me feel any better, but at least I can defer actually doing something, because I can piss and moan about unseen outside forces conspiring against me.
Man, I just LOVE science….
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I had to look at the calendar over the weekend, just to remind myself that it’s still January, 2007. What with Presidential candidates busting out all over, you might have thought that primary season is just around the corner instead of more than a year away. I can’t help but wonder what all of these erstwhile Presidents-in-waiting are going to do for the next 15 or 16 months to maintain any interest and/or momentum? By the time primary season actually gets here, most of the electorate will be bored stiff.
Just over this past weekend, you had Kansas Republican Sen. Sam Brownback throwing his hat into the metaphorical ring. Brownback’s primary goal seems to be to turn back the clock to a time when women were property and recognized that their place was cranking out children to build the Glorious Reich. If you need something to scare the Hell out of you, try this phrase on for size: “President Sam Brownback”.
At the other end of the ideological spectrum, Sen. Hillary Clinton (R-NY) announced that she’s in…or at least that’s she’s forming an “exploratory committe”, which seems to be politico-speak for easing gracefully into the Presidential race. Clinton’s candidacy comes as no great shock, though I imagine that she would have rather waited awhile to fire up her machine. The good news for the legions of Hillary-haters and haters of all things Clinton is that they’ll have extra time to come up with all sorts of attention-grabbing conspiracy theories. (Hillary’s a lipstick lesbian who preys on sorority girls and drinks their blood? Say it ain’t so….)
Continue reading "Isn't it a little early for this kind of feeding frenzy?" »
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January 22, 2007
Isn't it a little early for this kind of feeding frenzy?

January 22, 2007
Bloody Saturday...and for what??
20 U.S. service members killed in Iraq
25 Americans die in Iraq attacks
Over the next few days, you’ll be hearing glowing (and deserved) tributes to those 25 brave Americans cut down during their prime on Saturday. The local and national media will fall all over themselves lionizing the dead and lauding their sacrifice for freedom…and while that’s by no means a bad thing, it will entirely miss the point and the question that should be asked: WHY? Why did these 25 (as well as the other 3000-plus) have to die? What did they die for? What has been accomplished, what has been gained through their deaths? How does the senseless murder of these 25 brave young Americans protect their country from anything- except perhaps from the self-created terrorist threat that Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader’s © war in Iraq gave birth to ?
Continue reading "Bloody Saturday...and for what??" »
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In Memoriam- Vaya Con Dios

In memory of: Tim Haviland, class of 1982, Marsh & McLennan, 96th floor, 1 WTC
9.11.01 You were a good person.
You were my friend.
You will be missed.

America Remembers 9.11.01 September 11: A Nation Remembers We Will Not Forget
And to the Republic

Disclaimer
They love me!!!!
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www.intellectualize.org

BUSH IS THE #1 TERRORIST!
Well...if they weren't beating the drums of war, we'd have...peace
(via Jesus’ General)

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http://intellectualize.org/

This week in Jesusland, 1.21.07
(As ever, many thanks to my friends at The Sinner’s Guide To The Evangelical Right and DefCon)
2007 has continued it’s slow and uneventful start here in (not) sun-kissed, God-blessed Jesusland. Thankfully, though, it appears that things are about to pick up. With the Presidential race off to an early (and heated) start, this week found (God-tested, Jerry Falwell approved) Sam Brownback, (closet Muslim and anti-American terrorist) Barack Obama (minion of Satan and renowned feminazi) Hillary Clinton, and (closet fondler) Bill Richardson all throwing their metaphorical hats in the ring. By the time we’re done, it appears that half the US Senate could be hanging out in Iowa and New Hampshire, which begs the question: Who’s minding the store on Capitol Hill? And when will Jesse Helms and Virgil Goode announce that they, too, harbor the dream being the next Emperor Augustus President of our Great Nation?
· Writings show King as liberal Christian, rejecting literalism: The collection includes documents from 1948 to 1963 - the years covered by the book - and “gets us closer to King’s true identity” because they shed new light on how he viewed the Bible— Damn, no wonder Richard Nixon and Pat Buchanan ordered that King be assassinated, eh? No good, God-fearing paranoid President during the late ’60s could have been expected to countenance some hippie-dippie, non-violence-espousing, God-loves-everyone, America-hating, Librul preacher. Not with America under siege from Communists, the Viet Cong, and Merv Griffin?
· Kansas Senator Announces Bid for Presidency: Senator Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, on Saturday announced his candidacy for president. Mr. Brownback, an evangelical Protestant turned Roman Catholic and a former Kansas agriculture secretary, said he would focus on reviving faith and families in America; combating abortion, poverty and wasteful government spending; opposing same-sex marriage; and revamping Social Security and the federal tax system….“The last thing we need in America is to take God out of our public lives and institutions,” Mr. Brownback said during his speech in Topeka, Kan. “We need to embrace our nation’s motto, ‘In God we trust,’ and not be ashamed of it….“To walk away from the Almighty is to embrace decline for a nation,” he said. “To embrace him leads to renewal, for individuals and for nations.”— Besides, anyone American worthy of the name KNOWS that Jesus votes Republican…and that Democrats and their Liberal ilk are going straight to Hell…which, come to think of it, looks a lot like Topeka.
· Pat Robertson Calls Iraq War A “Failure”: You know that Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader © is in BIG trouble when his wingnut Evangelical base starts leaping off the bandwagon in a thinly-veiled attempt to save their own hide.
· Methodist Ministers Launch Petition to Stop Bush Library: A group of Methodist ministers from across the nation launched an online petition drive Thursday urging Southern Methodist University to stop trying to land George W. Bush’s presidential library. The petition, on a newly created Web site, http://www.protectsmu.org, says that “as United Methodists, we believe that the linking of his presidency with a university bearing the Methodist name is utterly inappropriate.”….”Methodists have a long history of social conscience, so questions about the conduct of this president are very concerning,” said one of the petition’s organizers, the Rev. Andrew J. Weaver of New York, who graduated from SMU’s Perkins School of Theology.— It’s comforting to see that that there are at least a few Christians out there willing to admit that Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader © is as much about the teaching of Jesus Christ as Machiavelli was. Christianity is a belief system and a way of life, NOT a cover for megalomania and the desire to remake the oil-producing world into an Evanagelical American protectorate.
· McCain hopes to make amends with Dobson: patch things up with conservative Christian leader James Dobson, who recently said he wouldn’t support the Republican’s presidential bid under any circumstances. In a radio interview with KCBI, a Dallas Christian station, Dobson argued that McCain didn’t support traditional marriage values and said he has prayed “we won’t get stuck with him.” Dobson is founder of Focus on the Family….”I’m obviously disappointed and I’d like to continue and have a dialogue with Dr. Dobson and other members of the community,” McCain said Tuesday during a stop in Columbia. McCain has said gay marriage should not be legal but has angered some conservatives with his opposition to a constitutional amendment banning same-sex unions. The Arizona senator said the issue should be left to the states.— McCain also said that he has no problem with tailoring his messages and campaign promises to his audience, because he wants people to know that he will do or say whatever it takes to win the White House in 2008. Apparently, honesty and integrity are no longer part of the GOP platform.
· Influential Evangelical Lobby Attacks Obama’s Christian Credentials: Barack Hussein Obama was born in 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii, to a Kenyan Muslim father of the same name and an American secular humanist mother named Ann Dunham. While Obama’s father was raised in Islamic culture, he had become a functional atheist by the time he reached college. Despite his parents’ lack of religion, young Obama received his early education in both Catholic and Muslim schools.— Ergo, Obama is clearly a closet terrorist and al Qaeda acolyte working behind the scenes to destroy Our Way of Life © . No true patriotic American should fall for his transparent act. Glenn Beck was right- Obama needs to prove to Americans that he’s not secretly working for the terrorists.
Posted by Jack Cluth at 8:28 AM Permalink Comments (1) TrackBacks (0)

January 21, 2007
This is what happens when a man will do ANYTHING to be President
[John] McCain may still hear the applause of small crowds — he has somehow inured himself to the hypocrisy, and the tragedy, of a man who considers himself the ultimate realist, courting the votes of those who support the government telling visitors to the Grand Canyon that it was caused by the Great Flood. That McCain is selling himself off to the irrational right, parcel by parcel, like some great landowner facing bankruptcy, seems to be obvious to everybody but himself.
· Keith Olbermann
January 20, 2007
Your tax dollars at work...or not
U.S protesters found in Defense database: ACLU questions entries in tracking system
A Defense Department database devoted to gathering information on potential threats to military facilities and personnel, known as Talon, had 13,000 entries as of a year ago — including 2,821 reports involving American citizens, according to an internal Pentagon memo to be released today by the American Civil Liberties Union. The Pentagon memo says an examination of the system led to the deletion of 1,131 reports involving Americans, 186 of which dealt with “anti-military protests or demonstrations in the U.S.” Titled “Review of the TALON Reporting System,” the four-page memo produced in February 2006 summarizes some interim results from an inquiry ordered by then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld after disclosure in December 2005 that the system had collected and circulated data on anti-military protests and other peaceful demonstrations.
This story reminds of something I saw scrawled on the wall of a men’s room in a truck stop just outside Houston a few days ago: I LOVE MY COUNTRY. I FEAR MY GOVERNMENT. Indeed. I’m not normally one to take my philosophical and/or ideological cues from restroom walls, but this got me to thinking, and I haven’t been able to stop since. With each passing day, I’m beginning to realize the simple truth contained in those two sentences.
When our government can listen to our phone calls, read our mail, and malign our patriotism if we don’t unquestioningly go along with these and other nefarious methods, who, really, are the terrorists? When government can label someone a “terrorist” and by doing so hold them indefinitely, deny them their habeas corpus and Constitutional rights, have not the terrorists already emerged victorious?
Over the past six years, we have sat idly by while Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader ©: and his neocon thugs have installed a state security apparatus that would have made Nazi Germany proud. The simple act of getting on an airplane now involves checking any sense of propriety and dignity at the airport door. Travelers must now endure a security protocol that involves just about everything short of a strip search and a digital rectal exam. Yes, in order to fly to your destination, you must willingly and unquestioningly check your dignity at the door.
What have we allowed our country to become in the five-plus years since 9.11? I’m not certain that I have a name for it, but it’s not a democracy. A democracy does not put 350,000 people on a “no-fly” list with no explanation or mechanism for appeal. A democracy does not label everyone named “Dave Nelson” a potential terrorist, thereby subjecting them to extra security searches/invasions of privacy. A democracy does not use 9.11 and the never-ending War on Terror © as justification for imprisoning human beings indefinitely, without charges and without access to any sort of legal representation. A democracy does not slap the “terrorist” label on an American citizen, hold him indefinitely and without access to counsel, and break that individual psychologically because they can.
After giving it some thought, I’ve realized that the restroom philosopher was onto something. Like him, I love my country. I’m proud to be an American, but damn, I detest and fear my government and what they’re doing to the country I love.
Somewhere, Josef Goebbels and Hermann Goering are smiling….
Posted by Jack Cluth at 6:56 AM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBacks (0)
January 20, 2007
Good morning, Vietraq!!!

Posted by Jack Cluth at 6:24 AM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBacks (0)
January 20, 2007
Silence = death (yes, really)
School officials say edition with sex articles not approved
DANBURY — School officials said they did not distribute the high school newspaper, which included articles about sex, because the content was not reviewed beforehand by the principal. The Panther Press was scheduled to go out just before the holiday break. It had already been printed when the decision was made to hold it back. The newspaper contained articles written by Danbury High students about the consequences of teenage sexual activity, sexually transmitted diseases and teenage parenting, and editorials making abortion rights and anti-abortion arguments, said journalism teacher Kristi Piper.
I don’t know which upsets me more about this story: the appalling ignorance shown by the alleged adults trying to “protect” children, or the fact that in this day and age, sex is still viewed as dirty, nasty, and wholly inappropriate for schoolchildren to even think about, much less discuss.
How do we expect our children to develop anything resembling a healthy understanding of and appreciation for sex if we don’t allow them the opportunity to discuss it in a safe forum? It’s not as if the school newspaper was printing Dan Savage columns or lessons on bondage and S&M. As these students graduate and move into the adult world, they will have to deal with issues regarding sex and their own sexuality. How do we expect to do this honestly and safely if we deny them the opportunity to discuss sex in an attempt to better understand the issues surrounding the topic?
I would think that, especially in this day and age of HIV/AIDS, when a lack of knowledge and understanding can get you killed, that schools would be fostering and encouraging the open and frank discussion of sex. Schools should be teaching students that responsible sexual behavior is a good, safe, and respectful thing. They should also be teaching students that sex is not something to be ashamed of or discussed in hushed tones.
Yes, I understand that the Supreme Court has ruled that students have no free speech- or really, any- rights. I understand that schools have the right to censor speech and expression by students. What I don’t understand is why Victorian prudishness still rules in small-town Texas. Shouldn’t this sort of ignorance and repression have been deemed passe with the onset of the threat of HIV/AIDS?
When it comes to sex, silence really does equal death. If we do not teach our children, nor allow them to discuss, responsible sexuality and sexual behavior, how do we expect them to learn these important and potentially life-saving lessons? Or are we so wrapped in our hide-bound 1950s Victorian morality that we’re willing to force our children to assume those risks unencumbered by the burden of knowledge?
Apparently so.
Posted by Jack Cluth at 6:16 AM Permalink Comments (2) TrackBacks (0)
January 20, 2007
Ah...if only this could happen....

Posted by Jack Cluth at 6:07 AM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBacks (0)
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DUMB@$$ AWARD wiener #510: Frank Hargove
On the topic of an apology for slavery Delegate Frank Hargrove said: “Are we going to force the Jews to apologize for killing Christ?…I personally think that our black citizens should get over it,”
Regardless of how you happen to feel about the issues of governmental bodies issuing blanket apologies for past reprehensible behavior, you’ve got to be offended by Delegate Frank Hargrove, a Republican in the Virginia House of Delegates. Virginia was built on the backs of slaves- literally- and there are those in the state who honestly feel that it would be an appropriate step for Virginia to apologize for it’s heritage of slavery. Hargrove is not one of those wooly-headed Libruls burdened by a sense of collective historical guilt. In fact, one might wonder if Hargrove doesn’t in fact feel that slavery was simply the natural order of things.
I’m not going to get into whether or not Virginia needs to issue an apology to anyone for anything. My dog in this fight is with Frank Hargrove, whose cluelessness and insensitivity is certainly not going to make resolving this issue any easier.
Hargrove may not agree with the idea of an official apology, but would it be too much to ask for him to recognize that there are people THAT HE REPRESENTS for whom this is an important and significant issue?
Some delegates believe an apology is unnecessary and a sign of too much political correctness.
“The present commonwealth has nothing to do with slavery,” said Del. Frank D. Hargrove, R-Glen Allen, whose ancestors were French Huguenots who came to America in search of religious freedom.
No, but Virginia is where it is today largely because of slaves. It’s history and heritage were created in large part by those whose forced labors built Virginia’s economy and social structure into what it is at this point in history.
How far do these calls for apologies go, wondered Hargrove, a member of the House Rules Committee that could take up McEachin’s resolution as early as Wednesday.
“Are we going to force the Jews to apologize for killing Christ?” Hargrove wondered. “Nobody living today had anything to do with it. It would be far more appropriate in my view to apologize to the Upper Mattaponi and the Pamunkey” Indians for the loss of their lands in eastern Virginia, he said….
“I personally think that our black citizens should get over it,” Hargrove said of slavery, which existed in Virginia from 1619 until the Civil War. “By golly, we’re living in 2007.”
While there may be a grain of truth in Hargrove’s words, a little sensitivity and compassion would go a long way. “Get over it” merely demonstrates how little you know of or care about the sensitivities of those for whom this is a serious issue.
“Nobody can justify slavery today, but it’s counterproductive to dwell on that,” Hargrove said. “Political correctness has kind of gotten us into this area.”
Any pollster would learn that “you couldn’t find a tenth of 1 percent [of Virginians] who said slavery is a good institution,” said Hargrove, who has represented Hanover County in the House of Delegates since 1982.
Just a hunch, but I’d be willing to hazard a guess that Hanover County is majority White. Virginia is never going to be able to move past the issue of slavery until Whites and African-Americans can sit down and speak to each other in the same language. African-Americans need to stop living in the past and Whites need to understand and accept that slavery is still an issue almost 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation. DUMB@$$E$ like Frank Hargrove are certainly not going to make the process of reconciliation any easier.
People like Frank Hargrove are why exactly NOTHING will change when it comes to race relations in Virginia and the rest of this country. Congratulations, Del. Hargrove…you’re a DUMB@$$!
Posted by Jack Cluth on January 21, 2007 7:39 AM

Look at what I found on my front door this morning

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In the first 100 hours of the new Democratically-controlled Congress (in January, 2006),
Congress to:
Eliminate tax breaks for Oil Companies
Roll back oil subsidies
Reduce student loans interest rates
Lower Medicare costs
Federally funded stem cell research
Institute 9-11 Commission Recommendations
Raise the Federal Minimum Wage

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Geov Parrish WorkingForChange.com 01.09.07

The escalation of a dictator

Bush defies American voters, world opinion, common sense in final years of sad presidency

So this is what a dictatorship feels like. Tens of millions of Americans deliver an absolutely unequivocal message on November 7: Get our troops out of Iraq. And the Generalissimo, who cares more about his Daddy issues than he does about respecting democracy (in the U.S. or anywhere else), responds by ordering an escalation, purging the military command of anyone who disagrees, and illegally executing the guy who (supposedly) tried to kill Daddy. On a Muslim religious holiday. While onlookers chanted the name of the cleric whose U.S.-sponsored death squads have helped tear Iraq apart.

I'm going to be sick.

Polls tell us that up to 70 percent of Americans want our troops out of Iraq. But since there is no mass movement on the streets threatening to shut down business as usual in this country until our participation in this war is ended (and why not?), our only recourse as citizens has been to express ourselves at the ballot box. Which we did. And which is now being ignored, just as it would be in any other country where the whims of the Dear and Beloved Comrade Leader trump all else.

How sad (and frightening) it is that our only hope of mitigation, let alone prevention, of Bush's planned escalation rests with Congressional Democrats who have already pledged not to use their only weapon -- the blocking of budget requests -- to interfere with Bush's war. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi can (correctly) blow all the hot air they like about what a horrible idea Bush's escalation is, but unless they and their colleagues back it up with legislative action, their words and press conferences and letters to the White House are meaningless posturing.

The most repugnant piece of this -- aside from the death of American democracy and the additional deaths of more U.S. soldiers and, no doubt, many thousands more Iraqis -- is that the Bush "surge," like every single other aspect of his Iraq policies over the last five years, is solely a PR campaign designed for American audiences. It doesn't matter that it will be militarily counterproductive and deadly. Trying to resuscitate poll numbers here is apparently far more important than living, breathing human beings there. Or, in the longer run, national security, the ability of our military to defend against genuine threats, or America's standing in the world.

In this case, the Rovian "product" is a New! Improved! War in Iraq!, and the feel-good product rollout began with the execution of Saddam, expedited so that it would come just before New Year's Day: out with the old, in with the new, get it? Next, replace those annoying old generals who think escalating U.S. troop presence in Iraq is clinically insane with some new, agreeable apparatchiks, and this week, voila! The big product launch. Full color ads to follow.

The question is, why bother? The American public has seen this all before, and isn't buying. And who cares what the public thinks, anyway? Bush will never run for office again, and legislators and presidential aspirants in both parties are generally running from this stunt as fast as they can. In the end, Bush is only amusing himself. Apparently, in Dubya's Democracy 2.0, that's enough.

Meanwhile, the Bush rollout strategy, like every other time before, has made things infinitely worse, in Iraq and around the world. The Saddam lynching was a particularly disgraceful stunt. The hanging of Saddam Hussein was, in both the near and long terms, a costly exercise in vanity for a White House that controlled every step of the farce that was Saddam's trial, sentencing, and death.

Some of those reasons have been mentioned -- in passing -- in American media. Most have not. They include:
· The timing of the execution for Eid, a holiday celebrated by all Muslims as a time of peace, joy, and reconciliation. By carrying out his act of vengeance at this time, Bush managed to insult and enrage Muslims around the world. And, no doubt, recruit more than a few new jihadists.
· It's not easy to turn a brutal, hated ex-dictator into a region-wide martyr. Dubya just accomplished it.
· Because the U.S. has consistently (and wrongly) held that the Sunni insurgency is motivated by loyalty to Saddam, as loathed as the ex-dictator was, his execution became a stand-in; Sunnis saw not Saddam but themselves as the targets of Bush's lynching. Way to pour gasoline on the fire, guys.
· Saddam's trial was in gross violation of Iraqi, American, and international norms. It was a kangaroo court, set up with American rather than Iraqi structures (e.g., adversarial prosecutor and defense teams) and controlled at every point by the U.S. embassy. In other words, we invaded a country -- illegally and without provocation -- and now, to compound the crime, have arbitrarily executed its leader.
· The deaths Saddam was "convicted" of were actually carried out within the Iraqi legal system. After a plot against Saddam's life, 152 people were tried as accomplices in a preordained legal proceeding, and then executed. In other words, Saddam was executed in exactly the same capricious way as his victims were, an "irony" lost on no Iraqi (or other Muslim). Nice advertisement for American democracy. (Oh, never mind. We don't do that any more.)
· The glee with which the execution was carried out -- by loyalists of Moktada al-Sadr, the radical anti-American Shiite cleric who the U.S. has inexplicably allowed to seize control of much of the country -- and the leaked video of the hanging underscored the barbarity of this lynching in particular. One result: an enormous global backlash against capital punishment. The scheduled execution of two more Saddam aides last Thursday has been postponed due to "international pressure," and Italy, a new Security Council member, has introduced a measure in the U.N. General Assembly calling for a global halt to executions. The unmistakable subtext is widespread global revulsion over America's barbarity.

All this for a product rollout. And so George W., who always enjoys a good execution, could avenge his Daddy.

Now, Junior is in the process of thumbing his nose at Daddy's advisors and trying to prove that Daddy was wrong for not invading Iraq in 1991. In the process, he has so completely divorced himself from reality that it makes one yearn for the days when Richard Nixon was walking the halls and talking with paintings. Unlike Bush's chats with God (or whomever is providing those voices in his head), at least the paintings weren't talking back, let alone directing a war effort in defiance of an overwhelming majority of military experts, the political establishment, and the American public. (That was Kissinger's job.)

Rather than Nixon, the better analogy for Bush's Iraq behavior is the last years of Mao Zedong. Mao's Iraq was the Cultural Revolution, a successful gambit to maintain his grip on power (as Bush did in 2004) that threw his country into chaos and resulted in the deaths of countless millions of Chinese. As the country unraveled, Mao staved off a number of challenges to his policies, including what was probably a coup attempt by his designated successor, Lin Biao, in 1971. As Mao's health declined, various factions, including the more radical elements Mao had increasingly surrounded himself with, vied for power. The Cultural Revolution didn't officially end until Mao's death in 1976 and the expulsion of the radicals, led by the so-called Gang of Four. (Think Cheney et al.)

Mao, in other words, wielded absolute power, was oblivious to the real-life consequences of his policies, was surrounded by acolytes, and was impervious to criticisms from even his closest allies. As a result, he is today thought of as one of the great butchers of the 20th century, and these days is rarely mentioned even by the government he founded and ran for 27 years. So how appalling is it that his story now seems so vaguely familiar?

In a parliamentary system -- the kind most of the world's democracies outside the U.S. use -- Bush would have been expelled from office two months ago. Had that somehow not happened, his "surge" plan would surely provoke a vote of no confidence, and at this point his government would collapse.

But instead, we live in the United States, with a chief executive who believes in his own unlimited "unitary" power and a single "opposition" party that rarely provides any true opposition. How many more Iraqis, and Americans, will die as a result? Or, as Emma Goldman noted nearly a century ago: "Poor as we are in democracy, how can we give it to the world?"

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Matthew Shepard Online Resources – Religious Right Hate Speech
http://www.hatecrime.org/subpages/hitler/hitler.html

Religious Right Hate Speech
http://www.hatecrime.org/subpages/hatespeech/hate.html

Hitler Was A Christian
http://www.evilbible.com/hitler_was_christian.htm

Jesus and Hitler
http://zeppscommentaries.com/Religious/jesusnhitler.htm

Crossroad – Kjos Ministries
http://www.crossroad.to/

Community – True Truths
http://www.truetruths.com/COMMUNITY.htm

The Most Famous Christian of the 20th Century
http://www.somareview.com/blogcomment.cfm?datekey=20050808

Hitler’s Christianity
http://www.nobeliefs.com/speeches.htm

Nazi Photos
http://nobeliefs.com/nazis.htm

Hitler’s Religious Beliefs & Fanaticism
http://nobeliefs.com/hitler.htm
Hitler: The Christian Evangelist
http://www.jews-for-allah.org/messianic-jews/christianhistorywithjews/hitler.htm

Adolf Hitler’s Positive Christianity
http://atheism.about.com/b/a/209954.htm

Hitler & Christian Nationalism: Nazi’s Program of Positive Christianity
http://atheism.about.com/od/adolfhitlernazigermany/p/NaziChristian.htm

The American Religious Right
http://www.webpan.com/dsinclair/rright.html

Hitler – Christian, Atheist, or neither?
http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/mischedj/ca_hitler.html

Was Hitler A Christian?
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhitlerchristian.html

What’s Wrong For America Is The Christian Right
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/1818/3_1ChristianRight.htm

Adolf Hitler, Nazi Germany: Christian Nationalism, Anti-Semitism
http://atheism.about.com/od/adolfhitlernazigermany/Adolf_Hitler_Nazi_Germany_Christian_Nationalism_AntiSemitism.htm

American Fascists
http://www.calendarlive.com/books/bookreview/cl-bk-wiener7jan07,0,7107958.htmlstory

Creationism versus Scientific Evolution Theory: Atheist Morality
http://www.creationtheory.org/Morality/Hitler.shtml

The Christian Right
http://www.guerillastickers.com/christian_right.htm

Repressed gay, meth-snorting preachers would really go for a hot stud – Jesus, eh?
Can you prove that Zeus does not exist? Of course not. And yet, just imagine if we lived in a society where people spent tens of billions of dollars proclaiming the gods of Mount Olympus, where the government spent billions more in tax subsidies for pagan temples, where elected officials did their best to impede medical research out of deference to The Iliad and The Odyssey. This would be a horrific misappropriation of our material, moral, and intellectual resources. And yet that is exactly the society we are living in. -Sam Harris in "Letter to a Christian Nation." (here)

How can you vote Republican AND be a Christian? You'd have to be in favor of torture, incarceration without charge or trial, wars started under false pretenses, stuffing the pockets of the rich, and causing suffering to the poor. Is that what you want? None of that bears much resemblance to Jesus' teachings, does it? I just don't get it, Christians. Do you ever open your Bibles and read them, or is it just too much trouble? Too busy worshipping in your mega-churches?
Maybe you can clue me in to the truth of your ways.email me, Christians. Enlighten me.brandonqwerty@hotmail.com
Then, get your nose out of Leviticus and read this article: Christ Among the Partisans Then Take Your Sorry Christian Ass to "Jesus Camp"
Christian Republican Values? This is what Christian Republican "values" look like: torture and sexual perversion.
Real Family Values Video: "When the President Talks to God" Nice Graph Showing How Idiotic Christians Have Put Us (almost) Last In Science Insanity Defense for Nutball Christians Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster Mark Twain on the Bible Cool U.S./Christian Flag Here!Extreme Testimonies Here! Official "God" FAQ" Site Bible Thumpers Thump Their Kids
Dear Christians: time to take your religion back. It's being run by people that would make Jesus throw up. Like the morons in Kansas who asked that the definition of science in their science books NOT include these words: "...a search for natural explanations of observable phenomena." Hide your head in the sand. (here)
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts."Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, author, Nobel laureate (1872-1970)"When the theologian governed the world, it was covered with huts and hovels for the man, palaces and cathedrals for the few...the poor were clad in rags and skins--they devoured crusts, and gnawed bones. The day of science dawned, and...there is more of value in the brain of an average man of today--of a master mechanic, of a chemist, of a naturalist, of an inventor, than there was in the brain of the world four hundred years ago.
These blessings did not fall from the skies. These benefits did not drop from the outstretched hands of priests. They were not found in cathedrals or behind altars--neither were they searched for with hold candles. They were not discovered by the closed eyes of prayer, nor did they come in answer to superstitious supplication. They are the children of freedom, the gifts of reason, observation and experience--and for them all, man is indebted to man." Ingersoll's essay "God and the Constitution."
Real Family Values: A letter to the Minneapolis Star/Tribune 10/04/06REAL FAMILY VALUESThey're not Dobson'sAs an ordained member of the clergy, I read with great interest James Dobson's suggestion that Minnesotans vote for family values (Star Tribune, Oct. 4). I certainly agree.With the Republicans controlling the House, Senate and the White House for much of the past six years, we have benefited from efforts to legislate the support of torture, spy on U.S. citizens, allow Vice President Dick Cheney's Halliburton to rip off billions of tax dollars, eviscerate our environmental protections, spurn the survivors of Katrina, demonize healthy dissent, discredit the intelligence reports from our own agencies, and support the clandestine operation of hidden prison camps that are definitely a reflection of values that most Minnesotans reject.Those who support tax cuts for the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans while cutting student aid, housing for the homeless, education programs for children with special needs, and veterans benefits certainly are violating true family values.Those who formulate lies to send our sons and daughters to war are not living a moral life. Those who cover up corruption and deception on such a massive scale are not following the way of Jesus Christ.With leadership from the likes of Duke Cunningham, Newt Gingrich, Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff, Bob Ney and now Mark Foley, we need to elect men and women who reflect true Christian morals.From "The Speeches of Adolph Hitler Vol. 1"
"The national government will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests. It will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality. Today Christians stand at the head of our country.We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit. We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theatre, and in the press--in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of liberal excess during the past few years." (more here)
(How about Scientology?)
Read how Noah got dinosaurs on the Ark! (here)
(OK, here's your choice: Heaven or Hell. Heaven, right? Wrong! In Hell you get to hang out with atheists and non-Christians like George Harrison, the Dalai Lama, Jean-Paul Sarte, Bertrand Russel, Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon. In Heaven you're sitting on cold metal folding chairs at a church basement table with Jerry Falwell, Pat Buchanan, Pat Robertson, and Tammy Faye Bakker eating cold tuna-fish casserole. Your choice!) Christian Reconstructionism: Be Very Afraid Force Ministries: Be Even More Afraider God's Plan for Amerika Unintelligent Design What Would Galileo Do?Slavery: In Accord With Christianity, sort of Gay: Satan?Satan: Microsoft?Pentecostals: Head Injury?Calling Sen. Houdini!Onward Christian Soldiers !Hitler and Christianity Fun Quotes What Would Jesus Do?Don't Pray? No School 4 U!Have a Nice Armageddon!Gay Plague Nice Religion More God In Government, Please Gotta Have Faith International Condoms International Family Planning No Damn References to Sex Oh No, It's the Bible!
Links We LikeA Fine Reply to Dr. Laura Schlesinger's Homophobia Here Theocracy Watch God Hates Shrimp (It's the Bible's Holy Word!)Bush's War Against Women Founding Fathers Christian? Not Exactly..
Thomas Jefferson was not a Christian. He was a Deist.
God's Plan for America
Arnold Guyot, a nineteenth-century scientist and professor of geology at Princeton University, noted that God had arranged the structure of the earth to assure that the Chain of Christianity would move not south into Africa or east into Asia but westward into Europe. That which originated in Asian and developed in Europe has had its greatest fulfillment in America. Now, in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, travel and climatic barriers are being conquered by air travel and air-conditioning. It appears that the internal preparation is taking place so that the Chain of Liberty and all its external blessings might continue their westward march from America around the globe. (here)Galileo: Intelligently Designed?The Holy Office found Galileo "vehemently suspected of heresy" for "having held and believed the doctrine which is false and contrary to the Sacred and Divine scriptures, that the Sun is the center of the world and does not move from east to west and that the Earth moves and is not the center of the world." Galileo was shown the Inquisition's instruments of torture. Galileo then, in his hand-written statement, recanted, saying he "abjured" any such beliefs. "I curse and detest the said errors and heresies and will never again say nor assert in speaking or writing such things." The trial of Galileo was a terrible wielding of ideology and power against science and open inquiry. The effect of the trial and of the imprisonment was to put a total stop to the scientific tradition in the Mediterranean. From that point on the Scientific Revolution moved to Northern Europe. From The Ascent of Man J. Bronowski(Read the text of the accusations against him here!) Slavery: A Life of "Plenty" According to a Christian SchoolStudents at one of the area's largest Christian schools are reading a controversial booklet that critics say whitewashes Southern slavery with its view that slaves lived "a life of plenty, of simple pleasures."Leaders at Cary Christian School say they are not condoning slavery by using "Southern Slavery, As It Was," a booklet that attempts to provide a biblical justification for slavery and asserts that slaves weren't treated as badly as people think.Principal Larry Stephenson said the school is only exposing students to different ideas, such as how the South justified slavery. He said the booklet is used because it is hard to find writings that are both sympathetic to the South and explore what the Bible says about slavery."You can have two different sides, a Northern perspective and a Southern perspective," he said.Some book excerpts:* "Slavery as it existed in the South was not an adversarial relationship with pervasive racial animosity. Because of its dominantly patriarchal character, it was a relationship based upon mutual affection and confidence." (page 24)* "Slave life was to them a life of plenty, of simple pleasures, of food, clothes, and good medical care." (page 25)* "But many Southern blacks supported the South because of long established bonds of affection and trust that had been forged over generations with their white masters and friends." (page 27)* "Nearly every slave in the South enjoyed a higher standard of living than the poor whites of the South -- and had a much easier existence." (page 30) (here)Gays: Satan's Evil Spawn? Or Not?Percentage of the 958 same-sex unions granted to Vermont residents since July 2000 that have since been dissolved: 3Percentage of U.S. heterosexual marriages that are dissolved within five years: 20 (here)Product Support Question: Satan on Screen!
John Debney, composer of the music for Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ said that Satan kept appearing on his computer screen while he was writing the score for the film. "I got really mad and I told Satan to manifest himself and I said, 'Let's go our into the parking lot and let's go...' I knew that this was war." (here) Pentecostals: Head Injury?
Two preachers grounded a flight leaving Buffalo, New York, after they frightened passengers by declaring the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were a good reason to pray, officials said. One preacher told fellow passengers as the Continental Airlines plane taxied down the runway, "Your last breath on earth is the first one in heaven as long as you are born again and have Jesus in your heart," according to FBI spokesman Paul Moskal. Passengers on the Wednesday flight to Newark, New Jersey told a flight attendant, who alerted the plane's captain, officials said. The captain turned the plane around. "They were sincere in their beliefs and were not malicious," Moskal said by telephone from Buffalo. "In the context of 9/11 it may not have been the best way to promote their religion."The two Pentecostal ministers were questioned by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and later released and put on another flight, the spokesman said. They were traveling to attend a convention in Baltimore, Maryland. (here)Onward Christian Politicians!Calling Sen. Houdini!"People viewing this thought they were witnessing a séance or an exorcism as they watched these people move about the chamber." Checks & Balances, the online state politics newsletter, on May 3, describing the scene in the Senate chamber as Minnesota state Sen. Michele Bachmann led supporters of her proposed amendment banning gay marriage to the unoccupied desks of senators who oppose her amendment. They stood and prayed over each desk.Onward Christian Soldiers!Lt. Gen. William Boykin, the moron who, last year said, "We're a Christian nation, and the enemy is a guy named Satan" is still head of military intelligence at the Pentagon. Question: If we're looking to extract intelligence from prisoners, and they're definitely in the service of Satan, how do pliable Christian soldiers treat their subjects? Pictures, anyone?Senators were told on May 11 that Boykin "briefed a top Pentagon civilian official last summer on ways military interrogators could gain more intelligence from Iraqi prisoners." Anybody think he brought a dog's leash to the meeting?Fun Quotes"Their innards and entrails gushed to the desert floor, and as those around them turned to run, they too were slain, their blood pooling and rising in the unforgiving brightness of the glory of Christ." (from Tim LaHaye and Jerry P. Jenkins' 12th book in the "Left Behind" series.)"If a gay man ever looks at me like that, I'm going to kill him and tell God he died." --Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart (here) "The trouble with our Texas Baptists is that we do not hold them under water long enough." William Brann, Texas newspaperman (here)
"If English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it ought to be good enough for the children of Texas."" (Republican Governer Ma Ferguson of Texas regarding bilingual education initiatives) (here)
Pat Robertson asks his good buddy God to remove 3 (unnamed) members of the U.S. Supreme Court so they can be replaced by conservatives. "We ask for miracles in regard to the Supreme Court," Robertson said on the Christian Broadcasting Network's "The 700 Club." (here) It didn't work.Asked asked if judges were a more serious threat than terrorists, Robertson responded, “It depends on how you look at culture. If they look over the course of 100 years, I think the gradual erosion of the consensus that's held our country together is probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings. (here)
Robertson also said the widespread practice of homosexuality "will bring about terrorist bombs, it'll bring earthquakes, tornadoes and possibly a meteor.'' Robertson has twice attempted to divert hurricanes by prayer from Virginia Beach, Florida, where he has his headquarters. Both times the hurricanes slammed squarely into Virginia Beach. (here)
"Our culture is superior because our religion is Christianity." Pat Buchanan (more here)
"I hope to see the day when, as in the early days in our country, we won't have any public schools. The churches will ha be taken them over again and Christians will be running them. We must never allow our children to forget that this is a Christian nation."--The Reverend Jerry Falwell (here)
"Well you know what I knew, that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God, and his was an idol." --Evangelical Christian Lieutenant-General William G Boykin, recalling speaking to a Muslim fighter in Somalia, addressing church congregations in full uniform. (here)(Regarding Boykin) "...it sounded like something that got through the morning e-mail spam filter. 'Click here if you want your God to be three inches bigger.'" --Ellen Goodman"Here's a fact I couldn't find anywhere in George W. Bush's $1.5 billion plan to prop up American marriage: The pro-Bush red states, especially those in the rural South, have a far higher divorce rate than Al Gore's blue states." Columnist Ellis Henican in Newsday (here)Scalia/God/Government"Courts have gone overboard in keeping God out of government," Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said at a religious ceremony in Fredericksburg, Va. He said the constitutional wall between church and state has been misinterpreted by the Supreme Court and lower ones. (here) What would Jesus do -- in the time he'd have?By Frank ReillyMinneapolis Star Tribune
The religious pop culture question "What would Jesus do?" has been pressed into service for so many causes, and has yielded so many predictable answers, that many of us long ago grew tired of it. And now comes the war on Iraq, an event that has raised the question with unique urgency. All Christians, and all those who have to live with them, should want to know as clearly as possible what Jesus would do: before the war, during it, and after its completion. We should face the truth, and in its light face the future.The truth is that Jesus would die. He would be killed, probably executed. As a terrorist. By one side or the other.The Jesus of history was a Palestinian Jew, a Galilean peasant. He hailed from the poorest part of a land occupied by the world's great superpower. In his 30s, he spent some time as the disciple of a radical nationalistic and religious zealot called John the Baptist. Then he became a wandering preacher, exorcist and healer, setting out to change his world.Jesus told whoever would listen that the kingdom of God was coming. It would belong, he said, not to the rich, the powerful and the well-connected, but to those who almost certainly were his audience: the desperately poor, the powerless and the outcasts. People struggling to survive. He proclaimed what one scholar calls "a kingdom of nuisances and nobodies."The message of Jesus was neither openly anti-Roman nor directly anti-Jewish establishment, and apparently nonviolent. But it was incredibly revolutionary. Proclaiming a new world order brought about by God, he implicitly repudiated all religious and political power. He also had little success, getting few others to believe that what he proclaimed and stood for could become reality.So he went to Jerusalem, the seat of power, at Passover: a time of year when the city was flooded by pilgrims, and the guardians of the Roman Occupation were intent on crowd control. Visiting the Temple, he became outraged at what struck him as a moneymaking tourist trap run by religion vendors. By men who collaborated with the occupation. He acted up, caused a scene, and proclaimed that God would bring the building down. He was arrested by the Romans, accused and quickly convicted of making terroristic threats, and hung up to die a horrible death as an example to the people. The last place such a Jesus could be found today would be in the White House or in a Baghdad palace, either as ruler or adviser. He would not be a military leader, or a soldier. He would not fall in line with the wartime policy of any political power, or support the troops of either side. He would be one of the poor, the oppressed and the marginalized; or at least someone who believed that God is on their side. He would consider religious and political power at best irrelevant; at worst, something getting in God's way.This Jesus would be dead before this war even began, executed in Baghdad for a show of rage. He would be killed during it, in this country or elsewhere, with or without a trial, for inciting a riot during an antiwar protest. He would be assassinated after the war, somewhere in Iraq, for crying out that the powerful among his own people, collaborators with the American Occupation, were standing on the necks of the poor. Our world is filled with people who do what they want, or what they think they need to do, and try to tell themselves and us that it is what Jesus would do. Even if they are Jesus' kind of people -- poor, oppressed and marginalized -- they can be mistaken.And they can be right even if they are rich, powerful and well-connected. But for them it is especially challenging. They must be able to show themselves and us that they are with somebody totally unlike them, somebody who could consider them at best irrelevant, at worst in God's way. Somebody who would die opposing what to them comes naturally and seems right. Those who have planned, begun, and now direct the war on Iraq, and who claim allegiance to Jesus, must accept the challenge.
Don't Pray? Get Lost!
NY TimesGeorge Bush promised to revolutionize public education when he signed the No Child Left Behind Act. But his failure to finance the law properly has discouraged recession-strapped states from embracing it fully. His administration has further endangered the reform by emphasizing peripheral parts of the law that win points from religious conservatives while ignoring vital provisions. The Department of Education seems more interested in promoting prayer in the schools — and giving religious groups access to federal education dollars — than in pursuing the most crucial part of the reform, which is providing every child with a "highly qualified" teacher by 2006. The federal government took the unusual step of warning schools that get federal aid for the poor that they could lose that money if they did not permit students to exercise "constitutionally protected prayer." (here)
Armageddon! Hurray!By BILL KELLER (NYT) Two weeks ago, a group of senior intelligence officials in the Defense Department sat for an hour listening to a briefing by a writer who claims -- I am not making this up -- that messages encoded in the Hebrew text of the Old Testament provide clues to the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden. One of the officials told me that they had agreed to meet the writer, Michael Drosnin, author of a Nostradamus-style best seller, without understanding that he was promoting Biblical prophecy. Still, rather than shoo him away, they listened politely as he consumed several man-hours of valuable intelligence-crunching time. Apparently he has given similar briefings to top officials of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency. (here)
Heifers for the End-time
U.S. Christian fundamentalists are attempting to breed a "red heifer" to sacrifice in order to hasten the Apocalypse and return of Jesus. (here)Fix Me, Jesus
Minneapolis Star/Tribune -- The Bush administration asked Jerry Thacker, a Pennsylvania marketing consultant who has characterized AIDS as the "gay plague," to serve on the Presidential Advisory Commission on HIV and AIDS.
Thacker, a former Bob Jones University employee, has described homosexuality as a "deathstyle" rather than a lifestyle and asserted that "Christ can rescue the homosexual." (here)Christianity vs Islam
(Molly Ivins) Ken Adelman, a member of Bush's Defense Policy Board announced "The more you examine Islam, the more militaristic it seems. After all, its founder, Mohammed, was a warrior, not a peace advocate like Jesus."
Another member of the Pentagon advisory board, Eliot Cohen, says, "Nobody would like to think that a major world religion has a deeply aggressive and dangerous strain in it." Rev. Jerry Falwell called Mohammed "a terrorist," Rev. Franklin Graham said Islam is "evil" and so forth.
Let's see, where does that leave Christianity, the religion of peace and love, founded by the Prince of Peace? Among the more notable Christian crimes were the unbearably bloody Crusades, the Thirty Years War, the Inquisition, innumerable pogroms, regular slaughter of Protestants, counter-slaughter by Protestants, genocide against Native Americans (featuring biological warfare), slavery, the Holocaust, ethnic cleansing, Northern Ireland ... and the list goes on and on and on. (here)
God/Government
House job training bill would allow religion to be reason for not hiringAssociated PressWASHINGTON, D.C. -- Religious groups that receive federal funds to provide job training services could refuse to hire workers with different beliefs under legislation the House passed.It is part of the reauthorization of the 1998 Workforce Investment Act, which grants $6.6 billion in job training programs and services to more than 19 million people through One-Stop Career Centers. They are federal, state and local partnerships.That law now prohibits religious groups that receive grants from discriminating in hiring based on religion; Republicans removed the provision in the new plan. (here)Gotta Have Faithby Paul Krugman/New York Times
The media were shocked, shocked to discover that prominent Republicans have a soft spot for segregation — something that was obvious long before Mr. Lott inserted his foot in his mouth. One of these years they'll be equally shocked to discover that prominent Republicans have a soft spot for theocracy.
Last spring Tom DeLay told a church group that: "Only Christianity offers a way to live in response to the realities that we find in this world — only Christianity." He also said he was on a mission from God to promote a "biblical worldview" in American politics.
By the way, one piece of that biblical worldview involves scientific education. After the Columbine school shootings, Mr. DeLay suggested that the tragedy had occurred "because our school systems teach our children that they are nothing but glorified apes who have evolutionized out of some primordial mud." (here)Guns don't kill people; Charles Darwin kills people. (full article here) International Agendas
New York Times
At an international conference on population that was held in Thailand, the United States said it would withhold $34 million for United Nations programs because some promote birth control. (here)
Amount the U.S. withheld from the U.N. Population Fund last year, citing links to forced abortions in China: $34,000,000. Months after the State Department had cleared the U.N. of such connections that the funds were withheld nonetheless:3 (here)
The Secret War on CondomsBy NICHOLAS D. KRISTOFOver the last few years conservative groups in President Bush's support base have declared war on condoms, in a campaign that is downright weird — but that, if successful, could lead to millions of deaths from AIDS around the world.
I first noticed this campaign last year, when I began to get e-mails from evangelical Christians insisting that condoms have pores about 10 microns in diameter, while the AIDS virus measures only about 0.1 micron. This is junk science (electron microscopes haven't found these pores), but the disinformation campaign turns out to be a far-reaching effort to discredit condoms, squelch any mention of them in schools and discourage their use abroad.
"The only absolutely guaranteed, permanent contraception is castration," one Catholic site suggests helpfully. Hmmmm. You first.
Then there are the radio spots in Texas: "Condoms will not protect people from many sexually transmitted diseases." A report by Human Rights Watch quotes a Texas school official as saying: "We don't discuss condom use, except to say that condoms don't work."
Last month at an international conference in Bangkok, U.S. officials demanded the deletion of a reference to "consistent condom use" to fight AIDS and sexual diseases. So what does this administration stand for? Inconsistent condom use?
Then there was the Condom Caper on the Web site of the Centers for Disease Control. A fact sheet on condoms was removed and, eventually, replaced by one that emphasized that they may not work.
"The Bush administration position basically condemns people to death by H.I.V./AIDS," said Adrienne Germain, president of the International Women's Health Coalition. "And we're talking about tens of millions of people."
One study by the University of California at Berkeley found condom distribution to be astonishingly cost-effective, costing just $3.50 per year of life saved. In contrast, antiretroviral therapy cost almost $1,050.
Yet the U.S. is now donating only 300 million condoms annually, down from about 800 million at the end of the first President Bush's term. Consider Botswana, which has the highest rate of H.I.V. infection in the world — 39 percent of adults. According to figures in a report on condoms by Population Action International, the average man in Botswana gets less than one condom per year from international donors.
In the time it has taken to read this column, 28 people have died of AIDS, including 5 children. An additional 49 people have become infected. It's imperative that we get over our squeamishness, accept that condoms are flawed but far better than nothing, recognize that condoms no more cause sex than umbrellas cause rain, and ensure that couples in places like Botswana get more than one condom per year. (here)CONDEMNING CONDOMS: In a comprehensive report prepared for Rep. Henry Waxman, last updated in November 2003, the Administration's manipulation of scientific information for political purposes is considered in great detail. One of the most disturbing examples: suppressing and distorting the truth about condom use. In October 2002, the CDC altered a fact sheet on condom use – removing a section on proper condom use, emphasizing failure rates and removing evidence that sex education does not lead to increased sexual activity. (here)
U.S. Raises Abortion Issue At Conference On Families New York Times Taking its fight against abortion overseas, the Bush administration opened a sharp debate over a landmark family-planning agreement during a United Nations conference, angering several of its allies, European and Asian diplomats said.
The United States has threatened to withdraw its support for a 1994 family-planning agreement reached in Cairo that called for bringing population growth under control by improving the legal rights and economic status of women, as well as broadly expanding access to health care.
Administration officials contend that some phrases in the Cairo agreement--including "reproductive health services" and "reproductive rights"--can be construed as promoting abortion.
The battle in Bangkok began on Wednesday, the first day, when some delegations moved for a consensus reaffirmation the Cairo agreement--as United Nations conferences have done at least seven times in the past. When the United States objected, a heated debate over the meaning of consensus ensued, with delegates searching for competing definitions in separate dictionaries.
Over the next two days, American officials objected repeatedly to any efforts to move the discussion away from their concerns, and spoke at length about the dangers of abortion and the effectiveness of "natural" family planning methods, participants said. (article here)
U.S. Revises Sex Information, and a Fight Goes On
New York Times The National Cancer Institute, which used to say on its Web site that the best studies showed "no association between abortion and breast cancer," now says the evidence is inconclusive.
A Web page of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention used to say studies showed that education about condom use did not lead to earlier or increased sexual activity. That statement, which contradicts the view of "abstinence only" advocates, is omitted from a revised version of the page.
Critics say those changes, far below the political radar screen, illustrate how the Bush administration can satisfy conservative constituents with relatively little exposure to the kind of attack that a legislative proposal or a White House statement would invite.
Fourteen House Democrats, including Henry A. Waxman of California, senior minority member of the House Government Reform Committee, have written to Tommy G. Thompson, secretary of health and human services, charging that the new versions "distort and suppress scientific information for ideological purposes."
Gloria Feldt, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said the new statement on abortion and breast cancer "simply doesn't track the best available science." "Scientific and medical misinformation jeopardizes peoples' lives," Ms. Feldt said, adding that any suggestion of a connection between abortion and cancer was "bogus."
The earlier statement, which the National Cancer Institute removed from the Web in June after anti-abortion congressmen objected to it, noted that "recent large studies" showed no connection. In particular, it approvingly cited a study of 1.5 million Danish women that was published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 1997. That study, the cancer institute said, found that "induced abortions have no overall effect on the risk of breast cancer."
The Danish research, praised by the American Cancer Society as "the largest, and probably the most reliable, study of this topic," is not mentioned in the government's recent posting, which says the cancer institute will hold a conference next year to plan further research.
Dorie Hightower, a press officer at the cancer institute, attributed the revision to the institute's periodic review of fact sheets "for accuracy and scientific relevance." Asked whether the institute now thought that the Danish study failed on either count, Ms. Hightower said no. But she said there was no scientist available to explain the change.
The new site also omits a passage on sex education and condom use that appeared in the earlier document. "Studies of specific sex education programs," the earlier version said, "have shown that H.I.V. education and sex education that included condom information either had no effect upon the initiation of intercourse or resulted in delayed onset of intercourse."
In an interview, Dr. David Fleming, the disease control centers' deputy director for science, defended the new version. "We try as hard as possible," Dr. Fleming said, "to state objectively what is known about condom efficacy without nuancing language beyond what is supported by the science."
The letter to Secretary Thompson from House Democrats said that by alteration and deletion, the disease control agency "is now censoring the scientific information about condoms it makes available to the public" in order to suit abstinence-only advocates. And it said the breast cancer document amounted to nothing more than "the political creation of scientific uncertainty."
"Information that used to be based on science," the lawmakers said, "is being systematically removed from the public when it conflicts with the administration's political agenda." (full article here)
Oh No! It's the Bible!Seven of the nine founding fathers did not accept Christ's divinity. (here) Mark Twain on the Bible"...noble poetry...some clever fables; and some blood-drenched history; ...a wealth of obscenity; and upwards of a thousand lies."
(His take on the Almighty Father) "...the portrait is substantially that of a man--if one can imagine a man charged and overcharged with evil impulses far beyond the human limit; a personage whom no one, perhaps, would desire to associate with now that Nero and Caligula are dead. In the Old Testament His acts expose His vindictive, unjust, ungenerous, pitiless and vengeful nature constantly. He is always punishing--punishing trifling misdeeds with thousand fold severity; punishing innocent children for the misdeeds of their parents; punishing unoffending populations for the misdeeds of their rulers; even descending to wreak bloody vengeance upon harmless calves and lambs and sheep and bullocks as punishment for inconsequential trespasses committed by their proprietors. It is perhaps the most damnatory biography that exists in print anywhere."
Women's Rights
"...it is not permitted unto your women to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home."(1 Corinthians 14:34,35)
"...let the woman learn in silence, with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, to be in silence." (1 Timothy 2:11,12)
"..ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands..while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear." (1 Peter 3:1-7) "...but if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found in the damsel, then they shall bring the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die...so shalt thou put evil away from among you." (Deuteronomy 22:20,21)
Women and Children's Rights "Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up." (Hosea 13:16)"...this our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die, so shalt thou put evil away from among you, and all shall fear." (Deuteronomy 21:18-21) "...now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him, but all the women children that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves." (Numbers 31:17, 18)
"...withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell." (Proverbs 23:13,14)
"...and Jephthah vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering...and Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances...and her father did with her according to his vow. (Judges 11:30-39)
Gay Rights"...and if a man lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them." (Leviticus 20:13) and (Romans 1:26-32)
Slave's Rights
Then thou shalt take an awl, and thrust it through his ear unto the door, and he shall be thy servant for ever. And also unto thy maidservant thou shalt do likewise. (Deuteronomy 15:17)
No Comment
There she lusted after her lovers, who's genitals were like those of donkeys, and who's emission were like those of horses. (Ezekiel 23:20)
My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him. (Song of Solomon 5:4)
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journal 5: KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN.1.26.7

2007-05-23T20:06:00.000-07:00

Journal 5: KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN

Image © Austin ClineOriginal Poster: National ArchivesClick for full-sized Image

1.26.7

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In a Democracy, the people get the government they deserve
- Alexis de Tocqueville

Once a nation of talkers, we have turned into a nation of watchers - once doers, we have become viewers.
- Benjamin Barber

All television is children's television.
- Richard P Adler

...pop-culture, it's what people prioritize in their lives. The truth is, as much as we want to focus on politics, the American people would rather watch television. As much as we want to talk about substance, they'd rather listen to music. So I have to know what they are watching, I have to know what they are listening to, and I got to know why.
- Frank Luntz (Frontline) Political Marketer

Civil Society

Bowling Alone by Robert D. Putnam was the book that got me interested in the insidious role of TV. Here, here, and here is a taste of his argument. In his book he catalogues the many ways that Americans are becoming less, and less civically engaged. He also makes a detailed argument as to why it is TV that is the culprit (shorter version in The American Prospect).

"Americans are more socially isolated today than we were barely two decades ago."

The effects of TV on voter turnout.

Al Gore Speech on the effects of TV on Democracy

More recently, Robert Putnam has argued that even non-political organizations in civil society are vital for democracy. This is because they build social capital, trust and shared values, which are transferred into the political sphere and help to hold society together, facilitating an understanding of the interconnectedness of society and interests within it.

"...the poll found that nonvoters are not just disconnected from politics, but also from their communities. Nonvoters were less likely to trust others, to have a strong support network of friends and family or to know their neighbors than regular voters were."

Amusing Ourselves to Death

Excellent Wikipedia description of "Amusing Ourselves to Death".
Neil Postman argues that TV, by it's nature, debases political discourse. That TV, by it's very nature, turns news into amusement and politics into entertainment.

He argues, by contrast, that the invention of the printing press had huge positive effects on society, allowing science, rationality, and democracy to flower. More reading leads to better cognitive skills and vocabulary (comic books have larger vocabularies than prime time TV).

Literary Reading in Dramatic Decline, According to National Endowment for the Arts Survey (2004)

Not reading and being illiterate are in many ways the same thing. So TV, by displacing reading as our primary source of information and entertainment has in effect returned our society to a pre-literate society (at least for the majority of citizens). This explains, I think, the level of irrationality and form over substance that has taken over politics in America.

From Death of Reading:

For example, the following statements were presented to members of a mostly preliterate tribe in a remote area of the Soviet Union: "In the far north, where there is snow, all bears are white. Novaya Zembla is in the far north, and there is always snow there." Then these people were asked what color the bears are in Novaya Zembla. A typical response, as reported by Father Walter Ong in his book "Orality and Literacy": "I don't know. I've seen a black bear. I've never seen any others. Each locality has its own animals." These people could not solve this simplest of logical problems.

It is not that such preliterate people are less intelligent than we are. They simply think differently -- "situationally." When words are written down, not just enunciated, they are freed from the subjective situations and experiences ("I've seen a black bear") in which they were imbedded. Written words can be played with, analyzed, rearranged and organized into categories (black bears, white bears, places where there is always snow). The correspondences, connections or contradictions among various statements can be carefully examined. As investigators such as Ong and anthropologist Jack Goody have explained, our system of logic -- our ability to find principles that apply independently of situations -- is a product of literacy. This logic, which goes back to the Egyptians, Hebrews and Greeks, led to mathematics and philosophy and history. Among its accomplishments is our culture.

And when written words are set in print, they gain additional powers. Our sentences grow even less connected to our persons as they are spelled out in the interchangeable letters of movable type. Our thoughts grow more abstract, more removed from the situations in which we happen to find ourselves. Superstitions, biases and legendary characters like dragons and kings have difficulty fitting into these straight, precise lines of type. Charts, maps and columns of figures can be duplicated exactly for the first time. According to seminal media theorist Marshall McLuhan and historian Elizabeth Eisenstein, the scientific revolution and the Enlightenment were both products of the printing press.

TV Electorate

"These dramas capitalize on psychologists' knowledge of the powerful--and sometimes scary--influences television can have on children and adults." It is these kind of results that so many people find compelling. If only the incredible power of TV could be harnessed for good! Unfortunately shows about people acting rationally and sensibly do not make good drama. The soap operas described in the above link, in addition to teaching safe sex, also include the standard soap opera fare, people (who happen to be beautiful and rich) acting badly.

Typical of soap operas, and much of TV drama is 'indirect aggression'."They successfully spread rumours, damage relationships, distort reality, and destroy the reputations..." Sound familiar? Could this help explain the public's tolerance for political "dirty tricks" and lack of ethics?

Could this lack of ethics on TV also help explain a 30 year increase in cheating? And a 10 year youth ethics decline? Note: ethics declines have real world consequences.

* * * * *

Scientists have concluded that exposure to violent TV does indeed lead to more aggressive thoughts, attitudes and actions (see Aggression & TV). So the fact that "by the time they are 11 years old, the average American child has seen on TV some 8,000 murders, and 100,000 lesser acts of violence and brutality" means that TV has created a more aggressive electorate. Could this also help explain the fact that the homicide rate nearly doubled from the mid 1960's to the late 1970's. In reaction to this huge crime increase, the public supported policies that have lead to a 335% increase in the incarceration rate. This has brought the crime back down to the early 1960s levels, but the United States now has the highest incarceration rate in the entire world. (For graphs see Aggression & TV)

Four years ago, Bhutan, the fabled Himalayan Shangri-la, became the last nation on earth to introduce television. Suddenly a culture, barely changed in centuries, was bombarded by 46 cable channels. And all too soon came Bhutan's first crime wave - murder, fraud, drug offences.

* * * * *

A more aggressive electorate, would also logically lead to increased popularity of more aggressive ideologies and policies.

"This study examines the relationship between young people's exposure to media violence and their aggressive political opinions (APO), which were defined as support for positions that involve forceful resolution to social or political issues."

* * * * *

TV Legitimizing Torture and disregarding civil rights: "Sadly, for decades the media model for a hero has been the rogue cop who lies, cheats, steals, bashes heads and generally trashes the rights and often the bodies of guilty and innocent alike, to catch some vile thug. From James Bond, to the Beverly Hills Cop, to the latest episode of "Law and Order," media cops have little use for such archaic concepts as "constitutional rights," "your home is your castle," or "innocent until proven guilty."

"...a sly male-revenge-fantasy film in more ways than one."

Dying and living in 'COPS' America

* * * * *

Regarding the 'mean-world' syndrome, a quote from Television and its Viewers: Cultivation Theory and Research (1999) page 49: "Gerbner and Gross reasoned that a heightened and widespread sense of fear, danger and apprehension can bolster demands for greater security; this in turn can mean greater legitimacy of the authority that can promise to meet those demands, creating conditions highly conductive to repression and undermining support for civil liberties. It can also mean greater acceptance of the use of violence as an appropriate means to solve disputes of international policy... or greater habituation to violence and passivity in the face of injustice."

* * * * *

This study shows a link between TV watching and consumerism. Could this help explain the public's national spending spree?

"The real concerns of yesterday's poor have become the imagined concerns of today's rich," said Dr Hamilton. "This 'deprivation syndrome' induces politicians to distort policy to reduce the burden of taxation and increase public payments to wealthy households."

"Frey found that heavy TV viewers were both more anxious and more greedy than were light viewers on the same incomes. They were also more scared about the outside world."

* * * * *

With Americans spending over 4 hours in front of the TV every day, and with the fact that TV models aggression (both direct and indirect), and that TV encourages the contract effect, is it any wonder that Americans are far more socially isolated today than they were two decades ago? Social isolation leads to stress. Could this help explain a stressed-out public?

Excessive Alpha brainwaves, engendered by TV, bring on a feeling of passivity. Also this study shows how TV encourages apathy. Democracy does not work with a passive and apathetic populace.

Uninformed Electorate

Only one in four Americans can name more than one of the five freedoms in the First Amendment, but more than half can name at least two family members of "The Simpsons"

Our uninformed electorate - Bennett's research found that "most Americans were 'out to lunch' when it came to basic information about politics" in the most recent election year.

..young people are increasingly saying that they are learning about the campaign from comedy shows such as the Daily Show and Saturday Night Live. "But the poll finds that people who say they are learning things about politics on comedy shows don't know much about the current campaign."

How TV Teaches Stupidity

Dumbing-Down of America

As noted in Amusing Ourselves to Death, books brought about the "Age of Reason", TV on the other hand has brought about the "Age of Entertainment".

Attention-Deficit Citizenry. As Amusing Ourselves to Death points out debates, during the 1800's would last hours. The example he gave was a 7 hour debate between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas (and this was considered a short debate). Each speaker given at least one hour to speak at a time. Nowadays, debaters are allowed at most three minutes (so the audience doesn't get bored).

Generational Effects

As Robert Putnam pointed out, TV's effects differ from generation to generation. The "Greatest Generation" didn't watch any TV growing up, and was very civically engaged. The "Baby Boomer Generation" grew up with some TV (less civically engaged). And the "GenX Generation" which basically grew up on TV (apathetic and disengaged).

Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled--and More Miserable Than Ever Before (2006) Very readable sociology book. Jean Twenge argues that the children of the "Me Generation" have become the "Me Me Me Generation". Although based on solid research, she peppers the book with many quotes from TV and movies (as a reflection of today's culture).

Tuned Out: Why Americans Under 40 Don't Follow the News (2005) David Mindich finds that "In 1972, half of all college-age eligible voters participated in the presidential election; in 2000, only 32. The decline in voting in midterm elections is equally frightening: In 1974, 24 percent of eligible 18-to-24-year-olds voted; in 2002, that turnout was only 17 percent. Put another way, the 2002 figure means that for every young person who voted, five stayed home."

Youth turnout less than all other age groups - 2002 & 2004 (PDF)

..young people are increasingly saying that they are learning about the campaign from comedy shows such as the Daily Show and Saturday Night Live. "But the poll finds that people who say they are learning things about politics on comedy shows don't know much about the current campaign."

Propaganda / Political Marketing

Advertising, marketing and product placement techniques have become more and more refined and effective, and of course are being used to sell politics. As viewers tune out TV advertising more and more, marketers are turning to product placement. Notice how Al Gore was viewed much more favorably after the 2000 election when he went on Saturday Night Live, and his movie "Inconvenient Truth" came out. And of course there is Arnold Schwarzenegger, governor of California thanks to his media savvy.

Television and movies are not the only source of propaganda, but since Americans spend over 4 hours in front of the TV every day, it is the largest source. It is also the most effective source of propaganda, since TV puts the mind into a passive, receptive, alpha brain wave state.

Path to 9/11

Fake TV News: Widespread and Undisclosed

Fake News and other reasons not to watch TV news

Bush administration pays actors to pose as TV journalists

Propaganda - Wikipedia

How telegenic a candidate is, has become more important than his/her policies. During one of the first televised debates, John Kennedy was considered to have won because he looked better during the debate.

Pro-Torture Propaganda

24 Legitimizing Torture (Himmlers of Hollywood)

Softening Us Up for Torture, 24 Hours at a Time

24 as Pro Torture Propaganda - Media Matters

'24' hours of torture-loving

Is Fox's 24 an Advertisement for Torture?

24 & The Myth of the Ticking Time Bomb

Torture becoming entertainment:

Torture Movie

Torture: Just another plot device

The number of torture scenes on the networks last season grew at a rate almost double the previous two seasons.

Torture Isn't Entertainment except for fascists

Torture's Long Shadow

Cultivation Theory

TV has a huge effect on how people view society.
The result is a misinformed citizenry.

The cultivation theory asserts that heavy viewers' attitudes are cultivated primarily by what they watch on television. Gerbner views this television world as "not a window on or reflection of the world, but a world in itself" (McQuail 100). This created version of the world entices heavy viewers to make assumptions about violence, people, places, and other fictionalized events which do not hold true to real life events.

Atlantic Monthly article about George Gerbner

George Gerbner Website

More on Cultivation Theory 1

More on Cultivation Theory 2

Military use of cultivation theory

Examples Include:

The 'mean-world' syndrome 1

The 'mean-world' syndrome 2

TV Crime Reporting

CSI Effect 1

CSI Effect 2

CSI Effect 3 - scroll half way down

"Television may explain 10 percent of the belief in the paranormal."

"...found that seeing likable gay characters on shows like "Will Grace" had similar effects to knowing gays in real life. In one study, students with few or no gay acquaintances were shown 10 episodes of HBO's "Six Feet Under." Afterward, their levels of anti-gay prejudice dropped by 12 percent."

"Television viewers don’t develop their views about the president and national politics just by watching the news. New research suggests that crime dramas like NYPD Blue and Third Watch may have an influence on political attitudes as well."

Are movies, TV scaring off organ donors?

Does Watching Sex on Television Influence Teens’ Sexual Activity?

Ten troublesome trends in TV health news

Nursing & TV 1

Nursing & TV 2

Nursing & TV 3

Nursing & TV 4

Natural Environment

Pergams and another researcher set out to determine why visitation to national parks dropped 25 percent between 1987 and 2003.

Nature Conservancy President Steve McCormick said the study suggests Americans and their children in particular are losing their connection to the natural world.

Childhood pastimes are increasingly moving indoors - Free Range Kids versus Battery Cage kids

Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder (2006)

TV Station Ownership

"We paid $3 billion for these television stations. We will decide what the news is. The news is what we tell you it is." - After Monsanto Purchase

The content of the Fox News Channel is a direct outgrowth from the views held by its owner: News Corp. and CEO Rupert Murdoch. Fox News Channel was launched in 1996 "as a specific alternative to what its founders perceived as a liberal bias in the American media"

Study shows Fox News viewers misinformed about war, Iraq, WMD

The Fox News Effect

Fox News - Effect on Voting

Media Consolidation by Ted Turner

The New Media Monopoly (Paperback)

Number of corporations that control the majority of U.S. media

"The Federal Communications Commission ordered its staff to destroy all copies of a draft study that suggested greater concentration of media ownership would hurt local TV news coverage, a former lawyer at the agency says."

"Mr. Berlusconi's investment company controls Italy's three biggest private television stations. And his appointees run the public ones. Opponents complained that an Italian voter could not escape blanket coverage favorable to Mr. Berlusconi."

An Interview discussing Mr. Berlusconi's effect on democracy in Italy

China: TV Dominates Information Sources

"In Russia the state has been tightening control over media ever since president Putin came to power. National television was by far the most important target, but rather than harassing journalists and editors, the Kremlin opted for controlling the owners - a method that has proved to be fairly effective in furthering the Kremlin needs."
via Trash Your TV Blog

"More than 80 percent of Russians get their news from national television networks -- all of which have come under Kremlin control in the past five years."

"President Hugo Chávez’s decision not to renew the broadcast license of RCTV, one of this country’s oldest television stations and a frequent critic of his government, has fueled a fierce debate over whether he is stifling dissent in Venezuela as he strengthens his control of the broadcasting industry."

Other ways that TV effects democracy

- An Excellent overview article:
The Nature of Television

- Because people are getting most of their political information from the TV, politicians are forced to spend huge amounts on TV advertising. The result is politicians more, and more beholden to special interests.

- America has become a celebrity obsessed society. What are effects of millions of people emulating narcissistic celebrities ?

- A depressed society: THE EVOLUTION OF DESPAIR

- Televisions (per capita) by country

Recommended Books

Bowling Alone (2000)

Amusing Ourselves to Death (1986)
About "Amusing Ourselves to Death"

The New Media Monopoly (2004)

Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled--and More Miserable Than Ever Before (2006)

Tuned Out: Why Americans Under 40 Don't Follow the News (2005)

Television and its Viewers: Cultivation Theory and Research (1999)

Brave New World (1942)

1984 (1950)

Fahrenheit 451 (1966)

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..……………………..

Friday, September 22, 2006 If it's good enough for our kids...
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-GOP)United States SenateDear Sen. Lieberman,I bet you're still all tingly after the fundraiser Mel Sembler held for you. After all, not only is Amb. Sembler one of Our Leader's greatest fundraisers, he's also the man who pioneered some of your favorite interrogation techniques--the so-called "strong methods;" things like humiliation, beatings, and shoving things up a suspect's ass. If it wasn't for Amb. Sembler's early experiments on children like "Donald," Richard Bradbury, and little Samantha Monroe, our nation might be decades behind in the race to perfect methods for causing pain approaching, but not equal to, that experienced during organ failure. Indeed, reading accounts made by his former wards is like listening to Abu Ghraib testimony.

"Donald:"
There were an immense number of times where I was forced to urinate and defecate on myself because they basically took my bathroom privilege away. I wasn't allowed to go to the bathroom. And I witnessed a lot of other people in there ending up urinating and defecating on themselves because being in a restraint. They told you were too dangerous to get up and go to the bathroom, those who asked. If you asked to go to the bathroom, you were afraid because if you did ask, then you'd be afraid to end up getting your tooth through your lip and I had it done many times.
Bradbury:
You don't understand what they did to these kids. They put stuff up my butt.
Monroe:
...beatings, rape by a counselor, forced hunger, and the confinement to a janitor's closet in "humble pants" -- which contained weeks of her own urine, feces and menstrual blood..."It sticks inside you. It eats at your soul."
Now that your friend, Sen. McCain, has finally rolled over on Our Leader's torture bill, I expect that you'll be attending its signing at the White House, soon--at least, I hope that's the case given your support for torture in the past. You might consider inviting Ambassador Sembler along as well. It's only fitting that he be present at the moment his life's work becomes the law of the land.Heterosexually yours, Gen. JC Christian, patriotMore on Ambassador Sembler here, here, and especially here:
Only Ray Bradbury knows what documents he has found in the trash through the years, but the whole world knows that one day he found Mel Sembler's penis pump.[...]Bradbury says the pump belongs to him because the ambassador threw it away. The ambassador says it belongs to him and he wants it back.
Update: Lindsey's (Majikthise) father investigated Straight Inc. She writes about it here and here.
posted by Gen. JC Christian, Patriot 3:41 AM Report to the General (44)
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Mary's last name was Knudson

The Prince of Peace's Terrible Swift Sword

Tuesday, September 19, 2006 Middle Ground
There's a lot of talk, recently, about bipartisanship and "finding the middle ground." I often wonder what that means exactly. When I see a Joe Lieberman or a John McCain speak about bipartisanship, they usually mean that Democrats should get in line and support one of Our Leader's policies.After the last election, franco-filmmaker Michael Shea decided to travel into the Heartland to see if he could find a middle ground between his liberal views and those held by patriotic Christianists. He approached the task earnestly, knowing, as only liberals can know, that if people just sat down and discussed their differences reasonably with each other, they'd find that they shared a lot of the same basic values. Indeed, he was certain that the commonalities would outweigh the differences. He was wrong, and the film he made during his journey, Red State, documents how he finally came to the realization that there is no middle ground between the faith-based and reality-based communities.This is a dangerous film. It exposes our private views--the ones we seldom share with the unchurched--for all the world to see. It could prove to be a very powerful mobilization tool for leftists and secularists who are clever enough to share it with their friends or show it at regularly scheduled events like Drinking Liberally or conversation salons.Imagine if you will, how the French would react to the following exchange between Shea and Gladys Gill, the State Director of the Mississippi chapter of Concerned Women For America:

Mrs. Gill: I think we lost more than we gained with civil rights. I hope to see them repealed. [...]Mrs. Gill: Well I don't know where you folks were when we were trying to hang on to state's rightsShea: I was two I think.Mrs. Gill: Yeah, right Shea: In fact I was born in the year the Civil Rights Act was passed.Mrs. Gill: Yeah. Right. So you don't remember what life was like when we had liberty to do what we needed to do in our own lives.
You won't find that kind of honesty on the CWA website, because the public isn't quite ready for it. We're getting there with the help of traditionalists like George Allen and Conrad Burns, but we still have a way to go before we air these kinds of views in prime-time. The same is true of the comments Boise Republican activist Dennis Mansfield, made in the film:
Those of us who are conservatives and call Christ the king of our lives realize that we really serve a kingdom and not a democracy. In a sense we're citizens in two cultures at the same time. We are Americans, but we really realize that the longer, bigger picture, sort of the eternal picture, is that we're also citizens of a king, and his name is Christ; his name is Jesus. [...]Christ is love, but he's also the god, Jehovah, that had tons of people taken out because of their complete idolatry.
Here again, it's not time to us to fully spring Republican Jesus on the public, at least not until Our Leader makes a few more of his "crusade" speeches.So while I urge you to buy a copy of Red State to help you better understand our values, I hope you'll guard it carefully. We can't allow it to get into the hands of our domestic enemies. We haven't finished marketing the Christianist States of America. It's better to keep these kinds of views to ourselves until we're ready.
posted by Gen. JC Christian, Patriot 12:08 AM Report to the General (60)
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Monday, September 18, 2006 Joe's divine right to park where he pleases

Retail Politics
John N. NordstromDirector, Nordstrom Inc.1617 Sixth AveSeattle, WA 98101Phone: 206-628-2111Fax: 206-628-1795Dear John,Given the terrific success of Nordstrom’s stock over the last five years, I can certainly understand your decision to donate money to Washington State Initiative 920 (I-920) campaign that would repeal the State Estate Death Tax. In fact, I noticed in the most recent Public Disclosure Commission report that you have contributed a total of $75,000 to the I-920 campaign.Please don’t concern yourself, John, that Nordstrom’s customers will perceive you as a skin-flint tax dodger, or as anti-education just because I-920 will gut State revenue for education. I really believe that once your customer base understands the fine, Christian patriots that have put this campaign together, they will see that you are part of a bigger, more glorious movement.I am referring, of course, to the fact that the sponsor, campaign manager and chairman for I-920, Mr. Dennis Falk is head of the Washington State John Birch society and part of the Christian Patriot movement, as well.Since your generous contributions are now part of Mr. Falk’s salary, I think you deserve part of the credit for the resurgence of constitutionalist, survivalist, and militia organizations in Washington State. Indeed, your customers may well view you as an ambassador in the causes of the John Birch society, the Posse Comitatus , the Christian Patriots, and the larger Christian Identity movements .If I-920 passes, I think you should celebrate by marketing a commemorative line of Christian Identity merchandise in Nordstrom stores all over the country. I’m thinking things like camouflage bibles, “Soldier Jesus” bobble head dolls, and survivalist flasks with tiny metal communion cups. I think they would be a big hit with your new customer base.Your verily,Darrylhominidviews.comUpdate: Emails were bouncing, so I've put the contact information for the corporate headquarters in the header.
posted by Darryl 2:04 AM Report to the General (18)
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Sunday, September 17, 2006 Of Boobs and Bulges
Dr. OfglennInstawifeDear Dr. Ofglenn,Although I am as shocked as anyone that a woman would dare appear with a former President without first binding her breasts with an ace bandage, I think you and Ofwaterpic are missing the most important aspect of this story. Indeed, yea "heh" and "indeed," I'm amazed that it was the boobs in the photo that caught your attention rather than greater, more obvious danger displayed on either side of those iniquitous breasts.Of course, I'm referring to the crotchal bulges thrust mockingly at us by the men at each end of the Francoblogger flock. Make no mistake about it, these are not mere random packages, they are deliberate bulges, displayed to taunt and humiliate good, patriotic men like your husband and myself. And, by God, they served their purpose. The bulges haunted my dreams last night. They hunted me down in the misty recesses of my unconscious, and upon cornering me, pointed their gigantic four-inch appendages of evil at me screaming in the language of our enemy, "J' ACCUSSE, GENERAL, J' ACCUSE!"I imagine Glenn suffered similarly. I hope you now understand why he woke up in a cold sweat, shaking, crying, and demanding that you acknowledge the fact that a man's size is too often exaggerated in our culture. And I hope you answered his pleadings with kindness and understanding, because the worst is yet to come.I know, because I've been here before. The mojo of the francobulge is very powerful. Now that it has conquered our dreams, it will invade our waking thoughts, beating down our will by playing it's image on an unending loop inside our heads, until we give in and one day awaken naked on the floor of one of those bars where everyone dresses like a biker but no one owns a bike. That's when the truly hellish part begins--the self-recrimination, the doubts about orientation, and the repeated trips to Seattle or Knoxville seeking redemption from the man who spanks people with a spatula for money.So perhaps you should forget about the breasts and concentrate on Glenn. He needs you now more than ever.Heterosexually yours (in a way of which my wife, Ofjoshua, would approve).Gen. JC Christian, patriot
posted by Gen. JC Christian, Patriot 3:24 AM Report to the General (50)
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Sunday, January 21, 2007 Binge & Purge Presidency
Image © Austin ClineOriginal Poster: National ArchivesClick for full-sized Image
Critics often describe the Bush administration's conception of presidential power as involving an "Imperial Presidency," but I wonder if it might be more accurate to refer to it as the Binge & Purge Presidency. Wikipedia lists the DSM-IV-TR criteria for bulimia nervosa as consisting of binge episodes involving a "sense of lack of control," followed by "recurrent inappropriate compensatory behavior" to prevent the obvious consequences from binge eating. It also says that "[b]ulimia is often less about food, and more to do with deep psychological issues and profound feelings of lack of control."Bulimia is a serious medical condition and not something that should be taken lightly; nevertheless, I think that there are more than a few coincidental parallels between binge and purge behavior when it comes to eating and some of the "binge and purge" behavior we see on the part of the Bush presidency. Since bulimia is considered fundamentally a psychological disorder and is similar to mental illnesses like obsessive-compulsive disorder, we shouldn't be surprised to find similar patterns of behavior outside the usual context of eating and food.Recently we witnessed the administration launch a new "binge" by sending more troops into harm's way in Iraq. Now, the administration is involved in a "purge," which is the elimination of independent U.S. prosecutors who might investigate and turn up wrongdoing by some Republicans, including those in the administration. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales promises that no prosecutors were forced out for the sake of politics, but how can he be believed? He wouldn't even tell the Senate how many have left and his boss won't let the Senate (in most cases) confirm the replacements.This doesn't mean that Gonzales is lying, though — remember that he is capable of interpreting the Constitutional ban on suspending habeas corpus ("Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.") as not preventing the president from denying habeas corpus to anyone he pleases. It doesn't say "right," therefore the Constitution doesn't say that every person in the U.S., or even U.S. citizen "is assured the right of habeas corpus." If he sincerely believes that the president can deny habeas corpus to anyone at will without violating the ban on suspending habeas corpus, then he can believe anything.Psychological disorders are usually associated with a person experiencing severe distortions of reality. People suffering from bulimia and anorexia typically can't see themselves for what they really are — they perceive themselves as fat even if they are severely malnourished, let alone if they simply look normal. In the Bush administration, we shouldn't doubt that many are capable of looking at themselves and perceiving themselves as defending civil liberties even as they dismantle and undermine our rights, as expanding democracy in the Middle East even as they pave the way for new theocratic regimes, and as protecting Americans against terrorism even as they enhance the recruitment efforts of extremist groups.How many different situations can you identify where the Bush administration has launched on some sort of binge, but then shortly thereafter engaged in some sort of "inappropriate compensatory behavior" like a purge in order to either distract attention from or avoid the consequences of that binge?
posted by Austin Cline 8:00 AM Report to the General (19)
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Saturday, January 20, 2007 Department of Book Reports
Afghanistan-A Book Review of The Places In BetweenAfghanistan has always seemed a remote and mysterious place to me. I knew a little, a very little, of its history, a history that has been wrapped up with many other places and cultures, including the Greeks (Alexander stopped in while on his way to India), the Persians, the Mughuls, the British, the Russians and now ourselves. I knew that in the initial Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, Holmes was able to deduce that Watson had recently served there during the Second Afghan War. I grew up in a predominantly Jewish suburb in Los Angeles (ok, it was Encino, have your chuckle and get over it). So while in the sixth grade when an Afghani family moved there and the fraternal twins, Khan and Shari became my classmates, they seemed exotic and I was curious... I'd ask them questions about their homeland and about Islam, but they were secular Muslims, and really didn't know much about their religion and I doubt that they attended mosque. They seemed to be more interested in being adolescents, which seemed to be the right thing to be interested in. I knew it was a region that always resisted its conquerors, that the Russian attempts at subjugating the area ultimately played a large role in the fall of the Soviet Union. And I knew it was the country the U.S. invaded, driving out the Taliban, in our "search" for Bin Laden, the country where Pat Tillman, the man the Bush administration wanted to turn into a poster boy for its agenda, but inconveniently was thwarted in doing so.Fortunately, the many holes in my ignorance of Afghanistan, the Mid-East, and its cultures and peoples have been very ably filled by Rory Stewart in The Places In Between (Harvest Books $14.00) paperback. (The slide show at the site is fascinating).Stewart is an inveterate walker. Previous to his Afghan adventure, he had spent sixteen months walking across Iran, Pakistan, India and Nepal.With the fall of the Taliban, he thought he could complete his Asian sojourn by walking from Herat, on the Afghan western border near Iran, to Kabul, close to the Afghan border with Pakistan. In January of 2002, after cajoling Afghan officials, dealing with its security forces, and being told that such a walking tour was too dangerous, that he would be killed along the way if he left, Stewart did depart, becoming the new government's "first tourist". And it was dangerous. The Taliban though routed from Kabul, still controlled many areas, towns and roads. Winter was arriving and the mountainous roads could get very cold... On his way Stewart encountered tribal chieftains, Taliban, Sunnis, Sh'ia. All had stories about the Russians, the Taliban and, now, the Americans. (Although Scots, himself, he was often mistaken for being from America.)He was also adopted by a mastiff that Stewart named Babur, the first Mughal emperor of the early 16th century. Babur himself is an interesting minor character. This man had written his memoir and had followed the same route that Stewart himself planned to travel. Stewart wisely gives us excerpts from Babur's travelogue along the same path and the observations are still insightful.Stewart's own writing is graceful and clear. Though he is not sure why he is undertaking this journey, he probably express his mission best when he tells the newly installed leader in Herat, "...I am hoping to show my people what a wonderful place Afghanistan is." With an emphasis on the wonder, he succeeds.
The General here. I've asked SeattleDan and SeattleTammy to do book reports on Saturdays so that you can witness for yourself just how cunningly seditious mystery and non-fiction writerslamunistofascists can be.I've also urged them to remind readers that they can buy these books by ordering them from SeattleDan and SeattleTammy at Jackson Street Books in the hope that they'll become rich enough to afford to become Republicans.Of course, if you'd rather support a giant mega-corporation rather than a small independent book store owned by a couple of francohippies, you can order it through this Amazon link. I love Amazon, mostly because they give me a kickback when you purchase through that link, but also because I look forward to the day when they and Wal-Mart control all the book sales in our great nation. We'll all be on the same page then, by God.
posted by SeattleDan 4:57 PM Report to the General (21)
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Dinesh D'Souza caused 9/11
Dinesh D'SouzaHead Scribe, The House Of ScaifeDear Mr. D'Souza,I've been a big fan of your work since the eighties, back when you seized the English language for conservatism and made it safe to hurl racial slurs on campus once again. Needless to say, I couldn't wait to read your latest book, The Enemy At Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11. It was encouraging to see someone finally blame sexually permissive liberals for the acts of terror we experienced on that terrible day.Sadly, my respect for you was shattered today when I learned that you are a hypocrite. You betrayed yourself when you allowed a reporter to see your carpet. Its leopard print design is the same as that favored by the most morally suspect Hollywood celebrities, stars like Liz Taylor, Rip Taylor, and Twiggy. Obviously, your carpet preference serves as proof that you suffer from some twisted need to engage in all manner of unspeakable acts of perversion--acts so vile, a very disgusted Jesus commanded Saddam bin Laden to take out the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.Someday, you'll pay for your perversity. I just hope God isn't politically correct, because I want to hurl slurs down to you as you toil in Hell.Heterosexually yours,Gen. JC Christian, patriot
posted by Gen. JC Christian, Patriot 2:14 AM Report to the General (39)
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Thursday, January 18, 2007 Del. Hargrove discovers another use for his whacking stick
Frank HargroveVirginia House of DelegatesDear Delegate Hargrove,I salute you, sir. It takes a lot of courage to stand up on Martin Luther King Day and tell the brown people of your state that they just need to get over that whole slavery thing. That's especially true in these times when the white Christian male suffers from so much persecution.That act alone is enough to earn you a spot in your local heritage appreciation society's Great Hall of Kleagles. But you didn't stop there; you went on to indict the Jews for murdering Jesus. It was a shrewd move on your part. By doing so, you angered one of the Jewish delegates, causing him to accidentally betray their greatest weakness, a weakness you then immediately announced to the world: Jews have thin skin.Now that you know their weakness, you can use it against them. All you need to do is take your brown people whacker--the stick you use to beat uppity brown people when they try to drink from your water fountains or complain about the deer heads you stuff in their mail boxes--and turn it into a Jew poker, just like the ones your ancestors used in the old country. Heterosexually yours,Gen. JC Christian, patriotA helmet tip to commenter ThomasAllen.
posted by Gen. JC Christian, Patriot 12:06 AM Report to the General (50)
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Wednesday, January 17, 2007 The wussification of America
I think most of you know that I monitor Radio France to gather evidence of their sedition to use on The Great Day of the Rope. Well today, Sam Seder read the following story about Our Republican Lord and Savior and then spent the rest of his show mocking good, manly Christians like myself.
The strobe lights pulse and the air vibrates to a killer rock beat. Giant screens show mayhem and gross-out pranks: a car wreck, a sucker punch, a flabby (and naked) rear end, sealed with duct tape.Brad Stine runs onstage in ripped blue jeans, his shirt untucked, his long hair shaggy. He's a stand-up comic by trade, but he's here today as an evangelist, on a mission to build up a new Christian man -- one profanity at a time. "It's the wuss-ification of America that's getting us!" screeches Stine, 46.A moment later he adds a fervent: "Thank you, Lord, for our testosterone!"It's an apt anthem for a contrarian movement gaining momentum on the fringes of Christianity. In daybreak fraternity meetings and weekend paintball wars, in wilderness retreats and X-rated chats about lust, thousands of Christian men are reaching for more forceful, more rugged expressions of their faith.Stine's daylong revival meeting, which he calls "GodMen," is cruder than most. But it's built around the same theory as the other experimental forums: Traditional church worship is emasculating.Hold hands with strangers? Sing love songs to Jesus? No wonder pews across America hold far more women than men, Stine says. Factor in the pressure to be a "Christian nice guy" -- no cussing, no confrontation, in tune with the wife's emotions -- and it's amazing men keep the faith at all."We know men are uncomfortable in church," says the Rev. Kraig Wall, 52, who pastors a small church in Franklin, Tenn. -- and is at GodMen to research ways to reach the husbands of his congregation. His conclusion: "The syrup and the sticky stuff is holding us down." John Eldredge, a seminal writer for the movement, goes further in "Wild At Heart," his bestselling book. "Christianity, as it currently exists, has done some terrible things to men," he writes. Men "believe that God put them on earth to be a good boy."Says Christian radio host Paul Coughlin, author of "No More Christian Nice Guy": "The idea of Jesus as meek and mild is as fictitious as anything in Dan Brown's 'Da Vinci Code.'"

At one point a patriot called in and took Seder to task for defending pink-tied girlymenislamunistofascists. Seder responded by asking if the man ever felt like he was becoming a little feminized, and, well, you have to hear the call for yourself. Here it is with a few photos and video clips added for your enjoyment:http://www.airamericaradio.com/, with Sam Seder, 1.16.7

journal 6: WITHOUT A HUSBAN'.1.26.7

2007-05-23T20:02:00.000-07:00

Journal 6: WITHOUT A HUSBAN’

1.26.7

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1.15.7
Unmarried and Single Americans WeekSept. 17-23, 2006
(U. S. Census Bureau):
Single Life89.8 million Number of unmarried and single Americans in 2005. This group comprised 41 percent of all U.S. residents age 18 and older.
54%: percentage of women (in America) without a husband; single; unmarried; live without partner!
60%Percentage of unmarried and single Americans who have never been married. Another 25 percent are divorced and 15 percent are widowed.
14.9 millionNumber of unmarried and single Americans age 65 and older. These older Americans comprise 14 percent of all unmarried and single people.
86Number of unmarried men age 18 and older for every 100 unmarried women in the United States.
55 millionNumber of households maintained by unmarried men or women. These households comprise 49 percent of households nationwide.
29.9 millionNumber of people who live alone. These persons comprise 26 percent of all households, up from 17 percent in 1970.
Parenting 32% Percentage of births in 2004 to unmarried women.
12.9 million Number of single parents living with their children in 2005. Of these, 10.4 million are single mothers.
40%Percentage of opposite-sex, unmarried-partner households that include children.
672,000Number of unmarried grandparents who were caregivers for their grandchildren in 2004. They comprised nearly 3-in-10 grandparents who were responsible for their grandchildren. (Source: American FactFinder)
Unmarried Couples4.9 millionNumber of unmarried-partner households in 2005. These households consist of a householder living with someone of the opposite sex who was identified as their unmarried partner.
Dating904The number of dating service establishments nationwide as of 2002. These establishments, which include Internet dating services, employed nearly 4,300 people and pulled in $489 million in revenues.
Voters 36%Percentage of voters in the 2004 presidential election who were unmarried.
Education82% Percentage of unmarried people age 25 or older in 2004 who were high school graduates.
23%Percentage of unmarried people age 25 or older with a bachelor’s degree or more education.

Single women may hold the key to the 2006 election
By Patricia Murphy

Sara is a single 28-year-old financial analyst. Even though she has a master’s degree in public policy, she did not vote in the last election. The Texas native said that after moving among three states in six years, she had lost track not only of her polling place, but also of who was running for office.
“It was too confusing to change my registration for every election,” she said. “And I felt like I didn’t know the candidates well enough when I had just gotten to a place.”
She is among the 20 million single women who did not vote in the 2004 elections, according to the U.S. Census. But if Page Gardner has her way, single women will be the soccer moms of the 2006 elections: a desirable demographic that attracts candidate attention and resources, and most important, makes its voice heard at the polls.
Gardner, a veteran of many national races, founded Women’s Voices Women Vote in 2003 with Chris Desser, after observing the low turnout among single women in the 2000 elections--only 52 percent of single women voted compared with 69 percent of married women.
“The numbers just really jumped out at me,” said Gardner, a McLean, Va., resident.
Gardner poured over census and election data to find out more about the political and economic state of single women, as well as how to reach them. With financing from several progressive organizations, including MoveOn.org, she executed the first research and outreach campaign ever to single women.
Through phone calls and direct mail in 16 states, Gardner’s organization helped increase the number of single women voting in the 2004 presidential elections to 59 percent. But that voting block still lagged behind married women, whose participation jumped to 71 percent.
Gardner recently announced that the group will work in at least four states in the 2006 election--Pennsylviana, Ohio, Washingotn and Michigan. The unmarreid women's vote jumped 13 percent in those states in 2004, she said.
Nationwide, the number of single women living on their own has skyrocketed 87 percent in the last 20 years. The reasons include delayed marriage, steady divorce rates and wives outliving their husbands. According to Celinda Lake, a veteran pollster, winning single women and increasing their share of the electorate will be critical for Democrats to win in 2006 and 2008.
Over all, single women fall into three general categories: 47 percent have never been married, 23 percent are divorced and 23 percent are widowed. Three-fourths are over 35, with the largest group by far being baby boomers, many of whom are on the eve of their 60th birthdays.
Democratic Party insiders are taking Lake’s cue and identifying single women as a group of voters to target, comparing them to evangelical voters for the Republicans.
“Just as Karl Rove identified and mobilized a base of supporters who were natural allies for his party,” wrote Anna Greenberg, a Democratic strategist who worked for John Kerry’s presidential campaign, “single women have proven to be a reliably progressive voting block that is ripe to be mobilized by the Democrats in upcoming elections.” Greenberg's polling firm has worked closely with the group to research women on their own as a voting group.
To attract more single women to the polls, Gardner said politicians will have to demonstrate a much better understanding of who single women are and what they care about.
“Even though single women are in a lot of different circumstances, the one thing that we heard over and over was concern over their economic insecurity, the sense that they’re out there all alone,” Gardner said.
Gardner said that more than half of all single women earn less than $30,000 a year. As the only breadwinners, they are more likely to be working full-time, no matter the age of their children, and are less likely to own their own homes.
The Institute for Women’s Policy Research in Washington studies quality of life issues for single women and found that economic issues were most important, especially for single mothers. Access to health care and childcare was paramount.
Although polls show that hectic schedules, frequent moves and lack of information have kept single women away from the polls, mistrust of politicians is another key factor.
Maybe that’s because politicians haven’t been paying attention to them, said Mary Springer, founder and president of the New York-based Single Women’s Alliance Network, an advocacy group.
“There are 48 million unmarried women in America today,” she said. “Where’s the voice? Where’s the identification?”
Springer said politicians don’t speak to single women, let alone offer policies designed to benefit them.
“When a candidate gets up and talks about family, baseball and apple pie, it pulls this huge population of single women and puts them on the outside looking in,” Springer said.
“Our time is coming,” she said. “It hasn’t happened yet. But when it finally does, it can’t be stopped.”
E-mail: pmm2113@columbia.edu

Single women outpace single men as homebuyers
By Thomas F. Coleman
It may be surprising to some, but nearly half of all purchases made at Home Depot and Lowes are made by women. This may be due in part to the fact that single women now represent the fasting growing component of home buyers in the United States.
According to the National Association of Realtors, married couples were buyers in 61 percent of all housing purchases last year. Single women represented the second largest share of the market, purchasing 21 percent of homes and condos in 2005, up from 18 percent in 1997.
Single men accounted for 9 percent of residential real estate transactions. Unmarried couples were involved in 7 percent of housing purchases. Joint purchases by other unmarried people accounted for the other 2 percent.
Who are these single women? Why are they buying real estate in such large numbers? And how do they differ from single men and married couples?
The answers to these questions are found in a new report -- "Buying for Themselves: An Analysis of Unmarried Female Homebuyers" -- released two months ago by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University.
The Harvard report characterizes unmarried female buyers as "a diverse and highly segmented group comprised of single mothers, young singles, middle-aged divorcees and seniors" who purchased more than $550 billion in real estate between 2000 and 2003.
"Unmarried female buyers are older than married and unmarried male buyers, have higher shares of minority buyers, have lower incomes and, consequently, much greater incidence of housing affordability problems," the report says.
But despite affordability problems experienced by single women, their share of the market has dramatically risen while the share of married couples has dropped sharply. The report gives several reasons for this trend:
* A 20 percent increase in the number of unmarried women in the past decade, partly due to the fact that women are delaying marriage in favor of education and careers.* Fewer adult women than men chose to live with their parents, opting to form their own households instead.* The economic upside of owning -- which has been emphasized heavily by the media -- enhances the view of a growing number of women that marriage is no longer a pre-requisite to buying a home.* Divorced women have accumulated equity in homes they owned with spouses and can use that wealth to buy their own homes as their set up their own households.
Previously married women accounted for nearly two-thirds of unmarried female buyers while more than half of unmarried male buyers have never been married. This partially explains the younger average age of male buyers (37) relative to unmarried female buyers (42).
Another major difference between single male and female buyers is their living arrangements.
Among buyers profiled in the Harvard report, about 45% of single women lived alone, compared to 55 percent of single men. Only 15 percent of the men are single parents, in contrast to 30 percent of the women.
Unmarried female buyers have considerably lower incomes than single men who buy homes. "Their $37,000 median income is fully $11,000 less than for unmarried men," the report states.
Although unmarried adults of all types have had a combined market share of nearly 40 percent of home purchases for the past several years, real estate developers and marketers are only now beginning to notice the value of the "single dollar."
According to the Harvard report, one developer in Southern California has targeted single women by offering amenities they prefer, "including smaller units, gated access, fitness facilities, social interactions with neighbors, and other organizational and convenience features."
KB Home, a home builder in Cary, North Carolina, is targeting single men as potential buyers of its new condominiums. The condos were designed with the single male in mind: stone floors, stainless steel appliances and glass-walled showers instead of tubs in the master bathrooms.
The pitch is working. Single men have bought nearly half the 23 townhouses sold in the project's the first phase.
While single people are still more likely to be renters than owners, that reality is changing. One of the reasons singles are shifting from renting to owning is the tax breaks associated with home ownership: the ability to write of tax and interest payments.
So all you single renters, listen up. Buy now and lower your tax bill come April 2007.
© Unmarried America 2006
Thomas F. Coleman, Executive Director of Unmarried America, is an attorney with 33 years of experience in singles' rights, family diversity, domestic partner benefits, and marital status discrimination. Each week he adds a new commentary to Column One: Eye on Unmarried America. E-mail: coleman@unmarriedamerica.org. Unmarried America is a nonprofit information service for unmarried employees, consumers, taxpayers, and voters.

journal 7: HITLER WAS A CHRISTIAN.1OF6.1.26.7

2007-05-23T19:59:00.000-07:00

Journal 7: HITLER WAS A CHRISTIAN, PART 1 OF 6

1.26.7
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Hitler Was A Christian, Part 1 Of 6

Hitler Was a Christian
The Holocaust was caused by Christian fundamentalism:
http://www.evilbible.com/hitler_was_christian.htm
History is currently being distorted by the millions of Christians who lie to have us believe that the Holocaust was not a Christian deed. Through subterfuge and concealment, many of today’s Church leaders and faithful Christians have camouflaged the Christianity of Adolf Hitler and have attempted to mark him an atheist, a pagan cult worshipper, or a false Christian in order to place his misdeeds on those with out Jesus. However, from the earliest formation of the Nazi party and throughout the period of conquest and growth, Hitler expressed his Christian support to the German citizenry and soldiers. Those who would make Hitler an atheist should turn their eyes to history books before they address their pews and chat rooms.
Considering that Christianity has thus far been incapable of producing an unbiased, educated follower which speaks the truth, (I haven’t encountered any), I have been forced to dispel the myth by writing this essay. It is not until I bring up his speeches, my personal info on the Nazi regime and their tactics that a Christian will begin to question what their clergy told them. (I am the offspring of a German soldier. My Opa served under Hitler in WW2 and my father was raised during the time of the Nazi regime. This is important information to take into consideration for I am privy to some info that most Americans do not know. It is common for American media and education institutions to lie to their citizens concerning Nazi Germany.) So, in presenting this information I must break it into four parts: 1) Facts about Hitler and his involvement with the Church. 2) How the Church was the catalyst for anti- Semitism. 3) Facts concerning how the Nazi regime drilled these beliefs into Germanic society. 4) Quotes Hitler made which prove he had a disdain for atheism/occultism, upheld his Christian faith, and hated Jews due to his Christianity.

Hitler’s involvement with the Church:
a) Hitler was baptized as Roman Catholic during infancy in Austria.
b) As Hitler approached boyhood he attended a monastery school. (On his way to school young Adolf daily observed a stone arch which was carved with the monastery’s coat of arms bearing a swastika.)
c) Hitler was a communicant and an altar boy in the Catholic Church.
d) As a young man he was confirmed as a “soldier of Christ.” His most ardent goal at the time was to become a priest. Hitler writes of his love for the church and clergy: “I had excellent opportunity to intoxicate myself with the solemn splendor of the brilliant church festivals. As was only natural, the abbot seemed to me, as the village priest had once seemed to my father, the highest and most desirable ideal.” -Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)
e) Hitler was NEVER excommunicated nor condemned by his church. Matter of fact the Church felt he was JUST and “avenging for God” in attacking the Jews for they deemed the Semites the killers of Jesus.
f) Hitler, Franco and Mussolini were given VETO power over whom the pope could appoint as a bishop in Germany, Spain and Italy. In turn they surtaxed the Catholics and gave the money to the Vatican. Hitler wrote a speech in which he talks about this alliance, this is an excerpt: “The fact that the Vatican is concluding a treaty with the new Germany means the acknowledgement of the National Socialist state by the Catholic Church. This treaty shows the whole world clearly and unequivocally that the assertion that National Socialism [Nazism] is hostile to religion is a lie.” Adolf Hitler, 22 July 1933, writing to the Nazi Party
g) Hitler worked CLOSELY with Pope Pius in converting Germanic society and supporting the church. The Church absorbed Nazi ideals and preached them as part of their sermons in turn Hitler placed Catholic teachings in public education. This photo depicts Hitler with Archbishop Cesare Orsenigo, the papal nuncio in Berlin. It was taken On April 20, 1939, when Orsenigo celebrated Hitler’s birthday. The celebrations were initiated by Pacelli (Pope Pius XII) and became a tradition.
Each April 20, Cardinal Bertram of Berlin was to send “warmest congratulations to the Fuhrer in the name of the bishops and the dioceses in Germany with “fervent prayers which the Catholics of Germany are sending to heaven on their altars.” (If you would like to know more about the secret dealings of Hitler and the Pope I recommend you get a book titled: Hitler’s Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII, by John Cornwell)
h) Due to Hitler’s involvement with the Church he began enacting doctrines of the Church as law. He outlawed all abortion, raged a death war on all homosexuals, and demanded corporal punishment in schools and home. Many times Hitler addressed the church and promised that Germany would implement its teachings: “The National Socialist State professes its allegiance to positive Christianity. It will be its honest endeavor to protect both the great Christian Confessions in their rights, to secure them from interference with their doctrines (Lehren), and in their duties to constitute a harmony with the views and the exigencies of the State of today.” –Adolf Hitler, on 26 June 1934, to Catholic bishops to assure them that he would take action against the new pagan propaganda “Providence has caused me to be Catholic, and I know therefore how to handle this Church.” -Adolf Hitler, reportedly to have said in Berlin in 1936 on the enmity of the Catholic Church to National Socialism

How Christianity was the catalyst of the Holocaust:
Hitler’s anti-Semitism grew out of his Christian education. Austria and Germany were majorly Christian during his time and they held the belief that Jews were an inferior status to Aryan Christians. The Christians blamed the Jews for the killing of Jesus. Jewish hatred did not actually spring from Hitler, it came from the preaching of Catholic priests and Protestant ministers throughout Germany for hundreds of years. The Protestant leader, Martin Luther, himself, held a livid hatred for Jews and their Jewish religion. In his book, “On the Jews and their Lies,” Luther set the standard for Jewish hatred in Protestant Germany up until World War 2. Hitler expressed a great admiration for Martin Luther constantly quoting his works and beliefs.
Now, you must remember before Hitler rose to Chancellor of Germany the country was in a deep economic depression due to the Versailles treaty. The Versailles treaty demanded that Germans made financial reparations for the previous war and Germany simply was not self sufficient enough in order to pay the debt. Hitler was the leader that raised Germany out of the depression and brought them back to a world recognized power. Due to his annulment of the financial woes of the Germanic people he became their redeemer and they anointed him as the leader of the German Reich Christian Church in 1933. This placed him in power of the German Christian Socialist movement which legislates their political and religious agendas. It united all denominations, mainly the Protestant/Catholic and Lutheran people to instill faith in a national Christianity.

How the Nazi Regime converted the people:
a) In the 1920s, Hitler’s German Workers’ Party (pre Nazi term) adopted a “Programme” with twenty-five points (the Nazi version of a constitution). In point twenty-four, their intent clearly demonstrates, from the very beginning, their stand in favor of a “positive” Christianity: “We demand liberty for all religious denominations in the State, so far as they are not a danger to it and do not militate against the morality and moral sense of the German race. The Party, as such, stands for positive Christianity, but does not bind itself in the matter of creed to any particular confession...”
b) The Nazi regime started a youth movement which preached its agenda to impressionable children. Hitler backed up the notion that all people need faith and religious education: “By helping to raise man above the level of bestial vegetation, faith contributes in reality to the securing and safeguarding of his existence. Take away from present-day mankind its education-based, religious- dogmatic principles-- or, practically speaking, ethical-moral principles-- by abolishing this religious education, but without replacing it by an equivalent, and the result will be a grave shock to the foundations of their existence.” – Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)
c) The Nazi regime began to control schools insisting that Christianity was taught.
d) The Nazi regime included anti-Semitic Christian writings in textbooks and they were not removed from Christian doctrines until 1961.
e) The Nazi regime having full blown power over the people began to forcibly convert all its military.
f) The Nazi regime forced the German soldiers to wear religious symbols such as the swastika and they placed religious sayings on military gear. An example here is this German army belt buckle (I believe my Opa had one) which reads “Gott Mit Uns”. For those of you who do not speak German it is translated as “God With Us”.
g) The German troops were often forced to get sprinkled with holy water and listen to a sermon by a Catholic priest before going out on a maneuver.
h) The Nazis created a secret service called the “SS Reich” that would act as spies on the dealings of other citizens. If anyone was suspected of heresy (Going not only against the Socialist party but CHURCH DOCTRINE) they would be prosecuted.

Quotes from Hitler:
Hitler’s speeches and proclamations, even more clearly, reveal his faith and feelings toward a Christianized Germany. Nazism presents an embarrassment to Christianity and demonstrates the danger of their faith So they try to pin him on other theistic views. The following words from Hitler show his disdain for atheism, and pagan cults, and reveal the strength of his Christian feelings:
“National Socialism is not a cult-movement-- a movement for worship; it is exclusively a ‘volkic’ political doctrine based upon racial principles. In its purpose there is no mystic cult, only the care and leadership of a people defined by a common blood-relationship... We will not allow mystically- minded occult folk with a passion for exploring the secrets of the world beyond to steal into our Movement. Such folk are not National Socialists, but something else-- in any case something which has nothing to do with us. At the head of our programme there stand no secret surmisings but clear-cut perception and straightforward profession of belief. But since we set as the central point of this perception and of this profession of belief the maintenance and hence the security for the future of a being formed by God, we thus serve the maintenance of a divine work and fulfill a divine will-- not in the secret twilight of a new house of worship, but openly before the face of the Lord… Our worship is exclusively the cultivation of the natural, and for that reason, because natural, therefore God-willed. Our humility is the unconditional submission before the divine laws of existence so far as they are known to us men.” -Adolf Hitler, in Nuremberg on 6 Sept.1938. [Christians have always accused Hitler of believing in pagan cult mythology. What is written here clearly expresses his stand against cults.]
“We were convinced that the people needs and requires this faith. We have therefore undertaken the fight against the atheistic movement, and that not merely with a few theoretical declarations: we have stamped it out.” -Adolf Hitler, in a speech in Berlin on 24 Oct. 1933 [This statement clearly refutes modern Christians who claim Hitler as favoring atheism. Hitler wanted to form a society in which ALL people worshipped Jesus and considered any questioning of such to be heresy. The Holocaust was like a modern inquisition, killing all who did not accept Jesus. Though more Jews were killed then any other it should be noted that MANY ARYAN pagans and atheists were murdered for their non-belief in Christ.]
Here Hitler uses the Bible and his Christianity in order to attack the Jews and uphold his anti-Semitism:
"My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God’s truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was His fight for the world against the Jewish poison. To-day, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before the fact that it was for this that He had to shed His blood upon the Cross. As a Christian I have no duty to allow my self to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice… And if there is anything which could demonstrate that we are acting rightly it is the distress that daily grows . For as a Christian I have also a duty to my own people." –Adolf Hitler, in a speech on 12 April 1922 (Norman H. Baynes, ed. The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, April 1922-August 1939, Vol. 1 of 2, pp. 19-20, Oxford University Press, 1942)
"Christianity could not content itself with building up its own altar; it was absolutely forced to undertake the destruction of the heathen altars. Only from this fanatical intolerance could its apodictic faith take form; this intolerance is, in fact, its absolute presupposition." -Adolf Hitler Mein Kampf (It is quite obvious here that Hitler is referring to destructing the Judaism alters on which Christianity was founded.)
"The personification of the devil as the symbol of all evil assumes the living shape of the Jew." -Adolf Hitler Mein Kampf (The idea of the devil and the Jew came out of medieval anti-Jewish beliefs based on interpretations from the Bible. Martin Luther, and teachers after him, continued this “tradition” up until the 20th century.)
"With satanic joy in his face, the black-haired Jewish youth lurks in wait for the unsuspecting girl whom he defiles with his blood, thus stealing her from her people." -Adolf Hitler Mein Kampf (It is common in war for one race to rape another so that they can “defile” the race and assimilate their own. Hitler speaks about this very tactic here.)
“The best characterization is provided by the product of this religious education, the Jew himself. His life is only of this world, and his spirit is inwardly as alien to true Christianity as his nature two thousand years previous was to the great founder of the new doctrine. Of course, the latter made no secret of his attitude toward the Jewish people, and when necessary he even took the whip to drive from the temple of the Lord this adversary of all humanity, who then as always saw in religion nothing but an instrument for his business existence. In return, Christ was nailed to the cross, while our present- day party Christians debase themselves to begging for Jewish votes at elections and later try to arrange political swindles with atheistic Jewish parties-- and this against their own nation.”–Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)
"…the fall of man in paradise has always been followed by his expulsion." -Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (See Genesis Chapter 3 where humankind is cast from Eden for their sins. Hitler compares this to the need to exterminate the Jews for their sin against Christ.)
“Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.” –Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)
“The anti-Semitism of the new movement [Christian Social movement] was based on religious ideas instead of racial knowledge.” –Adolf Hitler Mein Kampf (This quote is very interesting for it disperses the idea that Hitler raged war due to being an Aryan supremacist. He states quite clearly that he has a problem with Jews for their belief not race. That is why many German Jews died in WW2 regardless of their Aryan nationality.)
“Only in the steady and constant application of force lies the very first prerequisite for success. This persistence, however, can always and only arise from a definite spiritual conviction. Any violence which does not spring from a firm, spiritual base, will be wavering and uncertain.” –Adolf Hitler Mein Kampf (Here Hitler is admitting that his war against the Jews were so successful because of his strong Christian Spirituality.)
Quotes from Other Nazis about Hitler and Religion:
"Around 1937, when Hitler heard that at the instigation of the party and the SS vast numbers of his followers had left the church because it was obstinately opposing his plans, he nevertheless ordered his chief associates, above all Goering and Gobbels, to remain members of the church. He too would remain a member of the Catholic Church, he said, although he had no real attachment to it. And in fact he remained in the church until his suicide." (Inside the Third Reich by Albert Speer page 95-96)
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Jesus and Hitler
The classic case for separation of church and state
© Bryan Zepp Jamieson7/4/06http://www.zeppscommentaries.com/Religous/jesusnhitler.htm
http://zeppscommentaries.com/Religious/jesusnhitler.htm
Der Spiegel magazine had a piece last spring about a 70 year old church in Berlin that was in need of some renovation and financing. Nothing too extraordinary about that, except that this was Germany’s only remaining “Nazi-era church.”The piece, by David Crossland, described the “Martin Luther Memorial Church” in vivid terms, noting the black Iron Cross chandelier, and that “The pulpit has a wooden carving of a muscular Jesus leading a helmeted Wehrmacht soldier and surrounded by an Aryan family. The baptismal font is guarded by a wooden statue of a stormtrooper from Adolf Hitler's paramilitary Sturmabteilung (SA) unit clutching his cap.”I bet the “muscular Jesus” looked very Aryan, much like the blond-haired and blue-eyed image the Mormons claim to be the true image of Jesus, with little about him to suggest that his mother was Jewish. The church isn’t unchanged since the war. The bells, according to Crossland, were melted down for the war effort, and the swasticas removed after the war when the symbol was declared illegal. The resident Dean of the parish, Isolde Böhm, isn’t unreservedly enthusiastic about his church’s legacy, and Crossland quotes him as saying, “When you hold sermons in this church your words clash with the symbols around you. It's hard work talking about human dignity when you're constantly aware that your surroundings evoke a system that trampled on dignity. Sometimes I had the feeling that the symbols overpowered the words.” Despite that, Böhm wants to see the church preserved, both for its historic interest, and as a warning to future generations of what happens when political madness and religious belief combine. Just as well they removed the swasticas. They don’t really convey a message of peace, love and compassion, do they?That many German Christians – and their churches – in the 1930s were locked in an enthusiastic embrace with Hitler and the Nazi party is no secret, of course. Hitler represents a failure of German Christianity as much as it represents a failure of German culture and the German people themselves. But Hitler recognized that by embracing Christianity and making it his own, he could easily alleviate moral qualms that his vicious policies might incur in the German people. Thus, he deftly equated loyalty to him and his party not only with patriotism, but with godliness. Saying “I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator; by defending myself against the Jews, I am fighting for the Lord.” made him, not a hater and a murderer, but a mere instrument of the lord’s will. “Loyalty and responsibility toward the people and the Fatherland are most deeply anchored in the Christian faith.” ensured that it was ok for ordinary German citizens to become instruments of that same will.Christianity didn’t cause Hitler’s ascendency and the moral collapse of German culture, but the nature of organized religion – any organized religion – certainly enabled it. Any group of humans can be swayed and led by demagoguery, but religion is particularly susceptible because of the strong constraints that religion necessarily has against challenging authoritarian pronouncements. It’s much easier to oppose a poisonous politician than it is to oppose a politician who, according to both himself and the authorities of your own church, is carrying out the will of god. Can it happen here? Of course! Some people – myself included – believe it is happening right now. And yes, it could be as evil. Read the writings of Ann Coulter, and any place she uses the word “liberal”, replace it with the word “Jew” and see if you can tell any difference between her and Adolf Hitler. Ann Coulter, in her latest book, characterizes all liberals as being “Godless”. Presumably godless means evil, and therefore, it’s ok to kill them. You may have noticed that while elected Republicans aren’t waving her book in the air and cheering, they aren’t lining up to condemn it, either. Attacking Coulter would be like attacking Jesus because the people Ann doesn’t like are godless. The religious right has always been a threat to American freedom. Clear back in the early 1950s, Robert Heinlein postulated that America would fall – in the year 2000 – to a repressive police state that carried religious and state symbols side by side, a merging of the two. Bertrand Russell considered it necessary to divide the two because politics was the art of the possible, with ever-malleable truths, whereas religious was the art of what is, with unchanging truths. Each would badly corrupt the other if merged.But it predates Heinlein by over 150 years. The founding fathers saw the implicit threat religious fervor presented to freedom, and took the strongest steps they could to avoid it. Most people know of the most frequently cited example of this. That would be the First Amendment – Jefferson’s “wall of separation”. What most people don’t know is that there is one sentence in the Constitution that, by its very wording, is not subject to the mechanisms available for amending the rest of the Constitution. The founders realized that America would change, and outgrow the original document, and that the document would need to be flexible to adapt to those changes. With one exception. There was one standard that the founders held that should never change, and that would be the need to keep religion and state carefully apart. So, on a nearly unamimous vote, they agreed to Madison’s wording in the penultimate sentence in the Constitution: “[...]No religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” What did Madison have in mind? The following quotes of his are illustrative:“And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Govt (sic) will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.”“It was the Universal opinion of the Century preceding the last, that Civil Government could not stand without the prop of a religious establishment; and that the Christian religion itself, would perish if not supported by the legal provision for its clergy. The experience of Virginia conspiciously corroboates the disproof of both opinions. The Civil Government, tho' bereft of everything like an associated hierarchy, possesses the requisite stability and performs its functions with complete success; whilst the number, the industry, and the morality of the priesthood, and the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the TOTAL SEPARATION OF THE CHURCH FROM THE STATE.”Madison didn’t just want no law saying only Episcopalians could run for office; he wanted a system whereby a candidate for office should not reveal what, if any, religious beliefs he held! The founders, by a huge margin, agreed with him. Even those who didn’t like it agreed to the necessity. The Reverend Isaac Backus wrote, “And let the history of all nations be searched, from that day to this, and it will appear that the imposing of religious tests hath been the greatest engine of tyranny in the world. And I rejoice to see so many gentlemen who are now giving in the rights of conscience, in this great and important matter.”It’s fashionable among the religious right to say that America was meant to be a Christian country, and that the founders didn’t want government without Jesus. That is utterly false. They had seen what a government “with Jesus” was like, and after 300 years of carnage in Europe, they wanted no part of it. And they created a nation that was noticeably freer of pogroms and religious persecution than any in history.The religious right also like to pretend that patriotism is valid only if it includes a higher power. I would like to invite them to go and visit Martin Luther Memorial Church in Berlin, and gaze around and see what a blending of patriotism and godliness leads to. Not “could lead to” – “WILL lead to.” The founders knew that. That’s why the “religious test” clause, uniquely, contains the word “ever”. And that’s why, on this holiday of American Independence, it’s so important to remember that one of America’s greatest strengths and greatest glories has been, and hopefully always will be a strong separation of church and state.
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http://www.crossroad.to/Excerpts/books/faith_under_fire/trapped-hitler.htm
Trapped in Hitler's Hell
by Anita Dittman with Jan Markell
This wonderful book can be ordered through Lighthouse Trails, 2005
Chapter 1: A New Era.— “Heil Hitler!”
I was a first-grader in Breslau, Germany.... It was 1933, and the Nazi fires were only kindling sparks. In time, they would erupt into a holocaust in which millions would be consumed by its hate, its lies, and its unfounded prejudices. Already I couldn't come home after school without suffering a stoning or a beating. particularly the little German boys, swollen with Aryan pride and propaganda that told them to stamp out inferiors, delighted in ganging up on me. [12]
And this was just the beginning of what would be a twelve-year nightmare -- twelve years of waiting for a knock on the door from the Gestapo; for a loved one to be dragged away by the hair or the beard to points unknown; for a boxcar ride, to be jammed in with hundreds of frightened, weeping people on their way to a death camp; or for a merciful bullet to end it all. [12-13] Among those unfortunate Jews I was to be one of the few with a real home. I would come to know Jesus who was to offer peace inthe midst of the turmoil. After all, wasn’t He the Prince of Peace? My mother, Hilde, was one of thirteen children born into an Orthodox Jewish home in Germany. Since they were a pitifully poor family, they could not afford to send Mother to a Jewish school. Public schools always taught religion, so Mother, along with other poor Jewish children, had to hear about Jesus of Nazareth. The name of Jesus was an offense to most Jews. Under the banner of the cross, millions of Jews had died throughout history. Yet something within Mother was awakened whenever she read about Jesus in her textbooks. She couldn’t deny the tug at her heart as she studied His life, while Judaism left a spiritual vacuum this Man from Galilee beckoned to fill. She did not dare utter her curiosity aloud, yet she found herself saying quietly, “Maybe Jesus is the God I’ve been looking for.” [12-13]
But at nineteen she, like so many other searching young people, gave in to the lure of a cult: theosophy, which is similar to Hinduism and teaches reincarnation. Christ was placed on the same level as Buddha and Muhammad, and she could worship a multitude of equal gods. She renounced her Judaism and ran from Jesus. But the day was fast approaching when Mother would call upon the name of Yeshua (“Jesus”) for mercy, protection, deliverance, and, most important of all, salvation. Father was an Aryan German and a devout atheist. He was active in Germany’s Social Democratic Party, Hitler’s arch rival... [13]
* * *
With all the religious options I had as a six-year-old, it is incredible that I could discern that Jesus truly was God. I did not believe in the rituals of Judaism or Catholicism, or Father’s ardent atheism, or Mother’s wavering practice of theosophy. The Spirit of God touched a little girl; in a few years I would take up my cross and follow Him.
...at the time all that mattered was that I felt safe with Him. I knew He understood me, and I was sure He heard me when I talked to Him. He would become my best Friend even before He became my Lord and Savior.
Adolf Hitler came to power because the confused and; senile President Hindenburg permitted it. In the early 1930s, Germany was in the throes of the economic depression that had begun on Wall Street in October 1929. The depression’s effects had been felt in Germany almost immediately; by 1933 nearly one third of the country was unemployed.
During the 1930 elections, the Nazis made the most noise because they were violently anti-communist and had the backing of wealthy German industrialists. ... By 1932, the Nazis had become even stronger as they rallied around the leadership of Adolf Hitler. With his staff, Hitler traveled to every village and hamlet to gain votes, his unemployment bandwagon gaining so much support that the Nazis more than doubled their parliament seats....[15]
Clearly, the law and Hitler were one. Later in the year, all other political parties were forbidden in Germany. The newly established secret police, the Gestapo, were given complete freedom to be ruthless, which would epitomize its character during the next twelve years in Germany.....
Hitler... enrolled a bodyguard of forty thousand men. A particularly sadistic group of men who were a law unto themselves, this organization was called Schutzstaffel (literally, “protective rank”)—abbreviated to SS. ... Overnight they rose from beer hall patrons to men with power, and that power went to their heads. Both Hitler and his SS men wanted a law to do without the law, and they soon had it.
The Gestapo were all members of the SS. Their duties were similar to those of the SS, and they were equally corrupt and power hungry. They all moved ahead by force, taking over government buildings, hoisting the swastika flag everywhere, and arresting any government official who opposed Hitler. President Hindenburg went along with everything except the persecution of the Jews. He even signed a decree in 1933, which freed all Nazis from prisons.
Every Nazi opponent or suspicious individual would be exterminated or driven out of the country. The lucky ones made it to safety, though they were few. Everything associated with the Jews would be the brunt of a particularly vicious attack, starting slowly in 1933 and culminating in an attempt at genocide or race annihilation.
Hitler even had the Reichstag building burned to the ground in 1933 because it reminded him of a synagogue. In the spring, a boycott was ordered against Jewish businesses and professions to force them to pay large indemnities to maintain their bare existence....[17]
* * *
It was difficult for me as a child to understand Hitler, this demagogue whose picture was everywhere—in our classroom, on street banners, and, later, even defiling church altars. Each morning my teacher, Fräulein (Miss) Kinzel, would pray toward the picture of Hitler. Her words still ring in my ears: ‘Dear God, protect our dear leader. Make him strong. Let us all learn to love him. May he have many years of glorious reign.” All of us had to fold our hands and bow our heads. Then we had to raise our arm in the proper Hell Hitler manner and sing the German national anthem with great gusto. Failure to follow this nationalistic ritual meant a beating or being turned over to the Gestapo. ...
A birthday card arrived from Father on my seventh birthday, after we hadn’t heard from him for more than a year. He explained that he had been sentenced to jail because of his involvement in the Social Democratic Party. ... Now he was accusing Mother of betraying his whereabouts, but we had no idea to where he had disappeared. He was free now, but the Nazis had ordered him to divorce Mother because she was Jewish. [19]
"You must take every precaution," Mother continued. "Keep to yourselves and never utter anything against the Nazis. Don’t trust anyone. Do you hear?” We nodded our understanding.... That winter most of our non-Jewish friends told us they could no longer associate with us. ... [21]
My lonely heart ached for Mother’s company.... Mother dragged herself home after dark and spent the evening repairing our worn-out, hand-me-down clothing. Mother and I talked about God a lot...
“Which God do you pray to, Mother?” I asked enthusiastically.
“Oh, just any God. Whichever one is listening I don’t know whose God it is—the Jews’ God or the Gentiles’ God. I don’t know if it’s Jesus or Buddha or Muhammad. You pray to Jesus if you want, if it makes you feel better.”
“Oh, Mother, it does! I just know Jesus hears me. Have you ever prayed to Jesus, Mother?”
“Once I did, I think. I don’t know, though, a lot of Jews have been killed by people bearing His name.”...
"At Christmas that year, I particularly strained to hear the carols coming from the church steeple several blocks away. The birth of Jesus had a special meaning to me for some reason. How strange to have such a friend as Jesus. We’d never met, but His presence was unmistakable.... [23]

"If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.... If they persecuted Me they will persecute you... for they do not know the One who sent Me." John 15:19-21

Chapter 2: Race Disgrace

Soon Gestapo agents dressed in plain clothes visited the church services. Nevertheless, Pastor Hornig knew who they were. We had heard that one of the leading Protestant churchmen in Germany was heading a movement to harmonize Christianity with Nazi beliefs....
"Pastor Hornig said the new Nazi church would be called the German Christian Church. Some German Protestant pastors would sell out to it, but most refused and then helped to organize the Confessional Evangelical Church, which would continue to preach the whole Bible, including the gospel of Jesus and the important role of the Jewish people in God’s eternal plan. It also would oppose having Hitler’s picture placed on church altars....
“Don’t forget to talk to Jesus about even the smallest need, Anita,” Pastor Hornig reminded me one morning after we left church. “He’s never too busy to listen, and He cares about all our problems, not just the big ones.”...
“I’ve talked to Jesus since I was six years old, Pastor,” I replied.... “Jesus is my best Friend.”
“But is He your Savior, too, Anita?” the pastor questioned as he bent over slightly, looking intently into my eyes. “Have you really asked Him into your life to be your loving Heavenly Father and the Savior for your sins?”
“I don’t know,” I confessed awkwardly. Then I replied enthusiastically, “But if I haven’t I want to do it!”
“Then just ask Him, Anita. It’s that simple. Ask Jesus to be your Savior today. Tomorrow may be too late. And He has promised eternal life to all those who receive Him. Then He will never leave you nor forsake you. He’ll always be your Comforter and Protector no matter how bad things get. Remember that, Anita, even when things worsen here in Germany, when all is black and uncertain and you feel utterly alone. If you have Jesus in your heart, He will get you through anything.” [26-27]
* * *
The next day a radio announcer said Hitler planned to shut all parochial schools because they didn’t include Nazism and they allowed Jews to attend.... Again, stern warnings were given to Germans who helped Jews in any way. Christians who helped Jews would be subject to special reprisals, including time in a concentration camp. [28]
The pastor had given each of us a Bible, and I watched Mother carry hers proudly out the door each week. If it was snowing she wrapped it carefully so that the thin pages would not get wet. ...
In spite of my ragged clothes, near-starvation rations, and all the absurdity of life in Nazi Germany, I was extremely happy. Was this the peace that Pastor Hornig had told me would result from Jesus living in my heart?... [29]
* * *
In Hitler’s opinion, the most dangerous Jews were those whose Jewishness was not obvious. They might be assimilating themselves into German society. Thus, all Jews were forced to wear a yellow Star of David on their clothing in order to be easily identified. [37]

"...the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me." John 16:2-3

More will be added. At least one part will be included in our Christmas article.
You can ordered this book from Lighthouse Trails, 2005
Excerpts posted with permission.
Home The Changing Church Preparing for Persecution Victory in Christ
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The following six Adolf Hitler quotes are included here to show that he was in fact Christian and not, as many Christians have claimed, an atheist. For more information, see Hitler's Religious Beliefs and Fanaticism (off-site).
I had excellent opportunity to intoxicate myself with the solemn splendor of the brilliant church festivals. As was only natural, the abbot seemed to me, as the village priest had once seemed to my father, the highest and most desirable ideal.--Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)
I thank Heaven that a portion of the memories of those days still remains with me. Woods and meadows were the battlefields on which the 'conflicts' which exist everywhere in life were decided.--Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)
...God have mercy!--Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)
I was not in agreement with the sharp anti-Semitic tone, but from time to time I read arguments which gave me some food for thought. At all events, these occasions slowly made me acquainted with the man and the movement, which in those days guided Vienna's destinies: Dr. Karl Lueger and the Christian Social Party.--Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)
How many of my basic principles were upset by this change in my attitude toward the Christian Social movement! My views with regard to anti-Semitism thus succumbed to the passage of time, and this was my greatest transformation of all.--Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)
Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.-- Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)
I believe today that I am acting in the sense of the Almighty Creator. By warding off the Jews I am fighting for the Lord's work.--Adolph Hitler, Speech, Reichstag, 1936
http://www.truetruths.com/COMMUNITY.htm
A COMMUNITY OF THINKERS
Whenever Zach did research, he always wanted to know what other people, especially thoughtful, intelligent people, said about the subject. Through his constant digging, he had uncovered quite a few thoughts and quotes discussing religion, many from Acharya S’s website, http://www.truthbeknown.com/, and many from http://www.infidels.org/, another excellent website.
One of the first quotes on her website that really caught his eye was one from Albert Einstein, who, by some counts, was a pretty bright guy!
Teachers of religion must have the stature to give up the archaic doctrine of a personal God, to give up the source of FEAR which has placed vast power in the hands of the clergy and priests. Such a doctrine is not only unworthy, but fatal, and has done incalculable harm to human spiritual progress.—Albert Einstein Then there was this quote from another brilliant man, the author Mark Twain:
Strange...a God who could make good children as easily as bad, yet preferred to make bad ones; who made them prize their bitter life, yet stingily cut it short; mouths golden rules and forgiveness multiplied seventy times seven and invented hell; who mouths morals to other people and has none himself; who frowns upon crimes yet commits them all; who created man without invitation, then tries to shuffle the responsibility for man's acts upon man, instead of honorably placing it where it belongs, upon himself; and finally with altogether divine obtuseness, invites this poor, abused slave to worship him!—Mark Twain
And from www.infidels.org, we have this quote from Thomas Edison (genius inventor):

"Religion is all bunk."-- Thomas EdisonAnd there were many, many more. Just a few of these from www.truthbeknown.com included the following:Hell is useless to sages, but necessary to the blind and brutal populace.—Polybius
...In religion, they become "holier than thou" types filled with terrible hatreds which in turn cause guilt complexes that drive them deeper into their religious frame of reference. The outlet for their scrambled emotions is to try to foist their beliefs—and their fears—onto the rest of us.—John KeelWhence arose all the horrid assassinations of whole nations of men, women and infants, with which the Bible is filled; and the bloody persecutions, and tortures unto death, and religious wars, that since that time have laid Europe in blood and ashes; whence arose they, but the impious thing called religion and this monstrous belief that God has spoken to man?—CardiffAll tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.—Thomas JeffersonIt seems to me that those who fear knowledge in favor of belief do so to pacify their own insecurity and "weakmindedness" and have no interest in establishing any relationship with reality... for their reality is founded in a group worship wherein the chant replaces thought. The hospital of religion needs to protect its code to prevent the masses from finding out that it was only a form of psychotherapy all along... Knowledge has always had a way of undoing secrets; after all, the dark ages ended when the age of enlightenment began.—Mike Conner Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. —Blaise Pascal ... Christianity is a monstrous fraud and delusion, that has desolated the earth and filled the spirit world with demons. . . . there is not a tenet, dogma, doctrine, ceremony, form or prayer, fast or feast, title of deity, form of church government, official rank or religious observance of any kind, that is not identical with some prototype to be found in one or more of the more ancient religious systems. . . . no such person, man, or God, as Jesus Christ, had anything to do with establishing the religion that has been taught in his name. . . . To get rid of the damning fact that there is no historical basis for their theological fictions, the Christian priesthood have been guilty of the heinous crime of destroying nearly all traces of the concurrent history of the first two centuries of the Christian era. What little of it they have permitted to come down to us, they have so altered and changed, as to destroy its historical value.—JM Roberts, Esq.Emotionals don't have to read, they just react on a snake's level... they strike out at whatever they perceive to be a threat or food. I sometimes think that belief-ism is a cop out which assigns its active participation in life to empowering an external authority and blindly accepting it as a know all, omnipotence wherein decisions are alleviated and unnecessary... it is a method by which a herd moves in concert.It would be wise to watch out for their fear that we do not get caught in the mindless stampede. Fanatics easily become something less than human. Here are some examples of where this happens: Genesis 6:5-9... or Deuteronomy 7:1-2 or Joshua 6:21 or Joshua 10:40-41, or Genesis 19: Genesis 19:12-26, Joshua 7:20-25, Joshua 8:24, Joshua 10:26, Joshua 10:28, Joshua 10:29, Joshua 10:31, Joshua 10:33, Joshua 10:34, Joshua 10:37, Joshua 10:38, Numbers 21:2-3, Numbers 21:33-35, Numbers 31:1-18, Deuteronomy 2:21-24, Deuteronomy 2:26-35, Judges 4:16 , Exodus 7:3, Exodus 7:13-14, Exodus 12:29-30, King 18:17-40, 2 Kings 2:23-24, Samuel 6:19, Samuel 6:6-11, Samuel 24:1-15, Chronicles 13:7-11, Chronicles 21:1-14.Or am I looking at the wrong bible?—Mike ConnerThe world, we are told, was created by a God who is both good and omnipotent. Before He created the world He foresaw all the pain and misery that it would contain; He is therefore responsible for all of it. It is useless to argue that the pain in the world is due to sin. In the first place, this is not true; it is not sin that causes rivers to overflow their banks or volcanoes to erupt. —Frederik BendzIt would seem, that the three human impulses embodied in religion are fear, conceit, and hatred. —Frederik BendzIn addition to Acharya S's website, Zach found some excellent material at http://www.infidels.org/, a collection of thoughtful words from a variety of free thinkers.
I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition [Christianity] one redeeming feature. They are all alike, founded on fables and mythology.--Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Short, _Six_Historic_Americans_ by John E. Remsberg
The clergy converted the simple teachings of Jesus into an engine for enslaving mankind and adulterated by artificial constructions into a contrivance to filch wealth and power to themselves...these clergy, in fact, constitute the real Anti-Christ.-- Thomas Jefferson
The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.--Benjamin Franklin, _Poor_Richard_, 1758
During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution.--James Madison,_A_Memorial_ and_Remonstrance, _2000_Years_of_Disbelief_ by James A. Haught
All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.--Thomas Paine, _The_Age_of_Reason
Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst.--Thomas Paine
I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, not by any Church that I know of. My own mind is my own Church.--Thomas Paine, _Excerpts_from_The_Age_of_Reason:_Selected_Writings_of_Thomas_ Paine_, edited by Richard Emery Robers, NY Everybody's Vacation Publishing Co, 1945, p.342
The United States of America should have a foundation free from the influence of clergy.--George Washington, _2000_Years_of_Disbelief_, James A. Haught
One of the embarrassing problems for the early nineteenth-century champions of the Christian faith was that not one of the first six Presidents of the United States was an orthodox Christian.--The Encyclopedia Britannica, 1968, p. 420
Religion is based . . . mainly upon fear . . . fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand . . . . My own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race.--Bertrand Russell
The following six Adolf Hitler quotes are included here to show that he was in fact Christian and not, as many Christians have claimed, an atheist. For more information, see Hitler's Religious Beliefs and Fanaticism (off-site).
I had excellent opportunity to intoxicate myself with the solemn splendor of the brilliant church festivals. As was only natural, the abbot seemed to me, as the village priest had once seemed to my father, the highest and most desirable ideal.--Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)
I thank Heaven that a portion of the memories of those days still remains with me. Woods and meadows were the battlefields on which the 'conflicts' which exist everywhere in life were decided.--Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)
...God have mercy!--Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)
I was not in agreement with the sharp anti-Semitic tone, but from time to time I read arguments which gave me some food for thought. At all events, these occasions slowly made me acquainted with the man and the movement, which in those days guided Vienna's destinies: Dr. Karl Lueger and the Christian Social Party.--Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)
How many of my basic principles were upset by this change in my attitude toward the Christian Social movement! My views with regard to anti-Semitism thus succumbed to the passage of time, and this was my greatest transformation of all.--Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)
Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.-- Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)
I believe today that I am acting in the sense of the Almighty Creator. By warding off the Jews I am fighting for the Lord's work.--Adolph Hitler, Speech, Reichstag, 1936
More quotes from http://www.infidels.org/include:
Reason must be deluded, blinded, and destroyed. Faith must trample underfoot all reason, sense, and understanding, and whatever it sees must be put out of sight and ... know nothing but the word of God.-- Martin Luther
…the right of holding slaves is clearly established in the Holy Scriptures, both by precept and example…Had the holding of slaves been a moral evil, it cannot be supposed that the inspired Apostles…would have tolerated it for a moment in the Christian Church. In proving this subject justifiable by Scriptural authority [Luke 12:47], its morality is also proved; for the Divine Law never sanctions immoral actions.--Richard Furmanof the Baptist State Convention, Letter to South Carolina Governor, 1822
People who are bitter and hateful about slavery are obviously bitter and hateful against God and his word, because they reject what God says and embrace what mere humans say concerning slavery. This humanistic thinking is what the abolitionists embraced.-- Alabama State Senator Charles Davidson, citing biblical defenses of slavery, 1996
There is not one verse in the Bible inhibiting slavery, but many regulating it. It is not then, we conclude, immoral.--Rev. Alexander Campbell
Christians, it is needless to say, utterly detest each other. They slander each other constantly with the vilest forms of abuse and cannot come to any sort of agreement in their teaching. Each sect brands its own, fills the head of its own with deceitful nonsense, and makes perfect little pigs of those it wins over to its side.-- Celsus (2nd Century C.E.)
The equal toleration of all religions...is the same as atheism.--Pope Leo XIII, "Imortale Dei"
We must not hold back in the battle for children's minds.--Church of England spokesman
Religion is a means of exploitation employed by the strong against the weak; religion is a cloak of ambition, injustice and vice.--Georges Bizet, letter to Edmond Galabert, 1866
I do further promise and declare, that I will, when opportunity presents, make and wage relentless war, secretly or openly, against all heretics, Protestants and Liberals, as I am directed to do and to extirpate and exterminate them from the face of the whole earth, and that I will spare neither sex, age nor condition and that I will hang, waste, boil, flay,strangle and bury alive these infamous heretics; rip up the stomachs and wombs of their women and crush their infants' heads against the wall, in order to annihilate forever their execrable race.--Pope Paul III, 1576
To affirm that the Sun...is at the centre of the universe and only rotates on its axis without going from east to west, is a very dangerous attitude and one calculated not only to arouse all Scholastic philosophers and theologians but also to injure our holy faith by contradicting the Scriptures.--Cardinal Bellermine, 17th century Church Master Collegio Romano, who imprisoned and tortured Galileo for his astronomical works
To assert that the earth revolves around the sun is as erroneous as to claim that Jesus was not born of a virgin.--Cardinal Bellermine 1615, during the trial of GalileoIn addition to quotes from numerous thinkers and leaders listed above from http://www.infidels.org/, Zach was especially interested is some speeches and articles by the American Robert Green Ingersoll, an outspoken writer, philosopher and orator of the 1800s. Portions of Ingersoll's article, Why I Am Agnostic, include:
For the most part we inherit our opinions. We are the heirs of habits and mental customs. Our beliefs, like the fashion of our garments, depend on where we were born. We are molded and fashioned by our surroundings.
*****
If we had been born in Constantinople, then most of us would have said: "There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet." If our parents had lived on the banks of the Ganges, we would have been worshipers of Siva, longing for the heaven of Nirvana.
*****
Like the most of you, I was raised among people who knew --who were certain. They did not reason or investigate. They had no doubts. They knew that they had the truth. In their creed there was no guess -- no perhaps. They had a revelation from God. They knew the beginning of things. They knew that God commenced to create one Monday morning, four thousand and four years before Christ. They knew that in the eternity -- back of that morning, he had done nothing. They knew that it took him six days to make the earth -- all plants, all animals, all life, and all the globes that wheel in space. They knew exactly what he did each day and when he rested. They knew the origin, the cause of evil, of all crime, of all disease and death.
They not only knew the beginning, but they knew the end. They knew that life had one path and one road. They knew that the path, grass-grown and narrow, filled with thorns and nettles, infested with vipers, wet with tears, stained by bleeding feet, led to heaven, and that the road, broad and smooth, bordered with fruits and flowers, filled with laughter and song and all the happiness of human love, led straight to hell. They knew that God was doing his best to make you take the path and that the Devil used every art to keep you in the road.
They knew that there was a perpetual battle waged between the great Powers of good and evil for the possession of human souls. They knew that many centuries ago God had left his throne and had been born a babe into this poor world -- that he had suffered death for the sake of man -- for the sake of saving a few. They also knew that the human heart was utterly depraved, so that man by nature was in love with wrong and hated God with all his might.
At the same time they knew that God created man in his own image and was perfectly satisfied with his work. They also knew that he had been thwarted by the Devil, who with wiles and lies had deceived the first of human kind. They knew that in consequence of that, God cursed the man and woman; the man with toil, the woman with slavery and pain, and both with death; and that he cursed the earth itself with briers and thorns, brambles and thistles. All these blessed things they knew. They knew too all that God had done to purify and elevate the race. They knew all about the Flood -- knew that God, with the exception of eight, drowned all his children -- the old and young -- the bowed patriarch and the dimpled babe -- the young man and the merry maiden -- the loving mother and the laughing child -- because his mercy endureth forever. They knew too, that he drowned the beasts and birds -- everything that walked or crawled or flew -- because his loving kindness is over all his works. They knew that God, for the purpose of civilizing his children, had devoured some with earthquakes, destroyed some with storms of fire, killed some with his lightnings, millions with famine, with pestilence, and sacrificed countless thousands upon the fields of war. They knew that it was necessary to believe these things and to love God. They knew that there could be no salvation except by faith, and through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ.
All who doubted or denied would be lost. To live a moral and honest life -- to keep your contracts, to take care of wife and child -- to make a happy home -- to be a good citizen, a patriot, a just and thoughtful man, was simply a respectable way of going to hell.
God did not reward men for being honest, generous and brave, but for the act of faith. Without faith, all the so-called virtues were sins, and the men who practiced these virtues, without faith, deserved to suffer eternal pain.
All of these comforting and reasonable things were taught by the ministers in their pulpits -- by teachers in Sunday schools and by parents at home. The children were victims. They were assaulted in the cradle -- in their mother's arms. Then, the schoolmaster carried on the war against their natural sense, and all the books they read were filled with the same impossible truths. The poor children were helpless. The atmosphere they breathed was filled with lies -- lies that mingled with their blood.
*****
I concluded that all religions had substantially the same origin, and that in fact there has never been but one religion in the world. The twigs and leaves may differ, but the trunk is the same.
*****
There have been many sun-gods, and they seem to have been the chief deities in the ancient religions. They have been worshiped in many lands, by many nations that have passed to death and dust.
Apollo was a sun-god and he fought and conquered the serpent of night. Baldur was a sun-god. He was in love with the Dawn -- a maiden. Chrishna was a sun-god. At his birth the Ganges was thrilled from its source to the sea, and all the trees, the dead as well as the living, burst into leaf and bud and flower. Hercules was a sun-god and so was Samson, whose strength was in his hair -- that is to say, in his beams. He was shorn of his strength by Delilah, the shadow -- the darkness. Osiris, Bacchus, and Mithra, Hermes, Buddha, and Quetzalcoatl, Prometheus, Zoroaster, and Perseus, Cadom, Lao-tsze, Fo-hi, Horus and Rameses, were all sun- gods.
All of these gods had gods for fathers and their mothers were virgins. The births of nearly all were announced by stars, celebrated by celestial music, and voices declared that a blessing had come to the poor world. All of these gods were born in humble places -- in caves, under trees, in common inns, and tyrants sought to kill them all when they were babes. All of these sun-gods were born at the winter solstice -- on Christmas. Nearly all were worshiped by "wise men." All of them fasted for forty days -- all of them taught in parables -- all of them wrought miracles -- all met with a violent death, and all rose from the dead.
The history of these gods is the exact history of our Christ.
This is not a coincidence -- an accident. Christ was a sun-god. Christ was a new name for an old biography -- a survival -- the last of the sun-gods. Christ was not a man, but a myth -- not a life, but a legend.
I found that we had not only borrowed our Christ -- but that all our sacraments, symbols and ceremonies were legacies that we received from the buried past. There is nothing original in Christianity.
*****
Suppose we had a man in this country who could control the wind, the rain and lightning, and suppose we elected him to govern these things, and suppose that he allowed whole States to dry and wither, and at the same time wasted the rain in the sea. Suppose that he allowed the winds to destroy cities and to crush to shapelessness thousands of men and women, and allowed the lightnings to strike the life out of mothers and babes. What would we say? What would we think of such a savage?
And yet, according to the theologians, this is exactly the course pursued by God.
*****
Let us be true to ourselves -- true to the facts we know, and let us, above all things, preserve the veracity of our souls.
If there be gods we cannot help them, but we can assist our fellow-men. We cannot love the inconceivable, but we can love wife and child and friend.
We can be as honest as we are ignorant. If we are, when asked what is beyond the horizon of the known, we must say that we do not know. We can tell the truth, and we can enjoy the blessed freedom that the brave have won. We can destroy the monsters of superstition, the hissing snakes of ignorance and fear. We can drive from our minds the frightful things that tear and wound with beak and fang. We can civilize our fellow-men. We can fill our lives with generous deeds, with loving words, with art and song, and all the ecstasies of love. We can flood our years with sunshine -- with the divine climate of kindness, and we can drain to the last drop the golden cup of joy.
- Robert Green Ingersoll
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