Lets make this simple. Which country most likely pays for these guaranteed rights in the other two countries while denying it’s own citizen’s the same rights?
Archive for January, 2011
Health Care and Education Guaranteed in Which Constitution: Iraq, Afghanistan, or USA
January 31, 2011Conservatives More Likely to Become Atheists than Liberals
January 31, 2011The implication is that conservatives leave their faith and become atheists more often than liberals do:
by John W Loftus “Someone recently said: “I would love to see conversion rates to atheism between creationist/conservative Christians (like John Loftus) and more liberal Christians.” Continue
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T-bagger/Conservative Christian, Rep. Michele Bachmann Launches Constitutional Fundamentalist Seminars
“Bachmann’s Tea Party Caucus seminars will require a citation of ‘chapter and verse’ for all proposed legislation. Sound familiar?”
“Michele Bachmann’s Congressional Tea Party Caucus launched its promised weekly seminars on the US Constitution with Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia as the kick-off speaker.
Bachmann invited both Democratic and Republican Congress-members to attend but the perspective on the Constitution promoted by the seminars will clearly be the conservative Christian (and tea party) view that the Founders intended America to be a Christian nation. For some time we have known that amateur historian and self proclaimed scholar of American Christian History David Barton is expected to be one of the speakers.”
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Four Portland-area radio stations to pull ads promoting a progressive Christian educational program:
By Rev. Chuck Currie of Portland, Oregon, a minister in the United Church of Christ and blogs at ChuckCurrie.com. “A decision by four Portland-area radio stations to pull ads promoting a progressive Christian educational program – Saving Jesus – illustrates for us once again how difficult it is for anyone but the Religious Right to be heard in America today.” Continue
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The Roots of the American Right’s Muslim Brotherhood Panic
By Sarah Posner “A single document and a discredited prosecution tactic have fueled the Islamophobia industry, now spreading falsehoods about the Muslim Brotherhood” Continue
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(A Conservative Christian A Hypocrite Again?) Second Amendment rights apparently don’t apply around Palin:
“On Monday evening Jan. 24, Sarah Palin returned to her public speaking tour with a fundraising speech for a conservative Christian school in Lubbock, Texas. For anywhere from $250 to $2,500 a ticket, over 1,000 Texans listened to Palin deliver her version of the Sermon on the Mount. Her staff enforced what the local press called “tight security.” Despite a Texas law that forbids the banning of concealed handguns held by Texas permit-holders in public venues, all members of the audience had to bring a photo ID, pass through metal detectors, and anyone who tried to bring in a weapon, permit or not, was subject to arrest.” Continue
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How the Conspiratorial American Right is Spinning the Egypt Protests:
By Sarah Posner
“…..don’t be surprised to find all of these ideas — that the Muslim Brotherhood is behind the protests, and that Obama is somehow linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, and an evil plot to subvert “Judeo-Christian” values, America, and Western civilization — swirling around conservative media in the coming days.”
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The Quietly Crumbling Wall of Separation:
By Robert Marus “Will Americans wake up to find that the robust religious freedom they enjoyed back at the beginning of the 21st century had become extinct before anyone even noticed it was endangered?”
“For instance, recall the rhetoric that George W. Bush and his allies continually employed when he attempted, as the centerpiece of his domestic agenda, to expand government’s ability to fund social services through direct grants to churches and other deeply religious groups. He depicted statutory and regulatory barriers that had, in the past, prevented such grants as unfair impediments to churches participating in the nation’s social-service fabric. Bush and his surrogates contended their efforts were attempts simply to “level the playing field”—their favorite catchphrase—for religious groups that just wanted to help their communities like any other service organization that qualified for government funding.
Religious conservatives (along with a handful of moderate and progressive Catholics and evangelicals) have employed similar level-the-playing-field arguments in their attempts to gain government-funded vouchers for use in parochial and other private schools.” Continue
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Recounting (Again) The Role of American Religious Activists in Uganda Anti-Gay Violence:
“Human Rights First, which last year gave its annual award to human rights advocate Julius Kaggwa for his work on behalf of sexual minorities, has issued a statement on the horrific murder of gay rights advocate David Kato.”
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Potential 2012 GOP candidate for president Tim Pawlenty expresses his fundamentalist view in a Christianity Today interview:
“Pawlenty’s use of the Founders and the Bible flows straight out of the Christian Fundamentalist tradition of the early twentieth century—a tradition in which his evangelical megachurch, Wooddale Church, has roots. In their series of articles known as The Fundamentals, the early Fundamentalist thinkers argued that the Bible was God’s living word. This meant that there was no need for literary criticism or historical interpretation because the Holy Spirit of God spoke truth through the scriptures themselves.”
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Meet the lawyer who’s crusading to advance women’s rights—by restricting access to abortion
January 31, 2011The Man Who Loved Women Too Much
“Harold Cassidy is trying to break my heart. We’re sitting in his law office, minutes from the antiques haven of Red Bank, New Jersey, and a stone’s throw from the Navesink River. The room, furnished with a gleaming wooden table, green-and-brass banker’s lamps, and legal volumes lining the walls, could be the set for any movie about a small-town lawyer who lives by his passion for justice. Cassidy himself is a master of the dramatic narrative—his work has made him a collector of heartrending tales that, despite what must be countless retellings, he shares again with fresh intensity.” ,…, “
“In a 2008 review, the American Psychological Association found “no evidence sufficient to support the claim that an observed association between abortion history and mental health was caused by the abortion.” More recently, a team at Johns Hopkins University reviewed the relevant literature and concluded that the highest quality studies suggest “few, if any, differences between women who had abortions and their respective comparison groups,” while “studies with the most flawed methodology” found negative effects.
But the dry prose of studies can’t compete with vivid anecdotes of womanhood shattered and degraded. Cassidy is haunted by the modern-day pietá of the suffering post-abortive woman, and it’s that image he wants us all to see.”
How to Create Indoor Gardens
January 31, 2011 By Cyn Vela, eHow Contributor
updated: January 30, 2011
“In 1989 NASA released the results of a two-year-long study on the effects of indoor plants. Their findings proved that growing certain common varieties of plants indoors (including philodendron, spider plant, and golden pothos) help to reduce indoor air pollution. Their study was mainly focused on office buildings and the phenomenon known as “sick building syndrome,” but growing an indoor garden in your home can help improve the air quality and possibly your health.”
5 little-known facts about Social Security
January 31, 2011Most Americans watch their money go into the Social Security trust fund in the form of payroll deductions as soon as they begin working, when retirement seems a long way off. As a result, many go through their working lives without giving it much thought.
Here are a few facts everyone should know about Social Security benefits before making any decisions about retirement.
Who is entitled to retirement benefits?
How are payouts calculated?
What are spousal benefits and widow benefits?
13% of Science Teachers Are Creationists….”Witch” burnings soon to follow in USA
January 31, 201113% of Science Teachers Are Creationists
You want some depressing news about the American education system? (Is there any other kind?) Here you go:
“The majority of high school biology teachers don’t take a solid stance on evolution with their students, mostly to avoid conflicts, and fewer than 30 percent of teachers take an adamant pro-evolutionary stance on the topic, a new study finds. Also, 13 percent of these teachers advocate creationism in their classrooms.” Continue
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Adult Sexual Assault Victims and the Catholic Church
Source: The Revealer.org
30 January 2011 From Kathryn Joyce’s recent article at Religion Dispatches:
“Adult victims could comprise up to 25% of all clergy abuse cases, estimates David Clohessy, National Director of SNAP, but often face considerable skepticism about their stories. “In the eyes of the law, victims like Birge are adults. But that doesn’t mean that emotionally, psychologically, in the presence of a trusted, powerful, charismatic clergy person, that in fact they can function like adults.” Considering the abundant ethical and legal prohibitions against doctors or therapists having even consensual sex with patients, in recognition of coercive power imbalances in play, Clohessy notes, “none of us have been raised from birth to think that a therapist is God’s representative or that a doctor can get me into heaven.” Continue
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Abortion = Slavery?
“It may be altogether historically inaccurate, but the equation of abortion to slavery is a compelling argument for abortion foes. Like presidential hopeful Rick Santorum.”
Continue
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2008 presidential hopeful (and possibly 2014) Mike Huckabee’s Fund Raising Letter
Source: http://atheistexperience.blogspot.com/2011/01/huckabees-fund-raising-letter.html
NOTE: Wow…..Huckabee’s letter is right out of McCarthy error, except they used communism in place of socialism. The atheism and liberalism apparently are oldies but goodies when it comes to any religion and politics trying to oppress people. Sad thing is, more and more people like Huckabee have come out of the wood work and I am sure more and more will. To me, these people are the real enemy. Let us not forget who Huckabee’s friends include Rev. Lou Engle:
US Politician Mike Huckabee and his close friends who helped create the “Kill the Gays” bill in Uganda, ” Mike Hucabee believes gays should have no rights, but they should also be killed, his best buddy who wants to see LGBT people killed or imprisoned for life in Uganda. And as recently as August 2010, Huckabee praised the work of this friend, a man named Rev. Lou Engle, who has made campaigning for the elimination of LGBT rights a central component of his life’s work.”
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Hersh and God’s Army
“..veteran journalist Seymour Hersh came under fire for having delivered what Foreign Policy calls a “conspiracy-laden” speech in Doha, Qatar. Speaking of some members of the Joint Special Operations Command, Hersh said, “”They do see what they’re doing…it’s a crusade, literally. They see themselves as the protectors of the Christians. They’re protecting them from the Muslims [as in] the 13th century. And this is their function.” Continue
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Oh heck. Another Isolated Incident
Source: ‘The Revealer’ Facebook group
“Now where would someone get ideas like this? Roger Stockham, a 63-year-old Army veteran from California who was reportedly angry at the U.S. government, was arrested by police in Michigan and charged for allegedly threatening to blow up a Mosque in Dearborn. Dearborn police allegedly found Stockham inside his vehicle outside the Islamic Center of America with a load of M-80s in his trunk and other explosives, the Detroit News reported. Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Counsel on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), told the newspaper that police told him the suspect was drinking in a Detroit bar on Monday and threatened to do harm to a mosque in Dearborn. An employee at the bar followed the man outside and wrote down his license plate which he reported to police, Walid told the newspaper.”
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People will die, governments will fall and millions will suffer to transfer more of the world’s wealth to a handful of useless capitalists in the name of “free markets”
January 30, 2011Is your tail fat?
Is your tail fat? “Fat tail” is insider market term that comes originally from mathematical modeling. It refers to an anomalous event that skews the data and produces a funny looking chart. In the market it’s one of those very real possibilities that are completely ignored until they happen. Like the complete break down of multiple governments in places that have oil and such.
Tunisia wasn’t a big deal in the scheme of the world and it’s probably not what is really driving the popular revolt in Egypt and other countries in the Mideast. What all these countries have in common is grinding poverty among more than half the population who live on less than $2 a day. This translates into not being able to afford food when the price doubles or triples.
So called developing countries are scrambling to secure basic food stuffs and are announcing new programs to distribute food and cooking oil in order to avoid being the next domino to fall.
The so called developed world is not exempt from the “fat tail”. The NYSE dropped hard today and commodities were up sharply. Oil in the European markets is already closing in on $100, that’s $12 above West Texas crude today. Gold jumped $25 as investors are anticipate a surge to safe investments.
This will all translate into higher food and fuel prices that were already being pressured by market speculators. And really that’s all that is going on here is speculation and market manipulation by unscrupulous Wall Street parasites. They sucked three trillion out of the pension funds during the last crisis and they’re back for more.
People will die, governments will fall and millions will suffer to transfer more of the world’s wealth to a handful of useless capitalists in the name of “free markets”. In case you haven’t guessed there is nothing free about the markets, they cost us dearly. If you happen to live on $2 a day in 3rd world country and food costs $3 you could die. If you’re a 99’r in the US and are living on food stamps and nothing else then you’re not much better off here as the price of food surges.
If the Republicans are successful in cutting off all government spending and end food stamps, well you get the idea. But the real danger is that they will manage to cripple the economy to the point where it simply collapses and food stamps aren‘t even available. I’m not kidding about the canned goods.
“Jesus Hates Faggots” by John Grant
January 30, 2011
I’ve felt uncomfortable since the day that I was born
Since the day I glimpsed the black abyss in your eyes
Theres no way you could make all this shit up on your own
It could only come from the mastermind of lies
I cant believe that I’ve considered taking my own life
Cus I believed the lies about me were the truth
It will be magic to watch your transformation when you realise that you’ve been had
Its enough to make a guy like me feel sad
Cus you tell me that
“Jesus, he hates fruitloops son.
We told you that when you were young.
Pretty much anything you want him too, like sitcoms, paedophiles and kangaroos.
Morons who cut in line, 3 bean salad and parking fines.
And when we win the war on society,
I hope your blind eyes will be opened and you’ll see.”
The arrogance it takes to walk around in the world the way you do
It turns my brain to jelly every time
The rage and fear I’m feeling have begun to make me sick
And I think I might be about to commit a crime.
And you tell me that
“Jesus, he hates homos son.
We told you that when you were young.
Pretty much anything you want him too, like coco puffs, red cars and Jews(?).
Postal clerks who waste your time, weightloss shakes and the local news.
And when we win the war on society,
I hope your blind eyes will be opened and you’ll see.”
“Cus Jesus, he hates faggots son.
We told you that when you were young.
Pretty much anyone you want him too, like niggers, spiks, redskins and kikes.
Men who cannot tame their wives, weaklings, cowards and bull dykes.
And when we win the war on society,
I hope your blind eyes will be opened and you’ll see.”
LIVE:
Conservative Christians aka American evangelicals, who demonize gays when in Uganda have contributed to a climate of hate, violence, and murder of gays
January 30, 2011Hate, Demonization, and Violence in Uganda
Frederick Clarkson 1-29-2011
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/1/29/152521/878
In the wake of the Tucson massacre, Chip Berlet wrote an essay at Talk to Action which opened:
The idea that vitriolic political rhetoric can lead some people to carry out acts of political aggression or violence against the demonized targets is hardly controversial among social science scholars. The first step is to identify an enemy “Other.”
Now the international media spotlight has turned to those American evangelicals, notably Scott Lively, whose demonization of gay people in Uganda has contributed to a climate of hate, violence, and possibly murder.
Political Research Associates (PRA), which published a ground breaking report on the role of American evangelicals in whipping up anti-gay hate in Uganda stated:
David Kato, an openly gay human rights activist and advocacy officer at Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), was attacked in his home in Uganda on January 26 and died on his way to the hospital. Kato had received death threats since October, when a local newspaper, Rolling Stone, published his photo alongside a cover story that charged homosexuals with recruiting children.The targeting of Kato and other LGBT Ugandans follows an intense demonization campaign fostered by right-wing Christian activists from the United States.
Indeed, Rev. Kapya Kaoma’s investigation for PRA highlighted the role of Christian Right activists including Lively and the serial vilifier Rick Warren. While the motive for the shocking crime has not been established, it has resulted in a firestorm of media attention as the years long hate campaign may have played a role in this high profile murder. American religion writer David Gibson even wonders if Kato is the Gabrielle Giffords of Uganda.
Giles Muhame, editor of the Rolling Stone newspaper that outed Kato and dozens of others, told Reuters that he did not want to see Kato murdered but added: “We want the government to hang people who promote homosexuality, not for the public to attack them. We said they should be hanged, not stoned or attacked.”Pastor Martin Ssempa, who was close to Rick Warren until Warren publicly split with him following the 2009 outcry against the Ugandan anti-gay bill, told the BBC that Kato’s death was not the result of homophobia but instead underscored the problem of “gay-on-gay bashing.”
And Member of Parliament David Bahati, who has ties to conservative Christian politicians in Washington, told Uganda media that Kato’s murder was unfortunate but was likely due to thieves seeking money Kato had been sent by gay activists overseas. Bahati said police should use the occasion of Kato’s killing to “dismantle the illegal networks, particularly financial, which are being used to facilitate gay activities in Uganda, especially in schools. In Uganda most people feel like vomiting when they come across gay practitioners or activists.”
In the end, Kato’s brutal death, like the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords and the suicide of the gay college student Tyler Clementi in September, shocked the nation because it showed in vivid detail what ugly language looks like when it is embodied in actions — whether those words inspired the deeds or not.
In the United States, at least, the shock and grief of the Arizona massacre led to the catharsis of a communal memorial service and a degree of self-examination. Uganda may have further to travel.
Here are some quotes from Lively’s 2009 antigay speech in Uganda:
“The gay movement is an evil institution that’s goal is to defeat the marriage-based society and replace it with a culture of sexual promiscuity in which there’s no restrictions on sexual conduct except the principle of mutual choice.”“The real danger of the gay movement is its necessary goal of the elimination of this moral system in order to achieve this [sexual freedom]“
“…That is the gay agenda…it is the recreation of society on a different moral foundation and the problem with that is that moral foundation will lead to social chaos and destruction.”
Lively, best known for his book of holocaust revisionism, The Pink Swastika (which tries to blame homosexuality for Nazism), now tries to downplay his years of harsh anti-gay rhetoric and insists that his influential speech and visit to Uganda had nothing to do with Kato’s murder. But his current claims ring hollow in light of his braggadocio when he was for a few moments, a big man in Uganda.
“Stephen Langa, was overjoyed with the results of our efforts and predicted confidently that the coming weeks would see significant improvement in the moral climate of the nation, and a massive increase in pro-family activism in every social sphere. He said that a respected observer of society in Kampala had told him that our campaign was like a nuclear bomb against the “gay” agenda in Uganda. I pray that this, and the predictions, are true.”
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RELATED:
Ugandan Gay Rights Activist Slain After Being Named on ‘Hit List’: (January 27th, 2011, Source: American Atheist News ) – An outspoken Ugandan gay rights campaigner, whose photo was published by a homophobic newspaper next to the headline “Hang Them,” has been killed after receiving numerous death threats.
US Evangelicals incited the murder of Ugandan gay activist Christian gay-bashing returns with a vengeance – Ugandan Gay Rights Activist Murdered, US Evangelicals Must Take Responsibility : “In a statement today, Political Research Associates condemned the murder and demanded an end to “the export of homophobia to Uganda by American conservatives.” (January 27th, 2011)
US Politician Mike Huckabee and his close friends who helped create the “Kill the Gays” bill in Uganda, ” Mike Hucabee believes gays should have no rights, but they should also be killed, his best buddy who wants to see LGBT people killed or imprisoned for life in Uganda. And as recently as August 2010, Huckabee praised the work of this friend, a man named Rev. Lou Engle, who has made campaigning for the elimination of LGBT rights a central component of his life’s work.”
Thanks to Conservative Christians of the USA, Gays in Africa face growing persecution, activists say: “Conservative American evangelical churches have had a profound influence on society in Uganda and other African nations. They send missions and help fund local churches that share their brand of Christianity. Sermons and seminars by American evangelist preachers are staples on local television and radio networks across the continent.”
C Street politics: The Family sponsors death for homosexuals in Uganda: ‘The Christian mafia is advocating the death penalty for homosexuals in Uganda. The Family at C Street, aka the Christian mafia, is backing proposed anti-gay legislation in Uganda that will sentence homosexuals to death. The Family at C Street is actively supporting the Ugandan leaders who are championing this draconian legislation, legislation that would institute the death penalty for homosexuality. C Street has been a Christian fundamentalist frat house for US congressman and senators. The house, sometimes referred to as the “C Street Complex”, is home base for the Family.”
The Family: DC’s C Street Group Tied To Proposed Death Penalty for Gays in Uganda: “But what many people may find surprising is that the Family has branches around the world. In fact, yesterday, Jeff Sharlet, author of “The Family: Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power,” reported on NPR’s “Fresh Air” that it was a Family member in the Ugandan parliament who introduced a bill that would increase the punishment for homosexuality from life imprisonment, which is the maximum sentence today, to death.”
10-28-2010 - Is C Street Winning?: Orders Given To Arrest Gays In Kenya
David Kato, Uganda Gay Activist, Brutally Slain
Uganda and the C-Street Family
See these articles provided by Herescope.Blogspot.com:
Engle Supports “Principled Stand” of Ugandan Anti-Gay Bill Promoters
Conservative Law Makers Do Not Like Holding Their Friends Accountable & Always Blame The Victims
January 30, 2011House abortion bill redefines rape, incest exceptions
NOTE: DATE RAPE DRUGGED? NO ABORTIONS FOR YOU!
STATUARY RAPED (18 yr old and 16 yr old in some states*)? NO ABORTION FOR YOU…..
WHY? BECAUSE YOU ASKED FOR IT. CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIAN IDEOLOGY IN THE USA.
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“The U.S. has yet to send in any special flights, and the only American carrier with direct service to Cairo, Delta Airlines, has suspended that service. Other nations, however, have flown in additional flights to evacuate their citizens…” ~ U.S. Embassy tells Americans to leave Egypt (Updated: Sunday, 30 Jan 2011, 9:19 AM EST Published : Sunday, 30 Jan 2011, 9:05 AM EST)
NOTE: THE USGOV THINKS; IT IS FRIVOLOUS SPENDING, AND SPENDING MUST BE CEASED. SO THOSE W/O PRIVATE PLANES CAN JUST SUCK IT AKA DIE. YOU ASKED FOR IT, YOU TRAVELED THEIR, DONT EXPECT A HAND-OUT/SOCIALISM FROM THE USGOV. JUST LIKE WHEN A GIRL GETS RAPED, IT WAS HER FAULT, SHE WORE THAT DRESS, SHE ASKED FOR IT….. THIS IS THE GREAT AMERICAN WAY…CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIAN IDEOLOGY, CAPITALISM, PROFITS BEFORE PEOPLE!!!
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HOW TO PISS OFF CONSERVATIVES, FROM EITHER MAJOR POLITICAL PARTY: GIVE THE PEOPLE RIGHTS
Court revives N. Calif. town’s pollution lawsuit: “About 100 residents of Willits filed a lawsuit in 1999 claiming chemical disposals from Remco Hydraulics Inc. brought exposure to chromium and caused a wide-range of illnesses, from cancer to mental disorders.”
Drinking water in Vietnam has excessive arsenic: “More than a quarter of drinking wells in Vietnam’s densely-populated Red River delta contain unsafe levels of arsenic that can cause cancer, neurological problems and hypertension, researchers warned on Tuesday.”
Gas company investors want fracking disclosures: “A bipartisan contingent of D.C. legislators friendly to the energy industry (1) has vocally opposed (2) any enhanced gas drilling regulations. But calls for more studies (3) and stronger regulations (4) are becoming increasingly frequent (5). ,…, “As uproar continues to build over the toxic chemicals used by natural gas companies in hydraulic fracturing (popularly known as “fracking”), some large shareholders in energy companies are joining calls for full disclosure (6) of what is being pumped into the ground in the process of extracting gas.”
NOTES:
1. Energy industry opens checkbook for pols opposing disclosure of fracking chemicals: 1-19-2011 “It should probably come as no surprise, then, that the lawmakers opposing a disclosure requirement have seen their campaign coffers flooded with much more money from the natural gas industry than the members of Congress in favor of disclosure.”
2. Lawmakers fight enhanced natural-gas drilling regulations: 1-7-2011 “Despite mounting public health concerns nationwide, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is fighting Obama administration efforts to enhance regulatory oversight of natural-gas drilling. The chief sticking point is the process known as “fracking” — i.e., breaking through deep rock formations via hydraulic fracturing — which some environmentalists and scientists have contended is tainting the nation’s drinking-water supplies with toxic chemicals.”
3. Dallas delaying ‘fracking’ vote amid citizen concerns: 1-12-2011 “Concerned citizens in Dallas have successfully stalled a new natural gas initiative from XTO Energy, a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil.”
4. Pittsburgh city council votes to ban natural-gas drilling: 11-16-2010 “Energy experts have long touted natural gas as a cleaner fuel than oil. But while natural gas, as an end product, may be cleaner in many ways, its extraction still creates a great deal of environmental damage.”
5. Gas-drilling protesters chant during Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett’s speech: 1-18-2011 “Tom Corbett, no way, no fracking in PA!” They chanted, then, “What do we want clean water! When do we want it? Now!”
6. Shareholder groups press gas drillers on fracking: 1-21-2011 “The activist shareholders say drillers need to become more transparent about their operations and take steps to reduce water, air and soil pollution. “Oil and gas firms are being too vague about how they will manage the environmental challenges resulting from fracking,” New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, who manages the state’s public worker pension fund, said in a statement. ,…, “The American Petroleum Institute said fracking is already “carefully regulated” by the states.”
Army commanders were told not to send Manning to Iraq
January 29, 2011WikiLeaks probe: Army commanders were told not to send Manning to Iraq
By Nancy A. Youssef
Investigators have concluded that Army commanders ignored advice not to send to Iraq an Army private who’s now accused of downloading hundreds of thousands of sensitive reports and diplomatic cables that ended up on the WikiLeaks website in the largest single security breach in American history, McClatchy has learned.
Pfc. Bradley Manning’s direct supervisor warned that Manning had thrown chairs at colleagues and shouted at higher ranking soldiers in the year he was stationed at Fort Drum, N.Y., and advised that Manning shouldn’t be sent to Iraq, where his job would entail accessing classified documents through the Defense Department’s computer system.
But superior officers decided to ignore the advice because the unit was short of intelligence analysts and needed Manning’s skills, two military officials familiar with the investigation told McClatchy.
The commanders hoped they could address Manning’s discipline problems in Iraq, the officials told McClatchy, but then never properly monitored him. The result was a “comedy of errors” as one commander after another assumed someone else was addressing Manning’s problems, one official said. Both officials spoke anonymously because they weren’t authorized to discuss the investigation.
Investigators are now considering whether they should recommend disciplinary action against at least three officers in Manning’s chain of command. Investigators must submit their findings to Army Secretary John McHugh by Tuesday.
Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/01/27/107575/probe-army-commanders-told-not.html
Egyption Police Using ‘Tear Gas’ Made In U.S.A.
January 29, 2011Dept. of exports: Tear gas from the Carlyle Group
ABC News reported this evening (1-28-2011) that Egyptian riot police are dispersing protesters by firing tear gas canisters bearing the label “Made in U.S.A.”
The canisters say the tear gas is produced by Combined Systems International.
A reader notes that the company is owned by fund of the giant private equity firm the Carlyle Group, whose website describes it as manufacturing “branded less-lethal munitions, anti-riot products and other related products that serve the military and law enforcement markets in the United States and abroad.”
Egypt protests: America’s secret backing for rebel leaders behind uprising
January 29, 2011The American government secretly backed leading figures behind the Egyptian uprising who have been planning “regime change” for the past three years, The Daily Telegraph has learned
The American Embassy in Cairo helped a young dissident attend a US-sponsored summit for activists in New York, while working to keep his identity secret from Egyptian state police.
On his return to Cairo in December 2008, the activist told US diplomats that an alliance of opposition groups had drawn up a plan to overthrow President Hosni Mubarak and install a democratic government in 2011.
He has already been arrested by Egyptian security in connection with the demonstrations and his identity is being protected by The Daily Telegraph.
The crisis in Egypt follows the toppling of Tunisian president Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali, who fled the country after widespread protests forced him from office.
U.S. town demolished over lead contamination, Thanks to Conservative Ideology
January 29, 2011(NOTE: The Republican party, or more accurately “Conservative” ideology, is based on “Profits Before People”. This includes removing all environmental protections, like GW Bush did, ones that were in place for some 30 years, stating that this ruins the private sector. Seems to me, this whole town has been ruined. Seeing as most “conservatives” in the republican party say they are “Christians”, the ones that believe you get what their god gave you, if you are wealthy and well-connected, you are allowed to rape the earth, and screw over the people in the USA and around the world. Only the elimination of all conservative Christians will allow all Americans to be free and the world to no longer have to live in fear of the U.S.A.’s imperialist, terrorist holy war. The conservative ideology has never helped mankind in any way, it has not only never helped mankind in anyway, it has oppressed, murdered, raped and killed all those in it’s way to gain power. History shows us this. Fact shows us this. James Madison, the “Father of the U.S. Constitution”, along with many founders of this country, regardless of their religious or non-religious affiliations, knew keeping politics and religion separate not only preserves each, but helps them flourish: “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 and the State.”)
Article:
U.S. town demolished over lead contamination
Fri Jan 28, 11:38 am ET
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters Life!) – Most of its residents left, the school closed, the city government was disbanded and starting this week nearly every commercial building in Picher, Oklahoma, will be demolished.
But the owner of the last-remaining open business in Picher, which has been vacated over the years because of lead contamination, is not ready to go.
“It’s not time for me to leave yet,” said Gary Linderman, owner of Old Miner’s Pharmacy in what is left of central Picher, located in the northeast corner of the state.
Continue: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110128/lf_nm_life/us_town_demolished
Three Million Ways to Analyze the Word ‘God’, The Hate Mongers Among Us, U.S. rabbis protest FOX host Glenn Beck’s use of Holocaust imagery
January 29, 20111-29-2011
Class Warfare or Financial Narcissism?:
Is America the target of class warfare? That claim, though widely made, misses the point. The problem is more serious and the long-term effects far more troubling. Though the facts are compelling, that conclusion is misleading.
In 2007, 1% of U.S. households claimed 24% of the national income. Those figures were compiled well before a debt-induced recession cost the jobs of millions of Americans. And well before the payment this year of a $144 billion bonus to Wall Street’s elite.
The topmost 1% now owns 34% of all private net worth; the bottom 90% owns 29%. Is that evidence of class warfare or is there something else at work?
The facts suggest that these record-breaking disparities were foreseeable by those sophisticated in trade and finance—but not until Americans could be persuaded to put their faith in a shared mindset now known as the “Washington” consensus.
- The Case of the Pope: Vatican Accountability for Human Rights Abuses by Geoffrey Robertson Terry Eagleton welcomes a coolly devastating inquiry into the Vatican’s handling of child abuse
- Pope’s offer was an ‘insensitive takeover bid’, say senior Anglicans Senior Church of England figures have attacked Pope Benedict XVI’s offer to disillusioned Anglicans to convert to Catholicism, describing it as “predatory” and “insensitive”.
- U.S. rabbis protest Fox host’s use of Holocaust imagery “Four hundred rabbis published a letter on Thursday calling on Fox News to sanction host Glenn Beck for repeated use of Nazi and Holocaust imagery and for airing attacks on World War Two survivor George Soros.”
- Tax-Exempt Ministries Avoid New Regulation A three-year investigation into financial improprieties at six Christian ministries whose television preaching bankrolled leaders’ lavish lifestyles has concluded with the formation of an independent commission to look into the lack of accountability by tax-exempt religious groups.
- Pope warns Facebook can’t replace human contact The Pope has warned of the dangers of social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, saying that communication between people online must not stop face-to-face conversations.
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Guilt By Association
Guilt by Association explains how the U.S. was deceived by elites and extremists to wage war in the Middle East. It also describes how both deception and self-deceit were essential for this criminality to succeed. This first book in the Criminal State series makes treason transparent so that national security can be restored and financial security protected from the transnational criminal syndicate chronicled in this account.
The book also shows how guilt by association was deployed to discredit the U.S. by its entangled alliance with the state of Israel. And how association is routinely used as a political tool either to accredit or discredit.
US Evangelicals incited the murder of Ugandan gay activist Christian gay-bashing returns with a vengeance – Ugandan Gay Rights Activist Murdered, US Evangelicals Must Take Responsibility
January 28, 2011-
US Evangelicals incited the murder of Ugandan gay activist Christian gay-bashing returns with a vengeance – Ugandan Gay Rights Activist Murdered, US Evangelicals Must Take Responsibility: “In a statement today, Political Research Associates condemned the murder and demanded an end to “the export of homophobia to Uganda by American conservatives.”
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A 65-year-old South Carolina woman has been charged with cruelty to animals after confessing to torturing and hanging a pit bull dog after the dog chewed on her Bible
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US Army foots the bill for Billy Graham event on Fort Bragg, NC
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Bobby Harris Still Protecting ‘Little Children’ From Gays At His Homeless Shelter: House of Mercy, the homeless shelter in Columbus, Georgia, that’s accused of kicking out two women for being lesbians, isn’t changing its No Gays Allowed policy even after the media firestorm. Bobby Harris, the shelter’s director who previously went on camera to defend Mercy’s Bible-based rules, continues to say the women were ousted for breaking house rules. Writing in a Columbus Ledger-Enquirer public letter, Harris says, “We have learned many lessons over the years and as a result, we have strict standards of conduct, curfew, language, dress and very clear policies on fraternization, regardless of sexual orientation of the parties involved.” What he doesn’t address is whether or not the women were kicked for breaking the rules, Mercy still bars sexually active gays. To counter Harris’ position, WRBL interviews openly gay Pastor Colley Williams, who was kicked out of a number of churches for his sexuality, before deciding to form his own inclusive house of worship. And for every Biblical passage Harris cites to rationalize his discrimination, Williams has one to denounce it.
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Mother’s Religious Beliefs Lead To Award of Health Care Decision Making to Father: In Winters v. Brown, (FL App., Jan. 26, 2011), a Florida appellate court upheld applying the “best interest of the child” test to affirm a trial court’s award of control over health care decisions for his minor child to the child’s father. Matthew Brown, the father, who was never married to Shannon Winters, the mother, petitioned for establishment of paternity and control over health care, religious and educational issues when Winters obtained a exemption from the public school immunization requirements for the child. Winters objects on religious grounds to introducing anything into the body to prevent disease or treat illness. [Thanks to Volokh Conspiracy for the lead.]
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‘Bullet-ridden’ Pope Benedict, President Bush, Hitler included in art show of ‘evil-doers’
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Federal Court Suit Challenges School’s Teaching of Evolution: Earlier this month, a former Pennsylvania high school teacher filed an action pro se challenging the teacing of evolution by the Blue Mountain, Pennsylvania school district. The complaint (full text) in Ritter v. Blue Mt. School District, (MD PA, filed 1/18/2011), alleges teaching that the only explanation for life is evolution (without the possibility of a Creator) amounts to the promoting of Atheism, which in turn amounts to teaching of a religion. Plaintiff objects to paying taxes to support the school district and asks the court to find that “the Blue Mt. School District is an illegal body so long as it teaches Atheism, and thus is not entitled to pursue any further actions.” Plaintiff also filed a “Brief” in support of his complaint and a copy of his school district tax bill along with a document arguing that evolution is unscientific. In a press release yesterday announcing the filing of the case, plaintiff added that the court in which the suit has been filed is the “same district that rendered the infamous Kitzmiller decision in 2005.”
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Christianity: Delusion and Arrogance Continue…
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US Army vs. Atheists: Part IV-The Circle Widens
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Threats to Sustainable Life – Why Bad Things Happen When Humans Play God: “In ascending order of threat, these fundamentalisms are religious, national, market, and technological. All share some similar characteristics, while each poses a particular threat to democracy and sustainable life on the planet.”
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Interesting Facts About The Bible – Oregonian
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Veterans for Common Sense (VCS) Exposes Tea Party Effort to Cut VA Healthcare and Benefits – Bachmann plan would cut veterans benefits
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Military needlessly excludes atheists with pervasive spirituality approach
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Resolved Question: How can I stop a group of fundies from giving out bibles in the South Carolina school system?
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10 things that God does not want you to do, part 1
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10 things God does not want you to do, part 2
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Atheism 101: Is Hell a threat?
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On Faith: Separation of medicine and religion
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Atheism 101: Are atheists angry with God?
How Jesus’s Message Was Hijacked, Onward Christian Soldiers … To Hypocrisy, Billy Graham’s Regret and more
January 28, 2011“All religions are equally sublime to the ignorant, useful to the politician, and ridiculous to the philosopher.”
~ Lucretius, On The Nature of Things
Source: American Atheist News
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Ugandan Gay Rights Activist Slain After Being Named on ‘Hit List’: (January 27th, 2011, Source: American Atheist News ) – An outspoken Ugandan gay rights campaigner, whose photo was published by a homophobic newspaper next to the headline “Hang Them,” has been killed after receiving numerous death threats.
This week’s Book of the Week is C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy, by Jeff Sharlet – Published by Little, Brown . Sharlet’s story of American fundamentalism begins in a historical mansion on Washington DC’s C Street, diverts to Argentina, takes root in Uganda, and ends at a street protest in Manhattan. The second in an unofficial series (after The Family) about a religious cabal of politicians from both major parties, Sharlet brings a wealth of research to reveal the startling mindset of a movement few even know exists. A paperback 352-page, $26.99 value for only $18 at Revolution Books this week only: http://www.revolutionbooksnyc.org/
Related:
US Politician Mike Huckabee and his close friends who helped create the “Kill the Gays” bill in Uganda, ” Mike Hucabee believes gays should have no rights, but they should also be killed, his best buddy who wants to see LGBT people killed or imprisoned for life in Uganda. And as recently as August 2010, Huckabee praised the work of this friend, a man named Rev. Lou Engle, who has made campaigning for the elimination of LGBT rights a central component of his life’s work.”
Thanks to Conservative Christians of the USA, Gays in Africa face growing persecution, activists say: “Conservative American evangelical churches have had a profound influence on society in Uganda and other African nations. They send missions and help fund local churches that share their brand of Christianity. Sermons and seminars by American evangelist preachers are staples on local television and radio networks across the continent.”
C Street politics: The Family sponsors death for homosexuals in Uganda: ‘The Christian mafia is advocating the death penalty for homosexuals in Uganda. The Family at C Street, aka the Christian mafia, is backing proposed anti-gay legislation in Uganda that will sentence homosexuals to death. The Family at C Street is actively supporting the Ugandan leaders who are championing this draconian legislation, legislation that would institute the death penalty for homosexuality. C Street has been a Christian fundamentalist frat house for US congressman and senators. The house, sometimes referred to as the “C Street Complex”, is home base for the Family.”
The Family: DC’s C Street Group Tied To Proposed Death Penalty for Gays in Uganda: “But what many people may find surprising is that the Family has branches around the world. In fact, yesterday, Jeff Sharlet, author of “The Family: Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power,” reported on NPR’s “Fresh Air” that it was a Family member in the Ugandan parliament who introduced a bill that would increase the punishment for homosexuality from life imprisonment, which is the maximum sentence today, to death.”
10-28-2010 - Is C Street Winning?: Orders Given To Arrest Gays In Kenya
David Kato, Uganda Gay Activist, Brutally Slain
Uganda and the C-Street Family
See these articles provided by Herescope.Blogspot.com: http://wthrockmorton.com/2010/06/14/david-bahati-lou-engle-expressed-support-for-ugandas-anti-homosexuality-bill-guest-post-by-jeff-sharlet/ - http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/sarahposner/2836/engle_supports_”principled_stand”_of_ugandan_anti-gay_bill_promoters – http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/sarahposner/2816/lou_engle_attempts_to_backpedal_on_uganda_anti-gay_bill/ – Interestingly, Bishop Oyet was a speaker at the key conference launching the 7 Mountain Mandate, http://www.reclaim7mountains.com/pages.asp?pageid=74130 and http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/focus-rep-attended-2009-7-mountains-conference-ugandas-oyet
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More Articles of Interest:
Source: American Atheist News, #1381 – 01/26/2011.” ‘I Would Have Steered Clear of Politics’ Billy Graham, the beloved evangelist known as “America’s pastor,” says that looking back on his long life and public ministry, one thing he would do differently is to avoid the political entanglements that have been one of the rare blots on his otherwise hallowed legacy. “I . . . would have steered clear of politics,” Graham, now 92 and in need of round-the-clock care, said via e-mail in response to questions from Christianity Today, the evangelical monthly he founded in the 1950s.”
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By William Rivers Pitt “Make no mistake: this movement to turn the Armed Forces into a bastion of hard-core fundamentalist Christianity is as dangerous as any threat posed to the country by any outside force or enemy.”
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by Rev. Howard Bess, explaining why Christianity turned violent and intolerant. “(Editor’s Note: A core contradiction of the Christian faith is how a religion, based on the teachings of a martyred advocate for peace and the poor, could be transformed into an institution that justifies war and rationalizes extraordinary wealth. In the United States, some politicians who brandish their Christianity as something of a campaign weapon would have you believe that Jesus favored invading other countries and wanted tax cuts for the super-rich. However, in this guest essay, the Rev. Howard Bess traces this contradiction to an ancient dispute): The great religious divide in the world today is not a divide between Christianity and other religions, but rather within Christendom.”
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Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) Demands That USAFA RescindFormer Lt. McClary’s Invitation to Speak at Academy’s National Prayer Luncheon “Albuquerque-based Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) has demanded that the United States Air Force Academy rescind their invitation to former Marine Lt. Clebe McClary to speak at the Academy’s upcoming National Prayer Luncheon. “Egregiously sectarian statements like [those] from former Lt. McClary blatantly exclude not only non-Christians, but also the many Christians who do not subscribe to a particularly fundamentalist view of Christianity,” said Michael “Mikey” Weinstein, President and Founder of MRFF. MRFF’s letter, linked below, closes by demanding that the Air Force Academy “immediately rescind its invitation to former Lt. McClary and choose a new speaker who can appropriately embody a message of inclusiveness for all Academy attendees.”
Related:
Academy critic calls for superintendent’s firing
Veterans, The Military, and Religious Freedom
United States Air Force (USAFA) Defends Christian Proselytizing
US Air Force (USAFA) Responds in Defense of Christian Dominionists and Proselytizing
US Air Force (USAFA) Won’t Disinvite Nakedly Christian Supremacist Speaker
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And More Articles of Interest:
Christian Apologist: Stop Showing Love to Gay People
Please Don’t Reshelve the Bibles
Ask Richard: Apostate Couple Called Satanists by Members of Former Chu
U.S. Media Has Blind Spot For Christian Extremism
FFRF stops Alabama teacher’s bible distribution
Leading Illinois governor candidate supports Creationism in classroom
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Sexual violence in one of the most conservative Christian, Socialist supporting, Separatist Supported State Alaska, is far worse than reported
January 27, 2011Alaska:
Conservative Christian:
“Red”, conservative, predominantly Christian
Socialist supporting:
11-07-2008 Gov. Sarah Palin enthusiastically practices socialism, Alaska-style: http://www.adn.com/opinion/story/581484.html
Separatist Supported:
A Palin Joined Alaskan Third Party, Just Not Sarah Palin
By KATE ZERNIKE, Published: September 3, 2008
Among the new recruits was Todd Palin, whose wife, Sarah, would later become governor of Alaska. The Palins attended the party’s convention in their hometown, Wasilla, in 1994, according to party officials, where the party called for a revote on statehood and a draft constitution for an independent Republic of Alaska. Mr. Palin joined the party.
Ms. Palin remained a Republican and never joined the Alaskan Independence Party, but returned to its convention in 2006 to speak as candidate for governor. After she had been elected, she recorded a video greeting that was played at the party convention this year. “Good luck on a successful and inspiring convention,” she said. “Keep up the good work, and God bless you.”
Now that she is the Republican nominee for vice president — for a campaign whose motto is “Country first” — the couple’s interaction with the Alaskan Independence Party has gotten attention because of its reputation as a secessionist group.
Alaskan Independence Party officials released a statement Monday saying that Ms. Palin had been a member for two years, from 1994 to 1996, information included in reports in The New York Times and other news outlets. In Internet videos of recent party meetings, other party officials can be seen boasting of Ms. Palin’s past membership.
In the mid-1990s, the Alaskan Independence Party was experiencing a boom of sorts. A governor had been elected on its ticket in 1990, when the party was not even a decade old. And membership was swelling.
Continue: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/04/us/politics/04party.html
Related:
Palin Alaskan Separatist Group Hates America : Todd Palin a Member; Group Curses “Damn US Flag”
Todd Palin Was Registered Member of Alaska Independence Party Until 2002
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STORY:
Sexual violence in Alaska is far worse than reported, study finds
By Jade Walker jade Walker – Tue Jan 25, 8:57 am ET
FBI crime statistics show that the chance of a woman being raped in the state of Alaska is higher than in any other state in the union. But what about unreported sexual assaults? A new study conducted by the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Justice Center found that 9 out of 10 rape cases go unreported.
The study offered more grim statistics:
* More than 44 percent of those surveyed have suffered physical violence in a close relationship, from slapping to severe beatings.
* More than 58 percent report that they’ve suffered either threats of violence or actual physical violence in an intimate relationship or sexual assault at some time in the lives.
* More than 37 percent report that they’ve suffered some form of sexual assault in their lives.
* More than 4 percent report that they’ve suffered sexual assault in the past year.
“If you really stop and think about it and consider these numbers, it means there’s a level of violence and victimization in this state that makes you uncomfortable. It makes your skin crawl,” State Senator Hollis French told Reuters.
Sexual assault can happen to anyone and perpetrators come from all races and socioeconomic classes, religions and cultures. However, Native American and Alaska Native women are 2 to 2.5 times more likely to be sexually assaulted than women of all other ethnicities in the U.S., Amnesty International reported.
Previous studies have also shown that the average age of rape victims in Alaska was 16 while the average age of those accused was 29. Four out of five cases involved suspects who were relatives, friends or acquaintances.
“When a victim knows who harmed them and they live in a small community where everyone is related, they know that if they report that they were harmed, then other community members will be impacted,” Michelle DeWitt, director of the Tundra Women’s Coalition, told The Associated Press. “Knowing that someone may be removed from the community makes it very difficult to talk about it.”
If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, you can contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE for help. The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network is also affiliated with 18 rape crisis centers in Alaska, and offers an online hotline, with live and anonymous crisis support 24 hours a day.
What God Cannot Do – Part 6
January 27, 2011Bradley Bowen
did not especially want to get into a discussion about Jesus, the incarnation, the trinity, etc. However, my claim that God cannot suffer or be harmed leads naturally to objections like this one from Lincoln:
God can be hurt. In fact Christianity is based off the fact that God can not only be hurt, but he can die. Jesus, who is God, sacrificed himself for us. This is an act of heroism.
His reasoning goes like this:
1. Jesus suffered.
2. Jesus was harmed.
Therefore:
3. Jesus could suffer and be harmed.
4. Jesus is God.
Therefore:
5. God could suffer and be harmed.
The Role Model: What Obama Sees in Reagan
January 27, 2011 By MICHAEL SCHERER AND MICHAEL DUFFY Michael Scherer And Michael Duffy
1-27-2011
In May 2010, Barack Obama invited a small group of presidential historians to the White House for a working supper in the Family Dining Room. It was the second time he’d had the group in since taking office, and as he sat down across the table from his wife Michelle, the President pressed his guests for lessons from his predecessors. But as the conversation progressed, it became clear to several in the room that Obama seemed less interested in talking about Lincoln’s team of rivals or Kennedy’s Camelot than the accomplishments of an amiable conservative named Ronald Reagan, who had sparked a revolution three decades earlier when he arrived in the Oval Office. Obama and Reagan share a number of gifts but virtually no priorities. And yet Obama was clearly impressed by the way Reagan had transformed Americans’ attitude about government. The 44th President regarded the 40th, said one participant, as a vital “point of reference.” Douglas Brinkley, who edited Reagan’s diaries and attended the May dinner, left with a clear impression that Obama had found a role model. “There are policies, and there is persona, and a lot can be told by persona,” he says. “Obama is approaching the job in a Reaganesque fashion.”
When Obama stood before Congress, the Cabinet and the American people to deliver his second State of the Union address, both the Reagan persona and policies put in appearances. He proposed a freeze in discretionary spending and federal salaries, a push to simplify the tax code and billions in cuts to the defense budget, and he made new calls for a bipartisan effort to repair Social Security. Each of these had been proposed before by another third-year President coming off a midterm defeat in a period of high unemployment. “Let us, in these next two years – men and women of both parties, every political shade – concentrate on the long-range, bipartisan responsibilities of government,” Reagan said in his 1983 State of the Union, “not the short-range or short-term temptations of partisan politics.” (See Reagan in TIME’s top 10 memorable debate moments.)
Continue:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20110127/us_time/08599204457900
Christians Who Claim Their Belief in God is the Only Thing Keeping Them Moral
January 26, 2011“The argument that the literal story of Genesis can qualify as science collapses on three major grounds: the creationists’ need to invoke miracles in order to compress the events of the earth’s history into the biblical span of a few thousand years; their unwillingness to abandon claims clearly disproved, including the assertion that all fossils are products of Noah’s flood; and their reliance upon distortion, misquote, half-quote, and citation out of context to characterize the ideas of their opponents.”
~ Stephen Jay Gould, “The Verdict on Creationism”, The Skeptical Inquirer, Winter 87/88, pg. 186
Source: Quotation of the Minute – The Secular Web
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Christians Who Claim Their Belief in God is the Only Thing Keeping Them Moral
Force-Feeding Religion
Is It OK for Christians to Censor the Bible? - “When Christian author Rachel Held Evans heard about the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn controversy , she was upset because she loves the book so much.”
A Crusade and a Holy War in the US Military – “An Orthodox Jew and former petty officer in the US Navy said his civil rights were violated after a chaplain and officials at a Veterans Administration hospital in Iowa City, Iowa, tried to convert him to Christianity while he was under the V.A.’s care.”
He Boiled for Your Sins
Atheists of Florida Kicked Out of Cape Coral City Council Meeting – “A month ago, the Atheists of Florida were threatened by the Cape Coral City Council because they were wearing shirts that read, “One Nation, Indivisible”
An Interview with a Former Quiverfull Parent
I Took the Army’s Soldier Fitness Test (and Was Deemed Spiritually Unfit) – “Army Sergeant Timothy Cichon, an atheist, shares first-hand his experience with taking the Soldier Fitness Test and the spirituality component.”
Who Owns Human Rights? – “Carl Coon, AHA advisory board member and former U.S. ambassador to Nepal raises the question, “Who has the right to define human rights?””
New PRA Report Exposes Islamophobic Counter-Terrorism Training Industry – “PRA’s forthcoming report, to be published this January, exposes an influential anti-Islam and anti-Muslim segment of the counter-terrorism training industry. Since September 11, 2001, the “war on terror” has given rise to private companies that offer training by so-called “experts” on Islam and terrorism. These experts label Islam as a terrorist religion, routinely branding Muslims as vengeful and duplicitous people who oppress Westerners.”
Evangelicals: megachurches find following, criticism in French society – “As “megachurches,” which were pioneered in places like Korea and the United States, become a global phenomenon, even such secular countries as France are seeing the growth of these super-sized congregations, according to Paris-based researcher Sebastien Fath.”
Catholic League president Bill Donohue Defends Museum Censorship, Blames “Gay Activists” and “Bathhouses” for Artist’s Death
Secular Humanism: Its Scope and Its Limits
Atheists Are Generous-They Just Don’t Give to Charity
Roadside bombs killed 268 American troops in Afghanistan last year, a 60 percent increase over the previous year
January 26, 2011US roadside bomb casualties rise in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan – Roadside bombs killed 268 American troops in Afghanistan last year, a 60 percent increase over the previous year even as the Pentagon employs new measures to counter the Taliban’s makeshift weapon of choice.
The number of U.S. troops wounded by what the military terms improvised explosive devices also soared, according to U.S. defense figures obtained Wednesday.
There were 3,366 U.S. service members injured in IED blasts — up 178 percent from the 1,211 hurt by the militants’ crudely made bombs in 2009, the figures showed.
Defense officials attributed the rise in casualties to the surge in U.S. forces in Afghanistan last year. Fighting has increased, especially in southern and eastern Afghanistan, as coalition forces work to weaken the Taliban in their strongholds and keep them from returning in force this spring.
The Pentagon’s Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, based outside Washington, D.C., said not all the year-end statistics were gloomy.
During heavy fighting in June and July, 35 percent of the bomb blasts killed or wounded U.S. troops. That percentage fell to 26 percent in December despite ongoing violence and a high volume of IED attacks.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110126/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan_ied_casualties
Roadside bombs killed 268 American troops in Afghanistan last year, a 60 percent increase over the previous year
January 26, 2011US roadside bomb casualties rise in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan – Roadside bombs killed 268 American troops in Afghanistan last year, a 60 percent increase over the previous year even as the Pentagon employs new measures to counter the Taliban’s makeshift weapon of choice.
The number of U.S. troops wounded by what the military terms improvised explosive devices also soared, according to U.S. defense figures obtained Wednesday.
There were 3,366 U.S. service members injured in IED blasts — up 178 percent from the 1,211 hurt by the militants’ crudely made bombs in 2009, the figures showed.
Defense officials attributed the rise in casualties to the surge in U.S. forces in Afghanistan last year. Fighting has increased, especially in southern and eastern Afghanistan, as coalition forces work to weaken the Taliban in their strongholds and keep them from returning in force this spring.
The Pentagon’s Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, based outside Washington, D.C., said not all the year-end statistics were gloomy.
During heavy fighting in June and July, 35 percent of the bomb blasts killed or wounded U.S. troops. That percentage fell to 26 percent in December despite ongoing violence and a high volume of IED attacks.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110126/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan_ied_casualties
Riding Horses Through Flames Is A Religious Ritual In Spanish Festival
January 26, 2011“If sin exists then Christian fundamentalism is as sinful as sloth, greed or gluttony. It’s a lifestyle that promotes surrender to the temptation to simplify the complexities of life by letting someone else do your thinking for you.”
Source: ‘Religious Right: Christians Fundamentally Gone Wild‘
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“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it comes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism – ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any controlling private power.” ~ President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Source: ‘ The Democracy Gap’, Ralph Nader
(Ralph Nader is the author of: ‘The Good Fight: Declare Your Independence and Close the Democracy Gap’ (Harper Collins Books). http://www.ralphnadersgoodfight.com/)
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Horses Ridden Through Fire in Spanish Festival
“This year over a hundred riders took their horses through the flames and smoke in the controversial ritual which residents claim brings on the blessings of Saint Anthony. The animals are sanctified, they say and “liberated from all their ills.” ,…, “It presents a great religious irony that residents of San Bartolome de Pinares choose to honor the patron saint of animals by torturing and frightening horses with fire. More importantly however, it gives us a glimpse into the way that religion and superstition consistently view animals as expendable, lower, and not worthy of moral consideration. To superstitious residents, this ritual is a blessing to the horses, regardless of whether the animals want to participate or not.” Continue
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Hutaree Christian Militia of Michigan, Planned To Fight Non-Christians With Bullets
“The Hutaree group of southern Michigan was planning to fight the AntiChrist, and non-Christians, not with prayers, but with bullets, calling themselve Christian warriors.”
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Preacher: You are no longer a Christian….theory of evolution destroyed her faith in God.
“The visiting preacher, addressing the congregation in the Primitive Baptist church, told of young woman in his Tennessee community who enrolled in a biology course at a nearby university. When the woman finished the course and returned home, the preacher said, she was no longer a Christian. The theory of evolution destroyed her faith in God.”
Related:
Hell and the High Schools by T. T. Martin (1923)
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Conservative lawmakers in dozens of states, energized by midterm electoral gains, are working aggressively to limit abortions
“This is what happens when people promote extreme right wing politicians ‘ala Tea Party’ to all levels of government.. There is a good possibility of not only cancelling all recently passed healthcare items, but also Roe vs Wade. We will soon be going back to the days of coat hangers in back alleys.. along with all of the suffering and deaths that happened back in those ‘good ol days’.”
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Karl Rove Used Federal Resources for Electing Republicans
“Republicans often cry foul about wasting and misusing taxpayer dollars. So what will be there reaction now that they learn that the White House and federal resources and funding was used for electioneering? No, not the Obama White House, the Bush White House.
Via the New York Times:
“The Bush White House, particularly before the 2006 midterm elections, routinely violated a federal law that prohibits use of federal tax dollars to pay for political activities by creating a “political boiler room” that coordinated Republican campaign activities nationwide, a report issued Monday by an independent federal agency concludes.” ,…,
,…, “Ironically, the GOP is now trying to cut the Presidential Campaign Fund in their new spending reduction plan.”
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According to an important new book on religion in America, we’re increasingly a nation of fervent believers and avowed secularists, with the moderate middle disappearing. Why? Three major causes stand out
“As Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell show in their monumental study of religion in the contemporary United States, American Grace, we are increasingly a nation divided between the highly religious on one side and the avowedly secular on the other. The moderate middle, which dominated America’s religious landscape in the second half of the 20th Century, is shrinking, they say. What caused this religious polarization? The authors put it down to what they call “three seismic societal shocks.”
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Obama and the Rise of Secular Spirituality
“Religion was hijacked for political gain by the right wing beginning as far back as the Nixon era, yet there is a much stronger current of secular spirituality running through our history. The Founding Fathers were mostly Deists, rational Christians emerging from the Age of Enlightenment for whom a present-day Southern Baptist would have been totally foreign, if not anathema. They were tolerant believers in a benign God who transcended narrow denominations. They considered the rights of man to be the basis of enlightened belief, and when freedom was labeled an inalienable right, they meant that is was God-given, just as all men being created equal was God-given.” Continue
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“Anyone who says that Biblical law is too restrictive or burdensome, they will be counted as enemies of the Lord and they will be destroyed by him, whether they are liberal or conservative,”
“Christian Reconstructionism, (is) an obscure but growing branch of Christian fundamentalism whose adherents believe the world should be “reconstructed” so that everyone in it lives under strict Old Testament moral codes imposed by local theocracies. There is no room for democracy in Reconstructionism, and no tolerance for dissent. “To oppose us is to attack God’s law,” Mark Rushdoony testified to nearly 200 followers from four states, “and to attack God’s law is to attack God himself!”
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The Family’s Threat to American Democracy
“Editor’s note: This a post that first appeared on The Progressive Reader. Author Jeff Sharlet gives an interview about his latest book on the fundamentalist Christian network called the Family.”
“Two years ago, in a brilliant work of investigative reporting, Jeff Sharlet introduced readers to the Family, an elite, highly secretive, and deeply anti-democratic network of fundamentalist Christians whose members include some of the nation’s highest ranking politicians. Now he’s back with a sequel updating his earlier reporting and tracing the Family’s carefully concealed efforts to shape national policy at home and abroad. Sharlet recently talked by phone with PBC about his new book, C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy.”
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Banning Gay Marriage & Civil Unions, Nazis & Catholics, and Proselytizing and Christian supremacy have no place in the US military
January 25, 2011Groups Protest Air Force Academy’s Scheduled Prayer Luncheon Speaker
Yesterday the Military Religious Freedom Foundation released a letter (full text) it has sent to the Superintendent of the U.S. Air Force Academy objecting to the Academy’s scheduling of former Marine Lt. Clebe McClary as the speaker for the Academy’s National Prayer Luncheon next month. Continue
Vietnam Vet Says: “Proselytizing and Christian supremacy have no place in the United States military”
Lt. McClary lost an eye and an arm; I lost the ability to walk. Countless other Marines, of all religions and no religion, have also suffered life-changing and permanent injuries in the service of our country. Lt. McClary dishonorably, not to mention illegally, appears in the uniform of a Marine before both military and civilian audiences, not with the message of “Once a Marine, Always a Marine,” but a message of “Once a Marine, now ‘a member of the Lord’s Army.’”
Proselytizing and Christian supremacy have no place in the United States military, and I urge the Air Force Academy to reconsider its choice of Lt. McClary as the speaker for its Prayer Luncheon, and to replace him with a speaker who can deliver a message that is inclusive of members of all faiths. Continue
A Theocrat By Any Other Name (would be the same)
Catholic Online a conservative news outlet, gave the most detailed report on Terry’s announcement, and picked-up on what may be its most significant dimension:
In talking about his platform that affirms life, marriage between a man and a woman only and human freedom, he indicated that he will run an “unashamedly theocentric campaign. The Constitution of the United States of America is a phenomenal document,” he stated. “But it is not the primary document that was given to the human race to govern themselves. That would be the Ten Commandments and the Sermon On The Mount.”
The terminology is important here. Theocentric means a culture that is focused on God. This was an interesting, if euphemistic choice of words. He could have used theonomic — a word that is popular in his circles — which means a society that is governed by God’s laws, (since he invoked the Ten Commandments). But could also have used theocratic, which is a government that is run by God’s agents. Contemporary theocrats like to hide behind the terms theonomic and theocentric, because most Americans take the word theocratic as pejorative. While these terms have legitimate academic distinctions, as a practical matter, there is very little difference when political theorists, operatives and candidates use them. Continue
Faith-Based Politics: Kinship Between National Socialism & Roman Catholicism In Christian Nations, Christians Rationalize the Blending of Religion, Politics
“It’s common for Christians to assume that Christian churches resisted Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany. The truth is that not only did few even go so far as to voice criticism, much less overtly and publicly resist, but some actually made serious arguments for the idea that Christianity and Nazi ideology were totally compatible. Suchrguments for compatibility could either focus on the ideologies’ specific teachings, on their general approaches to life and society, or both.“ Continue
Related:
‘Theologians Under Hitler’: http://www.vitalvisuals.com/?q=node/19
“In the days after World War II, a convenient story was told of church leaders and ordinary Christians that defied the Nazis from the beginning. Recent research has uncovered a very different story. Rather than resisting, the greater part of the German church saw Hitler’s rise in 1933 as an act of God’s blessing, a new chapter in the story of God among the German people.
This film, based upon groundbreaking research, introduces the viewer to three of the greatest Christian scholars of the twentieth century: Paul Althaus, Emanuel Hirsch, and Gerhard Kittel, men who were also outspoken supporters of Hitler and the Nazi party. In 1933 Althaus spoke of Hitler’s rise as “a gift and miracle of God.” Hirsch saw 1933 as a “sunrise of divine goodness.” And Kittel, the editor of the standard reference work on the Jewish background of the New Testament, began working for the Nazis to find a “moral” rationale for the destruction of European Jewry.
This provocative film asks: how could something like this happen in the heart of Christian Europe? Could it happen again? How does the scholarship of this period affect the church today? Does the church of today retain the ability to recognize profound evil?”
Principal to Atheist Student: Why Are You Starting a Hate Group?
“You want to know how important the Secular Student Alliance is? There’s an incredible testimonial on Reddit from a high school student in Oklahoma who wanted to begin an atheist group his junior year. After word about the group got out on Facebook, the student was called in to the principal’s office…” Continue
Iowa GOP Hopes to Ban Gay Marriage & Civil Unions. Pastors Mobilizing to Dismiss Liberties, Revoke Rights
The battle over marriage equality in Iowa is heating up as Republicans in the State House are moving forward with plans to ban gay marriage and civil unions, an attempt to reverse a unanimous 2009 State Supreme Court decision in favor of marriage equality.
…..
Vander Plaats’s new organization, The Family Leader, recently blasted pro-equality faith leaders in an alert message that questions their faith, stating: “167 ‘religious’ leaders signed a letter delivered to the Iowa Legislature saying that people of faith support homosexual ‘marriage.’ Don’t stay silent while others speak for you and misrepresnt [sic] God.” The group calls on pastors to sign an alternative petition which describes “homosexual behavior” as “immoral and sinful” and “harmful both to the individuals who choose to participate in it and the society that chooses to accept it.” Continue
Military Branch Being Run By ‘Crusaders’
The New Yorker’s Seymour Hersh alleged in a speech in Qatar that key branches of the U.S. military are being led by Christian fundamentalist “crusaders” who are determined to “turn mosques into cathedrals.”
Hersh was speaking at the Doha campus of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service earlier this week. He made the comments while discussing a forthcoming book he is writing. A writer for Foreign Policy magazine attended the event and reported his remarks.
“What I’m really talking about is how eight or nine neoconservative, radicals if you will, overthrew the American government. Took it over,” Hersh said. Continue
Government supports Ten Commandments, Pro-Lifers for Mass Murder, Anti-choice congressman says abortion is “bigotry” and more….
January 25, 2011ACLU Says Giles County School Board’s Decision to Post Ten Commandments Violates Religious Liberty
Source: ‘Freedom From Religion Foundation’ News
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REMINDERS:
“The United States of America should have a foundation free from the influence of clergy.” ~ George Washington
“Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise.” – James Madison
“Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites.” ~ Thomas Jefferson
“The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.” ~ Thomas Jefferson wrote, in a letter to John Adams (April 11, 1823)
“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. … My own mind is my own church.” ~ Thomas Paine ‘The Age of Reason (1794)’
“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 Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan 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.”
~ Tripoli of Barbary. Art. 11. – Authored by American diplomat Joel Barlow in 1796, the following treaty was sent to the floor of the Senate, June 7, 1797, where it was read aloud in its entirety and unanimously approved. John Adams, having seen the treaty, signed it and proudly proclaimed it to the Nation.
“The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion”. ~ Thomas Paine
“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 and the State.”
~ James Madison a.k.a. ‘The Father of the Constitution of the United States of America
I suggest you ALL watch the following DVDs & Videos:
‘Imagine If All Atheists Left America’:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbef07aQtB8
‘Constantines Sword’:
http://www.ConstantinesSword.com
‘Theologians Under Hitler’:
http://www.vitalvisuals.com/?q=node/19
‘The God Who Wasn’t There’:
http://www.TheGodMovie.com/
‘A brief rundown of the cost in human lives exacted by religion and religious warfare’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq0oMhR3OgI
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“Terrorism is the best political weapon
for nothing drives people harder
than a fear of sudden death.”
- Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) German Nazi Dictatory
Source: ‘Downfall of Science and Humanity’ FlyByNew.com, 25 January, 2011
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AROUND THE GLOBE:
Should churches pay taxes? Mission, Kansas levies road use tax on churches
“To the Christian Right, their think tanks, cronies and so called legal “experts,” separation of church and state shouldn’t (and doesn’t) exist–except when churches are asked to pay their fair share. This approach has been being tested in Mission, Kansas since December of last year to the current time, where the mayor approved a plan to tax churches for road use in order to fill budget gaps.”
ONE COMMENTER OF THE ARTICLE SAID IT PERFECTLY:
“Yes. It’s time. The days of subsidizing religion because pastors and preachers only means was the largess of the congregation and community, are over. Churches are no longer supported by the weekly offering plate passed through the pews.
That was then. This is now.
Churches are for-profit. The staff they hire are well-compensated through for-profit activities. Churches now routinely misuse property tax exemptions for financial benefit and money-laundering in the name of God. Religion is now a commodity.
The money-changers have taken over the temple again.”
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The White House’s corporate agenda
The release of some 1,700 secret documents has exposed the so-called peace process as a criminal farce, part of a permanent US-Israeli conspiracy against the basic rights of the Palestinian people. Continue
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If God Held a Press Conference…
Source: FriendlyAtheist.com
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United States Air Force Responds in Defense of Christian Dominionists and Proselytizing
“The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) and its allies waged a new line of attacks towards Lt. Gen. Michael Gould, the Superintendent of the U.S. Air Force Academy (USAFA), demanding the self-proclaimed “Lord’s Army” soldier, Clebe McClary, not be allowed to proselytize Academy personnel at the USAFA prayer breakfast scheduled for February 10, 2011.
Specifically, MRFF, Veterans Today and a growing coalition of veterans and civil rights groups are demanding the Academy rescind McClary’s invitation.
The demand comes as Marine Vietnam War veteran, writer and activist, Gordon Duff (Veterans Today Senior editor), derided the growing Christian dominionist movement in the U.S. military as an “extralegal chain of command” that is “sectarian and detrimental to good order and discipline.”
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation’s executive director, Mikey Weinstein, is widely known as the “constitutional conscience” of the U.S. military and has waged a years-long battle with the exclusionist religious right in the military and military academies.”
,…,
“Many of the service members who have contacted MRFF (Military Religious Freedom Foundation) in opposition to allowing Lt. McClary to speak at the Academy’s Prayer Luncheon, and others who have written comments on articles about the issue, are current and former service members who have previously heard this man speak at other military events, and know from first hand experience what his message is. It is a message of fundamentalist Christian supremacy.” ,…, “Academy’s David K. Cannon, Director of Communication, defending the Christian supremacist chain of command working within our military—extending to our military academies,”
Related: Evangelicals Are a Growing Force in the Military Chaplain Corps (Goodstein, NYT; July 12, 2005)
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Sex Abuse in the Catholic Church: When Adults are Victims
By Kathryn Joyce
“As Catholic sex abuse scandals once again dominate headlines from Boston to Belgium, and even the fast-track canonization of Pope John Paul II is marred by questions of culpability, the role of the Catholic hierarchy in enabling clergy abuse seems indisputable, admitted even by die-hard church partisans like the Catholic League. But what’s less understood is how these same patterns persist in today’s Church, where demographic shifts and a dwindling priesthood may be creating a new set of scenarios for abuse. The story of Katia Birge is a case in point.” Continue
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A Strategy for Antiwar Organizing
By David Grosser
“[P]olitics begin where millions of men and women are; where there are not thousands but millions…” (V.I. Lenin, “Political Report Of The Central Committee” Extraordinary Seventh Congress of the R.C.P.(B.) March 7, 1918 http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1918/7thcong/01.html)
“ACCORDING TO A recent CNN poll, “American support for the war in Afghanistan has never been lower” and “only 37% of all Americans favor the war, [while] 52% say the war in Afghanistan has turned into a Vietnam.” (http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/15/what-the-numbers-say-about-progress-in-afghanistan/)
Fifty-two percent of the adult U.S. population is around 120,000,000 people! Generalizing about such a massive group is risky, but it’s safe to say whatever their differences, 98% of that vast antiwar public has never participated in any activity organized by the antiwar movement.”
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Theocracy: “What Would Be So Bad About It?”
By Julie Ingersoll
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More proof the “Right” hates gays: Top Republicans Skipping CPAC After Inclusion of Gay GOP Group
Evangelical Christians show their political influence … One invitation has been followed by a lot of rejection for the Conservative Political Action Conference.
From the Huffington Post
“After event organizers decided to allow GOProud, a gay Republican group, to be a “participating organization” for a second straight year, social conservative organizations like the Family Research Council and Concerned Women for America decided they wouldn’t be coming out.”
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The Incredible Shrinking Free Exercise Clause
By Bruce Ledewitz
“How did we get to the point where the infringement of a religious obligation is constitutionally irrelevant despite the existence in the text of a constitutional protection of religion?” Continue
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Murfreesboro vs. Islamophobia
By Jase Short and Andy Woloszyn
“WHEN THE MUSLIM community in Murfreesboro, Tennessee sought a permit to build an expanded Islamic Center, local bigots saw an opportunity to exploit the same “moral panic,” invented by the Tea Party, the Christian Right and much of the corporate media, that would also emerge in New York around the so-called “Ground Zero mosque.” The amalgamation of racial, ethnic, religious and national identities into a demonic Islamic “Other,” has been spreading throughout the United States as well as Western Europe.
It was in this context that forces in middle Tennessee — representing some of its most reactionary elements such as real estate mogul and neo-Confederate ideologist Howard Wall — signed on with the national Islamophobic campaign, expecting an easy escalation of anti-Muslim sentiment across the area.”
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Great Bible Verses (that Christians Don’t Use)
“It’s true: the Bible is literally filled to the brim with verses that you wouldn’t want your children reading. From Onan spilling his seed so as not to impregnate his sister-in-law to the prophet that sat on a wall ingesting his own waste, from God’s command that the aptly-named Hosea marry a harlot to his command that one woman eat her own baby and one man give his daughter as a burnt sacrifice, from instructions for selling your children into sex slavery to the New Testament description of how a good Christian master should treat his slaves, the Bible contains passages that definitely don’t seem to coincide with the message its adherents cling to.
But there are some good parts to it, right? Before it was ever used as the cornerstone of the world’s three largest monotheistic religions, it was, after all, literature.
There are quite a few verses in the Bible that even a complete skeptic can read and accept as something worthwhile. The only problem is that so often most of the religious faithful don’t even know they exist! Let’s set out to discover a few of these, and maybe next time you’re confronted with a Bible-quoting Christian, you can ask them what they think about the Bible verses that say…”
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Jesus smites hundreds with Hepatitis A for being Catholic!
Hundreds of people might have been exposed to hepatitis A while receiving communion on Christmas Day, Long Island officials said Monday.
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Wikileaks, Karl Marx and you
By Alistair Davidson
“December 23, 2010 — Liberty and Solidarity — Despite blanket media coverage of Wikileaks and Julian Assange, there has been little discussion of the fact that Assange is merely one leader within a large and complicated social movement. The better analyses have found it interesting that the Swedish Pirate Party are aiding Wikileaks; some note links to the German Chaos Computer Club. But only “geeks” and “hackers” (technology workers) are aware that all of these organisations are members of the same movement.”
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Atheism Shouldn’t Offend…But It Often Does
“For better or worse, Ricky Gervais, is receiving quite a bit of attention recently for being an atheist. In this interview, the interviewer actually suggests that simply disclosing his atheism somehow involves mocking the religious.”
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What Happened To Change We Were Supposed To Believe In?
“Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.” – Albert Einstein
“MANY PROGRESSIVES VOTED for Barack Obama hoping that we would see national leadership that would greatly differ from that of his predecessor, George W. Bush. It has been over two years since that historic election and many progressives across the nation are asking, Where’s the change?”
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Democrats, Republicans plan deep cuts in US state budgets
By Joseph Kishore
“Governors in states throughout the US have begun to unveil budget proposals that include devastating cuts in basic social services, education, health care, and pay and benefits for government workers.
US state governments face a collective deficit of about $140 billion this coming fiscal year, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. This does not include the disastrous budget situation confronting cities and localities throughout the country. Total state revenues fell by half a trillion dollars from 2008 to 2009, contributing to the budget crises.”
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Spiritualism and Sex Meet Evangelical Censorship, 19th-Century-Style
By Leigh Eric Schmidt
“It was what I found in the archives that inspired me to write the book—Craddock’s unpublished book manuscripts on everything from ancient sex worship to contemporary marriage reform. And then there was her journal of mystical experiences—a diary so baffling and intense in its combination of spiritualism and sexuality as to demand attention.” Continue
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Amnesty International opposes US abuse of Private Manning
“Amnesty International charged the US government with “inhumane treatment” of Private Bradley Manning, the US soldier accused of leaking secret military and diplomatic files to the whistleblower web site WikiLeaks.
Manning has been detained since last May and held in solitary confinement for the past seven months, under conditions clearly intended to be punitive, although the 23-year-old soldier has not even been formally charged, let alone convicted of any offense.
The army private is confined to a cell for 23 hours a day and denied a pillow, sheets or personal possessions like his prescription glasses and most clothing. Manning has declared that, in view of his poor eyesight, depriving him of glasses has left him in “essential blindness.”
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Humanists Dismayed by Obama’s Lack of Will to Fix Bush’s Faith-Based Initiatives
11-17-2010
The American Humanist Association (AHA) leadership expressed frustration with President Obama’s Executive Order concerning the regulations of federally funded faith-based initiatives. The changes, recommended by a President’s Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships Taskforce, affirm federally funded organizations’ rights to retain their religious influence, and fail to prohibit religious tests in hiring.
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Pro-Lifers for Mass Murder
“How many churches on the recent Sanctity of Human Life Sunday mentioned the right to life of countless numbers of Iraqis and Afghans who have been killed by American bombs and bullets in unjust wars instigated by the United States? How many churches mentioned the right to life of U.S. soldiers who have died in vain and for a lie in senseless foreign wars? If the pro-lifers in churches that observed Sanctity of Human Life Sunday care about innocent children then surely they mentioned children in Iraq and Afghanistan who have lost their parents because of the U.S. waging war on their countries, children born with birth defects due to the U.S. military using depleted uranium, and children in Iraq killed by brutal U.S. sanctions? Surely they mentioned the orphaned and emotionally scarred children of dead and injured U.S. soldiers?
Although some churches may have mentioned these things, I suspect that the number is rather small or, in the case of most evangelical churches, very insignificant.”
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Rep. Smith Suggests a New Protected Class: “Immaturity”
Anti-choice congressman says abortion is “bigotry.”
“Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), a favorite of the religious right in large part for his staunch opposition to reproductive rights, issued a statement today which contained excerpts of his speech at the March for Life in Washington, D.C., in which he referred to abortion as “unacceptable bigotry.”
Last year, the anti-choice activist Lila Rose, notorious for her undercover videos at Planned Parenthood clinics, made the horrifically inappropriate comparison of murdered civil rights activist Emmett Till and a fetus. Just as Till’s mother’s decision to show photographs of her dead son’s battered body ignited the civil rights movement, Rose argued, graphic exposure of abortion would spark a civil rights movement for fetuses.”
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New York mayor moves to shut public schools while promoting charters
“Billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg has escalated an assault on public education in New York City by proceeding with plans to close at least 26 public schools this year while adding more than 100 private charter schools. The Department of Education (DOE) has hastened the co-location—in the same buildings as larger schools—of selective, smaller public schools and charter schools that starve traditional schools of space and resources.” ,…, “The defense of quality public education for everyone can go forward only on an anti-capitalist and international basis. A broadly conceived social program is necessary to defend public education. It would require the elimination of poverty though jobs, livable wages, low-cost health care and housing made possible through the recovery of the massive amounts of social wealth now stolen by the super-rich.”
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The New Socialism – Time for a New Socialism
January 24, 2011The New Socialism
Alan Johnson – December 21, 2010 9:00 pm
Neal Lawson, chair of the British democratic left pressure group Compass, and John Harris, a journalist, have written a major essay, “Time for a New Socialism.”
What ties a realigned and revived centre-left together is the concept of the Good Society: the only vision that holds out convincing answers to issues of equality, esteem, time, sustainability, voice, and quality of life. Unless and until socialism feels like a better offer than the exhausting treadmill of consumerist capitalism, there is no hope. We cannot build the good society on the rotting body of the worst excesses of bureaucracies or markets.
I like this. A lot. Not least because the authors invite us to think about nothing less than a new paradigm. Here is a chunk of the essay.
What is starting to take shape isn’t a new direction, but an entirely new paradigm. We think it should be called New Socialism. Here are its key features:
It emphasizes greater equality of outcome, but also knows that our social recession cannot be solved through a primarily materialistic and ever more acquisitive society. Unlike the Labour Party of the past, we now have to focus on the non-material things that foster contentment and fulfillment. We have to place much greater value on time, care, and cooperation, and aim at a different culture and identity of belonging, with deeper foundations than either production or consumption. We have to redefine “aspiration” to bring it into line with people’s real hopes: not just to earn and own, but to reach one’s full human potential, and live in a society that is safe, caring, and neighbourly.
The old social democracy concerned itself with greater quantity, but the New Socialism’s thinking is altogether more qualitative.
Blessed John Paul II and the end of infallibility, Some Christians Believe Gays Should Not Be Allowed To Live In A Home, and maybe there is a “god”
January 24, 2011“Pope Benedict should have the gratitude of those who would like a more transparent, honest and authentic Church. By rushing through the beatification of Pope John Paul II, his predecessor and friend, he has made clear how fanciful and arbitrary the whole idea and process of ‘making saints’ is, and has allowed space (in the future) for a reassessment of infallibility itself as a dogma.” ,…, “The beatification of John Paul II makes the Church seem more and more like a gentleman’s club with an inner circle of connections and privileges. Its critics have said as much for centuries, and disagreeing with them has today become just a little more difficult.” Continue
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Vision: 8 Reasons Global Capitalism Makes Our Lives Worse — And How We Can Create a New Kind of Economy
A new film explores how globalization has resulted in crises of the economy, the environment and the human spirit — and points the way to a new path. Continue
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‘Believers’ Gene’ May Help Spread Religion, Pastors Agree
The so-called “believers’ gene” may help spread religion as a Cambridge professor recently speculated, said two pastors. Continue
NOTE: So when Christians are given the right to abort any unborn that may have a “gay gene” or a gene that shows their may be severe medical disabilities if the zygote is allowed to grow into a living baby, are the rest of us going to have the right to abort any unborn with the “Believers gene”? Because it is obviously a weakness that should be “bred” out of the human race.
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Christians Conflicted over Housing Rights for Gays
On Monday, HUD will publish in the Federal Register a newly proposed rule to allow equal access to HUD-based programs regardless of sexual orientation or gender identification. In a summary of the proposed rule, the government agency states: “HUD administers programs designed to meet the goal of ensuring decent housing and suitable living environment for all. In pursuit of this goal, it is HUD’s responsibility to ensure that all who are otherwise eligible to participate in HUD’s programs have equal access to these programs and have the opportunity to compete fairly for HUD funds without being subject to arbitrary exclusion.” ,…, “…. some Christians are apprehensive of the proposed housing rule. Bryan Fischer, director of issue analysis for American Family Association said, “This really isn’t about housing, this is about government endorsement of homosexuality.” Continue
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NOTE: Maybe there is a “god”:
US cities seek to tax churches
Churches in the city of Mission, Kansas, have filed a suit arguing that they should not have to pay tax for the city’s new transportation facilities. Continue
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Divorce Down, Marriage Up In Iowa After Marriage Equality Ruling
If lesbians and gays are allowed to get married, then traditional marriage will crumble. This has been the fear-mongering canard pushed by many of the groups such as the National Organization for Marriage. While that fear does not find its way into the minds of many, it has needed some scientific evidence backing it up. On a statistical level, apparently, that has been proven wrong. Continue
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Taxpayers have paid $24.2 million to law firms defending three of Fannie’s former top executives
January 24, 2011Mortgage Giants Leave Legal Bills to the Taxpayers
Source: DemocraticUnderground.com
Since the government took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, taxpayers have spent more than $160 million defending the mortgage finance companies and their former top executives in civil lawsuits accusing them of fraud. The cost was a closely guarded secret until last week, when the companies and their regulator produced an accounting at the request of Congress.
The bulk of those expenditures — $132 million — went to defend Fannie Mae and its officials in various securities suits and government investigations into accounting irregularities that occurred years before the subprime lending crisis erupted. The legal payments show no sign of abating.
Documents reviewed by The New York Times indicate that taxpayers have paid $24.2 million to law firms defending three of Fannie’s former top executives: Franklin D. Raines, its former chief executive; Timothy Howard, its former chief financial officer; and Leanne Spencer, the former controller.
Late last year, Randy Neugebauer, Republican of Texas and now chairman of the oversight subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee, requested the figures from the Federal Housing Finance Agency. It is the regulator charged with overseeing the mortgage finance companies and acts as their conservator, trying to preserve the company’s assets on behalf of taxpayers.
‘Olbermann’ and Billionaire Christian financier of fundamentalist causes, and big shareholder of Comcast ‘Philip Anschutz’
January 23, 2011If You Don’t Think Olbermann Was Fired Because of Comcast, I Have an Igloo in the Mojave Desert to Sell You
“When Olbermann was suspended for a couple of personal political donations, even though it is hardly an uncommon practice among millionaire broadcasters -especially on FOX – there was a lot of Internet chatter about the role of Philip Anschutz, a billionaire Christian financier of fundamentalist causes, who is allegedly a big shareholder of Comcast.
But whether or not Anschutz is a big shareholder, his Anschutz Entertainment Group (and other large holdings) could be considered, like Comcast, a kindred spirit to the Koch brothers brand of tilting America to the right.
Just as a small example of what we are in store for has to do with a Comcast subsidiary in its home base of Philadelphia: Comcast Spectacor, which owns the Philadelphia Flyers and 76ers, as well as other sports properties.
According to James Wolcott of Vanity Fair the chairman of Comcast Spectacor, Ed Snider, is funding a right-wing cable channel/Internet site called “RightNetwork.” Wolcott sniffs at “RightNetwork” as a “pseudo-populist operation” starring an array of right-wing freaks.” Continue
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Fascist Movements of Two Centuries
Many view European fascism of the 20th century as a foreshadow of the Antichrist movement of the 21st – if one believes such prophetic script. In that vein, Nostradamus and Christian apostles concur. To secularist, the emergence of early 20th century fascism suggests a future resurgence in keeping with the canon “History repeats itself” – especially if the populace… Continue
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Worth Noting: Christian “crusaders” in government?
Atheist prez asks for meeting with Alabama guv over Christians-only remarks: (January 23rd, 2011) – American Atheists President Dave Silverman asks for a meeting with the Governor of Alabama.
Related:
An Open Letter to Gov. Bentley Half-apology to the Jews doesn’t quite cut it
Alabama Governor Insinuates Non-Christians Are Second-Class Citizens
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The 15% Solution: A Political History of American Fascism, 2001-2022
This is the twelfth installment of a project that is likely to extend over a two-year-period from January, 2010. It is the serialization of a book entitled ‘The 15% Solution: A Political History of American Fascism, 2001-2022′. Herein you will find Chapter 11. This chapter presents the “Proclamation of Right,” decreed by President Jefferson Davis Hague of the American Christian Nation Party, presented to the nation on Easter Sunday, 2009. An earlier Constitutional Amendment has already established that homosexuality is a matter of choice. Hague’s decree established it as a crime. Continue
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The Media in America: Selling Views, Calling it News
Source: A-List Digest, Vol 88, Issue 69
America’s journalists are not “newshounds”. They are nothing more than salesclerks, hocking the products their employers want to sell. The pretty faces that now function as most television news anchors are no different than the pretty models used to sell other products. The American “free” press is comprised of nothing more than a number of retail outlets which sell stories slanted to please their target audiences. As such, they exist merely to sell snake oil. Continue
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Corporate and Congressional Disasters
Corporate crime and wrongdoing is an everyday fact of life in the United States and around the world. Still, the last year has been remarkable for a series of high-profile, deadly corporate disasters. Continue
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