Dear Religious Right, Nothing To Fear Over Halloween

by Brian Tashman on October 28, 2011 – 4:55pm

While a few right-wing groups are using Halloween this year to put on “Hell Houses,” which torture attendees with graphic portrayals of gay people dying of AIDS and women suffering from abortions, many Religious Right figures have called on people to stop celebrating Halloween altogether. Back in 2009, Jacksonville city councilwoman and past CBN commentator Kimberly Daniels warned that Halloween candy is under a demonic curse as a result of Satanic orgies, and last week Christian radio commentator Linda Harvey said that celebrating Halloween is cheating on Jesus with “our spiritual enemy.” Pat Robertson warned Christians earlier this month that “Halloween is Satan’s night; it’s the night for the devil. It’s All Hallow’s Eve but it’s time when witches and goblins…” 

But according to Christian researcher Jill Martin Rische, who co-authored The Kingdom of the Occult with her father, the evangelist Walter Ralston Martin, Halloween actually has Christian roots. While Rische laments what the holiday has become in contemporary America, she told Christian broadcaster Janet Parshall earlier this month that the day is not in fact from the occult….

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U.S. had advance warning of abuse at Afghan prisons, officials say

By Joshua Partlow and Julie Tate, Published: October 30

KABUL — Across the street from U.S. military headquarters in Kabul, shrouded from view by concrete walls, the Afghan intelligence agency runs a detention facility for up to 40 terrorism suspects that is known as Department 124. So much torture took place inside, one detainee told the United Nations, that it has earned another name: “People call it Hell.”But long before the world body publicly revealed “systematic torture” in Afghan intelligence agency detention centers, top officials from the State Department, the CIA and the U.S. military received multiple warnings about abuses at Department 124 and other Afghan facilities, according to Afghan and Western officials with knowledge of the situation.

Despite the warnings, the United States continued to transfer detainees to Afghan intelligence service custody, the officials said. Even as other countries stopped handing over detainees to problematic facilities, the U.S. government did not.

U.S. Special Operations troops delivered detainees to Department 124. CIA officials regularly visited the facility, which was rebuilt last year with American money, to interrogate high-level Taliban and al-Qaeda suspects, according to Afghan and Western officials familiar with the site. Afghan intelligence officials said Americans never participated in the torture but should have known about it.

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Catholic Cry Babies Attack Obama For Being The Worse For Religious People

By Ashley Lopez | 10.28.11

The Catholic Advocate PAC has started a campaign asking President Obama to “meet with Catholic leaders to discuss compromise” on religious conscience laws. The group is also accusing the president of not seeking “common ground” with religious groups like he promised in a speech made at Notre Dame.

According to the organization’s website, the Catholic Advocate PAC “engages and encourages faithful Catholics to actively participate in the political process to support elected officials and policies that remain consistent with the teachings of the Catholic Church.”

The group is affiliated with the Catholic Advocate Candidate Fund, which “helps accomplish [their] mission to have Members of Congress voting 100% pro-life and pro-family consistent with the teachings of the Catholic Church.” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is among the handful of endorsed candidates by the group.

The website featuring the group’s petition says that

shortly after taking office, President Obama spoke about the importance of cooperation and seeking the common good on sensitive religious issues. But unfortunately, no other president in American history has so blatantly chipped away at our religious liberties. This is a religious liberty issue that affects all Americans of faith. Will you sign the petition telling the president to live up to his promises, and stop trampling on our religious liberties? Demand that President Obama live up to his promises delivered at Notre Dame.

The one minute video ad that is also part of the campaign features President Obama saying he would seek “common ground” with religious groups and honor religious conscience laws. The ad claims that neither has been done. MORE

Boy Scouts, Since 1970s, failed to report leader who molested children

Records shows Boy Scout officials failed to report leader who molested children in California

By Associated Press, Published: October 29

LOS ANGELES — Boy Scout officials in the U.S. and Canada not only failed to stop an admitted child molester in their ranks, but sometimes helped cover his tracks, according to confidential records, court files and interviews with victims and their families.A Los Angeles Times and Canadian Broadcasting Corp. investigation (http://lat.ms/tYtWBX ) published Saturday finds scout leader Rick Turley molested at least 15 children over nearly two decades, most of whom he met through American and Canadian Scouting beginning in the 1970s.

Boy Scouts of America officials didn’t call police in 1979 after Turley acknowledged molesting three Orange County boys, records show.

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The Wizards of Oil: How the Koch brothers influence environmental politics

By Troy Hooper
Monday, October 31, 2011 at 7:00 am

Koch Industries Inc. isn’t just in Kansas anymore, Toto.

The nation’s second largest private company and its subsidiaries are also in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Texas and just about every other state in the nation. But the locale where Koch Industries is making its presence felt the most isn’t a state at all. It’s Washington, D.C.

The Wichita-based conglomerate has spent a fortune lobbying for its oil, gas, mineral and chemical interests this past decade while bankrolling the campaigns of sympathetic congressmen. It has paid special attention to lawmakers that make up the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Koch Industries is diversified — it manufactures household staples such as Angel Soft toilet paper, Brawny paper towels, Dixie cups, Lycra fabrics and Stainmaster carpets — but its main investment is in oil.  MORE

Miami LGBT rights group ‘tremendously negatively impacted’ by new voting laws

By Ashley Lopez | 10.26.11 | 10:49 am

SAVE Dade, a Miami-based LGBT rights group, says it has been “tremendously negatively impacted” by the state’s new voting law, which created new restrictions on third party voter registration.

SAVE Dade is one of many advocacy groups in the state that used to run voter registration drives before elections to promote civic engagement. But a new law passed this year has installed new limitations on third-party voter registration drives, and also levies financial penalties on groups that violate those rules.

The law also created a shortened “shelf life” for signatures collected for ballot initiatives, placed new restrictions on voters changing their registered addresses on election day, and reduced the number of early voting days.

David Valk, a community organizer with SAVE Dade, tells The Florida Independent that the non-partisan group has had to change its strategy since the passage of the controversial elections law.

“We have been tremendously negatively impacted,” Valk explains.

Read 

This Halloween, frighten some corporate ghouls

Root Strikers: “There’s plenty to be scared of on Capitol Hill. The fate of $1.5 trillion rests in the hands of 12 members of the super committee tasked with slashing our national deficit. This committee has been operating in the shadows, where deep-pocketed and powerful corporate interests, creepy corporations and other things that go bump in the night are whispering in their ears. Join our friends at the Sunlight Foundation by helping make the Super Congress more accountable this Halloween. While you’re at it, check out this funny video  with a rather scary message, courtesy of our friends at Common Cause.”

Conservatives Have A Different Idea: Tax The Poor

NOTE: Florida and other states are already planning on making Medicare pay more, even Obama ok’s this. Sad part is, when there is a Democrat in the WH, the people of America actually suffer more. Atleast when Repubs are in the WH, they focus on killing “enemies” and spend like drunken sailors, knowing when the Dems get the Majority, they’ll have to make cuts. It is the “Two Santa Claus” theory(1)(2) in all its glory. I call it basic capitalism, where “profits before people” is the bottom line, the most important goal; make money at all costs, quick, because in the long run, it always hurts the people, the country, and the planet.

Notes:
1) ‘Two Santa Clauses or How The Republican Party Has Conned America for Thirty Years’, by Thom Hartmann  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/26-0
2) ‘The Two Santa Claus Theory – proposed by Jude Wanniski, a Republican economist, during the time of Ronald Reagan’ by David Dayen  http://www.calitics.com/diary/8718/the-two-santa-claus-theory

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STORY:

Tax The Poor: Forget Occupy Wall Street, Conservatives Have A Different Idea

Michael McAuliff

“It might seem inconceivable that Congress would consider raising taxes on the middle and working classes, but Democrats on the super committee are already thinking about making Medicare beneficiaries pay more. And while poverty rates may be bad, they were equally bad when the welfare queen attacks helped bring about the Clinton administration’s welfare reform.”

Read

Man Firebombs Georgia Taco Bell For Not Giving Him Enough Meat

(NOTE: oh my, let me guess: T-Bagger, Conservative Christian, NRA member, Racist?)

Story:

An unhappy Taco Bell customer firebombed a Georgia fast food joint after finding there wasn’t enough meat in his XL Chalupas, police say.

After ordering a meal from the drive-thru, a man believed to be the bomber called the Albany eatery and accused the restaurant of skimping on the meat, according to a police report obtained by the Smoking Gun.

The caller demanded that his order be corrected, but an employee explained that nothing could be done because the restaurant was about to close, the report said.

The caller then referred to the Taco Bell employee using a racial epithet and made what could be interpreted as a threatening statement, according to the police document.

“That’s alright, I’ll just come and redecorate the place,” the man allegedly stated.

Read

Halloween comes early: Congressional hearing will showcase Religious Right scare tactics

Secular News Daily:

10-26-2011

“It seems that some Republicans in the House of Representatives are awfully worried about government infringing on the liberties of the Religious Right, so the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution has called for a hearing today on “The State of Religious Liberty in the United States.” The subcommittee is chaired by Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), founder of the Arizona Family Research Institute, an affiliate of James Dobson’s Focus on the Family. The subcommittee invited three witnesses to testify: Bridgeport (Conn.) Bishop William Lori; Colby May of TV preacher Pat Robertson’s American Center for Law and Justice; and Americans United’s own executive director, Barry W. Lynn.”   Read

Related articles:

1. Americans United criticizes divisive Congressional resolution promoting display of ‘In God We Trust’
2. Obama Administration Should Take Action To Fix ‘Faith-Based’ Initiative, Americans United Tells Congress
3. SCA: Faith-Based Initiatives Hearing Written Testimony

Hate Halloween? Celebrate ‘Jesus Ween’

(Newser) – “Seth Abramovitch was delighted when he ran across JesusWeen.com , a site encouraging folks to participate in “Jesus Ween,” a Christian alternative to Halloween, on Oct. 31.” Read

The Simpsons save Halloween, again

By Matt Zoller Seitz: “The Simpsons” airs its latest installment of “Treehouse of Horror” this Sunday — a long-standing tradition that lets an already formally daring cartoon show let its imagination run wild. The “Treehouse” segments have been the show’s most reliably inventive during its second decade; while composing this list of my personal favorite segments (not entire episodes) I was pleasantly surprised by how many installments from the later years ended up claiming slots. Slide show

Haunted House Worker Found Caught in Noose

(Newser) – “The horror wasn’t all make-believe at St. Louis haunted house Creepyworld Friday night. A 17-year-old worker at the attraction is in critical condition after being found hanging from a noose that was being used as a prop, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. The young woman, whose job was to scare visitors, was found unconscious by a co-worker. Investigators believe members of the public may have walked past her, thinking she was a scary prop.” Read

The War on Halloween: A Mixed Message from Fox News and the Right

“Conservatives can’t make up their mind: is Halloween Satanic or an all-American tradition being sabotaged by immigrants?”

By Leslie Savan / The Nation

“Have you heard? The War on Halloween is on! But, unlike other culture wars, this one could become very confusing for conservatives to decide which side they’re on. The “War on Halloween” is not as simple as the “War on Christmas,” that package of phony fury O’Reilly and Limbaugh give to the nation annually. The politics of that holiday are clear-cut: Christmas=America. Those who don’t obey the equation are essentially crucifying Christ, nailing Him to the cross with the dozens of flag pins they ripped from the lapels of His tunic.”   Read

Bow Wow Wow – Obvious Pick For Halloween

Bow Wow Wow – I Want Candy (1982)  

Original:

The Strangeloves – I Want Candy (Shindig 1965)   

(“I Want Candy” is also the title of a song written and originally recorded by The Strangeloves in 1965, and covered by Melanie C for the film, She is best known as one of the five members of the girl group Spice Girls, in which she was nicknamed “Sporty Spice“.)

Is There Lead in Your Halloween Costume?

Slave-Labor Candy, Union Busting Costumes, and Lead-Laden Fake Bling: Happy Halloween!

By Jaeah Lee, Mon Oct. 31, 2011 2:30 AM PDT

“Let me start by confessing that I have become a Halloween curmudgeon. Almost every year I dress up in some sort of costume, plaster on make up, and devour more than my fair share of a candy-bar variety pack. There isn’t a holiday that tempts me as much to buy, eat, and wear as many things I don’t need as I do on Halloween. So what better time to consider where those Halloween goodies came from and who made them? They do, after all, make up a $6.2 billion industry. And even in the midst of a troubling economy, Americans will spend an average of $72.31 on Halloween this year, the highest amount recorded in the last nine years, according to the National Retail Federation. Herewith, the full scoop on pumpkins, candy, costumes, make-up, and fake bling….” Read

 

All Candy, No Jesus: Halloween in America

The seasonally-appropriate Pumpkin Jesus

By Mary Valle: “We Americans don’t like to talk about death or the dead, and since many Protestants have difficulty with Catholic practices around prayer to the saints and prayers for the dead, our practices around All Saints’ and All Souls’ days have drifted in very different directions, leaving more space for the secular, non-religious practices around these festivals.” Read

US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – Halloween Checkpoints In Tennessee

DHS Announces Halloween Checkpoints In Tennessee To Keep Children Safe
“State’s Homeland Security Commissioner said yesterday that a raft of new “security checkpoints” would be in place over the Halloween period to “keep roadways safe for trick-or-treaters”.

Related:

DHS, Tennessee State Troopers set up Halloween checkpoints to ‘keep roadways safe for trick-or-treaters’
(NaturalNews) “The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a modern-day Nazi occupying force in America, is on a clear mission to destroy all that remains of the nation’s Constitution and Bill of Rights.”

Austin TX Residents Celebrate Non-Religious Halloween

“Famed conservative Christian Pat Robertson chimed in last month, calling Halloween “Satan’s night,” and online commentors largely scoffed at him too. In Austin and throughout North America, Halloween is almost entirely a nonreligious holiday.” Read

OH: Dentist wants to buy back Halloween candy

“It’s hard to imagine that there will be eager children lined up around the block to take part in this anti-cavity dental deal next week. An Ohio dentist is offering to buy kids’ trick-or-treating booty this Halloween. He’s even throwing in a toothbrush to sweeten the deal, so maybe it will be like taking candy from a baby.” (10/25/11) Read

Useless School Vouchers, Witchcraft, Bible Classes and more…….

Gail Kerr: School voucher ‘choices’ won’t help most students

Written by, Gail Kerr, Oct. 26, 2011

“Lawmakers pushing school vouchers again argue they would provide more choices for low-income students in Tennessee’s four biggest counties.

That’s a bunch of hooey. The choice would be up to private school administrators, not the student or parents. The truth is the $5,400 per child in taxpayer money that would be allocated won’t touch tuition at most private schools in Nashville.

And that means it would be up to the private school to decide which students they would admit with financial aid. Who would they pick? Only the best, brightest and strongest athletes. And that’s no choice at all for most public school students.

“The choice is up to the admissions office of the private schools,” said Mark North, a Metro School Board member.”  MORE

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MORE FUN WEEKEND READING:

It is not the mission of the church to control affairs of state

Constitutional Emergency: Hospital Merger In Louisville Could Mean Church

Google Refused Law Enforcement Request To Pull Police Brutality Video

Confederate flag and causes of secession collide with 2012 election

Well before Romney, Mormon founder ran for president

CARA suggests polls on creation of a third party: Christian Democrats

Church-state expert said minorities face biggest threats to religious liberty

Ga. schools see drop in students for Bible classes

Adam And Pete: Love In A Time Of War

War and Witchcraft

Romney, Dawkins, and the 6th Article of the Constitution

Court hearing on ‘Religious Freedom’ amendment today

Letter: ‘Freedom of religion,’ isn’t license for atrocities in faith’s name

American youth epitomize the purity of progressivism

In politics, whose side is God on?

US Military Program Teaches Foreign Military Students That Liberals Subverted …

Firefighters Ticketed For Parking In Politicians’ Spots

(NOTE: Two Caste system in the USA. How dare these lower class “workers” (common folk)) park their trucks in one of those set aside for the Elites (Royalty). Off With Their Heads!!!)

Story:

“While firefighters in Pittsburgh were at City Hall getting flu shots, the trucks they parked outside were getting parking tickets.

The trucks were parked for about 5 minutes Wednesday in permit-only spaces reserved for City Council members. But council President Darlene Harris denies any involvement.

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl says the tickets never should have been issued. He says firefighters were encouraged to get flu shots to stay healthy.”

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Presidential Hopeful Christian Believe Children Should Die

(NOTE: Conservative Christians should not be allowed to live in the USA because the maggots that fled their homeland, the Puritans, were conservative Christian and treated all other denominations and religions with oppression, and murder, hence, Thomas Jefferson made it clear that this should NOT be how the USA is run. Seeing as the conservative Christians have taken over the USA and congress, travel the world demonizing the USA for allowing gays to live and not be killed, and are the loudest anti-Muslim and anti-any other religions, where they believe these people should have not Constitutional rights, and like the Puritans did to the Quakers, believe all others should fund and support their church economically and any other way they are asked, these people are actually VERY un-American and are hell-bent on trumping all people that will not do what they are told, and this includes oppressing them and killing them. Time these friggin pigs get tossed to the lions like they used to be. Any religious extremism is a threat to our country as a whole and all citizens who live here, and the world for that matter. I support doing to them what they have done to others over the centuries: eliminate those who don’t follow the rules. My idea would make the USA more welcoming and mirror more what the Founders envisioned, not what the dictatorship theocracies that conservative Christians are drawn too because of their strict dogma.)

STORY:

Michele Bachmann Wouldn’t Do ‘Anything’ To Help Children Of Undocumented Immigrants

Top Secret America: The Rise of the New American Security State

A decade of terrorism warnings about possible attacks in the United States has convinced us that we have much to fear.

By Dana Priest and William M. Arkin

October 24, 2011

The following is an excerpt from Top Secret America: The Rise of the New American Security State by Dana Priest and William M Arkin (Little, Brown & Co, 2011).

A Perpetual State of Yellow

Though she could barely walk anymore at age seventy-six, Joy Whiteman remained calm as she fumbled to remove her new white tennis shoes, lift herself out of her wheelchair, and grab the side of the X-ray machine. She teetered slowly, in socks, through the security scanner at the Boise Airport in Idaho. Airport security guards folded her wheelchair and rolled it through the scanner, keeping an eye on the frail woman in a bright flowered jacket.

“Can you make it without pain?” a guard asked her.

“Oh, sure,” she replied.

Whiteman followed instructions, lifted her hands above her head, emptied her pockets of crumpled pieces of paper, then apologized for having left her driver’s license in her purse rather than having it in hand for the guards to examine with her plane ticket. The line slowed behind her. Some people sighed at the inconvenience. Others smiled in sympathy at the awkward sight. I grimaced. What were the odds that she was a terrorist?

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Catholics Want $15 Million To Rebuild Church

Proposed aid for Washington National Cathedral draws criticism

October 25, 2011

In another political aftershock from the summer’s rare East Coast earthquake, a bid by the mayor of Washington to secure federal aid for the damaged Washington National Cathedral is drawing criticism from those who say it runs counter to separation of church and state.

Mayor Vincent C. Gray is seeking $15 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for repairs to the cathedral, which was seriously damaged in the 5.8 temblor Aug. 23.

But Joseph L. Conn, director of communications for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, blogged on the organization’s website, “Asking the taxpayers to pick up the tab sets a very bad precedent and jeopardizes a critically important edifice that protects us all: the wall of separation between church and state.”

The Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, president of the Washington-based Interfaith Alliance, agreed.

“The United States government should not be using the money of taxpayers who affiliate with many different religions -– or no religion -– to build, repair or maintain religious institutions.” MORE

Foreclosure Firm Mocked Downtrodden Homeowners at Halloween Party

Disgusting: New York’s Largest Foreclosure Firm Mocked Downtrodden Homeowners at Halloween Party

Last year, the law firm of Steven J. Baum threw a Halloween party in which employees mocked the homeowners it foreclosed against, wearing horrific “squatter” and “homeless” costumes and setting up a fake foreclosure sale tent city. Steven J. Baum is the largest foreclosure mill firm in the state of New York, and represents Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo, among other mortgage lenders.  A former employee sent photos of the party to the New York Times‘ Joe Nocera:     Read more

By Julianne Escobedo Shepherd | AlterNet
Posted on Saturday, October 29, 2011 @ 10:05 AM

The “Martyrdom of Everyday Life”

(NOTE: I often tell Christians who whine about always being the victim, that it is their duty to be victims and the more they are abused, and the more they stand strong, their God will be happy, because again, it is their duty. I wonder why so many Christians do not support this, yet always support the fictional image that they are always being attacked for their beliefs, while also stating the USA is a Christian nation, which would make them the majority power. Their ideology is do confusing to understand, so many hypocritical points, how is someone to teach this theology?)

Story:

“Four years ago, on October 28, 2007, the Catholic Church beatified 498 Spanish martyrs who were killed during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). The ceremony was the largest single beatification in the history of the Catholic Church, and it shows, in the words of Pope Benedict XVI, “how the supreme witness of blood is not an exception reserved just for a few individuals, but a realistic possibility for an entire Christian people.” Those words took on added significance since the beatification came on the heels of actions by the Socialist government of Spain to increase the separation of Church and state, which many Spanish Catholics feared might herald a return of anti-Catholic persecution. Another 2,000 Spanish Catholics killed for their faith during the Spanish Civil War are still being considered for beatification and sainthood.” MORE

Jesus taught that there is to be a separation of church and state

“The mission of the church and its leaders is not to set up and embrace political institutions and culture. It was never the mission of the church to try to direct and control affairs of state. Jesus taught that there is to be a separation of church and state, viz, “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21).

There is no justification for the church or any other religious organization seizing the reins of government and attempting to exercise control over men in government.

The mission of the church is to preach the gospel. Preaching the gospel is its primary mission because the church is God’s agency for evangelizing the world. It is also the mission of the church to provide the kind of place where spiritual life can flourish. Another mission is to provide among its members the kind of person that Jesus wants to see. The objective of every church is to produce the likeness of Christ in the lives of its members.” 

Source & More: Letter to the Editor

Bullycide in America

Bullycide.org

Conservatives: Whining is Not Standing Up to Injustice

Listening to SiriusXM this morning, I accidentally clicked online media player, ended up on FOX and heard a replay of some show called “Kilmeade & Friends” where a caller was in some contest to win a signed copy of GW Bush’s book and their seemed to be one guy and one gal co-host. They were discussing how horrible it is that they have to pay their student loans off and Obama’s latest move to save student money, should primarily be about lowering the percentage rate on their government funded student loans, and whined about how horrid it was that those who were listening to Obama, students at one of his recent speeches, seemed to not understand that the changes Obama wanted didn’t cut their percentage, just amount of money they are required to pay monthly.

A few obvious points:

1. I thought Conservatives were against government spending, even if its on student loans.

2. I thought Conservatives believed in “personal resposibility” and taking money for college does not include that. Get s job

3. When someone does take out student loans, they need to take “personal responsibility” to pay off the debt, regardless of what the percentage rate or monthly payments are.

 

Did I miss something about what “Whining” and “Injustice” has in common?