Attacks on a Woman’s Right to Choose, Unlawful Detention, Religion and Reason………..

Religious-Information.com – Religion Simplified

Religion and Reason – The Fundamental Problem
“A battle is being waged for the minds of Americans. The battle is between religious fundamentalism and reason. The fate of the United States is not the only concern at stake, the future of the world is being decided.”

Religion has a lot to answer for

Despised and Hated for Being Truthful – Atheists are the most distrusted of all of America’s minorities

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Murder and Violence of the Vatican: Catholic Church corrupt since its inception:

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Pope Benedict XVI SLAPS reporter for exposing that he covers up Pedophile Priests:

Related:

Vatican Crimes Worldwide

Vatican Crimes’s Channel – YouTube

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Lies of religion exposed: Female genital circumcision – brutal & unnecessary!

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Do Christians Have a Moral Compass?

Organized Crimes Implemented Globally by Religion

Faith Can Kill

Africa’s challenge to Western homosexuality

The GOP’s Ten Most Extreme Attacks on a Woman’s Right to Choose

Republicans Try to Impose Selfishness on American People

Republicans Denying College Students the Right to Vote: The Mugging of Democracy

Unlawful Detention on US Soil

Under Obama, an emerging global apparatus for drone killing

Top 10 Peacemakers in the Science-Religion Wars………

By Paul Wallace: “This year has marked, I believe, the beginning of the end of the war between science and religion. Creationism cannot last. The New Atheists are now old (or departed). And between these camps the middle ground continues to expand. Indeed, many folks have been hard at it, doing a new kind of peace work. Some have done it intentionally, some have not. Outliers, both atheist and religious hardliners, continue to wage battle but they look increasingly irrelevant.” Read more

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Homeland Security Grants Rigged to Favor Religious Groups

Vote Obama – if you want a centrist Republican for US president

Air Force Base denies atheist display, allows Menorah and Nativity Scene

Air Force Academy dogged by anti-Christian pressure

Unlawful Detention on US Soil

Top 2011 Religion Stories That Weren’t – Theological weirdness; gay church identity crisis; upside-down religious liberty…and more.

Aftershock Survival Summit Predicts the Unthinkable

A Horrible Dishonor to Fallen Heroes at Dover

2 Shocking Attacks on Atheism — And How Atheists Fought Back

Cardinal Francis George Warns That Chicago Gay Pride Parade Might ‘Morph Into Ku Klux Klan’

Why We Must Put Our Bodies on the Line to Fight Against the Right-Wing War on Women’s Rights

The Real story of Sodom and Gomorrah

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By Michael Parenti, Publication Date: April 30, 2011

Amazon.com:

“In the last half-century we have witnessed a dramatic expansion of American corporate power into every corner of the world, accompanied by an equally awesome growth in U.S. military power. This book analyzes this global empire: what interests it serves and what effect it has on the peoples of the world and on their struggles for real democracy and social justice. The enormous cost of this superpower expansionism is borne by the U.S. public. The empire feeds off the republic. A richly financed corporate-military complex is matched at home by increasing poverty, the defunding of state and local governments, drastic cutbacks in human services, decaying infrastructure, and impending ecological disaster. This book shows that the people of the targeted nations suffer expropriation of their communal wealth and natural resources, complete privatization and deregulation of their economies, loss of local markets, deterioration of their living standards, growing debt burdens, and the bloodstained suppression of their democratic movements. The empire’s wars help maintain the international system of finance capital. Countries that attempt to pursue an independent course of self-development apart from global free-market capitalism are demonized as anti-American and anti-West and subjected to sanctions, economic strangulation, regime change, and if necessary, direct aerial attack and invasion.”

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More recent articles, opinions and stories:

• The Real Story of Sodom and Gomorrah
• The Muslim Test: How To Expose The Hypocrisy Of The Religious Right
• Hitchens and the Christian Reactions to His Death
• Faith-Based Math Deciding Millions in Homeland Security Grants
• Hillary Clinton to UN: “Gay Rights Are Human Rights, And Human Rights Are Gay Rights,” LGBT Rights Will Guide Foreign Policy
• US Marines Pray in Formation at NFL Game
• Catholic Bishops Still Opposed to Senate Health Reform Bill
• Cameron calls for return to Christian values as King James Bible turns 400
• Beating Babies in the Name of Jesus? The Shady World of Right-Wing ‘Discipline’ Guides
• BackUpYourBirthControl.org – Grandma Video – YouTube
• Spearheading The Crusade Against Organized Religion
• Anti-Government Tea Partier Sharron Angle Gets Health Care from the Federal Government
• Blue Collar Philosophy – A Working Man’s Blog About Politics, Religion And Ethics
• Bishops Renew Fight on Abortion and Gay Marriage
• Beating Children In The Name Of God: The Virtue Of Spanking?
• America’s Christian Responsibility
• An Atheist Sign at an Air Force Base Has Already Been Messed With
• American History 101 With Professor Kirk Cameron
• Tom Cruise Pushes for FBI Funding for Scientology
• Religion Tax Office Opened
• MA Church Dismayed over Display
• Hang the Commandments All 30 of Them
• Congress Rushes to preserve Clergy Tax Breaks
• Jefferson’s Religious Beliefs « Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello
• John Shore: Christians for a Moral America Pray for George Michael’s Death
• Judge Blocks North Carolina Anti-Choice Law Forcing Doctors To Describe Fetus To Patient Before An Abortion
• Justice Scalia speaks for himself on death penalty, not the Catholic Church
• Legal Rights for Fertilized Eggs? A Terrifying Law that Could: Jail for Miscarriages, Birth Control Bans, End of Legal Abortion
• Mental Illness and Why The Skeptic Community Should Give a Shit
• Miramar commissioner organizes League of Clergy
• Quantum Theology: Our Spooky Interconnectedness
• Beliefs – Salvation Army Hears Dissent Over Gay Views
• Anti-Christian Charges Prompt Review of Part-Time Indian
• Many religions require their men to grow beards. Why does God like hairy chins?
• New American Atheists Billboards Launched!
• New Report Documents Widespread Abuse in Dutch Catholic Institutions
• Mississippi May Make Extremist, Dangerous Move to Call a Fertilized Egg a Person Under the Law
• No church buildings left standing in Afghanistan, says State Dept. report
• The Camp Pendleton Cross: The Facts vs. What the “Persecuted” Christians Are Saying
• Pro-Life – America’s Taliban, Anti-American and Quasi-Christian
• Rape as a “Weapon of War” Against Men
• Religion and government must not mix in America, experts say
• Religion and the Founding Fathers
• Occupy protesters interrupt Michele Bachmann speech in South Carolina
• The Gingrich Intifida: Turning up the Heat in Jerusalem
• Texas DMV considering ‘One State Under God’ license plates
• Study: Gay Neighbours Boost Property Values
• The ordered removal of the Ten Commandments monument removed continued the dialogue about the separation of church and state
• The End of Freedom of Speech, Religion
• Separation of Church & State – No Religion in Government
• German Court Says School Can Stop Student From Praying To Preserve Order
• Court Rebuffs New Claims By Officer Disciplined For Refusing To Attend Event At Mosque
• “Tebowing” By Marines– Church-State Issue or Silliness?
• Special Needs Student Duct-Taped to Chair By Teacher
• Right Wing Christians Pray For Republican Jesus™ To Stop The Occupy Movement
• The Arrowhead – Arrowhead High School – The pledge of allegiance
• Religion infects smart people too
• Religion Clause: Rhode Island’s “Holiday Tree” Provokes Criticism
• Republican Congress Apparently Hates Women
• The American Cancer Society Lost a Few More Supporters
• The Radical Academy The Religious Right Ain’t What it Used to Be
• The renunciation of theocratic force – The Globe and Mail
• The right took a beating on Election Day 2011
• Thomas Jefferson: Unbeliever
• Understanding the “Christian Nation” Myth
• Vail Daily columnist Jack Van Ens: Church-state issue with schools?
• Waging a One-Man War on American Muslims
• The Christian god is a three headed monster « Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello
• Christmas Christian
• What does the Penn State child sex abuse scandal say about our society?
• When It Comes To Presidential Politics, Does God Have a Sense of Humor?
• Why “In God We Trust” is a Problem
• Woman Who Died 331 Years Ago Is Responsible for Boy’s Surprise Survival, Says Deluded Pope
• Words of Christian Reconstructionists
• Would The World Be Better Off Without Religion?
• Christianity Revealed
• Holidays Christian Christmas Jingles
• A Christmas classic with an Occupy twist: God bless us, every 1 percent
• Five myths about Christmas
• Historians reveals the pagan origins of Christmas
• Former Boy Scout Leader Says Officials Let Him Get Away With Molesting Boys
• Why Christians Need the War on Christmas
• Has Christmas become too secular?
• The New American Christianity
• ‘War on Christmas’ Generates Money for Conservative Organizations
• Atheist Group Defends Itself Against Anti-Menorah Remark
• Public Elementary School in North Carolina Offers Bibles to Kids
• That’s What Christmas is All About
• If We Let Gay People Get Married…
• Are Holiday Sports Strengthening Secular Culture?
• This Is What Vacation Bible School is Like?
• In the House of Wood – Setting the record straight on Christmas and Religion
• Holidays, minus God
• When Abortion was Illegal: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
• 10 States Where Abortion Is Virtually Illegal for Some Women
• Christian Group Boycotts UK Supermarket Because Of Gay Executive’s
• Fred Karger Proves He Can Be Just as Bigoted as Other Republicans
• Undercover Gay Man Gets Reparative Therapy at Marcus Bachmann’s Ex-Gay Clinic
• Marcus Bachmann’s Ex-Gay Clinic – The Gift That Keeps On Giving (Abuse To Gay Teens)

Year End Articles, and Informative Stories Part Two

Waging a One-Man War on American Muslims

Vail Daily columnist Jack Van Ens: Church-state issue with schools?

Understanding the “Christian Nation” Myth

Thomas Jefferson: Unbeliever

The right took a beating on Election Day 2011

The renunciation of theocratic force

The Religious Right Ain’t What it Used to Be

The Radical Academy

The ordered removal of the Ten Commandments monument removed continued the dialogue about the separation of church and state

The Gingrich Intifida: Turning up the Heat in Jerusalem

The End of Freedom of Speech, Religion

The Christian god is a three headed monster « Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello

The Arrowhead – Arrowhead High School – The pledge of allegiance

The American Cancer Society Lost a Few More Supporters

Texas DMV considering ‘One State Under God’ license plates

Supreme Court dismisses appeal on use of NY schools for worship

Study: Gay Neighbours Boost Property Values

Special Needs Student Duct-Taped to Chair By Teacher

Separation of Church & State – No Religion in Governmen

Right Wing Christians Pray For Republican Jesus™ To Stop The Occupy Movement

Republican Congress Apparently Hates Women

Religious Minimalism

Religious groups cry foul over Ontario anti-bullying bill

Barely Half of All US Adults Married

Study Finds New Trend in Group Sex Among Teenage Girls

Religion Simplified

Religion infects smart people too 

Religion Clause: Rhode Island’s “Holiday Tree” Provokes Criticism

Religion Clause: German Court Says School Can Stop Student From Praying To Preserve Order

Religion Clause: Court Rebuffs New Claims By Officer Disciplined For Refusing To Attend Event At Mosque

Religion Clause: “Tebowing” By Marines– Church-State Issue or Silliness?

Religion and the Founding Fathers

Religion and Reason | Freethinker’s corner

Religion and government must not mix in America, experts say

Rape as a “Weapon of War” Against Men

Quantum Theology: Our Spooky Interconnectedness

Pro-Life – America’s Taliban, Anti-American and Quasi-Christian

Pledge of Allegiance controversy at UConn

Perry: Reinstate military gay ban because ‘it worked very well

The Camp Pendleton Cross: The Facts vs. What the “Persecuted” Christians Are Saying

Occupy protesters interrupt Michele Bachmann speech in South Carolina

No church buildings left standing in Afghanistan, says State Dept. report

New Report Documents Widespread Abuse in Dutch Catholic Institutions

New American Atheists Billboards Launched!

Mississippi May Make Extremist, Dangerous Move to Call a Fertilized Egg a Person Under the Law

Miramar commissioner organizes League of Clergy

Mental Illness and Why The Skeptic Community Should Give a Shit: JT Eberhard’s Talk at Skepticon 4

Many religions require their men to grow beards. Why does God like hairy chins?

Louise Antony’s NYT Editorial on Good without God

Legal Rights for Fertilized Eggs? How a Terrifying Law Could Lead to Jail-time for Miscarriages, Birth Control Bans, and the End of Legal Abortion

Justice Scalia speaks for himself on death penalty, not the Catholic Church

Judge Blocks North Carolina Anti-Choice Law Forcing Doctors To Describe Fetus To Patient Before An Abortion

Christians for a Moral America Pray for George Michael’s Death

Jefferson’s Religious Beliefs « Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello

Idiot of the Week: Southern Baptist Convention

Horrible Hicks Ban Interracial Couples from Church

Holidays are bleak for human trafficking victims

Hitchens and the Christian Reactions to His Death

Hillary Clinton to UN: “Gay Rights Are Human Rights, And Human Rights Are Gay Rights,” LGBT Rights Will Guide Foreign Policy

God and Country » US Marines Pray in Formation at NFL Game

God & Country

Gay Activists are “The Gaystapo” says Church of England Newspaper

Future Book Alert: Nonbeliever Nation

French far-right Christians besiege ‘Jesus excrement’ play

Former Boy Scout Leader Says Officials Let Him Get Away With Molesting Boys

Faith-Based Math Deciding Millions in Homeland Security Grants

Dominionism: Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry’s Dangerous Religious Bond

Does the Catholic Church share Scalia’s views on the death penalty?

Dobson: U.S. in ‘trouble with God’ if Obama reelected

Dead Sea Scrolls Go Online – Five of the important scrolls now available on the Internet

Crusader Christianity, Tea Party Cult, & the Left

Christianity and America

Catholic PAC creates campaign attacking President Obama

Catholic Bishops Still Opposed to Senate Health Reform Bill

Cameron calls for return to Christian values as King James Bible turns 400

Blue Collar Philosophy – A Working Man’s Blog About Politics, Religion And Ethics

Bishops Renew Fight on Abortion and Gay Marriage

Beating Children In The Name Of God: The Virtue Of Spanking?

Beating Babies in the Name of Jesus? The Shady World of Right-Wing ‘Discipline’ Guides

Autistic Girl Raped After Deboarding School Bus

CARD Asks Agency Officials For Answers on Federally Funded Discrimination

Iowa Caucuses 2012: Christian Right ‘Essentially In Control’ Of GOP And Tea Party In Iowa

Spearheading The Crusade Against Organized Religion™

Anti-Government Tea Partier Sharron Angle Gets Health Care from the Federal Government

An Atheist Sign at an Air Force Base Has Already Been Messed With

American History 101 With Professor Kirk Cameron

Tom Cruise Pushes for FBI Funding for Scientology

Religion Tax Office Opened

MA Church Dismayed over Display

Hang the Commandments All 30 of Them

Faith Based Initiatives

Congress Rushes to preserve Clergy Tax Breaks

In the last half-century we have witnessed a dramatic expansion of American corporate power into every corner of the world, accompanied by an equally awesome growth in U.S. military power. These phenomena are often treated as independent developments. Here, Michael Parenti brings them together in a sharp critique aimed as much at errant liberals and certain Marxists as at the dominant political actors who have perpetrated the imperial lie.

Parenti adds shocking new evidence to the litany of injustices visited upon victims of U.S. imperialism: expropriation of their communal wealth and natural resources, complete privatization and deregulation of their economies, loss of local markets, deterioration of their living standards, a growing debt burden, and the bloodstained suppression of their democratic movements.

Just as compelling is Parenti’s convincing case that the empire feeds off the republic. He shows how the richly financed corporate-military complex is matched at home by increasing poverty, the defunding of state and local governments, drastic cutbacks in human services, decaying infrastructure, and impending ecological disaster.

In this brilliant new book, Michael Parenti redefines empire and imperialism to connect the current crisis in America to its own bad behavior worldwide.

The Face of Imperialism makes clear that:

The purpose of the U.S. global empire is not the pursuit of power for power’s sake but power to fashion the world into a corporate dominated global free-market. There is a politico-economic content behind the pursuit of imperial power.

U.S. foreign policy is neither inept nor misguided. Rather, it is largely successful in serving the interests of transnational corporate America. This process of global expropriation by the superrich —often involving the use of force and violence— is what is known as imperialism.

Third World poverty is not a product of “underdevelopment” but of overexploitation and maldevelopment.

The drastic development of climate change is not a thing of the next generation or end of the century. Catastrophic changes are happening now. For us to survive we must roll back the empire, develop sustainable energy, and rid ourselves of the profit pathology.

 

More:

http://www.michaelparenti.org/the_face_of_imperialism.html

Social Democracy to Oligarchy

(NOTE: We were warned: “If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.” ~ Thomas Jefferson)

STORY:

by Michael Hudson

“What banks want is for the economic surplus to be paid out as interest, not used for rising living standards, public social spending or even for new capital investment. Research and development takes too long. Finance lives in the short run. This short-termism is self-defeating, yet it is presented as science. The alternative, voters are told, is the road to serfdom: interfering with the “free market” by financial regulation and even progressive taxation.”

More:

http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2011/12/11/europes-transition-from-social-democracy-to-oligarchy-by-michael-hudson/

The Myth of the Liberal Media

The Propaganda Model of News

Dandelion Salad, December 26, 2011:

by Spread Knowledge
http://vimeo.com/33442989

Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky demolish one of the central tenets of our political culture, the idea of the “liberal media.” Instead, utilizing a systematic model based on massive empirical research, they reveal the manner in which the news media are so subordinated to corporate and conservative interests that their function can only be described as that of “elite propaganda.”

“If you want to understand the way a system works, you look at its institutional structure. How it is organized, how it is controlled, how it is funded.” -Noam Chomsky

“The Mainstream media really represent elite interests, and what the propaganda model tries to do is stipulate a set of institutional variables, reflecting this elite power, that very powerfully influence the media.” -Edward Herman

More:

http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2011/12/26/the-myth-of-the-liberal-media-the-propaganda-model-of-news-2002-must-see/

Year End Articles, and Informative Stories

How We All Pay For the Huge Tax Privileges Granted to Religion – It’s Time to Tax the Church

Holiday Song Parodies

This Is What Vacation Bible School is Like?

Apatheists: The People Who Just Don’t Care About Religion

Welcome To This World – What are we teaching our children in the name of God? YouTube

Politics, Religion and the Tea Party

Weapons in the ‘War on Christmas’

A false equation: Faith equals morality

Christianity goes global as world’s largest religion

The Puritans “Purify”: Theocracy in Massachusetts

The Imaginary Friends Show » Christian Fundamentalists Perpetrate Mass Santa Genocide For Being ‘Idolaters’

Good Minus God: The Moral Atheist

To The Point Misses the Point After Carelessly Linking Penn State Scandal to Gay and Lesbian Parenting

The Case of the Pope: Vatican Accountability for Human Rights Abuse

Our Father? The Religious Battle Over School Prayer

US: Catholic Bishops Prepare Religious Liberty Fight

Obama Supporters Worried He May Grant Contraception Exemptions to Catholic Hospitals

Religious lobbying groups multiply on Capitol Hill

The Next Roe v. Wade?: Jennie McCormack’s Abortion Battle

Sperm-donor returns to US – National

Putting workers to a cruel choice: your God or your job

Religion, broadcast cases highlight new term

Florida Senate Panel Advances School Prayer Bill

Kentucky Court Upholds God’s Role In State Security

D.C. Mayor Seeks Federal Funds For Cathedral Repair

Evangelical Columnist Cal Thomas Blasts Church-Based Electioneering

Fla. School Principal Must Drop Religious Crusade

Pennsylvania Railroad

December 2011 Church & State

Constitutional Correction: Another Tennessee School Board Forced To End School-Sponsored Religion

Walter Reed Bible Banning Caper

Federal Judge Issues Injunction to Stop North Carolina From Using ‘Pro-Life’ License Plates

Who Would Jesus Bully?

Texas official will remove nativity scene ‘when hell freezes over’

Newt Gingrich Pushes Faith-Based Charities At A Time When Church, State Often Work Together On Welfare

Iowan asks Perry: ‘Why do you hate gay people?’

Gingrich signs pledge forbidding adultery

Christianity Revealed

Landmark Independent Baptist Church – Sovereign Grace

Criticism over Scientologist ties forces Ruth Eckerd to cancel show

BBC News – No right to pray for Muslim pupil at German school

The Secular Outpost: You Can’t Make This Stuff Up Viewers of Fox News are Misinformed

How to Get Rid of Nativity Scenes on Government Property

Why It Makes People Uncomfortable When You Talk About Your Religious Beliefs

Socrates Was Right About the Unexamined Life

The Secular Outpost: With Friends Like These, Who Needs Enemies?

The Secular Outpost: Argument Against the Resurrection of Jesus – Part 6

Atheists Have Raised Nearly $200,000 for Doctors Without Borders

Pike church takes stand against interracial couples

Face to faith: An eye for an eye? The King James Bible and the Talmud

An eye for an eye? The King James Bible and the Talmud

Where Are the Atheist Chaplains in the Military?

Should You Be Able to Purchase Religious Foods with Food Stamps?

Michele Bachmann vs. the 8-Year-Old

Would The World Be Better Off Without Religion?

Words of Christian Reconstructionists

Woman Who Died 331 Years Ago Is Responsible for Boy’s Surprise Survival, Says Deluded Pope

Why “In God We Trust” is a Problem

When It Comes To Presidential Politics, Does God Have a Sense of Humor?

What does the Penn State child sex abuse scandal say about our society?

Christian Group Boycotts UK Supermarket Because Of Gay Executive’s Comment

Fred Karger Proves He Can Be Just as Bigoted as Other Republicans

Undercover Gay Man Gets Reparative Therapy at Marcus Bachmann’s Ex-Gay Clinic

Marcus Bachmann’s Ex-Gay Clinic – The Gift That Keeps On Giving (Abuse To Gay Teens)

The Maybe-Gay Son of Kim Jong-Il Definitely Won’t Be North Korea’s Next Leader

Chicago International Film Fest Showcases LGBT-Themed Flicks

Fort Campbell soldiers eager for new worship space

Why politics and religion do not mix

America is a land of contrasts

The New American Christianity

Setting the record straight on Christmas and Religion

Christmas Christian

Why Christians Need the War on Christmas

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Lynn Samuels, 1942 – 2011

Former WABC host Lynn Samuels dies Christmas Eve 2011, at 69 

Activist took on conservatives and President Obama alike

BY David Hinckley , Sunday, December 25 2011, 12:52 PM

More Coverage:

http://www.therightperspective.org/2011/12/25/lynn-samuels-1942-2011/

Son of the Creator of ‘Scientology’, a homosexual, committed suicide

L. Ron Hubbard’s young son, Quentin, a homosexual, committed suicide over his failure to win his father’s love and favor. (1)

“Mary Sue Hubbard hired me to find out what happenned to Quentin. He was found in the desert, with a hose running from the exhaust to the drivers window which was cracked open to accept the hose, the motor was idling. The sand around the car had been brushed clean of all markings. In the trunk was a carpet runner. Forensic examination proved that is contained hairs belonging to Quentin Hubbard on it”

More:

http://www.lermanet.com/exit/quentincoroner.htm

Note:

1. http://www.lermanet.com/cos/FABMagazine.htm

Who Wrote Ron Paul’s Newsletters?

Libertarian movement veterans, and a Paul campaign staffer, say it was “paleolibertarian” strategist Lew Rockwell

Julian Sanchez & David Weigel | January 16, 2008

“Yet those new supporters, many of whom are first encountering libertarian ideas through the Ron Paul Revolution, deserve a far more frank explanation than the campaign has as yet provided of how their candidate’s name ended up atop so many ugly words. Ron Paul may not be a racist, but he became complicit in a strategy of pandering to racists—and taking “moral responsibility” for that now means more than just uttering the phrase. It means openly grappling with his own past—acknowledging who said what, and why. Otherwise he risks damaging not only his own reputation, but that of the philosophy to which he has committed his life.”

More:

http://reason.com/archives/2008/01/16/who-wrote-ron-pauls-newsletter

Related:

Ron Paul Ugly, Racist Newsletters Not Going Away, But Do They Invalidate His Candidacy?

Nick Gillespie | December 22, 2011

Deputies Tied Suspect to a Chair, Gagged Him, and Pepper-Sprayed Him to Death

(NOTE: I bet the killers are registered Republicans and call themselves conservative Christians with family values. )

Mike Riggs | December 23, 2011

From Fox 13 in Tampa comes the horrifying story of Nick Christie, a 62-year-old Ohio man who was detained by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office for being publicly intoxicated. While Christie’s wife asked that he be taken to the hospital, Lee County cops decided instead to strip Christie naked, tie him to a chair, cover his face, and then pepper spray him repeatedly, until he died:

The District 21 Medical Examiner ruled his death was a homicide because he had been restrained and sprayed with pepper sprayed by law enforcement officers. But to this day, nobody has ever been charged with a crime, and the Lee County State Attorney cleared the sheriff’s office of any wrong doing.

It’s been more than two and a half years and his wife still can’t accept what happened.

“I was shocked. This was something out of a horror movie,” says Joyce Christie. She said her husband was depressed and was showing signs of erratic behavior a few days before leaving for Florida.

She called authorities and pleaded with them to take her husband to a hospital and be given his medications. Instead, he was taken to jail for disorderly intoxication.

More:

http://reason.com/blog/2011/12/23/lee-county-deputies-tied-suspect-to-a-ch

Obama, Congress back legalization of a police state

Bill Van Auken, 16 December 2011

“Both arise out of the historic crisis of US capitalism. This crisis finds its sharpest expression in the historically unprecedented social polarization that has become the defining feature of American society. The immense divide between the financial oligarchy that monopolizes wealth together with economic and political power, and the working class, the vast majority of the population, which confronts declining living standards, mass unemployment and steadily deteriorating social conditions, has never been so stark.

Based on this malignant social foundation, democratic rights and democratic forms of rule become increasingly untenable. The ruling elite is compelled to seek a new framework for defending its wealth and power, one that is decidedly at odds with the principles laid down in the US Constitution and Bill of Rights.”

,…,

“The ruling oligarchy knows that its policies of making the working class pay for the crisis of the profit system must give rise to revolutionary social opposition and it is preparing accordingly. The working class must do likewise, mobilizing its independent political power in struggle against the threats of police state dictatorship and the capitalist profit system from which they arise.”

More:

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/dec2011/pers-d16.shtml

All that praying, and officials still can’t get it right

“Civilians have been praying to the gods as far back as 1400 B.C., when the Greeks used to get their prayers answered by the Oracle of Delphi, whose responses were enigmatic, but real. Nowadays we have to rely on politicians being “inspired” or hearing voices, or claiming that the Lord told them to act the way they do. What I don’t understand, said Uncle Bill, is how the Lord inspires these people to take totally opposing positions. Seems to me, these political prayers are not achieving much other than confusion.”

More:

http://www.bradenton.com/2011/12/20/3737881/all-that-praying-and-officials.html

US admits partial blame in deaths of Pakistani soldiers, but defends airstrikes

The US military has grudgingly conceded its mistakes played a role in the November 25-26 NATO attack that killed 26 Pakistani soldiers. But the US continues to defend both the violation of Pakistani sovereignty and the deadly airstrikes themselves.

By Keith Jones
24 December 2011

“In a yet to be released report, the US military has grudgingly conceded its mistakes played a role in the November 25-26 NATO attack that killed 26 Pakistani soldiers stationed in Pakistan’s Mohmand tribal agency. But the Pentagon and Obama administration continue to defend both the violation of Pakistani sovereignty and the deadly airstrikes themselves, claiming that the Pakistani soldiers had previously fired on a US-led special operations force.

In a statement issued Thursday, the Department of Defense said, “Given what information they had available to them at the time,” the US forces “acted in self-defence and with appropriate force after being fired upon.”

Last month’s airstrikes—the latest in a series of flagrant US violations of Pakistani sovereignty—triggered mass protests inside Pakistan and forced the Pakistani government to take a series of retaliatory measures. These included halting all land shipments of food, fuel, and other supplies to the US-NATO troops occupying Afghanistan and forcing US personnel to evacuate an air base from which the CIA has launched Predator drone strikes in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).”

More:

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/dec2011/paki-d24.shtml

Truth be known, the Islamists sound far less scary than the American presidential candidates for the Republican party.

Dec 10 2011

Islamists have emerged as winners in all three post-Arab Spring elections — Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia. This has spooked some people — “Islamists ascendant” and “Muslims on the march.” This is unwarranted, based on known facts.

Truth be known, the Islamists sound far less scary than the American presidential candidates for the Republican party.

Islamists have invoked God far fewer times than Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry and, until his recent departure due to revelations that he broke his Christian wedding vows, Herman Cain.

The candidates have been competing in proclaiming fidelity to Jesus. Whether they are sincere or merely striking poses for the benefit of the party’s fundamentalist core constituency is moot, for the purposes of our discussion here.

Romney’s Mormonism has emerged as an issue as well.

While the Republicans are obsessed with religion, the Islamists are downplaying it. While the former are promising to be guided by their spirituality in public life and public policy (abortion, prayers in schools, etc.), the latter are being guided mostly by the voters’ worldly woes.

The winning parties in Tunisia and Morocco have promised not to impose their Islamist lifestyle on others. Bikinis and alcohol won’t be banned. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood is also promising not to impose a strict moral code. Whether this reflects their conversion to liberalism or just a nod to the reality of tourism revenues is not clear.

More:

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/1100078–siddiqui-arab-islamists-less-scary-than-republicans

Democratizing the Economy

Gar Alperovitz: Democratizing the Economy

By Dan on 12/21/11 • Categorized as Free School University,Opinion/Editorial

The “occupations” in Boston and around the country are a justified response to the outrages of our current political-economic system. This is a system that looks the other way as the top 1% runs off with almost a fifth of the nation’s income and more than a third of its total wealth. Wall Street and the banks are both appropriate targets for protest.

However, the deeper reality is that our economic system – corporate capitalism held (weakly) in check by labor – is fading before our eyes. It was labor’s political power that in large part gave liberalism the ability to enact modest reforms, including regulations to keep the bankers partially in line. Those reforms have decayed too: the elimination of Glass-Steagall in 1999 and the slow undermining of Dodd-Frank regulations are only the most glaring examples. Moreover, globalization continues to undermine traditional communities and labor’s political clout.

There may be no viable way forward. If there is, however, it is all but certain to be very different from the former economic model. One development that holds possibilities for a different future is the ongoing creation of community-based economic institutions.

More:

http://bostonoccupier.com/2011/12/21/gar-alperovitz-democratizing-the-economy/

2012 End-of-the-World Countdown Based on Mayan Calendar Starts Today

By Suzan Clarke | ABC News Blogs – 10 hrs ago

The countdown to the apocalypse is on.

We’re one year away from Dec. 21, 2012, the date that the ancient Mayan Long Count calendar allegedly marked as the end of an era that would reset the date to zero and signal the end of humanity.

But will it?

There have been many end of times predictions over the years. Christian radio host Harold Camping faced widespread ridicule when his predictions that the world would end twice this year – on May 21, and then on Oct. 21 – failed to materialize.

More:

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/2012-end-world-countdown-based-mayan-calendar-starts-101657134.html

SONG: How The Christians Stole Solstice

Source: Atheists’ Group

http://freethoughtnation.com/solsticeday.mp3

Voucher Victory: Scheme to Award Taxpayer Funds to Religious Schools Collapses in Pennsylvania

by: Rob Boston, December 19, 2011

Good news from Pennsylvania: A hotly contested school voucher plan has failed to pass the state House of Representatives.

Gov. Tom Corbett has been pushing this legislation since he was elected in 2010. Under the scheme, vouchers were aimed at families earning no more than 185 percent of the federal poverty level ($41,000 for a family of four) whose children attend schools that are in the bottom 5 percent in terms of standardized test performance.

As my colleague Simon Brown noted in this month’s Church & State, a phalanx of right-wing, anti-public school groups joined forces with the Roman Catholic hierarchy in the state to press for the bill. They played hardball. At one point, Catholic officials in Pittsburgh even tried to strong-arm needy parents who had received scholarships into lobbying for the bill.

The pro-voucher forces managed to push the legislation through the Pennsylvania Senate in October, and members of the House found themselves under intense lobbying.

But it wasn’t enough. When it became apparent that vouchers could not clear the House, supporters removed the provision from an education-related bill. An amendment to that bill that would have expanded the state’s tax-credit plan – a boondoggle that supports private schools through backdoor channels – faced a House vote late Wednesday night and fell short, 105-90.

More:

http://www.secularnewsdaily.com/2011/12/19/voucher-victory-scheme-to-award-taxpayer-funds-to-religious-schools-collapses-in-pennsylvania/

Too Much For Just One Post: Separation of Church and State, Religious Right, Christian conservative…..

(NOTE: When will people get it? To be a “conservative” you must be a self-centered, selfish, arrogant….basically an a-hole. There is no other way around it, whether gay or straight, black or white, Christian or Jew, conservative ideology teaches only one thing “Me, Me, Me”. So if a group or person is not in the majority, they must be crushed, they are different, they are outside the “norm” and this threatens conservatives. Conservative and fundamentalist religious people connect on the very basic level of their need to survive, over all other things…its all “Me, Me, Me”. Also, Capitalism, unregulated, free market, (etc) are also “Me, Me, Me”…as in “Profits before People” and not “We the People”. This is what Conservatism is. Throughout history, those who follow this ideology are always against anything minorities want, its the “Me, Me, Me” at its best. There is no way around this, this is pure fact and not opinion.)

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Bakker: “Anti-Christ Spirit” Of Liberalism Bringing In The Last Days

Excerpt:

Jim Bakker, following the collapse of The PTL Club and a stint in jail for twenty four counts of fraud, seems to be having something of a revival. He has launched a new television program and founded Morningside, a Christian community in Missouri modeled after his failed and fraudulent Heritage USA project (Heritage USA is now the home of Rick Joyner’s MorningStar Ministries).

Now Bakker is out with a new book, “Big Book of History.” Promoting the book on his blog, Bakker explains that the courts and President Barack Obama “kicked God out of schools and eventually we even kicked Him out of the entire nation.” Bakker points to the 1962 Supreme Court case which found mandatory school prayer to be unconstitutional as the moment when America began to reject God and consequently went into decline, an argument made by many Religious Right activists. He goes on to say that liberal politics and secular society made a generation of “kids [who] are self-willed, insolent, and morally depraved,” which he calls a sign of the End Times. Bakker writes that as a result of the Church’s silence,

“An anti-christ spirit is masquerading in our world as a champion of human rights”:

How many people do you think understand that rebellious children are a sign of the Last Days? I don’t think too many Christians actually do equate a rebellious generation with the soon coming of the Lord, but that is, in fact, one of the signs. It’s easy to spot the other signs: earthquakes, wars and rumors of wars, famines, pestilences, etc.

Isaiah 30:1 NCV “The Lord said, how terrible it will be for these stubborn children. They make plans, but they don’t ask me to help them. They make agreements with other nations, without asking my Spirit. They are adding more and more sins to themselves.”

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• Constitutional amendment doing away with separation of church and state back …
• Bolivian police say brother and sister killed sibling in attempted exorcism
• FIRST-PERSON: A quarterback, an R&B singer & a society’s split response
• Thomas: Is there a ‘war on Christmas’?
• Bondi rewrites summary of ‘religious freedom’ amendment
• Christmas choices
• UCSB Scientist Takes On Religion
• Gingrich’s Judicial Attacks Wins Over Religious Right
• Struggling in polls, Rick Perry turns to religious right
• Was Jesus a Liberal?
• GOP Death Watch Fred Karger Proves He Can Be Just as Bigoted as Other Republicans
• Charles C. Haynes column: Tell the truth about ‘school prayer’
• Glen Maxey Says AOL Made HuffPo Kill “Rick Perry Is Gay” Story
• The Maybe-Gay Son of Kim Jong-Il Definitely Won’t Be North Korea’s Next Leader

 

Secular News Daily.com:

• Religious Right Activists Warn GOP Not To Nominate Mitt Romney
• Humanists Decry New Texas Social Studies and History Curricula; Urge Other States to Reject Texas Textbooks
• House of Representatives Continues to Fuel the Fake “War on Christmas”
• Merry Christmas? Dueling columnists at Secular News Daily
• Creche Clash Averted: Connecticut Community Defuses Christmas Controversy
• Christmas Truce: What if they gave a war and no one came?
• WorldNetDaily editor Joseph Farah Disparages GOProud and Warns that Obama Made U.S. “Global Sex Cop”
• Why young evangelicals are leaving church
• Florida Family Association Compares Muslims to Snakes, Wins Support from Other Fringe Activists
• Super Superintendent Oklahoma private-school voucher plan aimed at children with special needs
• Taxing our patience: Voucher boosters wage widening war on public schools and taxpayers’ rights
• D.C. school voucher plan bad for public schools, religious liberty
• ‘God’s Truth’ and public schools: Florida teacher’s Facebook flare-up ignites controversy
• Religious nonsense is easier to understand than regular nonsense
• Do Response Prayer Rally Participants Understand The Views Of The AFA?
• August 11 Atheist Cartoon: So much nonsense, so little time
• Common Nonsense: Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance
• Americans For Truth About Homosexuality president Peter LaBarbera Condemns Obama’s “Defiance” of God, Claims President is “Pushing Sexual Deviance”
•  Religious Jews still try to segregate Israel buses

Dump Bachmann.com:

• Family Leader’s Bob Vander Plaats Throws Bachmann Under the Bus
• VIDEO: Fabulous Future “First Gentleman” Marcus Bachmann Talking About Gay Marriage
• Even as Minnesota GOP Legislators Reel From Scandal Bachmann Takes Credit for Arm-Twisting Them on 2012 Anti-Marriage Amendment
• Hilarious Video of Bachmann Waving From Her Bus
• Even as Ponzi $$$ is Being Clawed Back from Her Campaign, Bachmann Demands Newt Gingrich Give Back Fees
• Video: Marcus and Michele Bachmann Say Alfred Kinsey Was Wrong

Religious Right Watch

• Religious Right Makes Michael Bloomberg Enemy Number One For His “Insult To God”
• Bachmann Pledges to Separate Marital Duties from Public Office
• Insane Right-Wing Article of the Day: Renew America’s Sher Zieve has wondered whether President Obama is a demon and the Beast of the Book of Revelation intent on starting a dictatorship by taking control of the media, writes today that Obama is bent on turning America “into full-fledged Marxist Communo-Fascist elitist-ruled Islamo-Drug cartel Narco/Nazi State
• David Barton, a Religious Right pseudo-historian say Hate Crimes Legislation is designed to imprison pastors
• SC Baptist Convention President Says Christians Will Have an Easier Time Voting for a Serial Adulterer Than a Mormon
• Meet The Extremist Group Lowe’s Caved To Over ‘All-American Muslim’
• Bryan Fischer Sounds the Alarm on Muslim Turkeys Invading Americans’ Dinner Tables
• VIDEO: Bill O’Reilly Hits Community Organizer with Umbrella, Tries to Get Him Arrested

Your Taxe$ Still Spreading Anti-Gay Message World Wide

US group against gay marriage targets Vancouver board: “The head of Vancouver’s School Board says two trustees should apologize for criticizing the board’s anti-homophobia policies in videos produced by an American group opposed to same-sex marriage.”

Related

School trustees linked to USanti-gay group

School trustees in hot water for controversial videos

NPA school trustees in hot water for controversial videos

Trustees ‘fanning homophobic fear’

Christianity’s Unhealthy Obsession with Islam

(NOTE: What Christians say about Islam is what Christians have been guilty of for years, and it is in their very bible, bot Old and New Testament. Fundamentalists from ANY religion are terrorists, and the conservative Christians here in the USA who have infiltrated the US Military and the US Congress, are America’s terrorist, the ‘American Taliban’. They are the reason why 9/11 happened…it wasnt “our freedoms”. People need to wake up, or America may look like Germany when Hitler took power, and YES, he was a conservative Christian and worked close with the Catholic Church and spoke highly and often about his “god”. ‘Theologians Under Hitler’ will open your eyes, scar you, and anger you.)

 

Story:

December 20, 2011

By Hrafnkell Haraldsson

Christianity has always had an institutional hard-on for Islam. The Christian fixation for Islam is nothing like its unhealthy obsession with Judaism. While Christianity’s relationship with Judaism is a bit of a sick fascination, a mixture of love, dependence and hate, its relationship with Islam has always been one of hate, never of love, and certainly never of dependence. Christianity depends on the Jewish Bible – a garbled translation of which stands in as the Christian Old Testament – but the Qur’an came later and has never been anything less than an abomination in Christian eyes.  Judaism rejected Jesus but Islam embraces him and ironically, is hated for it. Jesus is savior for Islam as for Christianity, and will return, just as he will return for Christianity – but for Muslims he is not God.Christianity, in the 7^th century, had the world at its feet. It had succeeded in disempowering if not completely destroying Paganism in the Roman Empire and was busily working its will among the Germanic tribes in Western and Northern Europe. Zoroastrianism ruled in Persia but the Zoroastrians were not interested in converting the world, leaving Christianity without any significant rival. But Christianity was its own worst enemy. Had it been a healthier religion, Islam would have met rejection at the borders of the empire, but orthodox Christianity was so intolerant that it had succeeded by the time of Mohammed in completely alienating Christian minorities all up and down the eastern Mediterranean littoral as well as Egypt and North Africa. The irony of Christianity’s triumph is that so many Christians in those areas welcomed the Muslims as liberators.

Had Christianity been less intolerant, there would in all likelihood have been no need for Crusades because the tide of Islam might well have been swept back into the desert. It is true that a long and exhausting war between Rome and Persia contributed to Islam’s early success; neither empire was in a position to resist the Arab invaders whatever their religion, but a native population not disaffected by intolerant policies would have been more likely to resist and to rally behind imperial forces. Apologists can argue that Christianity did not destroy the Roman Empire, but the simple fact is that it did exactly that.

So instead of resisting the new religion Christianity got its institutional ass kicked all the way back across North Africa and into Spain and then into Southern France before rallying, and Arab armies besieged Constantinople again and again trying to force passage into Europe from that quarter. And it had only itself to blame. Nor did it learn any lessons or draw any proper conclusions from the experience. One Byzantine attitude was to refuse even to look at Islam at a separate religion, insisting that it was instead a Christian heresy.  The Qur’an could not, of course, be a revelation from God since it contradicted the Bible in things like the Trinity and Jesus’ crucifixion, so the influence must be Satanic if anything at all. Not a helpful reaction at all, and not one to stir any attempts at genuine analysis of the religion. It is always much easier to hate than to understand.

And Christianity proved itself quite good at the hating game. It hated Judaism because the Jews not only rejected but killed Jesus (or so they said) and it spent the first few centuries of its existence demonstrating that hate again and again, at every opportunity. Jews, as much as Muslims, were victims of the Crusades, as were other Christianity, like Eastern Christians, who were considered heretical because they did not follow the teachings of the Church of Rome. Stray Pagans met a similar fate. Anyone not the proper kind of Christian was to be killed – not only killed but killed in order to pave for the murderer a path to heaven. Killing a non-Christian meant salvation for the killer. When did Jesus say that, exactly? He didn’t; but the Pope did, and fanatical Christians responded just as he intended. What better way to get a bunch of thugs to go on Crusade? So much for Jesus making human sacrifice unnecessary; so much for Jesus wiping away sins. They had to be wiped away all over again with Muslim blood.

Makes you wonder why Jesus bothered getting himself crucified at all.

More:

http://www.politicususa.com/en/christianitys-unhealthy-obsession-with-islam/

White Christian Terrorist Gets 32yr For The Plan To Bomb MLK Parade

MLK parade bomber sentenced to 32 years in prison

By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS Associated Press The Associated Press

Tuesday, December 20, 2011 4:25 PM EST

Excerpts:

• “Harpham, who has extensive ties to white supremacists,”

• “…he intended for the shrapnel to hit the side of a building as a show of protest against the multiculturalism celebrated by the parade, he said. “I was making a statement that there are people out there who don’t agree with these ideas,” Harpham said. He likened himself to a Christian protesting gay marriage, “but a bit more dangerous or extreme.”

• “Harpham walked in the parade and took pictures of young black children and of a Jewish man who was wearing a yarmulke, prosecutors have said.”

• “The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, has said that Harpham made more than 1,000 postings on the Vanguard News Network, a white supremacist website. The center also has said that Harpham belonged to a neo-Nazi group called the National Alliance.”

Full Story:

http://www.centurylink.net/news/read.php?rip_id=%3CD9ROFQEG0%40news.ap.org%3E&ps=1011

 

God Causes Blackout at San Francisco 49ers Game, Gays to Blame

December 19, 2011 10:55 pm

God is on a holy rampage the week before the holy savor’s birth!  Kim Jong Il, strike down!  Check!

Lil’ Kim whore temptress sizzling in hell!  Check!  President Perry closer to saving us from the Muslim illegal.  Check!  Billy Jon Bon  Jovi dead.  Check!

But even in the midst of all these demon mongers being strucked down by God, his work is still not done.  What can make God angrier than a communist who builds nukes against America’s will, a fanny shaker who tempts men to “M” themselves in abortive sins, a sable Moore without a birth certificate and a cat eyed demon rocker!

Gays!

More:

http://christwire.org/2011/12/god-causes-blackout-at-san-francisco-49ers-game-gays-to-blame/

How America’s Strategic Use of Nuclear Warfare Will Save God’s Children from Eternal Hellfire

December 19, 2011 7:07 pm

AN UNSAVED WORLD

What would you say if I told you at least 2/3 of the world population was damned to HELL? Sounds tragically OUTRAGEOUS, right? Well, as you would expect from Chris†wire, here are the facts:

…….there are nearly FIVE BILLION HEATHENS – from the pompous homogay, to the most gender-confused emosexual, and even to the mistakenly “devout” Buddhist – walking God’s Green Earth right now whose lack of faith will surely SPLIT HELL WIDE OPEN immediately after they take their last, misguided, selfish breath.

More:

http://christwire.org/2011/12/nuke-to-save-how-americas-strategic-use-of-nuclear-warfare-will-save-gods-children-from-eternal-hellfire/

Michele Bachmann is Biblically Qualified to be the President….

7:09 PM, Dec. 19, 2011

I’m amused and curious about a group of conservative Christian faith leaders urging conservatives to caucus for Michele Bachmann. One of their reasons for doing so is because “Michele Bachmann is biblically qualified to be the president.”

I wonder which Bible versions they are referring to — King James? Catholic? New American Standard? Hebrew? I wonder how they determined this qualification of her? And I wonder what part of being president requires one to be “biblically qualified?”

I guess my high school government class overlooked this presidential qualification when we studied the U.S. Constitution.

— Kevin J. Pokorny, Des Moines

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20111220/OPINION04/312200036/-1/FESTIVALS/-Biblically-qualified-raises-many-questions

Cantaloupe Kills, Congress Does Nothing… Costco Steps in to Save Consumers

Investigative Guy John Mattes – Reports & Scams

Sept. 30th 2011

The deaths from listeria linked to cantaloupes now have risen to 13 and meanwhile Congress does nothing about food safety. Where are the hearings, where is the outrage that Americans are being poisoned? Yes, poisoned by cantaloupes, not once but 19 times since 1984 according to federal officials.

Yet not a word from the White House or from any of those running for president. Not a single politician wants to step up to protect consumers from unsafe food. Are politicians afraid they will be seen as big government thugs? Does the mantra of less government regulation mean we should just let consumers eat food at their own risk?

Well, all is not lost. Costco plans to take action to protect American consumers. A Costco official told the New York Times, “I don’t think the cantaloupe industry can continue on doing the very same thing and expecting a different result. It’s time for companies to get more aggressive. If they know this is going to happen, let’s step up and not let it happen.”

More:

http://www.investigativeguy.com/cantaloupe-kills-congress-does-nothing-costco-steps-in-to-save-consumers/

Obama Broke His Promise

By Jonathan Turley, Jonathan Turley’s Blog

15 December 11

The so-called Homeland Battlefield provisions in the newly passed $662-billion defense authorization bill are generating a surprisingly wide range of legal interpretations. Constitutional law expert Jonathan Turley weighs in on what it all means. In addition Turley’s earlier piece, “Senate Votes Overwhelmingly To Allow Indefinite Detention of Citizens” adds a great deal of additional analysis. — MA/RSN

here was a brief moment when civil libertarians were stunned to see President Barack Obama actually take a stand in favor of civil liberties after years to rolling back on basic rights of citizens and moving beyond the Bush Administration in building up the security state. Obama said that he would veto the defense bill that contained a horrific provision for the indefinite detention of American citizens. While many predicted it, Obama has now again betrayed the civil liberties community and lifted the threat of the veto. Americans will now be subject to indefinite detention without trial in federal courts in a measure supported by both Democrats and Republicans. It is a curious way to celebrate the 220th anniversary of the Bill of Rights.

More:

http://www.readersupportednews.org/opinion2/275-42/8936-focus-obama-broke-his-promise

As Always: U.S.-Backed Egyptian Military Killing Pro-Democracy Protesters

Egypt’s Day of Shame: Video Shows Women Beaten With Metal Poles

By Inderdeep Bains, Daily Mail UK, 19 December 11

Source: Reader Supported News

Related:

U.S.-Backed Egyptian Military Killing Pro-Democracy Protesters: The Egyptian military is denying charges of brutalizing civilians. The Daily Mail webpage features video of the Egyptian military dragging and beating a woman — a video that had over 2 million views on YouTube

Source: Institute for Public Accuracy

Ayn Rand Made US a Selfish, Greedy Nation

By Bruce E. Levine, AlterNet

17 December 11

Thanks in part to Rand, the United States is one of the most uncaring nations in the industrialized world.

Ayn Rand’s “philosophy” is nearly perfect in its immorality, which makes the size of her audience all the more ominous and symptomatic as we enter a curious new phase in our society…. To justify and extol human greed and egotism is to my mind not only immoral, but evil. - Gore Vidal, 1961

 

Only rarely in U.S. history do writers transform us to become a more caring or less caring nation. In the 1850s, Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) was a strong force in making the United States a more humane nation, one that would abolish slavery of African Americans. A century later, Ayn Rand (1905-1982) helped make the United States into one of the most uncaring nations in the industrialized world, a neo-Dickensian society where healthcare is only for those who can afford it, and where young people are coerced into huge student-loan debt that cannot be discharged in bankruptcy.

More:

http://www.readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/8958-ayn-rand-made-us-a-selfish-greedy-nation