George W. Bush - Terrorist in the White House
WAR CRIMES
"They plunder, they slaughter, and they steal: this they falsely name Empire,and where they make a wasteland, they call it peace."~ Tacitus
The Commander and Chief of the Military, Should Be Held Accountable For These Crimes
US Law Concerning War Crimes
TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 118 > § 2441
§ 2441. War crimes
(a) Offense.— Whoever, whether inside or outside the United States, commits a war crime, in any of the circumstances described in subsection (b), shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for life or any term of years, or both, and if death results to the victim, shall also be subject to the penalty of death. (b) Circumstances.— The circumstances referred to in subsection (a) are that the person committing such war crime or the victim of such war crime is a member of the Armed Forces of the United States or a national of the United States (as defined in section 101 of the Immigration and Nationality Act). (c) Definition.— As used in this section the term “war crime” means any conduct— (1) defined as a grave breach in any of the international conventions signed at Geneva 12 August 1949, or any protocol to such convention to which the United States is a party; (2) prohibited by Article 23, 25, 27, or 28 of the Annex to the Hague Convention IV, Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, signed 18 October 1907; (3) which constitutes a violation of common Article 3 of the international conventions signed at Geneva, 12 August 1949, or any protocol to such convention to which the United States is a party and which deals with non-international armed conflict; or (4) of a person who, in relation to an armed conflict and contrary to the provisions of the Protocol on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Mines, Booby-Traps and Other Devices as amended at Geneva on 3 May 1996 (Protocol II as amended on 3 May 1996), when the United States is a party to such Protocol, willfully kills or causes serious injury to civilians.
Likud Party Discovers Brazilian Artist Latuff PDF
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
TWO OF A KIND....PSYCHO SPEARS SIS A SLAG AT 16!!!!!!
LYNNE SPEARS KNOCKED-UP,L Y'ALL!
Lynne Spears is going to be a grandmother for the third time. But it turns it out it isn't Britney who's adding to the brood.
Jamie Lynn Spears, Britney's 16-year-old sister, has revealed that she is pregnant.
The Zoey 101 star confirms her expectant status in OK! magazine's new issue and says that the father is longtime beau Casey Aldridge.
"It was a shock for both of us, so unexpected," Spears says. "I was in complete and total shock and so was he." "She was very upset because it wasn't what she expected at all."
Saturday, October 6, 2007
City Manager Fires Police Officers for Sexual Misconduct
City Manager Fires Police Officers for Sexual Misconduct
Grand Rapids City Manager Kurt Kimball held a press conference yesterday afternoon, announcing his findings from an internal investigation into alleged sexual misconduct on the part of five Grand Rapids police officers
"The Grand Rapids Police Department initiated an internal investigation on August 21, 2007," Kimball said. "... The complaint arose out of information received by the Internal Affairs Unit that former Emergency Communications Operator Erin Boone had sexual relations with several Grand Rapids police officers and a fellow emergency communications operator while on duty and/or on City property."
"The Grand Rapids Police Department initiated an internal investigation on August 21, 2007," Kimball said. "... The complaint arose out of information received by the Internal Affairs Unit that former Emergency Communications Operator Erin Boone had sexual relations with several Grand Rapids police officers and a fellow emergency communications operator while on duty and/or on City property."
Media stands by while America's workers are losing the 'class war' By NORMAN SOLOMON
The recent United Auto Workers strike against General Motors was a brief media reminder that unions exist.
We needed to be reminded. A few decades ago, upward of onethird of the American workforce was unionized. Now the figure is down around 10 percent.
The scant coverage of unions is both a cause and an effect of that steep downturn. The cycle of media focus and union strength - more precisely, of news absence and union weakness - is a classic chicken and egg.
As unions wither, the journalistic establishment has a rationale for giving them less ink and airtime. As the media coverage diminishes, fewer Americans find much reason to believe that unions are relevant to their working lives.
But the media problem for labor goes far beyond the fading of unions from newsprint, television and radio. Media outlets aren't just giving short shrift to organized labor. The avoidance extends to unorganized labor, too.
So often, when issues of workplaces and livelihoods appear in the news, they're framed in terms of "costs" and employer plights. The frequent emphasis is on the prospects and perils of companies that must compete.
Well, sure, firms need to compete. And working people need to feed and clothe and house themselves and their families. And workers hope to provide adequate medical care.
The issue of health insurance, central to the autoworkers' strike days ago, is a political talkingpoint for most candidates these days. But meanwhile, unionized workers are finding themselves in a weakened position when they try to retain whatever medical coverage they may have. And non-unionized workers often have little or none.
With all the media discussion of corporate bottom-line difficulties, the human element routinely gets lost in the shuffle. In dayto day business news and in general reporting, the lives of people on the line are apt to be rendered as abstractions. Or they simply go unmentioned.
The topic of war in Iraq is huge in the media. I can't say much for the quality of that coverage, but at least it keeps reporting that a military war is happening overseas. But what about the economic war that's happening at home?
Phrases like "class war" have been discredited in American news media. Too blunt, too combative, too rhetorical. But, call it what you will, the clash of economic interests is with us always.
Waged from the top down, class war is a triumphant activity - and part of the success involves the framing and avoidance of certain unpleasant realities via corporate-owned media outlets. You don't need to be a rocket scientist or a social scientist to grasp that multibillion-dollar companies are not going to own, or advertise with, media firms that challenge the power of multibillion-dollar companies.
One of the dominant yet littleremarked upon shifts in the media landscape over the past couple of decades has been the enormous upsurge in business news as general news. A result is that tens of millions of low-income people are seeing constant big news stories about challenges and opportunities for well-to-do investors.
The reverse, of course, is not the case. The very affluent of our society don't often pick up a newspaper or tune in the evening news and encounter waves of stories and commentaries about the dire straits of America's poor people and what it's like to be one of them.
"Class war"? The nation's most powerful editors cringe at the phrase. Why go there? It's not newsworthy. Or so we've been led to believe.
But every day, millions of Americans are painfully aware that - by any other name - class warfare is going on, and they're losing.
We needed to be reminded. A few decades ago, upward of onethird of the American workforce was unionized. Now the figure is down around 10 percent.
The scant coverage of unions is both a cause and an effect of that steep downturn. The cycle of media focus and union strength - more precisely, of news absence and union weakness - is a classic chicken and egg.
As unions wither, the journalistic establishment has a rationale for giving them less ink and airtime. As the media coverage diminishes, fewer Americans find much reason to believe that unions are relevant to their working lives.
But the media problem for labor goes far beyond the fading of unions from newsprint, television and radio. Media outlets aren't just giving short shrift to organized labor. The avoidance extends to unorganized labor, too.
So often, when issues of workplaces and livelihoods appear in the news, they're framed in terms of "costs" and employer plights. The frequent emphasis is on the prospects and perils of companies that must compete.
Well, sure, firms need to compete. And working people need to feed and clothe and house themselves and their families. And workers hope to provide adequate medical care.
The issue of health insurance, central to the autoworkers' strike days ago, is a political talkingpoint for most candidates these days. But meanwhile, unionized workers are finding themselves in a weakened position when they try to retain whatever medical coverage they may have. And non-unionized workers often have little or none.
With all the media discussion of corporate bottom-line difficulties, the human element routinely gets lost in the shuffle. In dayto day business news and in general reporting, the lives of people on the line are apt to be rendered as abstractions. Or they simply go unmentioned.
The topic of war in Iraq is huge in the media. I can't say much for the quality of that coverage, but at least it keeps reporting that a military war is happening overseas. But what about the economic war that's happening at home?
Phrases like "class war" have been discredited in American news media. Too blunt, too combative, too rhetorical. But, call it what you will, the clash of economic interests is with us always.
Waged from the top down, class war is a triumphant activity - and part of the success involves the framing and avoidance of certain unpleasant realities via corporate-owned media outlets. You don't need to be a rocket scientist or a social scientist to grasp that multibillion-dollar companies are not going to own, or advertise with, media firms that challenge the power of multibillion-dollar companies.
One of the dominant yet littleremarked upon shifts in the media landscape over the past couple of decades has been the enormous upsurge in business news as general news. A result is that tens of millions of low-income people are seeing constant big news stories about challenges and opportunities for well-to-do investors.
The reverse, of course, is not the case. The very affluent of our society don't often pick up a newspaper or tune in the evening news and encounter waves of stories and commentaries about the dire straits of America's poor people and what it's like to be one of them.
"Class war"? The nation's most powerful editors cringe at the phrase. Why go there? It's not newsworthy. Or so we've been led to believe.
But every day, millions of Americans are painfully aware that - by any other name - class warfare is going on, and they're losing.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
WHILE AMERICA GOSSIPS THESE THINGS ARE WHAT WE MISSED
anti-Syrian Lebanese leader was assassinated by a car bomb
a Sept. 6 air strike by eight Israeli Air Force F-15s and F-16s carrying Maverick missiles and 500-pound bombs was aimed at a North Korean shipment of nuclear materials being delivered to a Syrian installation. The attack was to prevent a “devastating surprise” Syria had allegedly been planning for Israel
Iran threatened to fire hundreds of missiles at Israeli and U.S. targets
An explosion, possibly from ordnance left over from last year's war with Israel, killed a Syrian worker and wounded four people Tuesday in a remote area in northeastern Lebanon, witnesses and security officials said. The victims were working in a field in the village of As-Sawah around 80 kilometers northwest of the city of Baalbek when one of them reportedly picked up a strange looking object
a Sept. 6 air strike by eight Israeli Air Force F-15s and F-16s carrying Maverick missiles and 500-pound bombs was aimed at a North Korean shipment of nuclear materials being delivered to a Syrian installation. The attack was to prevent a “devastating surprise” Syria had allegedly been planning for Israel
Iran threatened to fire hundreds of missiles at Israeli and U.S. targets
An explosion, possibly from ordnance left over from last year's war with Israel, killed a Syrian worker and wounded four people Tuesday in a remote area in northeastern Lebanon, witnesses and security officials said. The victims were working in a field in the village of As-Sawah around 80 kilometers northwest of the city of Baalbek when one of them reportedly picked up a strange looking object
Sunday, September 16, 2007
crazy shit.....
http://view.break.com/365863 - Watch more free videos
Tommy Lee and Kid Rock Fight!
Posted Sep 11, 2007Tommy Lee and Kid Rock go at it with a brawl during MTV's Video Music Awards in Las Vegas. Lee was kicked out of the show after the fracas, while Kid Rock was cited by police for misdemeanor battery.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Congress sells out to NRA
In the Commerce-Justice measure, such cuts included an administration move to reduce by more than half this year's $1.2 billion budget for grants and aid to state and local law enforcement. The Senate-passed bill includes $3.8 billion in grants to state and local governments and fire departments.
The bill also carries language backed by the National Rifle Association limiting the sharing of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives data on gun manufacturers, sellers and buyers with local governments and law enforcement.
Gun control critics opted not to challenge the provision offered by Rep Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., and similar to provisions included in the ATF budget since 2003. Instead, said Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., the provision's opponents would focus on preventing tougher Senate restrictions on sharing gun trace data from making it into the final House-Senate compromise bill.
Buzzed in space
According to NASA documents obtained by the Houston Chronicle, the space agency has broad plans for changes. They include a formal code of astronaut conduct, requirements for behavioral checkups as part of annual medical examinations, and a ban on alcohol consumption at least 12 hours before launch.
The plan also calls for a more thorough collection of mental health data in the long-term tracking of astronaut health as well as a pledge to grant protection from workplace retaliation for co-workers and health care providers who report abuses.
They are strapped to a rocket filled with nitro and other flameables and shot into space pretty much with fingers crossed and less than 50% chance odds against them makin' it there and back alive while some foam and foil formed into a ship guides them around so I say let them get a buzz , by drink or drug or whatever they need to feel good about risking their life on out-dated and faulty technology all in the name of science and the space race...rock on astros...everyone else should just mind ur own biz on this issue...
Equality for gay Lutherans
The Lutheran pastor who will soon become bishop of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod is calling for his denomination to remove a celibacy requirement for gay and lesbian clergy, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Miller is hoping the change could come as early as next month in Chicago, where the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is scheduled to conduct its denominational assembly. Nearly a third of the denomination's 65 synods are asking for a policy change in clergy standards.
Upgrade!
Vermont legislative leaders Wednesday announced a commission to study if the Legislature should allow same-sex couples to marry, the Associated Press reported.
In the Commerce-Justice measure, such cuts included an administration move to reduce by more than half this year's $1.2 billion budget for grants and aid to state and local law enforcement. The Senate-passed bill includes $3.8 billion in grants to state and local governments and fire departments.
The bill also carries language backed by the National Rifle Association limiting the sharing of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives data on gun manufacturers, sellers and buyers with local governments and law enforcement.
Gun control critics opted not to challenge the provision offered by Rep Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., and similar to provisions included in the ATF budget since 2003. Instead, said Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., the provision's opponents would focus on preventing tougher Senate restrictions on sharing gun trace data from making it into the final House-Senate compromise bill.
Buzzed in space
According to NASA documents obtained by the Houston Chronicle, the space agency has broad plans for changes. They include a formal code of astronaut conduct, requirements for behavioral checkups as part of annual medical examinations, and a ban on alcohol consumption at least 12 hours before launch.
The plan also calls for a more thorough collection of mental health data in the long-term tracking of astronaut health as well as a pledge to grant protection from workplace retaliation for co-workers and health care providers who report abuses.
They are strapped to a rocket filled with nitro and other flameables and shot into space pretty much with fingers crossed and less than 50% chance odds against them makin' it there and back alive while some foam and foil formed into a ship guides them around so I say let them get a buzz , by drink or drug or whatever they need to feel good about risking their life on out-dated and faulty technology all in the name of science and the space race...rock on astros...everyone else should just mind ur own biz on this issue...
Equality for gay Lutherans
The Lutheran pastor who will soon become bishop of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod is calling for his denomination to remove a celibacy requirement for gay and lesbian clergy, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Miller is hoping the change could come as early as next month in Chicago, where the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is scheduled to conduct its denominational assembly. Nearly a third of the denomination's 65 synods are asking for a policy change in clergy standards.
Upgrade!
Vermont legislative leaders Wednesday announced a commission to study if the Legislature should allow same-sex couples to marry, the Associated Press reported.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Today I turn 35!......I feel a crisis!!....nah I feel the same as I did at 25 for the most part...just a bigger number is all!!
Pakistan is a vital ally in the ongoing global war against terrorism, R. Nicholas Burns, the State Department’s under secretary of state for political affairs told a congressional panel.
“Pakistan right now is one of our closest partners globally. It is without any question our most indispensable partner in the fight against al-Qaida and the other Islamic terrorist groups in South Asia,” he said in his prepared testimony July 25.
Burns told the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Pakistan’s future is key to stability in South Asia, which Burns said had become a region of “singular importance” to U.S. foreign policy since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America.
The official said he could “think of nothing more important” to the U.S.-Pakistani relationship than continued U.S. attention, commitment and engagement with Pakistan.
Pakistanis, Burns said, should be assured the United States will remain a good and reliable friend. But as a good friend, said Burns, the United States will speak frankly and sometimes disagree with Pakistan on “vital issues such as the best way to defeat terrorist groups and the right way to build a democratic state.”
Pakistan is a vital ally in the ongoing global war against terrorism, R. Nicholas Burns, the State Department’s under secretary of state for political affairs told a congressional panel.
“Pakistan right now is one of our closest partners globally. It is without any question our most indispensable partner in the fight against al-Qaida and the other Islamic terrorist groups in South Asia,” he said in his prepared testimony July 25.
Burns told the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Pakistan’s future is key to stability in South Asia, which Burns said had become a region of “singular importance” to U.S. foreign policy since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America.
The official said he could “think of nothing more important” to the U.S.-Pakistani relationship than continued U.S. attention, commitment and engagement with Pakistan.
Pakistanis, Burns said, should be assured the United States will remain a good and reliable friend. But as a good friend, said Burns, the United States will speak frankly and sometimes disagree with Pakistan on “vital issues such as the best way to defeat terrorist groups and the right way to build a democratic state.”
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Former US Surgeon General Richard Carmona, MD, MPH, says the American people are not getting facts based on the best science on subjects ranging from stem cell science to sexual education, but rather biased reports aimed at promoting a particular political agenda.
In fact, the selective filtering of the facts on health-related topics and political interference occurred under both Democratic and Republican presidential administrations, Carmona reports.
Some critics say firms such as Blackstone that go public should be regulated like other publicly traded investment companies, such as mutual funds. The SEC has exempted Blackstone from regulation because it deemed that most of its assets are not "investment securities." That strikes some as a technicality.
The U.S. Senate was expected to take a pause in its debate on the Iraq war this week to allow Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) to offer a gay- and transgender-inclusive hate crimes bill as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act.The Shepard bill would give the federal government authority to prosecute hate crimes against gays and transgender persons as well as against persons with disabilities. Existing federal law allows federal authorities to prosecute hate crimes targeting people because of their race, religion or ethnicity.
In fact, the selective filtering of the facts on health-related topics and political interference occurred under both Democratic and Republican presidential administrations, Carmona reports.
Some critics say firms such as Blackstone that go public should be regulated like other publicly traded investment companies, such as mutual funds. The SEC has exempted Blackstone from regulation because it deemed that most of its assets are not "investment securities." That strikes some as a technicality.
The U.S. Senate was expected to take a pause in its debate on the Iraq war this week to allow Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) to offer a gay- and transgender-inclusive hate crimes bill as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act.The Shepard bill would give the federal government authority to prosecute hate crimes against gays and transgender persons as well as against persons with disabilities. Existing federal law allows federal authorities to prosecute hate crimes targeting people because of their race, religion or ethnicity.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
AN ESSAY ON THE PARALLELS OF RELIGIOUS ABUSE OF POWER AND SOCIAL TERRORISM
AN ESSAY ON THE PARALLELS OF RELIGIOUS ABUSE OF POWER AND SOCIAL TERRORISM
RELIGIOUS ABUSE OF POWER AS AFFECTIONAL MIND CONTROL EQUAL TO SOCIAL TERRORISM: LEGALIZED REINFORCEMENT OF SPIRITUAL OPPRESSION.
It is my belief that organized religion has used superstition as a form of mind control, in an abusive role, to keep people confined within the constraints of legalized oppression by forcefully influential means of social governments, equal to the fanatical views of religious beliefs, leading to the evolution of social terrorism. Psychologists define superstition as this "it involves the formation of a false association between a response and reinforced when there is no cause-and-effect relationship between the two". This does not suggest, by the professionals definition that they believe religion is equal to superstition. However I personally feel that religion falls under this psychological phenomenon. Webster's defines religion in several ways. I am not going to transcribe all of them here for obvious reasons so here are a couple that are relevant to this topic, "belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator and governor of the universe" and "a cause, a principle, or an activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion". Neither superstition nor religion are defined as needing grounded, scientific, or factual evidence of supernatural existence.
(On a side note, constitutionally this would fall under legislative acknowledgement as "heresy") I myself have a strong indulgence of superstitious practice. For example, I have a strong urge to place spiritual based symbols around my living environment I have a crucifix and an Egyptian amulet of the dead hanging over the mirrors in my bedroom that are not significant to my daily use. I also have various tribal "spirit masks" and cultural based gargoyles positioned throughout my room and overhead in the four corners of the room. In moments of eventual anxiety I make the sign of the cross. I am neither catholic nor pagan in my religious heritage. I have no logistical reason nor evidence that these personal indulgences benefit my daily affairs nor do I protest or impose these superstitions on others, that is my main problem with religious doctrine being mirrored and imposed in the world's governments inscribed and issued laws and codes, which are designed to bring structure to social communities. This very moment and for the past several decades there has been an increasing battle to define the separation of church and state and its legal implementation into society.
The hypocrisy is that even as they legislate this they habitually indulge in religious based practices, such as "In god we trust", the "swearing in" of officials and institutions, therefore influencing through suggestive and unconscious means their inability to separate the very concept of "separation of church and state", symbolically imposing personal belief on social governing.
In the past the church has proved its overwhelming control over the masses by enforcing monetary payment for personal salvation. In certain instances they have enforced high taxes on legal prostitution while at the same time dictating when the prostitutes would conduct business, even controlling when and where they would live, eat, and earn their living. Another instance shows the true terroristic nature of religious order. During the crusades the knights demanded inflated monetary payments and the relinquishment of holy relics from the Muslim population. When their demands where not met thousands of unarmed Muslims were slaughtered, men, women, and children. Situations such as these have been documented even until this very decade in societies where the ruling powers were raised based on religious footing and influence. Even today governments are using religion to enforce and excuse extreme atrocities against their own peoples and foreign peoples. Laws are made and carried out based on "religious moralities" in order to oppress and subjugate segments of society whose ideals and principles are deemed undesirable or segregant, based on religious beliefs written into laws.
Labeling religious authority over government laws as being equal to social terrorism may sound extreme, however by allowing a structural belief of supernatural presence to supersede the logical principles of governing society based solely upon nonfactual and argumentative spiritual ideals is in direct violation of the ability for implementation of just and equal concept of a free society, of the people, for the people, by the people. The allowance of religious convictions to be imposed on the people through governmental reinforcement does give rise to conflict and instability, which in return creates fanatical and violent actions to gain mental control over cultural and social order. In fact the very definition of terrorism is "the unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence to intimidate or coerce societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons".
(note: this is my opinion)
It is my belief that organized religion has used superstition as a form of mind control, in an abusive role, to keep people confined within the constraints of legalized oppression by forcefully influential means of social governments, equal to the fanatical views of religious beliefs, leading to the evolution of social terrorism. Psychologists define superstition as this "it involves the formation of a false association between a response and reinforced when there is no cause-and-effect relationship between the two". This does not suggest, by the professionals definition that they believe religion is equal to superstition. However I personally feel that religion falls under this psychological phenomenon. Webster's defines religion in several ways. I am not going to transcribe all of them here for obvious reasons so here are a couple that are relevant to this topic, "belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator and governor of the universe" and "a cause, a principle, or an activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion". Neither superstition nor religion are defined as needing grounded, scientific, or factual evidence of supernatural existence.
(On a side note, constitutionally this would fall under legislative acknowledgement as "heresy") I myself have a strong indulgence of superstitious practice. For example, I have a strong urge to place spiritual based symbols around my living environment I have a crucifix and an Egyptian amulet of the dead hanging over the mirrors in my bedroom that are not significant to my daily use. I also have various tribal "spirit masks" and cultural based gargoyles positioned throughout my room and overhead in the four corners of the room. In moments of eventual anxiety I make the sign of the cross. I am neither catholic nor pagan in my religious heritage. I have no logistical reason nor evidence that these personal indulgences benefit my daily affairs nor do I protest or impose these superstitions on others, that is my main problem with religious doctrine being mirrored and imposed in the world's governments inscribed and issued laws and codes, which are designed to bring structure to social communities. This very moment and for the past several decades there has been an increasing battle to define the separation of church and state and its legal implementation into society.
The hypocrisy is that even as they legislate this they habitually indulge in religious based practices, such as "In god we trust", the "swearing in" of officials and institutions, therefore influencing through suggestive and unconscious means their inability to separate the very concept of "separation of church and state", symbolically imposing personal belief on social governing.
In the past the church has proved its overwhelming control over the masses by enforcing monetary payment for personal salvation. In certain instances they have enforced high taxes on legal prostitution while at the same time dictating when the prostitutes would conduct business, even controlling when and where they would live, eat, and earn their living. Another instance shows the true terroristic nature of religious order. During the crusades the knights demanded inflated monetary payments and the relinquishment of holy relics from the Muslim population. When their demands where not met thousands of unarmed Muslims were slaughtered, men, women, and children. Situations such as these have been documented even until this very decade in societies where the ruling powers were raised based on religious footing and influence. Even today governments are using religion to enforce and excuse extreme atrocities against their own peoples and foreign peoples. Laws are made and carried out based on "religious moralities" in order to oppress and subjugate segments of society whose ideals and principles are deemed undesirable or segregant, based on religious beliefs written into laws.
Labeling religious authority over government laws as being equal to social terrorism may sound extreme, however by allowing a structural belief of supernatural presence to supersede the logical principles of governing society based solely upon nonfactual and argumentative spiritual ideals is in direct violation of the ability for implementation of just and equal concept of a free society, of the people, for the people, by the people. The allowance of religious convictions to be imposed on the people through governmental reinforcement does give rise to conflict and instability, which in return creates fanatical and violent actions to gain mental control over cultural and social order. In fact the very definition of terrorism is "the unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence to intimidate or coerce societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons".
(note: this is my opinion)
WASTED TIME ON SENSELESS ITEMS BY BUSH
Religious Freedom Day, 2007 A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America
On Religious Freedom Day, we commemorate the passage of the 1786 Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, authored by Thomas Jefferson, and we celebrate the First Amendment's protection of religious freedom.
Across the centuries, people have come to America seeking to worship the Almighty freely. Today, our citizens profess many different faiths, and we welcome every religion. Yet people in many countries live without the freedom to worship as they choose and some face persecution for their beliefs. My Administration is working with our friends and allies around the globe to advance common values and spread the blessings of liberty to every corner of the world. Freedom is a gift from the Almighty, written in the heart and soul of every man, woman, and child, and we must continue to promote the importance of religious freedom at home and abroad.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 16, 2007, as Religious Freedom Day. I call on all Americans to reflect on the great blessing of religious liberty, endeavor to preserve this freedom for future generations, and commemorate this day with appropriate events and activities in their schools, places of worship, neighborhoods, and homes.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this eleventh day of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-first.
GEORGE W. BUSH
...WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?..WELL WHY THE LAW GIVERS ARE SLAMMING PEOPLE LEFT AND RIGHT WITH DECLARATIONS PREVENTING ORDINARY PEOPLE TO HAVE THIER RELIGIOUS IDENTITY ECKNOWLEDGED IN THIER COMMUNITYS THEY THEMSELVES ARE ALLOWED A DIFFERENT SET OF STANDARDS...PRETTY MUCH SAYING THAT THEY CAN INCORPORATE THIER RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS INTO LAWS AND PROCLAMATIONS BUT YOU CANNOT....THIS IS HOW I SEE IT BY HEARING WHAT IS HAPPENING WITHIN COMMUNITIES AND THEN READING HOW THE GOVERNMENT BEGINS AND ENDS ITS LEGISLATION WITH AN OBVIOUS BLENDING OF CHURCH AND STATE...PERSONALLY CHURCH SHOULD BE KEPT WITHIN YOURSELF AND NOT ALLOWED TO DOMINATE NOR DICTATE THE AFFAIRS OF THIS NATIONS GOVERNMENT.....
Religious Freedom Day, 2007 A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America
On Religious Freedom Day, we commemorate the passage of the 1786 Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, authored by Thomas Jefferson, and we celebrate the First Amendment's protection of religious freedom.
Across the centuries, people have come to America seeking to worship the Almighty freely. Today, our citizens profess many different faiths, and we welcome every religion. Yet people in many countries live without the freedom to worship as they choose and some face persecution for their beliefs. My Administration is working with our friends and allies around the globe to advance common values and spread the blessings of liberty to every corner of the world. Freedom is a gift from the Almighty, written in the heart and soul of every man, woman, and child, and we must continue to promote the importance of religious freedom at home and abroad.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 16, 2007, as Religious Freedom Day. I call on all Americans to reflect on the great blessing of religious liberty, endeavor to preserve this freedom for future generations, and commemorate this day with appropriate events and activities in their schools, places of worship, neighborhoods, and homes.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this eleventh day of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-first.
GEORGE W. BUSH
...WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?..WELL WHY THE LAW GIVERS ARE SLAMMING PEOPLE LEFT AND RIGHT WITH DECLARATIONS PREVENTING ORDINARY PEOPLE TO HAVE THIER RELIGIOUS IDENTITY ECKNOWLEDGED IN THIER COMMUNITYS THEY THEMSELVES ARE ALLOWED A DIFFERENT SET OF STANDARDS...PRETTY MUCH SAYING THAT THEY CAN INCORPORATE THIER RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS INTO LAWS AND PROCLAMATIONS BUT YOU CANNOT....THIS IS HOW I SEE IT BY HEARING WHAT IS HAPPENING WITHIN COMMUNITIES AND THEN READING HOW THE GOVERNMENT BEGINS AND ENDS ITS LEGISLATION WITH AN OBVIOUS BLENDING OF CHURCH AND STATE...PERSONALLY CHURCH SHOULD BE KEPT WITHIN YOURSELF AND NOT ALLOWED TO DOMINATE NOR DICTATE THE AFFAIRS OF THIS NATIONS GOVERNMENT.....
WHATDAFUXWITDISHIT!!!!!!!!!!!
THE SONG UMBRELLA...COME ON PEOPLE IS THE REALLY GOOD MUSIC TO YOU?...REALLY?...SHE JUST SAYS THE SAME WORD AND SENTENCE OVER AND OVER AGAIN ...EHH EHH EHH UMM UMM BRELLA BRELL UMBRELLA UNDER MY UMBRELLA...THEIR IS NOTHING THERE NO SUBSTANCE...JUST PBS HOOKED ON FUCKIN' PHONICS SHIT...NO WONDER KIDS TODAY HAVE NO REAL UNDERSTANDING OR CONCEPT OF QUALITY AND MEANING WHEN IT COMES TO THEIR "ARTISTS"....TO ME THEY ARE JUST PLASTIC 3-D IMAGES MADE IN CHINA COMING TO A LANDFILL NEAR YOU CRAP!!!!!!!!WHATDAFUXWITDISHIT!!!!!!!!!!MAYBE IF WE EXPECTED MORE FROM THESE PEOPLE WHO ARE THE PEOPLE MAGS MOST "THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE SUCK BUT ARE RICH SO WE WORSHIP THEIR FUCKIN SMELL LIST" THEN MORE WOULD BE EXPECTED OF OUR KIDS ...FIRST GRADE CURVES THEN DUMBING DOWN THE EDUCATION CRITERIA AND NOW ACTUALLY DUMBING DOWN SOCIETY...NO WONDER WE DON'T RIOT OR PROTEST IN AMERICA OVER ALOT OF THE SHIT GOIN ON LIKE THE REST OF THE WORLD ...WE TO STUPID TO KNOW HOW TO OR REALIZE WE SHOULD BE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AND THAT IS MY RANT FOR TODAY...........................................
THE SONG UMBRELLA...COME ON PEOPLE IS THE REALLY GOOD MUSIC TO YOU?...REALLY?...SHE JUST SAYS THE SAME WORD AND SENTENCE OVER AND OVER AGAIN ...EHH EHH EHH UMM UMM BRELLA BRELL UMBRELLA UNDER MY UMBRELLA...THEIR IS NOTHING THERE NO SUBSTANCE...JUST PBS HOOKED ON FUCKIN' PHONICS SHIT...NO WONDER KIDS TODAY HAVE NO REAL UNDERSTANDING OR CONCEPT OF QUALITY AND MEANING WHEN IT COMES TO THEIR "ARTISTS"....TO ME THEY ARE JUST PLASTIC 3-D IMAGES MADE IN CHINA COMING TO A LANDFILL NEAR YOU CRAP!!!!!!!!WHATDAFUXWITDISHIT!!!!!!!!!!MAYBE IF WE EXPECTED MORE FROM THESE PEOPLE WHO ARE THE PEOPLE MAGS MOST "THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE SUCK BUT ARE RICH SO WE WORSHIP THEIR FUCKIN SMELL LIST" THEN MORE WOULD BE EXPECTED OF OUR KIDS ...FIRST GRADE CURVES THEN DUMBING DOWN THE EDUCATION CRITERIA AND NOW ACTUALLY DUMBING DOWN SOCIETY...NO WONDER WE DON'T RIOT OR PROTEST IN AMERICA OVER ALOT OF THE SHIT GOIN ON LIKE THE REST OF THE WORLD ...WE TO STUPID TO KNOW HOW TO OR REALIZE WE SHOULD BE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AND THAT IS MY RANT FOR TODAY...........................................
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
FREE THOUGHTS
"Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by difference of sentiment in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought most to be deprecated. I was in hopes that the enlightened and liberal policy which has marked the present age would at least have reconciled Christians of every denomination, so far that we should never again see their religious disputes carried to such a pitch as to endanger the peace of society."
-- George Washington, letter to Sir Edward Newenham, Oct. 20, 1792.
"I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute--where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote--where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference--and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him or the people who might elect him."I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish--where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source--where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials--and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all. . . ."Finally, I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end--where all men and all churches are treated as equal--where every man has the same right to attend or not attend the church of his choice--where there is no Catholic vote, no anti-Catholic vote, no bloc voting of any kind--and where Catholics, Protestants and Jews, at both the lay and pastoral level, will refrain from those attitudes of disdain and division which have so often marred their works in the past, and promote instead the American ideal of brotherhood."
-- John F. Kennedy, born on May 29, 1917 (d. 1963). Speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, Rice Hotel, September 12, 1960
"Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion.".. Attribution -->
-- William Blake, Proverbs of Hell, 1790
"Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by difference of sentiment in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought most to be deprecated. I was in hopes that the enlightened and liberal policy which has marked the present age would at least have reconciled Christians of every denomination, so far that we should never again see their religious disputes carried to such a pitch as to endanger the peace of society."
-- George Washington, letter to Sir Edward Newenham, Oct. 20, 1792.
"I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute--where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote--where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference--and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him or the people who might elect him."I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish--where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source--where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials--and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all. . . ."Finally, I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end--where all men and all churches are treated as equal--where every man has the same right to attend or not attend the church of his choice--where there is no Catholic vote, no anti-Catholic vote, no bloc voting of any kind--and where Catholics, Protestants and Jews, at both the lay and pastoral level, will refrain from those attitudes of disdain and division which have so often marred their works in the past, and promote instead the American ideal of brotherhood."
-- John F. Kennedy, born on May 29, 1917 (d. 1963). Speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, Rice Hotel, September 12, 1960
"Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion.".. Attribution -->
-- William Blake, Proverbs of Hell, 1790
SCIENCE UNDER GOV'T CONTROL
The censorship of science undermines democracy.
At a major congressional hearing in January, a prominent NASA climatologist spoke publicly about attempts by agency officials to interfere with his ability to release his research results that described impact of global warming on Antarctica.
Sadly, the scientist is not alone. Growing evidence shows that over the past several years, political interference in federal government science has become both widespread and pervasive. To ensure that science — one of the cornerstones of American democracy — continues to serve society, public officials must act to defend taxpayer-funded science from political interference.
The Bush administration has censored scientists, suppressed reports, and altered scientific documents on issues ranging from mercury pollution to childhood lead poisoning to drug safety. And for every scientist who is able to speak out against political interference in his or her work, scores of others have been pressured into silence and don't have the standing that would allow them to speak without retribution.
Recent surveys by the Union of Concerned Scientists found that nearly 40 percent (699) of more than 1,800 scientists working at nine federal agencies report that they fear retaliation for openly expressing concerns about their agency's work. In a survey of climate scientists alone, 150 scientists reported at least 456 instances of political interference in their research or the communication of their results. These numbers should be zero.
Environmental Protection Agency staff scientists have worked for decades with an independent scientific advisory committee to review the best available science on air pollutants and recommend appropriate pollution control standards. Last year, when the committee scientists objected to an EPA decision to set soot pollution standards that twisted the science and failed to protect public health, the agency responded with a new policy that significantly limits scientific input into the process.
President Bush's January amendments to an existing executive order could further centralize regulatory decision-making power in the White House. The new rules place political appointees deeper inside federal scientific agencies where they can more easily prevent scientific data from ever seeing the light of day.
In response, nearly 12,000 scientists, including 52 Nobel laureates and science advisers to both Republican and Democratic presidents dating back 50 years, signed a statement condemning this abuse and calling for reform. "The distortion of scientific knowledge for partisan political ends must cease," they said, "if the public is to be properly informed about issues central to its well being, and the nation is to benefit fully from its heavy investment in scientific research and education."
Indeed, our nation's prosperity is based on a foundation of independent, unfettered scientific discovery. Decision-makers must have access to the best available scientific information to make fully informed decisions that affect public health and the environment.
Restoring scientific integrity to federal policy making will also take the persistent and energetic engagement of the next president. Presidential candidates should promise a zero tolerance policy for the manipulation and suppression of taxpayer-funded science. Candidates must commit to a philosophy of open government that allows scientists to speak freely about their scientific research and enables science to effectively inform public policy.
This is not an abstract debate. In the coming year, the administration will be faced with a number of critical science-based decisions. The EPA will set standards for pollution from lead and ozone. The Food and Drug Administration will continue to determine the safety of new prescription drugs and medical devices. And the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will debate regulations that protect the health and safety of workers.
Scientific freedom — the ability of scientists to conduct research and share their results free from government interference or censorship — is vital to a democracy. The thousands of scientists employed by the federal government represent a tremendous resource. Without a culture of scientific independence, public understanding of scientific issues will suffer, and our public officials will be unable to meet America's most pressing challenges. http://static.record-eagle.com/2007/mar/15sun-oped.htm
The censorship of science undermines democracy.
At a major congressional hearing in January, a prominent NASA climatologist spoke publicly about attempts by agency officials to interfere with his ability to release his research results that described impact of global warming on Antarctica.
Sadly, the scientist is not alone. Growing evidence shows that over the past several years, political interference in federal government science has become both widespread and pervasive. To ensure that science — one of the cornerstones of American democracy — continues to serve society, public officials must act to defend taxpayer-funded science from political interference.
The Bush administration has censored scientists, suppressed reports, and altered scientific documents on issues ranging from mercury pollution to childhood lead poisoning to drug safety. And for every scientist who is able to speak out against political interference in his or her work, scores of others have been pressured into silence and don't have the standing that would allow them to speak without retribution.
Recent surveys by the Union of Concerned Scientists found that nearly 40 percent (699) of more than 1,800 scientists working at nine federal agencies report that they fear retaliation for openly expressing concerns about their agency's work. In a survey of climate scientists alone, 150 scientists reported at least 456 instances of political interference in their research or the communication of their results. These numbers should be zero.
Environmental Protection Agency staff scientists have worked for decades with an independent scientific advisory committee to review the best available science on air pollutants and recommend appropriate pollution control standards. Last year, when the committee scientists objected to an EPA decision to set soot pollution standards that twisted the science and failed to protect public health, the agency responded with a new policy that significantly limits scientific input into the process.
President Bush's January amendments to an existing executive order could further centralize regulatory decision-making power in the White House. The new rules place political appointees deeper inside federal scientific agencies where they can more easily prevent scientific data from ever seeing the light of day.
In response, nearly 12,000 scientists, including 52 Nobel laureates and science advisers to both Republican and Democratic presidents dating back 50 years, signed a statement condemning this abuse and calling for reform. "The distortion of scientific knowledge for partisan political ends must cease," they said, "if the public is to be properly informed about issues central to its well being, and the nation is to benefit fully from its heavy investment in scientific research and education."
Indeed, our nation's prosperity is based on a foundation of independent, unfettered scientific discovery. Decision-makers must have access to the best available scientific information to make fully informed decisions that affect public health and the environment.
Restoring scientific integrity to federal policy making will also take the persistent and energetic engagement of the next president. Presidential candidates should promise a zero tolerance policy for the manipulation and suppression of taxpayer-funded science. Candidates must commit to a philosophy of open government that allows scientists to speak freely about their scientific research and enables science to effectively inform public policy.
This is not an abstract debate. In the coming year, the administration will be faced with a number of critical science-based decisions. The EPA will set standards for pollution from lead and ozone. The Food and Drug Administration will continue to determine the safety of new prescription drugs and medical devices. And the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will debate regulations that protect the health and safety of workers.
Scientific freedom — the ability of scientists to conduct research and share their results free from government interference or censorship — is vital to a democracy. The thousands of scientists employed by the federal government represent a tremendous resource. Without a culture of scientific independence, public understanding of scientific issues will suffer, and our public officials will be unable to meet America's most pressing challenges. http://static.record-eagle.com/2007/mar/15sun-oped.htm
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
WELCOME TO THE UNITED STATES OF THE CHRISTIAN EMPIRE
BUSH GIVES BILLIONS TO FAITH BASED PROGRAMS AT TAXPAYERS EXPENSE
George W. Bush's Faith Based Initiative.
Unmentioned in the president's State of the Union speech, the program nevertheless continues to recruit religious participants and hand out taxpayer money to religious groups.
The president's religious patronage system is now pouring more than $2 billion in federal funding into church- affiliated organizations around the country annually.
With several domestic policy proposals unceremoniously folded into President Bush's recent State of the Union address, two pretty significant items failed to make the cut. Despite the president's egregiously.. tardy response to the event itself, it was nevertheless surprising that he didn't even mention Hurricane Katrina: He didn't offer up a progress report, words of hope to the victims, or come up with a proposal for moving the sluggish rebuilding effort forward. There were no "armies of compassion" ready to be unleashed, although it should be said that many in the religious community responded to the disaster much quicker than the Bush Administration. In the State of the Union address, however, there was no "compassionate conservatism" for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
HIS FAITH BASED AGENDAS ARE IN CONFLICT WITH THE CONSTITUTION...AND AMERICAN TAXPAYERS ARE PICKING UP THE TAB.
Faith-based confidential
A new book from administration insider confirms faith-based initiative is little more than political-religious patronage system
David Kuo, the former second-in-command of the White House Office and a true believer in the power of faith-based organizations to help the poor, has published a new book titled "Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction," which provides an insiders look at how the Bush White House politicized the initiative, sometime rejected applications for federal faith-based funds because they came from non-Christian applicants, mocked leaders of the Christian Right, and betrayed the very essence of the faith-based initiative's charge to help the poor.
InnerChange Freedom Initiative, a faith-based prison program operating in Iowa's prisons is unconstitutional, Colson, one of President Richard Nixon's key operatives during the Watergate years and currently the head of Prison Fellowship Ministries is using a new report about the growing threat of Islamic terrorists being recruited in U.S. prisons to argue that support for his faith-based prison program is essential if terrorist attacks in this country are to be prevented.
$14 million in federal faith-based money goes to Pat Robertson
Televangelist's claim that Ariel Sharon's stroke was an act of God may have cost him the friendship of some Israelis, but it hasn't prevented his charity, Operation Blessing, from garnering faith-based grants from the U.S. government
While the Reverend Pat Robertson was flayed recently over his suggestion that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was an act of retribution by God for the transfer of land in the Gaza Strip to the Palestinians, the Reverend's charitable organization, Operation Blessing, was raking in wads of faith-based money from the Bush Administration.
Prison Justice Ministries' InnerChange Freedom Initiative is a 'government-funded conversion program' says Americans United's Barry Lynn
It isn't celebrity-laced like the trials of OJ Simpson, Michael Jackson or Robert Blake. It hasn't drawn the attention of CNN's Nancy Grace or the Fox News Channel's Greta Van Sustren, television's mavens of mystery. It appears to have little to do with whether or not President Bush's faith-based initiative is achieving "results." Nevertheless, the outcome of the legal proceedings currently underway in federal court in Des Moines, Iowa, could have a major impact on issues related to the separation of church and state for years to come.Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, and its co-plaintiff, Jerry Ashburn, an inmate at Iowa's Newton Correctional Facility, located about 23 miles east of Des Moines, have filed suit against the Virginia-based Prison Fellowship Ministries and its Christian rehabilitation program, the InnerChange Freedom Initiative. The suit, currently being heard in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa Central Division in Des Moines, argues that the state gives preferential treatment to inmates enrolled InnerChange -- a program that has been operating at the Newton facility since 1999. According to Baptist Press, "the Iowa legislature has appropriated $310,000 in the current fiscal year for a 'value-based treatment program' at the Newton facility."
The Federal Emergency Management Agency's decision to reimburse faith-based organizations for services rendered in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina signals another triumph for the president's faith-based initiative
During an early-October trip to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Jim Towey, an assistant to President Bush and the director of the White House Office for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, told a group of more than 120 pastors, pastors' wives, and other leaders of faith-based organizations meeting at First Baptist Church's downtown campus that "if there was a gold medal ... given out for compassion, Baton Rouge would have the best claim." In other recent appearances, Towey has praised the yeoman work faith-based organizations performed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.Towey's acknowledgements appear to fit well with a decision by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to use taxpayer money to reimburse faith-based organizations that provided relief services after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast and New Orleans. "Religious organizations would be eligible for payments ... if they operated emergency shelters, food distribution centers or medical facilities at the request of state or local governments in the three states that have declared emergencies -- Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama," FEMA officials declared.
Faith-based charity fuels housing bubble
Empty houses, falling prices: A boom dies
"Homebuilders across the country, including Dominion Homes, have found a way around a Federal law barring [home] sellers from giving money directly to buyers for a down payment. They route the money through charities such as the Nehemiah Corp. of America, a faith-based group in California. Nehemiah provides down payments for both existing and new homes, and its relationship with Dominion is the largest of its kind in central Ohio between a builder and charity.
The Bush Administration tries again to institutionalize its Faith-Based Initiative with legislative action
One of the first orders of business for George W. Bush in January 2001 was to establish a White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, thus kicking off the cornerstone social policy of his presidency. At a ceremony attended by numerous religious leaders Bush announced executive orders that instructed the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, Justice, Education and Housing and Urban Development, to set up Centers for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives within their agencies.
That done, Bush moved to cement his executive actions in congressional legislation. There he was rebuffed, however, over objections that government money would be used for religious proselytization, and that recipients of government grants would be allowed to discriminate in their hiring based on religion.
Bush called on Senators Ric Santorum (R-PA) and Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) to craft a legislative compromise. When they failed to win a consensus, the president went back to issuing executive orders. Now, House allies are trying to come up with a legislative package that will pass muster. One of the keys to the compromise is a "Sense of the Congress" resolution dealing with the religious hiring question.
The Bush Administration awarded $2 billion in grants to religious organizations in 2004. Is Team Bush setting up a National Endowment for Religion?
On March 1, President George W. Bush told the more than 250 religious leaders attending the White House Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Leadership Conference at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC, that he was committed to his faith-based initiative "despite congressional apathy and criticism from some that he hasn't done enough to push the agenda," the Scripps Howard News Service reported.
How the president has used religion to control American politics
American presidents beginning with George Washington have included religious language in their public addresses. Claims of the United States as a divinely chosen nation and requests for God to bless U.S. decisions and actions have been commonplace. Scholars have labeled such discourse "civil religion," in which political leaders emphasize religious symbols and transcendent principles to engender a sense of unity and shared national identity.
George W. Bush is doing something altogether different.
Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the president and his administration have converged a religious fundamentalist worldview with a political agenda -- a distinctly partisan one, wrapped in the mantle of national interest but crafted by and for only those who share their outlook. It is a modern form of political fundamentalism, that is, the adaptation of a self-proclaimed conservative religious (Christian) rectitude, that uses strategic language choices and communication approaches designed for a mass-media culture to shape and implement political policy.
Motivated by this ideology, the Bush administration has sought to control the national discourse by engendering a climate of nationalism in which large parts of the public views supporting the president as a patriotic duty, and where Congress and the United Nations are compelled to rubber-stamp administration policies.
In the process of institutionalizing its faith-based initiative the Bush administration has handed over $1 billion to religious organizations and more is coming to a state near you
"It's true that much attention is being placed on the war in Iraq, but there's also another war that's going on. It's a culture war that really gets to the heart of the questions about what is the role of faith in the public square." – Jim Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, during a conference promoting the funding of religious groups engaged in social service activities, July 2004.
"President Bush does not want to proselytize or fund religion. We're talking about things like job training and substance abuse prevention, and opening up to small groups that have been shut [out] by the ACLU and a radical fringe that wants an extreme separation of church and state." – Jim Towey, San Francisco Chronicle, August 17, 2004.
In the coming year, while secular organizations providing much-needed social services to the poor will likely need the Jaws of Life to pry money from the Bush Administration, faith-based organizations will be taking in money hand over fist. In 2003 alone, the administration handed out $1.17 billion in grants to religious organizations, and if the president has his way, individual states will soon be handing over hundreds of millions of dollars to faith-based organizations.
A report titled "The Expanding Administrative Presidency: George W. Bush and the Faith-Based Initiative," issued this past summer by the Rockefeller Institute of Government in Albany, N.Y., pointed out that religious organizations have now become involved in a wide range of "government-encouraged activities...from building strip malls for economic improvement to promoting child car seats." The report also noted that Bush's faith-based programs "mark a major shift in the constitutional separation of church and state."
Bush recruits religious youth groups as ground troops for the 'drug wars'
What does advocating "religious hiring rights," a $4 billion workplace retraining bill, and the war on drugs have in common? The short answer: Bring on the faith-based organizations!
Although 30 months have passed since President Bush announced the centerpiece of his domestic agenda - his faith-based initiative - and no significant broader efforts to fund his initiative has emerged from Congress, the administration continues to move ahead on a number of fronts.
Bush's latest faith-based proposal involves enlisting religious youth groups in the war on drugs. According to the Washington Times, the administration recently printed 75,000 copies of a guidebook to the drug wars called "Pathways to Prevention: Guiding Youth to Wise Decisions." The 100-page pamphlet "seeks to teach youth leaders how to handle questions and concerns about substance abuse." The new anti-drug project is built around three premises which are spelled out in a fact sheet titled "Marijuana and Kids: Faith": 1) "Religion plays a major role in the lives of American teens;" 2) "Religion and religiosity repeatedly correlate with lower teen and adult marijuana and substance use rates and buffer the impact of life stress which can lead to marijuana and substance use;" and 3) "Youth turn to faith communities [but] most faith institutions [with] youth ministries [do not] incorporate significant teen substance abuse prevention activities."
Thousands of Head Start workers and volunteers could be displaced as Bush Administration claims faith-based organizations have 'religious hiring rights'
What does the Head Start program have to do with President Bush's faith- based initiative? Nothing -- and everything.
Last week, the House Education and the Workforce Committee passed "The School Readiness Act of 2003," H.R. 2210. If a Republican-sponsored provision in the bill -- which allows religious organizations receiving government funds to provide Head Start services to discriminate in their hiring practices -- is retained in the final version, thousands of Head Start workers could lose their jobs. In addition, hundreds of thousands of parent volunteers who serve as teachers' aides and chaperones could also be displaced.
IT IS OBVIOUS THAT BUSH'S HIGHEST PAID WHORE IS THE CHURCH. THE PROBLEM IS WE THE TAXPAYERS ARE COUGHING UP THE GREENS FOR THIS BEDROOM POLITICS.
BUSH GIVES BILLIONS TO FAITH BASED PROGRAMS AT TAXPAYERS EXPENSE
George W. Bush's Faith Based Initiative.
Unmentioned in the president's State of the Union speech, the program nevertheless continues to recruit religious participants and hand out taxpayer money to religious groups.
The president's religious patronage system is now pouring more than $2 billion in federal funding into church- affiliated organizations around the country annually.
With several domestic policy proposals unceremoniously folded into President Bush's recent State of the Union address, two pretty significant items failed to make the cut. Despite the president's egregiously.. tardy response to the event itself, it was nevertheless surprising that he didn't even mention Hurricane Katrina: He didn't offer up a progress report, words of hope to the victims, or come up with a proposal for moving the sluggish rebuilding effort forward. There were no "armies of compassion" ready to be unleashed, although it should be said that many in the religious community responded to the disaster much quicker than the Bush Administration. In the State of the Union address, however, there was no "compassionate conservatism" for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
HIS FAITH BASED AGENDAS ARE IN CONFLICT WITH THE CONSTITUTION...AND AMERICAN TAXPAYERS ARE PICKING UP THE TAB.
Faith-based confidential
A new book from administration insider confirms faith-based initiative is little more than political-religious patronage system
David Kuo, the former second-in-command of the White House Office and a true believer in the power of faith-based organizations to help the poor, has published a new book titled "Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction," which provides an insiders look at how the Bush White House politicized the initiative, sometime rejected applications for federal faith-based funds because they came from non-Christian applicants, mocked leaders of the Christian Right, and betrayed the very essence of the faith-based initiative's charge to help the poor.
InnerChange Freedom Initiative, a faith-based prison program operating in Iowa's prisons is unconstitutional, Colson, one of President Richard Nixon's key operatives during the Watergate years and currently the head of Prison Fellowship Ministries is using a new report about the growing threat of Islamic terrorists being recruited in U.S. prisons to argue that support for his faith-based prison program is essential if terrorist attacks in this country are to be prevented.
$14 million in federal faith-based money goes to Pat Robertson
Televangelist's claim that Ariel Sharon's stroke was an act of God may have cost him the friendship of some Israelis, but it hasn't prevented his charity, Operation Blessing, from garnering faith-based grants from the U.S. government
While the Reverend Pat Robertson was flayed recently over his suggestion that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was an act of retribution by God for the transfer of land in the Gaza Strip to the Palestinians, the Reverend's charitable organization, Operation Blessing, was raking in wads of faith-based money from the Bush Administration.
Prison Justice Ministries' InnerChange Freedom Initiative is a 'government-funded conversion program' says Americans United's Barry Lynn
It isn't celebrity-laced like the trials of OJ Simpson, Michael Jackson or Robert Blake. It hasn't drawn the attention of CNN's Nancy Grace or the Fox News Channel's Greta Van Sustren, television's mavens of mystery. It appears to have little to do with whether or not President Bush's faith-based initiative is achieving "results." Nevertheless, the outcome of the legal proceedings currently underway in federal court in Des Moines, Iowa, could have a major impact on issues related to the separation of church and state for years to come.Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, and its co-plaintiff, Jerry Ashburn, an inmate at Iowa's Newton Correctional Facility, located about 23 miles east of Des Moines, have filed suit against the Virginia-based Prison Fellowship Ministries and its Christian rehabilitation program, the InnerChange Freedom Initiative. The suit, currently being heard in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa Central Division in Des Moines, argues that the state gives preferential treatment to inmates enrolled InnerChange -- a program that has been operating at the Newton facility since 1999. According to Baptist Press, "the Iowa legislature has appropriated $310,000 in the current fiscal year for a 'value-based treatment program' at the Newton facility."
The Federal Emergency Management Agency's decision to reimburse faith-based organizations for services rendered in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina signals another triumph for the president's faith-based initiative
During an early-October trip to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Jim Towey, an assistant to President Bush and the director of the White House Office for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, told a group of more than 120 pastors, pastors' wives, and other leaders of faith-based organizations meeting at First Baptist Church's downtown campus that "if there was a gold medal ... given out for compassion, Baton Rouge would have the best claim." In other recent appearances, Towey has praised the yeoman work faith-based organizations performed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.Towey's acknowledgements appear to fit well with a decision by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to use taxpayer money to reimburse faith-based organizations that provided relief services after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast and New Orleans. "Religious organizations would be eligible for payments ... if they operated emergency shelters, food distribution centers or medical facilities at the request of state or local governments in the three states that have declared emergencies -- Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama," FEMA officials declared.
Faith-based charity fuels housing bubble
Empty houses, falling prices: A boom dies
"Homebuilders across the country, including Dominion Homes, have found a way around a Federal law barring [home] sellers from giving money directly to buyers for a down payment. They route the money through charities such as the Nehemiah Corp. of America, a faith-based group in California. Nehemiah provides down payments for both existing and new homes, and its relationship with Dominion is the largest of its kind in central Ohio between a builder and charity.
The Bush Administration tries again to institutionalize its Faith-Based Initiative with legislative action
One of the first orders of business for George W. Bush in January 2001 was to establish a White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, thus kicking off the cornerstone social policy of his presidency. At a ceremony attended by numerous religious leaders Bush announced executive orders that instructed the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, Justice, Education and Housing and Urban Development, to set up Centers for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives within their agencies.
That done, Bush moved to cement his executive actions in congressional legislation. There he was rebuffed, however, over objections that government money would be used for religious proselytization, and that recipients of government grants would be allowed to discriminate in their hiring based on religion.
Bush called on Senators Ric Santorum (R-PA) and Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) to craft a legislative compromise. When they failed to win a consensus, the president went back to issuing executive orders. Now, House allies are trying to come up with a legislative package that will pass muster. One of the keys to the compromise is a "Sense of the Congress" resolution dealing with the religious hiring question.
The Bush Administration awarded $2 billion in grants to religious organizations in 2004. Is Team Bush setting up a National Endowment for Religion?
On March 1, President George W. Bush told the more than 250 religious leaders attending the White House Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Leadership Conference at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC, that he was committed to his faith-based initiative "despite congressional apathy and criticism from some that he hasn't done enough to push the agenda," the Scripps Howard News Service reported.
How the president has used religion to control American politics
American presidents beginning with George Washington have included religious language in their public addresses. Claims of the United States as a divinely chosen nation and requests for God to bless U.S. decisions and actions have been commonplace. Scholars have labeled such discourse "civil religion," in which political leaders emphasize religious symbols and transcendent principles to engender a sense of unity and shared national identity.
George W. Bush is doing something altogether different.
Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the president and his administration have converged a religious fundamentalist worldview with a political agenda -- a distinctly partisan one, wrapped in the mantle of national interest but crafted by and for only those who share their outlook. It is a modern form of political fundamentalism, that is, the adaptation of a self-proclaimed conservative religious (Christian) rectitude, that uses strategic language choices and communication approaches designed for a mass-media culture to shape and implement political policy.
Motivated by this ideology, the Bush administration has sought to control the national discourse by engendering a climate of nationalism in which large parts of the public views supporting the president as a patriotic duty, and where Congress and the United Nations are compelled to rubber-stamp administration policies.
In the process of institutionalizing its faith-based initiative the Bush administration has handed over $1 billion to religious organizations and more is coming to a state near you
"It's true that much attention is being placed on the war in Iraq, but there's also another war that's going on. It's a culture war that really gets to the heart of the questions about what is the role of faith in the public square." – Jim Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, during a conference promoting the funding of religious groups engaged in social service activities, July 2004.
"President Bush does not want to proselytize or fund religion. We're talking about things like job training and substance abuse prevention, and opening up to small groups that have been shut [out] by the ACLU and a radical fringe that wants an extreme separation of church and state." – Jim Towey, San Francisco Chronicle, August 17, 2004.
In the coming year, while secular organizations providing much-needed social services to the poor will likely need the Jaws of Life to pry money from the Bush Administration, faith-based organizations will be taking in money hand over fist. In 2003 alone, the administration handed out $1.17 billion in grants to religious organizations, and if the president has his way, individual states will soon be handing over hundreds of millions of dollars to faith-based organizations.
A report titled "The Expanding Administrative Presidency: George W. Bush and the Faith-Based Initiative," issued this past summer by the Rockefeller Institute of Government in Albany, N.Y., pointed out that religious organizations have now become involved in a wide range of "government-encouraged activities...from building strip malls for economic improvement to promoting child car seats." The report also noted that Bush's faith-based programs "mark a major shift in the constitutional separation of church and state."
Bush recruits religious youth groups as ground troops for the 'drug wars'
What does advocating "religious hiring rights," a $4 billion workplace retraining bill, and the war on drugs have in common? The short answer: Bring on the faith-based organizations!
Although 30 months have passed since President Bush announced the centerpiece of his domestic agenda - his faith-based initiative - and no significant broader efforts to fund his initiative has emerged from Congress, the administration continues to move ahead on a number of fronts.
Bush's latest faith-based proposal involves enlisting religious youth groups in the war on drugs. According to the Washington Times, the administration recently printed 75,000 copies of a guidebook to the drug wars called "Pathways to Prevention: Guiding Youth to Wise Decisions." The 100-page pamphlet "seeks to teach youth leaders how to handle questions and concerns about substance abuse." The new anti-drug project is built around three premises which are spelled out in a fact sheet titled "Marijuana and Kids: Faith": 1) "Religion plays a major role in the lives of American teens;" 2) "Religion and religiosity repeatedly correlate with lower teen and adult marijuana and substance use rates and buffer the impact of life stress which can lead to marijuana and substance use;" and 3) "Youth turn to faith communities [but] most faith institutions [with] youth ministries [do not] incorporate significant teen substance abuse prevention activities."
Thousands of Head Start workers and volunteers could be displaced as Bush Administration claims faith-based organizations have 'religious hiring rights'
What does the Head Start program have to do with President Bush's faith- based initiative? Nothing -- and everything.
Last week, the House Education and the Workforce Committee passed "The School Readiness Act of 2003," H.R. 2210. If a Republican-sponsored provision in the bill -- which allows religious organizations receiving government funds to provide Head Start services to discriminate in their hiring practices -- is retained in the final version, thousands of Head Start workers could lose their jobs. In addition, hundreds of thousands of parent volunteers who serve as teachers' aides and chaperones could also be displaced.
IT IS OBVIOUS THAT BUSH'S HIGHEST PAID WHORE IS THE CHURCH. THE PROBLEM IS WE THE TAXPAYERS ARE COUGHING UP THE GREENS FOR THIS BEDROOM POLITICS.
FREE THOUGHTS OF THE DAY
"We would be 1,500 years ahead if it hadn't been for the church dragging science back by its coattails and burning our best minds at the stake."
-- Catherine Fahringer, Interview, San Antonio Express News, Portrait of an Atheist by Craig Phelon, March 24, 1991).
"I don't have anything against organized religion per se. We all need something in our lives. I personally just have not accepted that belief. But I'm one of the few."
-- Lance Armstrong, Time, Sept. 29, 2003
". . . this experiment, this magnificent experiment in democracy is just being shredded to pieces by these right-wing Christians, the Ashcroft branch of Republicanism. (They're) just shredding the rest of the Bill of Rights which hadn't been shredded already."
-- George Carlin, interview in Idaho Statesman, Jan. 24, 2004
"Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by difference of sentiment in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought most to be deprecated. I was in hopes that the enlightened and liberal policy which has marked the present age would at least have reconciled Christians of every denomination, so far that we should never again see their religious disputes carried to such a pitch as to endanger the peace of society."
-- George Washington, letter to Sir Edward Newenham, Oct. 20, 1792.
"I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute--where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote--where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference--and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him or the people who might elect him."I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish--where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source--where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials--and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all. . . ."Finally, I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end--where all men and all churches are treated as equal--where every man has the same right to attend or not attend the church of his choice--where there is no Catholic vote, no anti-Catholic vote, no bloc voting of any kind--and where Catholics, Protestants and Jews, at both the lay and pastoral level, will refrain from those attitudes of disdain and division which have so often marred their works in the past, and promote instead the American ideal of brotherhood."
-- John F. Kennedy, born on May 29, 1917 (d. 1963). Speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, Rice Hotel, September 12, 1960
"Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion.".. Attribution -->
-- William Blake, Proverbs of Hell, 1790
"We would be 1,500 years ahead if it hadn't been for the church dragging science back by its coattails and burning our best minds at the stake."
-- Catherine Fahringer, Interview, San Antonio Express News, Portrait of an Atheist by Craig Phelon, March 24, 1991).
"I don't have anything against organized religion per se. We all need something in our lives. I personally just have not accepted that belief. But I'm one of the few."
-- Lance Armstrong, Time, Sept. 29, 2003
". . . this experiment, this magnificent experiment in democracy is just being shredded to pieces by these right-wing Christians, the Ashcroft branch of Republicanism. (They're) just shredding the rest of the Bill of Rights which hadn't been shredded already."
-- George Carlin, interview in Idaho Statesman, Jan. 24, 2004
"Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by difference of sentiment in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought most to be deprecated. I was in hopes that the enlightened and liberal policy which has marked the present age would at least have reconciled Christians of every denomination, so far that we should never again see their religious disputes carried to such a pitch as to endanger the peace of society."
-- George Washington, letter to Sir Edward Newenham, Oct. 20, 1792.
"I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute--where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote--where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference--and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him or the people who might elect him."I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish--where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source--where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials--and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all. . . ."Finally, I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end--where all men and all churches are treated as equal--where every man has the same right to attend or not attend the church of his choice--where there is no Catholic vote, no anti-Catholic vote, no bloc voting of any kind--and where Catholics, Protestants and Jews, at both the lay and pastoral level, will refrain from those attitudes of disdain and division which have so often marred their works in the past, and promote instead the American ideal of brotherhood."
-- John F. Kennedy, born on May 29, 1917 (d. 1963). Speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, Rice Hotel, September 12, 1960
"Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion.".. Attribution -->
-- William Blake, Proverbs of Hell, 1790
MY ONE OPINION THAT IS AGAINST HUMAN RIGHTS BELIEF
There is an ever growing problem with violent crimes against children lately. It is no longer media stories of worrying about the child molester or the estranged parent who abducts their kids, it seems that now there is ever more stories of parents who are just killing their children in obscenely abusive manners.
Something has got to change in this country to put an end to this sickening wave of murder and rape of defensless children. I personally feel they should be executed on the spot once caughtand convicted. I also believe in mandatory monitoring of all families with children registered within their local school district on quarterly bases. There should also be manditory psych evaluations of all expecting and current parents through social services for families with history of domestic abuse issues. Plus I feel we need a no strike rule for anyone who is found guilty of legitamite crimes against children with mandatory 25 to life sentence for abuse not resulting in molestation or death of victim and capitol punishment for crimes that result in the molestation, rape or death of a child.
This sounds extreme and very totalitarian but there has got to be an end put to these crimes. It has gone on far too long and and is only getting worse. And this is where my Human Rights beliefs get put on the back burner.
There is an ever growing problem with violent crimes against children lately. It is no longer media stories of worrying about the child molester or the estranged parent who abducts their kids, it seems that now there is ever more stories of parents who are just killing their children in obscenely abusive manners.
Something has got to change in this country to put an end to this sickening wave of murder and rape of defensless children. I personally feel they should be executed on the spot once caughtand convicted. I also believe in mandatory monitoring of all families with children registered within their local school district on quarterly bases. There should also be manditory psych evaluations of all expecting and current parents through social services for families with history of domestic abuse issues. Plus I feel we need a no strike rule for anyone who is found guilty of legitamite crimes against children with mandatory 25 to life sentence for abuse not resulting in molestation or death of victim and capitol punishment for crimes that result in the molestation, rape or death of a child.
This sounds extreme and very totalitarian but there has got to be an end put to these crimes. It has gone on far too long and and is only getting worse. And this is where my Human Rights beliefs get put on the back burner.
Sunday, July 8, 2007
THE PATH TO MAN'S EXTINCTION
Throughout our history and prehistory humans have been on a journey of extraordinary measures. Seeking to better our lives by creating and adapting to our environment to clothe, feed, and shelter ourselves in order to survive. In this most basic and inherit desire for survival we began to evolve to better our society, we have also set out on a path of our own unassuming self destruction. We began identifying ourselves by our clans and the primitive desire to protect that clans social and economical stability. In its self that is an innocent and positive strength, however as we multiplied into larger populations we failed to adapt these desires to grow as society grew. Instead we stayed focused on our small clans and keeping with that identity. As these clans grew so did our first steps to our own downfall begin. We developed a desire to conquer and kill that which we identified as different and unlike our own. By doing so we have refused to acknowledge all man as our social priority so we created war. Man began giving names and stereotypes to one another to associate the difference instead of the similarities of each other. We have created cultures within cultures to the point of disconnecting ourselves from our own ability to adapt and progress as one collective society for the betterment of mankind as a whole.
Even as technologies and sciences developed within society we learned to use this acute knowledge to further segregate ourselves from each other. Developing even further negative designations such as religions and politics that defined and separated groups into sects, and sects into empires by manipulating our advances into larger warfare. This second and greater step came in the name of gods and moral preservation simply as a method to further the annihilation of those declared different and unlike ourselves. Thus creating even greater rifts in man's ability to adapt and advance for the good of all mankind. We no longer see ourselves as the human race instead replaced by multiple factions raging to become the dominate and further binding us with oppressive control and superstitious desires.
We as a global society have condemned ourselves to a future of bloodshed and abuse of humanity. The hope is slowly fading of a peaceful, unified race of human evolution, working to better adapt in a cooperative effort to secure our place in the universe. As war roars on in the name of religions and fear, populations fade into the dusty pages of history. We have but only one chance and one life to ensure our future survival and evolution. It is sad that we have chosen to use this gift to destroy and isolate instead of uniting and striving for more. This is why I feel that mankind is taking his final steps into extinction. As long as we bow to the self- induced passions of judgment and fanatical mongering, our technologies and all our knowledge will not be enough to save us from ourselves.
Throughout our history and prehistory humans have been on a journey of extraordinary measures. Seeking to better our lives by creating and adapting to our environment to clothe, feed, and shelter ourselves in order to survive. In this most basic and inherit desire for survival we began to evolve to better our society, we have also set out on a path of our own unassuming self destruction. We began identifying ourselves by our clans and the primitive desire to protect that clans social and economical stability. In its self that is an innocent and positive strength, however as we multiplied into larger populations we failed to adapt these desires to grow as society grew. Instead we stayed focused on our small clans and keeping with that identity. As these clans grew so did our first steps to our own downfall begin. We developed a desire to conquer and kill that which we identified as different and unlike our own. By doing so we have refused to acknowledge all man as our social priority so we created war. Man began giving names and stereotypes to one another to associate the difference instead of the similarities of each other. We have created cultures within cultures to the point of disconnecting ourselves from our own ability to adapt and progress as one collective society for the betterment of mankind as a whole.
Even as technologies and sciences developed within society we learned to use this acute knowledge to further segregate ourselves from each other. Developing even further negative designations such as religions and politics that defined and separated groups into sects, and sects into empires by manipulating our advances into larger warfare. This second and greater step came in the name of gods and moral preservation simply as a method to further the annihilation of those declared different and unlike ourselves. Thus creating even greater rifts in man's ability to adapt and advance for the good of all mankind. We no longer see ourselves as the human race instead replaced by multiple factions raging to become the dominate and further binding us with oppressive control and superstitious desires.
We as a global society have condemned ourselves to a future of bloodshed and abuse of humanity. The hope is slowly fading of a peaceful, unified race of human evolution, working to better adapt in a cooperative effort to secure our place in the universe. As war roars on in the name of religions and fear, populations fade into the dusty pages of history. We have but only one chance and one life to ensure our future survival and evolution. It is sad that we have chosen to use this gift to destroy and isolate instead of uniting and striving for more. This is why I feel that mankind is taking his final steps into extinction. As long as we bow to the self- induced passions of judgment and fanatical mongering, our technologies and all our knowledge will not be enough to save us from ourselves.
GOV'T FUNDING OF RELIGIOUS IMPERIALISM
Imagine living under a government that routinely spends your tax dollars to promote a religion you don't belong to -- and don't particularly care for. Imagine government using your money to spread this faith in public institutions like schools, social-service agencies and prisons.
Now imagine being unable to go to court to try to stop it.
You won't have to imagine any of this if certain groups that are determined to take away your right to sue have their way.
Late last month, the Supreme Court heard arguments in an important case dealing with the right to sue. The legal challenge was filed by a Wisconsin group on behalf of taxpayers who oppose President Bush's decision to use tax money to promote his "faith-based" initiative.
The taxpayers say Bush's creation of various federal faith-based offices and his administration's sponsorship of conferences to promote that effort violate the separation of church and state.
The administration argues that these taxpayers lack the right to sue. They argue that the money spent to promote the faith-based initiative came from general government operating funds -- not a congressional appropriation that directed tax revenues to religious groups. Thus it supposedly did not cause these taxpayers any harm, and the administration says it's out of reach of a legal challenge.
Worse, some Religious Right groups are urging the Supreme Court to go even further and take away taxpayers' rights to challenge government spending that furthers religion in other instances.
This is misguided and dangerous. The separation of church and state has been interpreted to mean that government is not permitted to subsidize activities designed to promote or further religion. Such endeavors must be funded with private dollars.
Concern over the faith-based initiative is not misplaced. Many religious people oppose tax-funding of religion. They worry that it will drain religion of its vitality and make houses of worship too dependent on the state. Others don't want to be forced to support religions with which they strongly disagree.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State shares these concerns and has several challenges to the faith-based initiative under way in court.
This is not a matter of "special rights." The language of the First Amendment barring "an establishment of religion" obviously means something. If taxpayers believe that provision has been violated, they should have the right to make their best case in court if they can show legal injury -- just like any other American with a legal grievance.
Nor is this just an obscure argument over the right to file lawsuits. Much more is at stake.
Separation of church and state has served our country well, giving our nation an unprecedented degree of interfaith harmony and more religious liberty than any country on earth.
Today that principle is under attack by some misguided individuals and organizations that believe all taxpayers should be forced to support their religious doctrines or that government should act as an enforcer of controversial theological dogmas.
These people and the organizations they lead now seek to attack church-state separation through the back door -- by making it harder for Americans to defend that principle in court.
They must not succeed. Americans have an important role to play in safeguarding their own rights. When legislators go too far, the people can stand up and rein them in by filing lawsuits in the federal courts.
We will not be able to play that historic role if the courthouse door is slammed in our faces.
BY BARRY LYNN (A REVEREND AND ADVOCATE FOR SEPERATION OF CHURCH AND STATE)
Imagine living under a government that routinely spends your tax dollars to promote a religion you don't belong to -- and don't particularly care for. Imagine government using your money to spread this faith in public institutions like schools, social-service agencies and prisons.
Now imagine being unable to go to court to try to stop it.
You won't have to imagine any of this if certain groups that are determined to take away your right to sue have their way.
Late last month, the Supreme Court heard arguments in an important case dealing with the right to sue. The legal challenge was filed by a Wisconsin group on behalf of taxpayers who oppose President Bush's decision to use tax money to promote his "faith-based" initiative.
The taxpayers say Bush's creation of various federal faith-based offices and his administration's sponsorship of conferences to promote that effort violate the separation of church and state.
The administration argues that these taxpayers lack the right to sue. They argue that the money spent to promote the faith-based initiative came from general government operating funds -- not a congressional appropriation that directed tax revenues to religious groups. Thus it supposedly did not cause these taxpayers any harm, and the administration says it's out of reach of a legal challenge.
Worse, some Religious Right groups are urging the Supreme Court to go even further and take away taxpayers' rights to challenge government spending that furthers religion in other instances.
This is misguided and dangerous. The separation of church and state has been interpreted to mean that government is not permitted to subsidize activities designed to promote or further religion. Such endeavors must be funded with private dollars.
Concern over the faith-based initiative is not misplaced. Many religious people oppose tax-funding of religion. They worry that it will drain religion of its vitality and make houses of worship too dependent on the state. Others don't want to be forced to support religions with which they strongly disagree.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State shares these concerns and has several challenges to the faith-based initiative under way in court.
This is not a matter of "special rights." The language of the First Amendment barring "an establishment of religion" obviously means something. If taxpayers believe that provision has been violated, they should have the right to make their best case in court if they can show legal injury -- just like any other American with a legal grievance.
Nor is this just an obscure argument over the right to file lawsuits. Much more is at stake.
Separation of church and state has served our country well, giving our nation an unprecedented degree of interfaith harmony and more religious liberty than any country on earth.
Today that principle is under attack by some misguided individuals and organizations that believe all taxpayers should be forced to support their religious doctrines or that government should act as an enforcer of controversial theological dogmas.
These people and the organizations they lead now seek to attack church-state separation through the back door -- by making it harder for Americans to defend that principle in court.
They must not succeed. Americans have an important role to play in safeguarding their own rights. When legislators go too far, the people can stand up and rein them in by filing lawsuits in the federal courts.
We will not be able to play that historic role if the courthouse door is slammed in our faces.
BY BARRY LYNN (A REVEREND AND ADVOCATE FOR SEPERATION OF CHURCH AND STATE)
JUST A FEW THOUGHTS I AM HAVING
Lately there has been alot of outbreaks of food contamination, mostly with the organic market. O.k. here is my thought on this...These farms are hundreds of acres and the migrate works are out there for most of the day eating, resting and working, so where do they relieve themselves?...are there port-a-pots out there in the fields with them?...or do they just go off and squat in an area of the field where there is fewer works and just do their business in the crops and cover it with the soil?! Think about it 40 or more people who are far from town working in open fields and they have to go. I don't think they are just gonna hold it or stop working to go the mile or so back in town. Think about this the next time you see that item that brags all natural or organically grown with the well thought out and fancy packaging......
Another thought that has been replaying in my mind lately is about pharmacist...you would think these people are among the most honest and note worthy people you would deal with....but are they or are they ripping you and your insurance company off ?....I put in a prescription with a few refills and requested name brand which is normal and should go smoothly...it did the first month but them when I went back the next month I noticed on the bottle it said no refills which I knew was wrong because I had four on the previous bottle, so I mentioned this to the pharmacist, who you would think would recognize the error...no...he instead tried to educate me own how the information is stored and if I had refills the computer would have printed them on my label..he done this in a tone that was arrogant, pretty much talking down to me...little did he know I had my previous prescription bottle which I pulled out of my pocket after his little speech and showed him the four refills and after 45 minutes of waiting for him to verify the refills he apologized for the error and began to blame his lowly staff...you would think that would be the end of my conflict with this pharmacist...but it wasn't...on my last refill I happened to notice after I got to the house that the label had a name brand company and yet the pills in the bottle had a different company's name on them....and a generic at that...I am currently investigating this because it triggered alarms in my mind that maybe this was more than an accidental error...what if pharmacist are labeling and charging people and thier insurance companies for name brand and are actually giving generic instead without the consumers knowledge or consent!...I spoke with my insurance company who agreed with me that this was odd and although a pharmacist can substitute or dispense generic brands if a customer requests name brand and the card covers it then the pharmacist is obligated to give you what you asked for unless he does not have it in stock at which time he is suppose to inform you and ask if substitution is OK...this was not discussed with me...so I have decided to investigate this issue with my insurance company...we will see how this plays out.....
Lately there has been alot of outbreaks of food contamination, mostly with the organic market. O.k. here is my thought on this...These farms are hundreds of acres and the migrate works are out there for most of the day eating, resting and working, so where do they relieve themselves?...are there port-a-pots out there in the fields with them?...or do they just go off and squat in an area of the field where there is fewer works and just do their business in the crops and cover it with the soil?! Think about it 40 or more people who are far from town working in open fields and they have to go. I don't think they are just gonna hold it or stop working to go the mile or so back in town. Think about this the next time you see that item that brags all natural or organically grown with the well thought out and fancy packaging......
Another thought that has been replaying in my mind lately is about pharmacist...you would think these people are among the most honest and note worthy people you would deal with....but are they or are they ripping you and your insurance company off ?....I put in a prescription with a few refills and requested name brand which is normal and should go smoothly...it did the first month but them when I went back the next month I noticed on the bottle it said no refills which I knew was wrong because I had four on the previous bottle, so I mentioned this to the pharmacist, who you would think would recognize the error...no...he instead tried to educate me own how the information is stored and if I had refills the computer would have printed them on my label..he done this in a tone that was arrogant, pretty much talking down to me...little did he know I had my previous prescription bottle which I pulled out of my pocket after his little speech and showed him the four refills and after 45 minutes of waiting for him to verify the refills he apologized for the error and began to blame his lowly staff...you would think that would be the end of my conflict with this pharmacist...but it wasn't...on my last refill I happened to notice after I got to the house that the label had a name brand company and yet the pills in the bottle had a different company's name on them....and a generic at that...I am currently investigating this because it triggered alarms in my mind that maybe this was more than an accidental error...what if pharmacist are labeling and charging people and thier insurance companies for name brand and are actually giving generic instead without the consumers knowledge or consent!...I spoke with my insurance company who agreed with me that this was odd and although a pharmacist can substitute or dispense generic brands if a customer requests name brand and the card covers it then the pharmacist is obligated to give you what you asked for unless he does not have it in stock at which time he is suppose to inform you and ask if substitution is OK...this was not discussed with me...so I have decided to investigate this issue with my insurance company...we will see how this plays out.....
STEREOTYPING OFFENSES BASED ON BIAS
So far this past season of media overload has been a highly aggressive one. Lately the news and daytime shows have been hell bent on finding someone or something to crucify. For the most part it is very entertaining and sometimes informative. I have learned one thing though, people are for the most part hypocrites, and obviously mentally programmed with double standards and biased opinions. For example:
Mr. Washington of Grey's Anatomy used the word faggot and just got a slap on the wrist-"God bless the American Rehab" He is an African American actor who claims Christianity as his guiding light. Whatever!
Ann Coulter used the word fagot and was chased off staged and practically blackballed from the media symbolically equal to being burnt at the stake. "God has forsaken the American Rehab" She is a White Female Conservative Political Speaker who apperehently thinks the Republicans are righteous. Not even close!
Imus shows an obvious racist heritage by using nappy headed ho's and is about to be burnt at the stake so to speak. "Ain't no American Rehab will take him" He is an Old White dude who looks scary and probably finds nothing righteous at all. Feel the burn!
My point is that every one was screaming freedom of speech and second chances when Mr. Washington gave his apologies but let the ignorant white Americans shout their insults and everyone starts screaming freedom of speech but fuck second chances fry the racist bastards. Am I the only one who sees the double standard and hypocrisy in this whole logic?! I am not racist nor bigot nor sexist, well maybe sexist a bit but not in the typical way, and anyone who knows me will agree. All these people where wrong and offensive and should receive the same unbiased punishments by responsible sponsors but all have the right to freedom of speech. It just seems to me that a persons gender, race, and orientation decides whether or not they are offensive. To me that is the bigger prejudice that seems to be socially except-able in this country.
So far this past season of media overload has been a highly aggressive one. Lately the news and daytime shows have been hell bent on finding someone or something to crucify. For the most part it is very entertaining and sometimes informative. I have learned one thing though, people are for the most part hypocrites, and obviously mentally programmed with double standards and biased opinions. For example:
Mr. Washington of Grey's Anatomy used the word faggot and just got a slap on the wrist-"God bless the American Rehab" He is an African American actor who claims Christianity as his guiding light. Whatever!
Ann Coulter used the word fagot and was chased off staged and practically blackballed from the media symbolically equal to being burnt at the stake. "God has forsaken the American Rehab" She is a White Female Conservative Political Speaker who apperehently thinks the Republicans are righteous. Not even close!
Imus shows an obvious racist heritage by using nappy headed ho's and is about to be burnt at the stake so to speak. "Ain't no American Rehab will take him" He is an Old White dude who looks scary and probably finds nothing righteous at all. Feel the burn!
My point is that every one was screaming freedom of speech and second chances when Mr. Washington gave his apologies but let the ignorant white Americans shout their insults and everyone starts screaming freedom of speech but fuck second chances fry the racist bastards. Am I the only one who sees the double standard and hypocrisy in this whole logic?! I am not racist nor bigot nor sexist, well maybe sexist a bit but not in the typical way, and anyone who knows me will agree. All these people where wrong and offensive and should receive the same unbiased punishments by responsible sponsors but all have the right to freedom of speech. It just seems to me that a persons gender, race, and orientation decides whether or not they are offensive. To me that is the bigger prejudice that seems to be socially except-able in this country.
POETRY
MY KEEPER
madness
rushes over me
like a river of dreams,
washing over my mind
in delusionary streams,
flooding my thoughts
with grand imaginary schemes,
crashing waves of emotion
raging with intense speed;
madness
controls my desires
with cruel visions of pain,
taking over my senses
and deluting my brain,
binding every notion of reality
with cold and crushing chains,
keeping my sanity like a pet
trapped in its own nightmare cage.
MY KEEPER
madness
rushes over me
like a river of dreams,
washing over my mind
in delusionary streams,
flooding my thoughts
with grand imaginary schemes,
crashing waves of emotion
raging with intense speed;
madness
controls my desires
with cruel visions of pain,
taking over my senses
and deluting my brain,
binding every notion of reality
with cold and crushing chains,
keeping my sanity like a pet
trapped in its own nightmare cage.
Daily Rant
TO ALLOW YOURSELF
TO BE MOLDED BASED ON RELIGIOUS DICTATION IS TO SUBMIT YOURSELF TO A LIFE OF
SLAVERY IN SUPERSTITIONS.
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