tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21559869475886352392024-02-07T00:21:53.185-06:00NiftyIdeasNiftyWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103734836789258691noreply@blogger.comBlogger565125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2155986947588635239.post-983471009730196022018-04-04T15:31:00.001-05:002018-04-04T15:31:13.050-05:00MLK, Maya, Michael and Moral Courage<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJpp7h1NutOYUYT4f1YdzvbqpjJoAYEzc8HYEE2OX02iH_dH7hzauxU0rEUISULej4gbStcQfTkmwOdjHzT9stdhFgbVLntmSlTV38mjHeG-JEGuBVfjd4bWWVOpa2oTARL7xDc0TTgEU/s1600/MLK81-570x330-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="330" data-original-width="570" height="370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJpp7h1NutOYUYT4f1YdzvbqpjJoAYEzc8HYEE2OX02iH_dH7hzauxU0rEUISULej4gbStcQfTkmwOdjHzT9stdhFgbVLntmSlTV38mjHeG-JEGuBVfjd4bWWVOpa2oTARL7xDc0TTgEU/s640/MLK81-570x330-1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Today is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.">Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.</a> It is a fitting anniversary to cut through decades of whitewashing and remember <a href="http://time.com/5197679/10-historians-martin-luther-king-jr/">the truth</a> about how Dr. King was regarded in the civil rights era, <a href="http://theconversation.com/black-americans-mostly-left-behind-by-progress-since-dr-kings-death-89956">the truth</a> about the ferocious pushback from white supremacy through systemic racism in the intervening years and <a href="https://www.quora.com/How-are-people-of-color-systematically-oppressed">the truth</a> that people of color, especially black people, remain as viciously oppressed today.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZNbaWqihc_iIJ2i6oi7rLQrxNd8EuoMoHIoqshY9uBpW04LKPB-BWfH3EB_PvyHiQVDSlQZXV7chVQOL-YL961MVs5syM18gYB_nDnFwFf4lRZEkwOpuVyeAy6YgcTQd55hnj0-ad-og/s1600/get-in-the-way.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="476" data-original-width="800" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZNbaWqihc_iIJ2i6oi7rLQrxNd8EuoMoHIoqshY9uBpW04LKPB-BWfH3EB_PvyHiQVDSlQZXV7chVQOL-YL961MVs5syM18gYB_nDnFwFf4lRZEkwOpuVyeAy6YgcTQd55hnj0-ad-og/s320/get-in-the-way.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
The struggle never ended, although Dr. King's brutal murder had a chilling effect on social progress. White America sanitized its antagonism towards Dr. King's message and whitewashed his legacy down to a non-threatening message of peaceful brotherhood which it could co-opt for its own. By doing so, systemic white supremacy nearly rendered impotent Dr. King's far greater and more meaningful effort to rally millions in a push for true social and political justice.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoBRmGPPgxZl0Zcs6FSfDse-9PuipsZDhGKL-Ij_Qljx50wPm2AVXreyEnvvDX2v07JVTPqWI83n5Jz2YYsb9KwnKKWipsjANQn-fy6EGJI6yOPGL-nlJTypCzEgbBNRIY-a8pXh4_Ck8/s1600/Barack_Obama_hugs_John_Lewis%252C_2015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="184" data-original-width="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoBRmGPPgxZl0Zcs6FSfDse-9PuipsZDhGKL-Ij_Qljx50wPm2AVXreyEnvvDX2v07JVTPqWI83n5Jz2YYsb9KwnKKWipsjANQn-fy6EGJI6yOPGL-nlJTypCzEgbBNRIY-a8pXh4_Ck8/s1600/Barack_Obama_hugs_John_Lewis%252C_2015.jpg" /></a>On this anniversary, I'd like to remember the entirety of Dr. King's legacy. The current crisis in the United States has finally reawakened millions of social justice warriors who are standing up, marching and joining hands with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lewis_(civil_rights_leader)">activists</a> who never gave up the fight. Fear is understandable in the face of powerful oppressors, and yet we must do it anyway. Living in a society which oppresses so many of our neighbors and not standing up or speaking out is to be complicit with the oppression. Courage is rising, millions are recognising that, as Dr. King said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere", and silence is not the answer.<br />
<br />
Today is also the birthday of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Angelou">Maya Angelou</a>, writer, poet and civil rights activist. Her words and her life are a guiding light to people everywhere who seek courage, wisdom and justice. For inspiration on this Wednesday in the midst of trying times, read one of Ms. Angelou's most famous poems.<br />
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<br />
<b>Still I Rise</b><br />
<br />
You may write me down in history<br />
With your bitter, twisted lies,<br />
You may trod me in the very dirt<br />
But still, like dust, I'll rise. <br />
<br />
Does my sassiness upset you?<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNHR2zNmSc8cD9Hh4CDsQ158jpfMr2yOZ8SjHovZ1bciTP4hItl7qG9rXkfysvA0tRgvE8WNXF_IT1WW-vrbVavVikZRIRBQOZI9IQoUvMVtj8nI-9chwPpMcWgzh56mmnK_NoS2_Umy0/s1600/_90345723_mediaitem90345722.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="802" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNHR2zNmSc8cD9Hh4CDsQ158jpfMr2yOZ8SjHovZ1bciTP4hItl7qG9rXkfysvA0tRgvE8WNXF_IT1WW-vrbVavVikZRIRBQOZI9IQoUvMVtj8nI-9chwPpMcWgzh56mmnK_NoS2_Umy0/s320/_90345723_mediaitem90345722.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">A demonstrator protesting the shooting death of Alton Sterling<br /> is detained by law enforcement in Baton Rouge<br /><i>photo Jonathan Bachman/Reuters<br /></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Why are you beset with gloom?<br />
’Cause I walk like I've got oil wells<br />
Pumping in my living room.<br />
<br />
Just like moons and like suns,<br />
With the certainty of tides,<br />
Just like hopes springing high,<br />
Still I'll rise.<br />
<br />
Did you want to see me broken?<br />
Bowed head and lowered eyes?<br />
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,<br />
Weakened by my soulful cries?<br />
<br />
Does my haughtiness offend you?<br />
Don't you take it awful hard<br />
’Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines<br />
Diggin’ in my own backyard.<br />
<br />
You may shoot me with your words,<br />
You may cut me with your eyes,<br />
You may kill me with your hatefulness<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvHpo40Rex26_z9vyU8E_VNfp8t70R8LWl0IDnMK-zqa_qCHi809DuGbrFqY9TkGOh7bk0_ssYXUTIpKwhNS0gz8o3Zs0FPovPpY5cKPA4z3UbkUshKAIzHqWMEo8YPq-5R6sgPyWZxq4/s1600/maya-courage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvHpo40Rex26_z9vyU8E_VNfp8t70R8LWl0IDnMK-zqa_qCHi809DuGbrFqY9TkGOh7bk0_ssYXUTIpKwhNS0gz8o3Zs0FPovPpY5cKPA4z3UbkUshKAIzHqWMEo8YPq-5R6sgPyWZxq4/s320/maya-courage.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
But still, like air, I’ll rise.<br />
<br />
Does my sexiness upset you?<br />
Does it come as a surprise<br />
That I dance like I've got diamonds<br />
At the meeting of my thighs?<br />
<br />
Out of the huts of history’s shame<br />
I rise<br />
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain<br />
I rise<br />
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,<br />
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.<br />
<br />
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear<br />
I rise<br />
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear<br />
I rise<br />
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,<br />
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.<br />
I rise<br />
I rise<br />
I rise.<br />
<br />
-Maya Angelou<br />
<br />
I leave you with another offering from Michael Franti & Spearhead, from the album Stay Human.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"...the harder they hit us, the louder we become,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> kinda like the skin on a drum..."</span></div>
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<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/x0AqOGEPZjA" width="560"></iframe><br />
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<div class="G1VCxe kno-fb-ctx" jsname="CsSQ" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-top: 12px;">
<div jsname="U8S5sf" style="line-height: 1.24; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Skin On The Drum</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
I was born botanical</div>
<span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
the soul of an animal</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
deep beneath the layers, I sink my roots</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
no need for mechanical</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
I come strictly organical</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
when I need to feast, I look to the East</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
that's why I'm never scared of the beast</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
even though they try to prey upon me</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
I'm protected by the one always greater than me</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
so now I reveal to thee</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
because you wanna see</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
the contour of my mystery</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
the strength of my arches</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
the colour of my conscience</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
and the way that I process my diction</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
some fact some fiction some mystery</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
some future fantasy</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
I'm the trunk that holds the branches</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
the leaves who do the dances</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
my flowers romantic</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
my love gigantic</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
from Africa, transplanted transatlantic</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
in the heat of the sun</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
I bring shade for everyone</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
like the beat on the one</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
I'm the skin on the drum</div>
</span></div>
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<div class="G1VCxe kno-fb-ctx" jsname="c4lrhc" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<div class="iw7h9e" data-mh="-1" jsname="U8S5sf" style="line-height: 1.24; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
I keep on living with the fullness of the one</div>
<span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
like the heat of the sun or the skin on the drum</div>
</span></div>
<div class="xpdxpnd" data-mh="64" data-mhc="1" jsname="U8S5sf" style="line-height: 1.24; margin-bottom: 12px; max-height: 64px; overflow: hidden; transition: max-height 0.3s;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
I'm fully marinated and now I'm ready for the fire</div>
<span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
so you can fire one</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
fire one</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
fire two</div>
</span></div>
<div class="xpdxpnd" data-mh="368" data-mhc="1" jsname="U8S5sf" style="line-height: 1.24; margin-bottom: 12px; max-height: 368px; overflow: hidden; transition: max-height 0.3s;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
See I've been fully marinated</div>
<span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
and now I'm ready for the fire</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
see I'm beginning to perspire</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
from deep within through the skin</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
yo, the feminine and the masculine</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
the pieces of the puzzle</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
see my reflections in the puddle</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
after the storm the purple of the sky</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
brings to mind another time</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
when we resided </div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
below the water line</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
life was fine there human divine</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
but in the years following</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
evil men came swallowing</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
everything in sight</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
some learned to run, some stayed to fight</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
I kneeled at the tomb of the soldier</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
said I would love to behold her</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
the magic in store there</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
she touched me on the shoulder</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
she said, "in time all is revealed, box of light be unsealed</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
now listen to me son, be like the skin on the drum"</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
(chorus)</div>
</span></div>
<div class="xpdxpnd" data-mh="96" data-mhc="1" jsname="U8S5sf" style="line-height: 1.24; margin-bottom: 0px; max-height: 96px; overflow: hidden; transition: max-height 0.3s;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
And as the pepper gas clears</div>
<span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
and police and protesters go home</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
just as the morning dew are tear drops of the night</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
my emotions are always there for you</div>
</span><span jsname="YS01Ge"><div style="text-align: center;">
and will never leave you dry</div>
</span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> bless</span> </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
- <span style="font-size: x-small;">Lorin G. Ashton/Michael Franti</span></div>
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NiftyWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103734836789258691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2155986947588635239.post-44067522319773957402018-04-01T05:00:00.000-05:002018-04-01T11:10:46.926-05:00Happy Easter - Love Will Find A Way<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg03GuMB892EcHJX_V2oOdtSigIVudMB0TzBSf1xKRCB-TEyB33JtCRVZfhXoMzhNFG-4fO8BNpxkxkDP0qH66eDkl7R8KtWOnXFFiPtWl3DbPTjQVAa2uR3CgKUjHXluIGfiozRwSL7hk/s1600/crocus-3276121_960_720.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="960" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg03GuMB892EcHJX_V2oOdtSigIVudMB0TzBSf1xKRCB-TEyB33JtCRVZfhXoMzhNFG-4fO8BNpxkxkDP0qH66eDkl7R8KtWOnXFFiPtWl3DbPTjQVAa2uR3CgKUjHXluIGfiozRwSL7hk/s640/crocus-3276121_960_720.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Good Morning, NiftyReaders and Happy Easter! May you be filled with the hope and joy of springtime, and feel the rejuvenating power of love. If you've been running low on hope, joy and love, please take a few minutes to watch and listen to the music video below. I promise, it is worth it.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><br /></b>
<b>Love Will Find A Way</b><br />
<br />
Til I'm gone away<br />
This is what I'll say<br />
This is what I'll say<br />
[x4]<br />
<br />
This is a song for all kinds of people<br />
All of the cities and all of the streets yo<br />
The synagogue and the mosque and the steeple<br />
The bad, ugly, the good and the evil<br />
Some shoot bullets and some shootin' needles<br />
Some are trying to get by with illegals<br />
Getting trapped behind the concrete walls<br />
Some are trying just to get equal<br />
<br />
Could you ever<br />
Could you ever<br />
Give more today?<br />
Or could you<br />
Give a little<br />
Give a little<br />
To help love find a way?<br />
<br />
And when you feeling like you can't go on<br />
Love will find a way<br />
And through the clouds and smoke and guns and bombs<br />
Love will find a way<br />
And when the whole world falls on their knees to pray<br />
That love will win today<br />
Just keep holding on, holding on<br />
Cause love will find a way<br />
<br />
Til I'm gone away<br />
This is what I'll say<br />
This is what I'll say<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkUP9XCNecgZ9vBfy_KwiSL2-grw9zDXY4863sDzuBwdcy3QscxzYAi0nq8cVNhDzEC-dgbrMAEt7eAQm66PUv1vpHAa8iJ5o9Ga18hq5b_vTEc2kcfg1-cBBn046xi7ZA2nwbjrEjohQ/s1600/spring-storm-1409025.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1199" data-original-width="881" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkUP9XCNecgZ9vBfy_KwiSL2-grw9zDXY4863sDzuBwdcy3QscxzYAi0nq8cVNhDzEC-dgbrMAEt7eAQm66PUv1vpHAa8iJ5o9Ga18hq5b_vTEc2kcfg1-cBBn046xi7ZA2nwbjrEjohQ/s320/spring-storm-1409025.jpg" width="235" /></a>[x4]<br />
<br />
Yo nobody's born hating another person<br />
A mad world puts that poison in us<br />
But if we can learn to hate another person<br />
Then we can learn to love a brother or sister<br />
Another mother or mister<br />
Don't be part of the system<br />
Join the universal nation <br />
Communication<br />
Communication<br />
In every nation <br />
Worldwide<br />
Worldwide<br />
<br />
Could you ever<br />
Could you ever<br />
Give more today?<br />
Could you<br />
Give a little<br />
Give a little<br />
To help love find a way?<br />
<br />
And when you feeling like you can't go on<br />
Love will find a way<br />
And through the clouds and smoke and guns and bombs<br />
Love will find a way<br />
And when the whole world falls on their knees to pray<br />
That love will win today<br />
Just keep holding on, holding on<br />
Cause love will find a way<br />
<br />
Til I'm gone away<br />
This is what I'll say<br />
This is what I'll say<br />
[x2]<br />
<br />
Til I'm gone away (Til I'm gone away, til I'm gone away)<br />
This is what I'll say<br />
This is what I'll say<br />
Til I'm gone away (Every man, woman and child)<br />
This is what I'll say<br />
This is what I'll say<br />
Til I'm gone away (Every color, every nation, every style)<br />
This is what I'll say<br />
This is what I'll say<br />
(To create and to liberate and to celebrate)<br />
Til I'm gone away (Not to hate)<br />
This is what I'll say<br />
This is what I'll say<br />
Peace y'all<br />
Peace y'all<br />
Peace y'all<br />
Peace y'all<br />
Peace y'all<br />
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- Michael Franti & Spearhead<br />
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<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/P5PPBT4oues?rel=0" width="560"></iframe>NiftyWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103734836789258691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2155986947588635239.post-13409064520056307892017-10-06T14:02:00.000-05:002017-10-06T14:02:50.576-05:00Birth Controlled<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/ginarushton/this-is-how-violence-is-cutting-off-reproductive-choices?utm_term=.bxwAPEym1#.ys7Ox7m8a">This Is How Violence Is Cutting Off Reproductive Choices</a> Gina Rushton, Buzzfeed News August 14, 2017.</td></tr>
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SO, today there is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/trump-administration-could-narrow-affordable-care-acts-contraception-mandate/2017/10/05/16139400-a9f0-11e7-92d1-58c702d2d975_story.html?utm_term=.e00ac5d16cec">news</a> that the DT administration is enthusiastically continuing both the destruction of the <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/06/health/trump-birth-control-mandate/index.html">Obama legacy</a> and the Republican war on women. The decimated and laughably named Health and Human Services department of the US government issued new rules today which will allow a “broad range of employers -- including nonprofits, private firms and publicly traded companies” to withhold contraceptive coverage through their employee health plans. Since I am pretty much drained of the ability to express fresh outrage any more this week, I am posting something I wrote a few years ago on the subject of the Republicans, the Christian right wing and the agenda to subjugate women through <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/trumps-relentless-war-against-birth-control-679559">reproductive control</a>. It’s long-ish but let’s face it — this bullshit has been going on so long, and in so many twisted ways and through so many underhanded attacks on women’s autonomy and ability to live independent lives-— maybe even an essay this long cannot adequately cover it.<br />
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<b><u>Wait, Consent Means WHAT? </u></b> (originally published May 1, 2012)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikRPLheh8CdHPsvg2ddABFYBo_YOThl9MA_xpipvTW1018y_a-JOp9nQc6jn8wUaLNB4Zk_IaN0Z8nTeE8pKirpsiCZmejWP_zAs2EVZ5PxME7ebJIWnAMDkfsyjkJkxHJbHVGNVxHn2w/s1600/CONT-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="310" data-original-width="560" height="354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikRPLheh8CdHPsvg2ddABFYBo_YOThl9MA_xpipvTW1018y_a-JOp9nQc6jn8wUaLNB4Zk_IaN0Z8nTeE8pKirpsiCZmejWP_zAs2EVZ5PxME7ebJIWnAMDkfsyjkJkxHJbHVGNVxHn2w/s640/CONT-2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Individual freedom and the right to bodily autonomy - the principles behind our understanding of <i><b>consent</b></i> - were the principles upon which many of us assume the Supreme Court's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roe_v._Wade">Roe v Wade</a> decision was based, although the case itself was focused on a citizen's right to privacy around making decisions concerning her bodily autonomy and medical care. Laws which deny a woman the right to bodily autonomy - including laws that deny a woman the right to control what happens to her own body in favor of giving any potential fetus the "right" to use her body against her will or without her consent - are an unconstitutional denial of individual freedom because they relegate a woman to a legal status that is less than human. The legal precedent that a woman actually has the <i>right to consent</i> to the risks and responsibilities of pregnancy, and an equal right to decline consent to those risks and responsibilities was thought to be finally established. But since Roe v Wade was argued as a case for <i>privacy</i>, it has never been a guarantee of women's reproductive rights. It has always been vulnerable to attack, either through court challenges or through legislation which has chipped away at it.
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>One way or another, the</b><br />
<b>Republican Party will find</b><br />
<b>a way to control those sluts!</b></td></tr>
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From the moment Roe v Wade was decided, the religious right began working to overturn it. Outraged that women had at last been granted the right to choose if and when to be pregnant - a right which conflicted with the patriarchal order which demands that men have complete authority over women - the "moral majority" began a campaign of slut-shaming, raising the specter- never far beneath the surface in any misogynist culture - that uncontrolled women would engage in wildly promiscuous and "irresponsible" sex and darkly warning that the new law would bring about the downfall of American civil society However, when this tactic initially only gained traction within the most conservative and misogynistic segments of society, conservatives realized that the problem was that a <a href="http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2134868?uid=2&uid=4&sid=47698953024087">majority</a> of Americans in the late 1970's actually respected a woman's right to choose - and that most Americans believed that the consensual sexual activity of women was no more society's business than the consensual sexual activity of men.<br />
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Religious conservatives soon zeroed in on "consent" as a <a href="http://www.pamf.org/teen/abc/sex/consent.html">potentially malleable</a> concept that they might be able to use to drive a wedge between women and their human rights, thereby setting the stage to put women back in their traditional place. In order to overcome the legal issue of consent, religious and political conservatives began working tirelessly - using tactics including slut-shaming, abstinence-only purity campaigns inserted into public schools, and falsely equating microscopic blastocysts with full term babies - to entrench the notion that recreational sex involving the conscious avoidance of pregnancy is shameful and that only marital sex which welcomes the prospect of conception should be recognized and supported by society. Their aim was to increase public acceptance of explicitly Christian sexual mores in order to garner voter support for their social agenda. The ultimate goal was to get this explicitly Christian theology enshrined into law: that <b>whenever a woman has consented to sex, she has </b><b style="font-style: italic;">automatically consented to pregnancy, too</b>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>That's right, ladies, when you consent to sex, you consent to</b><br />
<b>pregnancy. And when you <i>don't</i> consent to sex, you</b><br />
<b>consent to pregnancy, too! You and your uteri are in a perpetual</b><br />
<b>state of consent to pregnancy! Ain't patriarchy grand?</b></td></tr>
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Eventually, extreme conservatives began to <a href="http://www.idahostatesman.com/2012/03/21/2044295/sen-winder-blasted-over-rape-remark.html">worry</a> that exceptions for rape and incest could possibly become a loophole through which some <a href="http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/03/indiana-goper-women-might-pretend-to-be-raped-to-get-around-abortion-laws.php">lying</a> women could escape unwanted pregnancy, leading to the <a href="http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/daily-reports/2012/march/21/states-abortion-contraception.aspx">push</a> for the elimination of exceptions for rape and incest as legal justifications for abortion. Building on the false premise that a conceptus is equal to a full-term baby, conservatives argued that a fertilized egg, no matter how it came into existence, is an innocent life deserving of protection. Completely ignoring the question of whether a woman who has been raped is deserving of society's protection and adroitly sidestepping Roe v Wade, forced-birth groups wrote bills denying abortion rights to women <i>even in the case of rape or incest</i> which their political arm, the Republican party, sponsored in state legislatures. In one giant leap of cruel imagination, conservatives managed to establish as a serious idea that <i><b>even when a woman does not consent to sex, her consent to pregnancy should be automatic in the eyes of the law</b></i>.</div>
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Lest there be any doubt about the intentions of the religious conservatives and their hired guns in the state and federal legislatures to render the legal notion of female consent completely irrelevant and completely powerless, forced-birth organizations created "personhood bills" which they instructed their Republican lackeys to sponsor and pass in various states. "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personhood">Personhood</a>" bills, if signed into law, would confer the full rights of a "person" - a deliberately vague term, but generally considered to be equal to a live-born child - to all fertilized ova. Such laws would criminalize most forms of female-controlled contraception, emergency contraception, assisted reproduction and, of course, all abortions. They would also open the door to state-sponsored invasion of women's privacy and health care rights since legally protected "persons" could potentially be "murdered" before a conception is discovered to have taken place. Furthermore, such laws would criminalize anyone who attempted to help a woman abort the conceptus "person" either by performing a surgical procedure, providing medical abortifacents, or driving a woman across state lines to obtain an abortion in a non-"Personhood" state.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTkZ5VMWQ-lMd3PS6tvXMDegXOQAdFXWD_7AJXMTJpqQW_kaH3QRBbBNIM1QOIxrbvpi3MTtyEAhTZb64LGF2N4GS8fsml1G-elJFJ55NjFrgLbdku2ss93Q0bLvO4z7xunyD9xDUzfXSZ/s1600/personhood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTkZ5VMWQ-lMd3PS6tvXMDegXOQAdFXWD_7AJXMTJpqQW_kaH3QRBbBNIM1QOIxrbvpi3MTtyEAhTZb64LGF2N4GS8fsml1G-elJFJ55NjFrgLbdku2ss93Q0bLvO4z7xunyD9xDUzfXSZ/s400/personhood.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><b>Got that, gals?</b></td></tr>
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"Personhood" laws are the holy grail of the forced-birth movement and the ultimate goal of religious conservatives. If passed, such laws would strip women of all bodily autonomy in matters of reproduction. Women would be denied female-controlled birth control, they would be denied emergency birth control if their partner's birth control fails or he refuses to use it and they would be denied abortions - even if they are impregnated by rape and even if their health or lives are endangered by a pregnancy. In short, thanks to the twisted culture of "life" pushed so ruthlessly onto them by religious conservatives, women would be compelled to sacrifice their happiness, risk their health and even lose their lives because a single-celled conceptus has been granted a right to occupy her body which supersedes all of her rights including her humanity, her dignity and her right to life.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyT7Tg1Q78hp9tRMT_9fMYOHlLxfoBxWjpnuIaZ9cmz6qxlcrGWn1oDbAnpNLSD0FIlCor6NihhcfSIQYtCxT3s5toDojlBIPHnBwg5oGASQftYHWkh8Xue6-J6-KpRGpRRM9ol7DE1uge/s1600/Type+of+Contraception+the+women.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyT7Tg1Q78hp9tRMT_9fMYOHlLxfoBxWjpnuIaZ9cmz6qxlcrGWn1oDbAnpNLSD0FIlCor6NihhcfSIQYtCxT3s5toDojlBIPHnBwg5oGASQftYHWkh8Xue6-J6-KpRGpRRM9ol7DE1uge/s200/Type+of+Contraception+the+women.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>Keep that contraception out</b><br />
<b>of those sluts' hands!</b></td></tr>
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The Republican Party, which has degenerated to little more than the political arm of the conservative religious right, has been striving relentlessly to ensure that women will be legally forced to bear all of the negative physical, social and most of the financial repercussions for any unplanned pregnancy, while the churches themselves underline and enforce the subordinate and inferior position of women in the culture. Through tireless efforts to withhold access to contraception from women, the religious right ensures that reproductive control remains primarily in the hands of men. Thanks to ideologically-driven appointments to the FDA and the business interests of both drug companies and the medical establishment, only male-controlled methods of reliable contraception are available without a prescription, forcing women to navigate (and pay for) "care" from layers of medical and pharmacy gatekeepers before they are permitted to obtain reliable female-controlled contraception.</div>
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Religious patriarchy allows society to label unplanned pregnancy a "women's issue" in spite of the fact that it takes both a man and a woman - both failing to use effective contraception - to create an unplanned pregnancy. The fact that society allows unplanned pregnancy to be framed as a women's issue reveals the depth of the unconscious misogyny which lays the responsibility for - and the consequences of - an unplanned pregnancy squarely in the woman's lap, while little thought - and almost no censure - is directed toward the "guilt", the "promiscuity" or the "irresponsibility" of the man involved.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ5-BOc44GMbliMupqKdJYClnsURBhaFbpCeeuMe_nNqzSTLk1eh1p_bKL5_edYZf_QlQxe8AekHgJq198tmjKqKlOoqV-gYWvJUXxPtvMLoegVUKXx0Rv1pW9Qskg2JxF08qsMHikhvhQ/s1600/birthcontrolled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ5-BOc44GMbliMupqKdJYClnsURBhaFbpCeeuMe_nNqzSTLk1eh1p_bKL5_edYZf_QlQxe8AekHgJq198tmjKqKlOoqV-gYWvJUXxPtvMLoegVUKXx0Rv1pW9Qskg2JxF08qsMHikhvhQ/s200/birthcontrolled.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>The old joke about keeping women</b><br />
<b>barefoot and pregnant?</b><br />
<b>Not so funny anymore.</b></td></tr>
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More insidiously, when pregnancy and the laws restricting women's rights over when and if they will become pregnant is framed as a women's issue, conservatives ensure that half the population at least may ignore the very <a href="http://www.thelizlibrary.org/site-index/site-index-frame.html#soulhttp://www.thelizlibrary.org/liz/004.htm">real danger</a> to women's health and safety. Few men pay attention when women's rights are being stripped away because the phrase "women's issue" is unconsciously received as a signal that the subject is unimportant and <i>less than</i> men's other concerns. When the subject of reproductive rights is framed as a "women's issue", even men who love the women in their lives can pretend that there is "nothing to worry about" as their wives, their sisters and their daughters are slowly but surely reduced to the legal status of walking wombs compelled under threat of criminal prosecution to gestate the offspring of <i>any</i> man who succeeds in impregnating them - whether by mutual and loving consent, by accidental failure of birth control or by force.<br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">When the subject of reproductive rights is framed as a "women's issue", e</span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">ven men who love the women in their lives can pretend that there is "nothing to worry about" as their wives, their sisters and their daughters are slowly but surely reduced to the legal status of walking wombs, compelled under threat of criminal prosecution to gestate the offspring of <i>any</i> man who succeeds in impregnating them - whether by mutual and loving consent, by accidental failure of birth control or by force.</span></div>
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In this way, the religious patriarchy ensures both that women cannot control their own reproduction completely (since women - even abstinent women - can be, and often are, the victims of forced impregnation) and that no man - not even a rapist - needs to accept the decision of a mere woman on the question of whether or not he can use her body to reproduce. That is because the "right to life" of a conceptus is, in fact, really just an extension of men's rights. A conceptus is always <i>some</i> man's potential offspring, and at its core, religious teaching is all about enshrining the right of every man to reproduce. If women are allowed the freedom to choose, some men would almost certainly have difficulty finding a willing mate with whom to procreate. Religions which enforce the authority of men over women and which restrict the freedom and choices of women therefore speak to the root of cultural misogyny - men's fear of the potential power of women to control their (men's) ability to reproduce. "Right to life" is actually the trojan horse by which male rights over women are being inserted directly into women's uteri. That's right. It's a great big legal 'fuck you, women'!<br />
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While religions pay lip service to condemning male brutality and offer assurances on how a "godly man" behaves, they strenuously resist efforts to enact laws which could increase rape prosecutions or extend protections for women against sexual assault, citing concerns about - you can guess - men's rights. <i>The ultimate social priority of religion is to confirm and enforce the authority of men over women</i>. To that end, religious conservatives - and their men in government - are willing to grant even rapists and abusers privileges over women, to safeguard the authority of "godly" men. In short, in order to protect the privilege of <i>all</i> men, themselves included of course, even "godly" men who profess to abhor rape <i>willingly award rapists and abusers the right to reproduce using women's bodies against their will. </i>As always, there is no thought spared for the humanity of the women who would be sacrificed to this Christian ideology. At best, they are dismissed as the "blessed" recipients of a "<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2012/jan/25/rick-santorum-rape-pregnancy">gift from God</a>".</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>This is already a real thing in</b><br />
<b>the conservative Christian world</b></td></tr>
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In the Republican vision of the future - as in the past it idealizes - "freedom" and "rights" will only fully belong to men and to the potential offspring of men, while women will be, at best, reduced once again to second-class citizenship, and, at worst, returned to sexual and reproductive slavery. Political, financial and social oppression of women, reproductive slavery and viciously misogynistic church-mandated rules of correct behavior and dress (for women only) are the unceasing reality for millions of women in theocracies around the world. All of these forms of oppression of women are rooted in the desire of these conservative societies to control the sexuality and reproductive freedom of their women. Almost without exception, societies based upon religious laws which both deny women fully human status and hold them accountable for the sexual activity of both genders strictly limit female freedom and impose exaggerated requirements for modest dress on their women and girls. If a Christian theocracy is successfully installed by conservatives in the United States, ever-deepening oppression will become the inevitable future for women and girls here.</div>
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Religious conservatives want Roe v Wade overturned because they oppose the principles of individual freedom and the right to bodily autonomy for women upon which the decision was based. That denial of those rights would relegate women to less than human status <i>is exactly the point</i>. Second-class status for women would be a feature, not a bug, for Christian conservatives since the Bible commands that women are not equal but <i>subordinate</i> to men. Bible-based religion asserts that man is the original human and woman, taken from man, is less than human. This is the reality of Bible-based governance. It seems like a nightmare from the dark ages, or some dystopian futuristic novel, but this is really happening <i>right now</i> in the land of the free and the home of the brave.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiwW6E8QguO1eOdlOtLw3HYBME-aUMhx33XE0odisECiLUwrInhyphenhyphenJb1OJd5AChYB5r80BVZNRy2OZFMT_QCI8fwbwSj9FQPq_eWFgKtYQzegIVXLKrf6R2Slxcoj65zBXQ5NYfNKUmcrs/s1600/gop-elephant-w-flag-cross.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="333" data-original-width="500" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiwW6E8QguO1eOdlOtLw3HYBME-aUMhx33XE0odisECiLUwrInhyphenhyphenJb1OJd5AChYB5r80BVZNRy2OZFMT_QCI8fwbwSj9FQPq_eWFgKtYQzegIVXLKrf6R2Slxcoj65zBXQ5NYfNKUmcrs/s640/gop-elephant-w-flag-cross.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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NiftyWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103734836789258691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2155986947588635239.post-11191386115158877082017-10-04T21:44:00.000-05:002017-10-04T22:11:13.640-05:00Winners and Moochers, 2017 Edition<div style="text-align: left;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ8vNpZoHg_jxhaW8aJCOiMh6Na6d0S-YbZXrg_pKx8rd6djNeAZvPHH5U9Nf2pPOY_wJ5uUdRdsY1ELAA5IhyphenhyphenUPXhDJj3-XckqUAYOWIfFAMMQGP7I4aPKR8noJm7L8I5-dtERMmv1iE/s1600/104752231-RTS1F4BQ.530x298.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="298" data-original-width="530" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ8vNpZoHg_jxhaW8aJCOiMh6Na6d0S-YbZXrg_pKx8rd6djNeAZvPHH5U9Nf2pPOY_wJ5uUdRdsY1ELAA5IhyphenhyphenUPXhDJj3-XckqUAYOWIfFAMMQGP7I4aPKR8noJm7L8I5-dtERMmv1iE/s640/104752231-RTS1F4BQ.530x298.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">photo credit: Aaron P. Bernstein, Reuters <b>"Monopoly Guy" on the Hill, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2017/10/04/someone-dressed-like-the-monopoly-guy-is-photobombing-the-senates-equifax-hearing.html">CNBC story</a></b></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #073763; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">"Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires."</span> John Steinbeck<br />
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(Today's <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/04/someone-dressed-like-the-monopoly-guy-is-photobombing-the-senates-equifax-hearing.html">CNBC story</a> about "Monopoly Man" photobombing the senate Banking Committee hearing on the <a href="https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2017/09/equifax-data-breach-what-do">Equifax data breach</a> reminded me of a <a href="http://www.niftyatheist.com/2012/10/winners-and-moochers.html">post</a> I made back in 2012. Here it is, updated for 2017.)<br />
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Do you remember playing the board game Monopoly back when kids did not have awesome hand-held devices to play with? Do you remember how the "banker" carefully doled out an equal sum of money to every player so they all had equal "chances" before the first roll of the dice? Equal opportunity ended at this point, because the capricious odds of rolling the right number to land on the best spaces was entirely down to chance. As soon as one player had bought the best group of properties, his fortunes would steadily rise.<br />
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Sure, the other players would remain hopeful for another 20-30 minutes - after all, they, too, had managed to land on and purchase a few properties and who knew? Their luck could change at any minute and they might land on Free Parking and claim the pot of cash in the middle of the board! Meanwhile, the luckiest player on the board - the one who had the luckiest rolls of the dice in the early minutes of the game - would steadily add houses and hotels, steadily increase his holdings, as other players sold out to him to stay alive in the game. Inexorably, the player with the earliest advantage wound up winning the game - not merely winning a game with other players still respectably turned out - but overwhelmingly and singularly winning: raking in total ownership of the properties, the utilities, and the contents of the bank while every other player sat bankrupted; wiped off the board.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixKUX7RjbhGyAlBBlo8OXhy5EXkYwkLeg7GUsl3Buc_Gd_rLigCefwqbD5g-nsPLtK54_9q5njtcOBybGvanLtxLwD3WrtUMhqQSPzYtcDgNwyRojHUBzMquJXqvz3jbnwz7YoG6Llyx4/s1600/3monopoly-560x315.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixKUX7RjbhGyAlBBlo8OXhy5EXkYwkLeg7GUsl3Buc_Gd_rLigCefwqbD5g-nsPLtK54_9q5njtcOBybGvanLtxLwD3WrtUMhqQSPzYtcDgNwyRojHUBzMquJXqvz3jbnwz7YoG6Llyx4/s320/3monopoly-560x315.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>Republicans: If you start out in poverty, with<br />the dice fixed in favor of the rich kids uptown </b><br />
<b>- and you fail - </b><br />
<b>you only have yourself to blame, </b><br />
<b>you lazy, shiftless moocher!</b></td></tr>
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It turns out that what your dad told you is true: in many ways life really is like a Monopoly game. (Except for that part about starting the game off with an equal share of the available resources). Wealth builds on wealth. As the wealth of an elite few increases, the wealth of everyone else tends to decrease because in a world of finite resources, the continued growth of wealth for those at the top of the social ladder inevitably means that they control more and more resources and property, buying or forcing out those people with fewer resources and less capital - and "<i><a href="http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/09/18/elections-2012-romney-blames-those-people-for-what-america-has-become-134543">those people</a></i>" are the vast majority of people.<br />
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Monopoly rules at least give every player a fighting chance to win against the fickle finger of fate by starting them off with equal wealth and a clear playing board. In real life, this is tragically never the case. Societies do not provide a level playing field for all children to start out with equal opportunities in life. Poverty, social stratification, racial and gender discrimination and destruction of public education mean that most children in our country are born <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1360943/">disadvantaged</a>, sometimes grossly so. Economic and personal success in life is closely linked to the economic status of one's parents. Children of the poor are likely to remain poor, while children of the rich are likely to remain rich regardless of the personal efforts of the children from either socio-economic group. The elites who intend to ensure that their own children can ascend to even loftier perches over everyone else's children have myriad strategies to keep the game of life in America rigged in that way, and they have the economic resources to buy the political power to make those strategies the law of the land.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxuwzvvEFJKYzFrLIemO24ZhXy_Z5iarEN2Dh-JC5nksolaGwY9T-FjULoCCs9hwI184Ebjq-HIEN0jTwYMuEXNzg-OYdRVnWChHAuR-nPlzwQbv9u6vZNeHHdvWOToJrDZ9YAuz9wl0Q/s1600/Monopoly.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="434" data-original-width="600" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxuwzvvEFJKYzFrLIemO24ZhXy_Z5iarEN2Dh-JC5nksolaGwY9T-FjULoCCs9hwI184Ebjq-HIEN0jTwYMuEXNzg-OYdRVnWChHAuR-nPlzwQbv9u6vZNeHHdvWOToJrDZ9YAuz9wl0Q/s320/Monopoly.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
So, when <a href="https://www.salon.com/2015/02/03/paul_ryans_sorry_invention_the_gops_self_appointed_poverty_warrior_coins_envy_economics/">Paul Ryan</a> or <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/jason-chaffetz-new-gop-health-care-plan-235762">Jason Chaffetz</a> or <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/ron-johnson-health-care-a-privilege-1d9fe371b55a/">Ron Johnson</a> or Mitt Romney claim that 47% of the people in the United States are mooching "<a href="http://www.allthingsdemocrat.com/2012/10/before-mitts-47-video-there-were-paul-ryans-takers-videos/">takers</a>", think of Monopoly. For most Americans, the dice are loaded against them and they don't even get to start the game with an equal share of the bank. Republican claims that the struggling middle class and the disenfranchised poor have had just as much opportunity as the children of the wealthiest Americans, but simply are too lazy to work for the American dream is an appeal to the worst part of human psychology; the part that tells us we deserve our blessings and other people deserve their hardships. It is a lie. And it is a very convenient lie for the Republicans hoping to pass tax cuts for the wealthy since so many people are willing to believe it.<br />
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<a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/pathways-to-the-middle-class-balancing-personal-and-public-responsibilities/">Pathways to the Middle Class: Balancing Personal and Public Responsibilities</a>, Isabel V. Sawhill, Scott Winship, and Kerry Searle Grannis, The Brookings Institute, September 20, 2012.<br />
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<i>Americans have an unusually strong belief in meritocracy. In other nations, circumstances at birth, family connections, and luck are considered more important factors in economic success than they are in the U.S. This meritocratic philosophy is one reason why Americans have had relatively little objection to high levels of inequality—as long as those at the bottom have a fair chance to work their way up the ladder. Similarly, Americans are more comfortable with the idea of increasing opportunities for success than with reducing inequality. When the American public is asked questions about the importance of tackling each, a far higher proportion is in favor of doing something about ensuring that more people have a shot at climbing the economic ladder than is in favor of reducing poverty or inequality.</i><br />
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<a href="https://lifehacker.com/being-poor-is-too-expensive-1736233505">Being Poor Is Too Expensive</a>, Eric Ravenscraft, LifeHacker, October 20, 2015.<br />
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<i>When you’re poor, you can’t afford to think about the “long run.” I knew that it was smart to buy some stuff from big membership stores, but I couldn’t even get past the membership fees. I knew that eating gas station hot dogs and ramen was going to kill me some day, but as long as that day wasn’t before rent was due, I had to live with it. I probably could’ve done marginally better if I planned to cook more meals ahead of time but I, like 6.8 million Americans according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, had to work multiple jobs to get by. I didn’t have enough time to be healthy, and I didn’t have enough money to save money.</i><br />
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<a href="http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/26/stiglitz-some-are-more-unequal-than-others/?smid=fb-share">Some Are More Unequal Than Others</a>, Joseph E. Stiglitz, New York TImes, October 26, 2012.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9GONoqbjsjBHPSy0mSkI9RUbv8uYMxRpj6AVPp5H8AxkWlQLbY8AJCUozBtbKNhPcUcVFdO80CpJe0yWOajLf69kvIIu91Mm5EdQD6tCjBL6IbpayCbbV8bFHW8ArBPKMk_jwiH_ErCw/s1600/after-tax-income-768x424.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="424" data-original-width="768" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9GONoqbjsjBHPSy0mSkI9RUbv8uYMxRpj6AVPp5H8AxkWlQLbY8AJCUozBtbKNhPcUcVFdO80CpJe0yWOajLf69kvIIu91Mm5EdQD6tCjBL6IbpayCbbV8bFHW8ArBPKMk_jwiH_ErCw/s320/after-tax-income-768x424.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source: Congressional Budget Office</td></tr>
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<i>That American inequality is at historic highs is undisputed. It’s not just that the top 1 percent takes in about a fifth of the income, and controls more than a third of the wealth. America also has become the country (among the advanced industrial countries) with the least equality of opportunity. Meanwhile, those in the middle are faring badly, in every dimension, in security, in income, and in wealth — the wealth of the typical household is back to where it was in the 1990s. While the recession has made all of this worse, even before the recession they weren’t faring well: in 2007, the income of the typical family was lower than it was at the end of the last century...</i><br />
<i>America is fast becoming a country marked not by justice for all, but by justice for those who can afford it. (Just one of many examples is that no banker has been prosecuted, let alone convicted, for banks’ systematic lying to the court regarding the fraudulent practices that played so large a role in the 2008 crisis.) And with the increasing influence of money, especially notable in this election, the outcomes of our political process are becoming more like one dollar, one vote than one person, one vote. It’s even worse, because political inequality leads to economic inequality, which leads in turn to more political inequality, in a vicious spiral undermining our economy and our democracy.</i><br />
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<a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2014/05/08/thomas-piketty-new-gilded-age/">Why We're In A New Gilded Age</a>, Paul Krugman, The New York Review of Books, May 8, 2014.<br />
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<i>The general presumption of most inequality researchers has been that earned income, usually salaries, is where all the action is, and that income from capital is neither important nor interesting. Piketty shows, however, that even today income from capital, not earnings, predominates at the top of the income distribution. He also shows that in the past—during Europe’s Belle Époque and, to a lesser extent, America’s Gilded Age—unequal ownership of assets, not unequal pay, was the prime driver of income disparities. And he argues that we’re on our way back to that kind of society.</i><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZFMw3NhNOiNaMyb7ZNpXKZpS1irCqOuk02tXBMpjCEX88uXebaxL3apmwMJw7auGmK3Tx5Mb-96FsrVhGslgeszkAIaZ-96E3prbIPtX0ryQtkRBGXC9YeRhdUKKheskmv6IUh8rvPzU/s1600/Monopoly_board_on_white_bg.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="432" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZFMw3NhNOiNaMyb7ZNpXKZpS1irCqOuk02tXBMpjCEX88uXebaxL3apmwMJw7auGmK3Tx5Mb-96FsrVhGslgeszkAIaZ-96E3prbIPtX0ryQtkRBGXC9YeRhdUKKheskmv6IUh8rvPzU/s640/Monopoly_board_on_white_bg.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>Here is a photo of no Monopoly game ever. Like the myth of the American Dream, it advertises a carefully staged image of equal distribution of wealth that is impossible to achieve when actually playing the game - or living in America - under the current rules.</b><br />
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NiftyWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103734836789258691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2155986947588635239.post-14760461570001510072017-10-03T11:06:00.000-05:002017-10-03T15:36:43.898-05:00Conservative Christians Declare Las Vegas Killer God's Henchman<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4U7t-mw05dK-LB9_dRR-Hk5i8oWmPjDCBKMvkv0vAn2H3N5SuFSo4g5RvrdyP9q0SgP6E5baUnEe3lrzSznMdk10L1D8vjrI7_RA4vHGqHkPFdIJvvhmC_LDXGL-MXy5sS1rVXNrvjmpF/s1600/angry-god-300x157.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="334" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4U7t-mw05dK-LB9_dRR-Hk5i8oWmPjDCBKMvkv0vAn2H3N5SuFSo4g5RvrdyP9q0SgP6E5baUnEe3lrzSznMdk10L1D8vjrI7_RA4vHGqHkPFdIJvvhmC_LDXGL-MXy5sS1rVXNrvjmpF/s640/angry-god-300x157.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>A God of constant rages</b></td></tr>
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<h2 class="me" style="color: black; display: inline; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
ter·ror·ism</h2>
<span style="bottom: 1ex; font-size: 0.75em; height: 0px; line-height: 1; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"></span> <span class="pronset"><span audio="http://static.sfdict.com/dictstatic/dictionary/audio/luna/T01/T0167100.mp3" class="speaker" default="http://dictionary.reference.com/audio.html/lunaWAV/T01/T0167100" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: url("http://static.sfdict.com/en/i/dictionary/newserp/Sprite_Serp.png"); background-position: -619px -478px; background-repeat: repeat; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; height: 19px; padding-left: 3px; width: 20px;"></span> <span class="show_spellpr" style="display: inline;"><span class="prondelim" style="font-family: "verdana" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">[</span><span class="pron" style="display: inline; font-family: "verdana" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span class="boldface" style="font-weight: 700;">ter</span>-<span class="ital-inline" style="display: inline; font-family: "georgia" , "verdana" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: italic;">uh</span>-riz-<span class="ital-inline" style="display: inline; font-family: "georgia" , "verdana" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: italic;">uh</span><span class="luna-thinspace"></span>m</span><span class="prondelim" style="font-family: "verdana" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">]</span> </span></span></div>
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<span class="pg" style="display: inline; font-family: "verdana" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; padding-right: 3px;"><span id="hotword" style="position: static;"><span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="cursor: default; position: static;">noun</span></span></span><br />
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<span class="dnindex" style="color: #7b7b7b; display: block; float: left; font-weight: bold; width: 28px;"><span id="hotword" style="position: static;">1.</span></span><br />
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<span id="hotword" style="position: static;"><span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="cursor: default; position: static;">the</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="position: static;">use</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="position: static;">of</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="position: static;">violence</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="position: static;">and</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="cursor: default; position: static;">threats</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="position: static;">to</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="position: static;">intimidate</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="position: static;">or</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="position: static;">coerce, </span><span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="cursor: default; position: static;">especially</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="cursor: default; position: static;">for</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="position: static;">political</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="cursor: default; position: static;">purposes.</span></span></div>
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<span class="dnindex" style="color: #7b7b7b; display: block; float: left; font-weight: bold; width: 28px;"><span id="hotword" style="position: static;">2.</span></span><br />
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<span id="hotword" style="position: static;"><span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="position: static;">the</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="position: static;">state</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="cursor: default; position: static;">of</span> </span><a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fear" style="color: #333333;">fear</a><span id="hotword" style="position: static;"> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="cursor: default; position: static;">and</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="position: static;">submission</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="position: static;">produced</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="position: static;">by</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="position: static;">terrorism</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="position: static;">or </span></span><a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/terrorize" style="color: #333333;">terrorization</a><span id="hotword" style="position: static;">.</span></div>
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<span class="dnindex" style="color: #7b7b7b; display: block; float: left; font-weight: bold; width: 28px;"><span id="hotword" style="position: static;">3.</span></span><br />
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<span id="hotword" style="position: static;"><span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="position: static;">a</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="position: static;">terroristic</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="position: static;">method</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="position: static;">of</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="cursor: default; position: static;">governing</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="cursor: default; position: static;">or</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="cursor: default; position: static;">of</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="position: static;">resisting</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="position: static;">a </span><span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="cursor: default; position: static;">government.</span></span></div>
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If you were frightened and confused by the horrific events in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/10/03/as-las-vegas-grieves-investigators-struggle-to-piece-together-the-motives-behind-shooting/?utm_term=.8cf544503c2f">Las Vegas</a> Sunday night, or in Sandy Hook, or in Aurora, Colorado or... the roughly 1400 <a href="https://www.vox.com/a/mass-shootings-sandy-hook">mass shootings</a> since Sandy Hook, (but, it's the <a href="http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-las-vegas-shooting-live-updates-bill-o-reilly-calls-mass-shootings-the-1506980448-htmlstory.html">"price of freedom"</a>, everyone), Christian hardliners want you to <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/evangelicals-election_us_5820d931e4b0e80b02cbc86e">know</a> that <strike>they have</strike> their God has everything under control. They believe that it is good that you were frightened. Hopefully, you will remain frightened for a long time. Your fear and anxiety are exactly what they say the Biblical god demands and wants. Christians want you to <a href="http://www.christianpost.com/news/gods-judgment-is-coming-to-america-and-its-going-to-be-ugly-says-billy-grahams-daughter-anne-graham-lotz-139037/">know</a> that it was their god's rage over the slight easing of fearfulness in society which prompted Him to deputize these killers to ram the <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/online/pat-robertson-blames-vegas-shooting-on-people-who-disrespect-trump-national-anthem/">message</a> of His righteous anger into the hearts and minds of the American people through the senseless slaughter of <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/roy-moore-blamed-sandy-hook-people-forgetting-law-god-article-1.3528710">innocents</a>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUgdlgfzt3_DybCFaeNjxYWDMuc9Hxi1VZZP4YhlabbU0o1-y8Wys1LVGNRQO7vliPKTZlW9YtH6WR9eX1oklUxlO-WdqnSpm-CSJLrVPb0UzP39qdzq407LLiJnHB8ZPp78tsWmORBllv/s1600/FearGod.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUgdlgfzt3_DybCFaeNjxYWDMuc9Hxi1VZZP4YhlabbU0o1-y8Wys1LVGNRQO7vliPKTZlW9YtH6WR9eX1oklUxlO-WdqnSpm-CSJLrVPb0UzP39qdzq407LLiJnHB8ZPp78tsWmORBllv/s200/FearGod.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>...and do what the pastor tells you!</b></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white;">We need to pay attention to this. According to the American Family Association's Fred Jackson, killers are used by the Christian god to terrorize the American people. In spite of the ever-increasing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_radicalism">radicalization</a> of the population through Christian evangelism, and an historic level of unconstitutional religious <a href="http://www.christianpost.com/news/christian-students-latest-mission-field-public-schools-69503/">encroachment</a> into the public sphere, </span><span style="background-color: white;">elite Christian leaders insist that there is still not enough fear in American society.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> Too few Americans accept the authority of <strike>church elites</strike> <i>God</i> with enough unquestioning obedience. Not enough Americans fear the power of <strike>Christianity</strike> <i>God</i> with the proper servility. </span><span style="background-color: white;">And fundamentalist Christian church leaders know just who to blame:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0b5394;">"<u>Jackson:</u> </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">I have to think that all of this, whether it’s the <b>Hollywood</b> movies, whether it’s what we see on the <b>internets [sic]</b>, whether it’s <b>liberal bias in the media</b>, whether it’s our <b>politicians changing public policy</b>, I think all of those somehow have fit together—and I have to say <b>also churches who are leaving the authority of Scripture and <i><u>losing their fear of God</u></i></b>—all of those things have seem to have come together to give us these kinds of incidents.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><u>Newcombe:</u> I think that’s so true. It’s as if we said to God, publicly or in the public arena, ‘get out, You’re not welcome here anymore’ and it’s as if God removed His protection from our land.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg96xIh4AmsINJE0cH7vJIVlTFRGUgQeaUxtWq6bJlrLFcCLKXOC-D5mzDtVT6pgGDXCU3NVHdksUZ-rSIiAadxN24js6FfJQMiSFI-wTtJlvDjW9gORW1zklv5_N-ByQ7eqlU6N2BXzN38/s1600/1-john-4-16-god-is-love-red-bokeh-iphone-christian-wallpaper.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg96xIh4AmsINJE0cH7vJIVlTFRGUgQeaUxtWq6bJlrLFcCLKXOC-D5mzDtVT6pgGDXCU3NVHdksUZ-rSIiAadxN24js6FfJQMiSFI-wTtJlvDjW9gORW1zklv5_N-ByQ7eqlU6N2BXzN38/s320/1-john-4-16-god-is-love-red-bokeh-iphone-christian-wallpaper.jpeg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>...and sometimes, "Love" <i><u>hurts</u></i>.</b></td></tr>
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<u style="color: #0b5394;">Jackson:</u><span style="background-color: white; color: #0b5394;"> I think the sources of this is [sic] multifaceted but you can put it all I think under the heading of rebellion to God, a rejection of the God of the Bible.* I think along with an education system that has produced our lawyers, our politicians, more teachers, more professors, all of that sort of thing, is our churches, mainline churches. We’ve been dealing Teddy and I know the AFA Journal has been dealing with denominations that no longer believe in the God of the Bible, they no longer believe that Jesus is the only way of salvation, they teach that God is OK with homosexuality, this is just increasing more and more. It is mankind shaking its fist at the authority of God.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><u>James:</u> And God will not be silent when he’s mocked, and we need to remember that. </span><br />
<u style="background-color: white; color: #0b5394;">Jackson:</u><span style="background-color: white; color: #0b5394;"> We are seeing his judgment. You know, some people talk about ‘God’s judgment must be just around the corner,’ we are seeing it." -( </span><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/afa-news-director-says-liberal-churches-media-share-responsibility-colorado-shooting" style="background-color: white;">conversation</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #0b5394;"> between the popular rightwing Christian radio host, Fred Jackson, Jerry Newcombe of Truth in Action Ministries and Jackson's co-host Teddy James of AFA <i>Journal)</i>.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white;"><b><i>*(Let's cut to the chase here:<span style="color: #0b5394;"> </span>"Rebellion against God" is code for "rebellion against <u>unconstitutional</u> religious influence". When civil rights groups protest the unconstitutional religious interference in government, they are accused of "rebellion against God". "Rejection of God" is code for "rejection of <u>inappropriate</u> religious attacks on individual rights and freedoms". When conservative Christian groups attempt to deprive citizens of their human rights, the people who protest are accused of "rejecting God").</i></b></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">According to the self-appointed spokesmen for God, the all-loving, all-knowing, all-powerful (also silent and invisible) Creator of the Universe is <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/is-god-like-jesus-or-jeffress_us_598db26ce4b063e2ae057ed4"><i>understandably</i> <i>outraged</i></a> when humankind fails to tremble in terror at the very thought of Him, yet He is curiously incapable of easily and lovingly repairing the error in His own creation. So, we are told that every now and then He causes a terrible event on earth (or fails to prevent a terrible event - same difference, really, since His presence and His absence are equally indiscernible) to remind us of our sinful failure to fear Him enough. His spokesmen then gleefully point to these disasters as evidence that all the things which threaten <strike>them</strike> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/roy-moore-disrupts-alabama-senate-race--and-prepares-for-new-level-of-defiance-in-washington/2017/09/21/2a88a4a2-9e38-11e7-9083-fbfddf6804c2_story.html?utm_term=.19863e35b8c2">Biblical supremacy</a> in American society are </span><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://www.advocate.com/politics/religion/2012/07/20/right-wing-uses-colorado-tragedy-vilify-gays-and-secularism">evil</a></span><span style="background-color: white;"> and should be blamed for the pain and suffering of innocents. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">(Apparently, they can't explain why God never seems to target the specific objects of <strike>their</strike> His wrath directly, nor why they expect anyone to believe that a god who would rain down terrible suffering on innocent men, women and children as an object lesson to sinners should be considered a "loving" god.)</span><span style="background-color: white;"></span><br />
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<span class="hw" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">terrorize</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; text-align: left;">, </span><b style="font-family: arial;">terrorise</b><span style="font-family: "arial"; text-align: left;"> </span><span class="pron0x" style="font-family: "arial"; text-align: left;">[ˈtɛrəˌraɪz]</span><br />
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<i>vb</i> <i>(tr)</i><br />
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<b>1.</b> to coerce or control by violence, fear, threats, etc.</div>
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<b>2.</b> to inspire with dread; terrify</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuPluVS4oMJYzEzELKaj-5xazLDi5rsXkLU70oEqoSBFVeEpR1eB-UvibK2m1yOhbR9HK7bjXw_MJ1cDa1ILTw4a0iNN6juLSrFsxVTYTVd7s5FO7Iy7orf10LLNUdihF33DxbgLAb4zFw/s1600/2374_2260_715.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="161" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuPluVS4oMJYzEzELKaj-5xazLDi5rsXkLU70oEqoSBFVeEpR1eB-UvibK2m1yOhbR9HK7bjXw_MJ1cDa1ILTw4a0iNN6juLSrFsxVTYTVd7s5FO7Iy7orf10LLNUdihF33DxbgLAb4zFw/s320/2374_2260_715.jpeg" width="320" /></a>The terror evoked by random acts of violence is a feature, not a bug, in the eyes of the <strike>powerful Christian elites</strike> Almighty. It has proven to be a very useful weapon in the ongoing battle for Christian world <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/05/franklin-graham/527013/">dominance</a>. <span style="background-color: white;"> B</span><span style="background-color: white;">y planting the seeds of fearful hatred in the minds of <a href="http://www.niftyatheist.com/2012/06/teach-your-children-well.html">already traumatized</a> believers and then redirecting that fear toward those who resist Christian hegemony, the religious right - and its political arm, the Republican party - divides and polarizes society into "us" and "others", with themselves as the authorities ruling over the ever-growing <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/06/05/its-time-to-bust-the-myth-most-trump-voters-were-not-working-class/?utm_term=.25ae67d46a50">coalition</a> of "us". The fear of God's wrath is wielded to ensure fearful compliance, and - since "God" is never seen nor heard by anyone - Evangelical leaders appoint themselves as His <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/we-talk-with-god-what-evangelical-christians-hear">spokesmen</a> and the ultimate interpreters of His righteous will, ensuring that <i><b>their will</b></i> is rarely effectively challenged. They systematically coerce the population of believers - through fear of their god inculcated from earliest childhood - and coerce non-believers - through social pressure (as believers' fear grows that other citizens who are not like "us" will bring god's wrath down on themselves, <i>even if they are innocent, god-fearing believers!)</i> - to be less and less tolerant of differences, and to demand greater and greater conformity to their religious authority. In short, they assign all of the power over society that is hypothetically "God's awesome power" - to themselves. It is terrorism-by-proxy; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stochastic_terrorism">stochastic terrorism</a>. And it is very effective.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo3C_aafBV6YVZ3KXSJ_OSg25ceYpTE8DXE82gCxAmdpoEa9dGMqMqAakKYtzJMqvcxFUAEPd308_wIYKW4XK0j7VuyPt5J5aOOGHEb0hZq01NXQVFmuEoRcO1mE5xnYmhOI7jwWdxJ7KY/s1600/angry_god.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo3C_aafBV6YVZ3KXSJ_OSg25ceYpTE8DXE82gCxAmdpoEa9dGMqMqAakKYtzJMqvcxFUAEPd308_wIYKW4XK0j7VuyPt5J5aOOGHEb0hZq01NXQVFmuEoRcO1mE5xnYmhOI7jwWdxJ7KY/s1600/angry_god.jpeg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>God hates whoever the church hates!</b><br />
<b>Are you listening, atheists and gays?</b></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"></span><span style="background-color: white;">Random terrible events <a href="http://time.com/4563685/donald-trump-wins/">happen</a>: they always have and they always will. The evil genius of fundamentalist Christians is that they know how to use these inevitable natural and man made disasters as tools for their own Machiavellian brand of power consolidation. </span><span style="background-color: white;">They harness fear and bigotry created by religious <a href="http://www.niftyatheist.com/2013/05/good-news-clubs-are-bad-news-for-america.html">teaching</a> and redirect it into hatred toward the elements in society which threaten their own power, thus eliminating their enemies and removing all barriers to their dream of an American <a href="http://origins.osu.edu/review/american-theocracy-peril-and-politics-radical-religion-oil-and-borrowed-money-21st-century">theocracy</a>. </span><span style="background-color: white;">They terrorize the vulnerable victims of a local or national disaster with the dread of an angry god - evoking the same terror of god's wrathful jealousy which was inculcated through childhood <a href="http://www.niftyatheist.com/2013/05/homeschooling-revisited.html">indoctrination</a> - and then they direct that frightened anguish toward </span><i style="background-color: white;">others </i><span style="background-color: white;">whose refusal to accept Christian authority they accuse of bringing this suffering down upon innocent, <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/2017/09/heres-why-why-right-wing-christians-think-they-are-americas-most-persecuted/">persecuted</a> Christians.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;">It is an awesome one-two punch: a form of terrorism more lethal to our pluralistic, democratic Republic than anything the United States has ever faced. Terrorized people historically bow to the perceived security of <a href="http://rare.us/rare-politics/rare-liberty/police-state/authoritarianism-is-fueled-by-fear-thats-why-its-so-important-to-know-crime-rates-are-way-down/">authoritarianism</a>. It is a human response to fear. The power of religious belief, inculcated early and reinforced regularly - especially in the <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/christian-nationalism-religion-research-b8f9cdc16239/">public sphere</a> - enables church elites to </span><span style="background-color: white;">use the fear of God to </span><span style="background-color: white;">coerce a population </span><span style="background-color: white;">to destroy church enemies,</span><span style="background-color: white;"> to support religious agendas and to obey church elites, all without lifting a finger! Of course, in places where there is too much human-created peace, tolerant multi-cultural social order and too few natural disasters, strong Christians will</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/24/us-norway-manifesto-idUSTRE76N0X820110724" style="background-color: white;">do what they have to do to help <strike>themselves</strike> their god out</a><span style="background-color: white;">.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;">In the USA, where there is no shortage of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2017/09/23/harvey-irma-maria-why-is-this-hurricane-season-so-bad/?utm_term=.e831965eac35">natural</a> sources of human <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/maria-ravaged-pr-left-misery-no-power-water-food-article-1.3523611">misery</a>, the Christian right still <strike>furthers their own ambitions</strike> helps their god out by doing their utmost to <a href="http://flaglerlive.com/9056/burn-koran-day-gainesville-terry-jones/">incite</a> violence and human <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-evangelical-robert-jeffress-nfl-national-anthem-protest_us_59c97231e4b0cdc77333e1da">conflict</a> through the constant drumbeat of fear and othering. The dignity and humanity of the victims of natural and man-made horrors is nothing to them, when measured against what they perceive is their <i>god-given</i> right to use the horrible tragedy for their own political gain. <span style="background-color: white;">We don't know yet what the Las Vegas murderer's <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/10/03/investigators-hunting-down-motive-behind-las-vegas-shooting-rampage/726320001/">motive</a> was, and we may never know, but w</span></span><span style="background-color: white;">hatever Paddock may think his own motives were, influential Christians want everyone to believe that he was the unwitting lash of their God's judgment.</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;"> The truth doesn't matter to the Christian right, nor does common human decency. For them, the massacre has </span></span><span style="background-color: white;">already </span><span style="background-color: white;">served its purpose.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLdJ35Bt5jD9rnr0tp8h3JP69W7-Ip1tXPwxH2B7hlOZM6jf4_yLzh6uTHaPMr6o38QfOIiQWk5CuRWYJfC3vDulosIc3uWQUQqJ0AqBNGCN9wi01sFFWHeMdNHv-dDa8vuyaqjvQw2EyT/s1600/awesomegod.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLdJ35Bt5jD9rnr0tp8h3JP69W7-Ip1tXPwxH2B7hlOZM6jf4_yLzh6uTHaPMr6o38QfOIiQWk5CuRWYJfC3vDulosIc3uWQUQqJ0AqBNGCN9wi01sFFWHeMdNHv-dDa8vuyaqjvQw2EyT/s640/awesomegod.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">.<b>..and <strike>we</strike> <i>He</i> won't hesitate to use terrorism to consolidate <strike>our</strike> <i>His</i> power! Got that, America?</b></span></td></tr>
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NiftyWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103734836789258691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2155986947588635239.post-57106873366049741212017-08-09T22:00:00.000-05:002017-08-10T11:54:33.335-05:00Jeffress Inspires Revival of Barmy Bible Study!<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdgI3aYwSFl0DxogFLYyk8kw8xsRYal1-WyrkanQ-4Afma-1uLIzydP4y3JqmZdaz4n3x6FzR-8Gr_dDyeXgkNC94JLS7Zs_gflt0Yg2tdPh8zS1Nt3Y6EEpVVE3VzfHMoapb1rwlJNIq3/s1600/crusader_tn.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdgI3aYwSFl0DxogFLYyk8kw8xsRYal1-WyrkanQ-4Afma-1uLIzydP4y3JqmZdaz4n3x6FzR-8Gr_dDyeXgkNC94JLS7Zs_gflt0Yg2tdPh8zS1Nt3Y6EEpVVE3VzfHMoapb1rwlJNIq3/s640/crusader_tn.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">Crusader doing God's Holy Work</td></tr>
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It's that time of the week again - the night we all look forward to: Wednesday Night Barmy Bible Study!<br />
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Yes, I know we missed our bi-monthly Bible Study for awhile, but sometimes it takes a little time to <strike>recover from the <i>horror</i></strike> properly appreciate the <i>goodness</i> in holy scripture. Let's just get down to the business of wondering at the awesomeness of the Lord, shall we?<br />
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In honor of this week's <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/08/08/god-has-given-trump-authority-to-take-out-kim-jong-un-evangelical-adviser-says/?utm_term=.52e5865feb47">Good News</a>, we will depart a little from the usual Bible class structure of choosing a specific story and discussing it. Let's study a small sampling of the dozens of passages in the Bible wherein God/Yahweh/Jehovah promises his worshippers land, riches and all sort of success, and orders them to utterly destroy anyone and anything which gets in their way.<br />
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<span style="color: blue;">Deuteronomy 7: 1-6 Driving Out the Nations</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">1When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you— 2and <b>when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy.</b> 3Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, 4for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods, and the Lord’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. 5This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire. 6<b>For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.</b></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyCQz0byGzW1uAykM5KW-lwde8diBi-Kf-2ZTdPB_sWfB7FKU5np2jbCRIm7Pti5WY0dm7U5d5Yksi9vOgfcAcSYlFGSEOhjRgV89LAw8MDZRzrGTzBbk3X9LN-54WLCy_GvROs9pbYeHf/s1600/amoritesjoshua.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyCQz0byGzW1uAykM5KW-lwde8diBi-Kf-2ZTdPB_sWfB7FKU5np2jbCRIm7Pti5WY0dm7U5d5Yksi9vOgfcAcSYlFGSEOhjRgV89LAw8MDZRzrGTzBbk3X9LN-54WLCy_GvROs9pbYeHf/s320/amoritesjoshua.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>Joshua - "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua">saintly man and great leader</a>"</b><br />
<b>doing God's holy work.</b></td></tr>
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<span style="color: blue;">Deuteronomy 20: 10-18</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">10When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace. 11If they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall be subject to forced labor and shall work for you. 12If they refuse to make peace and they engage you in battle, lay siege to that city. 13When the Lord your God delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the men in it. 14As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may take these as plunder for yourselves. And you may use the plunder the Lord your God gives you from your enemies. 15This is how you are to treat all the cities that are at a distance from you and do not belong to the nations nearby.</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">16<b>However, in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. 17Completely destroy them</b>—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the Lord your God has commanded you. 18Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the Lord your God.</span> <span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">1 Samuel 15: 3</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><b>Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.</b>'"</span> <span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">Joshua 10: 40-41</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">40So Joshua subdued the whole region, including the hill country, the Negev, the western foothills and the mountain slopes, together with all their kings. </span><b style="color: blue;">He left no survivors. He totally destroyed all who breathed, just as the Lord, the God of Israel, had commanded.</b><span style="color: blue;"> 41Joshua subdued them from Kadesh Barnea to Gaza and from the whole region of Goshen to Gibeon. 42All these kings and their lands Joshua conquered in one campaign, because the Lord, the God of Israel, fought for Israel.</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue;">And of course, the verses which lay the foundation for absolute confidence that one is carrying out God's Holy Will, even for New Testament purists:</span><br />
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<span style="color: blue;">Romans 13: 1-5</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. </span><span style="color: blue;">2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. </span><span style="color: blue;">3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: </span><span style="color: blue;">4 For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. </span><span style="color: blue;">5 Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfCKINJBOY7xjgUK2Vs_hQPSE4LcRSaOPgC9kGcPL4x1ji82Xf2Fq9Dc-WLz_e0eo2qQsjTYOkkVRVztKtshhx0yd-Xdxt6_ZZ9JUpdQI3Z6TYXO3_WK5B0S2fWaGuWfkxdWTmbSdGUm37/s1600/joshua-walls.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfCKINJBOY7xjgUK2Vs_hQPSE4LcRSaOPgC9kGcPL4x1ji82Xf2Fq9Dc-WLz_e0eo2qQsjTYOkkVRVztKtshhx0yd-Xdxt6_ZZ9JUpdQI3Z6TYXO3_WK5B0S2fWaGuWfkxdWTmbSdGUm37/s200/joshua-walls.jpeg" width="143" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b><a href="http://youtu.be/Oasu3e8PQCk">Joshua fought the battle of Jericho,</a></b><br />
<b>And the walls came tumbling down!<br />God is <i>good</i>!</b></td></tr>
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<u>Study Questions for Show Them No Mercy</u><br />
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1. What did Yahweh/Jehovah/God command the Israelites to do?<br />
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2. Why did God order them to do this?<br />
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3. How does the Bible teach us that the Israelites reacted to these commands and what does their reaction teach us?<br />
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Something that believers all know - but which those who do not believe that the Bible is the inerrant, literal word of God <i>fail to understand</i> - is that God chose one small group of people, out of all His creation, to be his especially chosen favorite people. Just as the Hebrews had chosen Yahweh out of all the gods in the ancient pantheon of the desert region to be their one special God, the Bible says that Yahweh returned the favor. The Bible doesn't say that the other peoples in the region were privy to this unilateral decision by the Hebrews until the Hebrews descended upon them en masse expecting to take over their lands, their possessions and their women, as they believed their god had promised they could do. When the Amalekites, Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, et al continued to faithfully worship the gods of their ancestors equally to Yahweh - and in some case, with even greater fervor than they had worshipped Yahweh who was to them, after all, only a minor war god in the ancient pantheon - the newly promoted Lord, God of Israel was angered.<br />
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So, scripture says that the God of Israel commanded the Israelites to invade these lands, kill all the people and livestock, destroy everything that is sacred to these ill-favored wretches and then claim the lands for themselves. One might think that an all-loving, all-powerful god could be expected to love all of the people He created equally - or at least would be able to hand over the Promised Lands to his Chosen people without harming the <i>other</i> people who did not make the "favored people" cut (rapture them? uncreate them? surely nothing would be impossible for the omnipotent One?) - but one would be wrong.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1fO0us54blrxPVRQMVj4GJFISNRHr1myRuNLeZH5XzmFIo5x_xtOAsJnLXh8-2HJpRjRjgd3QhQbLFSyMy6AT9qcElNG8jbIpWxv1IIq6p3gTULcvpr9NY6K0lTDeGzHEmg_796n4koDM/s1600/praise-god.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1fO0us54blrxPVRQMVj4GJFISNRHr1myRuNLeZH5XzmFIo5x_xtOAsJnLXh8-2HJpRjRjgd3QhQbLFSyMy6AT9qcElNG8jbIpWxv1IIq6p3gTULcvpr9NY6K0lTDeGzHEmg_796n4koDM/s200/praise-god.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>Nobody can see, hear, touch or feel God<br />but we know in our hearts that </b><br />
<b>He wants <i>exactly what we want</i>!<br />The _?_ god is an awesome god!</b></td></tr>
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The Lord, God of Israel was a jealous god. Just because those other people had not received the memo that the Hebrews had chosen Yahweh for special One True God™ status, they unwittingly had signed their own death warrants. It was their own fault! Nothing would do but that they be wiped from the face of the earth and the Hebrews were just the people to do it! Amazingly, not only did the Hebrews know in their hearts what God wanted them to do, but they also managed to do every bit of the invading, killing, raping and plundering by themselves, too! Of course, they knew in their hearts that they had the Lord, God of Israel rooting for them, but they did it all themselves - with His silent, invisible blessing. Praise God!<br />
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This is one of the great things about the Bible to which non-believers should really pay more attention. Of all the peoples on the planet, God decided to elevate one group over all the others for no particular reason. That happily blessed group <i>just happens to be</i> Christians! Well, at first it was the Jews, but now Christians have their own Testament which clearly teaches that there is a New Covenant and in this new deal, Christians are <i>the ones</i>! Well, God is the One and <i>Only</i>, of course (and He is very, very powerful, so don't cross <strike>Christians</strike> Him if you know what is good for you!), but since He cannot be seen nor heard nor felt nor...well, Christians are His ambassadors on earth and speak for Him - they know in their hearts what God wants, so whatever Christians say, <i>goes</i>. Capice?<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9HZVU2uFQSZ5Wa5SKTNVlDo07IilfnCmJe_khml80z-JeaK2ju2u70zdBPa9vu7YnnQFSVK58gFOlRqaFOG4pklMje5MDZ1ycOYyYCXN_hF29srk5nntApAwUu0Uhk4okgIvS-_2vWDDF/s1600/sabra-shatila.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9HZVU2uFQSZ5Wa5SKTNVlDo07IilfnCmJe_khml80z-JeaK2ju2u70zdBPa9vu7YnnQFSVK58gFOlRqaFOG4pklMje5MDZ1ycOYyYCXN_hF29srk5nntApAwUu0Uhk4okgIvS-_2vWDDF/s200/sabra-shatila.jpeg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">Christians doing God's holy work.<br />
(<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabra_and_Shatila_massacre">Sabra-Shatila Massacre</a>)</td></tr>
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Of course, since Christians co-opted the <strike>Jewish Bible </strike>Old Testament, too, they still politely refer to the Jews as the "chosen people"... for now. Besides, Christians need the cooperation of the Jews in order to take over the Promised Land in time for the second coming of Christ! Shhh, no, that is <i><b>not</b></i> shamelessly using the Jewish people for Christian ends. God has clearly given the OK to any means necessary to bring about the glorious destiny of His Chosen People - lying, stealing, cheating, murdering - <i>everything</i> is permitted, <i>even ordered</i>, by God within the sacred pages of the Good Book™. When Christians have total dominion over the earth - as they believe that God has promised - then the Jews will have the same chance as everyone else to fall on their knees and accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Then, they will truly be the chosen people...because they will be Christians! You see? The Christian god is an awesome god! Of course, if they refuse to bow down to the true Chosen people (Christians), well then one only has to read Deuteronomy 20 to know what God commands Christians to do with people who refuse to accept <strike>their</strike> His holy word, submit humbly to forced labor and hand over everything they love and value.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2yLTw197y8KavI2xoG7Cjyh7lFNr9SpaGFkNkn43FG9es-TpYwH9G2qpAbyPzA7IX-Nxvks9RJS1vhANXougqlgStDnrNW1LvxdK_IxagMBEs03hv4UO5FVmRF7l1ee3wFjcg7tZRswLK/s1600/g-massacro4.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="158" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2yLTw197y8KavI2xoG7Cjyh7lFNr9SpaGFkNkn43FG9es-TpYwH9G2qpAbyPzA7IX-Nxvks9RJS1vhANXougqlgStDnrNW1LvxdK_IxagMBEs03hv4UO5FVmRF7l1ee3wFjcg7tZRswLK/s200/g-massacro4.jpeg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">Jews doing God's holy work.<br />
(<a href="http://www.uruknet.de/?p=49933">Gaza Massacre, December 2008</a>)</td></tr>
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Some people may argue that just as the Christians cobbled together a New Testament to justify their claim to the status of the newly chosen people of God through the blood of Jesus Christ, so did other religious groups. Mohammed dictated the sacred Koran which clearly shows that Islam is the one true faith and Muslims are the chosen people of God. Likewise, the Mormons produced a sacred Testament - the Book of Mormon - which establishes that they are the chosen people of God. Indeed, just as the Jewish Bible justified the ancient <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2020:10-24&version=NIV">invasions</a>, <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Chronicles%2015:%2012-15&version=NIV">massacres</a>, <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges+21%3A10-24&version=NLT">rapes</a> and <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=numbers%2031:7-20&version=NIV">plundering</a> by God's chosen people: the Israelites,<br />
and the Old and New Testaments justified the <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians%206:10-20&version=NIV">invasions</a>, <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2016:2-17&version=NIV">massacres</a>*, <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=judges%2021:10-24&version=NIV">rapes and plundering</a> by God's chosen people: the Christians,<br />
so the Koran justifies <a href="http://www.answering-islam.org/Quran/Themes/jihad_passages.html#vertical">invasions</a>, <a href="http://religiousdebate.wikidot.com/troubling-koran-verses">massacres</a>, <a href="http://www.muslimaccess.com/articles/Women/rape_in_islam.asp">rapes</a> and <a href="http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate/hell.html">plundering</a> by God's chosen people: the Muslims<br />
and the Book of Mormon justifies <a href="http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/bom/cr/long.html">violence</a>, <a href="http://www.religioustolerance.org/lds_mass.htm">massacres</a>, <a href="http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/bom/cr/long.html">rapes and plundering</a> by God's chosen people: the Mormons.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVYVKXqNWmmmn25iY3DuTmiB8sztX1rBa9Q7N7oV6oWxhFYWotrqdv6KRsZ4pIgITR0EpA7CX281hBCEizD8D4_mLxmzVve_KCUdrG19OnM9ALqwoRrkUGaDuEcsEaCPfkVCC9rfodLiZj/s1600/nigerian-christians-killed-on-christmas-day.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVYVKXqNWmmmn25iY3DuTmiB8sztX1rBa9Q7N7oV6oWxhFYWotrqdv6KRsZ4pIgITR0EpA7CX281hBCEizD8D4_mLxmzVve_KCUdrG19OnM9ALqwoRrkUGaDuEcsEaCPfkVCC9rfodLiZj/s200/nigerian-christians-killed-on-christmas-day.jpeg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">Muslims doing God's holy work<br />
(<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_2011_Nigeria_bombings">Nigeria, Christmas Day Massacre</a>)</td></tr>
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Except that all of those other religions and all their made-up "sacred scriptures" are simply <i>dead wrong</i>. Christians believe they are commanded by God to take righteous <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_Theology">dominion</a> over the world. They believe they are commanded by God to <i>utterly destroy</i> any and all who stand in the way of them in fulfilling this <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Commission">Great Commission</a>. Non-believers will get one chance to accept the Christian dogma and submit to life under Christian rule, but if they refuse to submit, Bible-believing Christians will have no choice but to annihilate them all. Christians always want others to <i>choose</i> life, but if non-believers refuse to bow down to Christian supremacy, then unfortunately yet inescapably the non-believers will have <i>chosen</i> death.<br />
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How do we know this? The Bible tells us so.<br />
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Class dismissed.<br />
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* Bonus points for the use of "I came like a thief!" a favorite self-referential passage of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Dominionism">dominionist Christians</a> when describing their long-term <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_E._Reed,_Jr.">stealth</a> strategy to infiltrate every avenue of world power.<br />
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NiftyWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103734836789258691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2155986947588635239.post-89362108199507544932017-07-04T17:00:00.000-05:002017-07-04T23:48:07.179-05:00We Are All Americans - Go Fourth!<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLGXTUT1x55ha23vUEVpzSEy1JdEeTlhUpc8FwgMBE2tUDr3wPuMeAi0V5IyvYkEV3RaOYlUsROaIvi5yAxevuH_U2sgB70jixlL28xpUNobg-hU0QPxHGtP6boCOPajizUHe53ig0X49H/s1600/0209%2520Tiled%2520Flag%2520of%2520American%2520diversity.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLGXTUT1x55ha23vUEVpzSEy1JdEeTlhUpc8FwgMBE2tUDr3wPuMeAi0V5IyvYkEV3RaOYlUsROaIvi5yAxevuH_U2sgB70jixlL28xpUNobg-hU0QPxHGtP6boCOPajizUHe53ig0X49H/s640/0209%2520Tiled%2520Flag%2520of%2520American%2520diversity.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image credit: diversitynursing.com</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; text-align: left;"><b>Happy Independence Day, Everyone! </b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In honor of the holiday, I am republishing an older post which still manages to be true, even in these challenging times. The post was in response to remarks made by one Bishop Giminez, the organizer of a <a href="http://www.montereyherald.com/general-news/20120728/america-for-jesus-rally-set-sept-29-in-philly">prayer rally</a> back in 2012. She declared that America was "mired in moral depravity" and that nothing but a mass rally begging the favor of the Almighty could ever put us to rights again. I had something to say about that:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>No.</b></span> America is not mired in moral depravity. </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">America is a land of diverse people; <b>hardworking, industrious, innovative, tolerant, <i>forward-thinking</i> people.</b> We are </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">red, </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">brown, </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">white, black, and every beautiful shade of human skin. We are all American. We are </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">atheist, </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">Christian, </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">Jewish, </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">Muslim and every religious and political stripe. We are all American. We are female and male, gay and lesbian, bisexual and transsexual and every gender identity on the wide, wonderful spectrum of human sexuality. And </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-large; line-height: 18px;"><span style="color: red;">We</span> <span style="color: white;">are</span> <span style="color: blue;">all</span> <span style="color: red;">A</span><span style="color: white;">m</span><span style="color: blue;">e</span><span style="color: red;">r</span><span style="color: white;">i</span><span style="color: blue;">c</span><span style="color: red;">a</span><span style="color: white;">n</span><span style="color: blue;">s</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">We coexist in relative peace, as imperfectly as current human limitations might predict and as transcendently as human aspiration can occasionally soar. We have succeeded as a country because America is founded on principles which limit the power of religions to divide, conquer and destroy us. As messy and imperfect and unjust as much of our history has been, it has still stood out as a beacon of hope in a world of messy, imperfect and unjust systems of government which - nearly always using religion - continued to oppress and abuse their people long after the American journey toward 'liberty and justice for all' was haltingly begun. For more than 200 years, we have struggled and fought and inched our way toward realizing the dream - toward living the ideals - that those founding documents point us toward. We are a people evolving, with a roadmap to liberty in the Declaration of Independence and a blueprint for achieving it in the Bill of Rights. We will continue to negotiate and argue and push and pull toward a more perfect union of equal citizens because this country is a work in progress. And we are all American.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">No.</span></b> America is not mired in moral depravity. It is power-hungry wealthy and religious elites who are mired in moral depravity. It is the religious elites who call injustice "justice", who fight relentlessly against equality and human rights and who seek to enshrine bigotry and misogyny into our laws without a shred of remorse or compassion for the human suffering they would cause. It is the conservative religious right which seeks to overturn the natural order of things - calling myth "science", calling oppression "justice", calling evil "good", calling what is immoral "moral". Those who call themselves "righteous" - <i>who pretend to speak for</i> <i>God!</i> - are the ones who are mired in moral depravity. They have lost their moral compass, but their fellow citizens can help them find their way again. Because,</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: red;">We</span> <span style="color: white;">are</span> <span style="color: blue;">all</span> <span style="color: red;">A</span><span style="color: white;">m</span><span style="color: blue;">e</span><span style="color: red;">r</span><span style="color: white;">i</span><span style="color: blue;">c</span><span style="color: red;">a</span><span style="color: white;">n</span><span style="color: blue;">s</span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif;">America does not need theocratic "saving". It needs protection from dangerous, ambitious, vicious religious power-mongers like Bishop Giminez, and the wealthy Christian elites that they represent. America needs saving from the approaching train wreck of Christian totalitarianism which a privileged few wish to force upon all of us. America does not need "saving" by ambitious men claiming to represent their silent, invisible God. America needs saving </span><i style="font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif;">from</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif;"> them. This nation has the tools to fend off this attack from the religious right. We have the diversity and the strength in numbers to resist a takeover attempt by one hardline fundamentalist faction among us. We can weather this storm. We are all Americans!</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>No.</b></span> America is not mired in moral depravity. America is mired in political and social turmoil which was deliberately created by the conservative Christian right-wing for their own political gain. It is the powerful, wealthy elites who seek to drag this entire country to the brink of disaster, just as religious extremists elsewhere in the world have done to their countries. It is the power-hungry religious elites who hope to precipitate a cultural crisis in this country out of which they hope to wrest ultimate control over everyone and everything that is American. Right wing extremists hope to destroy the America that is and build an America that they can control. But they underestimate the passion for liberty and justice in this country. They underestimate the American spirit. We are not all Christians. Yet,</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-large; line-height: 18px;"><span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;"><span style="color: red;">We</span> <span style="color: white;">are</span> <i><span style="color: blue;">all</span></i> <span style="color: red;">A</span><span style="color: white;">m</span><span style="color: blue;">e</span><span style="color: red;">r</span><span style="color: white;">i</span><span style="color: blue;">c</span><span style="color: red;">a</span><span style="color: white;">n</span><span style="color: blue;">s</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span style="background-color: white;">Whether or not one believes there is a god - or any higher power that cares about the welfare of humanity - constant historical evidence has proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that He does not reside within the ruthlessly implacable ambition of religious elites. The success of the great American experiment in nationhood has only been possible </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">- painfully, lurchingly, </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">imperfectly and minimally </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">- </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"> not thanks to religious belief, <i>but in spite of it</i>. Before the ink had even dried on the founding documents, religious groups launched their efforts to subvert the American dream of a more just and democratic Republic to their own theocratic agenda. And they have never ceased in their efforts since.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiobA2fMxoV4whGjfo9__PerwG1uY1-rmuX3ZAgAcfT-8rOSsB01XrTV9cYjMRTcL30Zrmkw_cKayhnV9-817PLK5zjgevYT-mCOQMLzFbYnAB-hcyfQyDKIssUOyg0Vd8GU5Ezry4rmzkF/s1600/Diversity_Matters_photo_without_wording__.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; color: #1e5faa; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" height="164" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiobA2fMxoV4whGjfo9__PerwG1uY1-rmuX3ZAgAcfT-8rOSsB01XrTV9cYjMRTcL30Zrmkw_cKayhnV9-817PLK5zjgevYT-mCOQMLzFbYnAB-hcyfQyDKIssUOyg0Vd8GU5Ezry4rmzkF/s200/Diversity_Matters_photo_without_wording__.jpeg" style="border: none; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.098) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 11px; text-align: center;"><b>We are red, brown, white, black...<br />every beautiful shade of human skin.<br />We are all American. </b></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">There is a seat at the national table for conservative Christians just as there are seats for every other kind of American. The difference is that conservative Christians want to banish everyone else except conservative Christians from the American table and in that sense, they are profoundly unAmerican. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">I only hope the basic goodness and common sense of the American people has been awakened to this looming crisis at last and that we can come together for the good of the country before it is too late.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">America can only be saved by Americans. By performing our civic duty: educating ourselves on the crisis before us, registering and voting in every election and holding our elected representatives to their Constitutional responsibilities, the American people can save America. Let's not allow one religious sect to hijack the ship of state and sink the hopes and dreams of freedom-loving people everywhere. It is not the silent, invisible God, nor the men who claim to represent ultimate godly authority who speak for America. Only Americans speak for America. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">Educate yourself. Register. Vote. Let no one speak for you. Speak up for yourself. We are all in this together and the future of this country depends on all of us. We are all Americans.</span><br />
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NiftyWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103734836789258691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2155986947588635239.post-660919539119033392017-06-20T23:24:00.000-05:002017-06-21T13:17:01.857-05:00Happy Summer Solstice!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">At 11:24 CST, our planet arrived at that point in its elliptical journey around the sun when our north pole is tilted as closely as it ever tilts - about 23.5 degrees - toward our life-sustaining star. It is officially summertime!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">The northern solstice (or <a href="http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/june-solstice.html">June solstice</a>) occurs on either the 20, 21 or 22 of June. It marks the peak of the lengthening hours of daylight that began with the March equinox. On this date, northerners will experience the greatest number of hours and minutes of daylight in all of 2017. For those in the southern hemisphere, the opposite is true - their day will be the shortest of the year. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">I was going to post a poem about midsummer night full of fairies and magic, or about flowers and breezes and the smell of freshly mowed grass. But this poem pushed its way to the front of the line: I think in its own way, this poem communicates a warmer, more human affirmation of life than more conventional metaphors of growing things and magic.</span><br />
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<b>Summer Solstice, New York City</b><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharon_Olds">Sharon Olds</a></span><br />
<b><br /></b>By the end of the longest day of the year he could not stand it,<br />
he went up the iron stairs through the roof of the building<br />
and over the soft, tarry surface<br />
to the edge, put one leg over the complex green tin cornice<br />
and said if they came a step closer that was it.<br />
Then the huge machinery of the earth began to work for his life,<br />
the cops came in their suits blue-grey as the sky on a cloudy evening,<br />
and one put on a bullet-proof vest, a<br />
black shell around his own life,<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaiSsM_DpiZyV1ah7K8nmsITkDWyCysn-WWy4yT0CgMZZDWR5ar2Cx4MdOVJYAm-kcGlEMYrxIGKcpFYbmVdmT5xHeVFUruVh1yIk5bXRjSEqObal8eA_XWtjSLxHTHw8EMuziKfAA0bU/s1600/url.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="156" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaiSsM_DpiZyV1ah7K8nmsITkDWyCysn-WWy4yT0CgMZZDWR5ar2Cx4MdOVJYAm-kcGlEMYrxIGKcpFYbmVdmT5xHeVFUruVh1yIk5bXRjSEqObal8eA_XWtjSLxHTHw8EMuziKfAA0bU/s200/url.jpg" width="200" /></a>life of his children's father, in case<br />
the man was armed, and one, slung with a<br />
rope like the sign of his bounden duty,<br />
came up out of a hole in the top of the neighboring building<br />
like the gold hole they say is in the top of the head,<br />
and began to lurk toward the man who wanted to die.<br />
The tallest cop approached him directly,<br />
softly, slowly, talking to him, talking, talking,<br />
while the man's leg hung over the lip of the next world<br />
and the crowd gathered in the street, silent, and the<br />
hairy net with its implacable grid was<br />
unfolded near the curb and spread out and<br />
stretched as the sheet is prepared to receive a birth.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ2p3mITBsC7NS3_4LDrMRv2LbCa-Xgk-JfT95pozHYJFij1unpH0fCZwH4EVUqOGao1FLOjmoZ6Ax3vApVk5ydeAivq9B7fa9nex4i9ltDK7mxywBnECHvgU_dT2XWRopTbXhemDChlg/s1600/imgres-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ2p3mITBsC7NS3_4LDrMRv2LbCa-Xgk-JfT95pozHYJFij1unpH0fCZwH4EVUqOGao1FLOjmoZ6Ax3vApVk5ydeAivq9B7fa9nex4i9ltDK7mxywBnECHvgU_dT2XWRopTbXhemDChlg/s200/imgres-1.jpeg" width="200" /></a>Then they all came a little closer<br />
where he squatted next to his death, his shirt<br />
glowing its milky glow like something<br />
growing in a dish at night in the dark in a lab and then<br />
everything stopped<br />
as his body jerked and he<br />
stepped down from the parapet and went toward them<br />
and they closed on him, I thought they were going to<br />
beat him up, as a mother whose child has been<br />
lost will scream at the child when its found, they<br />
took him by the arms and held him up and<br />
leaned him against the wall of the chimney and the<br />
tall cop lit a cigarette<br />
in his own mouth, and gave it to him, and<br />
then they all lit cigarettes, and the<br />
red, glowing ends burned like the<br />
tiny campfires we lit at night<br />
back at the beginning of the world.<br />
<div>
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<br />
For your musical inspiration on the brightest day of the year, here is Julia Fischer accompanied by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields playing Vivaldi's <i>Summer</i> from his violin concerto The Four Seasons. The performance was recorded at the National Botanical Garden in Wales.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xhkoUQ7HdIQ?rel=0" width="560"></iframe></div>
NiftyWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103734836789258691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2155986947588635239.post-36169287756106522022017-05-12T11:36:00.000-05:002017-05-12T14:04:39.312-05:0025th Amendment Remedy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM6tnheW1qoKFDPQPdaJb05y6gvkyGb7zKr8uJEAoA9QZpYUKuS6eUuBvo3_YlOhsK-No4SOG3N8nR6WdWH75oUtNCX5s2olMLt6TQHOZMyVe6Hgipltx3jb1G45bj9ek2qrgXGUYvwdo/s1600/533-0221040827-a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="526" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM6tnheW1qoKFDPQPdaJb05y6gvkyGb7zKr8uJEAoA9QZpYUKuS6eUuBvo3_YlOhsK-No4SOG3N8nR6WdWH75oUtNCX5s2olMLt6TQHOZMyVe6Hgipltx3jb1G45bj9ek2qrgXGUYvwdo/s640/533-0221040827-a.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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The president's latest <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/5/12/15629648/trumps-comey-russia-holt-twitter">flurry</a> of <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/12/politics/donald-trump-james-comey-threat/">self-incriminating behavior</a> begs the question: what is the remedy for the country when its president is clearly not in control of himself, has committed prima facie illegal <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/10/politics/kfile-democratic-congressman-comey-impeachment/">actions</a> and none of his so-called advisors, spokespeople and legal representatives seem to have any ability to provide him guidance or indeed <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/11/politics/trump-comey-white-house-contradictions/">to even anticipate</a> his next unhinged act?<br />
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There has been talk - almost from the beginning of our current "long national nightmare"- about the possibility of the vice president, senior advisors and congressional leaders invoking the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-fifth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution">25th Amendment</a> to remove Trump. But removal by Trump's own people was never really likely, since Trump's character deficits were glaringly apparent even before the election and none of these people seemed inclined to oppose him then, much less remove him.<br />
<br />
What stops seemingly sane government officials from acting?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikXfbbwibLjFXGrb_OcOjc22kns9z6bG0YBpj3c9n62-xvwY-hRYW4W9iYkaqahIYnsJ0na9k90-XKzyloPg5kejxR6yWcfkU8yfG705Oe8up4hk-jM60hivMrdBLhCuFILsYVd-KHsA8/s1600/pence.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikXfbbwibLjFXGrb_OcOjc22kns9z6bG0YBpj3c9n62-xvwY-hRYW4W9iYkaqahIYnsJ0na9k90-XKzyloPg5kejxR6yWcfkU8yfG705Oe8up4hk-jM60hivMrdBLhCuFILsYVd-KHsA8/s200/pence.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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The reason, the argument goes, is that the Republicans and Trump's inner cabal will continue to back him until they get their own agenda through -- which seems to be to repeal the ACA in order to claw back funds to then finance a huge tax cut to the wealthiest 1%.<br />
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Here's the thing, though. In the current chaos, it isn't likely that there will be much legislative activity, and certainly not of the type the Koch brothers et al had in mind when they pinned their expectations on Trump/Pence. In fact, as the dripping of investigative fire crackers increases to a tsunami of bombshells, the likelihood increases of not only failure to pass the Republican agenda but the collapse of public support for Republican in the House and Senate.<br />
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The strangest thing of all is that this could all be avoided by the Republicans! The argument that Trump and only Trump is necessary to get the massive wealth distribution legislation passed just doesn't make sense. Mike Pence is at least as committed to that agenda as his <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/research/2016/07/18/shotgun-marriage-media-note-trump-s-awkwardness-running-mate-pence/211637">reluctant running mate</a>, having been approved <a href="http://2016iowacaucus.com/indiana-governor-mike-pence-to-run-in-2016/">as early as 2014</a> by the Koch brothers, Grover Norquist and others in the billionaire elite.<br />
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They don't need Trump anymore now that his emotionally manipulative, hate-filled and sadly effective campaign has already delivered all three branches of government into their hands. It would be ever so simple to pretend to wake up and -- acting appropriately shocked, dismayed and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/elijah-cummings-letter-to-mike-pence-about-flynn-turkey-lobbying-2017-3">kept in the dark</a> - deliver the knock out blow to Trump and his band of merciless men. They could point to Trump and his associates as the source of all the nation's ills right now and claim to restore calm and dignity to the office and get government back on track. They could renenergize the Republicans in the House and Senate and answer Paul Ryan's and Mitch McConnell's prayers.<br />
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What's stopping them?<br />
<br />
To be continued.NiftyWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103734836789258691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2155986947588635239.post-88695432577261999832017-04-29T05:30:00.000-05:002017-04-29T11:45:01.769-05:00Sir, With Much Respect, I Encourage You To Keep This Up!<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge7DsE7UYkmfCfwr4_KFn2ALjbwQaZivp_Mg_TIfmcLJfDgheloEm2loQtjiknHvuuXXovjRsjF_10jk6Gg2OwxMlQ7yBafKBGh11yzxqAn5RZ5Hc6P-7zMvRAa3Kp1I6gGRTwm_stNEA/s1600/image-20160314-11267-w4g81t.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge7DsE7UYkmfCfwr4_KFn2ALjbwQaZivp_Mg_TIfmcLJfDgheloEm2loQtjiknHvuuXXovjRsjF_10jk6Gg2OwxMlQ7yBafKBGh11yzxqAn5RZ5Hc6P-7zMvRAa3Kp1I6gGRTwm_stNEA/s640/image-20160314-11267-w4g81t.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A rite of spring - the calving of an iceberg</td></tr>
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I'm from Newfoundland, known not only as the place where the events portrayed in the hit musical <a href="http://comefromaway.com/">Come From Away</a> take place, but also one of the best places on earth to view an <a href="http://www.newfoundlandlabrador.com/thingstodo/icebergviewing">annual parade of icebergs</a>.<br />
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Newfoundland's <a href="http://www.newfoundlandlabrador.com/ThingsToDo/IcebergFacts">icebergs</a> "calve" off the glaciers on the west coast of Greenland. They break off in late winter/early spring, and make their way via the Labrador current out into the north Atlantic ocean. Then, they hug the coastline of the island of Newfoundland, gradually losing mass as they enter warmer waters below the 49th parallel until they melt entirely away - usually at some point just south of the Grand Banks.<br />
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Historically, the <a href="http://www.nationalgeographic.org/media/iceberg-frequency/">number</a> of ice bergs that can be found in the northwestern Atlantic varies from year to year. In an average year, the peak of iceberg season (usually late May) would see a few hundred ice bergs drifting in the transatlantic shipping lanes. As of the first week of April, 2017, <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/icebergs-drift-into-shipping-lanes-causing-atlantic-standstill/">more than 400 ice bergs</a> had already been counted in the area. The average for early April is about 80 bergs.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>A warning by USCG ice patrol Commander Gabrielle McGrath notes that, early this month, three icebergs were found outside the boundaries of the area the Coast Guard had advised mariners to avoid and she is predicting a fourth consecutive “extreme ice season” with over 600 icebergs in the shipping lanes during the peak of the 2017 season.</i></span> </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
John Konrad, <a href="http://gcaptain.com/record-numbers-icebergs-swarm-north-atlantic-shipping-lanes/">gCaptain</a>, April 19, 2017.</div>
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People who deny the reality of global climate change can spew their pseudo-science but Newfoundlanders know this is not normal. The effects of all that sea ice and the hugely increased number of ice bergs are numerous and not limited to just the ice. The increased ice keeps the ocean temperature offshore colder later into the year, too. Apart from a longer colder spring (and in Newfoundland, spring is an often miserable, foggy, wet, cold season), the colder ocean temperature means that the annual <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capelin">capelin</a> spawning season has been pushed later and later into the summer. The <a href="https://newfoundsander.wordpress.com/capelin/">capelin roll</a> that used to happen in early June every year, is now occurring in mid July and even as late as early August. Whales travel to Newfoundland in summer to feed on the capelin and it is not yet known how this altered capelin season may effect the whales migratory habits and wellbeing.<br />
<br />
Global warming is the cause of many similar cascading effects around the planet. The effects of global climate change on ice, capelin and whales are just the tip of the iceberg regarding how planetary ecosystems may be disrupted by the changes. Some we already can predict and it is possible that there will be many more effects that we cannot yet foresee.<br />
<br />
Some people, like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Happer">William Happer</a>, you'd think would be able to grasp science - being a physicist and all -but no. Maybe, since his discipline is physics and not climate science, the professor simply cannot comprehend the overwhelming conclusions of the vast majority of climate scientists that global climate change is <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/">real</a> and it is being accelerated by <a href="http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/pd/climate/factsheets/howhuman.pdf">human activity</a>.<br />
<br />
Then again, his penchant for comparing the work of climatologists to <b style="font-style: italic;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/planet-oz/2017/feb/21/trumps-potential-science-adviser-william-happer-hanging-around-with-conspiracy-theorists">Nazis</a> </b>(WTF!) throws up a vaguely familiar flag. Happer has been vying for a position in the Trump administration. So, there's that to consider.<br />
<br />
The world is a complex ecosystem and sometimes we just need someone to explain things in plain language to help make sense of things. Enter Bill Nye, the science guy! Nye is well-known for making science fun and interesting to kids, so he is probably the best possible person to explain the danger of ignoring climate change to the ignorant - and the willfully ignorant - in the Republican party.<br />
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<span style="color: #073763; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><i>"Sir, with some respect, I encourage you to cut this out..."</i></span> </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Bill Nye to William Clapper</div>
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A mechanical engineer, Bill seems to be about as qualified to speak about climate science as Happer the physicist. More trustworthy, too, since Nye is not vying for a job in a corrupt, science-denying administration and has little to gain by it. Of course, a couple of minutes of air time and even less for each member of the panel, didn't give Bill much time to get a message across about the science of global warming, so he used his time in an even better way: to school Happer on his willful ignorance and misleading of the public, and to draw attention to the false equivalency that various media perpetuate in their eagerness to appear to be "even-handed".<br />
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Check it out:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hQY3-rQzVD8?ecver=2" style="height: 100%; left: 0; position: absolute; width: 100%;" width="640"></iframe></div>
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<br />NiftyWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103734836789258691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2155986947588635239.post-43706552759190947522017-04-28T05:30:00.000-05:002017-04-28T14:50:29.777-05:00Jason Flees The House<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjikWMqtyRW-I8flXnM1NwXE8H_X433mOMI-ZYtNGTVgwYAihEb4r8GUJhT02Lj2HpTW61vcpi-bRvI9sFwD66lBMzaXUpxfL5P_QDlhdvCfCmpsjBbwslGz0oV1S0KOLLAfHfJrrdQSDA/s1600/26178754.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjikWMqtyRW-I8flXnM1NwXE8H_X433mOMI-ZYtNGTVgwYAihEb4r8GUJhT02Lj2HpTW61vcpi-bRvI9sFwD66lBMzaXUpxfL5P_QDlhdvCfCmpsjBbwslGz0oV1S0KOLLAfHfJrrdQSDA/s640/26178754.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) has a reputation on Capital Hill for being an incredibly ambitious man. In a 2015 article enumerating instances where he climbed over his former mentors in his ruthless pursuit of greater power, Huffington Post <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/7-times-jason-chaffetz-chaffetzed_us_5613e309e4b0baa355ad524c">reported</a> that Cheffetz's ambition is so notorious, his name has become "a verb" in political circles. Every move he makes - every career decision - appears to have been meticulously planned, even if that doesn't appear to be the case at first glance.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJpPgdww1L4wEKF5elUTlG2QHUVuTGfSOT4lKifNYGcuGLAl0J_ZOp-Ei4gOuPTattDyVuRhfYhHVv6xeAgpQTi1oM7j-lkllN94UTrDRql5kzkAieMYjntxAC9DRVLHUEX_qwgUpd98U/s1600/3732947182_bec60bae70_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJpPgdww1L4wEKF5elUTlG2QHUVuTGfSOT4lKifNYGcuGLAl0J_ZOp-Ei4gOuPTattDyVuRhfYhHVv6xeAgpQTi1oM7j-lkllN94UTrDRql5kzkAieMYjntxAC9DRVLHUEX_qwgUpd98U/s200/3732947182_bec60bae70_b.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">All things to everyone...</td></tr>
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Like a chameleon, Chaffetz has changed his colors - switching positions and allegiances - to match the political environment at any given time and make the most of every opportunity for career advancement. Knowing this fact about Jason Chaffetz, many of his colleagues, rivals and critics were initially puzzled by the sequence of events that unfolded over the last week.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #073763;"><i>Run...</i></span> Last Wednesday (April 19), Chaffetz <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/19/us/politics/jason-chaffetz-congress-utah-house-oversight.html?_r=0">announced</a> that he will not be seeking re-election in 2018. Not for his own seat in the House of Representatives, and not for Orrin Hatch's seat in the U.S. Senate. Interestingly, he was pretty specific about not running in <i>2018</i>, thereby leaving the door open for a run for another office; perhaps Governor of Utah in 2020 or... <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2017/04/20/is-jason-chaffetz-running-for-office-in-2028/100689770/">some other office in 2028</a>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXbxC7wueQuZC8RP61cbv69AcaIJWg35MKDhDo1l6AH8WFbEIVvV6zDpfJBiCjgiQoofBXMNelfuRS21rDz2mEpi4meGl8klcMmEneWv6IgFd8oNoWr7ji-0knFZI8b6GOwemms62dGEE/s1600/170425_pol_flynn_oversight_cmte.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXbxC7wueQuZC8RP61cbv69AcaIJWg35MKDhDo1l6AH8WFbEIVvV6zDpfJBiCjgiQoofBXMNelfuRS21rDz2mEpi4meGl8klcMmEneWv6IgFd8oNoWr7ji-0knFZI8b6GOwemms62dGEE/s200/170425_pol_flynn_oversight_cmte.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sounds like Jason's striking a<br />
bipartisan note to play out on...</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #073763;"><i>Run...</i></span> The very next day, Thursday April 20, Chaffetz astonished people anew by saying that he might not even finish
his current term. Rumors flew that he might resign the very next day - or at least soon. He didn't. Instead, on Monday April 24, he stood with Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) and made patriotic noises about wanting answers from Michael Flynn about his <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/apr/25/jason-chaffetz-elijah-cummings-michael-flynn-russi/">dealings with Russia</a>.<br />
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<i><span style="color: #073763;">Away...</span></i> Then, just as everyone was adjusting their sets and preparing for a new Chaffetz, reinvigorated House Oversight Committee Chairman, he announced that contrary to his statements last week ("I am healthy"; "I still have a job to do and I have no plans to take my foot off the gas."), he in fact is not healthy, needs <i>foot </i>surgery and oops! looks like he will have to take that foot off the gas after all. Let's just pause for a moment here to take in the sheer oddness of these contradictory statements within the span of 7 days. It seemed kind of weird last week when he threw in "I am healthy" into his announcement, but now it just seems bizarre, especially with the choice of metaphor he used to describe his continued commitment to his job!<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipgygjSd6KKg67nBhvujkkQm6VEa0mfn9BbgDOLg8OtbRB_ppr0oGdVFidvS8S9Uh_ch7ReraBQkw5gwNORNoup63SFqoqBwg6MTAuBUW32W4ujsCKH_QwlWxAgUlTfegPYIyLm4gxYy8/s1600/C6V23H-XQAASMLD.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipgygjSd6KKg67nBhvujkkQm6VEa0mfn9BbgDOLg8OtbRB_ppr0oGdVFidvS8S9Uh_ch7ReraBQkw5gwNORNoup63SFqoqBwg6MTAuBUW32W4ujsCKH_QwlWxAgUlTfegPYIyLm4gxYy8/s320/C6V23H-XQAASMLD.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Speaks for itself, doesn't it?</td></tr>
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So, speculation has been spreading like wildfire. The timing of these rapid-fire announcements seems to suggest a connection to the Trump/Russia scandal. Could it be, <a href="http://www.palmerreport.com/opinion/jason-chaffetz-leaves-congress-blaming-a-foot-problem-is-he-stuck-between-russia-and-the-fbi/2466/">some people wonder</a>, that Jason Chaffetz is embroiled in the scandal too and is running back to Utah to escape consequences? As seductive as that line of thinking is, it doesn't really make sense to think that running off to Utah is going to protect him from prosecution if he is guilty of any crimes and there is evidence to prove it. The idea that Chaffetz can avoid legal trouble and everyone, including the FBI and the Justice Department, will forget about him if he simply leaves the spotlight just doesn't make sense, although it is also true that not a lot about his abrupt actions and pronouncements over the past week make sense, either.<br />
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The more likely <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/04/19/why-is-jason-chaffetz-suddenly-retiring-from-congress-one-word-ambition/?utm_term=.4adc92281cb9#comments">explanation</a> is, as several articles have <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/04/jason-chaffetz-oversight-chairman-retiring-congress-trump">pointed out</a>, simple ambition. Chaffetz has already registered the domain name JasonChaffetz2028.com for instance, and he is nothing if not a forward planner. The current mess in Washington DC, and the potential for even worse scandal involving treason, is a stink he does not want clinging to him, even 11 years from now.<br />
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My own view is that it is possible for the truth to be <i>both</i> ambition <i>and</i> collusion, although it is looking more like simple ambition. Chaffetz's coldly insensitive remarks about Healthcare last month were apparently heard in Utah and <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2017/03/10/kathryn-allen-is-running-against-jason-chaffetz/99002836/">blew up campaign contributions</a> to his Democratic opponent, Kathryn Allen. That unexpected news, combined with the unexpectedly bad reception he received during the spring recess, very likely changed the calculus. Chaffetz made an abrupt change of course at least <a href="http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/chaffetz-won-t-run-for-u-s-senate/article_9e030e35-be4d-5507-9c49-01c00f1a5354.html">once before</a> in his career, and for much the same reason - evidence that his success was far from assured persuaded him to drop his plans of running.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxMbckhn0xhNjjXEVvHHoGbb5AOcLHmkbkcsehsy70aU8dUr589cTBQdQnvOeOWxrMq0zATK72QJ8QtuwfXZwLu1Ql-c_wj5PYt9gw2LfdoTqKtFF4rrkPL6WWmjFm3EYHAln9ri3ptAQ/s1600/18194608_1287321994716414_7520175983143870547_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxMbckhn0xhNjjXEVvHHoGbb5AOcLHmkbkcsehsy70aU8dUr589cTBQdQnvOeOWxrMq0zATK72QJ8QtuwfXZwLu1Ql-c_wj5PYt9gw2LfdoTqKtFF4rrkPL6WWmjFm3EYHAln9ri3ptAQ/s200/18194608_1287321994716414_7520175983143870547_n.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ouch! Feels like Jason's not going<br />
to be hitting the gas for awhile...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Something about the sudden foot surgery explanation doesn't ring true, either. It's a little better than the sudden need to 'spend more time with family', but not much. After all, if 83 year old <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/04/dianne-feinstein-versus-donald-trump">Dianne Feinstein</a> can <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/11/politics/dianne-feinstein-pacemaker/">slip away for two day</a>s to have a pacemaker installed (that's heart surgery) and return immediately to continue important Congressional work, then surely the much-younger Chaffetz could grab a set of crutches if absolutely necessary, and get back to work?<br />
<br />
Maybe Jason decided that with<a href="http://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000015b-a790-d120-addb-f7dc0ec90000"> RepublicanCare</a> looming on the horizon, which aims to remove protections for patients with pre-existing conditions, he had better schedule that elective surgery to remove the screws from his 12 year old injury sooner rather than later.<br />
<br />
Whatever the case may be, Jason is no longer in the house - he has fled to Utah. We certainly live in interesting times.<br />
<br />
For your Friday Feature, for no particular reason, I give you "Run Runaway" (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/GreatBigSeaOfficial">Great Big Sea</a>) :<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Run Runaway</span><br />
<br />
I like black and white<br />
dream in black in white<br />
you like black and white<br />
run runaway<br />
<br />
Chorus:<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK_ARDO_G6tz1PcG99upCBR2-laFVJwK8SCH35bNei7iTKbfJpszOGz1HF7Nh_UBc2GbVqg05WsEP4BZ_kiqaXIyUlOJ4Bv0YcgkQoNODoq7D8IEWUPbcv-P8BPf3JYq66Q-pTmBW74_8/s1600/GettyImages-466849134.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK_ARDO_G6tz1PcG99upCBR2-laFVJwK8SCH35bNei7iTKbfJpszOGz1HF7Nh_UBc2GbVqg05WsEP4BZ_kiqaXIyUlOJ4Bv0YcgkQoNODoq7D8IEWUPbcv-P8BPf3JYq66Q-pTmBW74_8/s320/GettyImages-466849134.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looks like Jason's got it sussed...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
See chameleon lying there in the sun<br />
all things to everyone<br />
run runaway<br />
<br />
If you're in the swing<br />
money ain't everything<br />
if you're in the swing<br />
run runaway<br />
<br />
If you got it sussed*<br />
don't beat around the bush<br />
if you got it sussed<br />
run runaway<br />
<br />
oh now can't she wait?<br />
no no come on and wait<br />
oh now can't she wait?<br />
run runaway<br />
<br />
I like black and white<br />
dream in black in white<br />
you like black and white<br />
run runaway<br />
<br />
- Jim Lea, Noddy Holder<br />
<div>
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<div>
* "If you got it 'sussed'" = If you've got something figured out</div>
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<div style="height: 0; padding-bottom: 75.0%; position: relative;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8UMV36zYs58?ecver=2" style="height: 100%; left: 0; position: absolute; width: 100%;" width="480"></iframe></div>
NiftyWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103734836789258691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2155986947588635239.post-39837285567350058662017-04-27T00:30:00.000-05:002017-04-27T12:32:33.741-05:00TBT - Show Some Respect, Damn You!<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwlUeGgsW1hWNMMpoI5j6vBKXBAzCSAk2BVJQxmkQC0Ss4A0bgotqQCkjVpAf3W2dzYKMF44C3fLJsRJSc1evYC1wned0kwv_Exn14hSoEmx7ednX6wmpSNh_2A5t7n2xkZTmIlpMpGkdS/s1600/Respect.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwlUeGgsW1hWNMMpoI5j6vBKXBAzCSAk2BVJQxmkQC0Ss4A0bgotqQCkjVpAf3W2dzYKMF44C3fLJsRJSc1evYC1wned0kwv_Exn14hSoEmx7ednX6wmpSNh_2A5t7n2xkZTmIlpMpGkdS/s640/Respect.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>Respect. How does that work, anyway?</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">“I have met some highly intelligent believers, but history has no record to say that [s]he knew or understood the mind of god. Yet this is precisely the qualification which the godly must claim—so modestly and so humbly—to possess. It is time to withdraw our 'respect' from such fantastic claims, all of them aimed at the exertion of power over other humans in the real and material world.”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">― Christopher Hitchens, The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever</span><br />
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Respect. We hear a lot about it. But, how do we as individuals and as a society determine who is deserving of our respect? The <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/arizona-catholic-school-shot-win-hs-baseball-title-opposing-school-featured-female-player-article-1.1075867?localLinksEnabled=false">Paige Sultzbach</a> story got me thinking about this.<br />
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</div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHdQKoGKVgS3F__jiEEgqV3lokfL-svf7IAjOyJR_RzY839AqhNPHLGlcip3sa-L7wtGzNPrfdeZROWX2VKJ_N6zV9A3rlyT2Tw08hxlkH7xQXIQk2sdfbxf0pW2tFu-_nnqyPrkUSShm4/s1600/6a00d8341c581e53ef00e5505222398834-640wi.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHdQKoGKVgS3F__jiEEgqV3lokfL-svf7IAjOyJR_RzY839AqhNPHLGlcip3sa-L7wtGzNPrfdeZROWX2VKJ_N6zV9A3rlyT2Tw08hxlkH7xQXIQk2sdfbxf0pW2tFu-_nnqyPrkUSShm4/s320/6a00d8341c581e53ef00e5505222398834-640wi.jpeg" width="320" /></a>Most of us are taught that we must show respect for the essential humanity of all people. We are told in school, at work and at home that we must respect other people as our equals - fellow human beings. Beyond this baseline, though, people are usually expected to <i>earn</i> any higher, more deferential level of respect through their meritorious behavior. We are not usually expected to pay respect to people who behave immorally, who harm us or who harm other people. Usually, we are not compelled to respect ridiculous or destructive ideas, either. But there is one glaring exception to these sensible guidelines: religion.<br />
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We hear every single day that we owe special, unassailable, respect for the religious beliefs of others, <i>simply because they are religious beliefs</i>. There is no way to evaluate the relative merits of religious ideas because the very act of questioning, evaluating or criticizing religious beliefs is deemed disrespectful and being disrespectful of religion is taboo. This catch-22 situation means that even when religious ideas clearly cause harm to ourselves or others, the cultural taboo which demands unearned respect for religious dogma and practices also forbids questioning them.<br />
<br />
More precisely, people are pressured every day of their lives to pay respect - and be subordinate - to the <i>religious</i> <i>majority</i> wherever they live. In Iran, Pakistan or Saudi Arabia (to name a few countries under explicit Islamic rule) that would be the Muslim majority. In the USA, Denmark, Hungary, Canada and Great Britain (to name a few countries with explicit or implicit Christian state religions) it is the Christian majority. Of all of these, the United States was the first to explicitly guarantee in its Constitution that no single religion would be established by the state, thus preventing the official empowerment of one religious group over all others. In this way, the framers of the Constitution hoped to provide the foundation for a truly revolutionary new kind of nation: a country where people could be as free as humanly possible; where the rights and welfare of the individual would be balanced as far as humanly possible with the rights and welfare of the rest of the people, preventing both tyranny of the majority and the rise of theocratic dictators.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid5QF1LVPDVhIRHlstUA_Ze037KLYbu0ngZLL8EaWqKGbe29OD7dqU-oncx0gsbmS1S-6DT1LBpxp5XVu500kh5eafQObRW9hZTY56jCB46eNOogNzv569vGnlz4kIBscOINlLdom9e8zR/s1600/18-19-20.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid5QF1LVPDVhIRHlstUA_Ze037KLYbu0ngZLL8EaWqKGbe29OD7dqU-oncx0gsbmS1S-6DT1LBpxp5XVu500kh5eafQObRW9hZTY56jCB46eNOogNzv569vGnlz4kIBscOINlLdom9e8zR/s200/18-19-20.jpeg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">Freedom of religion!* </span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">*For Christians only.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The founding fathers, who were educated in religious and political history, understood that religious sectarianism has always resulted in oppression of minorities and the rise of theocratic dynasties - usually, but not always monarchies. Whether they were monarchies or putative republics, the ruling elites always claimed to rule by <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_right_of_kings">divine right</a></i>. The framers of the US Constitution - <a href="http://candst.tripod.com/tnppage/qmadison.htm">James Madison</a> and <a href="http://candst.tripod.com/tnppage/qjeffson.htm">Thomas Jefferson</a> in particular - recognized that constant sectarian strife and vicious social inequities enabled by the power structures which churches prop up would destroy Americans' hopes for a better life in the fledgling new state as surely as the suffocation of those very hopes had driven them out of Europe. And the founders understood that it was state-sanctioned empowerment of favored groups (nearly always identified by religion) which was the reason why the common people in every country in the world lived in miserable poverty under the rule of religiously-privileged "noble" classes.<br />
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Demonstrating a wisdom beyond experience (because such a nation had never been tried before), they determined that, in order to form a more perfect union, the United States must be kept free of the appalling religious strife that had destroyed virtually every great civilization in history before them. They were convinced that freedom of religion in a nation that could not legally favor any one religion over the others would offer the best hope for the country to prosper, by enabling <i>the people</i> to prosper in peaceful coexistence as equals.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>The freedom to practice their own religion has never been enough for some Christians; they have always sought special status and special power.</i></span></div>
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But there have always been ambitious groups who seek to restore the bad old days of feudal oppression for their own benefit. There have always been people who consider themselves the chosen ones - the nobility which is called to rule over the lesser classes. <a href="http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/eighteen/ekeyinfo/sepchust.htm">Before</a> the ink was dry on the US Constitution, religious groups were attempting to circumvent the prohibition of establishment of state religions. The freedom to practice their own religion has never been enough for some Christians; they have always sought special status and special power. That battle over the <a href="http://candst.tripod.com/tnppage/tnpidx.htm">separation of church and state</a> has been waxing and waning constantly in the 225+ years since Independence, and while the Constitutional guarantee has held in theory, in practice the religious power-play has succeeded in carving so many inroads into the separation of church and state that the country has been reduced to a de facto Christian nation.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_iziE93IC26LQ77rbCc26J8BCuXLdwmqBRHAmtwPnDV1L0BR1aguBTtOtA2W3zmOOpuh79REva1p7ORWXSqTb85UZWzISwK_d4LHg__tdxMK0DdpvCSVxen2D2HmGiV4tDOsUUiX6Xjg4/s1600/mosque-protest-20ec1f0afcb36806_large.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_iziE93IC26LQ77rbCc26J8BCuXLdwmqBRHAmtwPnDV1L0BR1aguBTtOtA2W3zmOOpuh79REva1p7ORWXSqTb85UZWzISwK_d4LHg__tdxMK0DdpvCSVxen2D2HmGiV4tDOsUUiX6Xjg4/s320/mosque-protest-20ec1f0afcb36806_large.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>You want to build a mosque? Well, we have news for <i><u>you</u></i>.</b><br />
<b>Just <i>guess</i> whose country <i>we</i> think this is! </b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In theory, the First Amendment still protects religious minorities and non-believers from unwanted Christian intrusion into their lives, but in practice this is not so. From public holidays honoring Christian holy days to public religious displays, to compelled silence for Christian prayers in legislatures, in schools and at events of huge public significance, from the casual assumption of Christian privilege and prominence to the very real favoritism via tax exemption and government funding which has enriched churches - secretly and without public oversight - at the public expense, the reality is that churches, especially Christian churches, are intimately entwined with the state. The battle to gain special status and the resulting economic and political power was on from the moment James Madison signed the First Amendment (actually even before) and for good reason from the point of view of the churches. They have benefited enormously from these unconstitutional arrangements.<br />
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The truth is that the Christian religion has been quietly empowered both financially and politically, and it aims to gain supreme power by replacing the current republic with a Bible-based state. Christian conservatives will never cede that power willingly. The truth is that when <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/02/us-crime-newyork-idUSTRE8010IE20120102">minority religions</a> or the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZojkNsQy8c">non-religious</a> expect equal respect from the Christian majority, the Christian majority cries persecution and refuses to honor the Constitution that they claim to uphold, but which they are undermining because they hate it as a threat to their ambitions. When a minority's beliefs conflict with majority Christian beliefs, the majority will use every avenue available to force the minority to accept having Christian belief shoved down its throat, even when the Constitution has promised that this will not happen. For Christians, the First Amendment guarantees <i>their</i> religion; they believe that it guarantees that they have the right to strip away the freedom of others to enjoy public life free of Christian proselytizing and the presumption of Christian supremacy. Christians regard the insistence of others that the Constitution guarantees <i>them</i> the same freedoms and rights as Christians as a challenge to Christian rights.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu6NtoakP1PGYISOCHzyabFSONnxkC4RewJhwpaNr4JIKWy4cBp8gacpp99VD4aBv5HJ-WPQLwlt7YxB-o4HHlLJGh1fqUn2u739MEjLQUhNPsiPVpIxklE_8HuBq3OpydOP4Ar7KgT5Xj/s1600/why-women-need-freedom-from-religion.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu6NtoakP1PGYISOCHzyabFSONnxkC4RewJhwpaNr4JIKWy4cBp8gacpp99VD4aBv5HJ-WPQLwlt7YxB-o4HHlLJGh1fqUn2u739MEjLQUhNPsiPVpIxklE_8HuBq3OpydOP4Ar7KgT5Xj/s200/why-women-need-freedom-from-religion.jpeg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>...as long as it is Christianity</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Merely <a href="http://630wpro.com/article.asp?id=2374792">requesting</a> that the Constitutional guarantee for religious freedom <i>for all</i> be upheld <a href="http://www.rifuture.org/girl-at-the-center-of-the-cranston-prayer-banner-case-targeted-by-cyber-bullies.html">results</a> in public outcry from the majority, lawsuits, threats and ostracism of the individual(s) who dare to stand up for the right of the minority not to be oppressed by the Christian majority. Respect for Christian beliefs is deemed of such paramount importance that we must disrespect the beliefs of others or we are accused of persecuting Christians and oppressing Christian belief. On the rare occasions when citizens (sometimes even Christian themselves) push back against the ubiquitousness of Christian belief - for example by objecting to its illegal injection into the publicly funded spheres of our society - the Christian majority shrieks that it is being oppressed or persecuted.<br />
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The very act of respecting the beliefs of non-Christians - or even of allowing them to be <a href="http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2012/04/28/atheist-group-says-they-face-discrimination-at-movie-theater/">visible</a>, free to simply <a href="http://www.niftyatheist.com/2012/02/why-are-so-many-atheists-silent.html"><i>exist</i> </a>in this society - is perceived by Christians as an attack upon <i>them</i>. In short, the Christian majority claims to be oppressed if they are prevented from oppressing others. It is an amazing fact of western life that the concept of religious persecution has been perverted by the Christian majority to such an extent that it is no longer recognizable as a meaningful description of the reality of what persecution actually means. It has been turned on its head. In the United States today, Christian religious belief is accorded such a level of public respect that it must be deferred to in every situation. In schools, in government offices, in supermarkets, hospitals and gas stations, non-Christians <a href="http://www.niftyatheist.com/2012/02/proselytizing-where.html">cannot escape</a> the constant demand for public obeisance to Christianity.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh09lbL_lecZ3pgl1Gy9cRuA1Cipu0BjdY1Ddn2XCQzH20sl3hwMkVwl8m_Cca33eGqLm4Hy6ysVjWbkgtCI60bflISRX0mLD6DdtOUKiXfidCRXzMuOfyzvMvcYIlT_fgNIwdV2n3Dqg1J/s1600/mucci_narrowweb__300x464,2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh09lbL_lecZ3pgl1Gy9cRuA1Cipu0BjdY1Ddn2XCQzH20sl3hwMkVwl8m_Cca33eGqLm4Hy6ysVjWbkgtCI60bflISRX0mLD6DdtOUKiXfidCRXzMuOfyzvMvcYIlT_fgNIwdV2n3Dqg1J/s200/mucci_narrowweb__300x464,2.jpeg" width="128" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>Ah, religious <i>respect </i><br />for girls and women.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Last week, a young girl was made the <a href="http://www.niftyatheist.com/2012/05/cnnscatholic-schools-misogyny-is-noted.html">scapegoat</a> in a fundamentalist Catholic power-play. The fact that Christian misogyny is still so open and accepted in society is bad enough, but the repeated expressions of <i>respect</i> by everyone involved - including the victims of the discrimination itself - for this medieval, systemic marginalization of women and girls was little short of amazing. In a breathtaking show of oppositional apologia, the ultra-conservative Catholic school in question brazenly couched its policy of discrimination against girls as "teaching boys to respect ladies". Apparently, the only way to "respect ladies" is to bar them from sports they are qualified to play, deny them opportunities to compete with their ability peers and generally limit their horizons as far as possible within strictly segregated, narrowly traditional gender roles.<br />
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The gender roles that Our Lady of Sorrows and similar ultra-conservative Christian organizations advocate for boys and girls tend - as always when "religious tradition" is invoked - to mean these things: active, dynamic, <i>leadership</i> roles for boys; passive, submissive, <i>invisible</i> roles for girls. In this religiously-fueled zeal to squeeze their female adherents into a suffocatingly circumscribed world of few joys and almost no choices, conservative Christians are exactly like their conservative brethren of other faiths - ultra-orthodox <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/28/world/middleeast/israeli-girl-at-center-of-tension-over-religious-extremism.html?pagewanted=all">Jews</a> and the Islamist <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/09/us-afghanistan-schools-girls-idUSBRE8480ZT20120509">Taliban</a>, for instance - which enshrine repression of women into their orthodoxy under the same perniciously virtuous-<i>sounding</i> label of "respect for women".<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge9MjkaK4FA-9OlHUGK95-YaSjI_GeG7InUaXMssIdg654F3BASVkPGTs5cYGVoADaNiqWEZrJ8FefKHz0aCWDVVZ_9FBWD7zoK6vMJaQrcVjjcwwbdq-gJKySFuPAnJ4IUTTuraCzLKoD/s1600/afghan-women-wearing-burqas-line-up-to-vote-at-a-polling-station-in-kabul.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge9MjkaK4FA-9OlHUGK95-YaSjI_GeG7InUaXMssIdg654F3BASVkPGTs5cYGVoADaNiqWEZrJ8FefKHz0aCWDVVZ_9FBWD7zoK6vMJaQrcVjjcwwbdq-gJKySFuPAnJ4IUTTuraCzLKoD/s200/afghan-women-wearing-burqas-line-up-to-vote-at-a-polling-station-in-kabul.jpeg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>A lifetime of shrouded invisibility.<br />Now, that's <i>respect</i>!</b></td></tr>
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These religious extremists do not respect women. Their actions betray that their motives are the polar opposite of respectful; they intend <b>not</b><i> to respect</i> the rights and autonomy - the humanity - of women and girls, but <i>to</i> <i>deny</i> them autonomy and rights - and their humanity. The purpose of this dogma is to control women for the use and service of men: to keep them subservient, <i>less than men</i>, silenced and invisible. The farce of conservative <i>respect</i> for women is nothing more than a cruelly ironic cover for the conservative campaign for the subjugation of women. There is real harm being done in the name of religion and it ought not to be allowed to continue without vigorous criticism.<br />
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I do not respect the beliefs of Our Lady of Sorrows school. I condemn their beliefs and their actions as the immoral, repressive expression of deeply misogynistic theology. Attempts to establish medieval religious extremism should never go unchallenged in a civilized, egalitarian, free society. We would do well to remember that no society is impervious to the ever-present <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/world/europe/24europe.html?pagewanted=all">danger</a> of right-wing authoritarianism. Domestic turmoil usually lays the conditions for the rise of oppressive theocracies, but war and failed government are not the only ways that authoritarian rule can gain a foothold in a contemporary society. Too often, authoritarian theocratic regimes take over when the people of a country have become complacently overconfident in their ability to detect and deflect such extremism. Tolerance of religious oppression is not respectful. It is foolhardy.<br />
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<span style="color: #073763; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>We would do well to remember that no society is impervious to the ever-present danger of right-wing authoritarianism.</i></span></div>
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It is time to stop paying undeserved respect to religious groups which marginalize and disrespect selected groups of human beings - usually female-bodied human beings. People who possess sincere respect for the essential humanity and dignity of others must refuse to offer "respect" for these oppressive ideologies. We must stand up and declare that this behavior is an affront to human dignity. It is immoral and people must have the courage to call it what it is. Religion is powerful. It is powerful enough to call for the elimination of its opponents in many parts of the world, and most religions do not hesitate to do so when they feel threatened. But, if people who value freedom of religion and who understand the threat which tyranny of the majority poses will not stand up, then we are - willingly? - participating in the destruction of our own democratic republic.<br />
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(This post was previously posted in 2012)<br />
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NiftyWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103734836789258691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2155986947588635239.post-71111172736168641652017-04-26T00:50:00.002-05:002017-04-26T01:09:38.892-05:00The Handmaid's Tale <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9_ce10dbBizQgGKa-Y5jNt9pzJi1LTuvSTBPB2siakg3GfTZqqEPf0HfQIDQKGd6oabTNU6ongRUQ6JghYQ8bI8pR-zVj2c-XiSLdigGqCOkv9PDG0f_L4rxEvmjL9jiUBvhI426CAt8/s1600/margaretatwood.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9_ce10dbBizQgGKa-Y5jNt9pzJi1LTuvSTBPB2siakg3GfTZqqEPf0HfQIDQKGd6oabTNU6ongRUQ6JghYQ8bI8pR-zVj2c-XiSLdigGqCOkv9PDG0f_L4rxEvmjL9jiUBvhI426CAt8/s640/margaretatwood.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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Tonight, Hulu will air the first episodes in a ten part serial adaptation of Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel, <u>The Handmaid's Tale</u>. Atwood's tale of a dystopian America in the quite near future became an instant classic and according to Sophie Gilbert's excellent review in <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/04/the-visceral-woman-centric-horror-of-the-handmaids-tale/523683/">the Atlantic</a>, this television adaptation of the novel is unlike anything we have yet seen on television or in film.<br />
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Several other reviews -- all seem to be glowing.<br />
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<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-handmaids-tale-has-been-feared-banned-and-loved-now-its-gotten-under-our-skin-again/2017/04/24/6aefc398-246e-11e7-b503-9d616bd5a305_story.html?utm_term=.b30b7b8282fc#comments">The Washington Post</a><br />
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<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/10/books/review/margaret-atwood-handmaids-tale-age-of-trump.html?_r=0">The New York Times</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.salon.com/2017/04/25/the-handmaids-tale-a-dystopian-tale-of-female-subjugation-that-hits-close-to-home/">Salon</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/tv/ct-handmaids-tale-tv-review-ent-0425-20170424-column.html">The Chicago Tribune</a><br />
<a href="http://www.salon.com/2017/04/25/the-handmaids-tale-a-dystopian-tale-of-female-subjugation-that-hits-close-to-home/"><br /></a><i><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">As Atwood wrote: Nothing in any society happens quickly, or without warning, and "in a gradually heating bathtub, you'd be boiled to death before you knew it". </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Michael Phillips, The Chicago Tribune</span></i><br />
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NiftyWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103734836789258691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2155986947588635239.post-36011796718174247952017-04-25T00:30:00.000-05:002017-04-25T09:10:53.903-05:00I Have A Dream - Tuesday Tonic<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiicmUo8Xy2QwOsnFdIHz2BMRm-l4cwoP8OvrgT_duzuXNOBKDjRcwRUEJTtUAQTlfzO0O3UsKR53jUyQW8zUKIwKgNk59GKEHzEwTqYM3wu6xZ5BM6jDs5EZTZrNLmBbQ0-_HaeYMkS3I/s1600/daffodils+hd+desktop+wallpaper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiicmUo8Xy2QwOsnFdIHz2BMRm-l4cwoP8OvrgT_duzuXNOBKDjRcwRUEJTtUAQTlfzO0O3UsKR53jUyQW8zUKIwKgNk59GKEHzEwTqYM3wu6xZ5BM6jDs5EZTZrNLmBbQ0-_HaeYMkS3I/s640/daffodils+hd+desktop+wallpaper.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> <span style="color: #073763;">Daffodils</span></span></div>
I wandered lonely as a cloud<br />
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,<br />
When all at once I saw a crowd,<br />
A host, of golden daffodils;<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigi2gPBwEFgWNjecUjGNO_iMKKxCA16Cv9XGOwJXdTmawKiC_LTZicKb5WOrdVT1qO4yUQM1Dmyued0k6_2cTB_untrptYlnpOrk8tPjT7qnxjU2ycJ22Zljtq_jejoDktb7TpzoMFrbA/s1600/William_Wordsworth_-_I_wandered_lonely_as_a_cloud.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigi2gPBwEFgWNjecUjGNO_iMKKxCA16Cv9XGOwJXdTmawKiC_LTZicKb5WOrdVT1qO4yUQM1Dmyued0k6_2cTB_untrptYlnpOrk8tPjT7qnxjU2ycJ22Zljtq_jejoDktb7TpzoMFrbA/s320/William_Wordsworth_-_I_wandered_lonely_as_a_cloud.jpg" width="284" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Handwritten manuscript, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Library">British Library</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,<br />
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.<br />
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Continuous as the stars that shine<br />
And twinkle on the milky way,<br />
They stretched in never-ending line<br />
Along the margin of a bay:<br />
Ten thousand saw I at a glance, <br />
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.<br />
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The waves beside them danced; but they<br />
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:<br />
A poet could not but be gay,<br />
In such a jocund company:<br />
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought<br />
What wealth the show to me had brought:<br />
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For oft, when on my couch I lie<br />
In vacant or in pensive mood,<br />
They flash upon that inward eye<br />
Which is the bliss of solitude;<br />
And then my heart with pleasure fills,<br />
And dances with the daffodils.<br />
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- William Wordsworth<br />
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In memory of one of the best and kindest men I have ever known: my father. He loved to garden and his favorite flowers were "daffs", "glads" and yellow roses. Dad loved poetry and could quote many poems from memory. For this Tuesday Tonic, I am combining these two loves in one post for your enjoyment.<br />
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My father was also a great admirer of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. Back in the 60's before YouTube and ITunes, Dad ordered a record of Dr King's magnificent speeches and would often spend a contemplative Sunday afternoon sitting with a cup of tea listening to Dr. Kings soaring words. Below, find his favorite, the incomparable "I Have a Dream" speech.<br />
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Rest in peace Dad. I miss you every day.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gevdV4LvipQ?ecver=2" style="height: 100%; left: 0; position: absolute; width: 100%;" width="480"></iframe></div>
NiftyWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103734836789258691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2155986947588635239.post-46391035638260139582017-04-24T01:00:00.000-05:002017-04-24T15:59:03.912-05:00Persistent Resistance<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5nJDleKFIKs3-L8hzpRHOar6AigphJm3ef4IL4IuUE_J8j46OAw_P7sHpbKgp9SstSxVXL7fXh5BmA0k8Xv9NoN10jOv0NFRMftZWq5m_MLGhCDf6PnYWEbkP4B0XaEUnS8C0YI0J6J4/s1600/170123100348-womens-march-washington-exlarge-169.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5nJDleKFIKs3-L8hzpRHOar6AigphJm3ef4IL4IuUE_J8j46OAw_P7sHpbKgp9SstSxVXL7fXh5BmA0k8Xv9NoN10jOv0NFRMftZWq5m_MLGhCDf6PnYWEbkP4B0XaEUnS8C0YI0J6J4/s640/170123100348-womens-march-washington-exlarge-169.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Another weekend has gone by and another wave of people power has swept the nation. The March for Science in Washington DC was echoed in hundreds of cities and towns all over the country. Just like the Tax March earlier this month and the <a href="https://www.womensmarch.com/">Women's March</a> in January. Just like the <a href="http://blacklivesmatter.com/">Black Lives Matter</a> marches that have popped up all over the country every few weeks.<br />
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There's something happening here.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWnczikjdaV9AMIBbzQHRdasNHHWuJTDtwtL2k4IJVzAT7CHTgS5ZpLbWKybZckiqhg9in_NZwpXnA3cMBFFc9jNr-daAZY5xrWNJuDASzdJGitXVyp4C02shptPFaaqB9Q7UKIonBbQw/s1600/Trump-Tax-March-NYC-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWnczikjdaV9AMIBbzQHRdasNHHWuJTDtwtL2k4IJVzAT7CHTgS5ZpLbWKybZckiqhg9in_NZwpXnA3cMBFFc9jNr-daAZY5xrWNJuDASzdJGitXVyp4C02shptPFaaqB9Q7UKIonBbQw/s320/Trump-Tax-March-NYC-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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People have been calling it the <a href="https://www.theresistanceparty.org/">Resistance</a>. Hundreds of citizens have been showing up at t<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/02/22/town-halls-republicans/98250238/">own halls </a>and thousands have been marching. Joining together as an <a href="https://www.indivisibleguide.com/">indivisible</a> force for truth and justice in America.<br />
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The Republicans may be pretending to themselves that governing is business as usual, but there's been nothing like this sustained, country-wide, persistent resistance and protest movement before.<br />
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Let's keep it up!<br />
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For your Monday Music, a protest song from another era that is as relevant as ever today.<br />
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<span style="color: #073763; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">For What It's Worth</span><br />
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There's something happening here<br />
What it is ain't exactly clear<br />
There's a man with a gun over there<br />
Telling me I got to beware<br />
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I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound<br />
Everybody look what's going down<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrhpq52erp3qnKOSKr3KgcALxEG6Bo11eVmtXYQqRSIQHOejMfDqvZicUaV4zie5HyEoBcGMTq7yiHaTXgIeNtcnfJ-crmkYk5ea8zNeYfGQdzlRTXmkWOvTPHo685rhyphenhyphen-r2Z7SGs-dDA/s1600/Science_March_65865.jpg-bb1fd_c0-211-5000-3126_s885x516.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrhpq52erp3qnKOSKr3KgcALxEG6Bo11eVmtXYQqRSIQHOejMfDqvZicUaV4zie5HyEoBcGMTq7yiHaTXgIeNtcnfJ-crmkYk5ea8zNeYfGQdzlRTXmkWOvTPHo685rhyphenhyphen-r2Z7SGs-dDA/s320/Science_March_65865.jpg-bb1fd_c0-211-5000-3126_s885x516.jpg" width="320" /></a>There's battle lines being drawn<br />
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong<br />
Young people speaking their minds<br />
Getting so much resistance from behind<br />
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It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound<br />
Everybody look what's going down<br />
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What a field-day for the heat<br />
A thousand people in the street<br />
Singing songs and carrying signs<br />
Mostly say, hooray for our side<br />
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It's s time we stop, hey, what's that sound<br />
Everybody look what's going down<br />
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Paranoia strikes deep<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNimTqk63v71xXVHdnPuRUsS5JGKaxZLZFh6z-4lxH-zA1oSzpvM_HB2TZtCF5TfIWbmLNfH1XA5-IcirwY4IMp258B6bO7Ea8Q7NHAa8d53jq7ccf-8l0TE5hNdfyFVWX09ph5hDZfA0/s1600/636037982176366968-432967719_Black-Lives-Matter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNimTqk63v71xXVHdnPuRUsS5JGKaxZLZFh6z-4lxH-zA1oSzpvM_HB2TZtCF5TfIWbmLNfH1XA5-IcirwY4IMp258B6bO7Ea8Q7NHAa8d53jq7ccf-8l0TE5hNdfyFVWX09ph5hDZfA0/s320/636037982176366968-432967719_Black-Lives-Matter.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Into your life it will creep<br />
It starts when you're always afraid<br />
You step out of line,<br />
the man come and take you away<br />
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We better stop, hey, what's that sound<br />
Everybody look what's going down<br />
Stop, hey, what's that sound<br />
Everybody look what's going down<br />
Stop, now, what's that sound<br />
Everybody look what's going down<br />
Stop, children, what's that sound<br />
Everybody look what's going down<br />
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- Buffalo Springfield (1967)<br />
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NiftyWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103734836789258691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2155986947588635239.post-43279268581733092017-04-22T00:37:00.001-05:002017-04-22T01:20:54.221-05:00Earth Day - March For Science!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDPixC9DytBo1lw4E5Wt1hM9n0u9up_vNiqRWfP5rStsa85ykw2A1DMxMOgE2tHN7N2o569ww_xRcdleJ3x3tjZzwrUGDyUb0ZxespVqTfwrQ0jM6mumKjSXDZvQUQVdIo4QH2JPUZc24/s1600/scientists-1_wide-db9c6961f3cc9b69f7b3585026c4360c2338986f-s900-c85.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDPixC9DytBo1lw4E5Wt1hM9n0u9up_vNiqRWfP5rStsa85ykw2A1DMxMOgE2tHN7N2o569ww_xRcdleJ3x3tjZzwrUGDyUb0ZxespVqTfwrQ0jM6mumKjSXDZvQUQVdIo4QH2JPUZc24/s640/scientists-1_wide-db9c6961f3cc9b69f7b3585026c4360c2338986f-s900-c85.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo credit: NPR</td></tr>
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In 1970, 20 million people demonstrated in cities and towns all across the United States to bring attention to their concerns about the environment and humankind's impact on our planet. According to the website, <a href="http://earthday.org/">earthday.org</a>, the first Earth Day and the activism it inspired led to the formation of the Environment Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act by the end of that year.<br />
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A big part of that success story was that in the 1960's and 70's, respect for science had not yet been eroded by Christian fundamentalism. Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle were able to agree on basic scientific data and to work together to create legislation, based upon solid science, which would benefit the entire nation for decades to come.<br />
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Today, we live in a very different world.<br />
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The dismantling of the wall between church and state, which was facilitated in earnest during the Reagan years, has led to myriad devastating consequences for the country, but perhaps the most critical losses have been the <a href="http://www.niftyatheist.com/2012/07/public-education-public-enemy-1.html">gutting of public education</a> (as funds have been siphoned off for religious private and charter schools) and the gradual acceptance that <a href="http://www.niftyatheist.com/2013/02/a-modern-david-and-goliath-story.html">religious belief is being taught</a> to millions of kids and presented to be as valid as the scientific method for understanding what is true about the world around us.<br />
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In 2017, we now have an upside down reality where anti-environment people have been put in charge of the EPA, where religious extremism has been allowed to dictate environmental policy and deny global climate change and where the new administration has declared war on air, water, earth and humanity.<br />
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What can we do? Quite a lot!<br />
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Public protest <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/01/protest_works.html">works</a>. Speaking out and showing up, works.<br />
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This morning, all across the United States, people in cities and towns will be demonstrating on Earth Day again, just like in 1970. The <a href="https://www.marchforscience.com/">March for Science</a> is for everyone interested in a sane and safe world. It's time to stop the madness and insist that community and national leaders stop allowing public funds to be siphoned off to underwrite harmful mythology-based education and patently false pseudo-science, and restore actual science and the rigor of the scientific method of enquiry to our public offices.<br />
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Decisions which affect the life-sustaining earth, water and air of this planet must be made based upon the best science and research we can achieve. The time has come to insist upon it.<br />
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March for science today!<br />
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Look <a href="https://www.marchforscience.com/satellite-marches/">here</a> to find a March for Science near you. And listen below for a little Saturday Inspiration as you head out the door!<br />
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Symphony of Science - MelodySheep<br />
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NiftyWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103734836789258691noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2155986947588635239.post-68290565637347339682017-04-16T00:30:00.000-05:002017-04-21T23:46:32.572-05:00Happy Easter!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3vTSnUJiu2pRDG5vOdN_IdNA-cMcpUQ6EHIcaEWicyGJ4H_CLUlND71vOdOdbU4hPhZ7IUg_-DHFqrxzTVf9iCbbP9L303OpnRx7-b-p0YCfKMQvE_cylv9Az5jXu55RpxBTn11D0Gbs/s1600/Easter-Eggs-hunt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3vTSnUJiu2pRDG5vOdN_IdNA-cMcpUQ6EHIcaEWicyGJ4H_CLUlND71vOdOdbU4hPhZ7IUg_-DHFqrxzTVf9iCbbP9L303OpnRx7-b-p0YCfKMQvE_cylv9Az5jXu55RpxBTn11D0Gbs/s640/Easter-Eggs-hunt.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">Thank goddess, Christians are constitutionally protected from having to participate in pagan rituals!</span><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;">(photo credit: <a href="http://cambridge-news.co.uk/">Cambridge-News.co.uk</a>)</span></i></td></tr>
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Mark your calendars, NiftyReaders. Today, I agree wholeheartedly with a fundamentalist Christian argument. According to online sources for Christian correctness, Christians have a big problem with Easter. The problem is that Easter is not Christian enough. In fact, Easter is not Christian or Biblically endorsed <i>at all</i>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIabarVEA5mt6u286ghbgzkTq7K_T84VL8tJFbLEGwxIxONGZV1IrAT6x7gbhyphenhyphenO7Xdw2oHAa9DuPK8eq-zv1ttRYoc0L8iDiU1SKFlE3viR-71pZCK9rfrE2FicZzIZQdiBg36kQ3F-tM/s1600/hot-cross-buns-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIabarVEA5mt6u286ghbgzkTq7K_T84VL8tJFbLEGwxIxONGZV1IrAT6x7gbhyphenhyphenO7Xdw2oHAa9DuPK8eq-zv1ttRYoc0L8iDiU1SKFlE3viR-71pZCK9rfrE2FicZzIZQdiBg36kQ3F-tM/s200/hot-cross-buns-3.jpg" width="145" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>Hot cross buns?</b><br />
<b>Abominations!</b></td></tr>
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<i><span style="color: #bf9000;">Now let’s go to the other scriptures authorizing Easter. This presents a problem. There are NONE! There are absolutely no verses, anywhere in the Bible, that authorize or endorse the keeping of Easter celebration! The Bible says nothing about Lent, eggs and egg hunts, baskets of candy, etc., although it does mention hot cross buns and sunrise services as abominations, which God condemns. (<a href="http://rcg.org/books/ttooe.html">The True Origin of Easter</a>, the Reformed Church of God.org)</span></i><br />
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<i><span style="color: #674ea7;">The name “Easter” has its roots in ancient polytheistic religions (paganism). On this, all scholars agree. This name is never used in the original Scriptures, nor is it ever associated biblically with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For these reasons, we prefer to use the term “Resurrection Sunday” rather than “Easter” when referring to the annual Christian remembrance of Christ's resurrection. (<a href="http://christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-t020.html">What is the origin of Easter?</a> ChristianAnswers.org)</span></i><br />
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Oh, those pagans with their "<i>Happy </i><i>Easter</i><i>/</i><i>Happy </i><i>Holidays"</i>! Unbelievers have been distracting Christians from the true meaning of Christianity's most important holidays for too long! <b><i>Easter</i></b> is all about springtime, flowers budding, bunnies, chicks and sex. So unChristian! <b><i>Resurrection Sunday</i> </b>is about the story of a dead man who disappeared from his tomb and is believed to have risen from the dead after a horrific execution. That's more like it! Ask any Christian, he will tell you: holidays don't get much more joyful than that!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgShcgaBx5wF6QAxXuQvhyY-_DJVEK7TVL3R02u20ha19_2AI9rHcVsHaYdH3yaIMTqHgHDJLK-I1qsa2ejnY656h-1Q3E7zvMabRZCZt2o6pVx6EQy1ESZ2z5jAnAKbdOoTLJNWRgbYg4/s1600/0422_candy_coloredeggs_01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgShcgaBx5wF6QAxXuQvhyY-_DJVEK7TVL3R02u20ha19_2AI9rHcVsHaYdH3yaIMTqHgHDJLK-I1qsa2ejnY656h-1Q3E7zvMabRZCZt2o6pVx6EQy1ESZ2z5jAnAKbdOoTLJNWRgbYg4/s200/0422_candy_coloredeggs_01.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>Coloring eggs? </b><br />
<b>That's a no-no, Christians!</b></td></tr>
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For these reasons, <i>I</i> would prefer that Christians use the term "Resurrection Sunday" rather than Easter, too! It makes perfect sense for Christians - who happily profess to be <i><a href="http://www.niftyatheist.com/2017/04/have-good-friday.html">washed in the blood of Jesus</a></i>, after all - to name their own holiday something more appropriate to what it really is about. I enthusiastically support their right to begin calling their holy day by this name forthwith. Keep the Resurrection in Resurrection Sunday!<br />
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And while we are on the subject, why do devout Christians allow the secularists to win on Good Friday, too? Why accept the politically correct - and frankly much too bland - "Good Friday"? Christians, call it what it is! It is Crucifixion Friday! It is high time that Christians admit to the rest of the world - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Passion_of_the_Christ">loud and proud</a> - that their holiday is about blood, torture and a terrible death, not the Easter Bunny, jellybeans and a chocolate coma!<br />
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And about those Easter Eggs. No, no, no, Christians. Do you have any idea of the depraved history of these pagan symbols? Easter eggs are pagan symbols of a fertility goddess! ChristianAnswers can fill you in:<br />
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<i><span style="color: #674ea7;">Most children and families who color or hide Easter eggs as part of their Resurrection Sunday tradition have no knowledge of the origin of these traditions. Easter egg activities have become a part of Western culture. Many would be surprised and even dismayed to learn where the traditions originated.</span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #674ea7;">“The egg was a sacred symbol among the Babylonians. They believed an old fable about an egg of wondrous size which was supposed to have fallen from heaven into the Euphrates River. From this marvelous egg - according to the ancient story - the Goddess Astarte (Easter) [Semiramis], was hatched. And so the egg came to symbolize the Goddess Easter.”</span></i><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>Sneaky... but they're still eggs.<br />Wrong, wrong, wrong.</b></td></tr>
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<i><span style="color: #674ea7;">The idea of a mystic egg spread from Babylon to many parts of the world. In Rome, the mystic egg preceded processions in honor of the Mother Goddess Roman. The egg was part of the sacred ceremonies of the Mysteries of Bacchus. The Druids used the egg as their sacred emblem. In Northern Europe, China and Japan the eggs were colored for their sacred festivals.</span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #674ea7;">The egg was also a symbol of fertility; Semiramis (Easter) was the goddess of Fertility. The Easter egg is a symbol of the pagan Mother Goddess, and it even bears one of her names.</span></i><br />
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Do you hear that? Fables! Fertility! A <i>Mother Goddess</i>! The horror! Now, do you see why no true Christian should ever be caught dead dyeing eggs or participating in Easter egg hunts? Instead of an almighty (yet silent and invisible) creator god, <i>the humble egg</i> has been universally celebrated as a symbol of fertility and new life for thousands of years only because <i>those people chose not to know any better</i>. Dozens of cultures who observed the natural world around them, recognized the natural cycle of birth, life and death and celebrated the life-giving sunlight, moon cycle (reproductive cycle) and motherhood in the form of goddess worship were clearly unChristian, evil and pagan.<br />
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Easter eggs, chocolate bunnies, jellybeans and marshmallow chicks are all very seductive. They seem like delicious innocent fun, but they are not. They are dangerous temptations down the road to unbelief. They suggest natural sources of life and, with those eggs and chicks and hens and such, they are also <i>suggestive</i> of all of the necessary and naturally-occurring components of reproduction. They suggest that the plants and animals on the earth - including human beings - are actually born, live and die without the aid or interference of any deity. Of course, throbbing, pulsing, thriving, living <i>reality</i> cannot compete with the power of fervent, mystical religious <i>belief</i> (right? amirite?), but why should Christians risk it?<br />
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And just in case you didn't catch the recurring motif of feminine power in those evil, pagan myths, just <i>look</i> what else this Easter/Eastre "holiday" is all about (according to ChristianAnswers):<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBf0wFRnfDiGDke7j33x8TceTBvopb7i5n7sRFuc7ts66BexBqBsuYRxuoHtQHS_BTbfvrNaXBr0TZgWoglKCnnj8AMBYRzVHsIAhgz0AbctzQ6M2YwCpz-F9dybkU1Gv2eT-Prmlr-ug/s1600/phone-pics-easter-2012-179.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBf0wFRnfDiGDke7j33x8TceTBvopb7i5n7sRFuc7ts66BexBqBsuYRxuoHtQHS_BTbfvrNaXBr0TZgWoglKCnnj8AMBYRzVHsIAhgz0AbctzQ6M2YwCpz-F9dybkU1Gv2eT-Prmlr-ug/s200/phone-pics-easter-2012-179.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>Nice try, Christians, but no.</b></td></tr>
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<i><span style="color: #674ea7;">... this adulterous and idolatrous woman gave birth to an illegitimate son, she claimed that this son, Tammuz by name, was Nimrod reborn.” Semiramis “claimed that her son was supernaturally conceived [no human father] and that he was the promised seed, the 'savior'” - promised by God in Genesis 3:15. “However, not only was the child worshipped, but the woman, the MOTHER, was also worshipped as much (or more) than the son!” Nimrod deified as the god of the sun and father of creation. Semiramis became the goddess of the moon, fertility, etc.</span></i><br />
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The <i>woman</i>, the MOTHER (!!1eleventy1!) was worshipped! If ever there was proof that Easter is an unChristian festival, this creation of a female god is <b><i>it</i></b>. Any mythology that pays respect to women - let alone that elevates one to goddess status - autonomous, powerful and life-giving - is a mythology that is antithetical to everything that patriarchal Christianity stands for.<br />
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And come on, look at that silly fable! It cannot hold a candle to the 100% true, God-breathed, divine message in the Bible describing the singular Truth of Christianity: An innocent and immaculate young virgin miraculously gave birth to a son. The Bible claims that this son, Jesus by name, was the son of God, conceived of the Holy Spirit (no human father) and that he was the promised Messiah - the "savior" promised by God in Genesis 3:15. Not only is the child, Jesus, worshipped as he should be, but his mother, Mary is also paid deference as only the Mother of God deserves to be.<br />
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Now, that is a story that has the ring of ultimate Truth™!<br />
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<i><span style="color: #674ea7;">In the old fables of the Mystery cults, their 'savior' Tammuz, was worshipped with various rites at the Spring season. According to the legends, after he was slain [killed by a wild boar], he went into the underworld. But through the weeping of his mother… he mystically revived in the springing forth of the vegetation - in Spring! Each year a spring festival dramatically represented this supposed 'resurrection'...</span></i><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKfFy8KKAQKuswnMkT0TW_lFjT14rmkiImwl8Hu91PqOV7Su0Bxyu0ba4XgU65H17tTEVyPZzfqwQKnoNxpxterWcLOMKDY5xx6eCLWUdnt13X1tfvnll3damtBiEkY1dVZF_MECOz62s/s1600/0003400022720_500X500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKfFy8KKAQKuswnMkT0TW_lFjT14rmkiImwl8Hu91PqOV7Su0Bxyu0ba4XgU65H17tTEVyPZzfqwQKnoNxpxterWcLOMKDY5xx6eCLWUdnt13X1tfvnll3damtBiEkY1dVZF_MECOz62s/s200/0003400022720_500X500.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>Nope.</b></td></tr>
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In the old holy scriptures of the <i>One True Faith</i>, the Christian savior, Jesus Christ, is worshipped with various rites at the spring season. According to the inerrant word of the Bible, after he was slain (killed by Roman occupiers), he died and descended into hell. But according to the will of his father, he mystically revived - bringing "new life" to the world - in Spring! Each spring, during holy days, worshippers <a href="http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/31/easter-in-asia-marked-by-baptisms-and-crucifixions/?src=recg">dramatically re-enact</a> the <strike>utterly unverifiable </strike><strike>story</strike> totally true Biblical account of this real resurrection.<br />
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<i><span style="color: #674ea7;">Thus, a terrible false religion developed with its sun and moon worship, priests, astrology, demonic worship, worship of stars associated with their gods, idolatry, mysterious rites, human sacrifice, and more. Frankly, the practices which went on were so horrible that it is not fitting for me to speak of them here.</span></i><br />
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Exactly. We will speak no more about it. The Christian religion with its divine Son worship, priests, mysticism, belief in angels and demons, worship of holy shrines associated with visions of their gods, angels and saints, mysterious rites and liturgical human sacrifice ritual is so much more than this terrible false religion from which Easter has sprung. For one thing, Christians add ritual cannibalism after the ritual human sacrifice! Frankly, these practices are so obviously correct, righteous and good, that it is not fitting for any Christian to participate in anything else. The source of that whole springtime/ new life/ bunnies and eggs/ ickily feminine, fertility cultish, Eastery thing is a <i>terrible, false religion</i>. What kind of a legitimate spring/rebirth festival elevates a MOTHER over a son? Definitely not a <i>Christian</i> festival!<br />
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Easter is clearly an evil pagan festival which Christians ought to decry.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkR06986-cV8ET0kmlWpPkK1VC0KKqf99bmCBvYUR9_XL2SWuBNapIEQ7Ra02VH2PJqRa9p27yUoFKhUjhVczJShc4kHtg0S9PK8gZu2U16Leh13ppxo3Ny9ZBqgH80pVwqV0pn7H3QcA/s1600/embedded_4f5acd677e11a9.52304439.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkR06986-cV8ET0kmlWpPkK1VC0KKqf99bmCBvYUR9_XL2SWuBNapIEQ7Ra02VH2PJqRa9p27yUoFKhUjhVczJShc4kHtg0S9PK8gZu2U16Leh13ppxo3Ny9ZBqgH80pVwqV0pn7H3QcA/s200/embedded_4f5acd677e11a9.52304439.jpg" width="181" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>Absolutely not!</b></td></tr>
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Christians ought to take a stand against this tawdry commercialization of Christianity's most glorious holiday and simply refuse to partake in it. Perhaps they could demand that retailers post Happy Resurrection Sunday signs in their stores. Insist that schools and businesses should be closed out of respect for Crucifixion Friday. Fight for the power to teach schoolchildren the <a href="http://www.niftyatheist.com/2013/05/good-news-clubs-are-bad-news-for-america.html">Good News</a>™- whether they are Christian or not - through faith-building activities. Why shouldn't they be able to put on an annual Passion Play in public schools? What little boy wouldn't love to portray the crucified Jesus? What little girl hasn't dreamed of being cast as the Blessed Virgin grieving over the broken body of her murdered son? Even the littlest Christians can partake in the spirit-filled fun by baking <a href="http://kitchenandkids.com/2013/03/19/teachable-moments-resurrection-cookies-and-resurrection-rolls/">Resurrection Cookies</a> with Mom. As Mom reads the appropriate scriptures, the little ones can beat nuts into pieces with a wooden spoon and imagine they are breaking the bones of their long-suffering savior†. Godly, wholesome, fearsome fun. Now, that is the way to celebrate <strike><a href="http://www.niftyatheist.com/2013/03/have-good-friday.html">Easter Joy</a></strike> Resurrection Sunday!<br />
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<i><span style="color: #674ea7;">One might wonder if there is a better way for Christians to celebrate Jesus Christ's resurrection, the most important of all Christian holy days. <b>In retrospect, it seems obvious that it would have been a better witness to the world if Christians had not attempted to “Christianize” pagan celebrations*</b> - adopting the name “Easter” (Ishtar/Semiramis) in remembrance of Christ. Jesus has been obscured by painted eggs and bunnies. Attention has been shifted away from spiritual truth and toward materialism (clothing, products and candies with the wrong symbolism). Stores merchandise the name of Easter (not “Resurrection Sunday”) and sell goods that have nothing to do with Christ's death and resurrection.</span></i><br />
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I couldn't agree more. Leave that pagan Easter business to the heathens, Christians! Resurrection Sunday belongs to you and Easter belongs to the rest of us. You glorify divine capital punishment, substitutionary atonement and human sacrifice - we prefer bunnies, eggs and chocolate. You keep the Crucifixion in Crucifixion Friday and the Resurrection in Resurrection Sunday and we will keep the Easter in Easter. Sounds fair to me.<br />
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(This post was previously published on this blog)<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">† Read the Resurrection Cookie link. Seriously, you can't make this stuff up.</span><br />
<b style="font-size: small;">* </b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Can I get an "Amen" to this, brothers and sisters?</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWzX9WMyi-4EuFD9FCce1Sj5rJcYn4yFtPgT2MvCLvMWsLbnsLc9FmVr-t3KMaGO9_UBXGkWslafmcCXyO1rIajGsHFqGtCKETCYcmSwlSpw2AmTVg2HlGwiyUP6WncpvTJSFVlGcYx6M/s1600/url-16.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWzX9WMyi-4EuFD9FCce1Sj5rJcYn4yFtPgT2MvCLvMWsLbnsLc9FmVr-t3KMaGO9_UBXGkWslafmcCXyO1rIajGsHFqGtCKETCYcmSwlSpw2AmTVg2HlGwiyUP6WncpvTJSFVlGcYx6M/s640/url-16.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>That's right, Easter Bunny, just keep on hopping right out of the Christian calendar. </b><br />
<b>And you can take your abominable eggs with you!</b><br />
<b><br /></b><b><br /></b><b><br /></b></td></tr>
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<br />NiftyWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103734836789258691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2155986947588635239.post-2285890389961936102017-04-15T05:00:00.000-05:002017-04-15T05:00:01.955-05:00Tax Day Marches - We Can Be Heroes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjajAlV9lJPCYvP9aRd3X7X9ZrnLu-qIIM6zGQg2-7DH_7wdaFoIQ3_gVNNcc0nriRbsx1VvWo1SnpdxL1mdCa2xcw7_-SfTrBrOYsJJMzKceyZbAwuhWAuo5wI_IDey8jFPUyfjE1eI_k/s1600/66976588-bowie-wallpapers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="448" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjajAlV9lJPCYvP9aRd3X7X9ZrnLu-qIIM6zGQg2-7DH_7wdaFoIQ3_gVNNcc0nriRbsx1VvWo1SnpdxL1mdCa2xcw7_-SfTrBrOYsJJMzKceyZbAwuhWAuo5wI_IDey8jFPUyfjE1eI_k/s640/66976588-bowie-wallpapers.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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April 15 is tax day. Where are Trump's tax returns? Today there will be marches all over the country by concerned citizens who are demanding that President Trump release his tax returns. Everyone hates filing tax returns and paying taxes and few of us have much interest in the tax returns of other people. The president's are a big deal, though. The tax returns will point to the true sources of Trump's "wealth" and financing. They can answer many questions about his connections and associations and to whom he owes money. Trump has broken his promise to release them for a reason. He is hiding something.<br />
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Stand up. Speak out. Resist. We <i><b>can</b></i> do something. Resistance <a href="http://www.belfercenter.org/sites/default/files/legacy/files/IS3301_pp007-044_Stephan_Chenoweth.pdf">works</a>.<br />
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For a little inspiration to help keep up the fight, here is David Bowie singing We can be heroes.<br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-size: large;">Heroes</span><br />
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I, I will be king<br />
And you, you will be queen<br />
Though nothing, will drive them away<br />
We can beat them, just for one day<br />
We can be heroes, just for one day<br />
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And you, you can be mean<br />
And I, I'll drink all the time<br />
Cause we're lovers, and that is a fact<br />
Yes we're lovers, and that is that<br />
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Though nothing, will keep us together<br />
We could steal time, just for one day<br />
We can be heroes, forever and ever<br />
What d'you say?<br />
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I, I wish you could swim<br />
Like the dolphins, like dolphins can swim<br />
Though nothing, nothing will keep us together<br />
We can beat them, forever and ever<br />
Oh we can be heroes, just for one day<br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">And the shame - it fell on the other side...</span><br />
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I, I will be king<br />
And you, you will be queen<br />
Though nothing, will drive them away<br />
We can be heroes, just for one day<br />
We can be us, just for one day<br />
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I, I can remember (I remember)<br />
Standing, by the wall (by the wall)<br />
And the guns, shot above our heads (over our heads)<br />
And we kissed, as though nothing could fall (nothing could fall)<br />
And the shame, was on the other side<br />
Oh we can beat them, forever and ever<br />
Then we could be heroes, just for one day<br />
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We can be heroes<br />
We can be heroes<br />
We can be heroes<br />
Just for one day<br />
We can be heroes<br />
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We're nothing, and nothing will help us<br />
Maybe we're lying, then you better not stay<br />
But we could be safer, just for one day<br />
Oh-oh-oh-ohh, oh-oh-oh-ohh, just for one day<br />
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- David Bowie<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YYjBQKIOb-w?ecver=2" style="height: 100%; left: 0; position: absolute; width: 100%;" width="480"></iframe></div>
NiftyWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103734836789258691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2155986947588635239.post-87312696972013585312017-04-14T12:32:00.000-05:002017-04-14T13:30:32.605-05:00Have a Good Friday<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-7jLGN5DFtErthPQAOQeAy2MaF4Opa5ZbWBad8AFKk76strRSj7yARPlmh93NJ4TgMJUPLkZBcCAeoAJedfaeQ1kenugK5cQVs3_Dixhw92fHxuEVm8-yagwZnEhKvpukWjW6r1DEk7k/s1600/url-6.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-7jLGN5DFtErthPQAOQeAy2MaF4Opa5ZbWBad8AFKk76strRSj7yARPlmh93NJ4TgMJUPLkZBcCAeoAJedfaeQ1kenugK5cQVs3_Dixhw92fHxuEVm8-yagwZnEhKvpukWjW6r1DEk7k/s640/url-6.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"> Artwork by <a href="http://cliodhnaswave.com/2009/11/the-little-star-is-bigger/">cliodhna</a></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If we want a signifier for the human condition, imagine the culture we would live in now if, instead of a dead corpse on an instrument of torture, our signifier was a child staring in wonder at the stars. That’s representative of the state of humanity, too; it’s a symbol that touches us all as much as that of a representation of our final end, and we don’t have to daub it with the cheap glow-in-the-dark paint of supernatural fol-de-rol for it to have deeper meaning.</span> </span>-PZ Myers</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoYzYuOlGrC-3wa983OPrBxjb6Wd61dpR1J1vH1bJiT1JVZda-6KRdgZw2SjvaVNQZrgaCs2L65AZ4Z9ornGCQJO-DsSY4QA3XSZewUlklep9jCqaS1Na6Wb9xr0v1ajSKaaWpJFAfaygm/s1600/easter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoYzYuOlGrC-3wa983OPrBxjb6Wd61dpR1J1vH1bJiT1JVZda-6KRdgZw2SjvaVNQZrgaCs2L65AZ4Z9ornGCQJO-DsSY4QA3XSZewUlklep9jCqaS1Na6Wb9xr0v1ajSKaaWpJFAfaygm/s200/easter.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>The resilience of nature, new life<br />and spring flowers. This is the<br />true meaning of Easter!</b></td></tr>
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Even when I was a practicing Catholic, I never quite wanted to "celebrate" the Christian remake of Easter. I was happy to celebrate spring, rebirth, flowers blooming, days getting longer, the Easter bunny and coloring eggs to symbolize fertility and new life - in short, all the aspects of the ancient festival of <a href="http://www.religioustolerance.org/easter1.htm">Eastre</a> that most people enjoy celebrating at this time of the year. But the human sacrifice myth that Christianity grafted on to Easter has always repulsed me.<br />
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I think one of the most puzzling and disturbing things about theism is this: <i>belief</i> seems to alter the human mind so that otherwise rational, good and decent people are able to accept a doctrine of "salvation through human sacrifice" without apparent discomfort. In fact, Christians not only embrace this doctrine as the truth, but they consider it to be a beautiful proof of the love of the Biblical god. Without any apparent irony, most Christians regard the story of the torture and execution of the son-god, Jesus, as the very zenith of joyful good news.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRtG2vURRHUb1A6R6aQP_Sf3jMEBoaId7vHNs7HizW-mO8HbKhL-ajjLvPYy5hNtiKRv5mh6Taovp8bsOqtQJ-0Gy6oPaBpnyyzU8chREsfxeiGr9fG2mAHZNt1fPjvVw_scR-sIkZ6-3R/s1600/Jesus_nailed_to_cross.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRtG2vURRHUb1A6R6aQP_Sf3jMEBoaId7vHNs7HizW-mO8HbKhL-ajjLvPYy5hNtiKRv5mh6Taovp8bsOqtQJ-0Gy6oPaBpnyyzU8chREsfxeiGr9fG2mAHZNt1fPjvVw_scR-sIkZ6-3R/s200/Jesus_nailed_to_cross.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><b>This is <i>good</i>?</b></td></tr>
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In any other context, human beings who think bloody human sacrifice is acceptable, let alone <i>good</i>, would be considered sociopathic. An entire culture of them would be considered monstrous. Yet, human sacrifice to gods - bloodshed for religion - is accepted as a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/british_prehistory/human_sacrifice_01.shtml">normal</a> part of human culture even to this day in some parts of the world. Only in a religious context is such depravity considered not only acceptable but laudatory.<br />
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The concept of redemptive blood sacrifice disturbs me on many levels. It disturbs me that people are told that humanity is in need of redemption - that we are sinful, "filthy rags" condemned <i>by our very nature</i> to an eternity of torture in hell unless we seek "salvation" from a deity - when it is the deity which theists also believe created our human nature in the first place. More important is the chilling reality that people <i>accept </i>this vile, self-loathing doctrine. I wonder at the twisted psychology of a faith that teaches little children that they are sinful, hell-bound creatures, and then goes on to tell them that their only path to salvation must be through a bloody human sacrifice that allegedly occurred 2000 years ago.<br />
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It's disturbing that the deity that millions of people worship is believed to require a blood sacrifice to expiate the sinfulness of its own creation at all. It seems incredible that an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving god - whose alleged desire is to welcome humanity into its presence - would deliberately create humankind with a curious, independent and impulsively immature nature and then subject the first humans to a life or death test which requires incuriousness, unquestioning obedience and experienced maturity.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVUdl3tytcQ52PvWJoSJ_C4nRpyfAJJLl1jTOcSYuc_jvzELXYeNKNodZxAQByCOJbKdujeQ_45wkcprLvYgnVbUW6v5TJVhOV-e2PmVMlsGkLSegOMW-Hy12P0vuDNGfp5EgJdOtvkLr5/s1600/2-god.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVUdl3tytcQ52PvWJoSJ_C4nRpyfAJJLl1jTOcSYuc_jvzELXYeNKNodZxAQByCOJbKdujeQ_45wkcprLvYgnVbUW6v5TJVhOV-e2PmVMlsGkLSegOMW-Hy12P0vuDNGfp5EgJdOtvkLr5/s200/2-god.jpg" width="149" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>A god of constant fury</b></td></tr>
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It disturbs me that millions of people worship a god that would condemn all humanity for all eternity because of the inevitable failure of the two prototype humans to pass that impossible test because of the limitations of the very human nature with which that god endowed them. It could make sense if people acknowledged that the god is a viciously manipulative tyrant which only fear kept them worshiping, but instead Christians insist that the mythical monster is a "loving" god.<br />
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It's disturbing that the cruel, capricious, psychopathic behavior which is the nature of the Biblical god - it is evident throughout holy scripture that God is all that and <a href="http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/cruelty/long.html">worse</a> - must be called just, holy and glorious by its worshipers. Believers never seem to wonder why their omniscient and omnipotent god would require total, abject obedience in the first place nor why it could not - or would not - think of a more humane way for its followers to avoid eternal hellfire for the "sin" of being what they were created to be. It never seems to occur to believers that the deity they truly believe in is actually awful, even evil.<br />
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Christians refer to the Passion and Resurrection stories as the most "joyful" part of scripture. I understand that they think it is the most important part - indeed it is the very foundation of the Christian faith - but I do not understand how people can remain so uncritical of this "salvation". I find myself wondering how people can suspend normal human horror at such violent cruelty in this one celebrated instance, calling it necessary and good. Their insistence that a god <i>that can do <b>anything</b></i> somehow needed someone to die a violent, painful death to satisfy its thirst to punish and that this capriciously cruel demand is the <i>greatest <b>love</b> humankind will ever know</i> strikes me as very sad.<br />
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Human beings fear death more than anything else. Al Stefanelli <a href="http://freethoughtblogs.com/alstefanelli/2012/04/08/easter-other-myths/">writes</a> that through most of history, the horror of dying spawned many versions of the Savior story. Probably human beings then, as now, felt an awful impotence in the face of their inevitable demise and that sense of impotence may explain the continued acceptance of a doctrine of human failure leading to misplaced faith in irrational belief.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKaFwygS4SWxVW3db8_4FxUuIg9AyZlCH54rdOchs6eX3TWBBf3_6-9dgf3aYPgKbjR7QLvW-gLHBBSn_lNCFh94SvYIVenjc5-U9T1veWT6RRkfubUDRVru6o66-O0piC6SoK71SSixgC/s1600/washed-blood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKaFwygS4SWxVW3db8_4FxUuIg9AyZlCH54rdOchs6eX3TWBBf3_6-9dgf3aYPgKbjR7QLvW-gLHBBSn_lNCFh94SvYIVenjc5-U9T1veWT6RRkfubUDRVru6o66-O0piC6SoK71SSixgC/s200/washed-blood.jpg" width="199" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>Think about that...</b></td></tr>
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But, while fear and a sense of impotence may explain the willingness of believers to accept a savior myth, I feel that it is early religious indoctrination and psychological manipulation which leads people to sublimate their normal, healthy human aversion to wanton cruelty and to accept the meanest of human impulses - in the guise of Godly judgement - with hardly a murmur of protest. Cruelty is called kindness, evil is called good and contempt is called love. Such is the bizarrely twisted Christian moral compass.<br />
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I suspect that the early Christian conquerers co-opted the pagan Eastre celebrations of springtime fertility not simply to 'win over' pagans to Christianity (they generally achieved that through intimidation and persecution anyway), but to make Christianity more palatable to the masses by entwining the terrifying and immoral doctrine with the more hopeful, joyful celebrations that most psychologically healthy human beings naturally prefer. By fusing the repugnant with the refreshing, Christianity keeps its adherents off-balance and confused about what ought to be the clear difference between goodness and evil.<br />
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I do not believe that the Biblical god - or any gods - exist, but I do think that the <i>idea</i> of such a god - and the repulsive religious doctrines built around it - ought to be resisted by all morally healthy people with every ounce of vigor that they can muster.<br />
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(This post was previously published on this blog).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLU1DhoiY0kJEDeS7yD9o6V7OSkH3yhIrw2bcgC8pDgGROtmRkbjZVSUENskcxbIzZ-lIHr0f30HR3Cz5zAMD7wMgCICMCTzB6gFNwb8vUEgGf7lI_QKmT0rj1PWI1ooqWf0etfYVaYJMp/s1600/happy-easter-easter-cross-daybreak.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLU1DhoiY0kJEDeS7yD9o6V7OSkH3yhIrw2bcgC8pDgGROtmRkbjZVSUENskcxbIzZ-lIHr0f30HR3Cz5zAMD7wMgCICMCTzB6gFNwb8vUEgGf7lI_QKmT0rj1PWI1ooqWf0etfYVaYJMp/s640/happy-easter-easter-cross-daybreak.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><b>Replica of torture/execution device is the universally beloved symbol for the religion of "love".</b><br />
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NiftyWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103734836789258691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2155986947588635239.post-81876282553039779442017-01-27T10:44:00.003-06:002017-01-27T10:52:20.108-06:00The Business of Destroying Public Education<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-0mU1KiJlwUpRhPeMHI_jvedrX67j6y41C64fodjzi1cqF8xH3eksjiFMKiOMk1xkZ3RBS_3b8kcxWm6sOogcslnKD20R8xRiU_a7U9TqsEr3zBmo1XXrIRDpg2vw9WBw0PZipsv1pGmB/s1600/educationcorporateschool.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="382" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-0mU1KiJlwUpRhPeMHI_jvedrX67j6y41C64fodjzi1cqF8xH3eksjiFMKiOMk1xkZ3RBS_3b8kcxWm6sOogcslnKD20R8xRiU_a7U9TqsEr3zBmo1XXrIRDpg2vw9WBw0PZipsv1pGmB/s640/educationcorporateschool.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Reposting this from 2012 - even more urgently true today!</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #073763;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #073763; font-size: large;"><b>(Noah) Webster echoes the belief that proper education is the first defense against tyranny. “In despotic governments, the people should have little or no education, except what tends to inspire them with a servile fear. Information is fatal to despotism . . . In our American republics, where [government] is in the hands of the people, knowledge should be universally diffused by means of public schools.” He believed that “the more generally knowledge is diffused among the substantial yeomanry, the more perfect will be the laws of a republican state.” Minneapolis News Blog, September, 2011.</b></span></span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb6OaUM86mWacT_EYXe5pQMDVg49nK0OMNcwyI4g2b3FTc-4nxtoZ94MXm8EQE7BDSxVnJzleqpwFiPJkZitvBmghthuByPFUsTvo5fLbofdrVK0lNrnLs_WUL-C34Tvbb7mGN7x4fX0J6/s1600/education_pattern-l.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb6OaUM86mWacT_EYXe5pQMDVg49nK0OMNcwyI4g2b3FTc-4nxtoZ94MXm8EQE7BDSxVnJzleqpwFiPJkZitvBmghthuByPFUsTvo5fLbofdrVK0lNrnLs_WUL-C34Tvbb7mGN7x4fX0J6/s200/education_pattern-l.png" width="163" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>Public education levels </b><br />
<b>the </b><b style="background-color: white;">social playing field.</b></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;">The ultimate result of good public education is a population which will not willingly allow itself to be subjugated and oppressed. </span>Educated people are empowered people. Those who can not only read and write but have access to history, math, science and technology, are better able to think independently, to face challenges without the fearfulness that ignorance brings, and to come up with innovative ideas built on their education which can potentially elevate any person to a position of leadership in a society. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;">Education increases opportunities for the common people while it pushes aside the veil of ignorance which has always been used to hide the agenda of the elites who have historically controlled society. The American public school system, imperfect though it is, has managed to foster</span><span style="background-color: white;"> an astonishing and prolonged era of unprecedented national intellectual growth, creative and scientific innovation and technological progress.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #073763; font-size: large;"><b>“The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people and be willing to bear the expenses of it. There should not be a district of one mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the public expense of the people themselves.” John Adams, 1785.</b></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmVIn1RNs8J697lpU641_cULKmpG-8kiO-qaxry9sJtZbV9x_nxfdIPpGRsDJLfC9bqC0WZU1px3ZupB8sccUr-c8eRf0yKfMsNXvwuOWaBZfLL_OYPj6KBvFg5umKCbA48UTpjn5zgkYq/s1600/koch-bros-630.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmVIn1RNs8J697lpU641_cULKmpG-8kiO-qaxry9sJtZbV9x_nxfdIPpGRsDJLfC9bqC0WZU1px3ZupB8sccUr-c8eRf0yKfMsNXvwuOWaBZfLL_OYPj6KBvFg5umKCbA48UTpjn5zgkYq/s320/koch-bros-630.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><b>" ...the tax which will be paid for this purpose <span style="background-color: white;">is not</span></b><br />
<b><span style="background-color: white;"> more </span></b><b style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;">than </span><span style="background-color: white;">the thousandth part </span><span style="background-color: white;">of what will be paid to </span></b><br />
<b><span style="background-color: white;">kings, priests and nobles </span><span style="background-color: white;">who will rise up among us</span></b><br />
<b>if we leave the people in ignorance." Thomas Jefferson</b></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white;">The ultimate <i>goal</i> of good public education is a society where the self-interest of millions of well-educated citizens will provide an effective counter-balancing effect against the potential tyranny of powerful religious and wealthy elites. The great American experiment was the attempt to build a society where liberty, justice and the pursuit of happiness by the common people would be made possible for the first time in human history because an informed and educated population would have </span><span style="background-color: white;">at its disposal </span><span style="background-color: white;">the tools for success which were formerly reserved for the privileged few.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;">In short: <i>the ultimate goal of good public education is to create the conditions wherein the American Dream might actually become a reality.</i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;">At first blush, it would seem logical then, that business and industry would welcome and support a system of public education which has become the engine for innovative ideas and economic growth. But, they do not. They favor limited public access to education, preferably privatized for greater control by special interests, and never subsidized by public taxation.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;">There are at least three good reasons why the business sector, like the church, hates and fears public education: 1.Educated people can see through false, manipulative ideologies which have long been used to control and abuse them. 2. Educated people are more cognizant of their human worth and will insist on the personal respect to which they are entitled as citizens in a putatively egalitarian society. 3. Educated people know how to organize themselves to fight for a political voice, for better arrangements to encourage more social equality and for fair pay for their labor as the producers of the goods and services that provide the growth and wealth which drives the economy.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSroSdQIMsvQbWMMoqAReOAeYD0aqij8hsJ0aBmU3R3tnWoH_-JBPBujB5jNdXVPg4AiRXllGb3rVnkb0RgE3gwqVEBDGIY0jI0AqMkfpp_W0O9Nvxc2V4XLj892E8VaFhN6WnwhtOPxiE/s1600/education-empowers-logo2.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSroSdQIMsvQbWMMoqAReOAeYD0aqij8hsJ0aBmU3R3tnWoH_-JBPBujB5jNdXVPg4AiRXllGb3rVnkb0RgE3gwqVEBDGIY0jI0AqMkfpp_W0O9Nvxc2V4XLj892E8VaFhN6WnwhtOPxiE/s200/education-empowers-logo2.gif" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>...and we can't have that!</b></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white;">The truth is that the American Dream - and especially the attempts to provide people with the means to fulfill it through public education - has always been more of a nightmare to wealthy and religious elites, even though they use this language today to convince their supporters that what is good for the elites will be good for everyone. Business and industry want a pool of uneducated or poorly educated workers whose cheap labor can produce the goods that create wealth for the elite. When public education reduced the number of Americans who were willing to work like serfs, Big Business simply took its production jobs offshore, where - wait for it - there are large pools of uneducated or poorly educated people whose cheap labor can produce the goods that create wealth for the elite.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #073763; font-size: large;"><b>“Learned Institutions . . . throw that light over the public mind which is the best security against crafty and dangerous encroachments on the public liberty.” James Madison, 1822.</b></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;">The power, influence and wealth of elites depends upon a large population of ignorant, dependent and obedient poor workers and a small, well-controlled pool of talented staff who have been given a narrowly targeted <strike>indoctrination</strike> "education" in only the highly-focused areas cherry-picked for maximum utility to Big Business. </span><span style="background-color: white;">People who are lifted out of the cycle of poverty and ignorance by freely accessible education will be none of these things.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> Graduates of a classical, broad, liberal college education are inclined to think too much and want to make the world a better place - lofty ideals which are in direct opposition to the ideal corporate environment. It is not for <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-05/schools-find-ayn-rand-can-t-be-shrugged-as-donors-build-courses.html">nothing</a> that colleges all over the country are being "gifted" with attractive, brand spanking new business schools underwritten and overseen by wealthy donors.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5hRxyu6e9f-B6An7LipR-b70yVsdg22eDEIQKJ9geyVHVs3bNH-dLiqQ_jcRIAc92JVXPWyTOdyudIJroaxlCAsoPDUSxH72RcMki0i5uRrtWaAteqe4fAqp80XFKSFDx5Xz-GdT9OcyQ/s1600/Graduates.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5hRxyu6e9f-B6An7LipR-b70yVsdg22eDEIQKJ9geyVHVs3bNH-dLiqQ_jcRIAc92JVXPWyTOdyudIJroaxlCAsoPDUSxH72RcMki0i5uRrtWaAteqe4fAqp80XFKSFDx5Xz-GdT9OcyQ/s200/Graduates.jpeg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>What does a college degree<br />mean today?</b></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;">A good, liberal, free public education system is inimical to the ambitions of wealthy elites, and therefore has always been the target of attacks from business and industry. Like religion, Big Business cannot realize its ambitions for power and wealth unless there is a large, permanent underclass of uneducated people to use as producers and consumers of their products and services. Like religion, Big Business favors a private (expensive) education model which will ensure that access to real education is limited to the privileged few, while the majority will receive just enough education to be of use to wealthy business and religious elites.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;">Thus was born an unlikely and unholy alliance between profit-driven, amoral Big Business and the elite upper echelons of the church of the most radical liberal of them all - the Christ who preached the moral virtues of poverty, humility and tolerance - the Christian right.</span><br />
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<u style="background-color: white;">Recommended Reading (Did I merely say recommended? <i>Read</i> these!)</u><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;">Articles:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://minnieapolis.newsvine.com/_news/2011/09/11/7717017-founding-fathers-on-the-importance-of-public-education">Founding Fathers: On the Importance of Public Education</a>, Minneapolis Newsvine, September, 2011.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><a href="http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-opinion-section/189-189/10814-the-assault-on-public-education">The Assault on Public Education</a>, Noam Chomsky, readersupportednews.org<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/06/13/1099650/-ALEC-Battle-Over-Public-vs-Private-Education">ALEC & Battle Over Public vs. Private Education</a>, Bob Sloan, dailykos.com</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://www.voxeu.org/article/education-and-technology-supply-demand-and-income-inequality">Education and technology: Supply, demand and income inequality</a>, Claudia Goldin, Lawrence F. Katz.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/03/08-6">Prolonged Attack on Public Education and Unions Leaves Teaching Profession Woeful</a>, commondreams.org</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://www.princeton.edu/~starr/articles/articles05/Starr-PriceFreeSociety-5-05.htm">The Price of a Free Society</a>, Paul Starr, The American Prospect, May 2005</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><a href="http://www.economist.com/whichmba/paying-piper">Which MBA? Paying the Piper</a>, The Economist, July 2012<br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;">Books:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Righteous-Dispatches-Evangelical-Youth-Movement/dp/B001G8WPPI/ref=sr_1_12?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342111380&sr=1-12&keywords=Righteous">Righteous, Dispatches from the Evangelical Youth Movement</a>, Lauren Sandler, 2007.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Whats-Matter-Kansas-Conservatives-America/dp/080507774X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342113005&sr=1-1&keywords=whats+the+matter+with+kansas">What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America</a>, Thomas Frank, 2005.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/American-Theocracy-Politics-Religion-Borrowed/dp/0143038281/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342112008&sr=1-1&keywords=American+Theocracy">American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century</a>, Kevin Phillips, 2007.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Gods-Politics-LP-Jim-Wallis/dp/B000VYVLR6/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342112237&sr=1-1&keywords=God%27s+Politics">God's Politics</a>, Jim Wallis, 2005</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Guns-Germs-Steel-Fates-Societies/dp/0393317552/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1342112328&sr=1-1">Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies</a>, Jared Diamond, 1999 (Pulitzer Prize winner).</span><br />
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NiftyWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103734836789258691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2155986947588635239.post-83419645820105729352017-01-26T14:33:00.000-06:002017-01-26T14:34:46.830-06:00Betsy Devos Will Destroy Public Education, The Bedrock Of Our Republic<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>“Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works.” Carl Sagan</b><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">Betsy Devos is actually being considered for Education in the Trump cabinet. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/11/27/whats-the-worst-that-could-happen-with-betsy-devos-as-education-secretary-two-scenarios/?utm_term=.e07c81cfa569">Oh hell no</a>. </span><br />
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Let's consider the words of one of the founding fathers:<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0b5394;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0b5394;">"I think by far the most important bill in our whole code is that for the diffusion of knowledge among the people. No other sure foundation can be devised, for the preservation of freedom and happiness...Preach, my dear Sir, a crusade against ignorance; establish & improve the law for educating the common people. Let our countrymen know that the people alone can protect us against these evils [tyranny, oppression, etc.] and that the tax which will be paid for this purpose is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance."</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0b5394;">Thomas Jefferson (letter to George Wythe, August 13, 1786).</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">Thomas Jefferson's lifelong belief in the importance of </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_the_United_States" style="background-color: white;">public education</a><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">as the bedrock of a free Republic was shared by many of the founding fathers. </span><span style="background-color: white;">A major reason why most of humanity has lived in virtual enslavement for most of history is that the common people have been historically excluded from the education that was strictly reserved for the wealthy and priestly classes. </span><span style="background-color: white;">As students of the Enlightenment, the framers of the Constitution of the United States of America understood from reading history - and through personal </span><span style="background-color: white;">experience </span><span style="background-color: white;">and</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">observation - that the elusive key to greater liberty and equality for humankind has always been education.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_wsocxvjgOEV7gKBvwiDk_eB-DLioyauEVFjk7hQ6pzW0Q73hJkNm3lvnKeYIdNkv5YOCDIZHesRXM8AzbsRGqI1WgAQlCMMFZsg2dsLXqXwWp_WvbOaHOhzsETKld89OpN1hUTgJphhr/s1600/Knowledge_is_power_by_anticensorship.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_wsocxvjgOEV7gKBvwiDk_eB-DLioyauEVFjk7hQ6pzW0Q73hJkNm3lvnKeYIdNkv5YOCDIZHesRXM8AzbsRGqI1WgAQlCMMFZsg2dsLXqXwWp_WvbOaHOhzsETKld89OpN1hUTgJphhr/s200/Knowledge_is_power_by_anticensorship.png" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white;">Knowledge is power and education is the great equalizer. The founders knew that public education - the dissemination of the power of knowledge throughout a population of equals - was vital to a free and productive society. They believed that an educated citizenry was one of the foundational "common causes" behind which all citizens ought to throw their full support for the betterment of humankind and for the good of the new nation. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;">They also knew that this public education - which would become the backbone of a more just and free society, the first of its kind in human history - must be protected from ideological influences and agendas. They had witnessed firsthand the oppression and tyranny that results when religious ideology is imposed upon a people, and they tried - via the establishment clause in the Constitution - to strike a balance between protection of an individual's religious liberty and the protection of the general population from any religious group which might seek to impose its religious ideology on the entire people. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-4wtIh8M06kW0oqVfglh5W-7mmu5ZgPB97UE0oLZvoZ_WL1ZI0si8INqMmVj7F17D5vQIqHhP4N9bi-dJeZsWB-xggIZm3dFdb5P5rAGRgn7HHmj4036BS0XwF14Xs-tSv4yZkd50fmW_/s1600/Christian-Leaders-so-called.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-4wtIh8M06kW0oqVfglh5W-7mmu5ZgPB97UE0oLZvoZ_WL1ZI0si8INqMmVj7F17D5vQIqHhP4N9bi-dJeZsWB-xggIZm3dFdb5P5rAGRgn7HHmj4036BS0XwF14Xs-tSv4yZkd50fmW_/s320/Christian-Leaders-so-called.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><b> "...kings, priests and nobles..."</b></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white;">"Kings, priests and nobles" - and their modern-day equivalent: megachurch leaders, pastors and conservative religious hierarchies - have always known this and thus feared and hated the idea of an educated public. Elites do not want social equality. More social equality is seen by powerful elites as a zero sum game: more power and wealth for the general population means less power and wealth for them, which is why education has historically been the ruthlessly guarded privilege of those elites. Throughout history, in many parts of the world, they made sure that it was actually illegal to educate the common people. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;">Wealthy, religious elites - whose wealth is sucked out of the people over whom they have religious power - fear an educated population the most and, when public education is legally mandated (as in the USA), they will do their utmost to undermine and impoverish it. They know that an educated populace will inevitably lead to the disruption of their traditional power structures. They</span><span style="background-color: white;"> recognise that they cannot exploit the people if the people are educated. Educated people have access to the knowledge once exclusively owned by religious elites, and can separate facts from fiction. Educated people develop confidence, independence and aspirations. Educated people fight back against exploitation. </span></span> <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><b>A rare, <i>true</i> church sign slogan.</b></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #0b5394;">"Above all things I hope the education of the common people will be attended to ; convinced that on their good sense we may rely with the most security for the preservation of a due degree of liberty." </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0b5394;">Thomas Jefferson, 3rd US President (letter to James Madison, 4th US President, December 20, 1787).</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;">Jefferson's insight no doubt informed religious conservatives in their strategy to undermine the Republic and reduce the United States to an authoritarian theocracy. They recognized that it <i>really</i> </span><i style="background-color: white;">was</i><span style="background-color: white;"> <i>education</i>, primarily, which enabled millions of people to rise above the poverty and disenfranchisement which has been the fate of "common people" everywhere for all of human history. And it was education of the people which was helping millions of Americans enjoy a better standard of living - earned through their own well-educated efforts - which had been impossible when they were an uneducated peasantry whose life circumstances and well-being were entirely at the mercy of a culture which allowed all power and wealth to be concentrated into the hands of a very few, usually religious, elite groups.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-3Ixnp29_uKEouL4utFKhsd-joxObNMktm9_l9oWPseZJmwRpbDHiNuN_o9LOqQccChzdZREKehAnQBp8iSYOCdZj5klyVnU1goYoMAs5BeFzWLSFJnEvtmJQAwffDt38d7-0YaXaz-T1/s1600/images-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-3Ixnp29_uKEouL4utFKhsd-joxObNMktm9_l9oWPseZJmwRpbDHiNuN_o9LOqQccChzdZREKehAnQBp8iSYOCdZj5klyVnU1goYoMAs5BeFzWLSFJnEvtmJQAwffDt38d7-0YaXaz-T1/s320/images-1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><b>...which is exactly what conservatives fear most!</b></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white;">It was this fact - <i><b>that free public education gives power to the people instead of to religious elites</b></i> - which put the American school system at the top of the religious conservatives' hit list. </span><span style="background-color: white;">Filtering information through their own self-interested Biblical lens, and keeping the vast majority of people fearful, ignorant and acquiescent because of the threat of eternal divine punishment had long been the primary means of concentrating power into the hands of the priestly classes, but public education -by giving the people access to the knowledge that once was the secret posession of the clergy, and the critical thinking skills with which to assess the claims and threats of religion - undermined the theological house of cards upon which church authority rests, breaking its stranglehold over the public psyche. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;"></span><span style="background-color: white;"></span><span style="background-color: white;">Millions of educated people who are capable of understanding the ideologies and </span><span style="background-color: white;">questioning the actions of powerful groups in their midst become far more difficult to control and exploit. Millions of educated people, who have been taught history and critical thinking skills, are able to recognise when the doctrine of a religious elite is immoral, self-interested power-mongering. Therefore, it became the first priority of the religious right movement to undermine and discredit public education while simultaneously spearheading a parallel assortment of pseudo-educational systems with which to replace it. The Christian homeschooling movement is not, and never was, a grassroots phenomenon. Likewise, the private Christian school and college campuses mushrooming up all over the country are a targeted investment in this strategy.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;">As they insinuated themselves into school boards across the country - running as fiscal conservatives to get elected only to turn around and concentrate on their religious agenda once in power - religious conservatives began a determined campaign to inject religious mythology into public school classrooms, inventing fake "controversies" over established scientific theories which conflicted with Christian beliefs, and often succeeding in forcing grossly misleading "information" into school curriculums. The ongoing effort of Christian conservatives to force the teaching of Biblical <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creation_and_evolution_in_public_education_in_the_United_States">creationism</a> in science classrooms, falsely presenting religious belief as a scientific theory to school children is a chilling example of this.</span> <span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJTNrbFMCxcLB1spDbFKrG3wLYn66LM6Ub2gZ1fN5yhtEzer-G48LC7Bq5xrOvKZ8QKDEoHGNPDJttLvcbdSodV2mCl23mci8GZXNGl_VTX_Ik8fme1opakAoxO8SF949uoAF0UoWZdIBY/s1600/science_vs_creationism-2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJTNrbFMCxcLB1spDbFKrG3wLYn66LM6Ub2gZ1fN5yhtEzer-G48LC7Bq5xrOvKZ8QKDEoHGNPDJttLvcbdSodV2mCl23mci8GZXNGl_VTX_Ik8fme1opakAoxO8SF949uoAF0UoWZdIBY/s320/science_vs_creationism-2.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><b>Who needs public school when all you'll ever need to<br />know can be found in the Bible?</b></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white;">In addition to these determined efforts to force schools to teach a generation of American children lies and mythology as "historical facts" and "scientific theory" (which may potentially handicap them for life), conservative school board members in key districts have also moved to prevent children from learning vital critical thinking skills. The reason why the religious right wants to reduce or eliminate higher order thinking skills in the general population is obvious - as mentioned above, properly educated people are equipped to see through the religious right's agenda - but the unintended consequence may very possibly be a population rendered incap</span><span style="background-color: white;">able of meeting the demands of a competitive global race for technological and scientific innovation due to huge gaps in their education.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;">Consider this plank in the Texas Republican party platform:</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;"><i><b>Knowledge-Based Education – We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.</b></i> (from a position statement in the 2012 Texas Republican Party Platform).</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;">The Texas Republican Party is openly calling for a ban on the teaching of vital critical thinking skills. They are not shy about saying this - it is right there in their published platform statement - and, thanks to the current climate of rising authoritarian anti-intellectualism, they are not shy about saying why they want to deprive Texas students (and ultimately all students) of the right to a full education, including the development of the ability to think for themselves. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ3Y9eJYK2G1lJ5mPJjz8bYjwBQ_-2d2YqM3Udi1u5vLkGZku-KPDSiPci3lFy5PJoSg47h1mdZFT42ieailjcbppOTwQm4H3SY2WOauyNztQfanNQ-Q0ejZfEI3puJnaRd5ghk4Q2-Eu7/s1600/ThisIKnowLogo.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ3Y9eJYK2G1lJ5mPJjz8bYjwBQ_-2d2YqM3Udi1u5vLkGZku-KPDSiPci3lFy5PJoSg47h1mdZFT42ieailjcbppOTwQm4H3SY2WOauyNztQfanNQ-Q0ejZfEI3puJnaRd5ghk4Q2-Eu7/s200/ThisIKnowLogo.jpeg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>...and <i>only</i> This...</b></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;">They intend to change Texas law so that religious belief will replace scientifically verifiable knowledge. They intend to enshrine into law that children cannot learn anything in school which will conflict with Christian teachings. The reference to "behavior modification" is a dog whistle thrown in to arouse right wing paranoia. HOTS have nothing to do with "behavior modification"; that sentence makes no sense whatsoever to anybody who actually understands educational theory, but pseudo-intellectual sounding claptrap is the stock in trade of Christian conservatives justifying their rejection of any secular initiative. Likewise, the jarringly inappropriate reference to "parental authority" and "fixed beliefs" makes no sense, unless the crux of the position is that schools will be prohibited from teaching pupils anything at all other than what parents and churches have already told them is all they need to know. That would make public schools unnecessary and redundant. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;">Which is exactly the point.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;">Preventing a generation of children from receiving a proper education is precisely the goal of the religious right. For those children that they have already siphoned off into fundamentalist Christian homeschooling and private Christian schools, the pseudo-education has already been well underway for more than a generation. It is the public schools which still vex them. Limping along, greatly hampered by the constant attacks, the draining of resources through determined conservative legislative attacks on the value and sincerity of public education and teachers, and the bleeding dry of funding and student enrollments via school voucher campaigns redirecting public funds into religious schools, the public school system has been under constant, vicious attack for over three decades. Unless the American people wake up and put a stop to it, the religious right may succeed in completely dismantling public education, leaving students to the deliberate miseducation of religious schooling, thus plunging the country back into a new kind of dark age, with both intellectual and social liberty lost.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLuReZUo-chDdLnel_m9bJU-gtvF0Wzeje5lS6NtJohIjlcjyEyTUtZTLsnXndTjWVhji1i2oCKANdrkfVSfxLUjus6xIG23uCwQEIpwzm4yLN_NiJF3A9JXTi6weAjisfCuf3nmP18zKi/s1600/full_1312239551sosflyer2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLuReZUo-chDdLnel_m9bJU-gtvF0Wzeje5lS6NtJohIjlcjyEyTUtZTLsnXndTjWVhji1i2oCKANdrkfVSfxLUjus6xIG23uCwQEIpwzm4yLN_NiJF3A9JXTi6weAjisfCuf3nmP18zKi/s200/full_1312239551sosflyer2.jpeg" width="167" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>...before it's too late!</b></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">"I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society, but the people themselves: and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is, not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. this is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power."</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">Thomas Jefferson (letter to William C. Jarvis, September 28, 1820).</span><span style="background-color: white;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;">Ironically, although President Jefferson's considered opinion that a free society depended upon a publicly-educated population was the insight upon which the religious right based its attack upon America, as soon as they had achieved their goal of majority influence over school boards and state legislatures, they<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/education/13texas.html"> acted</a> to try to erase Thomas Jefferson and other progressive thinkers from the text books which American children will study, replacing them with conservative idols and religious ideology. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;">Nearly destroying the public education system in the United States was never simply a mildly-regretted, <i>unintended consequence</i> of the conservative Christian campaign to "take <strike>back</strike> <i>over"</i> America. Preventing people from having access to a free and intellectually rigorous education was <i>always their <b>goal</b></i>. </span></span><span style="background-color: white;">Millions of publicly-educated people are the only safeguard standing between a free, democratic Republic and an authoritarian, theocratic oligarchy. The self-annointed "moral majority" understood this back in the late 1960's when they launched their </span><a href="http://www.reclaim7mountains.com/">campaign</a><span style="background-color: white;"> to undermine the foundations of American society and transform it into a theocracy with themselves (naturally) in control. The first and most critical stage of that campaign strategy was to destroy public education - the greatest threat to their power - and in that quest they have had alarming success. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;"><b><u>Recommended reading (No seriously, I'm <i>begging</i> you: read these things!): </u></b></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;">A thoughtful, in-depth and very readable article on the conservative Christian strategy to rewrite history, erase progressive contributions and undermine the entire foundation of American society: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/magazine/14texbooks-t.html?_r=1&ref=education">How Christian Were the Founders?</a> Russell Shorto, New York Times Magazine, February 11, 2010</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/why-public-education-must-be-preserved/2011/10/03/gIQAoabNJL_blog.html">Why public education must be preserved</a>, Valerie Strauss, Washington Post.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;">Texas textbook standards revision story <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/education/13texas.html">here</a>.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;">PBS, School: <a href="http://www.pbs.org/kcet/publicschool/">The Story of American Public Education</a>.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;">Rev. Jesse Jackson Jr. <a href="http://schoolsofthought.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/12/my-view-the-moral-imperative-for-education-policy/?year=2012&monthnum=06&day=12&like=1&_wpnonce=914994d8ec&wpl_rand=86bf8013d4">The moral imperative for education policy.</a></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;">Dr. P Z Myers, <a href="http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/06/12/a-well-informed-citizenry-is-the-only-true-repository-of-the-public-will/">A well informed citizenry is the only true repository of the public will</a>.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;">Patrick Murfin's brief history of public education <a href="http://patrickmurfin.blogspot.com/2012/05/born-in-1852-universal-free-public.html">here</a>.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;">Columbus Dispatch <a href="http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/07/05/supreme-court-to-hear-creationism-appeal.html">story</a></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;">Louisiana private (religious) schools voucher story <a href="http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/07/louisiana-jindal-vouchers-emails.php">here</a>.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><b>"...improve the law for educating the common people...the people alone can protect us against...tyranny..."</b><br />
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NiftyWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103734836789258691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2155986947588635239.post-65824615428229132142017-01-25T12:31:00.002-06:002017-01-25T12:32:52.638-06:00Turns Out Roe v Wade Was Never A Guarantee of Women's Reproductive Rights<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9DXpnnPvJjeS6jb3qsybFArSJqcs9PIZqZCfwJ7K07VLaezOghRNWsHKgBzhZRkEZV_bYg2bFiQYrryQuIZoeUYBt2Cu6FBL_LjNLL4aaShtbuUKUNxGx94HZhJrbKT4swCumjyOLRLI/s1600/inspired-2016-01-save-roe-v-wade-rally-2002-main.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9DXpnnPvJjeS6jb3qsybFArSJqcs9PIZqZCfwJ7K07VLaezOghRNWsHKgBzhZRkEZV_bYg2bFiQYrryQuIZoeUYBt2Cu6FBL_LjNLL4aaShtbuUKUNxGx94HZhJrbKT4swCumjyOLRLI/s640/inspired-2016-01-save-roe-v-wade-rally-2002-main.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Individual freedom and the right to bodily autonomy - the principles behind our understanding of <i><b>consent</b></i> - were the principles upon which many of us assume the Supreme Court's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roe_v._Wade">Roe v Wade</a> decision was based, although the case itself was focused on a citizen's right to <i><b>privacy</b></i> around making decisions concerning her bodily autonomy and medical care. Laws which deny a woman the right to bodily autonomy - including laws that deny a woman the right to control what happens to her own body in favor of giving any potential fetus the "right" to use her body against her will or without her consent - are an unconstitutional denial of individual freedom because they relegate a woman to a legal status that is less than human. The legal precedent that a woman actually has the <i>right to consent</i> to the risks and responsibilities of pregnancy, and an equal right to decline consent to those risks and responsibilities was erroneously thought by many to be finally established. But since Roe v Wade was argued as a case for <i>privacy</i>, it has never been a guarantee of women's reproductive rights. It has always been vulnerable to attack, either through court challenges or through legislation which has chipped away at it.
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>One way or another, the</b><br />
<b>Republican Party will find</b><br />
<b>a way to control those sluts!</b></td></tr>
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From the moment Roe v Wade was decided, the religious right began working to overturn it. Outraged that women had at last been granted the right to choose if and when to be pregnant - a right which conflicted with the patriarchal order which demands that men have complete authority over women - the "moral majority" began a campaign of slut-shaming, raising the specter- never far beneath the surface in any misogynist culture - that uncontrolled women would engage in wildly promiscuous and "irresponsible" sex and darkly warning that the new law would bring about the downfall of American civil society However, when this tactic initially only gained traction within the most conservative and misogynistic segments of society, conservatives realized that the problem was that a <a href="http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2134868?uid=2&uid=4&sid=47698953024087">majority</a> of Americans in the late 1970's actually respected a woman's right to choose - and that most Americans believed that the consensual sexual activity of women was no more society's business than the consensual sexual activity of men.<br />
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Religious conservatives soon zeroed in on "consent" as a <a href="http://www.pamf.org/teen/abc/sex/consent.html">potentially malleable</a> concept that they might be able to use to drive a wedge between women and their human rights, thereby setting the stage to put women back in their traditional place. In order to overcome the legal issue of consent, religious and political conservatives began working tirelessly - using tactics including slut-shaming, abstinence-only purity campaigns inserted into public schools, and falsely equating microscopic blastocysts with full term babies - to entrench the notion that recreational sex involving the conscious avoidance of pregnancy is shameful and that only marital sex which welcomes the prospect of conception should be recognized and supported by society. Their aim was to increase public acceptance of explicitly Christian sexual mores in order to garner voter support for their social agenda. The ultimate goal was to get this explicitly Christian theology enshrined into law: that <b>whenever a woman has consented to sex, she has </b><b style="font-style: italic;">automatically consented to pregnancy, too</b>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN4F5C6xH2EjLrmsU7gQj8aBIvHN042aI90asn-jnTOPzwRWJDoccyG_u5N_wU3uqCOPwCzfQdYDDKVDsxHa5VlqpFDgj1zAeEWKUfQ68bQCCg23JxVutiID246MMh4qO9PIkRMmx-lU0S/s1600/Asking+for+it+BANNER.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN4F5C6xH2EjLrmsU7gQj8aBIvHN042aI90asn-jnTOPzwRWJDoccyG_u5N_wU3uqCOPwCzfQdYDDKVDsxHa5VlqpFDgj1zAeEWKUfQ68bQCCg23JxVutiID246MMh4qO9PIkRMmx-lU0S/s320/Asking+for+it+BANNER.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>That's right, ladies, when you consent to sex, you consent to</b><br />
<b>pregnancy. And when you <i>don't</i> consent to sex, you</b><br />
<b>consent to pregnancy, too! You and your uteri are in a perpetual</b><br />
<b>state of consent to pregnancy! Ain't patriarchy grand?</b></td></tr>
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Eventually, extreme conservatives began to <a href="http://www.idahostatesman.com/2012/03/21/2044295/sen-winder-blasted-over-rape-remark.html">worry</a> that exceptions for rape and incest could possibly become a loophole through which some <a href="http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/03/indiana-goper-women-might-pretend-to-be-raped-to-get-around-abortion-laws.php">lying</a> women could escape unwanted pregnancy, leading to the <a href="http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/daily-reports/2012/march/21/states-abortion-contraception.aspx">push</a> for the elimination of exceptions for rape and incest as legal justifications for abortion. Building on the false premise that a conceptus is equal to a full-term baby, conservatives argued that a fertilized egg, no matter how it came into existence, is an innocent life deserving of protection. Completely ignoring the question of whether a woman who has been raped is deserving of society's protection and adroitly sidestepping Roe v Wade, forced-birth groups wrote bills denying abortion rights to women <i>even in the case of rape or incest</i> which their political arm, the Republican party, sponsored in state legislatures. In one giant leap of cruel imagination, conservatives managed to establish as a serious idea that <i><b>even when a woman does not consent to sex, her consent to pregnancy should be automatic in the eyes of the law</b></i>.</div>
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Lest there be any doubt about the intentions of the religious conservatives and their hired guns in the state and federal legislatures to render the legal notion of female consent completely irrelevant and completely powerless, forced-birth organizations created "personhood bills" which they instructed their Republican lackeys to sponsor and pass in various states. "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personhood">Personhood</a>" bills, if signed into law, would confer the full rights of a "person" - a deliberately vague term, but generally considered to be equal to a live-born child - to all fertilized ova. Such laws would criminalize most forms of female-controlled contraception, emergency contraception, assisted reproduction and, of course, all abortions. They would also open the door to state-sponsored invasion of women's privacy and health care rights since legally protected "persons" could potentially be "murdered" before a conception is discovered to have taken place. Furthermore, such laws would criminalize anyone who attempted to help a woman abort the conceptus "person" either by performing a surgical procedure, providing medical abortifacents, or driving a woman across state lines to obtain an abortion in a non-"Personhood" state.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTkZ5VMWQ-lMd3PS6tvXMDegXOQAdFXWD_7AJXMTJpqQW_kaH3QRBbBNIM1QOIxrbvpi3MTtyEAhTZb64LGF2N4GS8fsml1G-elJFJ55NjFrgLbdku2ss93Q0bLvO4z7xunyD9xDUzfXSZ/s1600/personhood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTkZ5VMWQ-lMd3PS6tvXMDegXOQAdFXWD_7AJXMTJpqQW_kaH3QRBbBNIM1QOIxrbvpi3MTtyEAhTZb64LGF2N4GS8fsml1G-elJFJ55NjFrgLbdku2ss93Q0bLvO4z7xunyD9xDUzfXSZ/s400/personhood.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><b>Got that, gals?</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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"Personhood" laws are the holy grail of the forced-birth movement and the ultimate goal of religious conservatives. If passed, such laws would strip women of all bodily autonomy in matters of reproduction. Women could be denied female-controlled birth control, they would be denied emergency birth control if their partner's birth control fails or he refuses to use it and they would be denied abortions - even if they are impregnated by rape and even if their health or lives are endangered by a pregnancy. In short, thanks to the twisted culture of "life" pushed so ruthlessly onto them by religious conservatives, women would be compelled to sacrifice their happiness, risk their health and even lose their lives because a single-celled conceptus has been granted a right to occupy her body which supersedes all of her rights including her humanity, her dignity and her right to life.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyT7Tg1Q78hp9tRMT_9fMYOHlLxfoBxWjpnuIaZ9cmz6qxlcrGWn1oDbAnpNLSD0FIlCor6NihhcfSIQYtCxT3s5toDojlBIPHnBwg5oGASQftYHWkh8Xue6-J6-KpRGpRRM9ol7DE1uge/s1600/Type+of+Contraception+the+women.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyT7Tg1Q78hp9tRMT_9fMYOHlLxfoBxWjpnuIaZ9cmz6qxlcrGWn1oDbAnpNLSD0FIlCor6NihhcfSIQYtCxT3s5toDojlBIPHnBwg5oGASQftYHWkh8Xue6-J6-KpRGpRRM9ol7DE1uge/s200/Type+of+Contraception+the+women.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>Keep that contraception out</b><br />
<b>of those sluts' hands!</b></td></tr>
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The Republican Party, which has degenerated to little more than the political arm of the conservative religious right, has been striving relentlessly to ensure that women will be legally forced to bear all of the negative physical, social and most of the financial repercussions for any unplanned pregnancy, while the churches themselves underline and enforce the subordinate and inferior position of women in the culture. Through tireless efforts to withhold access to contraception from women, the religious right ensures that reproductive control remains primarily in the hands of men. Thanks to ideologically-driven appointments to the FDA and the business interests of both drug companies and the medical establishment, only male-controlled methods of reliable contraception are available without a prescription, forcing women to navigate (and pay for) "care" from layers of medical and pharmacy gatekeepers before they are permitted to obtain reliable female-controlled contraception.</div>
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Religious patriarchy allows society to label unplanned pregnancy a "women's issue" in spite of the fact that it takes both a man and a woman - both failing to use effective contraception - to create an unplanned pregnancy. The fact that society allows unplanned pregnancy to be framed as a women's issue reveals the depth of the unconscious misogyny which lays the responsibility for - and the consequences of - an unplanned pregnancy squarely in the woman's lap, while little thought - and almost no censure - is directed toward the "guilt", the "promiscuity" or the "irresponsibility" of the man involved.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>The old joke about keeping women</b><br />
<b>barefoot and pregnant?</b><br />
<b>Not so funny anymore.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
More insidiously, when pregnancy and the laws restricting women's rights over when and if they will become pregnant is framed as a women's issue, conservatives ensure that half the population at least may ignore the very <a href="http://www.thelizlibrary.org/site-index/site-index-frame.html#soulhttp://www.thelizlibrary.org/liz/004.htm">real danger</a> to women's health and safety. Few men pay attention when women's rights are being stripped away because the phrase "women's issue" is unconsciously received as a signal that the subject is unimportant and <i>less than</i> men's other concerns. Even men who love the women in their lives are lulled into a false sense of "nothing to worry about" as their wives, their sisters and their daughters are slowly but surely reduced to the legal status of walking wombs compelled under threat of criminal prosecution to gestate the offspring of <i>any</i> man who succeeds in impregnating them - whether by mutual and loving consent, by accidental failure of birth control or by force.</div>
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In this way, the religious patriarchy ensures both that women cannot control their own reproduction completely (since women - even abstinent women - can be, and often are, the victims of forced impregnation) and that no man - not even a rapist - needs to accept the decision of a mere woman on the question of whether or not he can use her body to reproduce. That is because the "right to life" of a conceptus is, in fact, really just an extension of men's rights. A conceptus is always <i>some</i> man's potential offspring, and at its core, religious teaching is all about enshrining the right of every man to reproduce. If women are allowed the freedom to choose, some men would almost certainly have difficulty finding a willing mate with whom to procreate. Religions which enforce the authority of men over women and which restrict the freedom and choices of women therefore speak to the root of cultural misogyny - men's fear of the potential power of women to control their (men's) ability to reproduce. "Right to life" is actually the trojan horse by which male rights over women are being inserted directly into women's uteri. That's right. It's a great big legal 'fuck you, women'!<br />
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While religions pay lip service to condemning male brutality and offer assurances on how a "godly man" behaves, they strenuously resist efforts to enact laws which could increase rape prosecutions or extend protections for women against sexual assault, citing concerns about - you can guess - men's rights. <i>The ultimate social priority of religion is to confirm and enforce the authority of men over women</i>. To that end, religious conservatives - and their men in government - are willing to grant even rapists and abusers privileges over women, to safeguard the authority of "godly" men. In short, in order to protect the privilege of <i>all</i> men, themselves included of course, even "godly" men who profess to abhor rape <i>willingly award rapists and abusers the right to reproduce using women's bodies against their will. </i>As always, there is no thought spared for the humanity of the women who would be sacrificed to this Christian ideology. At best, they are dismissed as the "blessed" recipients of a "<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2012/jan/25/rick-santorum-rape-pregnancy">gift from God</a>".</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><b>This is already a real thing in</b><br />
<b>the conservative Christian world</b></td></tr>
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In the Republican vision of the future - as in the past it idealizes - "freedom" and "rights" will only fully belong to men and to the potential offspring of men, while women will be, at best, reduced once again to second-class citizenship, and, at worst, returned to sexual and reproductive slavery. Political, financial and social oppression of women, reproductive slavery and viciously misogynistic church-mandated rules of correct behavior and dress (for women only) are the unceasing reality for millions of women in theocracies around the world. All of these forms of oppression of women are rooted in the desire of these conservative societies to control the sexuality and reproductive freedom of their women. Almost without exception, societies based upon religious laws which both deny women fully human status and hold them accountable for the sexual activity of both genders strictly limit female freedom and impose exaggerated requirements for modest dress on their women and girls. If a Christian theocracy is successfully installed by conservatives in the United States, ever-deepening oppression will become the inevitable future for women and girls here.</div>
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Religious conservatives want Roe v Wade overturned because they oppose the principles of individual freedom and the right to bodily autonomy for women upon which the decision was based. That denial of those rights would relegate women to less than human status <i>is exactly the point</i>. Second-class status for women would be a feature, not a bug, for Christian conservatives since the Bible commands that women are not equal but <i>subordinate</i> to men. Bible-based religion asserts that man is the original human and woman, taken from man, is less than human. This is the reality of Bible-based governance. It seems like a nightmare from the dark ages, or some dystopian futuristic novel, but this is really happening <i>right now</i> in the land of the free and the home of the brave.<br />
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NiftyWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103734836789258691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2155986947588635239.post-28742602642335513822017-01-07T15:00:00.000-06:002017-01-07T15:00:00.154-06:00Isn't That Just Ducky!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr6p3cX8r4HGkE94BRDHkSUe9TI1V5XSFrI2vNsj5iYyEGvBPrdWqmGzo03PMT7Idk4S9GjYSnU6mkP6jGTQ05DuKU03jb-8-OZPtwncsHNzgZXpEtBlw-frYkBhZ1dbbpuIT4luRmyrs/s1600/duckyfireplace.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="434" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr6p3cX8r4HGkE94BRDHkSUe9TI1V5XSFrI2vNsj5iYyEGvBPrdWqmGzo03PMT7Idk4S9GjYSnU6mkP6jGTQ05DuKU03jb-8-OZPtwncsHNzgZXpEtBlw-frYkBhZ1dbbpuIT4luRmyrs/s640/duckyfireplace.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Hello!<br />
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Hello Everybody!<br />
<br />
I am so happy to see you again!<br />
<br />
Do you see this dancing light? It looks happy and it is warm, too!<br />
<br />
I like to sit in front of the warm, happy, dancing light.<br />
<br />
I like to sleep near the Christmas Tree, too.<br />
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Mama says that the Christmas season ended yesterday on Old Christmas Day.<br />
<br />
Nanny says that it was also Three Kings Day and there is a song!<br />
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A song for Three Kings Day! Yay!<br />
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I will listen and you can too!<br />
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Isn't that just Ducky!!<br />
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<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We Three Kings of Orient Are</span><br />
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We three kings of Orient are<br />
Bearing gifts we traverse afar<br />
Field and fountain, moor and mountain<br />
Following yonder star<br />
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O Star of wonder, star of night<br />
Star with royal beauty bright<br />
Westward leading, still proceeding<br />
Guide us to thy Perfect Light<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtKWFtAZi0QU3zd-BChefrPJnrir3Bo9-O5gPTY2RI37yklbWuzxsftTD1aulntIagl1F29hmGIp1j_QWJvQtNw1QGKJuc5N5gI0PtVCtvsWTG-MnyZXwu0V1Of_BbcH4oRKt1b-3DTY4/s1600/duckytree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtKWFtAZi0QU3zd-BChefrPJnrir3Bo9-O5gPTY2RI37yklbWuzxsftTD1aulntIagl1F29hmGIp1j_QWJvQtNw1QGKJuc5N5gI0PtVCtvsWTG-MnyZXwu0V1Of_BbcH4oRKt1b-3DTY4/s320/duckytree.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
Born a King on Bethlehem's plain<br />
Gold I bring to crown Him again<br />
King forever, ceasing never<br />
Over us all to reign<br />
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O Star of wonder, star of night <br />
Star with royal beauty bright<br />
Westward leading, still proceeding<br />
Guide us to Thy perfect light<br />
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Frankincense to offer have I<br />
Incense owns a Deity nigh<br />
Prayer and praising, all men raising<br />
Worship Him, God most high<br />
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O Star of wonder, star of night<br />
Star with royal beauty bright<br />
Westward leading, still proceeding<br />
Guide us to Thy perfect light<br />
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Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume<br />
Breathes of life of gathering gloom<br />
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying<br />
Sealed in the stone-cold tomb<br />
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O Star of wonder, star of night<br />
Star with royal beauty bright<br />
Westward leading, still proceeding<br />
Guide us to Thy perfect light<br />
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Glorious now behold Him arise<br />
King and God and Sacrifice<br />
Alleluia, Alleluia<br />
Earth to heav'n replies<br />
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O Star of wonder, star of night<br />
Star with royal beauty bright<br />
Westward leading, still proceeding<br />
Guide us to Thy perfect light.<br />
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- Rev. John Henry Hopkins, New York City, 1857<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/j1ZOGTPsxng" width="560"></iframe>NiftyWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103734836789258691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2155986947588635239.post-69278981621147735122017-01-06T18:00:00.000-06:002017-01-06T19:48:46.740-06:00Thank Gods It's FreyaDay!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Good Evening, Humans.<br />
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I have had a trying few days.<br />
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My humans left me to look after the twins while they traveled to visit family over the holidays.<br />
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Those two are incorrigible, as you know. I did my best, and I will say no more.<br />
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Yes, of course my Human arranged for another human to also look after us, provide food and so on.<br />
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But let us be frank; without me, this household would devolve into chaos.<br />
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I managed beautifully, as always. And I am happy now that they are back.<br />
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Thank gods it's FreyaDay!<br />
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<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Year of the Cat</span><br />
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<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On a morning from a Bogart movie</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In a country where they turn back time </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Contemplating a crime </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">She comes out of the sun in a silk dress</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">running like a watercolour in the rain</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don't bother asking for explanations </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">She'll just tell you that she came </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the year of the cat </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">She doesn't give you time for questions</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As she locks up your arm in hers </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And you follow </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">'till your sense of which direction </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Completely disappears </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By the blue tiled walls</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">near the market stalls </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There's a hidden door she leads you to</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These days, she says,</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I feel my life Just like a river running thru</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The year of the cat </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, she looks at you so cooly</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And her eyes shine like the moon in the sea</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">She comes in incense and patchouli</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So you take her, to find what's waiting inside</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The year of the cat </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, morning comes and you're still with her</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And the bus and the tourists are gone </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And you've thrown away the choice</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and lost your ticket</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So you have to stay on </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But the drum-beat strains of the night remain</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the rhythm of the new-born day </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You know sometime you're bound to leave her </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But for now you're going to stay </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the year of the cat</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- Al Stewart, Peter Wood</span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ACAK1Ck2ZM0" width="560"></iframe>NiftyWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103734836789258691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2155986947588635239.post-48096966637763368692017-01-04T23:59:00.000-06:002017-01-04T23:59:02.932-06:00Starfish Are A Beautiful Thing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv_LPBsSu1wGllXvOWsokbGXHO8uJl7XAbK9l_eBoi8OrChJUKYlSvyXpye27FQsmLQe2Uerrj8Uq6rLR_iqGCnfJmKUAqjBbeYlPCban7ipElHNE2A9HMWocf9JyBLAzSGhTAQx-KRBc/s1600/14_starfish.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv_LPBsSu1wGllXvOWsokbGXHO8uJl7XAbK9l_eBoi8OrChJUKYlSvyXpye27FQsmLQe2Uerrj8Uq6rLR_iqGCnfJmKUAqjBbeYlPCban7ipElHNE2A9HMWocf9JyBLAzSGhTAQx-KRBc/s640/14_starfish.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>While walking along a beach, an elderly gentleman saw someone in the distance picking something up and throwing it into the ocean.</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>As he got closer, he noticed that the figure was that of a young boy, picking up starfish one by one and tossing each one gently back into the water.</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>He came closer still and called out, “Good morning! May I ask what you are doing?”</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>The boy paused, looked up, and replied, “Throwing starfish into the ocean.”</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>The old man smiled, and said, “I must ask, then, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?”</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>To this, the boy replied, “The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.”</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Upon hearing this, the elderly observer commented, “Do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile. It can't possibly make a difference!”</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>The boy listened politely. Then he bent down, picked up another starfish, threw it back into the ocean and said, “It made a difference for that one.”</i></span><br />
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I'm not sure what this post is about, really. The post-holiday, pre-inauguration gloom is setting in and it seems like a good time for a little more beauty in the world.<br />
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Making a difference one starfish at a time is a beautiful thing. We can do this, America.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Geq9828mf2Y" width="560"></iframe>NiftyWriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17103734836789258691noreply@blogger.com0