2.15.2003
Well, looks like some of this present Terror Alert is based on misinformation.
Remember that we thinking conscious folks are the majority in this world of ours, be sure to call and/or write your Legislators and Mr Bush, let them know how you feel. Here is the NYC Indy Media homepage if you are mindful of the Peace gathering in Manhattan.
I'll be away until Monday evening. Thanks for stopping by, I'll see you then...
News Flash
NEW YORK—Responding to recent events on Earth, God, the omniscient creator-deity worshipped by billions of followers of various faiths for more than 6,000 years, angrily clarified His longtime stance against humans killing each other Monday.
"Look, I don't know, maybe I haven't made myself completely clear, so on the record, here it is again," said the Lord, His divine face betraying visible emotion during a press conference near the site of the fallen Twin Towers. "Somehow, people keep coming up with the idea that I want them to kill their neighbor. Well, I don't. And to be honest, I'm really getting sick and tired of it. Get it straight. Not only do I not want anybody to kill anyone, but I specifically command you not to, in really simple terms that anybody ought to be able to understand."
Worshipped by Christians, Jews, and Muslims alike, God said His name as been invoked countless times over the centuries as a reason to kill in what He called "an unending cycle of violence." "I don't care how holy somebody claims to be," God said. "If a person tells you it's My will that they kill someone, they're wrong. Got it? I don't care what religion you are, or who you think your enemy is, here it is one more time: No killing, in My name or anyone else's, ever again."
The press conference came as a surprise to humankind, as God rarely intervenes in earthly affairs. As a matter of longstanding policy, He has traditionally left the task of interpreting His message and divine will to clerics, rabbis, priests, imams, and Biblical scholars. Theologians and laymen alike have been given the task of pondering His ineffable mysteries, deciding for themselves what to do as a matter of faith. His decision to manifest on the material plane was motivated by the deep sense of shock, outrage, and sorrow He felt over the Sept. 11 violence carried out in His name, and over its dire potential ramifications around the globe.
"I tried to put it in the simplest possible terms for you people, so you'd get it straight, because I thought it was pretty important," said God, called Yahweh and Allah respectively in the Judaic and Muslim traditions. "I guess I figured I'd left no real room for confusion after putting it in a four-word sentence with one-syllable words, on the tablets I gave to Moses. How much more clear can I get?"
"But somehow, it all gets twisted around and, next thing you know, somebody's spouting off some nonsense about, 'God says I have to kill this guy, God wants me to kill that guy, it's God's will,'" God continued. "It's not God's will, all right? News flash: 'God's will' equals 'Don't murder people.'"
Worse yet, many of the worst violators claim that their actions are justified by passages in the Bible, Torah, and Qur'an. "To be honest, there's some contradictory stuff in there, okay?" God said. "So I can see how it could be pretty misleading. I admit it, my bad. I did My best to inspire them, but a lot of imperfect human agents have misinterpreted My message over the millennia. Frankly, much of the material that got in there is dogmatic, doctrinal bullshit. I turn My head for a second and, suddenly, all this stuff about homosexuality gets into Leviticus, and everybody thinks it's God's will to kill gays. It absolutely drives Me up the wall."
God praised the overwhelming majority of His Muslim followers as "wonderful, pious people," calling the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 attacks rare exceptions. This whole medieval concept of the jihad, or holy war, had all
but vanished from the Muslim world in, like, the 10th century, and with good reason," God said. "There's no such thing as a holy war, only unholy ones. The vast majority of Muslims in this world reject the murderous actions of these radical extremists, just like the vast majority of Christians in America are pissed off over those two bigots on The 700 Club."
Continued God, "Read the book: 'Allah is kind, Allah is beautiful, Allah is merciful.' It goes on and on that way, page after page. But, no, some assholes have to come along and revive this stupid holy-war crap just to further their own hateful agenda. So now, everybody thinks Muslims are all murderous barbarians. Thanks, Taliban: 1,000 years of pan-Islamic cultural progress down the drain."
God stressed that His remarks were not directed exclusively at Islamic extremists, but rather at anyone whose ideological zealotry overrides his or her ability to comprehend the core message of all world religions.
"I don't care what faith you are, everybody's been making this same mistake since the dawn of time," God said. "The Muslims massacre the Hindus, the Hindus massacre the Muslims. The Buddhists, everybody massacres the Buddhists. The Jews, don't even get me started on the hardline, right-wing, Meir Kahane-loving Israeli nationalists, man. And the Christians? You people believe in a Messiah who says, 'Turn the other cheek,' but you've been killing everybody you can get your hands on since the Crusades."
Growing increasingly wrathful, God continued: "Can't you people see? What are you, morons? There are a ton of different religious traditions out there, and different cultures worship Me in different ways. But the basic message is always the same: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Shintoism... every religious belief system under the sun, they all say you're supposed to love your neighbors, folks!
It's not that hard a concept to grasp."
"Why would you think I'd want anything else? Humans don't need religion or God as an excuse to kill each other—you've been doing that without any help from Me since you were freaking apes!" God said. "The whole point of believing in God is to have a higher standard of behavior. How obvious can you get?"
"I'm talking to all of you, here!" continued God, His voice rising to a shout. "Do you hear Me? I don't want you to kill anybody. I'm against it, across the board. How many times do I have to say it? Don't kill each other anymore—ever! I'm fucking serious!"
Upon completing His outburst, God fell silent, standing quietly at the podium for several moments. Then, witnesses reported, God's shoulders began to shake, and He wept.
2/15/2003
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2.14.2003
"May our country, on the brink of war, take to heart the final refrain of 'America the Beautiful' - "America! America! God mend thine ev'ry flaw, confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law."
-Martin Luther King, Jr., April 4, 1967
Do you consider yourself a Christian? Read the link please. Write a letters, get on the phone- let Mr Bush and your representitives know that you agree with the Pope and a majority of folks religious that rushing to attack is immoral. Anyway, how about that "Thou shalt not kill" thing
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God” (Matthew 5:9).
2/14/2003
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2.13.2003
In an age of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
- George Orwell
Lifted with a smile from Byte Back
2/13/2003
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Has your reading left you with a very positive sense that the US rush to war, without allies or UN mandate is immoral and wrong? No matter what you hear from the mainstream media, know you are not alone; there are a great many of us that don't believe the hype. it is the people of Iraq, just regular folks like you and me that will bear the burden of an attack on Iraq for the ostensible reason of removing Saddam Hussein.
Last Fall did you hear senator Robert Byrd's eloquent defense of of our Constitution and his questioning of the rush to give the power to declare war to the executive branch because it is vouchsafed to Congress? I was really proud of the mans standing up for the principals our nation is founded on. I'm proud to post this link of his speech from the Senate floor about our current state of affairs.
With all that is going on about Mr Bush's lust to attack Iraq other issues are getting lost in the drumbeat. Tom Paine can will give you some food for thought about tort reform.
Have you taken a moment to register to peruse the online New York Times? It only takes a moment and once you have the cookie you don't need to sign in each time you access it.. I'd like to thank the reader that pointed this out; I know I link to the Times on occasion and just stopped thinking about the initial 'sign in'.
Once you are a registered user you can read Alan Greenspan's assessment of the Bush Tax Cut; he believes it is not needed and will run the long term deficit dangerously high. Oddly enough Greenspan is concerned with the 'double taxation' of stock dividends non-issue, but not the actual double taxation that occurs in working folks' paychecks each week. What's with that? Oh, thats right, he doesn't worry about having combined social security and taxes on income taken out...
Please give this RealAudio piece on the legislation being drafted to make the USA Patriot Act even more draconian. And if you find that chilling read this account of developments occurring without the Office of Total Information Awareness getting Congressional approval.
Here is the lowdown from The Center for Public Integrity
2/13/2003
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2.12.2003
"Patriotism means to stand by the country.
It does not mean to stand by the president
or any other public official save exactly to the
degree in which he himself stands by the country.
It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves
the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the
exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise
he fails in his duty to stand by the country."
President Theodore Roosevelt, 1908
With all the hoopla going on I have to keep reminding myself "This is America, not a police state; this America not a police state..." a sort of mantra to keep my sanity in the face of an adminstration gone mad. It helps to run into friends, good people who's opinion I respect that are saying they are concerned for our nation, in disbelief at the way things are going nowadays. This tool, this project is for and about us, "We the People", the regular folks that know things are going in a wrong manner, people who can use discernment to weigh what are more and more skewed news reports and draw their own conclusions. The gist of what Democracy is about.
Read this report by William Rivers Pitt gleaned from Truthout. Now why would a news report scrub the fact that Bin Ladin called on listeners to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq? Does reality bump against what we are being told, the 'company line'? You judge. Take a moment to read what Mr Powell had to say about Osama Bin Laden and Iraq sixteen months ago: "We cannot let Usama bin Laden pretend that he is doing it in the name of helping the Iraqi people or the Palestinian people," said Powell. "He doesn't care one whit about them. He has never given a dollar toward them. He has never spoken out for them." What are we to believe, Mr Powell?
As an aside, you'll note the spelling used in the Powell quotation 'Usama' which is how it is spelled on his Interpol warrant. Oddly enough it was Libya that first the first state to issue an arrest warrant for him on March 16 1998. Mr Rumsfeld referes to him as UBL, leaving one to wonder about the spelling change; would taking the US out of his name help us not to think about his CIA roots? Marketing is funny that way and propaganda is marketing. OK it's a stretch but...
Condoleeza Rice seems to be pressuring UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix to fall into line. Shouldn't truth be served?
Read the full text of the Franco German Russian option for peaceful disarmament. Again, why the US rush to war? I am thankful that such a resource as Truthout exists; which must show seeing just how heavily I have used their site today.
2/12/2003
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2.11.2003
When weighing what we see and hear on tv and radio, what we read in the press or in a venue such as this we have to trust that the facts offered are indeed facts, that they reflect reality. "Fact checking" takes time, a resource that many of us have little extra of at best. So we need to trust our source. I'd like to offer you this link from the History News Network that talks about the foundations that are often sources of popular media news, and also giving heir history while speaking about academic freedom. What compelled me to link it is that The Heritage Foundation and American Enterprise Institute are mention. I hear 'fellows' from these entities quite often on NPR, and realize they have a great deal of influence.
Remember Afganistan? Weren't we going to help them to become stable and embrace Democracy before going on to further adventures?
Moveon.org makes me proud to be an American in these times. Read about the founders.
2/11/2003
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2.10.2003
"We are many, and they are few... They need us more than we need them. Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. And on a quiet day, if you really listen, you can here her breathing." -Arundhati Roy
Felt a need to mitigate the darkness and misguidedness of the Nixon and Goering quotes below. When learning the truth of political matters one can feel a sense of loss, of despair; the "loss of innocence" cognitive dissonance that comes with learning what lies beyond the political platitudes in the realm of actions in the world, the despair that momentarily washes in with the realization that many of the worlds injustices were (and are) committed by people caught up in power, in greed, carrying out those actions without reflection, at least without making moral choices while representing our nation... and the system is so big, seemingly so entrenched. But Roy says it all and so simply.
We are the agents of change, the 'simple' folks that see the emperor standing there with his military trappings, pomp and smirk, feeling all powerful- and our simple laughter at seeing his bare ass in the breeze is bringing the house of cards down. Slow but sure, the groundswell of awareness is growing. The pundits will continue to talk of his finery as he stands there pale and weak and the laughter grows, hey, they want to keep their celebrity and influence. But the laughter is spreading, the pundits and their 'same as it ever was' is starting to grate on we, the 'stupid masses', (seriously, unless we are taken for really stupid people, how could we be lied to so blatantly?) the people that are America, the ones doing the jobs , providing and paying for the goods and services that keep the economy rolling. As people question and learn, the context gained allows for choices based on the Democratic values that are conveniently mouthed, but obviously difficult for those concerned about money and power to employ. Every day the world we are taught about at our grandparents knee, the world envisioned by our founding Fathers as we were taught in school, from the voices of great moral leaders past and present grows closer. With our help, with our participation in Democracy itself while helping others learn from thoughtful analysis of present day policy in the context of honest data i.e 'facts' and history.
Let's take a look at Argentina through an article by Naomi Klein; we will see how are fellows from the south made change. Regular people that didn't need to learn of thier countries' repressive history through a book.
Now I mentioned that we must be taken for imbeciles because we are so easily lied to. Perhaps the tractable media atmosphere of our times makes lying a temptation (and leadership technique) too hard to resist.Case in point, the tax cut and the budget. Tthings are bad, cut taxes and yup, cater to the uppermost income bracket. OK, so that didn't work- the economies tanking; "Well it didn't work the first time, let's try it again" while the crowd of his upper tax bracket cronies gives him a standing ovation; as they did again as he gives the war a hard sell. Attacking Iraq I mean, not the Phillipines or Columbia. Are thier children going to war? Military duty, as we all know, tends to be a phenomenon of the "regular people", people who will get no benefit from abolishing the estate tax or the dividend tax. And it's the plain ol' people that know you have to live within your means, you can't run up you bills intending to let the grandkids suffer the interest on your debt.
Mr Bush can speak religiously but I wish he would act that way. The Pope is even trying to reason with him. Jesus wouldn't bomb folks, at least from my reading, nor would he put the greedy needs of the few over the good of the nation, its people and the generations to come. He should be ashamed.
"Why of course the people don’t want war… But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship… Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger."
-Hermann Goering, Nazi leader, at the Nuremberg Trials.
2/10/2003
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"People react to fear, not love. They don't teach that in Sunday school , but it's true." - Richard Nixon
Quotation taken from 'The Culture of Fear- Why Americans are afraid of the wrong things...' Barry Glassner, Basic Books1999
Global media, said Levin, "will be and is fast becoming the predominant business of the 21st century." So predominant, in fact, that the media business is now "more important than government. It's more important than educational institutions and non-profits."
-Gerald Levin CEO AOL-Time Warner
Have you ever considered how our mental environment is shaped by the corporate controlled media, and to what purpose?
2/10/2003
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2.09.2003
The online version of The American Prospect has a well done article by Robert Reich both about Karl Rove as well as his time tested techniques in shaping the media 'spin' we are awash in when we take in any mainstream 'news' about the policy choices of the Bush administration.
A group of intelligence professionals remind Mr Bush that context, a sense of history would help his analysis as well as that of the American people. When the "company line" about attacking Iraq doesn't seem to hold water what are we to think? Perhaps Corporate bottom lines? You'll note Karl Roves' presence in this article as well.
Chuck Mcgee , executive director of the New Hampshire GOP resigned after it was found he hired a group called GOP Marketplace,and lied about it; and furthermore according to him that company took it upon themselves to hire another company to "repeatedly call" certain numbers; those of the Democratic Party as well as the Firemens Union phone banks- on election day.. The resultant jamming kept folks from getting free rides to the poles. Nothing like keeping an elderly person from exercising the franchise in the name of Republican victory.
Now, I hear you asking "Well, is there a Karl Rove connection?" My friends, he is scheduled to speak in a couple places in New Hampshire mid March is all I know for sure : ).
In less lighthearted mode, members of the Republican Party have been involved in some questionable incidents; from the Rats "subliminal" advertisement flap to the more serious issue of disenfranchising voters in Florida in 2000 presidential elections- as well as Jeb Bush's race for governor- Florida has still not reconciled the issue. OK, you should skip the 'Rats' link and read the linked materials on Florida and election hijinx.
Here is a review of 'Boy Genius'. It speaks a bit of Karl Rove; a thumbnail sketch of hardcore politics. I didn't say democracy.
2/09/2003
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