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A lot of people will say that the Discovery Channel protester is evidence that environmentalists are all ill intentioned and even evil. If that's true, the so is the following: The Oklahoma city bomber was Christian, so all Christians are bad. The lynch mobs of the 50's-60's era south were white, so all white people are bad. The members of the Black Panthers were all black, so all black people are bad. The Nazi's were all German, so all Germans are bad.
Don't confuse an extreme, violent minority with a much larger, legitimate, and largely peaceful movement. What he did and what he demanded was unquestionably unacceptable; don't try to tie people with whom you disagree to such tiny extremist minorities. It's a petty, illegitimate way of discrediting a sound idea, and is the stomping grounds of lesser minds. Don't bring yourself down to this.
Spiral - bite your tongue. This entire diary will only lead you to say everything must be abolished, so we must agree to disagree.
Will someone please tell me what Judeo-Christian principles are?
Is this some belief that parts of the 10 Commandments have made their way through history and into American law?
Does it have something to do with the fact the bits and pieces of the Jewish bible are selectively taken by Christians for their liking?
With the recent Us vs. Them, Good American Christians vs. Bad Foreign Muslims debate, somehow, they want to pull the Jews in and say Judeo-Christian values. But this just is not true.
Yes, I pray. But I can not take part in a "public" prayer, because they will end it with "In Jesus name we pray". If you ask that it be changed to "In God's name we pray" so that all can participate, no they can't do that.
I have already written a diary with Talmudic passages concerning abortion. From those passages, one could interpret embryotic abortion okay for all, rape, incest, problem pregnancy abortion okay after that.
Reform and Conservative Judaism have gay and lesbian Rabbis.
I would really be more inclined to say Judeo-Muslim Principles than Judeo-Christine Principles.
We agree that there is only one God and that he is the creator of everything, good and bad.
One of His names in Hebrew, Elohaynu, comes from the same Arimaic root word, as His Aribic name Allah.
Neither of us eat pork.
We have modesty traditions and dress, though carried out differently by region.
(Excellent job Pardu! No need to apologize. - promoted by SuzeB1964)
(NOTE: Suze beat me to this topic. I composed a diary without knowing of the Suze dairy and I just refuse to simply delete it. Maybe, the redundancy in this case is worth it. The topic is a very serious topic and it speaks to how we are allowing our nation to fizzle to the bottom of disgust. Sorry, Suze if this one bothers ya. Chuck Collins of IPS was on the radio today and I had not read your post).
"The Rabid".
A characterization that was leveled at Corporate Executive Compensation during a morning news cast. It was dead on in its illustration of the issue.
I sometimes foray into the unbalanced manner in which America's elite literally manage those who are less fortunate. The LT post entitled The worker as Pawn was the latest in discussion; it preceded this diary. The topic is so much a frustration to me as a progressive that I feel the need to delve a little deeper.
The following set on information exemplifies the seriousness of the executive compensation (EC) issue and how well paid executives may have metrics (or expectations) that lay-offs increases their potential for remuneration. Actually reducing the workforce (via layoff and possibly even shipping jobs overseas) and hording capital can lead to the (hypothetical CEO's) potential earnings as much as three to four million more per year!
When it comes to being over-the-top insane on a nightly basis, Glenn Beck not only takes the cake, he takes the whole bakery. The so-called conservative TV and radio personality has ruffled so many sane and fully functional feathers with his bizarre antics and inflammatory rhetoric, especially with his latest Million Moron March on the Lincoln Memorial, that not even Charles Manson would agree to interview with him. For example, Beck has said the governor espouses "common sense porn". Well, there certainly is some screwing going on of the common.
It seems that Beck has been lobbying hard to get the conservative darling of NJ on his program but that Christie has reportedly declined on multiple occasions.
The governor's office has fielded repeated requests, The Auditor is told, but they keep turning Beck down as so many advertisers have. One would think that Christie would be jumping (rolling) for joy to appear on Beck's nightly telecast given his embrace of the carnival-esque teabagger movement in his state of NJ.
The 10 banks that received the most bailout aid during the financial crisis spent over $16 million on lobbying efforts in the first half of 2010, as the debate over financial regulatory reform reached its height.
One of the last paragraphs...
Consumer advocacy groups had their own lobbyists working the Capitol's halls during the finance reform debate as well, but their spending was dwarfed by the banks -- a total of $792,000 in the first half of the year for four of the top organizations.
So let's recap: banks just about blow up the entire economy [and help sink the global economy] due to greed; then they get bailed out at tax payer's expense; then they use the money to pay out bonuses to the CEO's who oversaw the financial collapse; then they started posting profits; which they used to lobby Congress to weaken, if not downright kill, the financial reform bill.
As the article points out, those in favor of reform had their own lobbyists. But they were out-spent 20-to-1. If you really think banks can be fought, you need to think long and hard about that raio.
Now what do you think banks are going to spend on the November elections?!
With all the subtlety of of Sarah Palin posing over a Polar Bear carcass with a smoking .50 caliber, some campaign ads fail utterly. Such as 'Attack of the 50 foot Pelosi', where the creation is gorged by Obama and Harry Reid by pulling switches such as "Bail outs", and so on and so forth. As the abomination goes on a cross eyed rampage, it is finally destroyed by a coordinated attack, where every vote for the Republicans is a laser.
That's not even a joke.
Here's the full article... Barbara Boxer blimp is a notable one as well.
http://www.cracked.com/article...
Yes, folks. This poor kid is of the ISLAMIC FAITH.
Give him his bubby... OR HE'LL PUT A JIHAD ON YOU!
Let's take a look at the Islamic faith.
From Wikipedia:
"Muhammad (c. 570 – June 8, 632) was a trader later becoming a religious, political, and military leader. Muslims view him not as the creator of a new religion, but as the restorer of the original, uncorrupted monotheistic faith of Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and others. In Muslim tradition, Muhammad is viewed as the last and the greatest in a series of prophets—as the man closest to perfection, the possessor of all virtues"
"Muhammad preached to the people of Mecca, imploring them to abandon polytheism. Although some converted to Islam, Muhammad and his followers were persecuted by the leading Meccan authorities"
I CAN'T EVEN RELATE TO THAT SHIT!
So... a guy AFTER Jesus is the one true savior?!
A guy was "more" perfect than Jesus??? Muhammed doesn't even have any cool stories about SAVING people!! Where's his Mary Magdalene?!?! Where's his Tiny Tim?!?! Where's THE ABILITY TO MAKE CRACKERS AND WINE?!?!?!
There is a reason we're so against this BULLSHIT in the United States. A TINY minority has decided to jump around and kill people for no reason (or at least non-Jesus reasons)... and WE ARE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT!
"With about 1.57 billion Muslims comprising about 23% of the world's population"
Shit Wikipedia.
Shit.
OK. So maybe a quarter of the entire world is of Islamic faith. But have we FORGOTTEN 9/11?!?!?! There were at least a dozen of them involved! And they were OF ISLAMIC FAITH!
We're just going to invite them into our neighborhoods?!?
Ridiculous.
To the politicians who have brought this travesty to light....
THANK YOU.
To MSM.. for their constant coverage of the Islamic Mosque/Terrorist Training Center/Jihad Thrower... I'd like to give you a giant...
THANK YOU.
You've uncovered this story. Brought it out of the depths of NOWHERE and made it the sensationalist tale it truly SHOULD be.
The beauty, MSM, is that it is no longer just the NYC mosque that faces local terrrorist heroic action. The peons watching have now expanded their forces. All the way to Tennessee.
What's pretty amazing... is that most of these guys can't even SPELL Tennessee!!!
And their spreading love, and Catholicism, and virtue...
Through gassing the shit out of a future Islamic site, and setting it on FUCKING FIRE!!!!
Stop it all where it starts, folks! (and for the Islamic centers already standing... let's take a page from the book of the KKK WASPS of the nation and fire the shit out of them too!!! Why not?! It's the next logical step!)
If these guys start talking about this Muhhamed fool, they're just DAYS away from killing innocent Americans!
(Welcome back Merrykat! Great diary. This is something Everyone (on all sides), should learn. - promoted by lamb12)
(I'm a little rusty.;-)
'A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves' - Edward R. Murrow
And who can really blame them when the sheep come willing to the slaughter?
"The times, they are a different." - Glar, 'Planet 51' (Very funny movie.)
Rambling musings of 'Capitalism... A Love Story', 'The Spy Factory', 'Inside Job' and sheep tests...
It's odd how things seem to come together for me. Every so often I'll read one thing, then see a couple of other things, read something else...
And it will hit, just how badly we are screwing ourselves over.
When Jerusalem was conquered by the Christians on July 15 in 1099, 60000 people were slaughtered. Jews, Muslims, kids, adults, women children, everybody. That's 30 times as many as in 9/11. In 782, Charlemagne killed 4500 pagan Saxons, my people. And yet, Christians claim that Islam is a violent religion. On September 11th there will be a mass burning of Korans. I don't know if this pastor wants to start a war or if he's just a retard, but watch this.
Overnight the construction site for a new Islamic Center in TN was vandalized and it has been ruled Arson.
Have you ever heard of Kristallnacht? Certainly, it was in response to one Jew assassinating one German diplomat. But the underlying repercussions were much deeper.
It was the Beginning of the Final Solution leading towards the Holocaust.
Those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it? Is this what we want to be as a nation?
Herewith is a little something to aggravate the community.
We often speak about corporations and employees (workers) relative to wages and other compensation related issues. As I perused AOL's daily links, I ran across a link that read: People@Work: Using Average Workers as Pawns in Election-Year Politics.
The article supports oft written treatises related to socialism as desired economic state. In an ideal world, probably true but in our society an economic state that is a "Bridge Too Far."
The article is very basic and factually simple. However, the author accurately touches on a subject worthy of discussion. Also note that SCHEPP takes a swipe at the recent Supreme Court decision that allows corporations to give to political campaigns on an unlimited basis. Moreover, he touches into one of my pet peeves: executive compensation and its impact on the corporation.
I am going to watch for more from David Schepp. While I admit to a bias for his reporting (or writing if you will), I believe that he performs a service that is at the root of good journalism: he places topics on the table.
He happens to pick a random day out of the year to give a speech at the Lincoln Memorial (Beck and Lincoln share a lot of the same values...i.e. although people of African descent SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO LIVE EQUAL LIVES AS THE WHITE PEOPLE... they SHOULD be paid for work done and given THREE FIFTHS OF A VOTE).
He also is spearheading the movement of the African American into Conservative politics within the US..... He has never said ANYTHING bad about Michael Steele.
And speaking of changing racist ideologies...
"I think she is a racist. I think she decided things based on race. I think she says that a Hispanic woman, with the experience of being a Hispanic woman can make decisions that a white man can't make. I can't imagine saying that. That's like saying Hispanics can't make money decisions like them Jews."
OK. That may be a Beck quote... but that's about... um. That Supreme Court Lady saying something ignorant. So it's just ENTERTAINMENT! Yeah. ENTERTAINMENT.
Plus... Jews ARE really good with money! Way better than the HISPANICS!! How many times have you seen a Rabbi sleeping in a pile of garbage??
"Al Gore's not going to be rounding up Jews and exterminating them. It is the same tactic, however. The goal is different. The goal is globalization...And you must silence all dissenting voices. That's what Hitler did. That's what Al Gore, the U.N., and everybody on the global warming bandwagon."
You know... a lot of people give talking heads like Glenn Beck a hard time for things like "fear mongering." This is a PRIME EXAMPLE of how the left wing smear machine twists his words to appease THEIR agenda. He is clearly stating that Al Gore WON'T be rounding up Jews and exterminating them! It was a question on ALL OF OUR COLLECTIVE MINDS, and he answered it.. TRUTHFULLY AND HONESTLY.
Besides... Al Gore, The UN, Nazis..... PRETTY MUCH ONE IN THE SAME!! They're all ENEMIES!!!!!!!!!!!
"So here you have Barack Obama going in and spending the money on embryonic stem cell research. ... Eugenics. In case you don't know what Eugenics led us to: the Final Solution. A master race! A perfect person. ... The stuff that we are facing is absolutely frightening."
Shit! All this time I thought embryonic stem cell research was for the Alzheimers patients, or the children with genetic disorders........ Guess that was all part of the Left Wing Smear Machine. Jesus. Is my face red.
THANK YOU Glenn Beck. Without His wisdom, we'd all have been trying to do something crazy... like cure cancer or something.
"Because if you are a white human that loves America and happens to be a Christian, forget about it, Jack."
This is just.. sick.
So few people can relate to this story.
WHO GOES BY JACK ANYMORE?!?!?!
Fuckin A Glenn Beck. You've entirely let me down.
"I'm thinking about killing Michael Moore, and I'm wondering if I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it. ... No, I think I could. I think he could be looking me in the eye, you know, and I could just be choking the life out. Is this wrong? I stopped wearing my What Would Jesus -- band -- Do, and I've lost all sense of right and wrong now. I used to be able to say, 'Yeah, I'd kill Michael Moore,' and then I'd see the little band: What Would Jesus Do? And then I'd realize, 'Oh, you wouldn't kill Michael Moore. Or at least you wouldn't choke him to death.' And you know, well, I'm not sure."
Well. I mean... who HASN'T thought about it!?!?!?! Hear enough people with ONLY the knowledge they heard about in Fairenheit 9/11 and it gets.. pretty annoying. I'd entirely kill that guy with my bare hands too.
OK. Maybe I wouldn't... but I guess that's just kind of what makes Glenn Beck GLENN FUCKIN BECK
ANGER AND IRRATIONAL FEAR.... and subsequent actions (but we aren't holding him accountable... obviously).
"I'm on the verge of moral collapse at any time. It can happen by the end of the show."
Oh Glenn-y. If wishing death upon the highest members of society, and hating anybody without the same morals/values as your doesn't count as moral collapse... then I'M NOT SURE WHAT DOES!!!!
Man, if I had to bear the load you bear on a daily basis... I'd probably start yelling at microphones too!
Many will critisize you for your choice on the date for your rally. But I UNDERSTAND your conflcts in the scheduling., I UNDERSTAND the market you cater to holds .....different.... values. The day that MLK Jr made his speech isn't even on my pocket calendar! How would someone with as much responsibility as you even think to check that shit! Seriously. Eff those guys. LEGIT.
Banks and analysts say billions of dollars in potentially lost revenue is at stake.
Banks are now trying to salvage what they can during the rulemaking process by trying to convince the Fed that some processing fees, like fraud prevention costs, should be broadly defined.
Why can't banks be...well...just a bank! You know - a place for people to keep their money that the bank then uses to lend to others at interest. Afterwards, with the principle and interest payments from me and others, it gives me a trickle of interest on my accounts, whiling using the rest to make loans to others (at interest, of course). What is so difficult about that? It's a perfectly self-sustaining system!
Unfortunately, it's all about profits and making another 3 bucks on top of the 5 bucks you are already earning free and clear. In the end, if you are serious about cleaning up this mess called the American Economy, it has to start with banks - force them to be banks, not Microsoft wannabees.
Beck claims that "his weekend revival-style rally at the Lincoln Memorial was meant to reclaim the U.S. civil rights movement 'from politics,'" and he argues that "the movement was about 'people of faith.'"
The symbolism of the event suggests that former morning zoo radio DJ Beck is trying to reclaim the U.S. civil rights movement from none other than Rev. King himself, which is, if you think about, as offensive as it is hilarious.
Glenn Beck is promoting what he calls "The Plan" at the 912 Project. What is this plan, you ask? No one knows. Beck assures us that he "will be explaining the entire Plan over the coming weeks and months." But it has something to do with saving the country and changing its course. (I voted for Barack Obama for precisely that reason. Perhaps Beck wants Gingrich to save the country by getting us into a holy war with Islam, I don't know.)
(thanks for taking my advice and writing this diary Dmon. It is an outstanding piece! - promoted by faultguy)
I. A Case Of Doublethink?
1. I am a libertarian.
2. I am a democratic socialist.
George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984 introduced us to "doublethink," the idea of holding two contradictory ideas to be simultaneously true. After reading the above box, some of you may accuse me of doublethink. But dmondom, how can you be a libertarian and a socialist? They're as different as night and day, black and white, hip-hop and classical! Aren't you being intellectually dishonest?
Well, no, actually. Libertarianism and socialism are compatible - in fact, they're perfectly compatible, so much so that it is pro-capitalist libertarians who are intellectually dishonest. As I will argue, the principles of socialism arise naturally out of an ideology that concerns itself with maximizing individual liberty.
For decades - centuries, even - we've been sold a particular version of libertarianism, one that I believe to be untrue. Libertarians are frequently divided into left-libertarians and right-libertarians. Of the two, the latter is the most vocal, and indeed the voices of left-libertarians are scarcely heard in the political debate (with the obvious exception of Noam Chomsky). I should venture to think that most people, if asked, would not even know that a left/right divide exists within the libertarian community. Libertarianism has been so closely tied to the right-of-center political spectrum that people are completely ignorant of the other side. As a result, few people challenge the assumptions made by right-libertarians. They think that to be libertarian is to accept laissez-faire capitalism and all its implications, and so they've rejected libertarianism in favor of other ideologies (conservatism, liberalism, etc).
But I think the time has come for an ideological realignment. I think we need to challenge some of those key assumptions that many libertarians make about their philosophy and, in the process, develop a more consistent political, social, and economic philosophy. So let's get on with it.
Back in June, I took a moment to pay tribute to the memory of a man whose work had an immense impact and influence on me. That man was George Carlin.
I mention this because I am not a sentimental individual who spends a lot of time commemorating the passing of every notable entertainment personality. Until now, George Carlin has been the sole exception.
Well, thanks to a Facebook friend, I have been reminded that there is one other person for whom I wish to take a moment in time to honor and pay my respects.
On this day 20 years ago, the world lost an incredible human being, a phenomenal musician...and in my very humble opinion, the best guitarist who ever lived.
That's right. I said it. The best guitarist who ever lived. You have a better chance of convincing a Christian that God does not exist than you have of changing my opinion on this matter.
So you can talk about Robert Johnson, B.B. King, Otis Rush, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Albert King, Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, Jimi Hendrix, Keith Richards, Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen, Randy Rhodes, Joe Satriani, Kirk Hammett, Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai, Eric Johnson, George Lynch, Slash, "Dimebag" Darrell, and/or Tom Morello all you want...but when you can bring me a man who can make a weathered 60's-era Fender Strat scream the way this man could, then we can talk.
Stephen Ray Vaughan
October 3, 1954 - August 27, 1990
(damn good post by our own Pardu. - promoted by faultguy)
As the nation moves towards a historic national embarrassment and disgrace perpetrated by Glenn Beck, the Koch Brothers, Sarah Palin and their minions, I thought it appropriate to ask a rhetorical question. A question that is being asked by many in the media and by many Americans who view the cacophony of discourse from the Far Right as behavior counter to the principles, values, mores and cognitive integrity of people who are denizens of a 'great society'.
How does the strategic invasion of a sacred day and sacred act for many Americans become a day for 'restoring our honor' as a nation? Even if one refuses to accept the healing significance of Dr. Martin Luther King's (MLK's) 'I have a Dream Speech' on the nation circa the 1960's, one has to acknowledge the significance of the international award of MLK's Nobel Peace Prize. How is it possible to ignore the blatant 'code' associated with Beck's planning? How I can one not view the pending gathering as other than an effort to self-promote (Beck), foster discord among US citizens, and advance a political agenda (despite Beck's claims that the event is not a political event). How about the lack of courage to just say "Yeah, I scheduled it on that day and here are the reasons"? (HONOR)
"To restore the nation's honor"? As I consider the following, I sit in stupefied wonderment the extent to which the Far Right has aspired to reaching for deeper and deeper levels of an abyss. The state of wonderment is only surpassed by reflection of a common phrase employed by many on the RIGHT: Drinking the Kool-Aid.
The Kool-Aid as sustenance for a return to 'honor'.
When it comes to being over-the-top insane on a nightly basis, Glenn Beck not only takes the cake, he takes the whole bakery. The so-called conservative TV and radio personality has ruffled so many sane and fully functional feathers with his bizarre antics and inflammatory rhetoric, especially with his latest 
but feel bad for Glenn Beck.