2012/02/11

The caging of America





Over all, there are now more people under “correctional supervision” in America—more than six million—than were in the Gulag Archipelago under Stalin at its height. That city of the confined and the controlled, Lockuptown, is now the second largest in the United States.  

Why do we lock up so many people? by  Read more 



2012/02/06

The Palestein case


 
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Did you know?

1 - THAT, when the Palestine Problem was created by Britain in 1917, more than 90% of the population of Palestine were Arabs, and that there were at that time no more than 56,000 Jews in Palestine?
 
2 - THAT, more than half of the Jews living in Palestine at that time were recent immigrants, who had come to Palestine in the preceding decades in order to escape persecution in Europe?... And that less than 5% of the population of Palestine were native Palestinian Jews?
 
3 - THAT, the Arabs of Palestine at that time owned 97.5% of the land, while Jews (native Palestinians and recent immigrants together) owned only 2.5% of the land?
 
4 - THAT, during the thirty years of British occupation and rule, the Zionists were able to purchase only 3.5% of the land of Palestine, in spite of the encouragement of the British Government?... And that much of this land was transferred to Zionist bodies by the British Government directly, and was not sold by Arab owners?
 
5 - THAT, therefore, when British passed the Palestine Problem to the United Nations in 1947, Zionists owned no more than 6% of the total land area of Palestine? ... Read more

2012/01/19

Is the American way of life preferred over all other cultures?


Although the American way of life may seem luxurious to many, it is not the same across the socioeconomic board. Many Americans live in poverty and do not have access to proper education, housing or food. We irresponsibly spend money on larger and larger houses and spend until we get into debt. Instead of growing our own food we also support exploitative business practices by supporting factory farming and the unsupervised labor of illegal immigrants. Our culture is not superior to other cultures at all because it encourages superficiality, waste and indulgence. Although it's true than many cultures are worse or the same, our culture is not better than the British, Australians or Germans, etc.

2011/11/27

Conservatism has evolved from a political philosophy into a market segment.

Excerpt from When Did the GOP Lose Touch With Reality?

Some of my Republican friends ask if I’ve gone crazy. I say: Look in the mirror.


3. Fox News and Talk Radio
Extremism and conflict make for bad politics but great TV. Over the past two decades, conservatism has evolved from a political philosophy into a market segment. An industry has grown up to serve that segment—and its stars have become the true thought leaders of the conservative world. The business model of the conservative media is built on two elements: provoking the audience into a fever of indignation (to keep them watching) and fomenting mistrust of all other information sources (so that they never change the channel). As a commercial proposition, this model has worked brilliantly in the Obama era. As journalism, not so much. As a tool of political mobilization, it backfires, by inciting followers to the point at which they force leaders into confrontations where everybody loses, like the summertime showdown over the debt ceiling.
But the thought leaders on talk radio and Fox do more than shape opinion. Backed by their own wing of the book-publishing industry and supported by think tanks that increasingly function as public-relations agencies, conservatives have built a whole alternative knowledge system, with its own facts, its own history, its own laws of economics. Outside this alternative reality, the United States is a country dominated by a strong Christian religiosity. Within it, Christians are a persecuted minority. Outside the system, President Obama—whatever his policy ­errors—is a figure of imposing intellect and dignity. Within the system, he’s a pitiful nothing, unable to speak without a teleprompter, an affirmative-action ­phony doomed to inevitable defeat. Outside the system, social scientists worry that the U.S. is hardening into one of the most rigid class societies in the Western world, in which the children of the poor have less chance of escape than in France, Germany, or even England. Inside the system, the U.S. remains (to borrow the words of Senator Marco Rubio) “the only place in the world where it doesn’t matter who your parents were or where you came from.”

2011/10/12

How hard is it to find a smart conservative leader?



At the bigotry-laden Values Voters Summit, former Republican Presidential candidate Rick Santorum inadvertently characterized conservative values as something smart people do not have.
We will never have the media on our side, ever, in this country. We will never have the elite, smart people on our side.
Yes, damn the media and the elites and anyone who has bothered reading a book that isn't the Bible. Those smarts with their logic will never understand Santorum's staunchly anti-gay perspective.
Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan also made an appearance at the Values Voters Summit, reminding attendees that a vote for Mitt Romney is a vote against marriage equality.
[Romney] is a solid and trustworthy, faithful and honorable man. Not only a defender of marriage, he offers an example of marriage at its best.
And why is it so important to "defend" marriage? Let House Majority Leader Eric Cantor break it down for you.
That is why we believe in traditional marriage, because marriage, more than any government program ever has or ever will, has lifted up people out of poverty, even those who felt there was no hope. Marriage has proven to be that formula which has been more successful at allowing for that pursuit of happiness. And that is why we stand tall and stand proud for traditional marriage.
Exactly. Who needs government assistance when you can just get married? It's the best cure-all for what ails you — and somehow if gay people were allowed to get married, it would stop working.
If that doesn't make sense to you, take a good, hard look at yourself in the mirror. You might be one of those smart people Santorum has heard so much about.

2011/09/16

NPR The New Apostolic Reformation: The Evangelicals Engaged In Spiritual Warfare


  1. "The major topics at these events [are] anti-abortion, anti-gay rights and the conversion of Jews in order to advance the end times. And this was very visible at Perry’s events as these apostles led all of these different prayers and repentance ceremonies at [his rally]."

    This is what I can’t get my head around with regards to the NAR movement: there are people—people who call themselves Christians—who consider themselves good people while actively working to bring about the end of the world.
    It’s certainly comforting to know that they’re doomed to fail, but the methods they employ to work toward that end are harmful in themselves. Members of the NAR movement, who are responsible for much of Rick Perry’s current support, believe that NAR Christians are obligated to take control over the government. They also believe that gay people (which presumably covers most if not all of the queer community in their eyes) and Muslims are possessed by demons. They actively practice “spiritual warfare” intended to protect against witchcraft.
    Left unchecked, the beliefs and political efforts of NAR Christians lead to things like the proposed Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which would introduce the death penalty for people convicted of sexual acts with others of the same sex—or simply of being HIV-positive. Here in America, the belief that a certain community of Christians was besieged by witches and witchcraft led to one of the most bizarre and unfortunate chapters in American history.
    Dominionism, embraced by nominally non-NAR politicians like Michelle Bachmann and Ron Paul as well as Rick Perry, is a dangerous idea that strikes at the heart of the American ideal. But here’s what should worry you most about politicians who draw support from the NAR movement: the reason they believe Christians must attain positions of power is to guide the United States in helping to bring about the end of the world. Their interest doesn’t lie in protecting and helping Americans; it lies in working toward a Christian eschaton in which over two thirds of the people currently living—including at least one in five Americans—will be sent to Hell for not being Christians.

    Copyright © 2011 Jonas Wisser

2011/08/07

30 Years Ago Today: The Middle Class Died

Saturday 6 August 2011
by: Michael Moore, 

President Reagan walks along the White House colonnade, 1981. (Photo: 

From time to time, someone under 30 will ask me, "When did this all begin, America's downward slide?" They say they've heard of a time when working people could raise a family and send the kids to college on just one parent's income (and that college in states like California and New York was almost free). That anyone who wanted a decent paying job could get one. That people only worked five days a week, eight hours a day, got the whole weekend off and had a paid vacation every summer.
That many jobs were union jobs, from baggers at the grocery store to the guy painting your house.
And this meant that no matter how "lowly" your job was you had guarantees of a pension, occasional raises, health insurance and someone to stick up for you if you were unfairly treated.
Young people have heard of this mythical time -- but it was no myth, it was real. And when they ask, "When did this all end?", I say, "It ended on this day: August 5th, 1981."
Beginning on this date, 30 years ago, Big Business and the Right Wing decided to "go for it" -- to see if they could actually destroy the middle class so that they could become richer themselves.
And they've succeeded. (...)

Hang Mike Pence