Unthinkable Consequences

PBS's "Wide Angle" did a report about the Iraqi refugee crisis and I found the report truly eye-opening and incredibly important. The point I found most chilling beyond the moral element that these 2 million refugees have nowhere to go, no way to earn a living and are growing increasingly desperate for help despite all the UN has done, is that filling the void are organizations like the Mahdi Army. The same Mahdi Army responsible for the majority of insurgent attacks and sectarian destabilization in Iraq, and they are using the desperation and alienation to recruit more insurgents.

Jordan's Queen Noor says in the report: "Unthinkable consequences await a world that does nothing to solve this refugee crisis." in regard to the 2 million refugees in Syria and Jordan. The obvious consequence is further destabilization of a region already on edge.

If you have the time to watch the report it is full of emotional and eye-opening interviews, offers some uplifting elements and some real problems this crisis poses. It is also a superb example of what quality journalism can be.

Refugee International has information on ways to help. Whether it is a letter to congress, petitions to sign or donations to aid organizations. There is also a lot of information about the crisis on this website if you don't have time to watch the PBS report.

Even with all the issues affecting us like the economy, the elections and the environment I personally feel this is an incredibly important issue. Morally we as Americans have a stake in these peoples lives, and rationally we can't let 2 million people, (500,00 children) become alienated, let moderate countries to become unstable and let radical organizations grow from our lack of attention.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope the issue will attract the attention it merits and we can all help remedy this crisis.

Also, if any of you know of other resources to help please let me know. Thanks.

UPDATE: Here's another great resource: Iraq Action Days

Not My Prophet!

Freedom of religion is not a one-way street. Instead of simply letting their gods condemn people like me to hell they've forced us all to live a hell of their own creation.

Yet again, followers of Islam have brought terror to the heathen literary world because of a book of fiction. Here are the words of some defenders of this atrocious act of violence:

"Is Muhammad YOUR PROPHET. Only muslims have the right to say anything about him."

"I mean its really pathetic bcoz you have no interest in your own religion therfore are jealous of the fact that muslims have a strong belief."

"Islam is yet again painted in bad light as a result of direct provocation."

Muhammed is not my prophet, so I can or cannot say whatever I want about him. I am definitely not jealous of the horribly primitive laws by which Islam or any other major religion places upon it's followers. And, no one provoked these reactions. No one is forced to read this book. Heck, the book hasn't even been published yet. Is the religion of Islam so fragile that the simple existence of differing ideas fatally threaten it's foundation?

Before anyone of Christian belief starts tossing rocks they may want to remember that with the exception of violent reactions, they too are affiliated with a religion that bans, boycotts and cries about free speech. Here's some recent examples that are pretty absurd: Harry Potter and The Da Vinci Code. And let's not forget Sarah Palin injecting religious beliefs into her policy by trying to ban books.

I've heard some on the liberal side mention banning Right-Wing authors who promote violence and hatred and to them I offer the same advice: If you don't want to hear it, don't read it. That is also your freedom.

Salman Rushdie said it best in his book, "The Satanic Verses":

"To name the unnamable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world and stop it from going to sleep. And if rivers of blood flow from the cuts his verses inflict, then they will nourish him. He is the satirist."

May we all stay awake and may the satirist continue to point at frauds. And if rivers of blood do continue to flow, may the satirist grow even stronger.

Questions For A Christian Nation

Growing up in a secular country I am finding the growing desire to turn the United States into a "Christian Nation" mystifying and troubling. I have many questions for those who pose this idea such as:

What is your final solution to this Christian Nation you want?

What would you propose my Jewish, Buddhist, Atheist and Agnostic friends do? Should we all pretend to accept Jesus to avoid offending your beliefs? Wouldn't such placating be even more offensive in it's insincerity as well as call into question the strength of you own beliefs if they are so fragile as to be threatened by other ideas?

Would you take the extreme measure of isolating all non-Christians to reservations as was done the the "heathen" natives of our land where we would be free to exercise our own beliefs free from persecution, but without the infrastructure, liberties and opportunities of this nation?

Diving into greater detail, would we banish all gift shops from the temples of God as Jesus had done? Would we turn the other cheek from foreign attacks by offering forgiveness, or would we commit the sin of imposing judgement ourselves?

"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
Do Jesus' words mean nothing to those who profess to follow him? What passage in the Bible justifies their quest for political powers to have rule over the world? Maybe this one:

The devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. "All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me."
A tempting offer for the Christian Nationalists I guess.

- - -

On a related note:
"Imbued with the desire to secure for the German people the great religious, moral, and cultural values rooted in the two Christian Confessions, we have abolished the political organizations but strengthened the religious institutions.”
-Adolf Hitler, in a speech at Reichstag, Berlin, January 30, 1934.

and

"We were convinced that the people needs and requires this faith. We have therefore undertaken the fight against the atheistic movement, and that not merely with a few theoretical declarations:
we have stamped it out."
-Adolf Hitler, in a speech in Berlin on 24 Oct. 1933

A Prayer From An Atheist

When there are millions out there caught up in chaos, carnage and corruption, why I am unimaginably fortunate to have personal freedom from such persecutions? What did I do to be blessed with this fortunate life? What did the rest of the world do so wrong to be cursed with such suffering?

Is it because I was born American? Born white? Born male? Is it because I was Baptized and ate the body of Christ? Maybe if I still believed then God would give me the answer. But looking out from these rocks at the sun setting in front of me I found it impossible to believe that this majestic beauty was created by the same God that created us in his own image. That God would have built a big casino with air-conditioning and luxury suites.

These are not new thoughts, they are not profound, but after spending four weeks in an island paradise witnessing the total demolition of it's beauty in the erecting of massive resorts for rich foreigners to come and exploit the gracious (and cheap) labor of the locals for our own selfish escapism... these are important thoughts. Ones that seem very rarely to enter the vacuous heads of our over-privileged capitalist minds. Instead I had conversations with guys who were "amazed" at how easy it is to "make a fortune off these people" and how cheap it was to buy up their property. Not a single thought about where these people will go once you buy their property, not a concern about how this beautiful island they are building on will lose it's beauty once it is saturated in all our "luxuries" we cannot seem to live without. Instead of enjoying the inherent beauty of this place and it's people we must bring our posh resorts, our European restaurants, our McDonald's and Starbucks with us so it feels just like home.

We can't enjoy a foreign land without making it ours... Just like we can't enjoy the earth without making it ours.

Hopefully humanity will one day learn to be humane. Hopefully the fortunate few will one day learn it is not necessary to keep taking more fortune from those who have little.

Hopefully our earth will be kinder to us than we have been to it.

Another Climate Crisis

A six-to-one plastic to plankton ratio in our ocean is something that seems surreal but is sadly a reality we have created:

In 2002 [Charles Moore] was startled to discover a six-to-one plastic to plankton ratio in the eastern garbage patch: six pieces of plastic to every piece of zooplankton. This past November he was alarmed even more, finding that 600 miles outside the center of the garbage patch, ocean water samples contained a three-to-one plastic to plankton ratio.

We haven’t yet had a plastic-free sample from anywhere in the Pacific Ocean.

According to Mr. Moore's findings about 80% of the plastic comes from humans on land and of that 90% is household pollution. That means that the majority of this plastic filling our oceans is basically litter.

Baby Laysan albatross of Midway Atoll are literally starving to death. Their carcasses litter the beaches, stomachs bursting with plastic bottle caps, cigarette lighters and other recognizable plastic debris. Jellyfish, which thrive on plankton, ingest tiny bits of plastic along with their food.

Dr. Curtis Ebbesmeyer [founder of Beachcombers Alert] has proposed the thesis that all the food in the ocean contains plastic. That’s the alarming possibility.

Very alarming.

God's Word: "Deny!"

It seems the Almighty has become bored with the grand scheme and is once again dishing out advice on business matters to His devoted prophets.

Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts, says God is speaking again, telling him to deny lurid allegations in a lawsuit.

Yup, the Supreme Creator can't let a 44 year old college get embroiled in a legal scandal that could threaten to expose it's saintly President as a corrupt scoundrel so He's taken on the case personally. Although, His Holiness may not be entirely clean in the matters Himself as he has a history of financial interests in Oral Robert's University in which He threatened Oral himself that he would "Meet his maker" if he didn't round up $8 million dollars and establish this college in his name. Fortunately Robert's followers managed to scrounge up the payoff and saved Mr. Robert's from the crushing grip of God's henchman, a 900 foot tall Jesus.

Most importantly though, we can all rest assured that this institution of "Higher" learning is in God's hands.

Waking From the American Dream

In the eternal tug of war that is our nation's great struggle, a Manifest destiny toward Kleptocracy, it appears the ruling class is confidently dragging the unwashed masses toward defeat.

Personal incomes rose in January at the fastest clip in a year, bolstered by bonus payments to high-income executives. The Commerce Department reported Thursday that personal incomes rose by 1 percent in January while consumer spending was up by 0.5 percent.

While at the same time:

The analysis showed that the number of people living in extreme poverty had grown by 26 per cent since 2000. Poverty as a whole has worsened, too, but the number of severe poor is growing 56 per cent faster than the overall segment of the population characterized as poor - about 37 million people in all according to the census data.

Just how poor is this "extreme poverty" they talk about?

The number of Americans living in severe poverty has expanded dramatically under the Bush administration, with nearly 16 million people now living on an individual income of less than $5,000 a year or a family income of less than $10,000, according to an analysis of 2005 official census data.

How can income and consumer spending be rising if there is such a growing mass of extreme poverty? Here's how:

The richest fifth of US households enjoys more than 50 per cent of the national income, while the poorest fifth gets by on an estimated 3.5 per cent. The average after-tax income of the top 1 per cent is 63 times larger than the average for the bottom 20 per cent - both because the rich have grown richer and also because the poor have grown poorer; about 19 per cent poorer since the late 1970s. The middle class, too, has been squeezed ever tighter. Every income group except for the top 20 per cent has lost ground in the past 30 years, regardless of whether the economy has boomed or tanked.

Yes, that's right, for the last 30 years - no matter what party the government was controlled by - the bottom 80 percent lost ground. Do you really need to ask who truly runs this country anymore?

Media Ignores Victories Against Terrorism.

How is it that in the past ten years over 60 terrorist plots have been foiled and yet not one major TV news station or print newspaper has mentioned this? It's not like they are afraid of sensationalism and putting the fear of imminent death into their viewers - I mean, it's great for ratings. But with all this talk on the Global War on Terror it is really shameful how our media refuses to point out the achievements our country has had in fighting these freedom-hating religious zealots and extremists. Here's a brief rundown of the evil that the liberal media refuses to make a stand against:

In the 10 years since the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing killed 168 people, roughly 60 right-wing terrorist plots have been uncovered in the United States. The plots, all foiled by law enforcement, reportedly included violent plans by antigovernment militia groups, racist skinhead organizations, and Ku Klux Klan members to use various types of chemical bombs and other weapons.

and...

On Sept. 11, 2006, the fifth anniversary of the terror attacks that devastated our nation, a man crashed his car into a building in Davenport, Iowa, hoping to blow it up and kill himself in the fire.

"I am a terrorist," Waagner declared on the Army of God's web site.

I say it's time for the media to stop ignoring these threats to America's security. If these people looked like this you can be sure the press would be all over it!

George W. Bush is the Best President Ever.

"Stop being good Democrats. Stop being good Republicans. Start being good Americans." - Aaron Russo

The most dangerous thing I keep hearing people talk about in the media, on blogs and in daily conversations is how the administration is incompetent or that they have made mistakes. The administration knows exactly what they are doing, they know what all the critics are saying, what all the intelligence says but they also know who they are working for and it is not the common American citizen.

1. Fed Reserve is profiting off us like never before.
2. Military industrial complex is profiting like never before.
3. Oil companies are profiting like never before.
4. Pharmaceuticals are profiting like never before.

These are their core constituents. The people who got them elected. They know exactly what they are doing and are amazingly good at it.

Remember, the massive debt our country is in is our money that is owed - the interest being paid is pure profit to the Federal Reserve (a private bank, not a government bank).

If you want an eye opener, watch: "America Freedom to Fascism". It is the prime example of what the Republican Party once stood for before selling it's soul to private interests.

Stream or download it here.
Go to their website.
Sign the petition.

All the proof you need is in these words right here:
"A great industrial nation is controlled by it's system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the world - no longer a government of free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of small groups of dominant men." - Former President Woodrow Wilson

Birth to Death Without Ever Leaving Wal-Mart

The American Dream for Less.
You get what you pay for...

Wal-Mart University is the newest frontier the good ol' boys in Arkansas have planned for our future workforce. No need to worry about all those hard courses in school because now all you need to know is what Wal-Mart wants you to know. No more need to worry about ever having to expand your horizons or explore various aspects of life because you will never need to leave Wal-Mart.

The idea is simple: Wal-Mart needs more people with managerial skills so they ask our government to start offering Wal-Mart curriculum in community colleges and the lucky students have a head start in the exciting field of store management.

So Wal-Mart is moving into education now... How long before Wal-Mart will start offering housing and medical services? Once that is completed the only things modern life requires will be details easily acquired by the behemoth that is that glistening cube of white hope on the horizon. From birth to death spent under the nurturing florescent lights overseen by the friendly greeter who waves to you on your way to work in Aisle 16 or on your way home to that nice little duplex with a garden in Aisle 37. Your kids will be born over in the healthcare center (which you'll have to pay for out of pocket because Wal-Mart won't offer you health insurance benefits) and no need to retire because your meager wages will never allow you the ability to save a spare dime so when your final breath is exhaled and you drop the jar of mayonnaise you were stocking on the shelves, as life slowly leaves your body the final sound your dying ears hear will be, "Clean-up on Aisle 12... Can I get a clean-up on Aisle 12?"