text:
manuelgarciajr
energy, nature, society
Favorite Writings
Posted on February 15, 2017 by manuelgarciajr
"My own mind is my own church"
— Thomas Paine, (1737-1809) The Age Of Reason
"God is in His heaven, and all is right with the world"
"If God is everywhere, why do I have to go to church?" The inability of adult authority to give a six year old boy an unequivocal answer planted a freethinking seed that flowered into liberation.
To criticize religion is unkind, like ridiculing a child's thumbsucking and security blanket. Then why discuss it, since for many discussion is equivalent to critique? Because concepts of God are at the root of attitudes about community, security and power, and these in turn affect our shared external reality — country. Church and State, God and Country, they are never far apart. The ideal would be to keep our Gods contained within ourselves so they do not destroy what we enjoy together. Reality is otherwise.
Belief and Religion
Religion is organized belief in response to psychological need.
"Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear. It is partly the terror of the unknown and partly, as I have said, the wish to feel that you have a kind of elder brother who will stand by you in all your troubles and disputes. Fear is the basis of the whole thing — fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand."
— Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), (1)
There are two aspects to consider, a personal one of belief or unbelief in the existence of God, and the social one of communities of organized belief or unbelief: religions or societies of freethinkers, secularists and humanists. How do the beliefs within these communities affect the politics between them?
First, let us consider belief.
In January 1794 in Paris, Tom Paine began his last important work, The Age Of Reason, of which he completed Part 1 six hours before his arrest by the Jacobins. Paine escaped the guillotine by accident, but nearly died of illness during his ten month incarceration. This patriot of the American Revolution, who had been elected an honorary French citizen and returned to the Convention (in Paris) by three different constituencies in 1792, had seen the promise of the French Revolution debased by the concentration of power, the self-aggrandizement of "leaders," and a loss of vision and human connectedness by many others. A Robespierre who could believe "I am of the people because I feel all their wants, their hurts, their pains, their sufferings," was a man elevating himself to godlike heights — with glacial empathy. (2)
Paine's response was to write about religion because:
"The circumstance that has now taken place in France of the total abolition of the whole national order of the priesthood, and of everything appertaining to compulsive systems of religion, and compulsive articles of faith, has not only precipitated my intention, but rendered a work of this kind exceedingly necessary, lest, in the general wreck of superstition, of false systems of government, and false theology, we lose sight of morality, of humanity, and of the theology that is true." (3)
The Age Of Reason shocked Paine's contemporaries, even many who agreed with his politics. The nature of his belief was shared by Jefferson, Washington and Adams, but they were careful to avoid any public expression of unorthodoxy. (4)
Paine wrote:
"I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life.
I believe in the equality of man, and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow creatures happy." (3)
The incendiary phrase is "and no more." Paine spelled out the "no more" at length, generally a criticism of the Old Testament from a moral point of view, (4) and a dismissal of the Jewish, Roman, Greek, Turkish and Protestant orthodoxies. (3) Though Paine's belief is now commonplace, these three words still keep it beyond the permissible limits of many today.
For Paine, belief was personal — not organized — and it informed personal acts, in his case an unwavering opposition to slavery (in America), oligarchy (in England) and unnecessary bloodshed (in France). He was a democrat opposed to cruelty in any form.
The Undiscovered Self
A more recent voice speaking eloquently about personal belief was that of Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961). He was separated from Paine's lifespan by 66 years, and from today (2004) by 43 years. Jung had no need of faith, he was an empiricist who observed that natural processes of growth and decay included a natural process of psychological integration, which he called individuation. For him, that this happened of its own was God, and being aware of the process within oneself was knowing. And no more.
"The fact is that what happens to a person is characteristic of him. He represents a pattern and all the pieces fit. One by one, as his life proceeds, they fall into place according to some predestined design.
"All that I have learned has led me step by step to an unshakable conviction of the existence of God. I only believe in what I know. And that eliminates believing. Therefore I do not take His existence on belief — I know that He exists." (5)
One can hear an echo of Herakleitos (c. 500 BC) in Jung, "Character is fate." (6) Jung recommends that you dive in, that you know for yourself, and in particular that you "beware of childishness." And what could be more childish than unquestioning obedience?
"Discovering yourself provides you with all you are, were meant to be, and all you are living from and for. The whole of yourself is certainly an irrational entity, but this is just precisely yourself, which is meant to live as a unique and unrepeatable experience. Thus, whatever you find in your given disposition is a factor of life which must be taken into careful consideration.
"If you should find, for instance, an ineradicable tendency to believe in God or immortality, do not allow yourself to be disturbed by the blather of so-called freethinkers. And if you find an equally resistant tendency to deny all religious ideas do not hesitate: deny them and see how that influences your general welfare and your state of mental or spiritual nutrition. But beware of childishness: whether you call the ultimate unknown "God" or "Matter" is equally futile, since we know neither the one nor the other, though we doubtless have experiences of both. But we know nothing beyond them, and we cannot produce either the one or the other." (7)
Who was Jung's God?
"The collective unconscious, it's not for you, or me, it's the invisible world, it's the great spirit. It makes little difference what I call it: God, Tao, the Great Voice, the Great Spirit. But for people of our time God is the most comprehensible name with which to designate the Power beyond us." (8)
"Without knowing it man is always concerned with God. What some people call instinct or intuition is nothing other than God. God is that voice inside us which tells us what to do and what not to do. In other words, our conscience.
"In this dark atomic age of ours, with its lurking fear, man is seeking guidance. Consciously or unconsciously he is once more grasping for God. I make my patients understand that all the things which happen to them against their will are a superior force. They can call it God or devil, and that doesn't matter to me, as long as they realize that it is a superior force. God is nothing more than that superior force in our life. You can experience God every day." (5)
The Sound Of One Hand Clapping
What makes Gods godly is their remoteness from human scale. This remoteness is one of power, emotion and concern. The ancient Greeks understood this about the Gods, they could be magnanimous or unearthly cruel, and they could equally well be completely oblivious about our individual fortunes or misfortunes. Jung's great insight about God was this evenhandedness between the right hand of sweetness and light, and the left hand of darkness and cruelty; the mandala, the yin-yang of the Tao. Jung presented this in his work Answer To Job (1952), which of his writings most disturbs his religiously orthodox critics.
Does the image we have of God or Not-God inspire humility and satisfaction in "doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow creatures happy?" Or, does the image we have of God or Not-God support a feeling of power and exclusivity, something that sets us above the unanointed with a superior sense to "feel all their wants, their hurts, their pains, their sufferings?" The first attitude as a social norm is essential to civic health, and to this end it does not matter whether any individual's image is of God or Not-God. The second attitude as a social norm would be the left hand of God playing the religion card.
It is not what you believe that determines the worthiness of your religion (or non-religion) and the merit of your practice, but what you do, how you act, what you support.
If I call the unimaginably vast and ancient, powerful and impersonal universe the superior force in my life — God — and I view my own existence as an insignificance of such scant proportion that mere random chance can easily explain it, do I hold a belief in God that inspires humility and appreciation, even exultation in being alive, or have I crossed over into unbelief? Is there any difference?
The opposition of God and Not-God may be a false dichotomy if the practical outcome for the adherents of each is Paine socialism. If the social outcome is a Robespierrean absolutism, then the belief or atheism of the perpetrators is irrelevant, despotism is despotism. Where under Paine socialism the widest variety of personal conviction and religious practice would be tolerated, despotism would eliminate all competing thought in favor of one compulsory system of belief — a theocracy even if atheistic.
Only those religions or non-religions intent on achieving a Robespierrean absolutism (saving the country, saving the world) will be concerned that their particular form of the God or Not-God image dominates popular attention. If they have a mission, they are a threat to society, a mental health epidemic. Orthodoxy is the enemy of the people.
In April 1961, Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (1934-1968) became the first human to orbit the Earth. During his 89 minute orbit he radioed "I don't see any God up here." This led to many apocryphal stories and jokes, like the following. Yuri Gagarin is interviewed by Western journalists after his historic flight. An American journalist asks "Did you see God when you were in space?" Gagarin answers, "Yes, she's black." I heard this from Brother Kieran, OSF in my high school biology class of 1966. This was a Franciscan Brother, and it was the 1960s. Another entertaining story is told in (9). Gagarin's documented quote is included in compilations of interesting quotes about atheism, (10) religion, science, skepticism and nonbelief. (11)
Now, let us consider nonbelief.
Why I Am Not A Christian
"The objections to religion are of two sorts — intellectual and moral. The intellectual objection is that there is no reason to suppose any religion true; the moral objection is that religious precepts date from a time when men were more cruel than they are now and therefore tend to perpetuate inhumanities which the moral conscience of the age would otherwise outgrow."
— Bertrand Russell, (12)
In 1925 Bertrand Russell published a booklet called What I Believe, "to say what I think of man's place in the universe, and of his possibilities in the way of achieving the good life." This booklet, and other writings, were presented as evidence in court that Russell was unfit to teach philosophy at the College of the City of New York. The court agreed and Russell was barred from accepting his professorship in 1941. The successful campaign against Russell was carried on by "ecclesiastical journals, the Hearst press, and just about every Democratic politician joined [in a] chorus of defamation." Of the sad result John Dewey said "As Americans, we can only blush with shame for this scar on our repute for fair play." (13)
In What I Believe, Russell said this on the existence of God:
"God and immortality, the central dogmas of the Christian religion, find no support in science. It cannot be said that either doctrine is essential to religion, since neither is found in Buddhism… But we in the West have come to think of them as the irreducible minimum of theology. No doubt people will continue to entertain these beliefs, because they are pleasant, just as it is pleasant to think ourselves virtuous and our enemies wicked. But for my part I cannot see any ground for either. I do not pretend to be able to prove that there is no God. I equally cannot prove that Satan is a fiction. The Christian God may exist; so may the Gods of Olympus, or of ancient Egypt, or of Babylon. But no one of these hypotheses is more probable than any other: they lie outside the region of even probable knowledge, and therefore there is no reason to consider any of them." (14)
In Why I Am Not A Christian, Russell succinctly demolishes five major arguments advanced to prove the existence of God. A summary might be as follows (C = Christian, R = Russell, J = Jungian Christian):
First Cause Argument
C: Everything in the world has a cause, and the root of this causal cascade — the First Cause — is called God.
R: "If everything must have a cause, then God must have a cause. If there can be anything without a cause, it may just as well be the world as God."
Natural Law Argument
C: Processes in nature, like the planets orbiting the sun, follow natural laws, pointing to a divine lawgiver.
R: "Human laws are behests commanding you to behave in a certain way…but natural laws are a description of how things do in fact behave, and being mere description[s]…you cannot argue that there must be somebody who told them to do that, because even supposing there were, you are then faced with the question 'Why did God issue just those natural laws and no others?'"
C: God did so for his own good pleasure, without reason.
R: Then there is something which is not subject to law, and your train of natural law is interrupted.
C: In fact, God does have a reason for each law, to create the best universe.
R: "You would never think it to look at it," but if there were such reasons "then God himself was subject to law, and therefore you do not get any advantage by introducing God as an intermediary."
Argument From Design
C: Everything in the world is designed just so that we can manage to live in it, pointing to a supreme designer, for if the world were ever so little different, we could not manage to live in it.
R: Since Darwin we know that creatures evolve to adapt to their environments, not that environments are created just so for existing creatures — there is no evidence of design. "When you look into this argument from design, it is a most astonishing thing that people can believe that this world…should be the best that omnipotence and omniscience have been able to produce in millions of years. I really cannot believe it. Do you think, that if you were granted omnipotence and omniscience and millions of years in which to perfect your world, you could produce nothing better than the Ku Klux Klan or the Fascists?"
Moral Argument
C: There would be no right or wrong unless God existed.
R: "[If] there is a difference between right and wrong…is that difference due to God's fiat or is it not? If it is due to God's fiat, then for God himself there is no difference between right and wrong, and it is no longer significant…to say that God is good. If you are going to say…that God is good, you must then say that right and wrong have some meaning that is independent of God's fiat, because God's fiats are good and not bad independently of the mere fact that he made them." If so, "it is not only through God that right and wrong came into being, but they are in their essence logically anterior to God."
J: God can be bad.
R: A Gnostic hypothesis — "which I often thought was a very plausible one" — is that "this world that we know was made by the devil at a moment when God was not looking. There is a good deal to be said for that, and I am not concerned to refute it."
Argument For Remedying Injustice
C: The existence of God is required to bring justice into the world.
R: "In the part of this universe that we know there is great injustice, and often the good suffer, and often the wicked prosper, and one hardly knows which of those is the more annoying."
C: To have justice in the universe as a whole there is a future life, with heaven and hell, to redress the balance of life here on earth.
R: The simplest logic is to assume that this world is a fair sample of the rest of the universe unknown to us, "and if there is injustice here the odds are that there is injustice elsewhere also. Supposing you got a crate of oranges…and you found all the top layer of oranges bad, you would not argue 'The underneath ones must be good, so as to redress the balance.' You would say, 'probably the whole lot is bad,'" and a similar argument would apply to the universe. "Here we find in this world a great deal of injustice, and so far as that goes that is a reason for supposing that justice does not rule in this world," which in turn forms "a moral argument against deity."
But belief in God is not a matter of logic, it is a matter of imprinting and emotion. We humans are very similar to geese (read Konrad Lorenz), we imprint many images and associations very early in life, often our most indelible images and compelling associations. "Most people believe in God because they have been taught from early infancy to do it," as Russell observes right after concluding his five counterproofs of deity, just described. The emotion is "the wish for safety, a sort of feeling that there is a big brother who will look after you."
Russell summed up his own guiding principle this way, "The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge." (15)
Why I Am A Pagan
Lin Yutang (1895-1976) like C. G. Jung was the son of a Christian preacher and seriously considered a life in the ministry, until his college years. The many doubts easily accessible to keen young Christian intellects — who use their minds as intended (if they were intentionally designed) — reached a head for Lin Yutang when he was a college instructor, one day in conversation with a Confucian colleague:
"Why," I reasoned with a colleague, "if there were no God, people would not do good and the world would go topsy-turvy."
"Why?" replied my Confucian colleague. "We should lead a decent human life simply because we are decent human beings," he said.
"This appeal to the dignity of human life cut off my last tie to Christianity, and from then on I was a pagan."
"It is all so clear to me now. The world of pagan belief is a simpler belief. It postulates nothing, and is obliged to postulate nothing. It seems to make the good life more immediately appealing by appealing to the good life alone. It better justifies doing good by making it unnecessary for doing good to justify itself. It does not encourage men to do, for instance, a simple act of charity by dragging in a series of hypothetical postulates — sin, redemption, the cross, laying up treasure in heaven, mutual obligation among men on account of a third-party relationship in heaven — all so unnecessarily complicated and roundabout, and none capable of direct proof. If one accepts the statement that doing good is its own justification, one cannot help regarding all theological baits to right living as redundant and tending to cloud the luster of a moral truth. Love among men should be a final, absolute fact. We should be able just to look at each other and love each other without being reminded of a third party in heaven. Christianity seems to me to make morality appear unnecessarily difficult and complicated and sin appear tempting, natural, and desirable. Paganism, on the other hand, seems alone to be able to rescue religion from theology and restore it to its beautiful simplicity of belief and dignity of feeling." (16)
Lin Yutang went on to become a prolific writer, whose works include classics of philosophical commentary like The Wisdom Of Laotse, and of pedagogy like The Lin Yutang Chinese-English Dictionary Of Modern Usage. Lin Yutang's 1937 bestseller, The Importance Of Living, is a work in the style of Michel de Montaigne's Essays imbued with wu-wei, the Taoist concept of no-action.
Thinking Is Freedom
Is Russell's freethinking unbelief of less value than morality compelled by orthodoxy? Russell makes an excellent case for the opposite. Is it possible that what Paine, Jung, Russell and Lin Yutang share is that their ideas of God or Not-God are motivated from their morality and not vice versa? Is it possible that both belief and unbelief are distractions, illusions, maya obscuring the living reality that has any value, which is adherence to the morality of "doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow creatures happy," of being "inspired by love and guided by knowledge," of "leading decent human lives simply because we are decent human beings," of "discovering yourself" with Jungian diligence, echoing the inscription at Delphi to "Know Thyself," and Buddha's dying words to "work out your salvation with diligence."
Orthodoxy is the death of intellect, and in that there is no God, as Paine and Jung intuit, Russell proves and Lin Yutang eloquently confirms.
Church, Incorporated
Why have orthodoxy and churches?
Church is community, it is what people seek beyond family — or instead of it — to find belonging. At its best, such community can be very warm and accepting, and of great psychological and financial help in times of personal crisis. Many people find great comfort by association with others who mirror their concerns, and with whom they can form cooperatives for educating children and performing good works in their communities.
The church is the physical plant of a religion, which is an organized system of belief, which in turn is maintained by a priesthood or professional ministry who set about creating and interpreting theology to justify their existence, and creating community to maintain the attraction of their churches to ensure the continuing operation of this earthly enterprise. In the United States, religion is defined by the Internal Revenue Service, and religions are tax-exempt corporations. The original quid pro quo of this arrangement was that Churches would stay out of politics, and the State would stay out of the Church treasuries ("separation of church and state"). However, like all corporations Churches have preferences as to government policies, which can affect existing operations, income and the prospects for growth. So, churches engage in politics as the 1940 case of Bertrand Russell, and much else before and since has demonstrated. The role of the Catholic Church as a barrier to social and political reform is historic — read Bertrand Russell. In a recent (2004) article, Gary Leupp describes how the Catholic Church in France thwarted the aims of the Revolution of 1848. (17)
When the Catholic Church became a progressive force with "a preferential option for the poor" in Latin America during the 1970s and 1980s, it found itself opposed to oligarchy instead of allied with it as had been traditional, for example with Franco in Spain. Then, instead of having national armies protecting the Church, they attacked, murdering its priests and nuns, and even Archbishop Oscar Romero in El Salvador. Since these Central American oligarchies are extensions of US imperialism, what occurred was a war by the US government through proxies against the Catholic Church. What was true in Rome in 250 during the reign of Emperor Decius was true in America in 1980 during the reign of Ronald Reagan, Christianity seen as a threat to the State was persecuted. The subsequent retreat of the Church is evident in its shift from the liberation introduced by Pope John XXIII and Vatican II in 1962, to the renewed fundamentalism of Pope John Paul II. From the perspective of empire the spread of "liberation theology" among the masses is socialism and not to be tolerated, and from the perspective of the Churches fundamentalism that reinforces oligarchy and the status quo is the surest guarantee of its physical safety and financial security.
Religious orthodoxy is an element of social control and thus of political power.
If we taxed the Churches and allowed them to engage in politics in the same manner as any other corporation, there would be much less confusion all around about both the politics and the religions.
There is a great deal of hate and prejudice that aspires to suffocating political control, and appropriates the language of Christianity to elevate its self-image to god-like stature. Such so-called American Christianity is hate masquerading as religion to operate as tax-exempt corporation, giving an illusion of power to the ignorant, and a vent of cruelty to the fearful.
Orthodoxy opposed to intellect is religion addiction, and of this the United States has a mental health problem of epidemic proportions. We are not the only country so affected. Our "War On Drugs" does not now include the "opiate of the masses" because the present mass addiction serves the interests of the ruling elites.
The Levers of Control
The four major levers of control by any government are: guns (and armaments), money (the supply and use of, including gambling), drugs (including mass psychosis and religion) and women (libido, fecundity). Religions at the service of the State will facilitate its use of these levers.
We can see that people whose God/Not-God image springs from Paine socialist convictions will be most likely to oppose government oppression and oligarchy. They are also the people least likely to contribute to the support of Church, Incorporated, though a good number may be very socially, civically and charitably engaged. These people can be troublemakers because they are inquisitive, outspoken, uncowed, principled, responsible, disobedient, uncontrolling, witty and irreverent.
Being in control is an illusion, but one that obsesses many.
People who are intimidated by the prospect of thinking, who are fearful and seek security, willingly surrender funds, the free range of their intellect and their freedom of action to a higher authority in exchange for protection, also transferring with a sense of relief their personal responsibility for the social consequences of Church actions and policies. Recall Jung's comment about childishness. They do their duty, follow the obligatory strictures, perhaps complain now and then about "having to go to mass," or "having to keep kosher at grandma's house," but generally coast along without the burden of thinking with its frightening possibility of erupting doubts that would undermine the well-oiled routines of their daily lives and their personal concerns to make money, push their children to success, amplify the comfort of their homes, gain social status and all the usual preoccupations. Their existential problem has been put on autopilot, and many will fly to their graves without once looking back on the settings. For some, "the left hand of God" may pull them up short — a fateful accident, a tragedy — and force them to reevaluate, and out of such crisis to break through the religion spell and discover themselves.
If misery loves company then so does doubt and so does resentment over obligatory religion — if this is salvation, even immortality, where is the joy? Joy is what attracts the charismatics, they find group acceptance to act stupidly, babbling, whooping, writhing and feeling physically excited like children. Perhaps all we need are some playgrounds for adults, some shedding of public inhibitions, and police trained to understand the difference between a natural psychological outlet and an actual public disturbance.
Joy comes with the freedom of using your mind, of "being your own church." Then you are part of the world, which is both good and bad, but most importantly you are not trying to push it away or control and suffocate it to end its threat to your ignorance — your fear. The politics of religious orthodoxy is an apartheid politics, it projects its fears externally then seeks to contain and punish these projections — sinners and people attributed with lower value — in a delusion that this is an escape to safety, an elevation to prosperity and righteousness.
Jesus had it right when he said "By their works shall ye know them." Don't you think he would get along well with Tom Paine, Carl Jung, Bert Russell and Lin Yutang? Wouldn't that be a fun party to attend? God is the ultimate reality, which we create for ourselves by our own actions. And no more.
Concepts of God or Not-God that come from humane morality will characterize just societies.
[1] Bertrand Russell, "Why I Am Not A Christian," lecture of 6 March 1927, printed in Why I Am Not A Christian, And Other Essays On Religion And Related Subjects, edited by Paul Edwards, 1957 (George Allen & Unwin Ltd.), NY: Touchstone (Simon & Schuster, Inc.), ISBN 0-671-20323-1
[2] Howard Fast, Citizen Tom Paine, 1943, NY: Grove Press, ISBN 0-8021-3064-X
[3] Thomas Paine, The Age Of Reason, 1794, see also [2].
[4] Bertrand Russell, "The Fate Of Thomas Paine," 1934, see [1]
[5] C. G. Jung, "Men, Women, And God," 1955, in C. G. Jung Speaking, Interviews And Encounters, edited by William McGuire and R.F.C. Hull, Bollingen Series XCVII, Princeton University Press, 1977, ISBN 0-691-09894-8
[6] Guy Davenport, Herakleitos And Diogenes, San Francisco: Grey Fox Press, 1994, ISBN 0-912516-36-4, see page 9 on Fragment 69.
[7] C. G. Jung, "The Art Of Living," Gordon Young, Sunday Times (London)17 July 1960, see [5].
[8] C. G. Jung, "On The Frontiers Of Knowledge," 1959, see [5]
[9] S. Wesley Ariarajah, "Many Voices, One God: Remodeling Christianity for a Pluralistic World"
http://www.tcpc.org/resources/articles/many_voices_ariarajah.htm [active 25 November 2004]
[10] Cliff Walker, Positive Atheism's Big List of Quotations
http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/quote-g.htm
Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (1934-1968) Soviet cosmonaut who, in 1961, became the first person to orbit the earth. He rode Vostok 1 around the Earth (24,800 miles) and experienced weightlessness for 89 minutes. "I don't see any god up here." — Yuri Gagarin, speaking from orbit in 1961.
[an extensive site, active 25 November 2004]
[11] Quotations on Philosophy and Religion
http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/quotes_freethght.html [active 25 November 2004]
[12] Bertrand Russell, "Has Religion Made Useful Contributions To Civilization?," 1930, see [1]
[13] Paul Edwards, "How Bertrand Russell Was Prevented From Teaching At The College Of The City Of New York," 1957, see [1]
[14] Bertrand Russell, "What I Believe," 1925, see [1]
[16] Lin Yutang, The Importance Of Living, 1937 (William Morrow & Company), NY: Quill, 1998, ISBN 0-688-16352-1
[17] Gary Leupp, "The Wrong Side Wins, Democratic Elections in Historical Perspective," CounterPunch, 2 November 2004
http://www.counterpunch.org/2004/11/02/democratic-elections-in-historical-perspective/ [active 25 November 2004]
<><><><><><><>
Originally published as:
http://www.swans.com/library/art11/mgarci29.html
For Darwin's views on belief versus nonbelief in God, see:
Darwin's Living Legacy
https://manuelgarciajr.com/2017/02/13/darwins-living-legacy/
15 February 2017:
All religions are expressions of the fear of death.
The greater the ignorance of nature, the greater the likelihood of being a fearful person who believes in a god: a hoped for supernatural protector against the fearful uncertainties of life.
Some people will combat their fears by challenging their ignorance, through reading and study, to learn more about reality. Expanded knowledge gradually diminishes irrational terrors and irrational beliefs, and strengthens the confidence to conduct your life. Such people value gaining insights more than avoiding the discomforts of making personal changes.
Other people prefer to defend their ignorant irrationality — their prejudices and their religions — against the potential enlightenment offered by rational thought and scientific knowledge. They value their comfort in remaining unchanged more than the gaining of insight about reality.
Posted in atheism, God, religion	| Tagged atheism, belief, church, country, God, nonbelief, religion, state, theism
Palestine's Gift of Christmas
Posted on December 22, 2015 by manuelgarciajr
(22 December 2009, slightly edited here)
I am no longer religious, however, the season and the way the people I live among express it prompt these reflections.
A few days ago, I attended a Christmas music choral concert in which my young daughter performed. I think a sense of peace would easily be transmitted by the song "Silent Night" even if all intelligible words were stripped from it so it was a pure vocalise devoid of religious ideas. Music has that power, and that magic. Despite the many shortcomings of Christianity, to it's credit it has spurred the writing of much good music. Listening to Mozart's "Jubilate Deo," I realized it might be better to hear all the familiar Christmas songs in Latin, because then our English (or French, German, or Spanish) language minds would, in most cases, be freed of textual and ideological distraction. For example
Personent Hodie – Andrea & Ella
https://youtu.be/9QuX4GHgWdc
The concert (not the video above) was hosted by the Mormon Church at its large facility in Oakland, California. The extensive grounds have tall palm trees, an artificial river, and large buildings all festooned with colored lights in a flamboyant display of Christmas decoration that widens the eyes of 10-year-olds; it looks like Oz. My daughter's group, the San Francisco Girl's Chorus, had been invited to perform that night as part of a week-long series of free concerts intended to draw in prospective members, as well as to delight the current ones. A very enthusiastic church woman presented me with a brochure describing the concert series and crisply snapped it open while promoting the quality of the week's line-up. Looking into the blue eyes shining from the weathered face of this energetic, lean and perfectly turned-out woman, I thought of the many Mormons I'd met during my career as a nuclear weapons physicist.
Since Mormons are unlikely to have rambunctious personal histories, are conscientious about pursuing prosperity, and often have good training in administrative and technical fields, they can frequently pass the filters to obtaining high-security US government jobs. I think theirs is the quintessential Yankee religion; a faith of imaginative child-like Wagnerian grandeur, with its creamy, velvety N. C. Wyeth style iconography of a golden-haired blue-eyed Jesus, to inspire its sober, industrious, well-scrubbed, pale-faced people, the inheritors of the Conquest in the North.
I always find it necessary to be patient with enthusiastic Christians, because I know how it is when one has awakened to greater insights and wishes to share, by "saving" others. Christmas tends to be a time of year when such patience needs to be exercised.
Here in the Yankee homeland, where God and the Almighty Dollar are so conflated, a religion is most precisely defined by the Tax Code. Each religion is some mix between feelings of spirituality and a tax-dodge scheme. It is this latter element that motivates churches to fish out new members from among the more "respectable" and "responsible" segments of the population, that is to say people with money. I find it tiresome to be hit-up by the always cheery, always smiling, always "sincere" people on missions, whether implicitly as at the choral concert, or explicitly under the fire of a Jehovah's Witnesses direct-marketing assault: they knock on doors in targeted zip codes. Overall, I would prefer people to keep their religions private, "zipped up" like their pants as it were.
I realize some will take offense at my criticisms of their religions, but this is of no consequence since I do not advocate legislating discriminatory measures against groups targeted on the basis of personal attributes. I can think and say whatever I like about your religion, or lack of it, and you of mine, so long as we all adhere to the principle of equality under the law, which is enshrined in the Constitution. The purpose of my opinions on other people's religions is entirely to guide my own life, not to provide excuses for persecuting others. Naturally, I grant everyone else the same privileges of thought, but I also see no allowance for the discrimination against one group because of the religious convictions of another.
This point was contested in California (and other states) this last year, where the more sexually repressed populations of numerous religions righteously exercised that delightful sensation of persecuting people feared as shadows, and seen as opposites and even "unclean," by the populist political action of banning marriage between homosexuals. Marriage has nothing to do with religion, it is entirely a legal construct that defines the property relationships between the state and: two contracted individuals, their families, and between parents and their children. It happens that homosexual couples (male or female), are just as likely to wish to raise children, to ensure the inheritance and health benefit rights of their loved ones, and to take advantage of the tax deduction for "marriage," that is to say of paying their income taxes jointly. Why should this matter to heterosexuals, except as a resentment (against "giving away" a financial benefit) brought on by prejudice, envy and greed?
2,500 years ago, Heraclitus wrote that "bigotry is the disease of the religious," because he must have found enough examples of cruelty and prejudice being justified by religious convictions. It may be more true today. Any honest religious sense would express itself in a charitable and compassionate attitude toward other people, that is to say other "types" of people; and during the month of December in cultures infused with Christianity this is called "Christmas spirit." Imagine if a real "Christmas spirit" was brought to popular consciousness in North America and Europe, and then focussed onto it's land of origin, Palestine.
In his history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire (1776), Edward Gibbon wrote: "Phoenicia and Palestine will for ever live in the memory of mankind; since America, as well as Europe, has received letters from the one, and religion from the other." Today, Palestine suffers under an Israeli assault that is in every way like the "Indian Wars" carried out across the United States in the 19th century, to "clear the land" for "progress." Apologists for this land-theft and population displacement will issue very heated and very convoluted arguments to justify the continuing expansion of Israel, really the continuing invasion and colonization of Palestine by the Israeli Zionists. But we can dismiss all of that, the verbiage of decades, with the clear understanding that what is happening in Palestine is the simple and cruel consequence of an overwhelming force of arms. The Palestinians find themselves in the same situation as the Arawaks and Tainos of 500 years ago: a more powerful and technically advanced European-origined people covet their land. It is ironic that the Christian West that supports this "Indian War" against the Palestinians derives so much of its mythology from a religion born in Palestine.
The Palestinians are historically unlucky for four reasons: 1) theirs is a small, weak, poor and disorganized nation, 2) the Christian mythology of the powerful Western military powers works to obscure the reality of the Palestinian situation, and dull sympathy to it, in too many Western minds, 3) the history of crimes by fascists against European Jews in the 1930s and 1940s is skillfully exploited by Israeli public relations organizations, to badger Western public opinion and sow it with guilt, so as to extract money and acquiescence to Israeli aggression and land-theft, and finally 4) the natural disinclination of any individual or nation to sacrifice his and its comfort to protest, let alone fight against, the exploitation of a foreign people; the reality that most people not directly affected are willing to ignore the elimination of another "tribe." They will say "how sad" or "how unfair" but they will allow the "Indians" to die out, without acting.
During the Christmas Season, we in the West tell many stories about Jesus Christ, and sing many songs about peace, salvation, giving, "a child is born" and "Christmas spirit," to brighten the depth of winter and add some emotional warmth to a chilly world. But, this seems to have little practical effect when it comes to countering the Israeli aggression in Palestine. Here in the West, we have our Christmas parties, our Santa Claus for the delight of the children (and of course our commercial ambitions), a seasonal excuse to hear music or go to the ballet, our family get-togethers and dinner feasts, winter sports and church assemblies. Putting Christian charity into practice is an entirely different story, the whole point of our attitude is to give a seasonal nod of thanks for our blessings, and let somebody else get crucified for them. It's easier if you don't look and they're "heathens."
A few days ago, I finished reading W. Somerset Maugham's novel "The Painted Veil," about an unfaithful British colonial wife, a superficial young woman who unexpectedly finds herself in the midst of a cholera epidemic in southern China in the 1920s. Her husband, a bacteriologist and M.D., is leading the public health effort, and she is instructed and awakened by observing the responses of the different types of human character caught up in this awful reality with her, and by how the existing racist and class social constructs casts each of them. In going out for walks it becomes necessary to learn to ignore the cadavers of natives, which sometimes collect outside against the wall of the colonial residential compound. Doesn't this sound like the attitude of many of us in the Imperial heartlands, when watching the TV evening news broadcasts where a mention of "Gaza" or "peace process" might occur?
To discuss Palestine at Christmastime, here in the U.S. or in Europe, is to highlight the hypocrisy of so much "statecraft." Israel was bombing Palestine and Lebanon during the last Christmas season, remember?
I have a personal Christmas story involving Palestinians. About seven years ago on New Year's Day, I was driving my family to visit my parents, who lived almost two hours away; this was to be our "Christmas" get-together. Suddenly, the car gave out a metallic bang, then immediately the entire drive-train felt and sounded like a rapidly spinning barrel of bolts. I veered off the highway at an exit that was fortunately nearby, and coasted downhill along the exit lane, onto a street, and within a few hundred meters into a service station.
Being a holiday, I had little expectation of much help. I met the owner inside the small office, and asked for a quick evaluation of the car's mechanical state, and recommendations. With me were my wife, my two older children and my young daughter who was about 3 years old; we were halfway between home and my parents' house. It was quickly evident that the transmission had broken, and this could not be repaired soon. I commented that I felt like Joseph trying to take his family to Bethlehem, that my donkey had given out, and I might now have to find a manger for the night. The owner quickly perked up and asked: "Have you been to Bethlehem?" No I had not. He had, he was Palestinian and his relatives worked as the mechanics. He thought I might also have been Palestinian because I have a "swarthy Mediterranean appearance" (as one upscale paleface in New York put it years ago).
The owner was very nice, he understood my problem because he, too, was a family man. So, within an hour we had concluded a contract to have my car repaired at his shop (it would take weeks since a rebuilt transmission had to be acquired and shipped) and we were on our way. We arrived at my parents house a little late but in style, in a Mercedes Benz 280 SEL 4.5 sedan. This car was loaned to me, not rented, at the Palestinian's insistence ("You don't have to rent a car, I have a car for you. It's my wife's old car, she has a new one").
The repair job would be expensive enough (and it's held up since). During our stay at the service station (while the mechanics were investigating), my family walked next door to a little convenience store and bought snacks, and the older children played with the baby, to keep her occupied. The Palestinian and I chatted about — what else? — our families, our origins. He was very pleasant and low key, he knew he would make money on the repair job, and yet he was completely conscious of the human dimensions of my situation, and of our similarities: we were both "Josephs," trying to move our families in safety.
He had a lot of cars on his lot, and he picked out one of the very best for us. I enjoyed the use of that Mercedes for a month, it had style, comfort, room and pep, but that big V8 engine sure gulped gasoline. I could see why he had retired it. Still, I wish I had one again. A month later I picked up our car, returned his, paid our bill, and didn't see the Palestinian again. Last year, I stopped in to see the station, but it was gone, a new business development occupied the site; nobody knew about any previous gas station. I always think of that Palestinian around Christmas and New Year's, and whenever I hear the word "Bethlehem."
One cannot draw any grand international political conclusions out of isolated personal interactions. However, one can be reminded by such interactions that labels, like "Palestinian" or "Iranian" (another story for another time) are not just abstract elements of larger political concepts; they are first and foremost people, most of them good, ordinary, everyday people just like most of "us." Remembering THAT is the absolute first step to any plan, any action to stop the bombings, the aggression, the land-theft, and the killings in the lands of "Phoenicia and Palestine," which "will for ever live in the memory of mankind."
So, in response to any inquiries about my religion, as well as to the Christian sentiments of the season, let me quote myself (from a 2004 essay) to challenge others to try this for religion:
God, let me experience life without thought of profit, preference or death.
Let me know justice, by allowing me to experience the consequences of my acts as others experience them.
Let me know You for what You are: the life in all, the knower, the known and the unknown.
Let me be curious without fear of thought.
Let me be expressive without thought of fear.
Let me be forgiving, an instrument of compassion.
Let me be alert, an instrument of knowledge.
Let me be humane, an instrument of peace.
Let me know truth.
Let me be grateful.
"Palestine's Gift of Christmas" was originally published at Counter Punch on 22 December 2009.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2009/12/22/palestine-s-gift-of-christmas/
Posted in Christmas	| Tagged Bethlehem, Christianity, Israel, Palestine, religion
War, the Unending Theft
Attacking Iran Will Save The World (redux)
A Measure of Societal Vitality
Climate Change at the Movies
CO2 and Climate Change, Old and New
American society
Asian Philosophies
Cadillac Desert
California geology
decision theory
energy for human development
equality-freedom mapping
Iran War
J. Robert Oppenheimer
keeping the rabble in line
MGJr Internet Bibliography
nonbelief
obesity-BMI-metabolism-weight_loss
physics career
physics of nature
political freedom
R2P
Reagan Administration
The Making of a Continent
Tony Judt


Well, we may just have the solution, and it's not a limited time offer! Kyouhei Fukuda is the creator of Taskontable, a time management tool that can be used to help anyone from the absent-minded to the overwhelmed create order out of chaos. Are you looking to get your work done more efficiently so you can get done with work? And maybe even have more time to play? Then read on, because we recently spoke with Mr. Fukuda about his product, the idea behind it, and its implementation of Handsontable.
– What motivated you to create Taskontable?
I was looking for a task management application with the desire of accelerating my daily work. One day I stumbled upon TaskChute, a macro that transforms Excel into a task management tool. Released in 1998, with the aim of helping the user to accomplish daily tasks smoothly, it is still considered to be a useful program in Japan. However, it comes with old architecture that offers very little access to the user who wants to adopt it in different environments from Windows. Maintaining, unchanged, both the basic idea and the concept behind it, I thought it was possible to improve the user experience by using Handsontable and modern web technologies.
– Who did you write this software for?
Taskontable is mainly for people who need to speed up their daily work routine. Splitting your work into a series of tasks and setting a timebox for each of them, Taskontable is, firstly, a time management tool. However, I want to put emphasis on the fact that Taskontable is not merely a tool that reminds the user when his task should be completed, but also encourages the user to be conscious of what his task consists of, with the aim of translating this process into a reduced working time.
Let's say that there are some workers that have to complete some tasks. Do you think that all of them would have an answer for the following questions?
What are the conditions that make your task done?
Does your task really have a conclusion?
For whom and for what purpose is your task?
Very likely most of them will give you some ambiguous answers, and this happens because a task itself is rarely self-explanatory. Making clear the conditions that make it complete will help us stay focused, allowing us to complete it in the least time possible.
– So how does Taskontable work?
You just have to write your daily tasks, each task start-time, and end-time estimation. Taskontable will notify you when your time is finishing or has exceeded and eventually gives you a final report. I know there is nothing special about this, but by asking the user to estimate their task's ending time, indirectly they will be induced to think about the questions mentioned above, making their tasks more concrete than before.
Taskontable can be also used in a team, meaning that everyone can immediately know about the progress of other members' tasks, if they are on time, late, or have finished their tasks.
– Is this your first project?
I have worked on many projects, and I'm still working on some of them. Recently I've been working on an employee management system, but in the past I worked on a step sequencer that uses Handsontable too!
– What were your goals for Taskontable when you created it?
To be honest, initially I did not really think about a goal. I was simply busy with my job and I was looking for something that could help me with my daily tasks. I did not find anything that satisfied my needs and that is why I decided to build a tool myself. It is now released as an OSS app, so you can use it for free!
– What made you choose Handsontable for this task?
As I said earlier, I was inspired by an Excel macro, so I was looking for a library that could imitate Excel behaviours. Handsontable is really developer friendly and its flexibility makes it clearly the best spreadsheet library on the web, so it was really easy for me to choose the right library for my project.
– How did you discover Handsontable?
– Are you going to add new features to Taskontable in the future?
I am thinking about a mobile version of Taskontable. I'm also planning a plugin to allow Taskontable to communicate with different platforms.
There you have it. Is it possible for all of this efficiency to be contained within one product? Does it provide a ray of hope for even the most diehard multitasker? There's only one way to find out. Download yours today, even though supplies will last!
Generic bio alert: I like doing things and learning more about stuff.


A 2014 Edmunds survey showed that most auto intenders make at least two dealership visits and take at least two test drives before they buy. This investigative period is a critical time for automotive marketers.
While shoppers show purchase interest and browse online, auto marketers can gather data about their in-market audiences to serve better ads. They can also go further than analyzing digital engagement to understand how ads affect an auto-intender audience. Ultimately, marketers need to understand how their ads affect offline behavior.
So, how can marketers tie digital ad spend to showroom visits? And once it has been accomplished, how can this additional level of insight help deliver more effective programs?
A major auto brand found answers to these questions through a controlled study of foot traffic to the dealership. The study used proprietary location-based technology to link mobile activity with offline store visits to measure advertising success. The results were informative, and also repeatable and scalable. This is good news for any auto brand looking to tie digital spend to showroom visits and, ultimately, sales.
To understand how the campaign's ads affected offline activity at the dealership level, the brand began by carefully choosing test and control groups based on similarities in behavior, interests, and locations. Over the course of the campaign, both groups were carefully observed (pre- and post-campaign) to normalize the data and account for aberrations—like events, promotions, and holidays—that could skew results.
Finally, mobile impressions were matched to dealership visits to understand how the digital ads drove offline actions.
The study revealed exposed visitors to the brand's dealerships were in-market, also visiting competitors' dealerships on the same day. Therefore, the brand learned it's important to seal the deal before the client walks off the lot. Further, the manufacturer can conquest based on competitor locations with a high visit rate.
Banks were also a common same-day destination. This indicates that on-site financing can be a valuable tool to help close the deal, and manufacturers can adjust ad creative to advertise on-site financing when available.
About 62% of visitors who saw an ad lived within a five-mile radius of a dealership. This suggests that promotions aimed at nearby, high-responding neighborhoods might need to be incorporated into future calendars.
Insights like these put brands in the driver's seat, positioning marketers to leverage real data and drive success.
After this particular traffic analytics study, the auto manufacturer was able to share the insights with its dealers so that all tiers could better craft digital campaigns, promotions and special offers, pricing, and more.
Conducting a traffic analysis provides deep knowledge of where auto intenders spend their time and money to deliver a complete customer picture. In the digital world, it's traditionally been a challenge to tie online efforts and spend to offline behaviors, but that's no longer the case—and isn't that what digital marketing is all about?
John King is the U.S. director of automotive advertising for MaxPoint, where he helps dealers reach the right consumers in the right neighborhoods across mobile and desktop devices. His expertise is in integrated media planning across mobile, Internet, TV, and print, with a focus on emerging media platform evaluation.


This is so true when it comes to our own bodies as I have discovered during my life journey.
Well, what a revelation that was!
The exercise moves were not difficult but the amount of aerobics was enough to make me feel slightly breathless or at least raised the pulse. I suddenly realised that I wasn't as "fit" as I thought I was. By that I mean that things that I could quite happily do in my teens (just because I was more active) were not as easy to do 10 years on. When did that happen?! The body doesn't send signals that it has changed - it had simply adapted to my lifestyle - which wasn't very active!
Surprised by this silent decrease in "fitness", I decided to join the exercise class. Gradually I saw an improvement - I could now carry on a conversation while exercising! Lunchtimes were actually fun!
Your body is your history. It is constantly adapting to what you are doing. It can become stiff and inflexible as you become less active or it can beome responsive and supple with increased activity. Research seems to be showing that a positive adaptation to increased activity continues even among the elderly!
Remember the body is designed for movement. If you've been a bit of a couch potatoe, you may be surprised at what you can't now do.
So maybe "you don't know you've got till it's gone". Get active, develope some body awareness. Give it time. It now seems that "it is never to late to start"!
This is so true--we've got to use it or lose it!


Bill has spent most of his adult life helping others as a firefighter in Southern California. With the same hard-working spirit Bill had as a firefighter in Cali he now gives to the community of Wahiawa, his STN ohana, and the world. You can catch him at any given moment knee deep unclogging a sink or under one of the STN vehicles keeping them on the road. Working hard and serving others is Bill's happy place. So much so that it spurred him to move his whole family to Wahiawa to be a part of what Surfing the Nations is doing in Oahu and around the world. Even though he never had a passport before coming to STN he now wants go wherever STN goes to give back and serve as many people as possible. Bill loves to meet new people and talk story with them and being at STN gives ample opportunity to do just that.


text:
Q: What is SoftPerfect LightWeight Filter in my Win7 network stack? After installing the drivers for my realtek wifi card, I have this item in my network stack:
SoftPerfect LightWeight Filter (Description: SoftPerfect NDIS LightWeight Filter).
I've googled, but can't find much info on what it is.  Does anyone know what it does?

A: An NDIS Lightweight Filter driver is one of several driver models to monitor and filter network packets in Windows. Filter drivers can monitor and modify the interaction between protocol drivers and miniport drivers. A miniport is a type of hardware driver, part of the Windows Driver Model. These are USB, Audio, SCSI and network card adapters.
If an optional NDIS Lightweight Filter (LWF) driver is installed and the driver is not started, the network will not be available for up to 90 seconds.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Le Gouvernement fédéral de transition (GFT) (en ) était le gouvernement de la République de Somalie reconnu au niveau international jusqu'en . Il a été établi comme une des institutions fédérales de transition (IFT) du gouvernement en , tel que l'a défini la Charte fédérale de transition (CFT), adoptée en  par le Parlement fédéral de transition (PFT). Le Gouvernement fédéral de transition comprend officiellement la branche exécutive du gouvernement et le PFT, qui a la fonction de branche législative.

Le gouvernement est dirigé par le Président de Somalie, qui est en relation avec le cabinet par l'intermédiaire du Premier ministre. Toutefois, on utilise aussi cette expression de façon générale pour désigner collectivement les trois branches dans leur ensemble.

Les différents services du gouvernement, comme le ministère de la Défense, relèvent de portefeuilles différents.

Soutenu par les Nations unies, l'Union africaine ainsi que les États-Unis, le gouvernement est en lutte avec insurgés de Al-Shabbaab pour s'assurer le contrôle total de la partie sud du pays. En , le gouvernement et ses alliés de l'AMISOM ont réussi à obtenir le contrôle de 60 % de Mogadiscio, où vit à l'heure actuelle 80 % de la population de la capitale. Selon l'UA et le Premier ministre Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, grâce à l'augmentation de force des troupes, on peut s'attendre à voir le rythme des gains territoriaux s'accélérer considérablement.

Il laisse sa place le  au gouvernement fédéral de Somalie.

Articles connexes
 Abdi Shakur Sheikh Hassan
 Forces armées somaliennes
 Intervention kényane en Somalie
 Guerre civile somalienne

Politique en Somalie

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
The Rights Writer
Should Your Tax Dollars Pay for a Speaker Who Said Obeying the Police is 'A Violation of God'?
August 6, 2015 By Ben Johnson
In February, the U.S. Census Bureau paid civil rights figure and "comedian" Dick Gregory $1,400 to be the keynote speaker at its Black History Month event. An official announcement promised that during his February 11 speech, Gregory would "share a wealth of history as a Civil Rights Activist" (sic). Instead, Gregory used the opportunity to say that teaching young men to obey police officers was a … [Read more...]
'King Rules': Martin Luther King Jr. would defend life and marriage, says his niece
January 19, 2015 By Ben Johnson
King Rules: The Truths for You, Your Family, and Our Nation to Prosper. Alveda King. Thomas Nelson Publishers. 224 pages. How would Lincoln deal with the red state-blue state divide? How would Reagan respond to today's foreign policy questions? The search for answers in the present by searching the wisdom of great figures of the past is at once inherently conservative and a necessary part … [Read more...]
White, Christian Rape Victims? Check Your Privilege
September 9, 2014 By Ben Johnson
September 9, 2014 (TheRightsWriter.com) – One of the most unsettling acts of modern day sexual jihad went unnoticed in the UK over the last 16 years because of institutional racism – against white girls. In all, gangs of mostly Pakistani Muslims exploited 1,400 British girls as young as 11 before gang-raping them and sexually trafficking them in one city alone. The gangs would have … [Read more...]
Fmr. Governor Reubin Askew, the last pro-life Democrat to run for president, dies at 85
March 13, 2014 By Ben Johnson
TALLAHASSEE, FL, March 13, 2014 – Former Florida Governor Reubin Askew, the last pro-life politician to mount a serious bid for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, died today at age 85. Remembered as a man of integrity and faith, Askew was a born again Presbyterian elder who campaigned for "a constitutional amendment to reverse Roe v. Wade," opposed casino gambling, and signed one … [Read more...]
Huffington Post writer: Embrace your inner racist and kill black babies
March 5, 2014 By Ben Johnson
March 5, 2014 (TheRightsWriter.com) – The urbane and enlightened website The Huffington Post featured an article last week encouraging the pro-life movement to embrace its alleged "racism" and support abortion-on-demand – by envisioning their daughters killing the babies of black men. Gregory S. Parks, a law professor at Wake Forest University, implied that the the pro-abortion movement might … [Read more...]
Are Pro-Lifers "Racist"?
Although nearly two of every three babies aborted is not white, the pro-life movement is continually tarred as "racist" for trying to save their lives. This week Michelle Colon, an abortion facility escort, told The Huffington Post that the mostly white sidewalk counselors outside her office "say some of the most disgusting, degrading, and racist comments to" black women, telling them they may … [Read more...]
Obama doesn't comment on ongoing trials – unless they involve Trayvon Martin
April 15, 2013 By Ben Johnson
WASHINGTON, D.C., April 15, 2013 - Those hoping that Barack Obama would take even the tiniest moral stand against a case of the most unfathomable evil were characteristically disappointed on Monday, as White House spokesman Jay Carney refused to comment on Kermit Gosnell's capital murder trial. While Carney called the reports of Gosnell's "house of horrors" – which include beheading viable … [Read more...]
10 out of 10 black children prefer Ramen noodles to death
December 20, 2012 By Ben Johnson
Politically motivated arguments are infuriatingly illogical, but none more so than special pleading for abortion providers. Earlier this month, Rush Limbaugh told his that audience Roe v. Wade had "made us insensitive to killing." His words took on a new prescience as the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre claimed the lives of nearly two-dozen young children – often referred to in the media simply … [Read more...]
The Radical Behind Obama's Get-Out-The-Vote Campaign
November 6, 2012 By Ben Johnson
"Who wins the 2012 presidential election," the pundits and experts agree, "will all come down to who has the best get-out-the-vote game." This week, we've dedicated a a number of stories to Buffy Wicks, the woman who is managing Barack Obama's nationwide ground campaign and who oversaw all western states in 2008. Hers is a story of a woman who traced her steps from the further reaches of the … [Read more...]
Obama's get-out-the-vote director sued to keep underprivileged white woman out of law school
Talk about a war on women. Buffy Wicks, who leads the national get-out-the-vote effort for President Obama's re-election campaign, sued to keep an underprivileged woman from attending the University of Washington law school – because the woman is white. Court documents list "Buffy Jo Christina Wicks" as one of 13 students at the University of Washington who attempted to join an ACLU lawsuit … [Read more...]
Get Ben's Latest by Email
Join Ben…
Ben's commentary by title
Ben's commentary by category
Select Category Abortion Academia Affirmative Action/Race Anti-Americanism Anti-Christian bigotry Anti-Semitism Bill Clinton Blogging China Citizen USA Conspiracy theories Constitution Defund the Left Economics Environmentalism Euthanasia Feminism Foreign policy FrontPage Magazine George Soros/Shadow Party Hatred of the Military History Homeland Security Homepage Homosexual issues Humor Immigration Iran Iraq Islam Jihad Labor Unions AFL-CIO AFSCME Change To Win IBEW SEIU Teachers Unions Teamsters Left-wing Hatred Left-wing Philanthropy Liberal fascism Limousine Liberals/Hollywood Left Man of the Year Media bias Missile Defense Moonbat Central National defense National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) NewsRealblog North Korea Obama administration Obama appointees Obituaries Politics Democrats Republicans Radical Left Religious Left RINOs Social conservatives Socialized medicine Teresa Heinz Kerry The Clintons United Nations/globalism War on Terror Welcome
Ben's books…

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


This entry was posted on Saturday, March 23rd, 2013 at 5:58 pm	and is filed under Beatle Photos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.


Carol Ann Wrigley, 72, of Belleville, passed away Thursday, March 21, 2019 in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Mrs. Wrigley was an Admissions Representative for the Kessler Institute in East Orange, retiring 6 years ago.
She is survived by her sons Howard, Kenneth and his wife Brendis, grandchildren Kayla, Kenneth, Kate, Justin, and Ashley.
She was predeceased by her parents John and Helen Kastner, and her brother John Kastner.
In memory of Carol Ann, donations may be made to St. Jude's Childrens Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105.


text:
Turkey deploys fighter jets to Syria border after frontier village allegedly bombed – reports
Published time: 12 Oct, 2012 11:54 Edited time: 12 Oct, 2012 22:05
A Turkish F-16 fighter jet (Reuters / Umit Bektas) © Reuters
According to witnesses, Turkey scrambled two fighter jets to the Syrian border in response to an army helicopter bombing the Syrian border town of Azmarin, Reuters reported.
Fighting between the Syrian government and rebels recently erupted in Azmarin, with several refugees fleeing the violence by crossing the border into Turkey yesterday. The town is approximately one kilometer from the Turkish border.
Tensions between Ankara and Damascus have run high following a brief cross-border shelling attack last week, and after Turkey grounded a Syrian commercial jet en route from Moscow to Damascus on Wednesday over suspicions the plane was carrying illegal cargo.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Ergodan alleged that the Moscow-to-Damascus commercial flight diverted to Ankara on Wednesday was carrying munitions for the Syrian army.
"It is absolutely clear who sent the cargo and who was going to receive it. This was munitions from the Russian equivalent of our Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation being sent to the Syrian Defense Ministry," Erdogan told journalists, referring to the state-run Turkish manufacturer that supplies the country's army.
"The examination [of the seized cargo] is continuing and the necessary will follow," Erdogan said.
Syria accused Ankara of 'air piracy,' and insisted that none of the plane's cargo was illegal.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said it has not received an explanation from Turkey detailing the plane's cargo and its seizure. Moscow slammed Turkey for sending F-16s fighter jets to force the plane to land, endangering the lives of the flight's 35 passengers.
Russian diplomats and doctors were also not allowed to meet the 17 Russian nationals on board the plane, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Aleksandr Lukashevich said. Moreover, as the cargo was being inspected, the passengers were forced to spend nine hours on the plane, and no food was provided.
The incident came as the UN Security Council and NATO urged Turkey and Syria not to further escalate tensions. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle will represent NATO in a visit to Ankara, Turkey, on Saturday in an attempt to defuse the standoff.
"It is important that no one succumb to provocation and that we continue working on a new democratic start in Syria," said Westerwelle. "It is important that no one pours oil on the fire. We are counting on moderation and de-escalation."
Turkey has recently increased its military deployments on the Syrian border, including with tanks and F-16 fighter jets. Hürriyet Daily News reported Friday that Ankara has amassed around 250 tanks and 55 jets of various models along the volatile border with its Arab neighbor. Meanwhile, the Turkey's troops have been put on high alert.
On Wednesday, Turkish Chief of Staff General Necdet Ozel said his troops would respond "with greater force" if the shelling continued, while last week the country's parliament authorized cross-border operations into Syria. Turkish officials voice fears that the 19-month-long uprising in Syria, which has killed an estimated 19,000 people, will spill over the border.
Trends:Syria-Turkey news
Turkey strengthens air defence at Syrian border (VIDEO)
Turkish parliament authorizes cross-border military operations in Syria
Turkey retaliates at Syria for sixth consecutive day
Iraqi PM: Turkey not threatened by Syria, don't overblow war or drag in NATO
Turkish F16s intercept Syrian civilian flight from Moscow to Damascus (PHOTOS, VIDEO)
Turkish PM claims diverted Syria-bound plane was carrying munitions for Damascus


What's your flavour? Enjoy delicious frozen yoghurt the way you like it – anytime of the day! Here's the list of our froyo, smoothies and coffee, or grab a healthy breakfast bowl with natural yoghurt and fresh fruit first thing in the morning!
Self service, have fun creating your own!
Start the day fresh with a fast and healthy bowl of natural pot set yoghurt, your choice of muesli and add what ever toppings you like!


text:
NewsPoliticsUSA
Home›News›Former Vice President Joe Biden Has Enough Electoral Votes for Nomination
Former Vice President Joe Biden Has Enough Electoral Votes for Nomination
Former Vice President Joe Biden has received the nomination to take on behalf of the Democrats against Republican and current President Donald Trump during the November elections.
An estimate by the television channel shows that he won enough votes during Tuesday's primaries to get more than 1991 electors behind him.
That number is necessary to be officially elected as Trump's challenger in the November 3 presidential election during the Democratic convention.
In a statement on Friday night, Biden called it an "honour" to compete for the nomination against "one of the most brilliant groups of candidates the Democratic party has ever raised. And I am proud to say that we have these general elections enter as a unified party. "
"I'm going to fight every day between now and November 3 to earn the votes of Americans in this great country.
So that organized we can win the combat for the soul of this nation and make sure we get everyone involved in the rebuilding of our economy. Biden continued.
It is hardly a surprise that Biden has won the nomination. All of his opponents have already stopped fighting. On the ballot papers, he still had competition from former candidate Bernie Sanders.
This left-wing senator is out of the race but is still participating on paper to have as much inspiration as possible on the course of the party at the party congress in August.
Vladimir Putin to Donald Trump: I am Open to Dialogue
NewsTechnologyUSA
The Stock Exchanges in New York Started with Very Small Profits
AfghanistanBlogNewsUSA
US Drops Most Powerful Non-Nuclear Bomb in Afghanistan
BlogNewsUK
Ariana Grande Surprised Visit in Children Hospital
Faulty MCAS System may be the Cause of Boeing 737 MAX Crash
NewsRussia
Russian President Vladimir Putin: Anti Racism Protests Reveal Deep US Crisis
The Stock Exchanges in New York Started with Losses on the Last Trading Day
BusinessChinaNews
China Targets Annual Growth of Nearly 5 Percent
The Chinese government would aim for average growth of the economy of almost 5 percent per year for the longer term. This means that the growth of the second ...
Bahrain Limousine Service Rental Tips
Coronavirus: Within A Month Infections Rose from Hundreds to Thousands
YouTube Has Removed 30 Million Videos in A Years


text:
"The Drugs Don't Work" is a song by English rock band the Verve. The song was written by Richard Ashcroft and is featured on their third studio album, Urban Hymns (1997). It was released on 1 September 1997 as the second single from the album, debuting at number one on the UK Singles Chart. The beginning of the video shows the band walking down the street, following on from the end of "Bitter Sweet Symphony".

Ranked number seven on Channel 4's list of the "100 Greatest #1 Singles", the sombre nature of the song unintentionally captured the spirit of the nation as it was released the day after Princess Diana died. In October 2011, NME placed "The Drugs Don't Work" at number 78 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years".

Background and recording
Lead singer Richard Ashcroft wrote the song in early 1995. He briefly mentioned it in an interview at the time, relating it to his drug usage: "There's a new track I've just written ... It goes 'the drugs don't work, they just make me worse, and I know I'll see your face again'. That's how I'm feeling at the moment. They make me worse, man. But I still take 'em. Out of boredom and frustration you turn to something else to escape."

Ashcroft also performed the song when the band was touring in support of A Northern Soul. The song was eventually recorded for Urban Hymns. The album's producer, Chris Potter later referred to it as both the best song and best vocal he had ever recorded.

Critical reception
Alan Jones from Music Week wrote, "Beautifully orchestrated, semi-acoustic and distinctly old-fashioned, it's a melancholy ballad executed with great panache and enormous style by a group who can only get bigger." Jon Wiederhorn from Rolling Stone described the song as "a tear-stained ballad enhanced with sparse, nebulous horns and reverberating pedal steel guitar."

Music video
The accompanying music video for the song was directed by Andy Baybutt. The video begins with several references to the Verve's earlier work. The band appears in the same formation and clothes as they did at the end of the video for "Bitter Sweet Symphony". The cover of the machine on the front of the album No Come Down also appears briefly. The band turns around a corner and walks over to a vending machine called "Feelings". This refers to the song "Life's an Ocean" from their second album, A Northern Soul, where Ashcroft sings, "I was buying some feelings from a vending machine" (the same vending machine is also seen on the back of that album). The rest of the video shows, partially in black and white, the band playing the song indoors. The video ends with a piece of burning wood, with the words 'Urban Hymns' written on it, floating on water. The original concept for the video was to have the band filmed in a maze to illustrate "loss of direction".

Track listings

 UK CD1 and cassette single
 "The Drugs Don't Work" (radio edit)
 "Three Steps"
 "The Drugs Don't Work" (original demo)

 UK CD2
 "The Drugs Don't Work" (full length)
 "Bitter Sweet Symphony" (James Lavelle Remix)
 "The Crab"
 "Stamped"

 UK 7-inch jukebox single
A. "The Drugs Don't Work" (radio edit) – 4:45
B. "The Drugs Don't Work" (original demo) – 4:44

 UK and European 12-inch single
A1. "The Drugs Don't Work" (radio edit)
A2. "Three Steps"
B1. "The Drugs Don't Work" (demo)
B2. "The Crab"

 Australian limited-edition CD single
 "The Drugs Don't Work" (radio edit)
 "Three Steps"
 "The Drugs Don't Work" (original demo)
 "Bitter Sweet Symphony" (original)

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

The Verve songs
1997 singles
1997 songs
Hut Records singles
Number-one singles in Scotland
Song recordings produced by Chris Potter (record producer)
Songs about drugs
Songs written by Richard Ashcroft
UK Singles Chart number-one singles


Normally it's not good to lead a double life. That usually means that somebody has a mistress or is embezzling funds from her employer or is running some kind of illegal business.
You and I do lead double lives, you know. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, our angelic protection, our saintly halos are all invisible to others, and frankly we don't perceive them either. We don't see the filth of our sins being rinsed away in baptism; we see only humble bread and wine in the Lord's Supper; we don't see any evidence of immortality at a Christian funeral as we lay a lifeless body in the ground.
But our second life is there, and it's real. "You died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3). Your faith in Christ, though invisible in the wave spectrum available to your eyes, has made you a new creation, cleansed you of all sin, made you an heir of heaven, and changed your way of thinking. In short, you have gone from death to life. You are loved, forgiven, and immortal.
But for now we have to wait for all those things to be revealed to all. We believe them now as an article of faith, guaranteed by God's Word. Soon, soon, all that is hidden will be revealed and glorious. When you think of the riches that Christ holds in trust for you, people will wonder what you're smiling about.


Caudata.org > Newt & Salamander Forum > Beginner Newt, Salamander, Axolotl & Help Topics > Newt and Salamander Help > What & how to feed paddletail newt ?
What & how to feed paddletail newt ?
I've been feeding my paddletail newt frozen bloodworms and beef heart for the past few years with occasional live fish as well, but for the past few weeks he's hardly been eating and i'm getting worried.
should i introduce more live food into his diet ? is it a seasonal thing that i just haven't noticed until now ?
i'd appreciate any & all help on this matter !
Re: What & how to feed paddletail newt ?
You should change the food. Instead try offering earthworms. Get nightcrawlers from Walmart or a bait shop. If they are too big cut them to a more proper size.
ok, that's what i figured. i usually feed him 3 times a week — should i just give him one worm for each feeding ? or would he need more / less ?
I'd start with half a worm but I would feed mine once or twice a week. Just watch their size and that'll tell you.