Maybe Obama has changed his mind because of the deficit he faces, but even if that's true, this smells of the beginning of another long faux-populist Dem Kabuki in which Obama reaps all the benefits of appearing to oppose the corporations that are destroying the country knowing all the time that with Harry Reid's BD Senate at his back, he'll never actually have to carry through on any of his anti-corporate rhetoric.
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I had no idea the Dalai Lama was crazier than a loon.
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How to attract and keep bees in a very healthful way: http://www.blah3.com/article.php?story=20090503205542902
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This Newsweek article doesn't take sides in the War on Terror. But if you'd like to take a short break from the one-dimensional images of religious fanatics and terrorists — these are the personal experiences and impressions of a Pakistani citizen who spent three months in London. The author was born in Afghanistan but his family fled to Pakistan in 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. http://www.teambio.org/2009/05/03/afghanis-and-pakistanis-in-london/
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My Marriage is Over
These people have ruined it forever.
I remember covering the marriage equality demonstrations in Chicago in 2004, and interviewing a young woman who had been on the phone with her partner. She was pacing up and down in front of City Hall fretting. "She's late. She's late for our wedding. Late on our wedding day." And for some reason (maybe because I was late to my own wedding, something Mr. A has yet to let me live down), that was what got to me.
Not that I'd ever been anti-gay-marriage, but being a straight girl the reality hadn't been something I'd ever had to consider. That woman, though, made me consider it. She was a bride, nervous about the arrival of her love, just as I'd been. And the look on her face when her fiancée finally came running up the walk — apologizing profusely for her tardiness, carrying flowers — reminded me of the look on my husband's when I walked up the aisle.
The couple I talked to wasn't married that day, though they stood in the hallway of the County Clerk's office, quietly insisting, "Marry us, or marry no one." No one was married that day; the protest ended when the office closed. They will be married one day, though, they and many others across this country. People were so nervous in 2004, that seeing all those weddings in San Francisco would set the cause of equality back decades, and it seemed, in the aftermath of the 2004 elections and again in the aftermath of Proposition 8, that maybe America would never get on board with what was right. But that's not the way it's going to stay. Look at those faces from Iowa.
Joy is infectious. Love is contagious. Faced with love, faced with the reality of love, it's no wonder the tide of public opinion in this country has changed, so that even people who HAD been uncomfortable with the idea of full civil equality changed their minds. When you are happy, you want happiness for everyone. When you are safe, you want safety for all. This is how we grow, how we expand the circle of those we call our own, by admitting everybody. There is no other way this happens. There is no other choice. We take one another's hands, toss the bouquet, and step out into the world together.
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NCO gets life for slaying Iraqi (al Qaeda) detainees - Stars & Stripes ^
Capt. John Riesenberg, assistant government trial counsel, told the jury that their sentence should be aimed at stopping other first sergeants and soldiers from doing what the Company A soldiers did.
"Send a message to the world that this is an army that recognizes that it is different, that American soldiers just don't do this. They don't execute detainees in the middle of the night by shooting them in the back of the head when they are bound and blindfolded and dump their bodies in a canal," he said.
Seems fair to me. Let's see what the Freepers think:
this sends a message to our guys to NOT take prisoners. and thank goodness for that.
I wonder who turned him in?
Agreed, and there should have been no prosecution because the story should have never gotten out.
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But democratic infidels are just great when they're sending billions in aid every year
Leading Pakistani cleric chief Sufi Muhammad of Tehreek-e- Nifaz-e- Shariat-e- Muhammadi has declared democracy, communism, socialism, and fascism to be un-Islamic. Hmmm, that leaves what? Oh yes, Islamic rule. He has also reaffirmed that it is unIslamic to be photographed.
Showing the depth of his thinking (or inability of thought), Sufi Muhammad declared democracy to be un-Islamic because it was invented by infidels, adding "I would not offer prayer behind anyone who would seek to justify democracy."
Another problem with democracy appears to be that it insists on protecting democratic ideals and refuses to impose Sharia and Islamic law on citizens.
The ideal system? Why it was the medieval Taliban regime: "Only the Taliban had enforced sharia when they were in power in Afghanistan."
He also stressed that women in the perfect Taliban world were not allowed to come out of their homes for any reason other than to perform Haj.
Story here.
This comes a couple of days after Richard Holbrooke said the $5 billion in aid promised to Pakistan wasn't going to be enough.
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Sara Robinson has a couple of very interesting posts that delve into the major differences between conservative and liberal philosophies. The first post goes into how differently conservatives and liberals view discipline, accountability, responsibility and punishment.
Thirty years of conservative misrule have muddled Americans' understanding of words like responsibility, accountability, discipline,and punishment to the point where nobody knows that they mean any more—and don't seem to want to know, either. The social conservatives go on and on about the evils of postmodern morality and situational ethics; and on this score, I can't quite summon myself to disagree. It's been as though nobody on Planet Washington ever had a parent who was able to explain right from wrong, or demonstrate the role cause-and-effect plays in the ethical universe. It's like a moral-gravity-free zone.
...For conservatives, the goal of discipline is to assert the power of external authority. In their worldview, most people aren't capable of self-discipline. They can't be trusted to behave unless there's someone stronger in control who's willing to scare them back into line when they misbehave. Don't question the rules. Don't defy authority. Just do what you're told, and you'll be fine. But cross that line, dammit, and there will be hell to pay.
In the conservative view (which in our country tends to be more explicitly authoritarian), the only way to make people do the right thing is to have someone in charge. But for liberals, the belief is people learn how to be responsible.
Keep reading: http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/014060.php
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Too bad the teabaggers don't turn their pitchforks on people like these folks, discovered partying in Manhattan over the weekend as if there's no Great Recession at all, because for them, presumably, there isn't one.
The last couple of months would suggest that if you could pick one industry not to be in, it would be real-estate. And yet, there are always those few that seem to defy the odds (or so it seems). Enter Michael Shvo and Matt Moinian. Shvo, described by NY Mag as "the most loathed broker in New York" (due in part to his success and youth) teamed up with real-estate heir Moinian in 2008 on the [ultrahip] downtown W Hotel. This Saturday, the two teamed up at Bagatelle's Saturday brunch -where they sprayed nearly $90,000 worth of Dom Perignon according to our maitre'd most of which was aimed at some other guys in their group (of about 30 men in total...).
See everyone? The recession is over! I'm sure men like this are very grateful to the teabaggers who are protesting against raising their taxes and because they agree with Republicans (and far too many Democrats) that allowing bankruptcy judges to readjust the mortgages of struggling have-nots is a bad idea.
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Specter switching parties is proof the Dems have lost!
Put on your nerd glasses and see if you can figure this one out by James Inhofe within seven reads:
There is no evidence more visible that the American people are already rebelling against the far-left agenda than Senator Arlen Specter switching parties to become a Democrat. He did this for one reason, and that is his advisers told him he couldn't retain his Senate seat as a Republican. In other words, the same people who supported Senator Specter six years ago have soundly rejected him today.
That, my friends, sounds like 1994. The extreme liberal agenda is not sellable to the American people. Just wait and see.
And this:
Of course he's wrong, but that didn't stop global warming denier Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), who doesn't like the DADT policy from saying, Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy for the military. He says "a majority of the American people" agree with "section 571 of the 1994 National Defense Authorization Act, which states":
The presence in the armed forces of persons who demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability.
If you want to talk about 'unacceptable risk', let's talk about these guys who are hunting people for Jesus:
It seems that people in Afghanistan are unhappy with the Christian evangelism that accompanies the US military. See, they're encouraging American soldiers to violate Army regulations and break Afghan laws by proselytizing and passing out Christian bibles in the deeply conservative Islamic nation.
In one recorded sermon, Lieutenant-Colonel Gary Hensley, the chief of the US military chaplains in Afghanistan, tells soldiers that, as followers of Jesus Christ, they all have a responsibility "to be witnesses for him".
"The special forces guys - they hunt men basically. We do the same things as Christians, we hunt people for Jesus. We do, we hunt them down," he says.
"Get the hound of heaven after them, so we get them into the kingdom. That's what we do, that's our business."
It is the job of the Chaplain to provide spiritual guidance and comfort to all who ask, not to proselytize, or even evangelize, to those who come to them for counsel. It is their job to comfort and aid all, not render judgments about the faith of the person coming to them for assistance. Chaplains need to be especially cognizant and tolerant of other belief systems. All Chaplains are officers, and therefore in positions of authority above all enlisted personnel. Bottom line: Persons seeking out the Chaplain are vulnerable.
Not to drag out a tired cliché, but religious bigotry is a slippery slope. It drives a wedge between the ranks, and that ultimately undermines the honor code. I don't want Evangelical jihadi's in American khaki running around the Afghan countryside handing out bibles in Dari or Pashtu, and putting his spiritual charges at cross-purposes with the overall mission.
That is not merely unacceptable, it is a violation of the UCMJ. Period. Full Stop. A Chaplain in Afghanistan telling American soldiers to "hunt people for Jesus" is committing a crime and should be busted out, lose his retirement, and do some serious time in the DB at Leavenworth. Which would dovetail nicely with the little-brained god-fearers and the inate victim-complex they wear on their sleeves.
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"If, as I suspect, the financial meltdown is part of His judgment on us because of our growing moral and spiritual rejection of His standards, then He may very well let us sink into severe straits in order to bring us back to Himself. Perhaps we will not come to repentance about abortion and homosexuality and pornography and gambling and greed and sexual immorality and all the rest of it until the economy is so bad that we cry out for mercy."
"The immediate question arises in many Christians minds: was Katrina God's judgment on America in general, and/or was it His judgment on that area of the country, or on New Orleans in particular?"
"This is a Satanic attack on God's order of creation, and Christians must resist this with everything we have. The fight against the homosexual agenda is spiritual warfare of the highest order, but it must be waged not only with the spiritual weapons of prayer, but also with all the political, and social weapons that we are able to utilize."
Those are quotes from Peter Marshall, of the humbly named Peter Marshall Ministries. He's the guy that the Texas State Board of Education is about to appoint to be on an expert panel on the social studies curriculum at Texas public schools. They've also decided to appoint David Barton, who believes that all public policy should be guided - no, controlled - by the bible, including taxes.
When other states make their students stupid, they are inflicting that stupid on the rest of the nation (George Bush comes to mind). It's time to let Texas secede.
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Hatch worried Obama might pick Supreme Court Justice with "empathy" for the country's problems
I personally still think it's wrong. People don't understand the dictionary--it's called queer. Queer means strange and unusual. It's not like a slur, like you would call a white person a honky or something like that. You know, God is pretty explicit in what we're supposed to do--what man and woman are for. Now, at the same time, we're supposed to love everybody and accept people, and preach against the sins. I've had some friends that are actually homosexual. And, I mean, they know where I stand, and they know that I wouldn't have them anywhere near my children. But at the same time, they're people, and they're going to do their thing.
I love this letter to the editor in a Minnesota newspaper:
I find it interesting that the first confirmed Minnesota case of H1N1 Influenza A occurred in Rep. Michele Bachmann's district. I'm not blaming this on Michele Bachmann, I just think it's an interesting coincidence.
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