intentional right-wing ignorance

--Hey what’s goin’ on?
--Oh! It’s so nice I’ve got a bit of spring fever. So, I’m Just gettin’ these weeds outa here to get ready for the wife’s flowers this year.
--No, I mean with that little upside down flag in the window.
--Well the big one flying there is for the country and our troops and....
--No that little one; it’s wrong to do that; it’s disrespectful.
--That ones for our president and his administration. The country is in distress. The Neocons are fascist. You do know that right.
--Bull, you liberals are traitors. The president is protecting us. He Listens to God who is on our side against the evil terrorists who hate our freedom, us; you and your family.
--Just who are the terrorists?
--MY GOD MAN THE MOSLEMS. THEY ATTACKED US ON 9-11, REMEMBER.
--Who were the Muslims that attacked us?
--ALL OF THEM, Saddam insane, Bin Laden, all of them they’ve been attacking us for years and Clinton didn’t do anything about it. Finally Bush is kicking some ass now.
--First off the people who attacked the World Trade Center and the African embassies under Clinton are all serving life sentences and Saddam Hussein didn’t have anything to do with 9-11. Those guys were primarily Saudis trained in Afghanistan in camps run by Bin Laden. We ran away from catching Al Qaeda and the ones who did attack us when we went into Iraq.
--What! The terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center are all dead. Don’t who watch TV? We’ve been attacked over and over again and Clinton didn’t do nothin’ except Monica. Iraq is the center of the war on terrorism. They were a threat to us. And we kicked they’re butts ALL OVER THE PLACE. Fox showed the statue come down. I saw it. Where were you? ALL YOU CUT AND RUN LIBERALS WANT TO DO IS CUT AND RUN CUT AND RUN.
--No, we want to get back on track; your Neocons stole the war on terror. Bush and Cheney ran away from Bin Laden. They let him go and they’re still not trying to get him. We want to be over the horizon so we can quit running the military down in a civil war and get back to fighting the war against Al Qaeda who did attack us and prot….
--CUT AND RUN CUT AND RUN LIBERALS ARE TRAITORS AND TERRORISTS….. You all belong in Gitmo.
--What? Alright, go ahead and dehumanize me. At least care about the troo….
Bull, you can’t support the troops unless you support the war and the president. If you don’t support Bush you support the insurrectionists you side with the enemies and you just hate our President Bush.
--Who are the insurrectionists? Just exactly who are we fighting and why?
--The damn Jiadists terrorists who hate our freedom and hate me and you and your family. They want to kill you and destroy Christianity and make us all like them and make your wife and daughter cover all the way up. They cut the heads off any one who’s not like them, you know. Do you want that to happen? We have to fight them over there so we won’t have to fight them here.
--Slow down and take a breath just….
--What would you be like without your oil?
--Listen please; there is no one grand enemy in Iraq. There are political, religious and cultural divisions within the people of Iraq that has led to a violent and down right brutal multifaceted civil war. ‘Outside the country fighters’ are few. The Iraqi’s seem to have many old scores to settle, power to be grabbed and a lot of revenge for current atrocities. Our guys and gals do not belong in the middle of all this; they’re being shot up from all sides. Those of us against this knew this would happen, we said it, protested about it and we were right and we weren’t listened to and you really should listen to us now because this has been a huge military and foreign policy blunder that could have……
--We need victory and to fight them over there so we won’t have to fight them over here. The Islamofascist are everywhere and you liberal traitors are helping them. Do you want to fight them in your backyard? Because if we cut and run that’s where they will be in all our back yards cutting off all our heads and it will be all you filthy cowardly liberals fault. We would have won if it wasn’t for you liberal scum and Iran. We need to bomb Iran off the face of the map too.
--We haven’t bombed anyone off the face of the map. People will always fight for their home even if they hate their leaders. It always takes ground troops. It always leads to a guerilla war and it always ends in much death that still needs diplomacy to solve a problem that could have avoided all the needless bloodshed if everyone just deployed a little diplomacy.
--Conspiracies all conspiracies Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, Santorum said so….
--That was a lie and one of the many reasons he wasn’t reelec……
--and they were going to nuke us and they did harbor Al Qaeda and they are all our enemy, their children are our enemy, they all are our enemy and they will kill us if we don’t bomb them into dust. Iran is helping them and they must be nuked. Nuke them to dust; it’s them or us; kill them all let God sort them out AND ALL YOU DAMN TRAITOR LIBERAL DEMOCRATS AND ALL THE MOSLEMS AND ALL OF YOU NEED TO BE THROWN INTO GITMO AND TORTURED TILL YOU DIE AND YOUR BONES TURN TO DUST AND ALL YOUR TRAITOROUS FAMILIES WITH YOU. GITMO, GITMO, GITMO FOR ALL LIBERAL SCUM. GOD BLESS AMERICA! PRAISE THE LORD ALLELUIA!

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The man walks quickly away leaving the person working in the garden dumbfounded by the ignorance so puffed up by hate. This is why Fox news and right wing hate radio along with some of the corporate media are guilty of war crimes by pushing the propaganda and why there’s shame upon the mainstream media for being so weak-kneed.Hate driven ignorance mixed with fear is difficult to overcome. But, that's what we have to do. Here and abroad.

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The 32%

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The 32% - Part II

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A Lenten Reflection

Today is, Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. I received this today in the weekday email, Joy Notes, I receive from Sister Patricia. It seems to go well with what I've been writing lately, so here it is.

A Lenten Reflection

Give up complaining----focus on gratitude.
Give up pessimism----become an optimist.
Give up harsh judgments----think kindly thoughts.
Give up worry----trust Divine Providence.
Give up discouragement----be full of hope.
Give up bitterness----turn to forgiveness.
Give up hatred----return good for evil.
Give up negativism----be positive.
Give up anger----be more patient.
Give up pettiness----become mature.
Give up gloom----enjoy the beauty that is all around you.
Give up jealousy----pray for trust.
Give up gossiping----control your tongue.
Give up sin----turn to virtue.
Give up giving up----hang in there!

Unknown


http://poorclare.com/
> Poor Clare Sisters

Willful Misinterpretation of Revelations

The willful misinterpretation of the Book of Revelations is behind much of current conservative Christian right-wing fundamentalist speculation, not only about this country but the Middle East and the world as well. Too, often this speculation is used to incorrectly determine who is on God’s side; the countries, its leaders and citizens, who are feared to be in league with the end time desires of Satan and as a result, the enemy of the ‘Christian Nation of the United States of America’.

Some are being tempted to aid or bring about a world situation, that they believe, will lead to the rapture by executing some grand design to force the hand of God to the will of those who would like to steal His plans to justify their own limited vision and corrupt goals.

Accepting incorrect speculation about the ‘end times’ unfortunately causes some highly impressionable Christians to willingly yield, whether through ignorance or fear of losing worldly comforts, whatever spiritual virtues or values they’ve gained from the Gospels to the whims of Power, its control, greed, discrimination and destruction

This misinformation (which I believe the educated leaders absolutely know to be untrue) is used to violate what Christ explained to us was the second most important commandment, ‘to love one another’. Fear, ignorance and paranoia are, and have always been, the ultimate tools of evil and can and often do exist on all sides of any conflict. Evil does exist but it is an action not a person or group of people.

Terrorism is an example of an evil tool used by some sects of radical fundamentalist Islam. Its existence among these groups does not indicate that all followers of Islam are in league with evil as many equally radical Christian fundamentalists in this country would like us to believe. The Bible or the Koran can be and often is used by the unscrupulous to dehumanize an enemy, in a far too often, successful attempt to justify horrendous acts of violence and collateral damage against any who fall under the unforgivable label of evil. Too often, this presumptive attitude is so pervasive within this culture as to include a Calvinistic determination of who is loved by God or who is left poor, sick or disabled which may lead to a dangerous goat-like deceptive self-opinion.

I remember hearing of a painting where Jesus was depicted as a junky. I never saw the painting and I don’t care to or need to because I’ve embellished on it in my mind. I picture a Christ-like figure in a urine soaked alley with empty liquor bottles and needles nearby. I consider it a holy image. Why? Because I think we should insult Christ or say He’s something He’s not? No! It reminds me that we are supposed to see the suffering Christ in the most lowly of individuals. That Jesus is served best when we show love, mercy, and caring for all those in society especially those who, for whatever reason, are most looked down on or deemed unacceptable.

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I do believe that the Book of Revelation does teach that the spiritual battle against evil is a global battle but, it’s a struggle destined to be won within the hearts and souls of the individual (each and every one of us). However, He brings about the culmination of all Earthly things it really isn’t any of our business, in fact I believe serious speculation into His business to be a serious sign of a lack of trust.

I know people are worried about that number (which I will not print) but a little faith in God should let you know He’s not going to let you sink beneath the waves of the mythological meaning of that number unaware of what you are doing. This book teaches us to relentlessly cling to the teachings of Christ, to trust what he taught and to understand that whatever worldly cost we may have to endure He will be victorious in the end.

The greater part of faith is trust.

An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth

An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth was a huge improvement in justice for the time. Prior to its acceptance a person might feel they were entitled to two eyes and a tooth, a few lives and maybe a couple of young maidens if he were wronged. Hammurabi's Code, which came from an ancient Sumerian world, from a region we now call Iraq, strove to be a giant step towards justice. Jewish history then brought us the concept of,” An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”, which is about equality and fairness in justice; not the vengeance or revenge (or preemptive strike) so many from our present time would like to equate it.

If you are a Christian you believe that Christ took this further to subjugate justice to the concepts of love, forgiveness and mercy, as is expressed throughout the New Testament. This is why Christians should be against:

Illegal detention,

Inhumane treatment,

Cruel and unusual punishment,

Torture,

The death penalty,

(Jesus Christ suffered all of the above and He offered Prayers, Mercy and Forgiveness to all involved. If the object of being Christian is to strive to be Christ-like, as much is humanly possible for our lowly state, then it would seem necessary that we should not go without noticing the examples of His Passion.)

Economic violence,
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Environmental violence,

The weapons industry,

Violent Reactionary ‘solutions’,

Collateral damage,

And unjust wars, (as if there were such a thing as a just war)

to name just a few.

Jesus tells us that we are to forgive those who do us wrong 7 times 70 times a day, which means always. This even applies to our enemies.

Is He just asking too much? Does He not understand the problems of our current situation? Didn’t He tell us, “His yoke is easy and His burden is light”. We are supposed to forgive those who do us wrong 7 times 70 times a day, which means always, even to our enemies. because we should be concerned with their best interests as well as our own?

God understands that there would be nothing to forgive if you weren’t hurt and that it may be difficult. It takes the Holy Spirit to aid in forgiveness especially when the wrong done was egregious. Prayer is a necessary aid.
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I know a little trick that helps, at least it's what helped me, although I must confess I continue to always struggle.

First, realize that forgiveness is a necessary requirement for the health of the soul.

Second, Level with God about having trouble doing it and be honest with yourself and Him.

Third, make a conscience acknowledgement that you desire to forgive and that you do forgive.

Fourth, pray that they be forgiven by God.

Fifth, ask that they be blessed.

Sixth, frequently repeat one through five.

I’m convinced that this act eases the pain. (Maybe this is one of the ways of finding that His yoke is easy and His burden is light.)

I know this seems really hard but remember He said His ways were foolishness to the world, and that we were supposed to at least try to trust in His ways. Trust is the greater part, the harder part, of faith.

This doesn’t mean that society has no responsibility to track down criminals and punish crime, but it does mean that the punishment should not be vindictive or cruel and that the best interests of all involved, society included, must be taken into account.

Love, forgiveness, turning the other cheek, loving our enemy, and doing good to those who hurt us are teachings of Christ that are wonderful gifts from God that we all too easily turn our back away from when we are wronged or even worse when, as a country, some financial or foreign policy benefit may be realized. The temptation to give into rationalizing away someone’s humanity is often great but it’s also always wrong; always sinful.


The Code of Hammurabi
http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/MESO/CODE.HTM

Code of Hammurabi
From Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Hammurabi

If it walks like a duck and sounds like a duck.........

1. One cannot fight the liberal by positive means. He is a negative, and this negative must be erased from the American system, or he will forever corrupt it.

2. One cannot discuss the liberal question with the liberals. One can hardly prove to a person that one has the duty to render him harmless.

3. One cannot allow the liberal the same means one would give an honest opponent, for he is no honorable opponent. He will use generosity and nobility only to trap his enemy.

4. The liberal has nothing to say about American questions. He is a foreigner, an alien, who only enjoys the rights of a guest, rights that he always abuses.

5. The so-called religious morality of the liberals is no morality at all, rather an encouragement to betrayal. Therefore, they have no claim to protection from the state.

6. The liberal is not smarter than we are, rather only cleverer and craftier. His system cannot be defeated economically — he follows entirely different moral principles than we do. It can only be broken through political means.

7. A liberal cannot insult an American. Liberal slanders are but badges of honor for an American opponent of the liberals.

8. The more an American person or an American movement opposes the liberal, the more valuable it is. If someone is attacked by the liberals, that is a sure sign of his virtue. He who is not persecuted by the liberals, or who is praised by them, is useless and dangerous.

9. The liberal evaluates American questions from the liberal standpoint. As a result, the opposite of what he says must be true.

10. One must either affirm or reject anti-liberalism. He who defends the liberals harms his own people. One can only be a liberal lackey or a liberal opponent. Opposing the liberals is a matter of personal hygiene.

These principles give the anti- liberal movement a chance of success. Only such a movement will be taken seriously by the liberals, only such a movement will be feared by them.

The fact that he shouts and complains about such a movement therefore is only a sign that it is right. We are therefore delighted that we are constantly attacked in the liberal gazettes. They may shout about terror. We answer with Mussolini's familiar words: "Terror? Never! It is social hygiene. We take these individuals out of circulation just as a doctor does to a bacterium.

The following is how the quote was originally written along with its author.

1. One cannot fight the Jew by positive means. He is a negative, and this negative must be erased from the German system, or he will forever corrupt it.

2. One cannot discuss the Jewish question with the Jews. One can hardly prove to a person that one has the duty to render him harmless.

3. One cannot allow the Jew the same means one would give an honest opponent, for he is no honorable opponent. He will use generosity and nobility only to trap his enemy.

4. The Jew has nothing to say about German questions. He is a foreigner, an alien, who only enjoys the rights of a guest, rights that he always abuses.

5. The so-called religious morality of the Jews is no morality at all, rather an encouragement to betrayal. Therefore, they have no claim to protection from the state.

6. The Jew is not smarter than we are, rather only cleverer and craftier. His system cannot be defeated economically — he follows entirely different moral principles than we do. It can only be broken through political means.

7. A Jew cannot insult a German. Jewish slanders are but badges of honor for a German opponent of the Jews.

8. The more a German person or a German movement opposes the Jew, the more valuable it is. If someone is attacked by the Jews, that is a sure sign of his virtue. He who is not persecuted by the Jews, or who is praised by them, is useless and dangerous.

9. The Jew evaluates German questions from the Jewish standpoint. As a result, the opposite of what he says must be true.

10. One must either affirm or reject anti-Semitism. He who defends the Jews harms his own people. One can only be a Jewish lackey or a Jewish opponent. Opposing the Jews is a matter of personal hygiene.

These principles give the anti-Jewish movement a chance of success. Only such a movement will be taken seriously by the Jews, only such a movement will be feared by them.

The fact that he shouts and complains about such a movement therefore is only a sign that it is right. We are therefore delighted that we are constantly attacked in the Jewish gazettes. They may shout about terror. We answer with Mussolini's familiar words: "Terror? Never! It is social hygiene. We take these individuals out of circulation just as a doctor does to a bacterium.

Joseph Goebbels; 22 April 1929

Instead of liberal you could use Democrat, or faiths like Muslim (or substitute any religious discipline that’s not radical Evangelical-Fundamentalist).

It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to use words like Environmentalist (or substitute any political cause that’s not right- wing conservative).

This current group of ‘conservatives’ and their media lackeys sound remarkably similar to fascist of old.

If it walks like a duck and sounds like a duck.........

Whenever listening to right-wingers just mentally replace the word liberal or whoever the conservative pundits and talk show hosts are beating up on and substitute that name with Jew and see how they sound.

Liberals and those who are viewed to be like-minded are to current neoconservative propaganda what the Jews were to the Nazis.

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Totalitarians all hate liberals, their love for free speech, public assembly, and openness are always an impediment to their selfish desires. Some totalitarians are Nazis, some are communists, some are from whatever dominate local ideology, and some are Neocons with grand desires on the US and their PNAC desires for the world. (To be the envy of Rome) The citizens (moms and dads, sisters and brothers, neighbors and townsfolk) are always the worst for it because no matter what, the powerful old manipulators of men residing in comfortable rooms decide, they are always screwed.

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Of course it hurts you’re being screwed by an elephant

not original--but everyone should swipe it; don't ya think

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The Age of Totalitarianism......

http://www.historyguide.org/europe/lecture10.html

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Nineteen Eighty-Four
© 1949 George Orwell

http://orwell.ru/library/novels/1984/english/

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about Nineteen Eighty-Four
From Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four