a disscussion from NPR
04/26/2010
The Pill’s Impact, Past and Present
A discussion of the pill and the ensuing sexual freedom is disingenuous, without the discussion of the fallout and the consequence and costs related to it. The costs of this so called freedom ( ask Tiger Woods). One of the posts here did mention the spread of STD’s but none talks about infidelity, murders, assaults, cancers, hospitalizations, institutionalization , broken families, child abuse, all related to this so called sexual liberation. The emotional cost of going through a life never being sure of and secure in a relation, always wondering where your mate may be and what they may be up to, getting dumped because your partner found some one else better than you in bed or provides better oral sex.And always wondering that there is someone else out there luckier than you.
While we chide Arabs and Muslims for there child brides our children are experiment with sex at younger and younger age, we need an honest and sincere discussion about the high costs of sexual freedoms and approach the subject with eyes full open,
http://tombstone001.blogspot.com/2008/07/high-cost-of-getting-fucked.html
and of course a case can be made for forced population control
http://tombstone001.blogspot.com/2009/07/case-for-population-control.html
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
Monday, April 26, 2010
INDIVIDUALISM
04/26/2010
INDIVIDUALISM
There must always be a clear, convincing and considerable difference between showing of your independence and individuality and just making an ass of yourself.
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
INDIVIDUALISM
There must always be a clear, convincing and considerable difference between showing of your independence and individuality and just making an ass of yourself.
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
Saturday, April 24, 2010
HOLY
Military has found use for the overzealous Christians, using them in fight against the those infidel Muslims who are willing to destroy the "God Blessed" nation called the "US of A". In a weird way the message sounds similar to that of the mullahs recruiting suicide bombers to destroy the "enemy of God", and the Great Satan." God does work in mysterious ways".
HOLY
HOLY
Rocks and bullets
children crying
suicide bombings
missiles flying
in arms of fathers
Young men dying
but you must go on
it is no denying
murder is the message
war is to be won
kill each other
to be the chosen one
Brother killing brother
in the name of the God
Killing each other
in the name of the lord
blood running thru the streets
in the land of holly
blame the god for
this human folly
We are religious
We are pious
We are going to heaven
God won't deny us
O' Christians and Muslims
and all you Jews
wake up smell the roses
hear this news
Heavens is closed
i am here it to tell
God doesn't care
If you all go to hell
08/22/2001
(M.N.R.)
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
HOLY
HOLY
Rocks and bullets
children crying
suicide bombings
missiles flying
in arms of fathers
Young men dying
but you must go on
it is no denying
murder is the message
war is to be won
kill each other
to be the chosen one
Brother killing brother
in the name of the God
Killing each other
in the name of the lord
blood running thru the streets
in the land of holly
blame the god for
this human folly
We are religious
We are pious
We are going to heaven
God won't deny us
O' Christians and Muslims
and all you Jews
wake up smell the roses
hear this news
Heavens is closed
i am here it to tell
God doesn't care
If you all go to hell
08/22/2001
(M.N.R.)
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
Saturday, April 17, 2010
BEING CHOSEN
04/17/2010
BEING CHOSEN
It is hard times,
In the time of the prophets there were nations that "God" favored above others. But that did not stop god for taking it out on his chosen ones when he thought they were getting out of line, albeit, at times with some prior warning. Now that the god is out of the business of such choosing and playing favoritism, and ther are no prophets, we are only left to our own assumptions that who may or may not be the god's favorite children.
As the nations go, today there is a list of these contenders, The Saudis, the Iranians and of course the United States think they have been chosen by god to pick up the mantel. I am not taking sides, since many of His previous favorites ended up with plagues on their houses also.
The humanity today
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
BEING CHOSEN
It is hard times,
In the time of the prophets there were nations that "God" favored above others. But that did not stop god for taking it out on his chosen ones when he thought they were getting out of line, albeit, at times with some prior warning. Now that the god is out of the business of such choosing and playing favoritism, and ther are no prophets, we are only left to our own assumptions that who may or may not be the god's favorite children.
As the nations go, today there is a list of these contenders, The Saudis, the Iranians and of course the United States think they have been chosen by god to pick up the mantel. I am not taking sides, since many of His previous favorites ended up with plagues on their houses also.
The humanity today
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
WHO IS RUNNING AMERICA ?
WHO IS RUNNING AMERICA ?
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
RULING THRU FEAR
04/13/2010
RULING THRU FEAR
Remember when Saddam was the new Hitler, and probably A Stalin and a few others. We had to attack him, contain him, take care of him, he was the most dangerous person in the world, he even had some thing we started to call WMDs. It was a scary time, we did not even begin to understand what in the heck was a WMD other than that is was dangerous, we were scared, we cowered, we went to war against Saddam to get rid of his WMDs. Never mind that the gas he used to suffocate and kill so many was provided to him by us, back in the day when he was our friend and fighting the ones we wanted him to get rid of.
The terrorists used planes to kill 3000 of our country men. They are also dangerous people, people who have murder on their minds, they want to kill Americans. What if they get a hold of nuke?
The leaders of forty nations met in Washington this week to make sure that the terrorists don't get a hold of a nuke, or may be highly enriched Uranium etc. To make a nuke so they can kill a whole lot of us. BUt what is the reality?
Unless you are a Robert Spencer, or a Rush Limbaugh listener, tell me something. Please, how easy is it to make a nuke? A functioning atom bomb? Last I checked the Libyan government had tried for thirty years, with all their oil money and state resources, they even had the cheat sheet from the illustrious A.Q. Khan of Pakistan. A.Q. Khan had apparently also given his recipe to the Iranians and North Koreans. Iran is still working on it.
They say that given the basic material, like highly enriched Uranium, the terrorists could put together a bomb in six month. Don't mind me if I sound suspicious. What do the terrorists know that many national governments do not? do they have better resources? intelligence? money? Technology? Or is it an attempt to make something out of nothing?
If it is so easy for the terrorists to get a bomb or to make one , should we not be worried about rogue governments getting bombs that are ready made , what about the drug lords who seem to have a lot more money, why not your local mafia, everyone could get in on the act.
Should we try to control the trade transport and possession of nuclear material, of course we should, but to tell the public that the nukes are coming? Why? Why? Don't you think people already have enough to worry about, and that we are giving the loony fringe some more to worry over? Is it O.k. for the government to scare people out of their wits?
IN fact, for years there have been rumors, (facts as stated by Robert Spencer and others) that the terrorists have 20 to fifty nuclear bombs already in place in this country, why would they even bother to get any new ones, they could already destroy the country, and what in the heck are they waiting for?
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
RULING THRU FEAR
Remember when Saddam was the new Hitler, and probably A Stalin and a few others. We had to attack him, contain him, take care of him, he was the most dangerous person in the world, he even had some thing we started to call WMDs. It was a scary time, we did not even begin to understand what in the heck was a WMD other than that is was dangerous, we were scared, we cowered, we went to war against Saddam to get rid of his WMDs. Never mind that the gas he used to suffocate and kill so many was provided to him by us, back in the day when he was our friend and fighting the ones we wanted him to get rid of.
The terrorists used planes to kill 3000 of our country men. They are also dangerous people, people who have murder on their minds, they want to kill Americans. What if they get a hold of nuke?
The leaders of forty nations met in Washington this week to make sure that the terrorists don't get a hold of a nuke, or may be highly enriched Uranium etc. To make a nuke so they can kill a whole lot of us. BUt what is the reality?
Unless you are a Robert Spencer, or a Rush Limbaugh listener, tell me something. Please, how easy is it to make a nuke? A functioning atom bomb? Last I checked the Libyan government had tried for thirty years, with all their oil money and state resources, they even had the cheat sheet from the illustrious A.Q. Khan of Pakistan. A.Q. Khan had apparently also given his recipe to the Iranians and North Koreans. Iran is still working on it.
They say that given the basic material, like highly enriched Uranium, the terrorists could put together a bomb in six month. Don't mind me if I sound suspicious. What do the terrorists know that many national governments do not? do they have better resources? intelligence? money? Technology? Or is it an attempt to make something out of nothing?
If it is so easy for the terrorists to get a bomb or to make one , should we not be worried about rogue governments getting bombs that are ready made , what about the drug lords who seem to have a lot more money, why not your local mafia, everyone could get in on the act.
Should we try to control the trade transport and possession of nuclear material, of course we should, but to tell the public that the nukes are coming? Why? Why? Don't you think people already have enough to worry about, and that we are giving the loony fringe some more to worry over? Is it O.k. for the government to scare people out of their wits?
IN fact, for years there have been rumors, (facts as stated by Robert Spencer and others) that the terrorists have 20 to fifty nuclear bombs already in place in this country, why would they even bother to get any new ones, they could already destroy the country, and what in the heck are they waiting for?
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
Monday, April 12, 2010
TODAY
04/12/2010
TODAY
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
TODAY
Whatever you are doing today, you will benefit from it tomorrow, or pay for it dearly for the rest of your life.
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
DESTROYING DEMOCRACY V
03/31/2010
DESTROYING DEMOCRACY V
For a very long time I have protested the breakdown of the moral and social fabric of the society. This is not advancement, sexualization of society in all manners and with no holds barred is not only destroying our families, our children, our education systems it threatens the very continuation of our system as in while the revenues are decreasing the need for social services of all kinds keep increasing.
I know this guy, for real, who goes out and buys cigarettes for his girl friend and her ex boy friend whenever her ex boy friend comes to spend the night with her while this guy goes to work. There is a word for this!At the very least we can look for his own mental breakdown or worse, some day, some one could be physically harmed.
MSNBC.com
Here in these cases we can also assume that the all involved are poor or near poor and a burden on the social and justice systems, the cost of the trials, convictions and then incarcerations if any could easily run into millions. And all this at a time where many with jobs who are struggling to feed their families and to keep their homes out of foreclosures will be asked to pay more taxes to support the failed society.
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
DESTROYING DEMOCRACY V
For a very long time I have protested the breakdown of the moral and social fabric of the society. This is not advancement, sexualization of society in all manners and with no holds barred is not only destroying our families, our children, our education systems it threatens the very continuation of our system as in while the revenues are decreasing the need for social services of all kinds keep increasing.
I know this guy, for real, who goes out and buys cigarettes for his girl friend and her ex boy friend whenever her ex boy friend comes to spend the night with her while this guy goes to work. There is a word for this!At the very least we can look for his own mental breakdown or worse, some day, some one could be physically harmed.
MSNBC.com
By Beth DeFalco
The Associated Press
updated 1:19 p.m. CT, Wed., March. 31, 2010
TRENTON, N.J. - A 15-year-old New Jersey girl set up her 7-year-old stepsister to have sex with as many as seven men and boys at a weekend party near their home and also accepted money for herself, police said.
Trenton police Capt. Joseph Juniak said Wednesday that the older girl started by taking money to have sex with several men at a party in a high-rise apartment. The teen then gave some of the money she had collected to the younger girl to let the men start touching her, Juniak said.
"It went from touching to straight out assault and rape," Juniak said. "They threatened to kill her if she screamed or told anyone."
The child later put on her clothes and left the apartment; her sister stayed. Two women found the child crying outside the apartment and walked her home.
Whie one could assumed that the girls in the two stories are black, judging from the location of the incidents, but the guy in the first sstory, and the others involved are white.
Girl, 15, gang raped outside school dance while witnesses film horror attack
Whie one could assumed that the girls in the two stories are black, judging from the location of the incidents, but the guy in the first sstory, and the others involved are white.
Here in these cases we can also assume that the all involved are poor or near poor and a burden on the social and justice systems, the cost of the trials, convictions and then incarcerations if any could easily run into millions. And all this at a time where many with jobs who are struggling to feed their families and to keep their homes out of foreclosures will be asked to pay more taxes to support the failed society.
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
Sunday, March 28, 2010
A REQUIEM FOR THE LIVING
- Requiem for the Living
Thanks for coming , to show you care
to let me go out, with a bit of flair
you made the show, to show your love
to give your respect, to the god above
so thanks for coming, here today
to be here to hear, this dead man say
I lived a good life, now i am happy to go
where ever it takes me, i'll be happy you know
This pain and the suffering, all fading away
I'm going on now, you may wish to stay
We live forever, this death i do not fear
the longer i lived, the more i find it dear
this death is my freedom, it is my salvation
the room to breathe, end this damnation
Some love life, nothing wrong i'm sure
I look forward to dying, not scared any more
There is no difference, I do not believe
just wanting to see, what's up His sleeve
Life goes on, the life is forever
on this small earth, or where ever
This life is not always, what we like it to be
this life is a chain, I like to be free
Living this life, of borrowed time
i have no sins, i have no crimes
A puppet of time, we are here to play
bit parts on stage, while we stay
Pauper or prophet, or a royal prince
a jester, a joker, not even a king
Born to die, as we are born to live
we all come to pass, we don't mean a thing
Some live to be forty, some die at four
some live to be ninety, still wanting for more
So what is a right age, to die
so one may know, when to say good bye
I do not go on, to make someone cry
I welcome my passing, welcome a new life
Why is not proper, to be on the ready
dying with grace, and rock steady
as for me i know, this is time to go
i go with a smile, and a happy glow
don't want to be beholden, not even to gods
i wish to go on, to be free at last
to see all the sky, to see the universe
to ask the good lord, of this life's curse
some may want, another day to live
some years or eons, never to give
the other side, a chance to show
it is better above, than has been below
Does anyone know, what tomorrow may hold
idea is stupid, on which we are sold
Do we arrive, at pearly gates
do we know, if the devil awaits
there is no heaven, there is no hell
not as far, as i can tell
We are born to die, so i have no fear
i always knew, that the end is near
you'll miss your love, you'll miss your kids
you'll miss their smiles, you'll miss their kiss
how can you miss, you are always here
life pulls us apart, death brings us near
Some wish to live long, and see their children cry
some one day too long, and see their children die
and still begging to live, for one more day
clinging to life, and life slips away
So welcome dear mama, and good bye dear dad
it is my time to go, please don't be sad
good bye my daughters, good bye my son
you came here separate, i leave you as one
remember that life, is full of surprises
who fight the hardest, win the biggest prizes
Friends and lovers, i have ever seen
in far away places, i have ever been
i could not forget you, or i'll be remiss
so thinking of you, and i blow you a kiss
I am not afraid, I am not scared
i did much more, than many dared
I saw things, that few ever will see
i was a free spirit, now i set me free
I am not scared, to see it all end
always wanting to see, around the next bend
04/22/2001
(M.N.R.)
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
Thanks for coming , to show you care
to let me go out, with a bit of flair
you made the show, to show your love
to give your respect, to the god above
so thanks for coming, here today
to be here to hear, this dead man say
I lived a good life, now i am happy to go
where ever it takes me, i'll be happy you know
This pain and the suffering, all fading away
I'm going on now, you may wish to stay
We live forever, this death i do not fear
the longer i lived, the more i find it dear
this death is my freedom, it is my salvation
the room to breathe, end this damnation
Some love life, nothing wrong i'm sure
I look forward to dying, not scared any more
There is no difference, I do not believe
just wanting to see, what's up His sleeve
Life goes on, the life is forever
on this small earth, or where ever
This life is not always, what we like it to be
this life is a chain, I like to be free
Living this life, of borrowed time
i have no sins, i have no crimes
A puppet of time, we are here to play
bit parts on stage, while we stay
Pauper or prophet, or a royal prince
a jester, a joker, not even a king
Born to die, as we are born to live
we all come to pass, we don't mean a thing
Some live to be forty, some die at four
some live to be ninety, still wanting for more
So what is a right age, to die
so one may know, when to say good bye
I do not go on, to make someone cry
I welcome my passing, welcome a new life
Why is not proper, to be on the ready
dying with grace, and rock steady
as for me i know, this is time to go
i go with a smile, and a happy glow
don't want to be beholden, not even to gods
i wish to go on, to be free at last
to see all the sky, to see the universe
to ask the good lord, of this life's curse
some may want, another day to live
some years or eons, never to give
the other side, a chance to show
it is better above, than has been below
Does anyone know, what tomorrow may hold
idea is stupid, on which we are sold
Do we arrive, at pearly gates
do we know, if the devil awaits
there is no heaven, there is no hell
not as far, as i can tell
We are born to die, so i have no fear
i always knew, that the end is near
you'll miss your love, you'll miss your kids
you'll miss their smiles, you'll miss their kiss
how can you miss, you are always here
life pulls us apart, death brings us near
Some wish to live long, and see their children cry
some one day too long, and see their children die
and still begging to live, for one more day
clinging to life, and life slips away
So welcome dear mama, and good bye dear dad
it is my time to go, please don't be sad
good bye my daughters, good bye my son
you came here separate, i leave you as one
remember that life, is full of surprises
who fight the hardest, win the biggest prizes
Friends and lovers, i have ever seen
in far away places, i have ever been
i could not forget you, or i'll be remiss
so thinking of you, and i blow you a kiss
I am not afraid, I am not scared
i did much more, than many dared
I saw things, that few ever will see
i was a free spirit, now i set me free
I am not scared, to see it all end
always wanting to see, around the next bend
04/22/2001
(M.N.R.)
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
RELIGION AND REALITY
03/28/2010
RELIGION AND REALITY
I was sitting next to Dr. Parkash, the subject the peace in the middle East. As you know I am very skeptical of the whole thing, the charade, the farce, whatever you call it. I thus stated that we need to re write the book, yes "THE BOOK". The idea is not new with me, I have thought about all of it for a long long time, and I have written my opinion in the matter. Here is a poem I wrote in 2002, it is included in my book.
- SIGNS
Come back around, we keep going in circles
one more time, take a different look
can you see that, we could be getting along
can you see that, we don't need the book
Don't you know, don't you want to know?
do you feel the desire, do you feel that pride
slopes of life are steep, 'tis easy to stumble
no need to fear, what you are feeling inside
bouncing along, we bump into each other
highways of life, strange this meeting place
life is ups and downs, life is straights and narrows
can you feel that power?, do you find it base
there is no fate, there are no karmas
there are no heavens in the outer space
there are no miracles, there are no signs
all that you hope for is, to die with grace
02/11/2002
(M.N.R.)
As it is , I have discussed the role of morality (or lack there of) in every thing, from our education system to family finances, to health care to mortgage foreclosures and pollution and global trade, including human trafficking elsewhere in this blog for years. And it is the so called "religious" organizations, administrations and regimes who end up being the worst culprits. We do bad when we say we are doing good, we hide behind the religious "hijabs", when we are the worst offenders of human rights and global pollution.If we get away from the religious cover and stay with the facts we can easily see.
(CNN) -- For the world to tackle truly important problems, people have to stop looking to religion to guide their moral compasses, the philosopher Sam Harris told CNN.
"We should be talking about real problems, like nuclear proliferation and genocide and poverty and the crisis in education," Harris said in a recent interview at the TED Conference in Long Beach, California. TED is a nonprofit group dedicated to "ideas worth spreading."
"These are issues which tremendous swings in human well-being depend on. And it's not at the center of our moral concern."
Religion causes people to fixate on issues of less moral importance, said Harris, a well-known secularist, philosopher and neuroscientist who is the author of the books "The End of Faith" and "Letter to a Christian Nation."
"Religion has convinced us that there's something else entirely other than concerns about suffering. There's concerns about what God wants, there's concerns about what's going to happen in the afterlife," he said.
"And, therefore, we talk about things like gay marriage as if it's the greatest problem of the 21st century. We even have a liberal president who ostensibly is against gay marriage because his faith tells him it's an abomination.
"It's completely insane."
Watch Harris' talk at the TED Conference
Harris also said people should not be afraid to declare that certain acts are right and others are wrong. A person who would spill battery acid on a girl for trying to learn to read, for instance, he said, is objectively wrong by scientific standards.
"It's not our job to not judge it and say, 'Well, to each his own. Everyone has to work out their own strategy for human fulfillment.' That's just not true," he said.
"There's people who are wrong about human fulfillment."
Harris placed no faith in the idea that Muslims and Christians will be able to put their differences aside and cooperate on global issues.
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
RELIGION AND REALITY
I was sitting next to Dr. Parkash, the subject the peace in the middle East. As you know I am very skeptical of the whole thing, the charade, the farce, whatever you call it. I thus stated that we need to re write the book, yes "THE BOOK". The idea is not new with me, I have thought about all of it for a long long time, and I have written my opinion in the matter. Here is a poem I wrote in 2002, it is included in my book.
- SIGNS
Come back around, we keep going in circles
one more time, take a different look
can you see that, we could be getting along
can you see that, we don't need the book
Don't you know, don't you want to know?
do you feel the desire, do you feel that pride
slopes of life are steep, 'tis easy to stumble
no need to fear, what you are feeling inside
bouncing along, we bump into each other
highways of life, strange this meeting place
life is ups and downs, life is straights and narrows
can you feel that power?, do you find it base
there is no fate, there are no karmas
there are no heavens in the outer space
there are no miracles, there are no signs
all that you hope for is, to die with grace
02/11/2002
(M.N.R.)
As it is , I have discussed the role of morality (or lack there of) in every thing, from our education system to family finances, to health care to mortgage foreclosures and pollution and global trade, including human trafficking elsewhere in this blog for years. And it is the so called "religious" organizations, administrations and regimes who end up being the worst culprits. We do bad when we say we are doing good, we hide behind the religious "hijabs", when we are the worst offenders of human rights and global pollution.If we get away from the religious cover and stay with the facts we can easily see.
Philosopher: Why we should ditch religion
(CNN) -- For the world to tackle truly important problems, people have to stop looking to religion to guide their moral compasses, the philosopher Sam Harris told CNN.
"We should be talking about real problems, like nuclear proliferation and genocide and poverty and the crisis in education," Harris said in a recent interview at the TED Conference in Long Beach, California. TED is a nonprofit group dedicated to "ideas worth spreading."
"These are issues which tremendous swings in human well-being depend on. And it's not at the center of our moral concern."
Religion causes people to fixate on issues of less moral importance, said Harris, a well-known secularist, philosopher and neuroscientist who is the author of the books "The End of Faith" and "Letter to a Christian Nation."
"Religion has convinced us that there's something else entirely other than concerns about suffering. There's concerns about what God wants, there's concerns about what's going to happen in the afterlife," he said.
"And, therefore, we talk about things like gay marriage as if it's the greatest problem of the 21st century. We even have a liberal president who ostensibly is against gay marriage because his faith tells him it's an abomination.
"It's completely insane."
Watch Harris' talk at the TED Conference
Harris also said people should not be afraid to declare that certain acts are right and others are wrong. A person who would spill battery acid on a girl for trying to learn to read, for instance, he said, is objectively wrong by scientific standards.
"It's not our job to not judge it and say, 'Well, to each his own. Everyone has to work out their own strategy for human fulfillment.' That's just not true," he said.
"There's people who are wrong about human fulfillment."
Harris placed no faith in the idea that Muslims and Christians will be able to put their differences aside and cooperate on global issues.
"There's no way to reconcile Islam with Christianity," he said. "This difference of opinion admits of compromise as much as a coin toss does."
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
The mysterious case of the grey lady of Bagram , Cont'd.
03/27/2010
The mysterious case of the grey lady of Bagram
ISLAMABAD: Dr Shams Hassan Faruqi sits amid his rocks and geological records, shakes his bearded head and stares at me. “I strongly doubt if the children are alive,” he says. “Probably, they have expired.” He says this in a strange way, mournful but resigned, yet somehow he seems oddly unmoved. As a witness, supposedly, to the mysterious 2008 re-appearance of Aafia Siddiqui – the “most wanted woman in the world”, according to former US attorney general John Ashcroft – I guess this 73-year-old Pakistani geologist is used to the limelight. But the children, I ask him again. What happened to the children?
Dr Faruqi is Aafia Siddiqui’s uncle and he produces a photograph of his niece at the age of 13, picnicking in the Margalla hills above Islamabad, a smiling girl in a yellow shalwar khameez, half-leaning against a tree. She does not look like the stuff of which Al-Qaeda operatives are made. Yet she is now a semi-icon in Pakistan, a country which may well have been involved in her original kidnapping and which now oh-so-desperately wants her back from an American prison. Her children, weirdly, disconcertingly, have been forgotten.
Aafia Siddiqui’s story is now as famous in Pakistan as it is notorious in a New York City courtroom where her trial for trying to kill an American soldier in the Afghan city of Ghazni in 2008 – she was convicted this month and faces a minimum of 20 years in prison on just one of the charges against her – is regarded as a symbol of American injustice. “Shame on America,” posters scream in all of Pakistan’s major cities. She is known as the “grey lady of Bagram”, supposedly tortured for five years in America’s cruel Afghan prison. President Asif Ali Zardari has asked American envoy Richard Holbrooke to repatriate Siddiqui under the Pakistan-US prisoner exchange scheme, while the Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has dubbed her a “daughter of the nation”. Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif promises to demand her release. But none of them mention the children. Ahmed, Sulieman and Maryam are their names.
Ahmed was returned to Pakistan from Afghanistan in 2008, but Dr Faruqi tells me he doesn’t believe for a moment that it is Aafia Siddiqui’s son. “He came here to stay with me, but he said he didn’t know Aafia until he was taken to Ghazni. He said to me: ‘I was in the big earthquake in Afghanistan and my brothers and sisters were killed in their home while I was out fetching water – that’s what saved my life.’ He told me that after the earthquake, he was put in an orphanage in Kabul. He was shown a photograph of my niece Aafia and said he did not know this lady, that he had never seen her before. Then he was taken to Ghazni and told to sit next to this woman – my niece. The boy is intelligent. He is simple. He is honest.”
All such mysteries require a “story-so-far”. It goes like this. Aafia Siddiqui, a 38-year-old neuroscientist, an MIT alumna and Brandeis university PhD, disappeared after leaving her sister’s home for Karachi airport in 2003, taking Ahmed, Sulieman and Maryam with her. The Americans say she was a leading Al-Qaeda operative. So does her ex-husband. She had re-married Ammar al-Baluchi, currently in Guantanamo Bay, a cousin of Ramzi Yousef who was convicted for the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing. Not, you might, say, a healthy curriculum vitae in the West’s obsessive “war on terror”. In 2004, the UN identified her as an Al-Qaeda operative.
But released inmates from the notorious American prison at Bagram near Kabul– where torture is commonplace and at least three prisoners have been murdered – have stated that there was a woman held there, a woman whose nightly screams prompted them to go on hunger strike. She was dubbed the “grey lady of Bagram”. At her New York trial, Siddiqui demanded that Jewish members of the jury be dismissed, she fired her own defence lawyers who said she had become unbalanced after torture; Siddiqui blurted out that she had been tortured in secret prisons before her arrest. “If you were in a secret prison ... where children were murdered...” she said.
And so to the town of Ghazni, south of Kabul. It was here that Afghan police stopped her in 2008, carrying a handbag which supposedly contained details of chemical weapons and radiological agents, notes on mass casualty attacks on US targets and maps of Ghazni. American soldiers and FBI agents were summoned to question her and arrived in Ghazni without realising that Siddiqui was in the same room, sitting behind a curtain. According to their evidence, she managed to take one of their M-4 assault rifles and opened fire. She missed but was cut down by two bullets from a 9mm pistol fired by one of the soldiers. Hence the charges. Hence the conviction.
She wasn’t helped by an alleged statement by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed – the man who supposedly planned 9/11 and who is the uncle of her second husband, Ammar al-Baluchi – who claimed that Aafia Siddiqui was a senior Al-Qaeda agent. But then, he’d just been waterboarded 183 times in a month – which hardly makes his evidence, to use a phrase, water-tight.
The questions are obvious. What on earth was a Pakistani American with a Brandeis degree doing in Ghazni with a handbag containing American targets? And why, if her family was so fearful for her, didn’t they report her missing in 2003, go to the press and tell the story of the children? Ahmed – son of Siddiqui or Afghan orphan, depending on your point of view – is now staying with Siddiqui’s sister, Fauzia, in Karachi; but she refuses to let him talk to journalists. The Americans have shown no interest in him – even less in the other two, younger children. Why not?
It’s odd, to say the least, that Dr Faruqi also maintains that in 2008 – before the Ghazni incident – Aafia Siddiqui turned up at his home in the suburbs of Islamabad. “She was wearing a burqa and got out of the car, just outside here,” he says, pointing to the tree-lined street outside his office window. “I only caught sight of her once, and I said ‘You have changed your nose’. But it was her. We talked about the past, her memories, it was her voice. She said the ISI (the Inter-Services Intelligence) had let her come here. She wanted to get away, to go back to Afghanistan where she said the Taliban would protect her. She said that since her arrest, she knew nothing of her children. Someone told her they had been sent to Australia.”
More questions. If Siddiqui was a “ghost prisoner” in Afghanistan, how come she turned up at Dr Faruqi’s home in Islamabad? Why would she wear an Afghan “burqa” in the cosmopolitan capital of her own country? Why did she not talk more about her children? Why could she not show her face to her own uncle? Did she really come to Islamabad?
Fauzia Siddiqui is now touring Pakistan to publicise her sister’s “unfair” trial, her torture at the hands of Americans. Most of the Pakistan press have taken up her story with little critical attention to the allegations against her. She has become a proto-martyr, a martyr-in-being; if her story is comprehensible, it requires a willing suspension of disbelief. But America’s constant protestations of ignorance about her whereabouts before 2008 have an unhappy ring about them.
And the children? Rarely written about in Pakistan, they, too, in a sense, were “disappeared” from the story – until the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, paid an uneasy visit to Pakistan this week and, according to Fauzia, told the Interior minister, Rehman Malik, that “the children of Aafia Siddiqui will be sent home soon”. Was Karzai referring to the other two children? Or to all three, including the “real” Ahmed? And if Aafia’s two/three children are in Afghanistan, where have they been kept? In an orphanage? In a prison? And who kept them? The Afghans? The Americans?—Dawn/The Independent News Service
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
The mysterious case of the grey lady of Bagram
ISLAMABAD: Dr Shams Hassan Faruqi sits amid his rocks and geological records, shakes his bearded head and stares at me. “I strongly doubt if the children are alive,” he says. “Probably, they have expired.” He says this in a strange way, mournful but resigned, yet somehow he seems oddly unmoved. As a witness, supposedly, to the mysterious 2008 re-appearance of Aafia Siddiqui – the “most wanted woman in the world”, according to former US attorney general John Ashcroft – I guess this 73-year-old Pakistani geologist is used to the limelight. But the children, I ask him again. What happened to the children?
Dr Faruqi is Aafia Siddiqui’s uncle and he produces a photograph of his niece at the age of 13, picnicking in the Margalla hills above Islamabad, a smiling girl in a yellow shalwar khameez, half-leaning against a tree. She does not look like the stuff of which Al-Qaeda operatives are made. Yet she is now a semi-icon in Pakistan, a country which may well have been involved in her original kidnapping and which now oh-so-desperately wants her back from an American prison. Her children, weirdly, disconcertingly, have been forgotten.
Aafia Siddiqui’s story is now as famous in Pakistan as it is notorious in a New York City courtroom where her trial for trying to kill an American soldier in the Afghan city of Ghazni in 2008 – she was convicted this month and faces a minimum of 20 years in prison on just one of the charges against her – is regarded as a symbol of American injustice. “Shame on America,” posters scream in all of Pakistan’s major cities. She is known as the “grey lady of Bagram”, supposedly tortured for five years in America’s cruel Afghan prison. President Asif Ali Zardari has asked American envoy Richard Holbrooke to repatriate Siddiqui under the Pakistan-US prisoner exchange scheme, while the Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has dubbed her a “daughter of the nation”. Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif promises to demand her release. But none of them mention the children. Ahmed, Sulieman and Maryam are their names.
Ahmed was returned to Pakistan from Afghanistan in 2008, but Dr Faruqi tells me he doesn’t believe for a moment that it is Aafia Siddiqui’s son. “He came here to stay with me, but he said he didn’t know Aafia until he was taken to Ghazni. He said to me: ‘I was in the big earthquake in Afghanistan and my brothers and sisters were killed in their home while I was out fetching water – that’s what saved my life.’ He told me that after the earthquake, he was put in an orphanage in Kabul. He was shown a photograph of my niece Aafia and said he did not know this lady, that he had never seen her before. Then he was taken to Ghazni and told to sit next to this woman – my niece. The boy is intelligent. He is simple. He is honest.”
All such mysteries require a “story-so-far”. It goes like this. Aafia Siddiqui, a 38-year-old neuroscientist, an MIT alumna and Brandeis university PhD, disappeared after leaving her sister’s home for Karachi airport in 2003, taking Ahmed, Sulieman and Maryam with her. The Americans say she was a leading Al-Qaeda operative. So does her ex-husband. She had re-married Ammar al-Baluchi, currently in Guantanamo Bay, a cousin of Ramzi Yousef who was convicted for the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing. Not, you might, say, a healthy curriculum vitae in the West’s obsessive “war on terror”. In 2004, the UN identified her as an Al-Qaeda operative.
But released inmates from the notorious American prison at Bagram near Kabul– where torture is commonplace and at least three prisoners have been murdered – have stated that there was a woman held there, a woman whose nightly screams prompted them to go on hunger strike. She was dubbed the “grey lady of Bagram”. At her New York trial, Siddiqui demanded that Jewish members of the jury be dismissed, she fired her own defence lawyers who said she had become unbalanced after torture; Siddiqui blurted out that she had been tortured in secret prisons before her arrest. “If you were in a secret prison ... where children were murdered...” she said.
And so to the town of Ghazni, south of Kabul. It was here that Afghan police stopped her in 2008, carrying a handbag which supposedly contained details of chemical weapons and radiological agents, notes on mass casualty attacks on US targets and maps of Ghazni. American soldiers and FBI agents were summoned to question her and arrived in Ghazni without realising that Siddiqui was in the same room, sitting behind a curtain. According to their evidence, she managed to take one of their M-4 assault rifles and opened fire. She missed but was cut down by two bullets from a 9mm pistol fired by one of the soldiers. Hence the charges. Hence the conviction.
She wasn’t helped by an alleged statement by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed – the man who supposedly planned 9/11 and who is the uncle of her second husband, Ammar al-Baluchi – who claimed that Aafia Siddiqui was a senior Al-Qaeda agent. But then, he’d just been waterboarded 183 times in a month – which hardly makes his evidence, to use a phrase, water-tight.
The questions are obvious. What on earth was a Pakistani American with a Brandeis degree doing in Ghazni with a handbag containing American targets? And why, if her family was so fearful for her, didn’t they report her missing in 2003, go to the press and tell the story of the children? Ahmed – son of Siddiqui or Afghan orphan, depending on your point of view – is now staying with Siddiqui’s sister, Fauzia, in Karachi; but she refuses to let him talk to journalists. The Americans have shown no interest in him – even less in the other two, younger children. Why not?
It’s odd, to say the least, that Dr Faruqi also maintains that in 2008 – before the Ghazni incident – Aafia Siddiqui turned up at his home in the suburbs of Islamabad. “She was wearing a burqa and got out of the car, just outside here,” he says, pointing to the tree-lined street outside his office window. “I only caught sight of her once, and I said ‘You have changed your nose’. But it was her. We talked about the past, her memories, it was her voice. She said the ISI (the Inter-Services Intelligence) had let her come here. She wanted to get away, to go back to Afghanistan where she said the Taliban would protect her. She said that since her arrest, she knew nothing of her children. Someone told her they had been sent to Australia.”
More questions. If Siddiqui was a “ghost prisoner” in Afghanistan, how come she turned up at Dr Faruqi’s home in Islamabad? Why would she wear an Afghan “burqa” in the cosmopolitan capital of her own country? Why did she not talk more about her children? Why could she not show her face to her own uncle? Did she really come to Islamabad?
Fauzia Siddiqui is now touring Pakistan to publicise her sister’s “unfair” trial, her torture at the hands of Americans. Most of the Pakistan press have taken up her story with little critical attention to the allegations against her. She has become a proto-martyr, a martyr-in-being; if her story is comprehensible, it requires a willing suspension of disbelief. But America’s constant protestations of ignorance about her whereabouts before 2008 have an unhappy ring about them.
And the children? Rarely written about in Pakistan, they, too, in a sense, were “disappeared” from the story – until the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, paid an uneasy visit to Pakistan this week and, according to Fauzia, told the Interior minister, Rehman Malik, that “the children of Aafia Siddiqui will be sent home soon”. Was Karzai referring to the other two children? Or to all three, including the “real” Ahmed? And if Aafia’s two/three children are in Afghanistan, where have they been kept? In an orphanage? In a prison? And who kept them? The Afghans? The Americans?—Dawn/The Independent News Service
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
Friday, March 26, 2010
DESTROYING DEMOCRACY IV
03/26/2010
DESTROYING DEMOCRACY IV
Where do I start, the health care bill passed, and as I had predicted the sun still came up the next day, and as I had said before, the Republicans can't stop playing the race angle of our politics. Dividing the country is not the best policy, but there are advantages, especially if you are a politician, I have heard about threats and I am not amused, I fear for the country, I fear for my kids. Even though the same people who keep stoking the racist sentiments also tell their followers to keep calm while they do not stop the personal attacks and do not stop making politics in to personal attacks and name calling.
I hear Glenn Beck acknowledge that the mess we are in is not new but has been going on for thirty years, that pretty much covers the Reagan era also, I have been saying this since Reagan was still in the office.
It gets me, Information first printed in news paper 2/20/2003 check out this post.
I was at the window at the bank, the lady behind me was talking to the backer, the IRS is unconstitutional, the FED is unconstitutional, and the banker was agreeing, mind you we are at the branch of a major national bank. As I finished my business I turned to the banker and quietly told him, "if were not for the FED, your bank would not exist. He said, yes I know.
Here is the sad truth, in both its parts, remember, I promised you I will tell you the whole truth.
Early in 2006, I wrote to then President Bush and my Senator Shelby (then chairman of senate banking committee about the FED and the money, I followed up consistently, but no one was listening. Today we are paying the consequences and there is no end in sight.
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
DESTROYING DEMOCRACY IV
Where do I start, the health care bill passed, and as I had predicted the sun still came up the next day, and as I had said before, the Republicans can't stop playing the race angle of our politics. Dividing the country is not the best policy, but there are advantages, especially if you are a politician, I have heard about threats and I am not amused, I fear for the country, I fear for my kids. Even though the same people who keep stoking the racist sentiments also tell their followers to keep calm while they do not stop the personal attacks and do not stop making politics in to personal attacks and name calling.
I hear Glenn Beck acknowledge that the mess we are in is not new but has been going on for thirty years, that pretty much covers the Reagan era also, I have been saying this since Reagan was still in the office.
It gets me, Information first printed in news paper 2/20/2003 check out this post.
I was at the window at the bank, the lady behind me was talking to the backer, the IRS is unconstitutional, the FED is unconstitutional, and the banker was agreeing, mind you we are at the branch of a major national bank. As I finished my business I turned to the banker and quietly told him, "if were not for the FED, your bank would not exist. He said, yes I know.
Here is the sad truth, in both its parts, remember, I promised you I will tell you the whole truth.
Early in 2006, I wrote to then President Bush and my Senator Shelby (then chairman of senate banking committee about the FED and the money, I followed up consistently, but no one was listening. Today we are paying the consequences and there is no end in sight.
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
CHANGES
CHANGES
Its the wind, and the river
and the times that always change
life is changes
like the change in the streams
I would have told you how
if i knew how it began
now the beginning of the end
is now beginning it seems
In my dreams I always held you
i held you close to my heart
and we are closer still
when I hold you in my dreams
even though i know now
that you are gone forever
even though forever
you are always in my dreams
and i would hold you forever
and I don't know if you care
and what good is love for
when the love isn't there
and i dare not say good bye
so much hurt that i don't dare
do i have to say good bye
just to show that i still care
(M.N.R.)
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
Its the wind, and the river
and the times that always change
life is changes
like the change in the streams
I would have told you how
if i knew how it began
now the beginning of the end
is now beginning it seems
In my dreams I always held you
i held you close to my heart
and we are closer still
when I hold you in my dreams
even though i know now
that you are gone forever
even though forever
you are always in my dreams
and i would hold you forever
and I don't know if you care
and what good is love for
when the love isn't there
and i dare not say good bye
so much hurt that i don't dare
do i have to say good bye
just to show that i still care
(M.N.R.)
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
Saturday, March 20, 2010
DESTROYING DEMOCRACY III
03/20/2010
DESTROYING DEMOCRACY III
While we are debating health care reform, we are mostly oblivious to the goings on in the rest of the world that foretell our own path, probably. We get our news form comedians, from Jon Stewart or Al Franken, from Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck, just who ever we thin agrees with our own point of view, that is if we even do pay attention to the news at all. Look again, the unrest in France, in Greece, in England, in Moscow, in Iceland, due to the "conservative" (what does that ever mean?) policies and the financial fiasco of the recent past. Could we not just get lucky? Are we not immune?
As I said after the markets fell in 2000, that the poor will have to work hard to make up the difference in the market values lost. We today face the same problem, only in 2000 the market value lost was in just trillions, now it is hundreds of trillions and some one has to make up the difference. If you have your eyes open you are seeing it happen, the budget cuts, and tax increases that you see today at the local and the state levels are about to hit the national, federal budgets with decreases in social security, medicare, medicaid, education all but the defense, intelligence and tax collections.
As the conservatives saying it is all Obama, and millions looking for someone to blame their misery on, it is easy to point fingers at the top chair. But we have all been a party to our own demise, we should have known it was coming, and should have been prepared, I had been warning before Obama ever took the seat.
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
DESTROYING DEMOCRACY III
While we are debating health care reform, we are mostly oblivious to the goings on in the rest of the world that foretell our own path, probably. We get our news form comedians, from Jon Stewart or Al Franken, from Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck, just who ever we thin agrees with our own point of view, that is if we even do pay attention to the news at all. Look again, the unrest in France, in Greece, in England, in Moscow, in Iceland, due to the "conservative" (what does that ever mean?) policies and the financial fiasco of the recent past. Could we not just get lucky? Are we not immune?
As I said after the markets fell in 2000, that the poor will have to work hard to make up the difference in the market values lost. We today face the same problem, only in 2000 the market value lost was in just trillions, now it is hundreds of trillions and some one has to make up the difference. If you have your eyes open you are seeing it happen, the budget cuts, and tax increases that you see today at the local and the state levels are about to hit the national, federal budgets with decreases in social security, medicare, medicaid, education all but the defense, intelligence and tax collections.
As the conservatives saying it is all Obama, and millions looking for someone to blame their misery on, it is easy to point fingers at the top chair. But we have all been a party to our own demise, we should have known it was coming, and should have been prepared, I had been warning before Obama ever took the seat.
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
DESTROYING DEMOCRACY II
03/20/2010
DESTROYING DEMOCRACY II
Too be sure the health care needs changes, (read part one here) but to say that reform will save money, reduce deficits is a farce, with innovations in health care the costs of treatment will keep going up and in free market you can not induce price controls, and to pay less to the doctors and hospitals, arbitrarily will only impede the treatment and medical progress.
So what is the conservatives plan, without insurance or medicare medicaid you won't get treated, and with unemployment on the rise and wages stagnating you will be "SOL". Yes we can start with a clean slate and wait another twenty years for a compromise agreement. What the rallying conservatives do not understand is that no average person has enough money to buy insurance or be able to save enough money for a serious illness. In the meantime the premiums keep rising, I dare say that no one in the tea party has a family member that is seriously ill and needs help, of course a majority of the population does not, till that day comes.
We have problems, the cities are failing, the states are broke, the education system is broken and keeps producing illiterates, our colleges are full of unemployed under achievers, on Pell grants and student loans, we have unemployment out the wazoo and trade deficits, and all we are left to do is to bicker about the health care reform and if that alone will make us Communists. We have been on the road to Communism for a long long time, I warned about it many years ago.
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
DESTROYING DEMOCRACY II
Too be sure the health care needs changes, (read part one here) but to say that reform will save money, reduce deficits is a farce, with innovations in health care the costs of treatment will keep going up and in free market you can not induce price controls, and to pay less to the doctors and hospitals, arbitrarily will only impede the treatment and medical progress.
So what is the conservatives plan, without insurance or medicare medicaid you won't get treated, and with unemployment on the rise and wages stagnating you will be "SOL". Yes we can start with a clean slate and wait another twenty years for a compromise agreement. What the rallying conservatives do not understand is that no average person has enough money to buy insurance or be able to save enough money for a serious illness. In the meantime the premiums keep rising, I dare say that no one in the tea party has a family member that is seriously ill and needs help, of course a majority of the population does not, till that day comes.
We have problems, the cities are failing, the states are broke, the education system is broken and keeps producing illiterates, our colleges are full of unemployed under achievers, on Pell grants and student loans, we have unemployment out the wazoo and trade deficits, and all we are left to do is to bicker about the health care reform and if that alone will make us Communists. We have been on the road to Communism for a long long time, I warned about it many years ago.
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
Friday, March 19, 2010
DESTROYING DEMOCRACY
03/19/2010
DESTROYING DEMOCRACY part one,
No foreign country could have brought us to this, no external power would have even dared. Today America is confused, lost and divided unsure of it's own future. Thirty seven years ago, America was a democracy, a beacon of freedom, where the negro could rise up and with the help of the whites win civil rights and equality, a factory worker could depend on a lifetime of well paid employment and health care and a retirement, could buy his own home, own a car and and raise a family. Heck even workers at Sears and J.C. Penny had life time jobs with benefits. Millionaires were few and far between and fat chance you were going to meet one, that is unless you were a cab driver, like me, in West Palm Beach, I was going to be an American.
Government was still responsible to the people, there was getting out of Vietnam, the Water Gate, and the Nixon impeachment, even after the Ohio University the government had relented. It is in this country that in 2003 I wrote, "whether you follow the Democratic policies or the Republican policies you always end up with the same results, destructive to the country and the society".
For those who are awake and are pondering the outcome of the health care vote on Sunday, relax, the sun will still come out on the Monday morning and no, no one will be there at your door to give you a mortal injection, no death panel will be assembled, yet. Most Americans had not even thought of the health care mess till about six months ago or so when the Republicans decided to defeat Obama, the uppity negro president. Yeah that's right.
Obama and the Democrats are hell bent on passing a health care bill, no matter how asinine, just to prove a point, and a great point it is too, for democracy, if Obama fails in passing this bill then the United States will not have a functioning presidency for the next two and half years, and that is just for starters.
I have been writing about health care since before Obama became the pres, and yes since this debate started
and since ,
the view being that the health care mess in too expensive and to unwieldy to be solved easily or simply, but a 2500 page plan it self is too big to simplify anything.
But here is another problem, in a discussion among equals, no matter how far apart has to be logical, when you come to the table for a discussion and punch holes in the other party's plan then you better have an equal and just as comprehensive a plan to offer as the alternative, so far what I have heard from the Republican side is that they want to stop Obama and then start over, where have these brilliant minds (read nags) been.
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
DESTROYING DEMOCRACY part one,
No foreign country could have brought us to this, no external power would have even dared. Today America is confused, lost and divided unsure of it's own future. Thirty seven years ago, America was a democracy, a beacon of freedom, where the negro could rise up and with the help of the whites win civil rights and equality, a factory worker could depend on a lifetime of well paid employment and health care and a retirement, could buy his own home, own a car and and raise a family. Heck even workers at Sears and J.C. Penny had life time jobs with benefits. Millionaires were few and far between and fat chance you were going to meet one, that is unless you were a cab driver, like me, in West Palm Beach, I was going to be an American.
Government was still responsible to the people, there was getting out of Vietnam, the Water Gate, and the Nixon impeachment, even after the Ohio University the government had relented. It is in this country that in 2003 I wrote, "whether you follow the Democratic policies or the Republican policies you always end up with the same results, destructive to the country and the society".
For those who are awake and are pondering the outcome of the health care vote on Sunday, relax, the sun will still come out on the Monday morning and no, no one will be there at your door to give you a mortal injection, no death panel will be assembled, yet. Most Americans had not even thought of the health care mess till about six months ago or so when the Republicans decided to defeat Obama, the uppity negro president. Yeah that's right.
Obama and the Democrats are hell bent on passing a health care bill, no matter how asinine, just to prove a point, and a great point it is too, for democracy, if Obama fails in passing this bill then the United States will not have a functioning presidency for the next two and half years, and that is just for starters.
I have been writing about health care since before Obama became the pres, and yes since this debate started
and since ,
the view being that the health care mess in too expensive and to unwieldy to be solved easily or simply, but a 2500 page plan it self is too big to simplify anything.
But here is another problem, in a discussion among equals, no matter how far apart has to be logical, when you come to the table for a discussion and punch holes in the other party's plan then you better have an equal and just as comprehensive a plan to offer as the alternative, so far what I have heard from the Republican side is that they want to stop Obama and then start over, where have these brilliant minds (read nags) been.
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
Monday, March 15, 2010
THE END OF ENDLESS ENTERTAINMENT
03/15/2010
THE END OF ENDLESS ENTERTAINMENT
Don't look now, but if the future is not here, then it is very near.And that means that the internet, the Television, your facebook, myspace, NYTimes, Google, youtube are not going away just that you won't be able to access them, for free.
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
THE END OF ENDLESS ENTERTAINMENT
Don't look now, but if the future is not here, then it is very near.And that means that the internet, the Television, your facebook, myspace, NYTimes, Google, youtube are not going away just that you won't be able to access them, for free.
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
Saturday, March 13, 2010
WOMEN, RIGHTS, AND THE ECONOMIC REALITIES
03/13/2010
WOMEN, RIGHTS, AND THE ECONOMIC REALITIES
UNITED NATIONS: Describing the subjugation of women as a threat to American security, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a passionate plea on Friday to give equal rights to women around the world.
Once again, I am faced with reality versus wishful thinking, and the reality bites. It is OK to dream, as in when you are sleeping, or may be on drugs, but when you are talking "real life" it is advisable not to be hallucinating.
Time, and time again, I have shown where our actions are not in coherence with our objectives. World wide our economic goals have been to produce at the cheapest cost, to purchase from the lowest bidder, and to pay nothing more than lip services to all else.Where ever the jobs have been transferred to women, the wages have dropped, as the labor pools expands (due to the inclusion of women in the worker pool). Also men become more and more economically dependent on the woman's earnings. True that an economically independent woman should be less threatened by the man abusing her in a relationship, but that has not been the case in the so called Western societies. On the other hand many a man has become dependent on the woman to be the provider and used and abused her financially and physically if she failed.
The true Islam itself provides for the economic freedom of the woman, it was first to grant a woman a share of inheritance from her parents, it allowed, even promoted woman's education in all subjects, allowed for women to be in business and trade, a woman was to receive a special present or a sum of money as part of her marriage vows, she was to receive a generous share of her husband's estate upon his death, and an alimony in case of a divorce. If women have been abused and made chattel of their families and husbands it is not the fault of Islam but the people not following the true Islamic tradition and yet calling themselves Muslims.
The country’s population growth rate is the key determinant of progress in achieving the goals envisaged in every sector of national life. With the population currently growing at a rate of 1.9 per cent per annum, the government is faced with the challenge of a huge backlog and higher targets in the provision of education, healthcare, housing and every other basic right while the economy remains under pressure.
“Corruption was widespread within the government and police forces, and the government made few attempts to combat the problem.”
Rape, domestic violence, sexual harassment, and abuse against women remained serious problems. Honour crimes and discriminatory legislation affected women and religious minorities respectively.
Religious freedom violations and inter-sectarian religious conflict continued. Widespread trafficking in persons, child labour, and exploitation of indentured and bonded children were ongoing problems.
Child abuse, commercial sexual exploitation of children, discrimination against persons with disabilities, and lack of respect for worker rights remained concerns.
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
WOMEN, RIGHTS, AND THE ECONOMIC REALITIES
UNITED NATIONS: Describing the subjugation of women as a threat to American security, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a passionate plea on Friday to give equal rights to women around the world.
Once again, I am faced with reality versus wishful thinking, and the reality bites. It is OK to dream, as in when you are sleeping, or may be on drugs, but when you are talking "real life" it is advisable not to be hallucinating.
Time, and time again, I have shown where our actions are not in coherence with our objectives. World wide our economic goals have been to produce at the cheapest cost, to purchase from the lowest bidder, and to pay nothing more than lip services to all else.Where ever the jobs have been transferred to women, the wages have dropped, as the labor pools expands (due to the inclusion of women in the worker pool). Also men become more and more economically dependent on the woman's earnings. True that an economically independent woman should be less threatened by the man abusing her in a relationship, but that has not been the case in the so called Western societies. On the other hand many a man has become dependent on the woman to be the provider and used and abused her financially and physically if she failed.
The true Islam itself provides for the economic freedom of the woman, it was first to grant a woman a share of inheritance from her parents, it allowed, even promoted woman's education in all subjects, allowed for women to be in business and trade, a woman was to receive a special present or a sum of money as part of her marriage vows, she was to receive a generous share of her husband's estate upon his death, and an alimony in case of a divorce. If women have been abused and made chattel of their families and husbands it is not the fault of Islam but the people not following the true Islamic tradition and yet calling themselves Muslims.
The country’s population growth rate is the key determinant of progress in achieving the goals envisaged in every sector of national life. With the population currently growing at a rate of 1.9 per cent per annum, the government is faced with the challenge of a huge backlog and higher targets in the provision of education, healthcare, housing and every other basic right while the economy remains under pressure.
“Corruption was widespread within the government and police forces, and the government made few attempts to combat the problem.”
Rape, domestic violence, sexual harassment, and abuse against women remained serious problems. Honour crimes and discriminatory legislation affected women and religious minorities respectively.
Religious freedom violations and inter-sectarian religious conflict continued. Widespread trafficking in persons, child labour, and exploitation of indentured and bonded children were ongoing problems.
Child abuse, commercial sexual exploitation of children, discrimination against persons with disabilities, and lack of respect for worker rights remained concerns.
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
Thursday, March 11, 2010
MATURITY
03/11/2010
MATURITY
What this world does not need any more of is the people showing their "maturity" by acting immature.
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
MATURITY
What this world does not need any more of is the people showing their "maturity" by acting immature.
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
SPITTING IN THE FACE OF USA
03/09/2021
SPITTING IN THE FACE OF USA
I have always said that one of the biggest and the most outrageous dramas going on in the world today is the Middle East Peace talks. Even though no longer funny, the charade continues unabated, at the cost of billions of dollars of expense, and no one is ever serious and the joke is on the unaware public that keeps hoping for a "peaceful" result.
It is also customary to honor, and at least not to insult envoys, and treat them with due respect and honor, it is also known in most people that the greatest disrespect for anyone is to spit in their face, as it is a sign of the utter contempt.
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
SPITTING IN THE FACE OF USA
I have always said that one of the biggest and the most outrageous dramas going on in the world today is the Middle East Peace talks. Even though no longer funny, the charade continues unabated, at the cost of billions of dollars of expense, and no one is ever serious and the joke is on the unaware public that keeps hoping for a "peaceful" result.
It is also customary to honor, and at least not to insult envoys, and treat them with due respect and honor, it is also known in most people that the greatest disrespect for anyone is to spit in their face, as it is a sign of the utter contempt.
LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE
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