VERY POWERFULL!!!!!!!!

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=839988512690613

WOW!

Good production and sincere, heartfelt message.

The message is too real and sad, in ways, to say I enjoyed it, but it was powerful and well presented.

Good find!


Russ

I just sent this to my kids. Hopefully, they'll share it with theirs.

chas

Just us I thought who will respond to this wideo.Thank you guys.

Another great video by Great Charlie Chaplin.

[img]<div id="fb-root"></div> <script>(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script>[/img]

Russ is just a big old softy, socially progressive, caring, unbiased, intellectual disguised as a Synthzone forum member.



chas

Truth be told...

Meeting good people is the great takeaway of membership here.

My friend Chas is at the top of my "great people" list.

Russ

[img]http://youtu.be/6FMNFvKEy4c[/img]

This is what I wanted to post above.Something went wrong, probably by me..

One and only Charlie Chaplin.RIP


[video:youtube]http://youtu.be/6FMNFvKEy4c[/video]

Here it's even better.

http://youtu.be/CsgaFKwUA6g

Thanks!
A moving message, performed with great talent and feeling.


R.

Fantastic acting, and, SADLY, some real truth in the message.


Russ

How true

Amen.

chas

TODAY. ...

Let us remember the men and women who bravery fought in all wars throughout history.
However, let us also remember the corrupt politicians who scream "WAR", but would never stand in front of the lines. The criminal financial institutions and military complexes who load their pockets from the deaths of innocent soldiers.
And YES, most important.
Let us remember the religious figures and fanatics who have instigated so many wars throughout time all in the name of "GOD".

Yes, I shall remember.

I sincerely want to thank everyone for initiating and participating in such a powerful exchange, which, with participation from certain others, could have turned ugly.

It didn't and I'm personally appreciative of the effort and admire the genuine concern and sincerity shown.

As a group, we CARE, and that's a really good thing.


Russ

Thanks you for reading my posts.

As Christians, or Jews, or Muslims or just as simply human beings we tend to always say it is the others side fault. Americans hate Arabs, Arabs hate Americans, Jews hate Palestinians, Palestinians hate Jews. White hate Blacks, Blacks hate Whites....etc..There are many sides , and we are all right. But, mostly we are all WRONG and there will come a day when we will for real have to look at mirror.

I am one of those people that think that problems and solution comes from within. Once, we stop spitting over the fence and start spitting in our own mirror, than there might be a better way, and we might start building a better world for our children because that is the only thing that counts.

Thought the Bar wasn't working all that great until this post.


Thanks so much!


R.

http://zishaanshafi.files.wordpress.com/...dity-genius.jpg

http://ozarkia.net/bill/antiwar/picts/Sam-Antiwar-sm.jpg

https://www.behance.net/gallery/4000149/Anti-War

“I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in.”

George S. McGovern

Exactly

Republicans aren't so bad.....I understand they've come flat-out against slavery.....in principle.



chas

Ok..This one's funny...
[img]http://www.motifake.com/facebookview.php?id=70059[/img]

[video:youtube]http://youtu.be/MtTyRWc0OvQ[/video]


http://www.upworthy.com/its-wrong-its-corrupt-and-its-been-happening-for-far-too-long

[video:youtube]http://youtu.be/923jxZY2NPI[/video]

Another nice video.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152891454029769&set=vb.71760664768&type=2&theater

good stuff.

chas

ABSOLUTELY INSPIRING!

R.

Funny Drew Carey. Also true. That is why it's funny.

Also if you have time watch this video of origin of Christmas.
You might be surprised.

I am not trying to be disrespectful, but I do think we should be nice to each other all year round.Not just for holidays.

There are no good guys on this world.East And West.



https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=760326817347344&fref=nf

It's not hard to see why, in many parts of the world, we're called "UGLY AMERICAN'S"; especially if you have traveled overseas.


Russ

Unfortunately that is truth what you said .I for one refuse to think that way about anyone.We simply can't generalize. I can not think that conservative.
This guy in the video is ex marine.
I am just wondering how long will all this madness between East and West last? How many lives will be lost?? And they are all using the easiest weapon for the masses. Religion at it's best.There is no wars like religious wars.
We are back to Dark Ages all over again.
Now days they present them to us with white gloves.

I love British comedians....

[img]https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hpho...amp;oe=5535198B[/img]

Me too...I also love Bill Maher.....98% of the time.

chas

98% is great. No-one can agree with you 100% of the time, that is impossible. But Bill Maher and John Cleese is such an amazing combo.

[img]https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hpho...amp;oe=5564E631[/img]

That is very powerful and so true.

[img]https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hpho...amp;oe=55675350[/img]

I love this answer..

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1058679800813708

Imagine just how many wars would we have if our nation's and religious leaders would have to go to that war.To be on the first line with young soldiers who barely shaved few times before they were given a gun .Just imagine what kind of people we are when we choose these kind of leaders.

https://www.facebook.com/PrinceEaHipHop/videos/10153278998454769/


Not many people will see this or even get this when they see it which is actually sad.

Great. Very thought-provoking. I admire your dedication to these causes. Hope some of it rubs off here in conservative heaven.

chas

Being Jewish and supporting what Israel is doing just because you are one is not any different than being a German and trying to justify what Nazis did. Or being a Muslim and supporting and agreeing what ISIS is doing......Or, being any kind of Christian and supporting what America and Russia is doing to the world around us. No difference!!!!

MIRZA

[video:youtube]https://vimeo.com/48834336[/video]

This belongs here.

[img]https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hph...amp;oe=56728E93[/img]


What have we become as humans and what kind of god do we believe in ???

One of my favorites quotes:

“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.”

Aristotle

All great posts, Mirza!

Open your mind and tell me, is there really any difference between these two????

https://www.facebook.com/cloakedtruth/videos/501139246726445/

I wish we had more people like this, on every side.

And less like these...

What a bitch!

[video:google]https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10153822021486844[/video]

A very wise man. He's so right.

Thanks, Mirza.

If only we can turn to Fox News or CNN or basically any other news station and hear actual news and not propaganda to keep us(sheeps) in line.


[video:youtube]https://youtu.be/Syjp9lsWBhc[/video]

No matter where you live, a large portion of the news is censored. There's no such thing as transparency as that's the last thing any government wants.

If voting changed things, they wouldn't let us, they would make it illegal

https://www.facebook.com/neo.non1/videos/10204802113523945/

+1

I always loved reading Mark Twain as a child and through my youth.
Some of his quotes:
“Don’t part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.”

“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.”

“If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you’re mis-informed.”

“Out of all the things I have lost, I miss my mind the most.”

“A clear conscience is the sure sign of a bad memory.”

“When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.”

“It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.”

“Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.”

“Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.”

“It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them.”

“Reality can be beaten with enough imagination.”

“Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.”

“It’s better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than open it and remove all doubt”

“In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made school boards.”

“Life does not consist mainly, or even largely, of facts or happenings. It consists mainly of the storm of thoughts that is forever flowing through one’s head.”

“Worrying is like paying a debt you don’t owe.”

“It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.”

“Civilization is a limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessaries.”

Tanks...proves that brains, sensitivity and empathy are timeless.


Russ

Lots of truth and wisdom in these quotes.

Unfortunately, many are afraid to think.

Thanks, Mirza.

Thanks guys for your responses. I know people usually don't care too much at least now-days .



https://www.facebook.com/HigherPerspective/videos/1100251760007142/

“Oftentimes in a society when people of a certain type, whether individual or a group, are subconsciously portrayed by the media as abnormal, they also slowly, subconsciously become enemies of that society due to feelings of cultural guilt. Ultimately by this the inflated media is an enemy of its very own cause.”

Criss Jami

“Of all individuals, the hated, the shunned, and the peculiar are arguably most themselves. They wear no masks whatsoever in order to be accepted and liked; they do seem most guarded, but only by their own hands: as compared to the populace, they are naked.”

Criss Jami

https://www.facebook.com/OfficialDailyAtheist/videos/470170996475063/

Hahaha....that's usually the way it goes. One God, so many theories. And the show must go on...

http://fff.org/2014/05/27/american-soldiers-did-not-die-defending-our-freedom/

[video:google]https://www.facebook.com/senatorsanders/videos/10154342602972908/[/video]

Mirza, I took the liberty of posting the video.
I've watched this video clip before. Marlon Brando sure was no John Wayne (I mean that in a positive way).

Thanks Taike.
I still don't know what a hell I'm doing wrong.hehee
Those are some powerful videos you posted.
I mean, it's much easier to turn your head the other way. I am pretty sure Romans in Rome were ok with theirs when their army killed , raped and stole all the gold and food, or oil ..Well back than Romans didn't need oil, but all tyrants have the same way of thinking and they are the once writing the history. But as long as we are fine and dandy who cares if our hands are bloody. We just wear white gloves.

"Fine and dandy" hahaha... On a serious note, thank you for taking the time to watch the videos, Mirza. You're most likely the only one to have done so in the first place.

Mirza, no one here gives a hoot. No one cares if a couple of million Iraqis get killed. Even when confronted with the truth, they won't accept it for they've been so indoctrinated that whatever the US does is for the best of mankind and all that blah blah blah...

You might want to take a look here:

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/05/e...rrests-now.html

That's how peace-loving nations do it, right?

Here on this continent we have bigger problems than kids being killed or washed up ashore. It is more important if Starbucks cups are "christmasy enough. FYI, it is still November.

On another note.

One of my favorite guys (Neil deGrasse Tyson) recommends these books:

The Bible (public library; free ebook), to learn that it’s easier to be told by others what to think and believe than it is to think for yourself
The System of the World (public library; free ebook) by Isaac Newton, to learn that the universe is a knowable place
On the Origin of Species (public library; free ebook) by Charles Darwin, to learn of our kinship with all other life on Earth
Gulliver’s Travels (public library; free ebook) by Jonathan Swift, to learn, among other satirical lessons, that most of the time humans are Yahoos
The Age of Reason (public library; free ebook) by Thomas Paine, to learn how the power of rational thought is the primary source of freedom in the world
The Wealth of Nations (public library; free ebook) by Adam Smith, to learn that capitalism is an economy of greed, a force of nature unto itself
The Art of War (public library; free ebook) by Sun Tzu, to learn that the act of killing fellow humans can be raised to an art
The Prince (public library; free ebook) by Machiavelli, to learn that people not in power will do all they can to acquire it, and people in power will do all they can to keep it
Tyson adds:

If you read all of the above works you will glean profound insight into most of what has driven the history of the western world.

Great post, Mirza.

Actually, I've read the Bible, On the Origin of Species, Gulliver’s Travels, The Age of Reason, The Art of War and The Prince. All great and interesting books that need to be read. I've read excerpts of the others.

Keep them coming.

I think the author is spot on the commercialization of Christmas but I can't help but chuckle at the bible stuff.

http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Basics/god_hates_christmas.htm

But this is far more interesting:









I'm not saying these movies have all the answers but they sure make you think.

[img]https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR8f_WMKFDOxlwAjeh01ts2olLzPivU9LJvISLyHor1_--nl0jf[/img]

So true. As usual.

https://www.facebook.com/portaltransformacija.svijesti/videos/979052768807556/

Thanks, Mirza.

In short:


And this what politicians, multi-nationals and the media are masters at.

What?????????

What is wrong with the media? Why is it so one-sided? Oh, I get it. It's because he's a Muslim. Had it been a christian it would've been headline news.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The fearless father who threw himself on a suicide bomber, saving 'hundreds' of lives in Beirut



A father, with his young daughter watching, sacrificed himself to save others when terrorists struck Beirut last week.

The day before the horrific massacre in central Paris left the world reeling, two attacks during rush hour in Lebanon’s capital city killed 45 and wounded more than 200 others.

If not for the heroic actions of one man, the death toll would have been much higher. And now, days later, his heroism is being recognized.

Adel Termos was walking in an open-air market with his daughter, according to reports, when the first suicide bomber detonated his explosives. Amid the instant chaos, Termos spotted the second bomber preparing to blow himself up, and made the quick decision to tackle him to the ground. The bomb went off, killing Termos, but saving countless others, including his daughter’s.

“There are many, many families, hundreds probably, who owe their completeness to his sacrifice,” Elie Fares, a blogger and physician in Beirut, told Public Radio International in an interview last week.

“In a way, Adel Termos broke human nature of self-preservation. His heroism transcended his own life to save others,” Fares told The Washington Post in an e-mail Monday. “To make that kind of decision in a split second, to decide that you’d rather save hundreds than to go back home to your family, to decide that the collective lives of those around you are more important than your own is something that I think no one will ever understand.”

Though Fares had immediately shared Termos’s story, and it was covered by local media there, it went largely unnoticed by the international community, especially as news of the Paris attacks quickly consumed the news cycle.

But in Lebanon, Termos was instantly famous, memorialized in Facebook posts and conversations, Fares told PRI last week.

After the Thursday attacks, Fares, on his own blog, wrote about Termos:

“Tonight, Adel is no longer of this world, but his legacy will live on for years, and the repercussions of his heroism will become a tale to tell: Adel is the reason we are not talking about fatalities in the three digits today, he is the reason some families still have their sons, daughters, fathers and mothers, he is a Lebanese hero whose name should be front and center in every single outlet.”

Then Sunday, Fares gained attention, and by extension attention for Termos, when The Huffington Post shared a post he’d written: “From Beirut, This Is Paris: In a World That Doesn’t Care About Arab Lives.”

“When my people died, they did not send the world in mourning,” Fares wrote. “Their death was but an irrelevant fleck along the international news cycle, something that happens in those parts of the world.”

That is why, Fares said in his e-mail Monday, it took several days for Termos’ story to be known, and shared, outside Lebanon.

“When the attacks in which his heroism manifested are not heard about or highlighted enough, the details of those attacks will also get pushed to the side,” he said. “Adel included.”

Nobody cares about this Taike. Our precious white lives are more important in the western world than these people who live through something like Paris every day. And much worse. But we are ok with that. As long as they are not white or Christian. That is very important here. As I said, we have become Nazis.

The culprits are not Muslims but terrorists. They're not the same but the media/governments makes us believe that they are. Well, they won't fool me.


http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/a...p#photo-8962687

If you stay tight-fisted on everything but war, you're not going to go anywhere fast but behind.

It was news. I had already known all about this. Don't jump to conclusions so quickly. Or else you become part of the problem when you make antagonistic statements like that. That is what extremists like ISIS want.

It only found out today, Nigel.

I was taken aback by this: “When my people died, they did not send the world in mourning,” Fares wrote. “Their death was but an irrelevant fleck along the international news cycle, something that happens in those parts of the world.”

Which sounds to me that we have become immune to what's going on in the Middle East as long as the violence is between them and doesn't involve us.

Adel was a hero we all should acknowledge !!!!

A REAL hero! I feel for his family.

As you all know, I am a full-blown Atheist so certainly no Bible thumper; however, it does contain some beautiful passages. I think this one applies here;

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

chas

That is beautiful.

I love reading those messages when I pass by some church here in London On.
Most of them are pretty rediculous, well at least in my opinion.But there was one which I really liked and will always remember.
" A heart beats strongest when it beats for somebody else"..

Also these are pretty powerful.

Muhammad:

Kindness is a mark of faith, and whoever is not kind has no faith.

The ink of the scholar is more sacred than the blood of the martyr.

To overcome evil with good is good, to resist evil by evil is evil.

Wisdom is not gender, geographic, class or creed specific.


R.

Islam is not the enemy. Hatred is.

I usually say it like this.
Islam is the enemy, so is Christianity, Judism and any other man made stupidity. If I have to trash one of them I have to trash them all. I can't be a hypocrite.

Ain't that the truth...

Dalai Lama about praying for France:


Simply praying is not the answer the Dalai Lama says. “We cannot solve this problem only through prayers...I am a Buddhist and I believe in praying. But humans have created this problem, and now we are asking God to solve it. It is illogical. God would say, solve it yourself because you created it in the first place.”

Praying never solves problems.

Do people actually want peace? After all, war is profit.

But for some reason people seems to be ok with it.

...or spent a lifetime whitewashing its horrific history. Yet, the future doesn't look any brighter.

So what do you expect them to do? The past is the past like it or not. There is nothing I or anyone else can do can do to change that. How about you?

Well, we can change the future which is more important.
I would expect the same thing I expect from any religion.Talk about, educate people about it, inform of all aspects in the religion, don't turn a blind eye to it no matter what. Same thing as child pedophilia in church. Don't pretend like it never happened. That is not gonna erase it.Cross was used long before Christ too by Persians, Carthaginians, and Macedonians. And I think the same thing about it as I think about swastika. It is not the sign that is bad, it's the people that represent it. It is the people that use it for their personal gain, or for that matter even for their country gain. They make it bloody and dirty and not even close to sacred and holly.Same thing as using David's star and justifying killing of children, or saying Allahu Akbar and slaughtering everyone else who is not muslim the way you are.The same way to talk about slaughter of Natives. Maybe that is one of the topic for Thanksgiving.

The worst thing is to ignore it and trying to hide it , like it never happened . But, we do it anyway. Put it in schools and teach the kids, let them know about our dark past, and about sighs we swear by. That way it will happen again.

Still worth considering the original idea of Jesus' love behind the cross, and not ONLY how millions of humans have perverted the original idea into cruel attitudes and actions throughout the centuries.
BTW, the Nazis were atheists. It didn't prevent them from committing apocalyptic cruelty in a blink of an eye (12 years).

Rosetree, not ALL Nazis were atheists. And no one was killed in the name of atheism. Can't say the same of Christianity. One only has to look in the bible to see how many were killed on orders of "God" and in the name of "God".

The Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot excuse doesn't make the grade for none of them killed in the name of atheism.

Anyway, we can't just ignore the history prior to the rise of Nazism: Crusades, Inquisitions, Colonization, Genocide, etc.

The leading ill-minded figures of the Nazi regime were atheists. Their ideology was based on a perverted interpretation of Darwinism. I know from my own parents (born 1928) how people were hindered from going to church. Of course lots of so-called Christians followed the regime and the majority and didn't have any courage to resist. But the Nazis and other examples, you mentioned some, show that atheism doesn't prevent the most cruel developments in any way. I think it's a wrong idea that eliminating religion would make humans more peaceful. I'm with you if it's about fundamentalism, but that's something different.

EDIT: Of course the Nazis or Stalin didn't kill "in the name of atheism". A very weak argument. Why would they use the term "atheism" to "justify" their slaughter. They used their own ideological terms, and their ideologies were atheistic ones.

Can't say I agree with THAT statement. What Nazi ideology do you equate with atheism?

chas

Unfortunately I have to say it like this, since we are on the subject.

All Nazis had to do is to read The Genesis to get their ideology. About the master race, chosen by god, everyone else is "less" than the chosen ones. Unfortunately a lot of people died in WW2 because of that ideology. Even worse is that the same thing is going on right now. They just changed their flags. It's still the same ideology.

Even before The Christ people were killing each other in the name of their gods. Even killing of Jesus was in the name of the religion, assuming we take religious books as a historical fact. From original crusades to today's once they are all religious wars.

And as usually it is always the innocence that pays the ultimate prize.

Their ill-minded ideology of a "master race" which is derived from the Darwinistic "survival of the fittest".
Quote from Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_and_Nazi_Germany
"By 1925, Nazism had embarked on a different path following its reconstitution in 1920 taking a decidedly anti-Catholic-anti-Christian identity."

As I said, my parents report that they and their class mates were stopped from entering churches by officials of the regime; influence of the Christian churches was suppressed.

I don't think the Nazis needed to pick this aspect from the Old Testament to develop their ideology. Darwinism was good enough as an inspiration. Of course anyone can take aspects from the Bible, the Koran, the Torah and interprete them in a way that leads to cruel, unethical attitudes. Who is the culprit? The "religion" or the human beings that interprete it according to their needs? I don't really know what the outcome of this endeaver is to make "religion" the culprit. Obviously it is rather the question what somebody wants to focus on, if he wants to pick a certain aspect and abuse it.
The core message of present Christianity, at least according to the churches I know, is about Jesus who loves those who are weak, different, strangers, at the fringe of society.
It's every individual's responsibility how to interprete a religion.
So if you were able to eliminate all Bibles, Korans and Torahs, all knowledge, stories and myths about Jesus and other religious content, that's obviously what you wish for, you think nobody would develop any ill-minded ideology again, and there would be no more wars? Like in John Lennon's song?

How can you believe that you're "chosen by god" if you don't believe in 'god'?

To me, atheist just means you don't subscribe to all those ridiculous fairy tales.....and that science trumps superstition.

chas

Mirza, I misunderstood your post. I though it was Rosetree saying that the Nazi's thought they were 'chosen by god'. My bad.

chas

Surviving of the fittest is not what Darvin said it should be. It was just his observation of how everything evolved. And nobody said the way evolution works is moral by any standard. On the other hand religion claims many things as moral as long as it is in the name of God or religion . It doesn't matter which religion.

Yes, he was a scientist. But the Nazis didn't care how it was meant originally and used and interpreted it for their evil purposes. As I said, if someone is ill-minded, he can abuse any kind of scientific theory or religion.

If you observed some services in the protestant church, you would realize that you hardly would find anyone who rejects scientific findings. I don't think any of the pastors I know believe the earth was created by God 6,000 years ago instead of what astrophysicists tell us. In the churches I know (in Germany) there isn't any denial of science (except for some fundamentalist "free churches" that are far away from the official protestant church organization). It is not about retaining a naive, science-rejecting view of the world, but about retaining the basic values such as "love your enemy". But even as a scientist you can still believe in a higher power. Einstein did!

Do Christians love their enemies even now?

http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/h...eir-enemies.cfm

With all respect but I firmly believe that most Christians won't be able to retain the basic value such as "love thy enemy" when it comes to some of the points illustrated in the article (see above link).

Neither do I believe that humans needed to be given the Commandments for it would be an outright lie to say that prior to the Commandments people didn't know right from wrong. How do we explain peaceful societies that are non-Christian?

Believing and acting upon are two different matters which are more often than not prone to clash.

Now have a look at this. How many Christians would've lived a full life? I doubt there's be many left:
http://www.landoverbaptist.net/showthread.php?t=16785

What was this again about loving thy enemy?

Poor Jimmy...


But you've got to admit that he has a good head on his shoulders.

Chas, no problem. Sometimes I don't I understand myself either.

Rosetree, now you are talking about spirituality and pretty much that has nothing to do with religion. Faith and religion are two totally different things.

It was a reply to Chas who talked about believing in fairy-tales ans superstition instead of science. I explained that The churchgoers in my Church have nothing to do with naive people believing in fairy-tales.

But that is the thing.
How do we choose which ones we believe and which once we don't? If we say that Jesus was an extraordinary man who spread love and peace, which is fine by me.But, what about other things in these religious books? The son of God, virgin birth? Well, you probably know them all.
How do we choose?
I never have problem people believing in god, but I do think the way majority does is pretty rediculous and makes no sense at all.
What about children being born with deadly diseases ? What is the big plan there? Why only 1% of people owns 99% of wealth?
If all of these killings were done in my name I would start to feel ashamed of myself, regardless wether I have anything to to with it.

You are addressing different questions here, one of them is the Theodizee problem: How can terrible events and suffering be explained if God was almighty. There is no simple answer, this is why I think most members of my church at least are in a certain doubt whether God exists but still try to hold on to their faith and at least listen to the message of the New Testament. So in fact, there is no black and white in terms of naive believers versus atheists, but many people use their brain and still want to be reminded of the values conveyed by the New Testament.
About killings, of course I'm not responsible for any crime of an extremist just because he/she claims to commit it based on a certain interpretation of a religion. No peaceful muslim is responsible for crimes of extremists, and he/she should of course NOT feel ashamed just because the terrorists claim to refer to the Koran. I think this is so self-evident it is not even worth mentioning.

Rosetree, let me just say that you are interesting guy to talk to, wether we agree or not.

Yes, I agree with that. Rosetree, I agree that there are many universally accepted 'values' that can be found in the New Testament, but I think those values have evolved from the crystallization of centuries of human experience, ie. 'you're much less likely to kill me if I'm not trying to kill you', etc. 'Faith' to me means, blindly believing or accepting something with absolutely no justification, rationalization, of basis in fact or reason.

Examples of 'Fairytales' (Christian mostly, but equally ludicrous ones can be found in most religions):

TB (True Believer) - We are all born in sin (and therefore must be "saved".
Atheist - "What? I'm just a baby, I haven't done anything yet except eat, cry, and poop. At least wait until I become a teenager".

TB - Christ died for your sins.
Atheist - What? I wasn't even born yet. What does that even mean?

TB - Afterlife-where you go when you die. Heaven (if you're good) - Hell (if you're bad....or an atheist ).

Atheist - Afterlife - Oblivion (followed closely by decomposition)

TB - Virgin birth

Atheist - Uhhh, right.

Tons more, but you get the idea.

chas

Well, thank you both for finding my posts interesting instead of just being shocked about me defending the more open-minded, non-fundamental type of churches.

The 'fairy-tales' you listed up, well, I guess a lot of the churchgoers I know, me included, have a lot of difficulties firmly believing in them. I for my part, e.g. I don't exclude the possibility of an after-life in an unknown form, and you could even find arguments from physics thinking of atoms, elementary particles, quarks and pure energy as the final component of everything. Science actually has to state that we humans don't really know everything, we can't grasp what infinity of space actually means etc. So personally, as a principle, I don't exclude things 100%. I don't think that makes me superstitious, I like watching scientific TV programs like a well-known astrophysics series by a German physicist, and all in all I'm quite a scientific-thinking type myself, having spent some time on theory of science in my studies, too. Actually, I'm a pretty bad 'believer' (don't tell my employer, the Protestant Church of Westphalia, for which I play the organ), but as I said, I try to hold on to a certain level of faith and listen to the sermons. And the Protestant church tends to take some of these "fairy-tale" elements as "symbols", not as pure facts, so there is a certain degree of decomposition of concrete faith going on, too. I've heard many protestant theology students say: "The university studies of theology made me lose my faith - and get it back on a much less concrete, more intellectual level".
Anyway, the original point why I got involved here has to do with this:



I have to defend my church against being suspected of endorsing, supporting or whitewashing the historic cruelties committed in the name of various religions. All I hear in church, the attitudes conveyed, the interpretations of Bible verses, everything contributes to making the members more peaceful, more caring instead of more hostile and aggressive.
So, at least when considering the attitude of several open-minded present day church organizations, I regard a large part of your thread as extremely one-sided, overgeneralizing and full of hate against religion in general, much more emotional than rational. (I can understand your rage regarding the aspect of hypocrisy, I share that with respect to some church members and also politicians).

There are roughly 4200 religions in the world. How does one choose? It has nothing to do with hating religion but about what one claims to know which one is true without knowing an inkling about all the other religions. How can that be? Let's not go into the geographic or upbringing. All I want to know is how and why one chooses a belief from all those thousands. If religion is such an important part to so many -if not the most important- then why is it so easy to disregard all other beliefs without understanding or even knowing about their existence. Heck, most spend more time on which keyboard to buy.

Are we true believers because we choose to be, or is it just good old brainwashing as a child and pretty much not learning anything else??

Is there a difference between Jesus son of God and Perseus son of Zeus ??How do we choose ?

I'm going with Erik son of chas (HE gets to pick my nursing home ).

chas

With regard to the really dangerous people: They get the brainwashing later in life...
I just watched an in-depth documentary about how some persons who grew up in Germany and France turned towards radical Islamism around the age of 20-25. One of them had been raised Christian, another one had atheist parents. Both were insecure about their own position in life and got caught in the clutches of cunning, rhethorically trained Salafists as young adults.
Their parent's what you call "brainwashing" wasn't the problem...

Rosetree, I didn't actually mean anything bad by saying "brainwashed". I ment it as basically how much choice we have. Are you Christian because you were born in Germany and you were thought to be Christian from day one you were born, or is it really a choice.

I said it in one other post about what makes us good or bad.
Do we choose to be good regardless what religion we are, or because it makes us feel to do selfless act toward a stranger, or are we being good because we are afraid that God will punish us for being bad?? Is it selfless or do we expect to get paid by going to heaven??
What if God comes down and tell us, or some of us that there is no way we are going to heaven?? Would we still be good??

Same as with religions. What makes me a Chirstian, or Jew,or Muslim.
That is the same as people whom you mentioned changed religion. It is just for their good. It's a profit. And those are the worst kind of people.

Yes, I became a Christian because I was born into that environment. I didn't select from 4,000 religions deliberately. Likewise, I didn't choose the culture and native language I was born into. I neither grew up dancing Brazilian samba nor eating rice for breakfast, but waiting in front of a pedestrian's red traffic light to turn green although there is no car coming ...
Religion is closely interwoven with culture.

(Brainwashing doesn't have a negative connotation? Come on...)

Every believer is a non-believer.

(Brainwashing doesn't have a negative connotation? Come on...) [/quote]

What else you want me to call it??
We are all being trained. They even train us on how and what to think too.
You know that here in North America Santa comes on Dec.25. How convinant for Christians. Kids start at a very young age. And if that is not brainwashing than what is it. You know how they say," Let's put Christ back in Christmas". We all know that pagan holiday we call Christmas was there long before Chrisk. But we still pretend like he was born on that day.

Gods Born on December 25



Chrishna, of India, born on December 25, 3228 BC, his mother was a virgin, mother’s name was Maia. The name Chrishna means Black or Dark. His uncle, Kamsa, the ruler at the time of his birth sought to kill him (Chrishna) because he had heard a Prophecy that Chrishna would overthrow him. Chrishna escaped death by being smuggled out of the area to safety (sounds like Herod and Jesus does it not?). [COMMENT: Crishna’s story and Jesus’ story fit together like a hand and a glove.]

Mithra, of Persia, born on December 25, before 1500 BC, his birth was witnessed by Shepherds that brought gifts to honor him. He was styled as a Mediator between God and Man. Witness this quote from the Encyclopedia Encarta, “Mithraism was similar to Christianity in many respects, for example, in the ideals of humility and brotherly love, baptism, the rite of communion, the use of holy water, the adoration of the shepherds at Mithra’s birth, the adoption of Sundays and of December 25 (Mithra’s birthday) as holy days, and the belief in the immortality of the soul, the last judgment, and the resurrection. Mithraism differed from Christianity in the exclusion of women from its ceremonies and in its willingness to compromise with polytheism. The similarities, however, made possible the easy conversion of its followers to Christian doctrine” (“Mithraism,” Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright (c) 1994 Microsoft Corporation. Copyright (c) 1994 Funk & Wagnall’s Corporation).

Horus, of Egypt, born on December 25, before 2500 BC. His mother, Isis, gave birth to him in the swamp, she was warned by the god Thoth, to flee and conceal the child from the evil Set. Set had killed the father of Horus, whose name was Osiris, and sought to kill Horus, |also. Isis was able to keep Horus hidden from Set, till he (Horus) grew to manhood. Horus sought to avenge the murder of his Father, and made war against Set, and defeated him.

Buddha, of India, born on December 25, 563 BC, his mother’s name was Maya (similar to Mary) she was a virgin. He was immaculately conceived, and at birth, he announced that he was a savior to the world. His birth was announced by a star. At his birth, he was visited by Wise Men who declared that they had seen Signs of his birth, that is to say, signs of the royal birth (coincidence?). [COMMENT: On the surface, it definitely looks like a coincidence. But when one considers how much of the Buddha’s teaching Jesus claimed as his own, it becomes clear that the whole Buddha story was appropriated my Jesus himself — or at least by his church.]

Beddou (Fot), was a god of the orient born 1027 BC, his mother was a virgin, he was born of royal blood. The king sought to kill him at birth,
because he felt the newborn infant posed a future threat to his Throne. The god child was saved by shepherds, and lived in the desert till he reached the age of thirty, at which time he commenced teaching his spiritual doctrine to that religion.

Quetzalcoatl, a god of the Western Hemisphere, was born of a virgin around 900 BC. He sojourned in the wilderness, fasted forty days. Was crucified. He was variously represented as the God of light that struggled against the god of darkness called Tezcatlipoca.

Hercules, son of the god Zeus, born around 500 BC, predestined by birth to inherit the throne of Argos. Hera, the jealous wife of Zeus desired the throne for another and sought to delay the birth of Hercules, and subsequently tried to kill Hercules while in his crib, by sending two snakes to strangle him. Hercules killed the snakes, though he was less than a year old. Later, He was sent away to the countryside where he became a shepherd.

Attis, of Phrygia, born around 1200 BC, his mother was a virgin, her name was Nana. He was a shepherd, and reported to have died by self emasculation under a pine tree. He was alleged to have risen from the dead at Easter i.e. The vernal Equinox.

Tammuz, born before 2600 BC, was hailed as the only begotten son of the god Ea. His mother was a virgin, by the name of Ishtar. As an infant he was hidden in a chest by Aphrodite, the goddess of love and entrusted to Persephone, the goddess of the nether world. Persephone later opened the chest, and was so stricken by the beauty of the babe, that she refused to return the child to Aphrodite. The two goddesses fought each other for possession of the child, till finally the god Zeus mediated the matter, and declared that the child shall spend half it’s year with Aphrodite and the other half in the nether world with Persephone.

However, it is now argued by scientists that jesus was not born on dec. 25th, in fact, not even in the winter, some time in October or fall

Answer 2

Here are just a few, all born of virgins too.

Augustus (his father was the god Apollo) Agdistis Attis
Adonis Buddha Dionysus
Korybas Krishna Mithras
Osirus Perseus Romulus and Remus
Tammuz Zoroaster Jesus

OSIRIS – EGYPT, before 2500 BC: He came to fulfill the law. Called “KRST,” the “Anointed One.” Born of the virgin Isis-Meri on December 25th in a cave / manger, with his birth announced by a star and attended by three wise men. Earthly father named “Seb” (translates to “Joseph.”) At age 12 he was a child teacher in the Temple and at 30 he was baptized, having disappeared for 18 years. Osiris was baptized in the river Iarutana — the river Jordan — by “Anup the Baptizer,” who was beheaded. (Anup translates to John.) He performed miracles, exorcised demons, raised El-Osiris from the dead. Walked on water and was betrayed by Typhon, crucified between two thieves on the 17th day of the month of Athyr. Buried in a tomb from which he arose on the third day (19th Athyr) and was resurrected. His suffering, death, and resurrection celebrated each year by His disciples on the Vernal Equinox — Easter. Called “The Way, the Truth, the Light,” “Messiah,” “god’s Anointed Son,’ the “Son of Man,” the “Word made Flesh,” the “word of truth.” Expected to reign a thousand years.

Many characteristics of Jesus, which Christians today believe in, are undeniably similar or identical to religious trends and beliefs that preceded
Christianity. There are tens of accounts of pagan gods of many different cultures who were said to have the same attributes as those that Christians claim Jesus had.

Trinity&#8213;Trinities were popular in pagan sects before Christianity was introduced to the world. Some of the more well known trinity gods included
Mithra-Vohu Mana-Rashnu, Amen-Mut-Khonsu, and Osiris-Isis-Horus.

Virgin Birth&#8213;Among the pagan cultures that preceded Christianity, virgin birth stories abounded. The long list of pagan gods born of virgins includes: Romulus and Remus, Zoroaster, Buddha, Mithras, Chrishna, Osiris-Aion, Agdistis, Attis, Tammuz, Adonis, Korybas, Perseus, and Dionysus.

WOW! I’ll bet that you didn’t know that so many other gods shared Jesus’ birthday, did you?

The saga of Tammuz, as given above is extremely interesting, in that not only are there parallels to Jesus portrayed through his life — and those parallels existing at least 2600 years before the birth of The Jeez –, the account includes hints of two Old Testament legends. First, “As an infant he was hidden in a chest by Aphrodite, the goddess of love and entrusted to Persephone, the goddess of the nether world.” That sure sounds like Moses in the “ark” in the bullrushes to me. Second, “The two goddesses fought each other for possession of the child, till finally the god Zeus mediated the matter….” To me, that sounds exactly like the story of Solomon deciding who the real mother of a child was by ordering the child cut in half. It is possible that the Jews appropriated both of these stories, since Tammuz lived long, long before the time of “Moses.”

As I have said above, given the antiquity of the various gods, it is presumed that they are mythical like the Greek, Roman, and Norse gods. There is hard evidence in India that Siddartha Gautama — The Buddha — actually did exist — and that he existed at least 500 years before “Jesus.” So given that, plus the advances in civilization from the time of The Buddha to the time of “Jesus,” one would logically conclude that there would be a mountain of hard evidence that Jesus actually existed and the date on which he was actually born. However, no such mountain exists. Writers of secular history contemporary to the time that “Jesus” was supposed to have lived do not mention him at all. At least I have never found any evidence that they make any reference to him, and I have looked long and hard. Only Josephus, the Jewish historian, mentions him at all. He makes two references. One of them is rather incidental and is considered to be legitimate, and the other one — the Testimonium Flavium — is considered to be fictional and not the work of Josephus. So it is not really that improper to consider “Jesus” to be a mythological person like the Norse god Odin, the Greek god Zeus, or the Roman god Jupiter.

I have documented in earlier Solus Christus diaries my walk away from Jesus Christ and the reasons for that decision, so I need not rehearse them here. So I face a quandry: Whose birthday should I celebrate this season if I choose to celebrate a birthday? There are a lot of possibilities: Horus, Osiris, Hercules, Dionysus, Crishna, The Buddha, Mithra, Tammuz, Attis, Quetzalcoatl —

Hey, there you go! I will celebrate Quetzalcoatl’s birthday! There is just as much legitimate evidence for his existence as there is for “Jesus.'” And he is indigenous to the Western Hemisphere; he existed in Mexico, as I recall. Thank goodness THAT dilemma is solved!

Happy birthday, Quetzalcoatl!!

Anyway, you all have a Happy Holiday season. And Season’s Greetings to you.

I think most people use the term brainwashing for more dangerous things (extremists, intelligence) connected to violence instead of raising children telling them stories about Santa Claus. Children are told all kinds of nice stories either religious or not, fairy-tales and myths, bacause they like it, it doesn't harm them in all cases (unless it includes values that go against common ethic values such as gender inequality etc). I don't see where the idea of Christmas plants violence into children's minds. Yes, Christmas was shifted to a time that had been a pagan holiday too. What's the big problem about that? Does the shift of the date make the basic idea obsolete?
May atheists celebrate either nothing or the lowest point of the sun (within the northern hemisphere) instead of Christmas on Dec24, I don't care. We as adults have the freedom of choice, or would you like to define churches as illegal institutions in the Canadian constitution?

Well , what I would like is for all religions institutions to start paying taxes and stop laundering money.And when I see some of the churches or some of the mosques , I think Jesus or Muhammed would have rather use that money to feed the poor.

If that's all, that's a criticism I largely share.

" If you thought that W could've won once and god forbid twice, and you still think that Donald Duck aka "The trump" can't win in the next election,than you don't know anything what kind of people live here "
MIRZA

[img:center]https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hph...amp;oe=56F594B2[/img]

There's election and there's circus.

I just no longer can tell them apart.

I’ve never red this part of Synthzone.; interesting.

Now this all about ME! I am a Christian and I view everything from a Christian point of view. I understand and respect other people’s choices to believe or not to believe.
I
n the Bible it is written:
The most important commandment is; Love God with all your heart. (Paraphrasing)
The second most important commandment is; to love one another as you love yourself. (Paraphrasing)

A teacher/leader at one of my Bible studies keeps sending me emails very much like is being posted here. I find them depressing—and why not they are depressing. Should I look the other way? Should I get into these type of thinking with all that I have?

There is another way:
1-I believe much of what we hear and read here has truth in it.
2-I also believe that people get into the subject as it is here in this forum minds begin to become heavy with hate, distrust, and they move away from the second commandment; to love one another as you love yourself.
3-I’m not against what is being written here but it needs to be balanced with caring, loving and understanding.
4-The Bible says it and I believe it. Man’s basic nature is not good; he is capable of the worst doings. No argument here. But man can also is good; there are many examples of man doing good things. Too much on either topic; doing evil and doing good is not real. Man is both; so why not give the different views here.:

In the Bible study when the conversation became heavily burden with negatives of how bad things are getting, and what we are in for -- a smart man said; Guys, don’t worry about anything; everything is going just the way the Bible said it was going to go

No perfect world here – man has always been greedy; there is nothing new. – I was invited to attend an AA meeting; I was leading a class and wanted to know more. The first that I heard is that you cannot trust anybody who is a user. I believe that covers most people today.

The part that most do not understand is that man was created good; what he does may be bad, but these are two different areas. Every man, killer, rapist, whatever is looking for happiness within what he believes. This makes a man extremely self-centered; on one else exists, no one else is important. When man begins to look for happiness outside himself he begins to change – the good side is being feed; the bad begins to devolve. So you see it is possible to love the man while still hating what he is doing.

Teach love and hate to the people you care for – anything else is harmful.

From my simple head, John C.

One can love without religion. People knew right from wrong way before the 10 (actually way more than that) Commandments. How many interpretations are there of the Bible and how many interpretations are there by believers? It seems to me even Christians can't get along with each other.

The Bible means nothing to me as I'm not a believer. It has some nice stories and some very horrific stories which "believers" tend to dismiss.

If we are to believe every word in the Bible, then we should stone sinners, have slaves, burn cities to the ground, kill women, men and children and rape virgins. We shouldn't eat pork, shellfish, etc.

"Teach love and hate to the people you care for - anything else is harmful. ??????????

Anyway, the posts are mainly to make people think and maybe they might even inspire them to act outside of the box. I'd say that the posts are balanced quite nicely. But feel free to interpret it your way.

Hi Bruno
Welcome to this side of this great forum.

I love when people make me think. I love reading religious books, I love watching documentaries about religions, about people , government...etc...

I started this whole post not to judge anyone, although it would be very Christian of me to judge. In my family I have Muslims, Christians(all kinds) and also Jewish. For me personally I refuse to be degraded and be called any of these, although my name is very Islamic. I also don't consider myself an atheist. I will never say there is no god. I think there is no such a god as the one according to all these religions. It would be nice to have a nice one , but than again what a hell is he or she doing?? What kind of misogynistic plan is this or what kind of perverted reality show we live in??
Most of my friends are religious and I don't have problem with that as long as they have no problem with me.

I think it would be nice if religious people would learn about other religious and not assume . If we want to be people of faith why not pick up a Quran or if you are Muslim why not pick up The Bible or any other religious book that is not from your faith. If there is one god why not learning about it from all aspects?? But, as I said before.We are all programmed to think and not ask questions.We were trained as kids by our parents, by our society and by our government. We just believe in anything without a single thought in what we actually believe.

Also this post is about politics too. And there is no better weapon in politics as religion. It is the ultimate H bomb. And basically religion is politics. Control of the masses.

I am not trying to offend anyone here by posting anything, but when someone reads something, before getting offended about his or her religion, or country or your favorite president, or your favorite keyboard\guitar :D, try to do a little research about it. About our religion, or our government or who is going to get the newest keyboard first, or how long will DNJ keep his new keyboard (sorry DNJ , I just hat to)??

Why not think outside of the box a little bit, maybe for the first time. Things do look different from a far, or once you take a close look it is something totally different.
I think we usually look at religion from a far and it's all great, we all love each other, we sing kumbaya, we hold hands, we judge each other secretly. But when we take a closer look there is a lot of suffering, lots of blood, lots of killings, by us humans and by our god.

Even the bride looks different once the wail is lifted.

Question : How can you say you look at everything through Christian point of view??? What about human point of view? ??

[video:youtube]https://youtu.be/KYV7KWQ-fY4[/video]

Very nicely said, Mirza. I agree with every word except "I don't consider myself an atheist". I know in my heart that I am a full-blown Atheist (not an Agnostic - an Atheist without the courage of their convictions ). Although I subscribe to many of the basic tenets of most "major????" religions ('feed the hungry', 'love thy neighbor', 'thou shall not kill', etc., etc.), my human, evolved brain just will not allow me to believe in a supernatural being; a concept, maybe, but not the real thing. I also have difficulty understanding how otherwise reasonable and intelligent people can believe in so many implausible things not backed up by one shred of scientific evidence or facts. I do, however, try to be tolerant of those that DO believe, even when that 'tolerance' is not always reciprocal.

While it's true that if we didn't have religion, we'd find some other reason to kill each other, at least we'd eliminate that one thing.

My one big gripe with organized religion is the attempt of one group to impose their will on others; to believe that 'they' know what's best for another group, another race, another culture, another country, the world. Sorry, I'd rather make that decision for myself.

For the record, I DO believe in the possibility that ET's or 'ancient astronauts' may have visited this planet in the past and possibly even given rise to some of the stories/myths/tales/fables/etc. that we find in the Bible and other ancient writings/cave drawings/etc. At least more plausible than 'blind faith', don't you think?

Anyway, like most of the other free thinkers here (not many, for sure ), I love (and never tire) of discussing the human condition and our role here on this planet.

Appreciate your input, Bruno. Please continue to participate. No one has a patent on 'the truth', it's just that everyone should find his/her own 'truth' and not allow 'tradition' to dictate what one believes.

chas

I think this is a core issue in this thread. Terms like 'brainwashing' suggest that those who still hold on to religion are somehow kept 'superstitious' by others or by how they were raised. At least in the society I live in, many leave church when they are adults even if they were raised being baptized and confirmed, whereas others choose to stay a member of their church. Even if one is raised religiously it doesn't mean one can't put everything into question when growing up, make up one's own mind, and it doesn't necessarily lead to quitting church.

Chas, thank you.
I meant by not being atheist that I am open the possibility that there is actually something. Who knows. I too love watching Ancient Aliens . I also read Chariots Of The Gods by Erich Von Daniken. One of my favorite books is 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick.

There are many reasons of which I can't follow religion. But I need just this one. In all big religions I have to love god first and the most. More than my kids, more than my whole family . And I fail right away. And what kind of god asks such a thing? It is sick. According to The Bible he did ask Abraham to kill Isak. And as a good Jew Abraham was he obeyed. And as a such a good god as he is he stepped in and saved the boy. What a boy-scout.
A true story: My brother was 6 when I was born. And me being always the way I am (adorable and gorgeous as a little boy can be ) all attention was on me. And of course no 6 years old can deal with that after all being there all by himself and enjoying family spoiling him. He had a brilliant idea that he told my mom. He said that he need all of the family to love him the most and he will love me with all of his heart.
Well , according to all these religions books our almighty and all powerful god has same kind of thinking as a 6 years old boy. And we are ok with that which just again degrade us as human beings.
My brother grew up to be a brilliant man and is still my best friend.

Listen to what David's parents say at 12:39. Wow! Such loving parents...

Wow.. And that is why I can't do religion.

I've actually met quite a few people that'd been disowned by their families for not following the family's belief. So much for free agency.

I read few months back that a girl in Dubai drowned at the sea.
Father wouldn't let lifeguards go and rescue her because they would touch her body by rescuing her and that would dishonor the family name.
How deep you have to into believing in your stupid god to be more important than you own kids..l
Where does a reason and logic stops in religions? ?
Was it ever present?

I've heard of Jehova's Witnesses refusing medical help (blood transfusions) for their children. Some died, others were saved by doctors (against the parent's will), who were sued by the parents. Guess life isn't that precious after all.

Guns Kill More Americans Than Terrorists Do




PRESIDENT OBAMA, IN a heartfelt response to a mass shooting at a community college in Oregon on October 1, 2015, called on journalists to compare the number of Americans killed by gun violence and the number of Americans killed by terrorism.

The results? It’s not even close. In a recent 10-year period, guns killed more than 112 times as many American citizens as terrorists did.

But we thought we’d take a deeper look. Of course guns kill more people than terrorists. A lot of things kill more people than terrorists, and heart disease is far and away the biggest killer. But the government’s priorities on funding preventative measures don’t always correspond with the country’s biggest threats.

Let’s look at guns first. Firearms killed more than 346,681 people between 2003 and 2013, the last year for which numbers were available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the same period, terrorist attacks killed 312 US citizens, according to data from the US State Department and the Council on Foreign Affairs.

That’s an average of 28 people a year. Compare that to the average of 31,516 gun deaths each year. In 2013, guns killed nearly twice as many people in the United States as terrorists did worldwide. And of those gun deaths, many—more than half in 2013—were suicides, not homicides.

Now, terrorists use guns. And that’s where the data get complicated, because there isn’t always a clean division between gun violence and terrorism. According to the State Department, terrorism is “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents….” But the CDC classifies all gun deaths together in one category. There’s no separate “gun deaths from terrorism” column in their annual data report, and if there were, it wouldn’t rank among other common causes of death.

But even with all those caveats in mind, the President made his point, and the data support it.

Earlier this year, the Institute for Economics and Peace released its GPI – Global Peace Index.

This short film highlights 4 kinds of people who react differently to the 'truth' imposed by the system:

1. Those that accept the imposed version of the 'truth' without even questioning it. [the sheep]

2. Those that do not accept the imposed 'truth' and speak the real truth loud, clear and determined, no matter the consequences. [the hero/martyr]

3. Those that accept the imposed 'truth' out of fear of what happened to those that spoke the real truth, and that it might happen to them if they spoke it. even if they know an recognize the real truth. [the coward]

4. Those that apparently accept the imposed 'truth', but they know and implement the real truth onto themselves and hope for a day that they will be able to make others see and accept the real truth.. [the survivor]

CJ Werleman wrote a piece for Alternet about how atheists should learn a lesson from Pope Francis when it comes to dealing with poverty — and since it slams atheists, Salon was eager to reprint it:

When the Pope washes the feet of convicts while calling for greater efforts to lift up the world’s poor, he makes it possible to establish meaningful partnerships with other moral communities, secular and religious. Of course, when Francis speaks about the “idolatry of money” and “growing income inequality,” you know, the things Jesus spoke about, you can set your watch in waiting for someone on the Right to accuse him of being a Marxist. Hello, Rush Limbaugh.
Atheists like to talk about building a better world, one that is absent of religiosity in the public square, but where is the atheist movement, as defined by the some 2,000 atheist groups and organizations in the U.S., when it comes to dealing with our third-world levels of poverty? Not only is the atheist movement absent on this issue, it is spending thousands of dollars on billboards that make atheists look like assholes, at the same time Catholicism is looking hip again. The Pope has changed the perception of the Church in the minds of millions while the atheist movement has been sucked into the Right’s fictitious “war on christmas.”
I’ll give him that Pope Francis walks the walk on poverty, saying no to the Papal palace and making outreach to the poor and criticism of capitalism run amok an important part of his legacy.

But what’s with trashing atheist groups for not dealing with the same issues?
Why accuse atheists of spending money on billboards instead of the poor when most of those billboards were funded by the organizations, their donors, or billboard-specific groups to further their stated missions? Why not just accuse anyone who spends money on anything that’s not charity of the same thing? (By the way, the Catholic Church spent more money to fight marriage equality than most of those atheist billboard campaigns combined. Just sayin’.)

And while the Pope has done a lot of good shining a spotlight on poverty, what exactly have other Catholics done to advance the cause? Maybe if they weren’t giving out so much money to victims of sexual abuse, they could be giving millions of dollars to the neediest among us instead.

Still, I’ll play Werleman’s game. Why don’t atheists do more for the poor? Well, to get the excuses out of the way, we don’t have the infrastructure, numbers, or outreach ability of the Catholic Church, nor do we have some sort of doctrine that demands we pay attention to one particular social issue over another.
But we haven’t ignored the poor altogether, as Werleman wants people to believe.
On the microlending site Kiva, the atheist team has loaned out over $13,000,000 to the poor — more than any other group in the world.

Members of Foundation Beyond Belief, which I’m on the board of, have donated more than $1,400,000 to causes that have nothing to do with promoting atheism, many of which benefit the poor. We’ve ever sponsored the Pathfinders Project, a yearlong international service trip to help those less fortunate.

Atheist groups have collected tens of thousands of dollars to support relief efforts in countries devastated by natural disasters, most recently raising more than $100,000 for people affected by Typhoon Haiyan.

Atheists have offered to volunteer at soup kitchens, too, though the Christians running those places wanted nothing to do with us.

Most importantly, individual atheists give to the poor on their own, even if it’s not as easily quantifiable as it is with churches.

Werleman mentions none of those things, though. He’s too busy complaining about random billboards to notice when atheists do precisely the sort of outreach he wants us to be doing.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Christian Org. Declines Atheists’ Help in Feeding the Poor for Thanksgiving
A Missouri Christian organization has turned down a local atheist group’s offer to help distribute Thanksgiving meals to the poor because the faith group says the two wouldn’t be a “good fit.”

Volunteers with the Kansas City Atheist Coalition have worked with the Kansas City Rescue Mission over the holidays for two years, but this year the Christian group has decided to include religious materials with each of the 500 meals that will be delivered, The Kansas City Star reported.

The Kansas City Atheist Coalition stated on its website: “Kansas City Rescue Mission has decided to use the meals they deliver as a chance to proselytize to its recipients by inserting religious literature into the meals. They informed us that we ‘would not be a good fit’ (emphasis theirs) for volunteering with them, and declined to respond to any further inquiries.”

Julie Larocco, a development officer for the Kansas City Rescue Mission, told the Star the group is “unapologetically Christian” and that their work has always been faith-based in nature.
==================================================
http://www.positiveatheism.org/mail/eml9553.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_terrorism

[img:center]https://www.google.la/search?biw=1276&bih=694&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=define+necessity&oq=define+necessity&gs_l=img.3...28268.34956.0.35608.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0....0...1c.1.64.img..0.0.0.zQvmvju6heE#imgrc=8B4xsNtv38bEBM%3A[/img]

Here you go, Mirza.


You know, I've done the same a couple of years ago and got the same results. This tells you a lot about the average Christian.

Some people say it is depressing to post all this on what is going on with our world.
A little bit of humor for a change.

https://www.facebook.com/jaminur.rahman.9085/videos/462918560561351/

Wow! Must have been taped at a Trump rally.

chas

I think this one was on W. Bush rally.

Gosh! Then again,nothing new.

Yugoslavia...Utah...don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Bush...Trump...what's the difference? Both are imbeciles.

This is also us .

https://www.facebook.com/824420661008450/videos/839071322876717/

http://allergiesandyourgut.com/2015/06/27/safe-in-the-us-while-banned-elsewhere/

We as humans are the cancer on this planet. One day the Earth will just spit us out and continue just like before. And we still think that we are that important.

This is a pretty accurate assessment:

Tears of Gaza is a Norwegian anti-war movie from 2010 concerning the Gaza War as seen through the eyes of a group of Palestinian children. The documentary was directed by Vibeke Løkkeberg.

The film is based on the imagery taken by people themselves in Gaza while the war continued, with some additional material from the few foreign journalists who were present while the conflict unfolded. Løkkeberg was not present in Gaza during the war.

The film was met with strong reactions from Israel and the pro-Israeli organization "Israel For Peace" (MIFF) because the film is seen as a propaganda film for Palestine. It has been argued that the film was only created to defame Israel, and that it has been produced to portray Israel as the world's most brutal military power. Regardless of the motives of the directors, the documentary uses authentic footage from Gaza.

Bill Maher's excellent movie about religion in the world.

Those terrorists that once were "friends" of United States

U.S. President Barack Obama is set to meet with leaders and senior security officials from many other countries at a summit in Washington on Thursday, in an attempt to address the aggravating terrorist violence across the world.

This summit, themed "Summit on Countering Violent Extremism," will be attended by security experts and government officials from Britain and dozens of other countries in light of recent terrorist attacks in Canada, Australia, France and Nigeria.

While the United States would like to consider itself as the leader of the anti-terrorism alliance, its relationship with many extremist groups and individuals is intricate and even questionable.

Among many perilous and brutal terrorist groups in the world which have been backed by the U.S. government, Al Qaeda is the one particularly "exemplary" to show that the U.S. foreign policy is based on realpolitik and the short-term pursuit of narrow interests.

In order to battle against the Soviet's invasion in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989, U.S. intelligence agencies had backed many Islamic fundamentalist groups in the land-locked country as well as in other Islamic countries.

And soon, one Arabian businessman emerged as the best protege of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States in the surrogate war between the two super powers. His name is Osama bin Laden.

Al-Qaeda, the terrorist group with many of its founders trained by the U.S. government, has become the world's largest and most notorious terrorist group. And its franchises reach almost all war-torn Islamic countries.

As for the Islamic State (IS), which is even "too extreme" in the eyes of regular al-Qaeda fighters, its key members were trained by the CIA and the Special Forces command at a secret camp in Jordan in 2012, according to RT, citing informed Jordanian officials.

What's more, the footsteps of U.S. intelligence agencies are not limited in the Islamic world.

In the 1990s, U.S. special forces and Drug Enforcement Administration worked with a Colombian vigilante group -- Los Pepes -- to track down and kill drug lord Pablo Escobar. The two main leaders of Los Pepes were Don Berna and Fidel Castano, both former employees of Escobar.

In 1997, some of Los Pepes' leaders co-founded the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, more commonly known as AUC which was responsible for numerous massacres and political assassinations in Colombia.

In the 1960s, the CIA also trained and harbored two terrorists trying to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro and to topple the communist government in the country.

Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban citizen who fled to the United States after the Cuban Revolution, helped organize the Bay of Pigs invasion, and after it failed, he became an agent for the CIA.

He was trained at Fort Benning, a U.S. Army post outside Colubus, Georgia. From 1964 to 1968, he was involved in a series of bombings and other anti-Castro covert activities.

Posada was found guilty by a court of Panama as one of the perpetrators behind the 1967 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people. But he lived in the United States as a refugee and was never convicted with any criminal activity there.

Posada's accomplice Orlando Bosch Avila, also a Cuban exile, was granted shelter by the U.S. government as well, though former U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh called him an "unrepentant terrorist."

As the United States upholds the flag of anti-terrorism once again, it may have to abandon its selfish and short-sighted interests first.

Great one Taike. Actually, our governments are not terrorist. We are. We support all this, we turn our heads the other way, we pretend we don't know. When we send our idiots to other countries to bomb, rape, kill and ravage all country we are peace keepers and supporters of democracy even though we don't have one here. But when they send their idiots here to kill inoccent people for some reason we are shocked by it. We are all ISIS,and we all work for the same organization. That is what is wrong with the world.

America Created Al-Qaeda and the ISIS Terror Group

Much like Al Qaeda, the Islamic State (ISIS) is made-in-the-USA, an instrument of terror designed to divide and conquer the oil-rich Middle East and to counter Iran’s growing influence in the region.

The fact that the United States has a long and torrid history of backing terrorist groups will surprise only those who watch the news and ignore history.

The CIA first aligned itself with extremist Islam during the Cold War era. Back then, America saw the world in rather simple terms: on one side, the Soviet Union and Third World nationalism, which America regarded as a Soviet tool; on the other side, Western nations and militant political Islam, which America considered an ally in the struggle against the Soviet Union.

The director of the National Security Agency under Ronald Reagan, General William Odom recently remarked, “by any measure the U.S. has long used terrorism. In 1978-79 the Senate was trying to pass a law against international terrorism – in every version they produced, the lawyers said the U.S. would be in violation.”

During the 1970&#8242;s the CIA used the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt as a barrier, both to thwart Soviet expansion and prevent the spread of Marxist ideology among the Arab masses. The United States also openly supported Sarekat Islam against Sukarno in Indonesia, and supported the Jamaat-e-Islami terror group against Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in Pakistan. Last but certainly not least, there is Al Qaeda.

Lest we forget, the CIA gave birth to Osama Bin Laden and breastfed his organization during the 1980&#8242;s. Former British Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, told the House of Commons that Al Qaeda was unquestionably a product of Western intelligence agencies. Mr. Cook explained that Al Qaeda, which literally means an abbreviation of “the database” in Arabic, was originally the computer database of the thousands of Islamist extremists, who were trained by the CIA and funded by the Saudis, in order to defeat the Russians in Afghanistan.

America’s relationship with Al Qaeda has always been a love-hate affair. Depending on whether a particular Al Qaeda terrorist group in a given region furthers American interests or not, the U.S. State Department either funds or aggressively targets that terrorist group. Even as American foreign policy makers claim to oppose Muslim extremism, they knowingly foment it as a weapon of foreign policy.

The Islamic State is its latest weapon that, much like Al Qaeda, is certainly backfiring. ISIS recently rose to international prominence after its thugs began beheading American journalists. Now the terrorist group controls an area the size of the United Kingdom.

In order to understand why the Islamic State has grown and flourished so quickly, one has to take a look at the organization’s American-backed roots. The 2003 American invasion and occupation of Iraq created the pre-conditions for radical Sunni groups, like ISIS, to take root. America, rather unwisely, destroyed Saddam Hussein’s secular state machinery and replaced it with a predominantly Shiite administration. The U.S. occupation caused vast unemployment in Sunni areas, by rejecting socialism and closing down factories in the naive hope that the magical hand of the free market would create jobs. Under the new U.S.-backed Shiite regime, working class Sunni’s lost hundreds of thousands of jobs. Unlike the white Afrikaners in South Africa, who were allowed to keep their wealth after regime change, upper class Sunni’s were systematically dispossessed of their assets and lost their political influence. Rather than promoting religious integration and unity, American policy in Iraq exacerbated sectarian divisions and created a fertile breading ground for Sunni discontent, from which Al Qaeda in Iraq took root.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) used to have a different name: Al Qaeda in Iraq. After 2010 the group rebranded and refocused its efforts on Syria.

There are essentially three wars being waged in Syria: one between the government and the rebels, another between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and yet another between America and Russia. It is this third, neo-Cold War battle that made U.S. foreign policy makers decide to take the risk of arming Islamist rebels in Syria, because Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, is a key Russian ally. Rather embarrassingly, many of these Syrian rebels have now turned out to be ISIS thugs, who are openly brandishing American-made M16 Assault rifles.

America’s Middle East policy revolves around oil and Israel. The invasion of Iraq has partially satisfied Washington’s thirst for oil, but ongoing air strikes in Syria and economic sanctions on Iran have everything to do with Israel. The goal is to deprive Israel’s neighboring enemies, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Palestine’s Hamas, of crucial Syrian and Iranian support.

ISIS is not merely an instrument of terror used by America to topple the Syrian government; it is also used to put pressure on Iran.

The last time Iran invaded another nation was in 1738. Since independence in 1776, the U.S. has been engaged in over 53 military invasions and expeditions. Despite what the Western media’s war cries would have you believe, Iran is clearly not the threat to regional security, Washington is. An Intelligence Report published in 2012, endorsed by all sixteen U.S. intelligence agencies, confirms that Iran ended its nuclear weapons program in 2003. Truth is, any Iranian nuclear ambition, real or imagined, is as a result of American hostility towards Iran, and not the other way around.

America is using ISIS in three ways: to attack its enemies in the Middle East, to serve as a pretext for U.S. military intervention abroad, and at home to foment a manufactured domestic threat, used to justify the unprecedented expansion of invasive domestic surveillance.

By rapidly increasing both government secrecy and surveillance, Mr. Obama’s government is increasing its power to watch its citizens, while diminishing its citizens’ power to watch their government. Terrorism is an excuse to justify mass surveillance, in preparation for mass revolt.

The so-called “War on Terror” should be seen for what it really is: a pretext for maintaining a dangerously oversized U.S. military. The two most powerful groups in the U.S. foreign policy establishment are the Israel lobby, which directs U.S. Middle East policy, and the Military-Industrial-Complex, which profits from the former group’s actions. Since George W. Bush declared the “War on Terror” in October 2001, it has cost the American taxpayer approximately 6.6 trillion dollars and thousands of fallen sons and daughters; but, the wars have also raked in billions of dollars for Washington’s military elite.

In fact, more than seventy American companies and individuals have won up to $27 billion in contracts for work in postwar Iraq and Afghanistan over the last three years, according to a recent study by the Center for Public Integrity. According to the study, nearly 75 per cent of these private companies had employees or board members, who either served in, or had close ties to, the executive branch of the Republican and Democratic administrations, members of Congress, or the highest levels of the military.

In 1997, a U.S. Department of Defense report stated, “the data show a strong correlation between U.S. involvement abroad and an increase in terrorist attacks against the U.S.” Truth is, the only way America can win the “War On Terror” is if it stops giving terrorists the motivation and the resources to attack America. Terrorism is the symptom; American imperialism in the Middle East is the cancer. Put simply, the War on Terror is terrorism; only, it is conducted on a much larger scale by people with jets and missiles.

Garikai Chengu is a research scholar at Harvard University.

...or spend all day on Synthzone.

Rudi, you know,most people are absolutely afraid to face the truth!

These posts are "in your face" looks at a very sad set of realities.

All this makes the things and ones we hold close more valuable.

Russ

I've always loved this hauntingly beautiful song with it's roots in slavery and there have been as many versions (each with it's own unique chord changes ) as there are musicians on the planet. I ran across this clip and thought it was especially moving. I've done many versions myself and am thinking of doing a new one and maybe posting it if it comes out ok.



chas

Russ, ignorance rules. Simple as that.

Chas, a timeless song. Looking forward to your rendition.

WOW! What beautiful sad faces. It almost hurts to think of the suffering.

Somehow, "Merry Christmas" just isn't enough for this.

Russ

I was always wondering when do we loose it as humans?? I mean, how do we become what we are. Kids are not born racist . They have to be thought to be that way. Where is the line where we loose our innocence ? I refuse to believe that we are all born in sins . That is one of the stupidest things when it comes to religion. But when do we loose it? Who teaches us these things? Is it our society, or our Churches or Mosques? Is it our parents, or our family? Is it our government that is doing some sick experiment on us to see how far we'll go to do stupid things in the name of who knows what? And I don't mean racism between colour of our skin.Rich and poor..etc.. I do always say that as species that came from primates we did get really far. Not far enough yet. I do hope it will get better. But, as a species created by some God, we do fail miserably in our humanity . At the end it doesn't really matter how we came to be , but what we will become in future. Is the survival of of our genes that evolved for so long made us to kill each other and to be cruel to each other. Or are we paying for our God's sins?? After all they say we are created in his image. And if this is true than why is always more important to us our external beauty or ugliness than our inner ones. Both in us and in our felow human beings regardless of their skin colour or which God we pray to. Or not .
Who distorts our view on society ? We created governments to serve us people , or at least that was an original idea, but we become one hair short of slaves. Why can't we look at different systems like capitalism,communism, socialism...etc, and take the best from each to serve us better, to protect us from poverty ? Are we that much " BRAINWASHED" to hate everything from one system without even realising we pretty much don't know anything about it. Are we that scared to think for ourselves and not be prejudging to anything new even if it means it will be better? Are we that lazy to do things? To take that shovel in and to something with our own hands . To get them dirty , to sweat a little bit. It does feel good afterwards.
When do we loose it?

Just a thought for holidays.

Mirza, imagine how advanced our society might be if some of the great minds who sought answers OUTSIDE of the church had not been killed off as heretics. It seems that for every great scientific advance, there is an equal leap backwards in superstition and ignorance. BTW, God didn't create us in HIS image; quite the opposite, WE created God in OUR image.

You ask, how did we come to be this way? I think it started as a way to explain the things we didn't understand but soon evolved as a way for a savvy, powerful few to control the many. Yep, in the end it's all about POWER. "Power to the people", NO, Power to the few.

There are many good ideas, concepts, philosophies, etc. contained in MOST religions. Stripped of it's baggage (horrific threats, supernatural beings, ridiculous rituals, unrealistic promises ie. 'everlasting life', etc.), most religions could easily be a great 'code of conduct' or model for how to live one's life and how to treat his fellow humans, but somehow, that doesn't seem to be enough. We seem to need to have some sort of 'humanoid' figure with the power to heal, destroy, punish, and reward. Just "being good for goodness sake" doesn't yet seem to be attainable. Perhaps some many centuries in the future, provided we haven't killed each other off, but probably not likely. And when the last wisp of nuclear smoke clears, we'll have one thing to thank, RELIGION.

chas

:
:
:
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I think until you see it, you really don't understand.

Most people in North America have never seen it.


I have and, for once, have no words for the extent of the world-wide tragedy.

R.

I think getting smashed is strange.

This is a great one Taike.
Yet we still support our Nazi governments in the East and the West. Talk about power of fear and propaganda.

Good to have you back, Mirza!

https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hph...amp;oe=5745E359

US Role as State Sponsor of Terrorism Implied in US Congressional Research Service Report on Syria Conflict

https://uprootedpalestinians.wordpress.c...-report-madaya/

Helping someone in need doesn't cost a fortune. Don't ignore the downtrodden. Don't say that you donate to other causes for it won't feed him.

"Your society's broken, so who should we blame?

Should we blame the rich, powerful people who caused it?
No, let's blame the people with no power and no money
and these immigrants who don't even have the vote.
Yeah, it must be their [potty mouth] fault."

Ian Banks

Last night I watched couple of documentaries, "Citizen Four" ,and, "Inside KKK". Also I recommend " The Untold History Of The United States " by Oliver Stone.

I've watched the "Citizen Four" and just finished watching the documentaries by Oliver Stone. Good stuff although not really that much new from Oliver Stones's documentaries.

"Inside the KKK" sounds interesting or should I say frustrating since these losers are still at it.

Taike

Freedom of speech or freedom to hate?

Some people sell happiness

While they don't taste any of it.

That is really good one Taike. Capitalism at its best. Everything has price. Even the kids.

If the taxation loopholes were closed for corporations and billionaires then free education could be a reality.

WOW!!!! That's a great video and a great message . Thanks!!!

The average person’s lack of scientific and general diversified knowledge is has greatly hindering humanity’s ability to elect competent leaders in government. As science progresses we are aware of or expose ourselves to more dangers than ever before. If we let our knowledge drag us down our ‘path’ we will come out bloodied and dirty. That’s if we can survive the experience.

He points out, “Science is more than a body of knowledge. It is a way of thinking; a way of skeptically interrogating the universe with a fine understanding of human fallibility. If we are not able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us that something is true, to be skeptical of those in authority, then, we are up for grabs for the next charlatan (political or religious) who comes rambling along.”

I agree and build on what he says; indifference, complacency, and ignorance are major components in why the world is in it’s critical state. It comes down to who is making the decisions for the advancement of society and technology. And that is a scary mystery."
~Carl Sagan

Why is there always money for war but not the poor?

War is profit!

It is unbelievable !!!!!! We could change the world instantly.

It is scary, sad, disturbing and as might as well disgusting which flags and governments we support.
And all of that at the same time.

Remember the bail-out?

Why not demand a decent wage from your employer? It shouldn't be the consumer's responsibility. This is panhandling. Tipping should be entirely up to the consumer. A decent wage should be the employer's responsibly.

Good one, Mirza. Never gets old.

No stress, no bombs, no homeless, no crime or prison.
No junk food, no external debt, no pollution, no poverty.

And they're called "primitive" (because they're naked).

That is a great picture Taike.

[video:youtube]https://youtu.be/-JVORszwdNA[/video]

Seen that one before, Mirza. Thanks for showing us here.

The sad thing is that politicians are scared of the NRA, even Obama. No one really wants to say what's on their mind.

The NRA likes to talk about the "bad" guys while it's a fact that the "bad" guys are -the statistics prove it- family members.

But since when is the US willing to learn from another country such as Australia?

I guess they aren't willing to learn. Australia had a mass shooting back in the 90s and then simply banned guns. There hasn't been a mass shooting again since then.

And the argument that criminals will still have guns doesn't really cut it. Because of the ban black market guns are so expensive. As Jim Jefferies says, if you are criminal that can afford $30,000 to buy an assault weapon ... then you have enough money you don't have to be a criminal

Don't get me wrong, I live in the USA and I do own handguns for target shooting. But if I had to give them up for the betterment of society it would not be a big deal.

Jim Jefferies is an Australian comedian who nails it.

That's the thing, Nigel, you're willing to give them up for the betterment of society while the usual sentiment is "over my dead body".

Now they have lunatics head the NRA who turn every mass shooting into a positive thing for the NRA. Truth doesn't matter to them. Ir look like it's a requirement to deny the truth. "Facts lie, bullets don't" would be a perfect slogan for the fanatics.

This guy is a genius. Sometimes maybe too rough, but that is what I like about him. I never liked sugar coating anyway.
I saw him live last November here in London.

And since it's Black History Month.

London, Ontario!

Yes, London Ontario.

I haven't seen him live although I am Australian myself but I would love to. And when it comes to a life and death issue like this sugar coating is not appropriate.

Watched this one several times. A lot of thrush in truth in this one.

World Press Freedom Day 2015

For some it is easier to bend over than to face the truth.

True, although there are times when I don't mind at all.

And that is truly "a god given talent".

[img:center]https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hph...amp;oe=572AE95A[/img]

[img:center]https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hph...amp;oe=572E52B9[/img]

Watch it to the end if you can.

[video:youtube]https://youtu.be/F6TGkpi_vVE[/video]

People actually voted for these assholes? These are your leaders?

Men and women are equal? You mean, men setting the rules women have to live by means equality? You've still got a long way to go!

One person's terrorist is another person's hero.

Dear Anti-Immigrant,

Your car is Japanese. Your beer is German. Your wine is Spanish. Your democracy is Greek. Your coffee is Colombian. Your tea is Chinese. Your watch is Swiss. Your fashion is French. Your shirt is Indian. Your shoes are Thai. Your radio is Korean. Your vodka is Russian. Your computer is Taiwanese. Your chocolate is Belgian. Your baseball is Costa Rican. And then you complain that your neighbour is an immigrant?
Sincerely, lets just all live and let live.&#65279;

My fellow Americans.


[video:youtube]https://youtu.be/bGTznIy6i4w[/video]

+1

Haven't checked the thread, have you quoted this one, and do you know it (by Daniel Defoe)?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_True-Born_Englishman

Very interesting...

The U.S. stands almost entirely alone among developed nations that lack universal health care.

[video:youtube]<div id="fb-root"></div><script>(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script><div class="fb-video" data-allowfullscreen="1" data-href="/politico/videos/vb.62317591679/10153199961106680/?type=3"><div class="fb-xfbml-parse-ignore"><blockquote cite="https://www.facebook.com/politico/videos/10153199961106680/"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/politico/videos/10153199961106680/"></a><p>Protesters were forcefully removed from a Donald J. Trump event at the Plaza Hotel in New York City.</p>Posted by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/politico/">POLITICO</a> on Friday, December 11, 2015</blockquote></div></div>[/video]

Catastrophic moral failure as rich countries leave millions of refugees to cruel and uncertain fates

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2...ncertain-fates/

Latency describes the time lag of an audio output in relation to an input.
Reversed latency however describes the time lag of a brain in relation to the tongue connected. Or similar...

Taike, these are great.

And as our republican friends prove to us over and over again. Right now even Hitler would be proud of them.

It's not terrorist, it's not illegals. You're your own worst enemy!

[img]https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hph...amp;oe=575CBCFA[/img]

http://www.snopes.com/glurge/homelesspastor.asp

100 YEARS OF AGRICULTURAL CHANGE: SOME TRENDS AND FIGURES RELATED TO AGROBIODIVERSITY

* Since the 1900s, some 75 percent of plant genetic diversity has been lost as farmers worldwide have left their multiple local varieties and landraces for genetically uniform, high-yielding varieties.

* 30 percent of livestock breeds are at risk of extinction; six breeds are lost each month.

* Today, 75 percent of the world’s food is generated from only 12 plants and five animal species.

* Of the 4 percent of the 250 000 to 300 000 known edible plant species, only 150 to 200 are used by humans. Only three - rice, maize and wheat - contribute nearly 60 percent of calories and proteins obtained by humans from plants.

* Animals provide some 30 percent of human requirements for food and agriculture and 12 percent of the world’s population live almost entirely on products from ruminants

There's a lot of bullshit written in the Bible, as in part it is a product of the time it was written.
And it contains a great deal of treasures, too.
We can use our intellect and modern ethics and values to interprete what we read.
The most popular German Bishop and head of the German Protestan Church was a woman a few years ago.

Jesus' message is to love one's enemy and to approach the 'other' instead of separating from them.

Happy Easter.

1) THEY ATE SEASONAL REAL FOOD.

Food came from farms and small markets in the early 1900’s, and because food preservatives were not widely used yet, food was fresh. Because of the lack of processed food, their diets were nutrient dense, allowing them to get the nutrition they needed from their food.

For babies, breast milk was valued and it was always in season.

2) THEY DIDN’T DIET, AND PLAY RESTRICTIVE GAMES WITH THEIR BODY AND METABOLISM. THEY ATE FOOD WHEN FOOD WAS AVAILABLE.

Our grandparents did not fall victim to fad diets, food marketing, calorie counting, and other detrimental dieting habits that are popular today (in part because the marketing infrastructure didn’t exist yet). Because of this, they had a healthy metabolism, and ate according to their body’s needs and cravings.

3) THEY COOKED FOOD AT HOME, USING TRADITIONAL PREPARATION METHODS FROM SCRATCH.

Buying processed food was not an option, and eating out was a rare luxury. Lucky for our grandparents, these habits actually increased their health.

4) THEY DIDN’T EAT GMOS, FOOD ADDITIVES, STABILIZERS AND THICKENERS.

Food was not yet treated with additives, antibiotics and hormones to help preserve shelf life and pad the pockets of food producers in the early 1900’s at the expense of the consumer’s health.

5) THEY ATE THE WHOLE ANIMAL, WHICH INCLUDED MINERAL-RICH BONE BROTHS AND ORGAN MEATS.

Animal bones were saved or bought to make broths and soups, and organ meats always had a special place at the dinner table. These foods were valued for their medicinal properties, and never went to waste.

6) THEY DIDN’T GO TO THE DOCTOR WHEN THEY FELT SICK OR TAKE PRESCRIPTION MEDICATIONS. DOCTOR VISITS WERE SAVED FOR ACCIDENTAL INJURIES AND LIFE THREATENING ILLNESS.

When they got a fever, they waited it out. When they felt sick, they ate soups, broths, and got lots of rest. They did not have their doctor or nurse on speed dial, and they trusted the body’s natural healing process a whole lot more than we do today. Their food was medicine, whether they realized it or not.

7) THEY SPENT LOTS OF TIME OUTSIDE.

Our grandparents didn’t have the choice to stay inside and play on their phones, computers and gaming systems. They played on the original play-station: bikes, swing-sets and good ol’ mother nature!

AND WHAT DO THESE THINGS HAVE TO DO WITH FOOD ALLERGIES?

Nutrition affects EVERY cell in our body. The health of our cells is dependent on diet and lifestyle. Cells create tissues, tissues create organs, and we are made up of a system of organs. If your nutrition is inadequate, the integrity of each cell, tissue and organ in your body will suffer, thus you may be MORE sensitive to certain foods.

Not all Muslims are terrorists but all terrorists are Muslims. Is it true?

Guess how may terrorists are Muslim?

“Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims.” How many times have you heard that one? Sure, we heard Fox News’s Brian Kilmeade say it, but to me, that was simply part of the Fox News plan to make their viewers dumber, as we saw again this past weekend when its terrorism “expert” Steve Emerson was caught fabricating the story that Birmingham, England, is closed to non-Muslims. But more alarmingly, even some reasonable people have uttered this statement.And that comment is often followed up by the question: Why don’t we see Christian, Buddhist, or Jewish terrorists?Obviously, there are people who sincerely view themselves as Muslims who have committed horrible acts in the name of Islam. We Muslims can make the case that their actions are not based on any part of the faith but on their own political agenda. But they are Muslims, no denying that.

However, and this will probably shock many, so you might want to take a breath: Overwhelmingly, those who have committed terrorist attacks in the United States and Europe aren’t Muslims. Let’s give that a moment to sink in.

Now, it’s not your fault if you aren’t aware of that fact. You can blame the media. (Yes, Sarah Palin and I actually agree on one thing: The mainstream media sucks.)
So here are some statistics for those interested. Let’s start with Europe. Want to guess what percent of the terrorist attacks there were committed by Muslims over the past five years? Wrong. That is, unless you said less than 2 percent.
As Europol, the European Union’s law-enforcement agency, noted in its report released last year, the vast majority of terror attacks in Europe were perpetrated by separatist groups. For example, in 2013, there were 152 terror attacks in Europe. Only two of them were “religiously motivated,” while 84 were predicated upon ethno-nationalist or separatist beliefs.

We are talking about groups like France’s FLNC, which advocates an independent nation for the island of Corsica. In December 2013, FLNC terrorists carried out simultaneous rocket attacks against police stations in two French cities. And in Greece in late 2013, the left-wing Militant Popular Revolutionary Forces shot and killed two members of the right-wing political party Golden Dawn. While over in Italy, the anarchist group FAI engaged in numerous terror attacks including sending a bomb to a journalist. And the list goes on and on.

Have you heard of these incidents? Probably not. But if Muslims had committed them do you think you our media would’ve covered it? No need to answer, that’s a rhetorical question.

Even after one of the worst terror attacks ever in Europe in 2011, when Anders Breivik slaughtered 77 people in Norway to further his anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, and pro-“Christian Europe” agenda as he stated in his manifesto, how much press did we see in the United States? Yes, it was covered, but not the way we see when a Muslim terrorist is involved. Plus we didn’t see terrorism experts fill the cable news sphere asking how we can stop future Christian terrorists. In fact, even the suggestion that Breivik was a “Christian terrorist” was met with outrage by many, including Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly.

Have you heard about the Buddhist terrorists? Well, extremist Buddhists have killed many Muslim civilians in Burma, and just a few months ago in Sri Lanka, some went on a violent rampage burning down Muslim homes and businesses and slaughtering four Muslims.

Or what about the (dare I mention them) Jewish terrorists? Per the 2013 State Department’s report on terrorism, there were 399 acts of terror committed by Israeli settlers in what are known as“price tag” attacks. These Jewish terrorists attacked Palestinian civilians causing physical injuries to 93 of them and also vandalized scores of mosques and Christian churches.

Back in the United States, the percentage of terror attacks committed by Muslims is almost as miniscule as in Europe. An FBI study looking at terrorism committed on U.S. soil between 1980 and 2005 found that 94 percent of the terror attacks were committed by non-Muslims. In actuality, 42 percent of terror attacks were carried out by Latino-related groups, followed by 24 percent perpetrated by extreme left-wing actors.

And as a 2014 study by University of North Carolina found, since the 9/11 attacks, Muslim-linked terrorism has claimed the lives of 37 Americans. In that same time period, more than 190,000 Americans were murdered.

In fact in 2013, it was actually more likely Americans would be killed by a toddler than a terrorist. In that year, three Americans were killed in the Boston Marathon bombing. How many people did toddlers kill in 2013? Five, all by accidentally shooting a gun.

But our media simply do not cover the non-Muslim terror attacks with same gusto. Why? It’s a business decision. Stories about scary “others” play better. It’s a story that can simply be framed as good versus evil with Americans being the good guy and the brown Muslim as the bad.

Honestly, when is the last time we heard the media refer to those who attack abortion clinics as “Christian terrorists,” even though these attacks occur at one of every five reproductive health-care facilities? That doesn’t sell as well. After all we are a so-called Christian nation, so that would require us to look at the enemy within our country, and that makes many uncomfortable. Or worse, it makes them change the channel.

That’s the same reason we don’t see many stories about how to reduce the 30 Americans killed each day by gun violence or the three women per day killed by domestic violence. But the media will have on expert after expert discussing how can we stop these scary brown Muslims from killing any more Americans despite the fact you actually have a better chance of being killed by a refrigerator falling on you.Look, this article is not going to change the media’s business model. But what I hope it does is cause some to realize that not all terrorists are Muslims. In fact, they are actually a very small percent of those that are. Now, I’m not saying to ignore the dangers posed by Islamic radicals. I’m just saying look out for those refrigerators.


Source: The Daily Beast

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Active abstention may not be answer but at least it shows the true feelings of the voter(s).

Equality?

[img:center]https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hph...amp;oe=577B4117[/img]

Doesn't seem to apply to politicians.

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Bingo!

Then again...what is freedom? Is it something defined by ONE country? Usually seems that way.

Alas...the usual reply is...if you don't like it, get out! Of course, only dumb jackasses say that, those that love war, bible thumpers....in short, republicans and Trumpists.

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[video:google]https://www.facebook.com/MoeAndET/videos/1320034134679842/[/video]

Dumb people believe dumb things...

[video:youtube]https://www.facebook.com/natgeotvUS/videos/10153617771436005/[/video]

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And Christians have issues with Islam...

Hi Taike,

I like people who "think" outside the box like you do, so I enjoy reading what you have to say. Don't always agree, but I'm multi-dimensional in any subject. Like to hear other's views.

So, may I ask this question to you if you want to share?

Why are you so anti-religious and adamant there is no God (if I read you correctly)?

This question is no different than I would ask a vegetarian what he has against eating meat or a Democrat what he has against Republicans? I condemn no one...just like to hear how others think!

MARK

Maybe because he has a brain........and choses to use it.

chas

Why are you so adamant that there is a god?

Spot on, Chas. At least I'm trying to use my brain instead of merely blindly accepting mainstream thinking. I'm certainly not the only one around here who's not afraid of being "different".

Perhaps my peers and myself are more "religious" than the rest through our actions instead of our proclamations. After all, you don't fill someone's stomach with biblical proverbs.

Chas.......the question was addressed specifically to Taike as we've interacted in the past and I view him as a very wise person. When I view people as "very wise," I like to hear about how they come to conclusions on issues. Not just answers like "he has a brain and chooses to use it."

M

Taike......I think you took my question the wrong way. I'm NOT saying you should or shouldn't believe in "a God." I'm just wondering how you came to your belief. You're a smart man. I wouldn't ask the average Joe in the street that question.

Many people don't understand there are different flavors of people. There are some of us who prefer to be non-confrontational....they simply find "everything" in the world and how people think to be interesting. I'm one of them.

Example: I'm completely and utterly anti-gun in the hands of civilians (particularly around these parts where I live). But I DO enjoy hearing arguments from others about why they feel there SHOULD be guns "in the hands of civilians." I'm completely open to all viewpoints from anyone who wants to share a "viewpoint."

Again.....I'm not telling anyone how they should think. I just find it fascinating how folks DO think.

Yes, I believe in, not so much a God who is labeled as such, but definitely a Higher Power. This belief applies to me only as I've experienced it many times throughout my life.

I don't want to go beyond that statement. I'd rather play music than get into heated discussions about non-musical issues that go on forever.

You've helped me quite a lot in the past and....I happen to like you as a person (and as a "thinker"), so if you're offended by the question, let's just drop it. It's not that important to me!

Mark

That said, has there been any US President, for instance, who has chosen to use their brain? All have made references to God, AFAIK.
Do you consider Albert Einstein as brainless? He said he believed in a higher power.
Do you use your brain more efficiently than Albert Einstein?
Most of us are not even well-informed about the mysteries found in recent science. I think it's a matter of human arrogance to exclude things and to know everything as we cannot even grasp physical facts such as infinity of space and still encounter paradoxical findings in physics and elsewhere.

Me personally, don't have problem with people believing in God or whatever you want to call it.
I do have problem with how do people believe in God. Jews think they are "the chosen ones", Christians think they are the only one that will end up in heaven, Muslims think everyone else is infidel except them. I can go on and on with other once too...

The mere thought that we as humans are actually important in this wast universe says it all , and how god made us in his own ima ge and some of us are more important then others says how flawed, narcissistic and pure dumb are believes in God are. I personally think that kids younger than 18 or 19 should ever be introduced to religion in the first place. But than again when would brainwashing appear. It is only too easy when they are young. To make stories, fairy tales, from Santa to Eastern Bunny , to scary stories and frightening them how they will go to hell if they don't go to heaven if they don't go to Sunday school or Friday Mosque...or whatever ...

We are not teaching kids to be good or to help others because it actually does feel to do good deeds . Especially without any rewards. We teach them do always gain something out of it. They will get a new toy, or they will earn place in heaven. We don't even realize what kind of damage we do to the kids with this.
We take our morals from Joshua to whom God said to go to that peace of land and kill everybody, including the animals too. To which he didn't kill the animals and was forsaken by god. Where is moral there. Or one of my favorites where Abraham forsaken his son with the other woman just because his wife tells him, and than as a reward he gets a new son which he has to sacrifice to show how much he loves his god. Is this the god we believe in?? or even the most famous one where a teen girl being raped (emotionally, spiritually or physically- it doesn't matter) and than she gives birth to a son on Dec. 25 same us CHRISHNA,MITHRA,HORUS, BUDDHA,....etc..even Hercules was born on Dec. 25.. And then he is too being sacrificed for OUR sins. It is almost beautiful . Who ever wrote these stories was a genius and new exactly how to manipulate and how actually dumb humans are..

Did few mistakes in writing and didn't have time to correct.
Well,you will get idea.

I think most Americans would agree that it would probably not be possible to get elected president in this country without passing the "God" test; result....100% God-fearing U.S. Presidents (including those who upheld slavery, presided over genocide, and "nuked" hundreds of thousands of civilians in modern day Japan. Oh, and let's not forget those drone strikes going on as we speak; good thing they only kill enemy comnbatants (sarcasm intended)). Oh, and sorry I don't meet your criteria for who is "wise" enough to participate in YOUR posts but I believe you DID say " I'm completely open to all viewpoints from anyone who wants to share a "viewpoint.". Did I get that wrong?

As far as Professor Einstein, even he has had no better luck PROVING that there is a God than any of the millions before and after him. Even so, I doubt if his vision of a "Higher Power" involves some blue-eyed Nordic type who watches every move you make and scares the crap out of you with unimaginably horrible punishments should you not obey his will (which was made known to us through a select group of very 'wise' men (apparently Einstein wasn't smart enough to make the list). Amazing that He has time to do that and still have time to create the billions and billions of stars, planets, etc. that make up just our known universe....or is it multiverse, or...

Ok, gotta go Mark. That's all the therapy you get for today. Go learn Monk's 'Well you needn't', or 'round midnight. Now that's a 'higher power' I can believe in. Have a nice day.

chas

I'm not sure what part is addressed towards me and what towards Mark here, anyway, if you're suggesting I think of anyone as not wise enough for my posts here, I don't know where you are taking that from - I think this is rather what you did by implying some people use their brain and others don't. I haven't set up any criteria about wisdom or participation in my or anyone's posts, it goes without mentioning that I'm open to all viewpoints even if that quote is not from me.
I am very far from defending the many questionable decisions of various US presidents, I just gave examples of people making references to God.
Like you, I'm very sure Einstein didn't have this very absurd concept of a god you're describing.

Nope, directed at Mark - read his post directed at ME.

chas

My posts on the subject speak for themselves.

[video:youtube]http://youtu.be/UWosF0giwvM[/video]

Where's the love?

Muslim bullshit, Jewish bullshit, Christian bullshit. Choosing which one is your favorite only proves you are full of it too.

Imagine if they came to the Western world and attacked some hospital here and killed 46 innocent people.. What would we think??

I guess we the ISIS too,and our governments are terrorists too, but that is ok I guess.As long as we can look in the mirror with clear conscious.

Nice try! But they're Swiss and you (NRA and gun lovers) aren't.

Good and evil doesn’t have a grey zone. Killing and stealing is bad. Violence is never “good” or necessary unless it is used to defend against killers and thieves. Indeed, that is the morality behind the “just war” principle as defined by international laws and treaties.

Yet, this simple concept of right and wrong gets muddled by differing ideas about religion, patriotism, economics and many other divisions. The “just war” rule has crumbled under the ambitions of empires throughout history. The American-led Anglo Saxon empire is no different.

This empire has been brutally conquering and colonizing territory since the fall of Rome. However, it has only gained an American face in the last century. The United States quickly emerged as the world’s “superpower” primarily through its economic might. For some time, many believed the U.S. to be a shining example of economic freedom for other nations to emulate. Indeed, America was eager to promote “economic freedom” globally to open new markets for U.S.-based corporations.

When foreign leaders refused to allow these corporate interests into their country, those leaders were replaced through a variety of covert actions. The form of government that would be installed did not matter to the empire makers so long as the corporate interests were served. In most cases these nations simply surrendered to the seemingly unlimited power of the almighty dollar, thus camouflaging the traditional method of forceful empire building.
However, some nations, especially in the last two decades, remained stubborn and have refused to alter their banking systems while also shunning Western companies. Despite the empire’s best efforts to diplomatically bribe or sanction them into submission, they ultimately required an iron military fist to force their compliance. Until recently, military action remained the last resort. But now, preemptive military action seems to have become the preferred, and perhaps necessary, method to conquer the last resource-rich nations out of their grasp.

The empire’s populations cheered this strategy out of fear of being attacked by these rogue nations who never attacked or even threatened to attack them. In the fog of fear, killing and stealing became acceptable. In fact, detention without charges and even torture became acceptable in the former capital of freedom. America has determined that the means justifies the end — which is more power.

As with all empires, these “means” have become increasingly violent and destructive in the face of resistance. Yet, only a few more dominoes are left to knock over for America to complete a plan set in motion well before they were one of the colonies. That is unless, of course, other world powers break ranks and attempt to stop the conquerors, which could lead to a large scale conflict.

Regardless, when the dust settles and moral history is written, America and her Western cohorts will likely be viewed as the most brutal empire in history. Here are ten reasons why this is already the case:

1. Support of Dictators: For all the happy talk of spreading Democracy and protecting human rights, the empire has repeatedly not only supported dictators, but in many cases overthrew popularly elected leaders and replaced them with puppet tyrants. Examples range from secretly funding the Nazis, to installing the Shah in Iran, Pinochet in Chile, supporting Musharraf in Pakistan, and their everlasting love affair with the brutal Saudi royal family, to name a few. Actions speak louder than words to those who can navigate the storm of propaganda with a moral compass set to recognize good from evil. Dictators and freedom cannot coexist.

2. Preemptive Wars of Aggression: It could be said that all wars are preemptive in nature because so many entities benefit from war. Yet, even before America’s latest crusades, they covertly and surgically attacked countries that never threatened them. This allowed them to maintain the moral high road in the public’s eye while constructing the foundation of their empire. That was until the Bush Doctrine; the use of preemptive military action to confront possible threats was unofficially adopted to be the new foreign policy for combating terror. Since then, America has become the violent aggressors, having officially invaded two countries — Afghanistan and Iraq — without legitimate provocation. Violent aggressors have always been judged by history as evil. But it gets worse….

3. Torture: Torture has never been acceptable by those promoting a high moral standing in the global community. Nazis and Japanese soldiers were convicted and executed for engaging in the exact same torture techniques that America has redefined as ‘enhanced interrogation’. “I was just following orders,” was not a justifiable excuse for such inhumane behavior, much like it wasn’t a good enough defense for the low-ranking patsies who took the heat for the sinister Abu Ghraib torture scandal even though their actions were approved at the highest levels.
Can state-sanctioned torture of prisoners held without charges ever be viewed as anything less than brutal?

4. Suppression of Dissent: All tyrannical regimes throughout history have suppressed homeland dissent. As government oppression grows bolder at home and abroad, more citizens will naturally express outrage, resulting in even more oppressive controls. This is happening in the United States through the all-seeing eye of the Department of Homeland Security with warrantless spying, arbitrary watch lists, citizen spy campaigns, and TSA molestation to travel anywhere. Additionally, in an attempt to squash free speech, they arbitrarily seize websites and violently confront peaceful protesters. Unfortunately, as awareness of the topics in this very article expands, the U.S. will likely become even bolder in their pursuit of stifling dissent. In other words, the worst is yet to come, and history will judge the U.S. as not quite the beacon of freedom they have pretended to be.

5. Elimination of Habeas Corpus: Say goodbye to the notion of being innocent until proven guilty, the right to face charges and your accuser, and the right to a free and fair trial. Habeas corpus, considered the only humane path to “which a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention,” has been eliminated for those vaguely labeled ‘enemy combatants’ of the empire. As Guantanamo prisoners rot under such pretenses, prominent lawmakers in the empire propose the exact same lack of rights for American citizens if they’re labeled an ‘enemy belligerent‘. Similar to the Spanish Inquisition, now you’re guilty until you’re tortured to admit your guilt. Can it get more evil? Why yes, it can. Read on.

6. Assassinating Citizens: That’s right. No judge, no jury, no conviction; just straight to execution. America has set another precedent in their tyrannical march toward empire when they openly assassinated an American citizen and government patsy, Anwar al-Awlaki, and his teenage son on the suspicion of terrorism. Paul Craig Roberts laments “Now the US government not only can seize a US citizen and confine him in prison for the rest of his life without ever presenting evidence and obtaining a conviction, but also can have him shot down in the street or blown up by a drone.” Isn’t this the reason America claims to be knocking off dictators around the world — the deliberate killing of their own citizens?

But Awlaki was a bad apple because the intelligence community said so. What’s most telling that America will continue this wickedness is that almost every US lawmaker turned a blind eye to the grotesque violation of Constitutional rights. Only Ron Paul said that assassinating an American citizen without charges is nothing less than an “impeachable offense”. Too bad most of the country cheered the Awlaki killing as a “victory” in the war on terror, indicating that it is now an acceptable tactic. Americans beware: you may be moved from a secret watch list to a secret kill list in this brutal empire.

7. Unauthorized Drone Wars: Unprovoked wars without authorization, accountability, or independent oversight only seem to be escalating; and with little resistance. The US Congress no longer votes to “declare war”. They simply give the Commander in Chief broad “authorization” to use force against specific nations. However, even that is not broad enough in the rapid pursuit of empire. Now, joystick warriors directed by the CIA and Pentagon have targeted at least three countries with “unauthorized” military strikes; Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia. Even worse, they waged a full-scale war for regime change and resource plundering in Libya without any authority inside the United States. Under the NATO flag, which is 75% funded by the U.S., they flew over 9200 strike sorties in Libya to illegally topple Gaddafi. Drunk with success, the bloodthirsty empire marches on to their next preemptive targets, Syria and Iran. Quick morality check: unprovoked killing and stealing as a first resort is still wrong, right?

8. Use of Weapons of Mass Destruction: How ironic that the world’s policeman for weapons of mass destruction is the only one to use them on a mass scale. The United States is on record using chemical, biological and even nuclear weapons. From the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII, to Monsanto’s Agent Orange in Vietnam, to the depleted uranium used in Afghanistan and Iraq, America only condemns itself when speaking about the evils of WMDs. However, killers don’t appear to care how the killing is accomplished, so long as it achieves their goals. The real firecrackers will likely be brought out in a confrontation with Iran, or if China and Russia are lured into the conflict. It won’t really matter much what history says if the use of WMD escalates by either side, but the aggressors should rightly be blamed for the ensuing scorched earth, while the defenders against killers and thieves should be viewed as righteous.

9. World’s Largest Drug Dealer: The American empire is the largest drug dealer in the world? Say it isn’t so. Well, in addition to forcing legal drugs and genetically modified organisms on nations, usually under the cover of foreign aid, America also leads in the illegal drug trade. In fact, many researchers reveal that the war on drugs is only utilized to control and monopolize the illicit drug trade. The US government has been caught multiple times shipping in cocaine, colluding with certain cartels to control the industry, and now openly protects and transports opium from Afghanistan. In fact, Global Research points out that in 2001, “according to UN figures, opium production had fallen to 185 tons. Immediately following the October 2001 US led invasion, production increased dramatically, regaining its historical levels.” This month, the U.N. announced that Afghanistan now provides 93% of the world’s opium production; up 61% compared to 2010 to a whopping 5800 tonnes. Although the empire tries to keep it secret, they can’t hide the hypocrisy forever.

10. World Reserve Currency Prison: Although using Weapons of Mass Debt is a non-violent form of expanding the empire, it’s perhaps the most brutal and effective form of control. Requiring foreign nations to purchase oil and other imported commodities with US dollars wields immense power. Because all nations must acquire dollars to purchase critical resources, they quickly become indebted to the US Federal Reserve, their affiliate central banks, and the IMF. Before long, the entire world is colonized by debt. It seems that only the nations that don’t need or refuse credit from Western banking institutions are the ones in danger of facing the wrath of the imperial war machine. Incidentally, most oil-rich nations in the Middle East have outlawed usury (lending money with interest), making them impossible to conquer diplomatically through debt. Controlling the world reserve currency means controlling the tap of life itself, which is a dangerous weapon in the hands of an aggressive empire. Debt is the ultimate WMD the empire uses to enslave the world, which leaves dissidents with two clear choices: slavery or death.

Although this empire is infinitely more powerful than Rome was, it will likely suffer the same fate. For every negative action the empire commits, there’s an equal and opposite good reaction. And the goodness of humanity will always defeat tyranny when it goes too far. However, an empire with so much to lose will go down swinging and slinging every weapon in its arsenal, thus putting the final stamp on their status as most brutal empire in history.

Great read Taike. Thank you.

Well presented. All in all, this thread is a significant effort to define deplorable world situations.


thanks for all the well researched AND REASONED THOUGHT.


Russ

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I guess you watched new Michael Moore movie,"Where To invade Next"..
It is great..

Thanks, Mirza. Will check it out.

There is only one word in any language that is sacred and completely pure. It is not Earth, or Moon, or even God , or Jesus , Mohamed,Moses, or even Zeus or Hercules. Or any other make believe creatures. And no matter which fairy tales you were brainwashed to believe in. Non even come close to "MAMA". She is the only one worth to bend tour knees and bow too. No flags, or governments or countries are this pure and this loving. With her unconditional and everlasting love they are our fairies, our superheroes, our doctors, our bff's forever. They are simply and most sacredly our moms.
Even us "DADS" are at least third, and that is if we are superdads.
Lets not forget that ever.
Bow to you MOMS!!!

By the numbers: US police kill more in days than other countries do in years | US news | The Guardian

https://wjlanier.com/2015/11/27/by-the-n...s-the-guardian/

What a moron! And let's not forget the morons that voted for him...twice!

The Yogi Berra of politics.

chas

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...although there are those that claim to know it all...

How convenient! Bloody hypocrites!



However...

Love this one.

He makes Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and G.W. Bush look like altar boys. And we're supposed to believe in someone like that?

What's next?

Junk Food Advertising In Schools

In other words, politicians should be paid minimum wage!