Obscures The Effectiveness Of His Intellectual Witness

I hear you brother Michael. Even though I get and understand your use of what is now termed "the N word," I see where it is getting you into trouble and we certainly cannot minimize the effectiveness of your intellectual witness.

"I have decided to stop using it for two reasons: many black folk who otherwise supported my work and agreed with my perspectives were thrown off by my public identification with the downtrodden and the debased of our race through use of the term. Despite all the good they thought I did, they believed that the use of the word made it difficult for them to fully embrace me. [To paraphrase The Apostle Paul said in the Bible that 'if meat offends my brother, I don't eat meat.'] Finally, Rev.Jesse Jackson, after we both attended Johnnie Cochran's funeral, and after we engaged in a healthy political discussion with Stevie Wonder, asked me to refrain from publicly using the 'N' word because it obscured what he termed the effectiveness of my intellectual witness. [As some of you may know, I've also had friendly debates with Cornel West on the subject, and even though we have disagreed about the subject, I have enormous respect for him and all my elders, including Rev. Jackson, who have different views]. So, I have decided to refrain from public use of the 'N' word where I cannot explain the context of the word and its association with traditions of racial response to degradation."

But seriously, I can read and listen to Michael Eric Dyson with the same attentiveness that I can read and listen to Cornel West. They are two modern black philosophers and intellectuals with very different styles - if not similar messages. My issue with the 'N' word (which I have been known to use rather freely in certain circles) is that it is being gobbled up in mainstream culture via the continuously morphing musical/spoken word genre called hip-hop. It started out as a wicked slur. It was re-claimed it back as a term of endearment (or loving disdain) and now has all but been sold into global culture as a generic word that, supposedly, means brother or friend. So, yeah, now that people have been desensitized to the use of the word (and racist types use the excuse that they hear it on the radio so they can use it at will) it has, in a sense, lost its cherished meaning to a once and, often still, oppressed people.

The Joker For President

Why are they even going there? This woman hasn't worked in decades, played enabler to a substance abuser (probably still is) for a good part of her marriage, stayed home to raise two wild assed daughters (who could take charm lessons from Chelsea Clinton) ... I don't care who people like. Valuing inaptitude is how we got her husband. It is a sad state of affairs when people are so horrified and afraid of a brilliant and well-spoke woman that they'd rather see Suzy Snowflake as President of the United States.

First lady Laura Bush would defeat U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton if the two were to face each other in the 2008 presidential contest, Vice President Dick Cheney said on Monday.

Cheney made the prediction after his wife, Lynne Cheney, suggested the matchup in an interview on CNN's 'Larry King Live.'

Mrs. Cheney noted the rampant speculation that the former first lady, now a senator from New York, would make a bid in the next presidential go-around. President Bush cannot seek a third term in office. His father, former President Bush, was defeated after one term by former President Bill Clinton.

'You know, people are thinking of Mrs. Clinton running for president. I think Mrs. Bush ought to run for president,' Mrs. Cheney said. 'If we want to have a Bush dynasty, let's get Laura Bush.'

The vice president, who again ruled out making his own run for president when Bush's term ends, agreed.

'It's a great idea,' Dick Cheney said. 'And I think I know who would win too.' "

If we think the world is laughing now ...

Ancient Buddhist Secret

Realizing that it isn't so much the religion, but rather the culture that places women in subordinate positions, I guess I wasn't surpised when I read that women in Thailand were not allowed to become monks. Since that is one of the same issues I have with some Evangelicals as well as the Catholic Church, I just wrote it off as the ever present remmnants of a patriarchal world that - slowly, surely and inevitably - will change. The fact that they are talking about reinstating an ancient order means that it was once allowed.

In the kingdom, a small group of women are challenging the Buddhist authorities by trying to reinstate an ancient and controversial order of monks.
[...]
Traditionally, the status of women in Thai Buddhism is lower than that of men's.

Women cannot be in physical contact with monks. When offering alms, they must the food on a cloth, and they are not allowed in certain areas of the monasteries.

Dhammananda said that led to women and girls having low self-esteem.

Dhammananda said: 'Women always pray - literally pray - that in the next life I will be born a man. You can be enlightened in a woman's body.'

But not everyone believes in her mission.

Thailand's religious authorities said the Bhikkuni order administered under Theravada Buddhism was over, and could never be revived.

Phra Sripariyattimoli, Buddhism Protection Office, said that to change, one needed to correct many things.

He said Theravada would become like Mahayana Buddhism and these could lead to many other changes, including monks being able to have a wife.

Critics said women who wanted to lead an ordained life should simply become nuns.

However, Dhammananda's supporters argued that by not allowing women monks, religious authorities were sending a message to girls and women that Buddhism was not relevant to them.

And they ask where does that leave Thai women?

Dhammananda said: 'Why is the door for women to be ordained locked but the door for women to go into prostitution so wide open?

"If we open up the door for women to be ordained, would it help to uplift the woman's status?"

I'm not sure that opening the door for women to be ordained would up the status but it certainly couldn't hurt. The million dollar question about the ease of entry into prostitution vs. ordination is one that needs to be addressed with a quickness.

I'm Just Shocked!

Since when do monks partake in street brawls?

"Five Thai Buddhist monks have been defrocked and fined after a brawl with monks from a nearby temple, police and newspapers said.
The street fight was the culmination of years of antagonism between monks from the two temples who had often exchanged curses, insults and rude gestures as they collected alms on different sides of a road, the Manager newspaper said.

'When an ordinary person is given a middle-finger sign, he will be mad. So am I,' it quoted one of the defrocked monks, Boonlert Boonpan, as saying after the brawl in the northeastern state of Nong Khai on Monday.

Boonlert said he usually carried a knuckle-duster in his shoulder bag during the morning collection of alms on which Bhuddist monks depend, it said.

Boonlert and the four other monks, all aged between 15 and 28, were each fined 1000 baht ($NZ35) by police for public brawling and were defrocked by senior monks, Wut Pomraksa, head of Nong Khai police station, told Reuters.

Boonlert was unrepentant.

'If senators can fight in parliament, why can't monks?' he said."

Though I'm secretly finding the thought of robed monks tussling it up rather amusing, and am a little disappointed that they got "defrocked," I cannot help but think they should have been a little more mindful. Perhaps they should review Anger by Thich Nhat Hahn.

For The Love Of Money

It will take decades for the real truth to come out behind this "war on terror" and it is all but guaranteed that it won't be pretty:

"They fed them well. The Pakistani tribesmen slaughtered a sheep in honor of their guests, Arabs and Chinese Muslims famished from fleeing U.S. bombing in the Afghan mountains. But their hosts had ulterior motives: to sell them to the Americans, said the men who are now prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

Bounties ranged from $3,000 to $25,000, the detainees testified during military tribunals, according to transcripts the U.S. government gave The Associated Press to comply with a Freedom of Information lawsuit.

It's obvious. They knew Americans were looking for Arabs, so they captured Arabs and sold them — just like someone catches a fish and sells it.

A former CIA intelligence officer who helped lead the search for Osama bin Laden told AP the accounts sounded legitimate because U.S. allies regularly got money to help catch Taliban and al-Qaida fighters. Gary Schroen said he took a suitcase of $3 million in cash into Afghanistan himself to help supply and win over warlords to fight for U.S. Special Forces.

'It wouldn't surprise me if we paid rewards,' said Schroen, who retired after 32 years in the CIA soon after the fall of Kabul in late 2001. He recently published the book 'First In: An Insider's Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror in Afghanistan.'"

Saved By The Bell

The church bell that is:

"A Kentucky judge has been offering some drug and alcohol offenders the option of attending worship services instead of going to jail or rehab — a practice some say violates the separation of church and state.

District Judge Michael Caperton, 50, a devout Christian, said his goal is to 'help people and their families.'

'I don't think there's a church-state issue, because it's not mandatory and I say worship services instead of church,' he said.

Alternative sentencing is popular across the country — ordering vandals to repaint a graffiti-covered wall, for example. But legal experts said they didn't know of any other judges who give the option of attending church.

Caperton has offered the option about 50 times to repeat drug and alcohol offenders. It is unclear what effect the sentence has had."

Since I think our justice system and sentencing laws need to be totally revamped, I definitely don't have a problem with "alternate sentencing." It's not like church can do anymore harm than jail can ...

(link via daffodillane)

The Evil Doer of Latin America

Even though I am forever seeking a fair and balanced view, Lord knows how I end up stuck on some channels when I am surfing. I ended up hearing way more of this segment than I wanted to this morning. The urgent tone of the "emergency bulletin like" report leaves no wonder why the far right drones often have racist and vigilante mentalities. They did all they could to call Hugo Chavez everything but a child of God. I really had to laugh.

His name is Hugo Chavez. He is the president of oil-rich Venezuela. Mr. Chavez has decided that America is his enemy, so he is building up his army. He has forged an alliance with Fidel Castro, and many think he is going to make trouble for the United States.

Chavez believes he is in a fight with the devil. Sometimes he even brings this visual aid to his rallies, so that his supporters remember what they are up against.

But the devil that Chavez fights does not reside in Hell. Chavez believes that the devil resides in Washington.

Chavez has actually been on a collision course with Washington for years. But for the most part, Washington was not paying attention. It is now.

But Washington's concern has been too little too late, and now some fear that a new Cuban-Venezuelan alliance has a plan to create a new block of Leftist-run, anti-American states across Central and South America."

[...]

Chavez calls the United States the world's greatest menace and says he simply wishes to be left alone to do his work. But there is a growing fear that Chavez is preparing to export his Bolivarian revolution to his neighbors. Why else would he need 100,000 recently purchased Russian AK-47s?^* Why announce plans to increase the size of the army reserves from 50,000 to 1.5 million? Why the ties to guerilla movements?

Chavez says the arms buildup is defensive. His opponents disagree. Taylhardat says, "He wants to do now what Castro failed to do in the 60s, when he sent out Che Guevarra to export the Cuban revolution to the rest of the continent."

Chavez said, "The U.S. administration is behind the opposition in Venezuela, and Mr. George Bush has a black hat, black horse and black flag. He is the main instigator and the main planner of all the movements that have attacked us."

Chavez says the U.S. is plotting to have him killed, and he says if that happens, oil shipments to the U.S. will stop. It is a strange relationship between business partners. But get used to it. Hugo Chavez remains the most popular politician in Venezuela. And he shows no sign of going away.

He states, "I bet a dollar to Mr. Bush to see who will last longer, him there in the White House or this Venezuelan, Hugo Chavez, here in the Miraflores Palace. Let's see who lasts longer, Mr. Bush."

In his fight with America, Chavez intends to be the last man standing.

To hear CBN tell it, between Islam (which is the bulk of the middle east and significant parts of Asia and Eurasia) and Latin America, it looks as though the US is but the one holy place on this earth. So, I also assume that when the rapture comes, the US (and possibly a select few converts in Israel) will be among the few who get caught up in it. How convenient!

^*Gotta chuckle again at the absurd reference to their obtaining, what amounts to, an everyday weapon of choice for average American hoodlums of any means.

This Is How We Do It!

I'm not sure why these young, vibrant and still partying Hilton sisters are so fixated on getting married but if they are going to do it, I think Paris has it right. Merge some empires!

"Who says opposites attract? Hotel heiress Paris Hilton, star of 'The Simple Life' reality show, is engaged to Greek shipping heir Paris Latsis, her spokesman said Monday.

'They are happy and excited,' said Rob Shuter, confirming the story first reported on People magazine's Web site.

Latsis, 27, proposed to Hilton, 24, on Wednesday after she returned from a three-week publicity tour in Europe to promote her horror flick, 'House of Wax,' and her new fragrance.

No wedding date has been set. It would be the first marriage for both.

Latsis is a grandson of John Latsis, the last of Greece's shipping billionaires from the postwar boom years, who died in 2003 at 93. In March, Forbes magazine's ranking of the world's richest people listed the Latsis family at No. 54 with a combined wealth of $7.5 billion.

'I'm so in love and grateful to have found such an honest and loyal person,' Hilton told Us Weekly. 'I feel like we were meant to be, and I'm happy to have found someone to spend the rest of my life with.'"

Gotta love that they both have the same first name!

Extra Crispy

Not making light of this but it's moody Monday and I just can't resist. All jokes aside, the underlying issue is why an American fast food chain was targeted.:

"Six people were burnt alive when a mob protesting a suicide bombing of a mosque torched an outlet of an American fast food chain in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi.

Pakistani poor boys search useful items from the rubble as a police van parked outside the damaged Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) restaurant in Karachi Pakistan Tuesday, May 31, 2005. Police on Tuesday recovered bodies of six employees of a KFC restaurant that was set on fire by a mob angry over a suicide attack at a Shiite mosque in Karachi, raising the overall death toll in the violence to 11, officials said. (AP Photo/Shakil Adil)
Police and firemen recovered the bodies of six Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) employees after an angry mob set the restaurant on fire late Monday following a suicide attack on a Shiite Muslim mosque here that left five people dead.

'Their bodies were found during the search of KFC,' city police chief Tariq Jamil told AFP."

Everyone Else Is Lying

Again ...

"President Bush on Tuesday dismissed a human rights report as 'absurd' for its harsh criticism of U.S. treatment of terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, saying the allegations were made by prisoners 'who hate America.'

'It's an absurd allegation. The United States is a country that promotes freedom around the world,' Bush said of the Amnesty International report that compared Guantanamo to a Soviet-era gulag.

In a Rose Garden news conference, Bush defiantly stood by his domestic policy agenda while defending his actions abroad. He repeatedly pledged to press ahead - 'The president has got to push, he's got to keep leading' - despite mounting criticism."

Where Does He Get Off?

I had to read this article a couple times to process that it was a judge - not one of the parents - who put a provision into a divorce decree that they cannon expose their child to their Wiccan practices. How on earth is this possible?

"An Indianapolis father is appealing a Marion County judge's unusual order that prohibits him and his ex-wife from exposing their child to 'non-mainstream religious beliefs and rituals.'

The parents practice Wicca, a contemporary pagan religion that emphasizes a balance in nature and reverence for the earth.

Cale J. Bradford, chief judge of the Marion Superior Court, kept the unusual provision in the couple's divorce decree last year over their fierce objections, court records show. The order does not define a mainstream religion.

[...]

The parents' Wiccan beliefs came to Bradford's attention in a confidential report prepared by the Domestic Relations Counseling Bureau, which provides recommendations to the court on child custody and visitation rights. Jones' son attends a local Catholic school.

'There is a discrepancy between Ms. Jones and Mr. Jones' lifestyle and the belief system adhered to by the parochial school. . . . Ms. Jones and Mr. Jones display little insight into the confusion these divergent belief systems will have upon (the boy) as he ages,' the bureau said in its report.

[...]

'This was done without either of us requesting it and at the judge's whim,' said Jones, who has organized Pagan Pride Day events in Indianapolis. 'It is upsetting to our son that he cannot celebrate holidays with us, including Yule, which is winter solstice, and Ostara, which is the spring equinox.'

The ICLU and Jones assert the judge's order tramples on the parents' constitutional right to expose their son to a religion of their choice. Both say the court failed to explain how exposing the boy to Wicca's beliefs and practices would harm him."

This is thoroughly absurd and I still cannot believe what I am reading. Aside from believing that the judge probably doesn't have a clue what Wiccans really practice, he is just plain out of line and off the mark for imposing his views on this family. How dare he?!

God Bless Them, Every One

This was exactly my logic when Bush surrounded himself with the "snowflake" children. Forgetting the fact that most of these embryos are destroyed and never implanted, if they are each considered a life, why aren't each and every egg and sperm?

"A couple of things... First of all, evidently, 'snowflake children' is the term someone cooked up to describe kids who have been born from embryos that have been adopted, placed in a womb, and allowed to come to term. Very nice. Wonderful, in fact.

The bill would not in any way interfere with this practice, though it's happened only eighty times and there are over four-hundred-thousand embryos in, uh, cold storage nation wide. The vast majority of these embryos will simply be disposed of if they are not used in research.

The bill has strong bi-partisan support and the figures I've read suggest that eighty percent of the public are on the side of not wasting this valuable resource, regardless of whether or not these tiny miraculous gobs of goo are really people yet.

Many on the far right use the 'slippery slope' argument. They seem to think that if the research moves forward, soon we'll be cloning people for replacement parts like lego pieces.

Plus, they really do believe that because these embryos could, under all the right circumstances, end up being people, that they have an obligation to protect these future Republicans - as usual, worrying far more about the idea of a possible FUTURE person than they do about the people who are already alive and kicking, especially if they happen to be something other than white Americans.

I was thinking, using that logic, isn't every egg a potential person?

Isn't every sperm a potential person?"

The American Taliban isn't fooling anybody. Their plan is to keep every woman pregnant at all times (hence an ultimate ban on contraception), to put the tampon and sanitary napkin industry out of business, to make sure no man ever wastes any sperm via masturbation or premature ejaculation (oooh, now that explains that new drug the FDA approved).

The Stain Of Abuse

Though the modus operandi of this administration is to lie, deny and decry, it looks as though some issues just won't go away. There is not a doubt in my mind that willful and reckless abuse has been committed by some of our interrogators and troops. But, as the world's sole super power, we've acted with impunity and thumbed our noses at the criticism behind our failure to comply with rules of war and the standard of decency we are supposed to be upholding as leaders of the free world.

"The abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan has become a stain on the reputation of the United States that doesn't appear to be fading with time.

New allegations of mistreatment continue to surface, for one thing. Trials of US personnel accused of abuse have kept the issue in the news, for another - not to mention Newsweek's now-discredited allegation that US interrogators desecrated the Koran.

And critics continue to charge that the US has yet to admit that instances of abuse were part of a pattern - and that prisoner abuse on the part of the nation that used to be called the leader of the free world has set a terrible example for others.

'How far from the moral high ground the US government has fallen,' said William F. Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA, upon the release Wednesday of his organization's annual report on human rights around the world.

The US has held hundreds of people without trial or even charges at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the US airbase at Bagram in Afghanistan, said the Amnesty International report. It has gone to great lengths to restrict the use of the Geneva Convention, and 'subcontracted torture,' in Amnesty International's phrase, by handing over detainees to allied nations where forceful interrogation is condoned.

'When the most powerful country in the world thumbs its nose at the rule of law and human rights, it grants a license to others to commit abuse with impunity,' wrote Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan in a forward to the 2005 report."

Who knows. Things can and do change. Perhaps one day, somehow, someway Bush and his cronies can be held responsible for their despicable policies. Perhaps he'll end up in a cell with pictures of him in his underwear circulating the world.

Open Season On Black Girls?

Let's see ... we have one black girl who cannot walk in her graduation because she is pregnant (yet the father can), another black girl who was listed only as 'black girl' in the yearbook because no one knew how to spell her name and now a black girl who says she suddenly became a target once she started dating a white boy and will not be able to participate in her graduation either.

"An honor student says she is being banned from graduation because she is involved in an interracial relationship. CBS 2 News first brought you the story Tuesday night at eleven. Now hear what the archdiocese has to say about it.

The school, through an archdiocese spokesman, says the student in question has a history of disciplinary problems. But the black student and her white boyfriend say the problems seemed to coincide with their budding romance.

Aisha O'Gilvie remains barred from Saturday's graduation ceremonies at our Lady Of Lourdes high school in Poughkeepsie. The cheerleader and honor student has filed a racial discrimination complaint with the Dutchess County Human Rights Commission claiming her troubles are the result of her teenage romance with Nick Hoxie, a popular school athlete.

“It never happened before until me and Nick started dating. That's when all this started happening,” says Aisha O'Gilvie, barred from graduation.

Not so, says a spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York.

But, Aisha, her parents and her boyfriend are all upset over the decision, which came to head last week over an attempt to retrieve a yearbook during class. Nick was disciplined but she got hammered.

“I'm the one who did the serious act and I'm still in school and she did nothing of the sort. She was following the rules and she got kicked out, “says Nick Hoxie, the victim’s boyfriend."

I'd like to discount the girl's claims but it is so similar to something that happened to me (albeit 20+ years ago) that I'm going to err on her side. I had a part-time job as a cashier at a major department store and had a casual friendship with a white stock boy (he had a girlfriend, mind you). We worked in the same cashier booth so, naturally, spent a lot of time chatting.

This drove a couple people in upper management crazy and everytime they saw us talking, he'd get sent up to the dark stock room to "straighten out the boxes of lamps." I ultimately called them on it when they decided that, after two years, I needed to be moved to a different department. The response "well, yes, you and are always talking!" (Since when do co-workers in the same department for 20 hours per week not talk)?

When the Operations Manager couldn't come up with any answer other than that, I decided that - despite being one of the top two cashiers in the store - I could take my cash register skills elsewhere. Did my friendship continue for quite some time afterwards? Most certainly.

Hope Is A Choice

I love hearing/seeing Rev. Jim Wallis - one of the other Christians - speak. Here he gives the commencement address to graduates at John Carroll University - a Jesuit institution. Among other things he stressed that "hope is a choice - a decision - you make because of faith." Amen to that.

"Rev. Jim Wallis (below, left), founder of Sojourners magazine and Christian community, addressed the Class of 2005 at Commencement exercises today (May 22) at John Carroll. 'Faith is for changing the big things,' Wallis said. 'Things that nobody thinks can be changed. Things that others say are hopeless, where the odds are against us. That is indeed the time for faith. I want to ask our graduates today a special question: What is the big thing you're going to do?'"

Take a listen for yourself.

How The Grinch Stole Nothing

Well, thank God this cretin was caught before he committed some gruesome crime.

"City and county attorneys are defending Wheeling police who arrested a man for wearing a Grinch mask while walking along a city street.

Norman Eugene Gray, 42, was arrested Tuesday. He was arraigned and released on a personal recognizance bond.

Officers saw Gray about 8:45 a.m. Tuesday, told him to take the mask off and not put it on again. Gray removed it and asked why he could not wear it, according to Wheeling police reports. Officers told him wearing masks in public is illegal.

Gray said he felt he had a right to wear it and said it was not illegal. He put the mask back on and was arrested. The mask was confiscated.

Wheeling City Solicitor Rosemary Humway-Warmuth and Ohio County Prosecutor Scott Smith said masks as well as dark window tinting in vehicles can pose a safety hazard to law enforcement officers and hinder efforts to identify criminal suspects.

'When we think about masks, we don't always think of Halloween,' Humway-Warmuth said.

Smith said wearing a mask or hood in public is a misdemeanor under state law, punishable by a fine of up to $500 or up to a year in jail, or both. Children up to 16 years old can wear masks. Traditional Halloween masks, safety gear used in occupations, theatrical productions, civil defense or protection from bad weather also are legal."

What is the world coming to when people think they can walk the street in a Grinch mask?

Gee Thanks! A Bible

People in Iraq are being blown up by the dozens, have limited electricity and water and many are still hungry. Yet we have people with not so hidden agenda's imposing their extremist views of Christianity on them:

"Let me highlight a few statements made from its 'Bibles for the Middle East' section:

• People in this part of the world are desperate for such materials. 2004 was declared the Year of the Bible throughout the Arab world and interest is high. Thousands of people are seeking to receive a copy of the Bible.
  
• So, with a new year before us and so many opportunities on the horizon, would you consider a gift of $50 to get 25 Bibles into the hands of people in spiritually dark countries? Whatever you could do would be a tremendous blessing during a time of great spiritual hunger.
  
• People in these nations are hungry for God’s Word, our staff are willing to risk their lives to deliver it.
  

Another section called 'Iraq Schoolbags' offers the following statements:

• Praise God with me. Because thanks to your prayers and gifts, the doors are open to share the love of Christ with the next generation of Iraqis — young boys and girls who are open to new ideas and who are the future teachers of their nation.
  
• Continuing a strategy first launched last year, their goal is to distribute 100,000 school bags to these little ones, each fitted with urgently needed paper, pencils, and other school materials, along with evangelistic children’s books. In this way, just weeks from now, thousands of future Iraqi leaders will have the opportunity to come to know Christ.
  
• I’m sure you praise God with me for this excitement and for the fact that, thanks to this distribution, a generation of Iraqis is finally hearing the Truth about Christ.
  

From 1991 until 2003, Iraq was unable to import paper and pencils for its students. Many times, the Iraqi government pleaded with the world to rectify this injustice. Where was the Campus Crusade for Christ? Most of its affiliated groups are ultra-conservative and supported the sanctions against Iraq.

Today, the organization takes credit for bringing pencils and paper to Iraq. But, inside the package is the obligatory Christian propaganda. I would commend them if they supplied only pencils and paper, but if that were the criteria, the group would stay home in Florida.

Iraq’s Christians have been in existence for almost 10-times longer than the United States. The country is well aware of Christianity.

Until March 2003, Iraqi Christians and Muslims lived in peace. Neither side tried to convert the other. Even Jews lived in Iraq in harmony. But, the new Iraq is on the verge of sectarian violence that could become ugly. All because of the intervention of the U.S.

Christian evangelists who travel to Iraq to save the savages are merely taking a cue from their masters in Washington. They are so ignorant that they think Iraqis have never heard of Christ and must be taught to see the light. In reality, most Iraqi Christians and Muslims are probably more knowledgeable about Christianity’s history than the light-skinned invaders from the Florida group.

U.S. bombs and missiles destroyed the physical portion of Iraq. Now, zealous missionaries are trying to destroy the belief system of Iraq. Fortunately, for the Iraqi people, neither ploy has worked to destroy their will. Resistance works at many levels."

I had to highlight the parts that I find the most ironic and highly indicative of some Evangelical's sheer arrogance and ignorance.

(link via Paul Wilczynski)

Fine! It's Racist!

Why is this my third or fourth post on this silly topic? Now Earl Graves (the man with the pork chop side burns) takes up where Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton left off. So, I give. Fox's remarks weren't insensitive. They were racist. Like most people in the Americas and the world, he views American blacks as being at the bottom of the economic and social totem pole. Keeping in mind the same bias he probably has against the darker/native Mexicans and those mixed with African blood, his remarks must have reflected his true thoughts. Now, was his mistake not singling out poor, "hood rat" blacks like Bill Cosby did? Or was it not mentioning poor whites or poor naturalized Mexicans and other minorities? I apologize if I seem dense but I just think this is the wrong freaking bone to pick! Graves wants blacks to cease giving Mexico our vacation business (sorry, but I was considering South America or Italy next chance I get to leave the states).

"Earl Graves, the 68-year-old founder of Black Enterprise magazine, says he's not a civil rights activist but a businessman.

In that role, he's urging African-Americans to take their vacation business out of Mexico in the wake of President Vicente Fox's comments that 'not even' blacks want the U.S. jobs taken by Mexican immigrants.

'I don't think it was insensitive; it was racist,' said Mr. Graves in an interview in Dallas, where he opened the 10th annual Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference.

Mr. Graves first made the remarks in his opening speech Thursday morning to a gathering of about 2,000 well-heeled conventioneers at the Wyndham Anatole hotel.

That night, he says, he was on the phone talking strategy with a variety of black leaders, including civil rights activist Julian Bond and the head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

'We want to create some sensitivity in terms of the African-American market and respect for us as citizens,' Mr. Graves said.

Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson met with Mr. Fox in Mexico City on Wednesday, and Mr. Fox is expected to be on Mr. Jackson's radio show Sunday."

Via blackinformant.com, this black Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel columnist isn't hearing the Jackson/Sharpton/Graves cries either. What really gets me is that throughout college (and even for a year after graduating), I worked minimum wage jobs. I was a gift wrapper in a store, worked at KFC for double shifts, slung hash and bussed carts in the dorm cafeteria. Had I lived in a farming area, I would have been hard pressed not to take a job picking fruit if it put money for books (and cute clothes) in my pocket for the next semester. So, I don't really understand the mentality that permeates, not just blacks, but Americans in general.

Data from the 2004 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' population survey show that in service occupations, 18% of maids and housekeepers are African-Americans, compared with 38.2% for Hispanics or Latinos; 8.5% of grounds and maintenance workers in the U.S. are African-American, compared with 40.2% of Hispanics or Latinos; 17.8% of janitors and building cleaners in the U.S. are black, compared with 26.8% for Hispanic or Latinos; and 11.5% of workers in food preparation and serving-related occupations are African-American, compared with 19.3% for Hispanics or Latinos.

And those are the jobs that are on the books.

"By and large, African-Americans don't want this kind of work," says Clayborn Benson, founder and executive director of the Wisconsin Black Historical Society and Museum, 2620 W. Center St. "What Fox is saying is true. You hear it in the form of black kids who say, 'I don't want to work at no McDonald's' or they don't want a minimum wage job."

White Americans aren't exactly lining up for such jobs either.

But African-Americans aren't high enough up the economic ladder to make the same choices. If you're on the bottom rung, then you've got to climb the ladder in stages, which means you might have to work at a job that you don't enjoy and for lower wages. It's a start; you don't have to stay there.

When you consider the high unemployment rate among African-Americans in metro Milwaukee - 17% - and that 60% of black males in Milwaukee's central city are jobless, the question becomes: Should African-Americans be rejecting work that once played a fundamental role in their very survival and progress in this country?

Read the entire article because it basically reflects my take on the situation. I do have to laugh at one part because sistahgirl didn't have to go there:

Don't get me wrong: It's not that African-Americans aren't willing to work hard, but that many operate in an underground economy where they hustle in different ways to make money - from panhandling to selling goods on the street - vs. working in the mainstream economy.

Consider the growth of the "bootleg" DVD business. You can now purchase a bootleg movie on DVD in the central city faster than you can buy a regular DVD at a video store. How many of us know a back-alley mechanic in the "hood" who can repair just about anything on an automobile for half the money that a bona fide mechanic charges?

Then again, maybe she did.

Another Deadly Month

Two years after the President declared that his "mission" was "accomplished" in Iraq, the war rages on and May could become one of the deadliest months for our troops.

"Hostile fire has killed more U.S. soldiers and Marines in Iraq in May than during each of the three previous months.

If the trend continues, May will be one of the deadliest months for U.S. troops during the past year.

So far, insurgents have killed 54 American troops in May, including 14 in the last three days. With a week left, the month will likely eclipse all but two others - November and September 2004 - for deaths by hostile fire since June 2004, based on figures tabulated by Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, a group that tracks troop deaths from Department of Defense news releases.

The casualty figures appear to end a trend that started soon after national elections in January, when insurgents seemed to shift from targeting U.S. forces to attacking the nascent Iraqi army and police.

With sectarian violence increasing between the nation's Shiite and Sunni Muslims, the figures raise the question of whether Iraq is turning into two battlefields: one of insurgents vs. the U.S. military and another of Iraqi sects fighting each other.

Since the nation's interim government took office on April 28, more than 590 Iraqis have been killed in attacks, most of them civilians.

'There is going to be a wave of violence (targeting U.S. forces) as long there is occupation,' said Amer Hassan Fayadh, a Baghdad University political science professor. At the same time, 'when the regime fell, the Iraq state collapsed, too. The replacements for the police were (sectarian) militias.'"

What's ironic is that the Fundies and bigots are spewing their anti-Muslim rhetoric at light speed -- which will only serve to exacerbate the danger our troops are in.

Jesus! What a mess we are in!

Freedom Fried!

As poppy harvesting runs rampant in Afghanistan, the effects of them on Bush's sheeple seem to be wearing off.

"It was a culinary rebuke that echoed around the world, heightening the sense of tension between Washington and Paris in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. But now the US politician who led the campaign to change the name of french fries to 'freedom fries' has turned against the war.

Walter Jones, the Republican congressman for North Carolina who was also the brains behind french toast becoming freedom toast in Capitol Hill restaurants, told a local newspaper the US went to war 'with no justification'.

Mr Jones, who in March 2003 circulated a letter demanding that the three cafeterias in the House of Representatives' office buildings ban the word french from menus, said it was meant as a 'light-hearted gesture'.

But the name change, still in force, made headlines around the world, both for what it said about US-French relations and its pettiness.

Now Mr Jones appears to agree. Asked by a reporter for the North Carolina News and Observer about the name-change campaign - an idea Mr Jones said at the time came to him by a combination of God's hand and a constituent's request - he replied: 'I wish it had never happened.'

Although he voted for the war, he has since become one of its most vociferous opponents on Capitol Hill, where the hallway outside his office is lined with photographs of the 'faces of the fallen'.

'If we were given misinformation intentionally by people in this administration, to commit the authority to send boys, and in some instances girls, to go into Iraq, that is wrong,' he told the newspaper. 'Congress must be told the truth.'"

Though it's never too late to have a change of heart, it is often to late to recover from the mistake. It's unfortunate that so many of our troops have been killed and injured before people began to question the veracity of the reasons they were given for the war. It sounds like Mr. Freedom Fries got cooked in the grease!

The Drugs Man Makes

No cure for cancer, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's or any other life threatening/debilitating illnesses but this drug is a go:

"If Viagra has made sex possible for men suffering from impotence, a new drug introduced in the United States aims to make it last longer. Much longer...

The new wonder medicine named dapoxetine, unveiled at an annual meeting of the American Urological Association Monday, is designed to help millions of men around the world cope with premature ejaculation wreaking havoc on their sex lives.

Although much less publicized than erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation affects between 27 percent and 34 percent of males of all age groups, according to the association.

By contrast, erectile dysfunction treated by Viagra and similar drugs affects an estimated 10 to 12 percent of all men, usually in the older age group.

This condition is traditionally diagnosed when sperm release occurs two minutes or less into the sexual act, or even before penetration.

'The impact premature ejaculation can have on men and their partners can be devastating for a relationship and, currently, there are no truly optimal therapies for PE,' said Doctor Jon Pryor, chief urologist at the University of Minnesota and lead researcher during dapoxetine's clinical trials."

Priorities!

Make Sure They Have Good Insurance

True or not, this is positively ridiculous! No woman is making their husband sick. They are making themselves sick if they cannot handle their wife's success. Who would want to be married to a whiney loser like this anyway?

"Early starts, late nights and endless meetings may be good for the bank balance, but professional women beware. You could be making your husband sick.

Research will this week say that the more committed and successful a woman is at work, the worse her partner feels. The findings blame a syndrome called 'unfulfilled husband hypothesis' for making men feel inadequate when women stray too far beyond their traditional roles. The man of the house, it seems, is still not cut out for domesticity.

Men's physical and mental health is 'significantly poorer when their wives work full-time', say the authors of the study. The conclusion will exasperate groups such as the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Fawcett Society, which argue that women's ambitions are thwarted by a lack of support at home. Overwhelmingly, women still do the lion's share of the housework.

According to the EOC, a growing number of men are complaining about Britain's long-hours culture. But the latest research, published in the journal Patient Education and Counselling, claims that the longer men work, the happier they are. The researchers also found that the number of hours a wife works is significantly associated with the state of health of her partner.

In short, men are still geared to a traditional life as the breadwinner. 'We found that the more the man works, the better his wellbeing,' the authors say.

The researchers, who also found that men felt better and healthier when they earned more than their wives, say the challenge is for men to find new ways of defining themselves. There are plenty of examples to follow: the husbands of Paula Radcliffe and Dame Marjorie Scardino, chief executive of Pearson, have weathered their wives' success. In contrast, the marriage of the City financier Nicola Horlick appears to have been troubled. "

My solution? Make sure you have a hefty insurance policy on your wimp of choice so when he dies, due to feelings of inadequacy, you can stop working and hook up with the cabana boy of your choice.
(via pandagon.net)

Yes, In 2005

Yes, the conservative side of me comes out when I feel that willful stupidity is involved. I think people know the rules of the school when they enroll - or at least they should. I feel badly this the young lady was being denied a chance to walk with her class but with choices come mistakes and with mistakes come consequences. Perhaps it was a mistake for her to engage in pre-martial sex. Perhaps it was a mistake for her to engage in pre-marital sex without contraception. But, the consequence of both was a pregnancy and a high school with rules against her being able to walk in the graduation with her class. My issue with the school is that they allowed the father of the child to walk. Most certainly it isn't the public viewing of a pregnant teen that is the problem. Most certainly the young man is just as responsible and should carry his share of the consequences.

"'I can't believe something like this is happening in 2005,' said her mother, Sheila Cosby. 'My daughter has been through a lot and I am proud of her. She deserved to walk, and she did.'

The school's guidance counselor delivered Cosby's degree to her house earlier Tuesday, but she still wanted to participate.

'I worked hard throughout high school and I wanted to walk with my class,' she said.

Cosby was told in March that she could no longer attend school because of safety concerns, and her name was not listed in the graduation program. The father of Cosby's child, also a senior at the school, was allowed to participate in graduation."

I do agree with the mother in that I can't believe something like this is happening in 2005 - not the ban from graduation, but the pregnancy. In 2005, girls and women have greater access to contraception than ever before. A student smart enough to make it through a private school, should have more than enough sense to understand the birds and the bees. I cannot believe that in 2005, the United States has the highest STD and unplanned pregnancy rate in the developed world. Yes, the mom should be upset. But not at the school. Perhaps she should look to herself and why she hadn't stressed responsible sexual choices. Perhaps she should look to her daughter who may well have worked hard in school, but obviously didn't study simple things - like how one gets pregnant.

Who Dis?

I am either totally sick or totally cynical because, while this is not funny, it is pretty laughable that a student who was bright enough to be a member of the National Honor Society wasn't known by enough people so that she could be identified as anything other than 'Black Girl' in the yearbook.

"A Texas school district has apologized to a student identified only as 'Black Girl' in a high school yearbook photo.

All the White students are identified by name in a photograph of the Waxahachie High School National Honor Society. The teen identified as 'Black Girl' is the only Black student in the photo.

A schools spokeswoman says the caption apparently was intended as a placeholder until the yearbook staff could identify the student. She tells a newspaper, the Waxahachie Daily Light, the label was a poor choice, but wasn't malicious.

The spokeswoman says the school district will reprint the yearbook pages affected by the mistake. "

And, no, I don't think it was malicious -- though one would think that "unidentified" would have sufficed. I think it is "The Invisible Man" revisited. I'd love to say that things have changed since I was in high school/college (this child could be my daughter) but they are, remarkably, the same. Unfortuntely, sometimes laughing things like this off was my way of coping with the insensitivity, ignorance and invisibility way back in the day too. Oh well, at least they didn't use "Who Dis?" or "Who Dat?" as the placeholder. That probably would have made me mad.

Makes 'Em Wanna Holla

... and throw up both their hands.

Syria has halted military and intelligence cooperation with the United States, its ambassador to Washington said during an interview, in a sign of growing strains between the two countries over the insurgency in Iraq.

A Bush administration official said that Syria's stance had prompted intense debate at high levels about new steps that might be taken against Damascus. The official said the options included possible military or other action that might be taken against people inside Syria who are providing support for the insurgency.

"There's a lot of discussion about what to do about Syria and what a problem it is," said the U.S. official, who works for a government agency that has been involved in the debate.

Relations between Syria and the United States have been souring for months, and some Bush administration officials said that the level of cooperation provided by Syria had been dwindling even before the latest move. The American officials declined to provide an on-the-record response to the statements made on Friday by the ambassador, Imad Moustapha, citing the sensitivity of the issue.

Moustapha said that in the past 10 days, Syria had "severed all links" with the U.S. military and the CIA because of what it called unjust American allegations. The Bush administration has complained bitterly that Syria is not doing enough to halt the flow of men and money to the insurgency in Iraq.

Moustapha said Syria had done all it could to respond to the U.S. complaints, including taking steps to build barriers and to add patrols along Syria's long border with Iraq. Syria has jailed about 1,200 foreign fighters who tried to enter Iraq from Syria, the ambassador said, and has returned scores of others to their home countries, including Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

But Moustapha said the renewal of U.S. complaints had caused his government to abandon the idea of providing further help.

"We thought, why should we continue to cooperate?" Moustapha said. He said he believed that the Bush administration had decided "to escalate the situation with Syria" despite the steps Syria had taken against the insurgents in Iraq and despite its withdrawal, in recent weeks, of troops from Lebanon, in response to international demands.

Didn't Venezuela just have their "F' it" moment too?

The Koran Needs to Be Flushed!

So says a sign in front of a Baptist church. Apparently, the pastor is standing up for what is right ... in the name of Jesus.

"A sign in front of a Baptist church on one of the most traveled highways in the county stirred controversy over religious tolerance and first-amendment rights this weekend.

A sign in front of Danieltown Baptist Church, located at 2361 U.S. 221 south reads 'The Koran needs to be flushed,' and the Rev. Creighton Lovelace , pastor of the church, is not apologizing for the display.

'I believe that it is a statement supporting the word of God and that it (the Bible) is above all and that any other religious book that does not teach Christ as savior and lord as the 66 books of the Bible teaches it, is wrong,' said Lovelace. 'I knew that whenever we decided to put that sign up that there would be people who wouldn't agree with it, and there would be some that would, and so we just have to stand up for what's right.'

Seema Riley, a Muslim, who was born in Pakistan and reared in New York, was one of those upset by the sign.

She moved to Rutherford County for the 'small town friendly' atmosphere, she said. When she saw the sign on the side of the highway Saturday she felt angered and threatened.

'We need a certain degree of tolerance,' said Riley. 'That sign doesn't really reflect what I think this county is about.'"

Sadly, that sign may not reflect what this country is supposed to be about. But, in many cases, it is exactly what this country is about.