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http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2009/01/12/22506/

A Bush apointee fired by Al Gore from the Office of Energy research. Quelle Horreur! He kept his job in "academe".

"Happer is chair of the board of directors at the George C. Marshall Institute." so he didn't have any trouble finding a new job either.

http://www.sullivan-county.com/nf0/nov_2000/christ_gnostic.htm

Who was drummed out of what?

http://www.jewlicious.com/2010/10/fired-for-questioning-evolution-and-human-caused-global-warming-gavriel-avital/

This guy is an evolution denier. He lost his job as "chief scientist of the Israeli education ministry". I can't imagine how he got it.

But no mention of him being drummed out of "the academy".

http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=5ef55aa3-802a-23ad-4ce4-89c4f49995d2

Hey, it's Happer again. Padding your references?

http://www.solopassion.com/node/2291

I'll have to ask Eve Kay about this. Who was drummed out of what?

Took me two seconds to find these

Really? You didn't have them bookmarked?

Seems you have indeed been living under a rock. I am not finding videos for you. I have enough to do right now.

I don't know who's under a rock, but you seem to have found a couple of slimy things that should stay there. Happer, Avital. Ugh.

Nobody being drummed out of academe though.

http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2009/01/12/22506/ http://www.sullivan-county.com/nf0/nov_2000/christ_gnostic.htm http://www.jewlicious.com/2010/10/fired-for-questioning-evolution-and-human-caused-global-warming-gavriel-avital/ http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=5ef55aa3-802a-23ad-4ce4-89c4f49995d2 http://www.solopassion.com/node/2291 Took me two seconds to find these. Seems you have indeed been living under a rock. I am not finding videos for you. I have enough to do right now.

Or better yet Comrade, prosecute them in the Hague for crimes against humanity for daring to be skeptical about it. Maybe we could outsource it to the PRC, they seem to be pretty good at that kind of thing; hey, the prison thing would be easy for them to manage. $0.40 for the .38 cal bullet...

Hey, we can even call them Deniers, to build an association between Holocaust Deniers and Climate Change Deniers. That'll make it easier to round them up and send the out for re-education or for the tough cases "Carbon Sequestration;" (now, where did we leave all that Zyklon B?? I just saw it...) for the Father La.. errr, for Mother Earth!!

Oh, wait, (no) (one) in the (west) would want such a thing! I'm sure they're just Rethuglicans... uhm, never mind.

As the person who made the original post, allow me to share some food for thought. Violence "of the 24 major armed conflicts taking place worldwide in 2005, more than half (13) involved Muslim governments or paramilitary groups on one or both sides of the fighting. What's more, among six countries with "emerging armed conflicts," four are predominantly Muslim and another, Thailand, involves a Muslim separatist movement."

Domination- "A "pro-peace" rally in Antwerp peopled by mostly Moroccan Arab immigrants savaged a Jewish section of the city reminiscent of Kristallnacht. The author remarked, "Everybody knew that what happens in France can happen in Belgium as well, because both countries have large populations of Jews and larger populations of Arabs."

Destruction from the inside "Seeking Islamic law: Muslim leaders openly declare their goal of introducing Islamic law once Denmark's Muslim population grows large enough - a not-that-remote prospect. If present trends persist, one sociologist estimates, every third inhabitant of Denmark in 40 years will be Muslim.

The problem here, one they may actually destroy this country, is that the PC in the USA always try to make this into a "freedom of religion" issue. IT IS NOT. Islam is NOT a religion, it is a political movement with a religious component. BIG difference, in that nearly all mainstream religions can and do often get along with each other, whereas political movements seek control. Make NO mistake...the ultimate goal is a Sharia planet. Is that REALLY what you want to live in? But don't believe me, look up the levels of violence in Europe and compare them to the levels of Muslims. You will see that time, after time, after time again, once Muslims reach 10-15% here comes the violence, riots, and destruction.

The political movement known as Islam uses your beliefs against you. They believe in freedom of speech for the spread of Islam but will issue death threats and Fatwas upon all those that criticize or even draw a cartoon of Mohammad. They are all for freedom of religion when it comes to spreading Islam but try standing on a street corner preaching the bible in Saudi Arabia and see how long you last.

And finally I hate to Godwin, but frankly there is no more apt comparison, the PC that scream religion of peace remind me of nothing less than the old Soviet "useful idiots" or those that sought appeasement with Hitler. Just as then there is NO appeasement, because their ultimate political goals and the freedoms you enjoy or totally incompatible. But don't worry, you don't have to take my word for it. Look up "Sharia court" and France, Britain, or Germany. They have already set up a "shadow court" system based on Sharia there, and those three will be the first to fall, most likely France first. When it does take a long good hard look and decide for yourself: Is that how I want our country to be? Because I sure as fuck don't. I have NO PROBLEM with those that come here legally and try to integrate into our society, but they do not. They simply want to force their political values upon the world. Remember political system and NOT religion, no different than totalitarianism or fascism.

A very good point. The Bible has two different creation myths in it's first book. Only one of them can be right (if at all). The second one contradicts the first one. Here are some more: http://www.sullivan-county.com/id2/2cs.htm Not to mention all the cases where the theory of an all loving god contradicts everyday experience...

Actually, and I'm sure this will gall the hell out of you, sorry, there is no more proof Jesus lived than that Ra makes the sun rise in the morning, since all you have is some badly edited pieces of sheepskin written by a goat herder somewhere. That gives you no more proof than L Ron had for Xenu. In fact there are some who find historical evidence that Jesus was based on Zoroastrian myth. I can give you a couple of thousand more links if that one isn't to your liking BTW.

So I'm sorry, but basing your life on "some long dead goat herders said it was true! I Swear!" is...welll...more than a little nutty. You might as well worship Ra or Odin or Zeus for all the evidence you have.

Our nation was founded using Christian principles and it worked really well.

No, in fact, it wasn't. Regarding the "Founding Fathers", many of the founders were Deists. Franklin doubted the divinity of Jesus. Jefferson composed his own edition of the Bible with all the miracle stories elided. Tom Paine wrote that "Except in the first article in the Christian creed, that of believing in God, there is not an article in it but fills the mind with doubt as to the truth of it, the instant man begins to think."

As for the nation's founding documents, the Constitution states in Article VI that "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States". Then there's Amendment I's guarantee against establishment of religion.

And the Treaty of Tripoli -- one of the first treaties negotiated by the United States, created during the Washington administration and signed by John Adams -- explicitly states that "the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion".

The claim that the U.S. was founded on Christianity is, simply, wrong.

Did they really? Because there was a lot of discussions surrounding how the administration thought they had the authority to do it.

I'm no constitutional authority, but nowhere in the Constitution of the USA does it give that power to the executive branch. And the Constitution is a limit on what government can do. It doesn't seem like it today but that's how it was written.

If they knew, you would think they wouldn't have bothered writing legal opinions and such to do it.

It just as possible any "legal opinions" were written to cover their asses. "See we wrote these to show we believed what we did was legal."

Would you want el Duce, Hilter, or Stalin to have the same power? How about Pol Pot? Idi Amin?

Totally irrelevant. Nothing this administration has done is remotely close to those people and going after the telecoms has no relation to any of it either.

It's very relevant, not even the NAZIs did everything at once. Instead they slowly whittled away. Hitler wasn't even given all the power he had until after the Reistag fire. And going after the telecoms will show they can be made to pay if they do anything illegal.

Would you prefer a government willing to go all the way when those people decide to invade?

What people invading where?

Or how about when your shopping at a mall and terrorist decide to blow it up for 72 virgins.

I'm more concerned about the Christian Talibans And Reconstructionists and Theocratic Dominionists who want to dictate how I live, if I don't live the way they dictate I'm stoned to death. Or how they are trying to get rid of science in school and teach Creationism, ID, instead. I still recall having an elementary school teacher in a public school forcibly apply a ruler to children's hands and arms, including my own, because we wouldn't say the pledge of allegiance with "under god". In a public school.

Genesis has two distinct creation stories:
http://www.sullivan-county.com/identity/2cs.htm
Which one should be taken literally?

Is that the "fuck Islam" group pretty much has it right.

Is Islam peaceful?

"Thanks to Hitler, of blessed memory, who on behalf of the Palestinians, revenged in advance, against the most vile criminals on the face of the earth. Although we do have a complaint against him for his revenge on them was not enough." - Al-Akhbar, government sponsored newspaper of Egypt, April 18, 2001

http://www.zawaj.com/editorials/harry_potter.html
"Once they have learned to love what Allah loves and hate what Allah hates..."

http://www.obmonline.net/index.php?cmd=3&path=Articles/Aqeedah/Effects%20of%20Imaan.htm&hd_elm=2&depth=1

"So the first sign and proof that you love and hate for the sake of Allah is that you obey Him and follow the Messenger Muhammad (SAW).

The second sign is to declare hatred and animosity to those who do not believe in Him, and those who desire to rule by other than what Allah has revealed."

Sura 8, 9, and 48 of the Koran, summed briefly: "Kill the infidels."
8:67. It is not for a Prophet that he should have prisoners of war (and free them with ransom) until he had made a great slaughter (among his enemies) in the land.

Sahih Muslim 19/4294: "Invite them to (accept) Islam; if they respond to you, accept it from them and desist from fighting against them. Then invite them to migrate from their lands to the land of Muhajirs and inform them that, if they do so, they shall have all the privileges and obligations of the Muhajirs. If they refuse to migrate, tell them that they will have the status of Bedouin Muslims and will be subjected to the Commands of Allah like other Muslims, but they will not get any share from the spoils of war or Fai' except when they actually fight with the Muslims (against the disbelievers). If they refuse to accept Islam, demand from them the Jizya. If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold off your hands. If they refuse to pay the tax, seek Allah's help and fight them.... "

Summation:
Step 1: Demand they convert.
Step 2: Demand they become slaves.
Step 3: Orf wiv their 'eads.

Islam: RELIGION OF HATE.

P.S. Yeah, I'm posting as an AC. I don't want they coming to try to kill me like they did with Salman Rushdie, or Theo van Gogh, or Adrian Marriott, or the poor korean guy, or the poor indonesian schoolgirls, or the Jews the Muslims who signed up to join the SS killed, or so on...

Actually, most of the 'founding fathers' who formed our original government and signed the Constitution were Deists. Even the ones who were Protestant would have vilified the current group that calls themselves conservatives. You can point your outrage at much more recent revisionism.

The fact that there are any Muslims -- no matter how statistically insignificant their numbers -- who consider these acts to be religious acts is in and of itself shocking. And therefore we as Muslims have to ask the question, 'How is it that our religious leadership has failed to reach these people with the true message of Islam?'' Because the acts of these criminals have indicted an entire religion in the hearts and minds of millions. Ultimately, this is a result of the bankruptcy of these type of people who claim to be adherents to the Islamic religion. These people are so bankrupt that all they have to offer is destruction.

It sounds noble and great but entirely misses the point. It's easy to condemn the bombers compared to the harder task of formally and persistently issuing fatwas against those who preach that hate and categorize themselves as true muslims. Attacking the preachers who conceive and spread the salafist memes used to justify these attacks is the heart of the Muslim duty to fight these extremists and he passes on a few opportunities to do it.

Second link:

Just a few days ago, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, the highest and most respected Islamic authority in the world, who resides in Egypt, also made this clear. The Grand Imam said that the Koran specifically forbids the kinds of things the Taliban and al-Qaida are guilty of. He said the jihad Usama bin Laden has called for against America is invalid and not binding on Muslims. He said that "Islam rejects all of these acts." He called terrorism un-Islamic. In fact, he says, "Killing innocent civilians is a horrific, hideous act that no religion can approve."

The condemnation is again of the acts, not the underlying theology, a theology that is making great strides in the muslim world carried far and wide via petrodollar donations to build mosques and fund imams.

Third link:
This one is better but it's been three years since that conference discussed in the story and there seems little evidence that the imams have even made much of a dent in impressing on muslims the difference between commendable jihad and sinful irhab. You'd think all those moderate muslims might persuade Sheikh Hamad of Qatar, who funds and protects Al Jazeera to hold some religious instruction training for the news staff at Al Jazeera to impress upon them that they are promoting irhab on a regular basis. No go, apparently. Converting the commanding heights of muslim communication to a channel that properly uses irhab and jihad apparently not important enough to get done, maybe next year.

Fourth Link:
Now it's useful to condemn OBL

In the light of this evidence, the Taliban had no justification for continuing to protect bin Laden. Why protect him? Is he a saint or a prophet? He is a man who himself has admitted arranging car-bomb attacks on U.S. embassies. He is no saint."

But it misses the point that there was an infrastructure of teaching that produced OBL and the actions that he did. That, however, did not come in for the same condemnation. This is like pulling dandelion stems out but leaving the roots in. You know that you're not really attacking the problem, just today's symptom.

Fifth Link:
You're quoting a Hezbollah imam as part of the solution? You've got to be joking. Hezbollah is part of the problem as their pimping for Syria after the Hariri assassination amply demonstrates. When Hezbollah and Al Queda fri

The leading moral authority for Sunnis is the rector or Grand Imam of the al-Azhar Seminary/ University in Cairo, Egypt. Al-Azhar is perhaps the world's oldest continuous university and has been since the time of Saladin a major center of Sunni religious authority. The current incumbent is Shaikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi. So what about Tantawi and Bin Laden?

Grand Imam of Al-Azhar seminary, Shaikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, condemns Osamah Bin Laden. Here's another cached link from Washington Post reporting on the same condemnation.

What about Pakistan? Pakistani Cleric Tahir ul Qadri condemns Bin Laden.

Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi is a TV preacher, and pretty popular with a wide Arabic audience on Al-Jazeera. He absolutely despises Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. Al-Qaradawi has repeatedly condemned Al-Qaeda. He even gave a fatwa that it was a duty of Muslims to fight alongside the US in Afghanistan against al-Qaeda! Yusuf Qaradawi Condemns Al Qaeda.

Hamza Yusuf is a sheikh, what about the Shi'ites? Most fatwas of that sort are in arabic, but here's one reported: Ayatollah Muhammad Husain Fadlallah of Lebanon condemns Osama Bin Laden

Don't forget the West!> There are 250,000 Muslims in Spain: Spanish Muslim Clerical authorities Issue Fatwa against Osamah Bin Laden. Russia is 15% Muslim, with 20 Million Muslims. High Mufti of Russian Muslims calls for Extradition of Bin Laden. And they're not saying that to please Putin or anything.

If you're looking for someone to make a fatwa that says so-and-so is in Hell right now, you're not going to find that, as Muslims aren't allowed to judge people, only God can. They can say that murder and suicide are both hell-worthy sins, and they all said that. This isn't like Catholicism where you can just excommunicate people either. You can label Bin Laden a sinner (and believe me, there's quite a lot of people who did), but in Islam you can't say whether he's an atheist or not. That's just semantics, everyone knows Bin Laden is a wrongdoer, and have said so.

Council of American-Islamic Relations condemns 9/11 in national full-page newspaper ad the next day.

Ayatollah Muhammad Husain Fadlallah of Lebanon condemns Osama Bin Laden.

Grand Imam of Al-Azhar seminary, Shaikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, condemns Osamah Bin Laden (Plus official text)

Prominent Pakistani Cleric Tahir ul Qadri condemns Bin Laden.

Television preacher Yusuf Al-Qaradawi condemns Al Qaeda

Spanish Muslim Clerical authorities Issue Fatwa against Osamah Bin Laden. There are on the order of 250,000 Muslims in Spain.

High Mufti of Russian Muslims calls for Extradition of Bin Laden. Russian Muslims are 15% of the population there, so this is not a pro forma thing.

List of Muslim condemnations of Terrorist attacks. Also Scholars of Islam and the tragedy of 9/11 attacks

Expressions of grief and sympathy in the Arab world after 9/11. (Includes candlelight vigils in Tehran, anti-terrorism protests in Bangladesh)

Iraqi blogger Riverbend recalls the sympathy she felt on 9/11

You didn't hear any protests because it simply wasn't covered in American news. International news did pick up on these events. How about the people in Arab countries who donated blood after 9/11 because Qaradawi suggested it? What about the flower bouquets people sent in sympathy to the American embassy in Kuwait, so many that they ringed the fence?

Second, name them, please. To the best of my knowledge only Jefferson did that, although most of the founders would be very out of place in most christian churches today.

I don't know as I can name all but I can name another besides Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine:
Of the Religion of Deism Compared with the Christian Religion

Ah, here's more:

Many of the leaders of the French and American revolutions followed Deism, including John Quincy Adams, Ethan Allen, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Thomas Paine, and George Washington, many others.

Here's another page that lists more:
The Christian Nation Myth. That's nine listed here but I do believe if I spend more tyme I could get more names.

This may be a bit off topic,, but the article is so vague and short almost anything will fit into this discussion.

Some slashdoters may have noticed that the church has become a major player in politics recently. Part of their tax exemption is based on staying out of politics. The Bush administration is going after many conservation groups with the IRS because they have broken the politics rule.

Churches own billions of $$$ worth of prime realestate in the heart of our cities tax free and thus are a burden on cash starved public schools that depend on real estate taxes for survival.

I don't really need to go into the occasional priest's daliance with young boys, that's just an anomily.

So why try and tax internet porn, most of which is offshore, difficult to track, etc.? Tax the churches which have been getting a free ride in this country for far too long.

Churches need to be placed under the same guidelines as other institutions. They should not get any special benefits just for being churches. If they want some kind of benefits for nonprofit stuff/community service, then they should be under some guidelines for all nonprofits/community servers.

Here are a couple links to taxing the churches...

http://www.sullivan-county.com/identity/cal-tax-ex empt.htm

http://www.taxchurches.com/

Guns don't kill Jews, Catholics do

For expulsion read massacre and expulsion. The vast majority of these activities (which clearly didn't involve anybody killing Jews unless they were attacked NOT) were carried out by Catholics. Most Protestants were a bit more easy going with the idea of forgivenes...

Arabs in Israel have far more than just the right to vote. They have "basic human rights", such as a real legal system, which does not exist in countries like Saudi Arabia. In Israel, in addition to the right to vote, Arab women are allowed to drive cars, dress as they wish to, leave the country without the permission of their male guardian, and walk about alone. In Saudi Arabia they aren't. It simply isn't the case that Arabs in Israel have a "useless" right to vote but lack other basic human rights.

The idea that Arab mistreatment of Jews began only as a result of the creation of Israel is a myth, due in part to the fact that overall Jews were treated better by Arabs than by Christians. That just shows how badly the Christians behaved, not how well the Muslims behaved.

In some Arab countries at some times the situation of Jews was not too bad, but Jews have been second-class citizens in virtually Arab regimes and badly mistreated much of the time. Under Islamic law, Jews are required to pay Jizya "tribute", a special tax not levied on Muslims. Construction of new synagogues is not permitted. Indeed, in Saudi Arabia today the open practice of any religion other than Islam is forbidden and Saudi citizens must be Muslims. A Muslim man can marry a Jewish woman, but a Jewish man cannot marry a Muslim woman. Jews cannot testify in court. Jews were required to wear distinctive clothing and in most countries were restricted in where they could live and forced to live in ghettoes.(here is one of many summaries of the status of non-Muslims under Islamic law, with extensive quotations from Muslim sources.) There are numerous examples of mass murders of Jews in Arab countries long before 1948, such as the extermination of the 120,000 Jews of Fez, Morocco in 1146. Other massacres took place in Granada (Spain, under Moorish rule) in 1066, Libya in 1785, and Algeria in 1805, 1815, and 1830, to mention only a few.

oh, really?

Here is the entire letter which you altered and distorted to change the meaning, linked to a source where it may be verified:

http://www.sullivan-county.com/nf0/nov_2000/jeff_w all.htm

On January 1, 1802, in response to the letter from the Danbury Baptist Association, Thomas Jefferson wrote:

Gentlemen:

The affectionate sentiments of esteem and approbation which are so good to express towards me, on behalf of the Danbury Baptist Association, give me the highest satisfaction. My duties dictate a faithful and zealous pursuit of the interests of my constituents, and in proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity to those duties, the discharge of them becomes more and more pleasing.

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God; that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship; that the legislative powers of the government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should `make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between church and State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore man to all of his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.

I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection and blessings of the common Father and Creator of man, and tender you and your religious association, assurances of my high respect and esteem.

Thomas Jefferson

Honestly, it's impossible to argue with Christians because they pull shit like this...

You wish to distort reality and pretend like the founding fathers were Christians, not Deists. Here's another Thomas Jefferson quote to chew on:

http://www.deism.org/foundingfathers.htm

"The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter."

-- Thomas Jefferson (letter to J. Adams April 11,1823)

I'm frankly infuriated that people are so self-deluded as to post such tripe in a vain attempt to distort reality. You should truly be ashamed of yourself, realize your attempts to distort reality around your ideology are flawed, repent, and accept a scientific view of reality. Otherwise, you are doomed to madness.

You're not disillusioned a bit are you?

Very- I voted FOR Bush in 2000.

Um, the unions are still Democrat.

I suspect that modern organized crime is on the other side of the paycheck. It's far more lucrative to skim off the top.

I don't see it. I hope you're wrong.

The sad part is that it's not limited to the Presidential race, to any one location, or to either side. The problem is nationwide, covers almost all races, and is getting uglier by the day. A few examples (so far, pre-election, it's pretty much been limited to PROPERTY damage as opposed to personal damage, but that could easily change quickly):
http://www.sungazette.com/letters/letter_details.a sp?letterID=2888&postdate=10/14/2004
http://bakersfield.com/elections/story/4975842p-50 38992c.html
http://www.coloradoan.com/news/stories/20041019/ne ws/1438518.html
http://www.sullivan-county.com/nf0/june_2004/recal l5.htm
http://www.eagletribune.com/news/stories/20040326/ NH_004.htm
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1236613/p osts
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf ?/base/front_page/1096459546252200.xml

My area is in that last section- and is particularily bad across the rural/urban divide.

Look up Christian Reconstructionism. Look up Rushdoony. Google is your friend. Christian Reconstrutionism is the core of the mass movement you couldn't find. The exoteric term for this is "the Religious Right". I presume you've heard of them? How far have they gotten in the past 20 years?

"All these atrocities continue in spite of the fact that we now have the 'right' people in places of power. Indeed, the occupant of the White House is a professing Christian. The U.S. Attorney General is believed to be a devout Christian. 'Conservatives' control both Houses of Congress, and Republican presidents appointed seven of the nine Supreme Court justices. Christian activists placed the right party in power, but are we now witnessing the return to moral and constitutional government that we have demanded for so long?"

This is from Christian Exodus explaining why they want to take over a state because they've effectively taken over the national government and the New Millenium hasn't started yet, i.e. the nation hasn't converted to an Old Testament legal regime comparable to sharia law quite yet. Their problem of their political leadership is that little things like the Constitution and the Bill of Rights have been standing in their way, though the work of dismantling is in progress. In the above, "conservative" and Christian mean "Religious Right"... those are the only people the Christian Reconstructionists recognize as real fellow Christians. Every one of the last several Presidents, Democratic and Republican have been "professing Christians". But except for George W Bush, not their kind of Christian.

For more information:

• Here are some interesting quotes that explain why some people are very concerned. You wouldn't think that responsible citizens would seriously discuss the return of slavery, would you? Don't bother with the TOC at the top, just scroll down the page.
• Here's a pretty good historical document on Christian Reconstructionis
• You've probably heard of at least some of these people.
• Where tax-exempt right-wing foundation money is going. Look towards the bottom of the list of people they've been funding. There are some very interesting Europeans on that list. More about these interesting people.

Have you stopped to think what will happen to the poor in this country if the white collar wages decrease dramatically?

There are people in the US that don't have air conditioning, can't afford indoor plumbing or electricity. There are alot of people who cannot afford food. Don't even get me started about being able to afford to go the doctor or the dentist. If your wage gets cut by 2/3rds, does it follow that someone eeking out a living on minumum wage will also see a decrease in their wage?

It frustrates me to no end that as Americans we are so quick to feel pity and sorrow for people in some distant land when there is real suffering here in the US.

Many of these call center jobs that have been outsourced were located in the US in low income areas, some of the call centers that have since closed made the decision to open in these low income areas to take advantage of the tax breaks offered by local officials who wanted to provide some sort of economic boost to their cities and towns. When the call centers realized they could get workers overseas for much, much less than minimum wage earner in the US, the call centers closed. What became of these people?

It is very important to think globally, but we honestly need to clean our own house first before we start trying to clean up the neighborhood.

www.displacedtechies.com

A religious group that follows a particular theological system. In the context of Christianity it is a group that uses the Bible but distorts the doctrines that affect salvation sufficiently to cause salvation to be unattainable. A few examples of cults are Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Science, Christadelphians, Unity, Religious Science, TheWay International, and the Moonies.

That is the Christian view based on theology, not reality. A cult is a social structure and while some of the above groups are cults, so are fundamentalist Christians. A group that displays three or more of the following traits would be a cult: 1) Claims of being the only "true faith" while attacking all others. 2) Paranoia such as unfounded claims of persecution, conspiracy theories, etc. 3) Attempts to isolate members from mainstream society. 4) When the group focuses on a few main individuals such as a local preacher regardless of theology. 5) The group controls the personal habits of members to the point of regulating what books to read, what to wear, etc. 6) Rejection of reason. Claims such as we never went to moon, the earth is 6000 years old (all science is a satanic/atheist plot, see #2.), Holocaust denial, etc.

However, to stay on thread topic, both of those definitions would classify the Church of JC of LDS as a cult.

hmm how many countries has north korea "liberated" in the past 10 years...

you think the us economy is strong? you think unyeilding blind patriotism is a sign of a good attitude of the people?

NK has been at a cold war with SK for something like 50 years. are they invading? i think christianity and a holly war against islam is a much worse 'ideology' than communism. why is the US good and other evil? well thats a concept of catholism or more acurately since islam and all the western religions are the exact same, zoroastrianism.

For example, they're always available to help prevent the "establishment" of religion, but they're never around to preserve the "free-exercise" of it.

I invite your viewing of one of the ACLU's more recent cases, where they backed Jerry Falwell in a suit against the state of Virginia. Virginia had one set of laws for businesses, another for churches. Not kosher, and so the ACLU went to bat for him.

The ACLU is more than willing to help religious zealots, even when they usually spit on the values of the ACLU.

400 employees know that managers get bonuses to meet goals that require employees to work overtime but without pay. I rarely, if ever, boycott things but I try not to shop at Wal-Mart.

Oh God I missed the "of" at first.

Don't worry, George Bush will see that you were right the first time! He'll get rid of those nasty Iraqis, hoarding all that sweet, sweet oil for your SUV. While he's busy destabilizing the Middle East, more terrorist attacks may be prompted here in the US, and North Korea (you know, that crazy guy who threatened war?) will go forgotten while he builds an arsenal of long-range nuclear weapons.

Here's a helpful score card:

Iraq: Tiny dictator that hasn't attacked anyone since Bush's daddy while trying to steal Kuwait over 10 years ago. Has short range missiles that don't fly too straight. Leader enjoys gassing rebels (especially when Reagan was paying for it), torture, killing family members, and long walks along the perimeter. Problem to nearest neighbors that claim to be "friends" of America (you know, those guys that fund and house terrorists, pay blood money to families of "martyrs", spew hatred of America in their schools, etc.)

North Korea: Tiny dictator that has nuclear weapons or is very close. Has medium range missiles and will have long range missiles capable of hitting American targets. The leader also enjoys starving and torturing his subjects, and saber rattling with an eye toward actual global war

Moderators: this is NOT flamebait. It is a troll. Learn the difference!