Category Archives: misery

Luxor: A Disaster in the Making

Nina Burleigh’s essay titled Luxor in Dire Straits Even Without New Terrorist-Tied Governor, which begins

No one who has set foot in post-revolutionary Egypt should be surprised that President Mohamed Morsi installed a hard-core Islamist with ties to tourist-murderers as governor of Luxor this past week.

Asaad al-Khayyat is a founding member of Gamaa Islamiya, a terrorist group that killed 58 tourists outside Luxor in 1997. He was also detained by security officials but not charged after the assassination of President Anwar el-Sadat in 1981. (The Brotherhood has also welcomed Mr. Sadat’s actual assassin—on the lam for decades—back into Egypt. Rumor has it that he might even run for office himself.)

American progressives consistently seek signs of enlightenment in the great Egyptian revolution. But things will get darker before they get light again in Cairo.

Etc.  All these revolutions have accomplished rather different aims than democracy and peace, haven’t they.

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Generation Porn

Pornography, once the domain of seedy bookshops in even seedier parts of larger cities accessible only by raincoat wearing men donning hats and sunglasses so as not to be recognized because of the inherent shamefulness of the exercise has become so ubiquitous that any child of any age can click their computer keyboard and find any sort and any style they can imagine or be directed to.  And it is ruining, nay, it has ruined, tens of thousands of lives.

And still the Church, for the most part, is silent.

Thankfully, at least in some parts of the world, boldness exists and some people are speaking out against this damnable plague:

Was Kinder und Jugendliche heutzutage über Sex wissen wollen, lernen sie meist von Internet-Pornographie – mit schwerwiegenden Langzeitfolgen: Ihnen wird ein völlig verzerrtes Bild vermittelt, das mit Zuneigung und Liebe nichts mehr zu tun hat. Besonders Mädchen erhalten den Eindruck, dass es „normal“ sei, zum Sex gezwungen zu werden. So wächst eine „Generation Porno“ heran, schreibt die britische Publizistin Eleanor Mills in der Sonntagszeitung „Sunday Times“. Die 41-jährige Mutter von zwei Töchtern hat eine Kampagne gegen Internet-Pornographie gestartet. Sie ist schockiert über das geringe Verantwortungsbewusstsein von Politikern und Eltern: „Wir lassen es zu, dass unsere Kinder Material sehen, das noch vor einem Jahrzehnt nur in einem Sexshop zugänglich gewesen wäre.“ Studien zeigten, dass Kinder im Durchschnitt mit sechs bis acht Jahren erstmals mit Pornographie in Berührung kommen. Die stärksten Porno-Nutzer im Internet unter den Minderjährigen sind die Zwölf- bis 17-Jährigen.

The distorted image of sex and sexuality foisted upon the young by smut is ruining lives.

Pornographie mache mehr als ein Drittel (36 Prozent) aller Internet-Inhalte aus. Jede vierte Suchanfrage habe mit Sex zu tun, und ein Drittel aller heruntergeladenen Dateien enthalte Pornographie. Die Online-Porno-Industrie mache pro Sekunde mehr als 2.200 Euro Umsatz.

That’s right, 36 percent of ALL content on the internet is filth.  Something must be done.  Parents must take control.   Churches and Synagogues and Mosques must demand change to existing laws to shut this garbage down.  The so called ‘free speech’ of the few doesn’t outweigh the needs of the many.   Join the campaign to end access to internet porn by children.  The story, in English (in part freely accessible), is here.

Why Do We Keep Forgetting About Gun Control?

NPR asks the question-

One of the photographs of Seung-Hui Cho that h...

After the shootings in Newtown, there was a big push for national gun control legislation. But that legislation failed, and Congress is moving on. Host Michel Martin speaks with Colin Goddard, a survivor of the Virginia Tech shooting and a gun control advocate, about where the movement is today.

I suppose the answer lies somewhere between NRA lobbying efforts and its control of our spineless Congress and the public’s interest in Kanye and Kardashian’s baby’s name and shower gifts…

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The Bush Family (The Men) Are Just So Dim They Make Me Sad

Official photo of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush

The women (Barbara, Laura) are smart and I love them but their husbands (and brother-in-law in Laura’s case as well) are dim and dull and not smart and they just make me sad.  Some of their more recent buffoneries are vocalized by Jeb… who I used to think was the smart one of the bunch-

Jeb Bush, the brother of former President George W Bush, said that the future of the US economy depends upon immigrants in part because they are “more fertile”. Mr Bush, thought to be weighing a bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, made the remarks in front of religious conservatives at the annual Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual conference. His remark that immigrants “are more fertile, and they love families”, was met with silence.

What, no dropped jaws?  And he went on to say sillier things.  Oh Bush family, were it not for your lovely, wise, witty, intelligent women, you would be totally senseless.

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That Really Is an Outrageous Bit of Racism

Lisa Goldman writes

Imagine that Six Flags Great Adventure, a New Jersey adventure park, quietly instituted separate days for black and white schoolchildren. Exposed by the media, the management claimed they had acted in response to complaints from some white parents about the behavior of the black children, saying they behaved badly and cursed at the white children. Senior government ministers, including President Obama, said they were outraged and suggested the incident merited an official investigation. And then a white person wrote an op-ed defending the Six Flags management’s decision. In an article saturated with links and references to right-wing media outlets like Fox News, the Washington Free Beacon and the Drudge Report, the white author claimed that Superland’s policy was not racist. And the New York Times published the piece.

A variation of this scenario happened in Israel recently, when local media exposed the Superland amusement park’s policy of segregating Arab and Jewish schoolchildren. The mainstream media and the government, including right-wing prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, were outraged. But Shmuel Rosner, a journalist who lives in Tel Aviv, defended the management’s policy in an op-ed for the New York Times, on the International Herald Tribune‘s Latitudes Blog. According to Rosner, the policy is not an expression of racism, but rather pragmatism that reflects a regrettable reality.

Rosner is dead wrong and his views are the very same sort that justified apartheid in South Africa for so long and which now enable apartheid to exist in Israel.

Read the rest of Lisa’s piece.  It’s very important that the world know.

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Gun Toting Toddlers Have Killed More Americans Than Terrorists This Year

The sad facts are

John Jacob Anderson and Sons, John and Edward ...

Dangerous kids

Americans hate terrorists and love our kids, right? So you might be shocked to know that preschoolers with guns have taken more lives so far this year than the single U.S. terrorist attack, which claimed four lives in Boston.

This is admittedly tongue-in-cheek, but one has to wonder if the NSA’s PRISM program would have saved more lives had it been monitoring toddlers – or gun owners – rather than suspected terrorists.

11 Deaths in Five Months Where Shooter Was 3 to 6 Years Old

Listed below are the 11 gun fatalities I found where a preschooler pulled the trigger (from Jan. 1 to June 9, 2013). Starting with a list of five toddler shooting deaths The Jewish Daily Forward published in early May, I unearthed six additional cases. This tragic, unthinkable event has happened every month, like clock-work.

Jan. 10: 6-year-old playmate shoots and kills 4-year-old Trinity Ross, Kansas City, Kan.

Feb. 11: 4-year-old Joshua Johnson shoots and kills himself, Memphis, Tenn.

Feb. 24: 4-year-old Jaiden Pratt dies after shooting himself in the stomach while his father sleeps, Houston.

March 30: 4-year-old Rahquel Carr shot and killed either by 6-year-old brother or another young playmate, Miami.

April 6: Josephine Fanning, 48, shot and killed by 4-year-old boy at a barbecue, Wilson County, Tenn.

April 8: 4-year-old shoots and kills 6-year-old friend Brandon Holt, Toms River, N.J.

April 9: 3-year-old is killed after he finds a pink gun that he thinks is a toy, Greenville, S.C.

April 30: 2-year-old Caroline Sparks killed by her 5-year-old brother with his Cricket “My First Rifle” marketed to kids, Cumberland County, Ky.

May 1: 3-year-old Darrien Nez shoots himself in the face and dies after finding his grandmother’s gun, Yuma, Ariz.

May 7: 3-year-old Jadarrius Speights fatally shoots himself with his uncle’s gun, Tampa, Fla.

June 7: 4-year-old fatally shoots his father, Green Beret Justin Thomas, Prescott Valley, Ariz.

At least 10 more toddlers have shot but not killed themselves or someone else this year (seehere, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here). In the first three cases, the shooter was only 2 years old.

I also found nine instances where children and teens 7 to 19 years old accidentally killed themselves, a family member or friend since January (see here, here, here, here, here, here,here, here and here).

Appalled yet?  Nah, didn’t think so.

Oh Come On

One of my tasks today is to order shirts for VBS.  Usually it’s not a problem but Lifeway has for some reason seen fit to mess their website up and apparently configure it to refuse any order that doesn’t order at least one of everything….  I don’t want one of everything.  I want to choose zero in most cases.

life

Why are you starting my day with annoyance, Lifeway? Why?

Because Anyone Who Wants a Gun Can Get a Gun

A gunman dressed in black killed four people in a string of shootings through the California town of monicaSanta Monica on Friday before he was shot dead by police in a community college library, law enforcement officials said. Five other people were wounded, one of them critically.  As the gunman lay dead on a sidewalk outside the Santa Monica College library, a second individual was taken into custody near the campus and described by police as a “person of interest” in the case. He was later released. The police also said they now believe the alleged gunman acted alone.  Police initially said six people were killed by the gunman, who was described only as a man between the ages of 25 and 30.  Officials said the discrepancy occurred because of conflicting witness accounts. They added that one of the wounded remains in critical condition.  The killing spree marked the latest in string of high-profile mass shootings over the past year, including a December attack in Connecticut that killed 20 children and six adults at an elementary school and a shooting last July at a suburban Denver movie theater that killed 12 people.

Who is the latest spree killer?

The suspect in a shooting spree that left four people dead in Santa Monica has been identified as John Zawahri, sources told CNN.  Authorities say he killed his father, Samir “Sam” Zawahri, and brother, Chris Zawahri, in a Santa Monica house before carjacking a woman and firing at a public bus on Friday.  Scant details are trickling in about Zawahri, who was killed by police at Santa Monica College on Friday — the day before his 24th birthday.

Because anyone who wants a gun can get a gun.  Anyone.  And that’s the way we like it.  We love it.  We want more of it….  And we’re going to get more of it.

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Good People of Syria, We, the Decent Citizens of the World, Are Sorry Our Governments Let This Happen to You

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The government of the United States would have been right on the spot had you any oil or other natural resources which suit our ‘national interests’. But because you don’t, well the Obama administration and our absolutely worthless congress couldn’t be bothered. And we’re sorry.

The Brits and the Canadians and the Germans and the Russians and the Chinese will have to answer for themselves.

The Huffington Post Makes Me Sick

The Huffington Post looks for stories that portray Christians in the worst possible light.  Consequently, their bias is just as disgusting as Fox News’s and yet moderates and liberals give them a pass.  And THAT’s equally reprehensible.

It’s time for HuffPo to stop pretending to be anything but the Fox News of the Left.

Coffee-drinking Christians, take note: There’s apparently “no way” a truly righteous Christian can drink Starbucks beverages.

At least, that’s the opinion of former evangelical pastor and conservative activist David Barton, whose May 19 sermon on pious caffeine consumption was recently posted online.

Speaking at Whitesburg Baptist Church, Barton said that Starbucks was “pouring money” into the destruction of traditional marriage, according to video of the speech.

“The question is, ‘Can a Christian give money to a group he knows will use it to attack what God supports?’” Barton said. “If you know that when you buy a cup of Starbucks, 5, 10, 15 cents is going to be used to defeat marriage, can you do that? The answer is ‘no.’”

Barton represents mainstream evangelicals in the same way that Hitler represents mainstream Germans.  So, HuffPo, just shut up.

It’s Bad to Call Homosexuality a Mental Illness…

But it’s perfectly acceptable to say that religious fundamentalism is:

@YourAnonNews: Kathleen Taylor, Neuroscientist, Says Religious Fundamentalism Could Be Treated As A Mental Illness http://t.co/9Rcm9easeo

Thank you, Kathleen, for demonstrating anti- religious bias is alive and well at Oxford. And that it’s politically correct.

Children With Cancer Barred From an Israeli Pool… Because They’re Arab

An Israeli public swimming pool has refused entry to a group of children with cancer because the children are Arab.

The subtitled video report above from Israel’s Channel 2 says that Dr. Gali Zohar, wanted to surprise a group of 20 Bedouin children with cancer with a fun day at the pool at Mabu’im village in the south of the country.

Zohar called the pool ahead of time and managers agreed to admit the children free of charge. Everything was fine until the managers realized the children were Arab and then specifically said that allowing Bedouin children in would be a “problem.”

Apartheid pure and simple.  Purely racist apartheid.

The Channel 2 report includes an audio recording of a telephone call in which a pool manager specifies that the facility will not let in children from the Arab “sector.” The report added that Ben-Gurion University agreed to allow the children to use its facilities.

Thank you, BGU, for your human decency and your rejection of rampant evil racism.

Hooray…. Noah’s Ark Ride

Again… hooray….  I’m sure they’ve loads of biblical scholars serving as consultants.  Just like the History Channel did when it aired the Bible (and completely ignored their advice most of the time).

The Biblical account of Noah and his Ark poses a lot of questions, even for believers like the creators of the controversial Creation Museum in Kentucky.

What is “gopher wood”? How did Noah fit all those animals on the boat? And how did he stand the smell?

In an office park in Hebron, Kentucky, the designers of the proposed “Ark Encounter” theme park are trying to answer questions like these in order to build faith in the Bible’s literal accuracy. The project has run into delays because of lack of financing, which could cost it millions in potential tax breaks. Despite the uncertainty, a recent Reuters preview of the project showed that plans for the ark are continuing.

“We’re basically presenting what the Bible has to say and showing how plausible it was,” said Patrick Marsh, design director for the park, which will feature a 500-foot-long wooden ark and other Old Testament attractions, including a Tower of Babel and a “Ten Plagues” ride. “This was a real piece of history – not just a story, not just a legend.”

I know a LOT of people I’d like to put on the 10 plagues ride but, really, if they aren’t stricken with those plagues, what’s the point?  If the museum wants to be realistic, shouldn’t its plagues kill lots of people?

It’s More Blessed to Give Than to Receive… Except in Israel

Ha’aretz reports

Israel is a novelty on the international charity map; it receives plenty in donations, despite its status as a developed country- and isn’t so big on giving back, study shows http://htz.li/14D2PZo.

When the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami claimed 300,000 lives, organizations and individuals around the world made donations while volunteers poured into the region. A quarter of U.S. households contributed money, and Israel sent medical teams, experts and members of the Zaka rescue organization.

Billions of dollars were collected around the world to help the victims of the tsunami and other disasters, but Israel’s financial contribution was meager. Israelis contributed 10 cents on average to international relief efforts, compared with $20 by the typical Dutchman and $200 by the typical Norwegian.

Israel is a leading recipient of donations from around the world, particularly from Jews in the United States and Europe. It’s also among the top 10 countries receiving contributions and grants from U.S. foundations.

But less than 1% of Israelis donate to organizations operating internationally, according to a study by Prof. Hillel Schmid and Hanna Shaul Bar-Nissim of Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Center for the Study of Philanthropy in Israel.

That feeds right into the stereotype of the tight fisted Jew who is happy to get but hardly interested in giving.  And that’s a shame.  Israel’s isolation and the view of the rest of the world towards it isn’t helped when it withdraws its hand from offering aid when international crises arise.