Even MORE U.S. atrocities? I'm tired of defending Jesus
For years now I've defended Jesus against this wave and onslaught of sadistic bastards who have been killing and maiming in a swath across the planet -- and doing it in the name of Jesus.
It's beyond hypocrisy: It's like Attila the Hun claiming to be a good Christian.
Shock and Awe? Haiti? Palestine? Israel? Afghanistan? Africa? Columbia? Those were bad enough. But the latest slaughters in Fallugah by America's so-called "Christians" have really gotten to me.
Jesus is a big boy. He can take care of Himself. And when He does, the un-Godly heathens who call themselves "Christians" will finally get a chance to see the awesome power of Love -- not hate -- in action. And when Mankind finally reaches its full spiritual potential, hopefully these slimy psychopathic bastards will have the good sense to be ashamed of themselves.
______________
Footnote:
Published in the June, 2004 issue of The Progressive
What Do We Do Now?
by Howard Zinn
It seems very hard for some people--especially those in high places,
but also those striving for high places--to grasp a simple truth:
The United States does not belong in Iraq. It is not our country.
Our presence is causing death, suffering, destruction, and so large
sections of the population are rising against us. Our military is
then reacting with indiscriminate force, bombing and shooting and
rounding up people simply on "suspicion."
Amnesty International, a year after the invasion, reported: "Scores
of unarmed people have been killed due to excessive or unnecessary
use of lethal force by coalition forces during public
demonstrations, at checkpoints, and in house raids. Thousands of
people have been detained [estimates range from 8,500 to 15,000],
often under harsh conditions, and subjected to prolonged and often
unacknowledged detention. Many have been tortured or ill-treated,
and some have died in custody."
The recent battles in Fallujah brought this report from Amnesty
International: "Half of at least 600 people who died in the recent
fighting between Coalition forces and insurgents in Fallujah are
said to have been civilians, many of them women and children."
In light of this, any discussion of "What do we do now?" must start
with the understanding that the present U.S. military occupation is
morally unacceptable.
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Where is Bill Frist's money coming from?
There was an excellent article on CLG news yesterday -- about Bill Frist donating $150,000 to help defeat Tom Daschle in South Dakota. Where does a Senator form Tennessee get that kind of money to spend way far away in SOUTH DAKOTA?
Then I remembered an e-mail from a friend of mine in Cleveland, TN. I had recently sent him that e-mail thing where you can punch in your zip code and find out what Presidential candidates your neighbors have donated campaign funds to. My friend tried it on his zip code. Guess what? In a small Tennessee town known for its yard sales, whole big bunches of citizens were donating $2,000 each to the Bush campaign.
That really smells fishy. There is money laundering there, what do you want to bet? Is this where Frist gets all his bucks?
Here's the URL for Zip Code 37320. Check it out. You will be amazed: http://www.fundrace.org/neighbors.php?type=loc&addr=&zip=37320&search=Search+by+Location
There was an excellent article on CLG news yesterday -- about Bill Frist donating $150,000 to help defeat Tom Daschle in South Dakota. Where does a Senator form Tennessee get that kind of money to spend way far away in SOUTH DAKOTA?
Then I remembered an e-mail from a friend of mine in Cleveland, TN. I had recently sent him that e-mail thing where you can punch in your zip code and find out what Presidential candidates your neighbors have donated campaign funds to. My friend tried it on his zip code. Guess what? In a small Tennessee town known for its yard sales, whole big bunches of citizens were donating $2,000 each to the Bush campaign.
That really smells fishy. There is money laundering there, what do you want to bet? Is this where Frist gets all his bucks?
Here's the URL for Zip Code 37320. Check it out. You will be amazed: http://www.fundrace.org/neighbors.php?type=loc&addr=&zip=37320&search=Search+by+Location
"Mommie, where do homosexuals come from?" From religious fundamentalists, Dear
Back in the day (before managed healthcare ruled the world), I used to have this great family doctor. He even made house calls!
One day we were talking about this and that and I asked him, "Why are some people homosexual while others are not? What do you think? Are they born homosexual or is it a factor of how they were brought up?"
"Actually," he replied, "research indicates that homosexuality is the result of childhood stress." Jeez Louise. The implications of that answer boggle the mind.
Religious fundamentalists, in their avid zeal for discipline and their abject devotion to paddling as the cornerstone of child-rearing, are creating MAJOR childhood stress -- thus churning out homosexuals right and left! As long as we have that Old Testament "spare the rod and spoil the child" mentality, we can be ASSURED that the religious fundamentalists of this world will keep us in an endless supply of gay guys! How ironic.
Have you ever walked down the street in San Francisco's Castro District, famous for its drag queens? Southern accents are EVERYWHERE -- all those sons and daughters of Baptist ministers! Go Jerry Falwell! Rev. Dobson, take a bow. The dykes and nancy-boys of the world salute you!
British boarding schools, crack mothers, alcoholics and the Taliban are also doing a good job of creating homosexuals. Hats off to you. Sorry. Fundamentalist Jews aren't so hot at cranking out gays. For some reason, they only tend to turn out discipline freaks. Maybe the Pentecostals can give them some hints.
Other prize winners: The Johnson/Nixon/Kissinger team. During the Vietnam era, these guys were personally responsible for the violent deaths of six-and-a-half million people. That's a lot of stress! The only reason all of Southeast Asia isn't wall-to-wall leather bars these days is that people were probably too busy burying all those dead guys. Can you imagine the logistics of burying 6.5 million dead bodies? Even Hitler had trouble with that one -- until he called in IBM to help. IBM had given every corpse a number -- tattooed it right on their arms. Good old corporate efficiency. Just like Halliburton in Iraq.
Moral: Whoever you are, be kind to children and stop stressing them out! Or else graciously accept the consequences of having to share your sequins. And I don't want to hear no more gay-bashing either.
Back in the day (before managed healthcare ruled the world), I used to have this great family doctor. He even made house calls!
One day we were talking about this and that and I asked him, "Why are some people homosexual while others are not? What do you think? Are they born homosexual or is it a factor of how they were brought up?"
"Actually," he replied, "research indicates that homosexuality is the result of childhood stress." Jeez Louise. The implications of that answer boggle the mind.
Religious fundamentalists, in their avid zeal for discipline and their abject devotion to paddling as the cornerstone of child-rearing, are creating MAJOR childhood stress -- thus churning out homosexuals right and left! As long as we have that Old Testament "spare the rod and spoil the child" mentality, we can be ASSURED that the religious fundamentalists of this world will keep us in an endless supply of gay guys! How ironic.
Have you ever walked down the street in San Francisco's Castro District, famous for its drag queens? Southern accents are EVERYWHERE -- all those sons and daughters of Baptist ministers! Go Jerry Falwell! Rev. Dobson, take a bow. The dykes and nancy-boys of the world salute you!
British boarding schools, crack mothers, alcoholics and the Taliban are also doing a good job of creating homosexuals. Hats off to you. Sorry. Fundamentalist Jews aren't so hot at cranking out gays. For some reason, they only tend to turn out discipline freaks. Maybe the Pentecostals can give them some hints.
Other prize winners: The Johnson/Nixon/Kissinger team. During the Vietnam era, these guys were personally responsible for the violent deaths of six-and-a-half million people. That's a lot of stress! The only reason all of Southeast Asia isn't wall-to-wall leather bars these days is that people were probably too busy burying all those dead guys. Can you imagine the logistics of burying 6.5 million dead bodies? Even Hitler had trouble with that one -- until he called in IBM to help. IBM had given every corpse a number -- tattooed it right on their arms. Good old corporate efficiency. Just like Halliburton in Iraq.
Moral: Whoever you are, be kind to children and stop stressing them out! Or else graciously accept the consequences of having to share your sequins. And I don't want to hear no more gay-bashing either.
What if there were no more babies?
It was your typical peaceful day in Heaven. Babies were all lining up to get born.
"Say WHAT?" an unborn baby said to God. "You want ME to go down there and get beaten, bombed, starved, abused and amputated? Or get locked in overcrowded classrooms and babysitted by sit-coms while my mother works three jobs to keep the family afloat? I DON'T THINK SO!"
"But," replied God, "you gotta get born. It's in My Plan."
"Not this little pink duck. Until human beings stop doing everything they can to abuse, torture and murder children, I'm staying right here." Hell no! We won't go!
And no other child was ever born again. Trillions of dollars continued to be spent on weapons of mass destruction instead of healthcare and education. Testosterone-filled men happily bombed and polluted and irradiated the world to their hearts content. But not one baby was ever born again.
Are all the weapons in the world worth the price of NEVER knowing what it is like to hold a baby in our arms? It is time for the Hard-Right and the Hard-Left and the Soft-Middle to come together and work for the preservation of democracy before we all just become dinner in the eyes of the heartless corporations who now rule our future.
It was your typical peaceful day in Heaven. Babies were all lining up to get born.
"Say WHAT?" an unborn baby said to God. "You want ME to go down there and get beaten, bombed, starved, abused and amputated? Or get locked in overcrowded classrooms and babysitted by sit-coms while my mother works three jobs to keep the family afloat? I DON'T THINK SO!"
"But," replied God, "you gotta get born. It's in My Plan."
"Not this little pink duck. Until human beings stop doing everything they can to abuse, torture and murder children, I'm staying right here." Hell no! We won't go!
And no other child was ever born again. Trillions of dollars continued to be spent on weapons of mass destruction instead of healthcare and education. Testosterone-filled men happily bombed and polluted and irradiated the world to their hearts content. But not one baby was ever born again.
Are all the weapons in the world worth the price of NEVER knowing what it is like to hold a baby in our arms? It is time for the Hard-Right and the Hard-Left and the Soft-Middle to come together and work for the preservation of democracy before we all just become dinner in the eyes of the heartless corporations who now rule our future.
World Planning: It's like City Planning only bigger
It's always been my dream to fly non-stop around the world and I could do it too. Pack a picnic lunch, grab the airport shuttle and voila! Nowadays the world is that small.
Instead of playing Sim City, we gotta start playing Sim World.
Assuming that the world is a city, what have we got now? We've got the rich part of town, the suburbs and THE SLUMS.
The school district sucks. There is no department of sanitation. Health care? There is one doctor in town and he doesn't take Blue Cross let alone MediCare. There are cracks in the sidewalks and potholes in the streets. The police department, not the Mayor, runs the town. The City Council is owned outright by the "developers" and the bankers. The only thing that runs right is the unemployment office.
Let's play Sim City on a world-wide scale. Would we deliberately pick what we got now? If we ran our town the way we are running the world, it would be a disaster.
Let's pick nice things to put in our world the same way we would pick nice things for our town. Let's pick quality education, full employment, honest civil servants and police who protect and serve. And let's get rid of the rich cronies in the Mayor's office too.
World Planning "Do's" and "Don'ts":
World Planning "Don'ts" (from Nuc News): Joanne Baker's report summer 2003 from Baghdad:
Why is Baghdad suffering? This question is on
everybody’s lips. Electricity, we have heard, has been restored in all other towns. Only Baghdad is being denied this basic life support. As the heat increases, so does the desperation and bitterness of the people.
There is a total incomprehension that America, the world’s greatest superpower cannot provide in three months even basic services that the government under Saddam was able to restore within one month. This is worsened by the fact that expectations have been so much greater. People believed that, with the fall of the regime, the life-numbing deprivation of previous years would be over. Instead they have never had it so bad. As one taxi-driver asked of us, “What have the Americans come here for? There is no electricity, no water, no petrol, the roads are blocked, there is no security anymore. Why have they come?”
I am asked how I now find Baghdad. How has it changed? It is perhaps best described as a city in trauma. Still reeling from the appalling bombardment, it is now experiencing the shock of occupation and anarchy. There is no law and order. No one is in charge. People are crying out for help with their personal tragedies but there is nowhere to turn.
During the day convoys of American tanks patrol the streets, manned by what can only be described as scared children. “Pathetic!" my friend exclaims. They would be if they were not so extremely dangerous. If they believe that they are winning the hearts and minds of the people, they could not be further from the truth.
The nights are filled with sporadic gunfire. The Americans has imposed a curfew which starts at 11pm. The people however have their own self-imposed curfew. No one leaves their house after dark. From 8pm the streets are already beginning to clear. People are hurrying home whether on foot or by car. When I was in Baghdad a year ago, this was the time when families would be spilling out on to the streets to make the most of the cooler evening air, to shop, to eat and to socialize. Now there is only terror. Everyone is buying a gun for self protection. A Kalashnikov was recently selling for as little as one dollar! No one really seems to know who the looters and muggers are.
World Planning "DO": Vote. Vote for anyone but Bush. Vote for people with good ideas. Vote for Dennis Kucinich and Cynthia McKinney. Vote to finally put a President in the White House. Four years without a real President has been a disaster for America!
World Planning "Do": Be kind to children. Today's abused child become tomorrow's heartless thug. Punishment ALWAYS leads to resistance. Read John Gray's book "Children are from Heaven" for great world-planning advice
It's always been my dream to fly non-stop around the world and I could do it too. Pack a picnic lunch, grab the airport shuttle and voila! Nowadays the world is that small.
Instead of playing Sim City, we gotta start playing Sim World.
Assuming that the world is a city, what have we got now? We've got the rich part of town, the suburbs and THE SLUMS.
The school district sucks. There is no department of sanitation. Health care? There is one doctor in town and he doesn't take Blue Cross let alone MediCare. There are cracks in the sidewalks and potholes in the streets. The police department, not the Mayor, runs the town. The City Council is owned outright by the "developers" and the bankers. The only thing that runs right is the unemployment office.
Let's play Sim City on a world-wide scale. Would we deliberately pick what we got now? If we ran our town the way we are running the world, it would be a disaster.
Let's pick nice things to put in our world the same way we would pick nice things for our town. Let's pick quality education, full employment, honest civil servants and police who protect and serve. And let's get rid of the rich cronies in the Mayor's office too.
World Planning "Do's" and "Don'ts":
World Planning "Don'ts" (from Nuc News): Joanne Baker's report summer 2003 from Baghdad:
Why is Baghdad suffering? This question is on
everybody’s lips. Electricity, we have heard, has been restored in all other towns. Only Baghdad is being denied this basic life support. As the heat increases, so does the desperation and bitterness of the people.
There is a total incomprehension that America, the world’s greatest superpower cannot provide in three months even basic services that the government under Saddam was able to restore within one month. This is worsened by the fact that expectations have been so much greater. People believed that, with the fall of the regime, the life-numbing deprivation of previous years would be over. Instead they have never had it so bad. As one taxi-driver asked of us, “What have the Americans come here for? There is no electricity, no water, no petrol, the roads are blocked, there is no security anymore. Why have they come?”
I am asked how I now find Baghdad. How has it changed? It is perhaps best described as a city in trauma. Still reeling from the appalling bombardment, it is now experiencing the shock of occupation and anarchy. There is no law and order. No one is in charge. People are crying out for help with their personal tragedies but there is nowhere to turn.
During the day convoys of American tanks patrol the streets, manned by what can only be described as scared children. “Pathetic!" my friend exclaims. They would be if they were not so extremely dangerous. If they believe that they are winning the hearts and minds of the people, they could not be further from the truth.
The nights are filled with sporadic gunfire. The Americans has imposed a curfew which starts at 11pm. The people however have their own self-imposed curfew. No one leaves their house after dark. From 8pm the streets are already beginning to clear. People are hurrying home whether on foot or by car. When I was in Baghdad a year ago, this was the time when families would be spilling out on to the streets to make the most of the cooler evening air, to shop, to eat and to socialize. Now there is only terror. Everyone is buying a gun for self protection. A Kalashnikov was recently selling for as little as one dollar! No one really seems to know who the looters and muggers are.
World Planning "DO": Vote. Vote for anyone but Bush. Vote for people with good ideas. Vote for Dennis Kucinich and Cynthia McKinney. Vote to finally put a President in the White House. Four years without a real President has been a disaster for America!
World Planning "Do": Be kind to children. Today's abused child become tomorrow's heartless thug. Punishment ALWAYS leads to resistance. Read John Gray's book "Children are from Heaven" for great world-planning advice
George's friends, a poem
George's friends are billionaires.
Our friends are unemployed!
George's friends wear Armanis.
Our friends wear body bags.
George's friends send their children to private schools.
Our friends' kids get "left behind".
George's friends get government contracts worth billions without having to bid for them.
Our friends are told to work overtime without pay.
George's friends get big oil leases.
Our friends get evicted.
George's friends have billions in Swiss bank accounts and off-shore tax dodges.
Our friends keep a few extra $20s hidden in their sock drawer.
George's friends told us whoppers about the WMD they knew didn't exist in Iraq even though they made billions selling them to Iraq in the first place.
Our friends tell the truth and get thrown in jail for "protesting".
George's friends commit incredible tax frauds and never get audited.
Our friends fudge a little on their income tax to save a few pennies and get full court press audits -- immediately!
George's friends eat at five-star restaurants.
Our friends think that eating out at Burger King is a big treat.
George's friends can bomb half the world without fear of retaliation because they have their own private bomb shelters.
Our friends have nowhere to hide.
George's friends have voting machines and control of the courts and ownership of the media.
Our friends just have memories.
America deserves better.
George's friends are billionaires.
Our friends are unemployed!
George's friends wear Armanis.
Our friends wear body bags.
George's friends send their children to private schools.
Our friends' kids get "left behind".
George's friends get government contracts worth billions without having to bid for them.
Our friends are told to work overtime without pay.
George's friends get big oil leases.
Our friends get evicted.
George's friends have billions in Swiss bank accounts and off-shore tax dodges.
Our friends keep a few extra $20s hidden in their sock drawer.
George's friends told us whoppers about the WMD they knew didn't exist in Iraq even though they made billions selling them to Iraq in the first place.
Our friends tell the truth and get thrown in jail for "protesting".
George's friends commit incredible tax frauds and never get audited.
Our friends fudge a little on their income tax to save a few pennies and get full court press audits -- immediately!
George's friends eat at five-star restaurants.
Our friends think that eating out at Burger King is a big treat.
George's friends can bomb half the world without fear of retaliation because they have their own private bomb shelters.
Our friends have nowhere to hide.
George's friends have voting machines and control of the courts and ownership of the media.
Our friends just have memories.
America deserves better.
"They aren't bombing us, Dear. That's just thunder."
At 2:30 am the other night, I was suddenly jolted awake by multiple earth-shaking explosions. I lay petrified in my bed as our house shook like jelly and monstrous cacophony rang in my ears. My very first conscious thought was, "Oh My God. Those idiots in Washington have finally gone and done it!" This reaction was instantly followed by, "Oh My God. WE HAVE NO BOTTLED WATER!"
At that point I heard a child crying, "Mommie! Mommie! I don't want to die!" As I got up to see if there was any news on the radio, I realized that this child's bright future of happy friends and pleasant days at school and care-less trips to Target and Walgreen had suddenly cease to exist -- replaced by the bleak reality of being a war-torn refugee with NO future -- or worse. And that I would never again experience my taken-for-granted, day-to-day life. And that we only had about three days' supply of canned food.
Then there was the sudden sound of rain on the roof and I realized with tears in my eyes that the loud explosions had not been bombs. They had only been thunder. This time.
"They aren't bombing us, Dear. That's just thunder."
Stop mucking with my world, George. Resign and let people who knows what they are doing take over. America's current foreign policy is like kicking a hornets' net while wearing a Speedo. WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND. Stop endangering America.
At 2:30 am the other night, I was suddenly jolted awake by multiple earth-shaking explosions. I lay petrified in my bed as our house shook like jelly and monstrous cacophony rang in my ears. My very first conscious thought was, "Oh My God. Those idiots in Washington have finally gone and done it!" This reaction was instantly followed by, "Oh My God. WE HAVE NO BOTTLED WATER!"
At that point I heard a child crying, "Mommie! Mommie! I don't want to die!" As I got up to see if there was any news on the radio, I realized that this child's bright future of happy friends and pleasant days at school and care-less trips to Target and Walgreen had suddenly cease to exist -- replaced by the bleak reality of being a war-torn refugee with NO future -- or worse. And that I would never again experience my taken-for-granted, day-to-day life. And that we only had about three days' supply of canned food.
Then there was the sudden sound of rain on the roof and I realized with tears in my eyes that the loud explosions had not been bombs. They had only been thunder. This time.
"They aren't bombing us, Dear. That's just thunder."
Stop mucking with my world, George. Resign and let people who knows what they are doing take over. America's current foreign policy is like kicking a hornets' net while wearing a Speedo. WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND. Stop endangering America.
Re: Where America is most vulnerable and how to make us safe
Sometimes Washington and the Pentagon get so isolated in their ivory towers that they fail to notice things that we average Americans pick up on right away. I am your typical American budget-strapped church-going working mom and even I have noticed the following weaknesses in our country's defense system:
Where is America most vulnerable to terrorist attack? And how can we best protect ourselves? To find the answer to this vital question, let's go do some research: Go to any Walmart and turn over the teacups, tabulate the toy selection, total up the tablespoons and test the towels. How many items on sale in these stores are made in Taiwan, Thailand, Tierra Del Fuego or Tijuana? A lot. Conversely, how many items are made in Tulsa or Tucson or Tacoma? Practically zip.
Then go to your nearest Safeway and check out how much of the food sold there is imported: Sirloin, salmon, strawberries, string beans, syrah, spaghetti -- to name a few.
Then ask your gas station attendant where our gas comes from. The answer? Places like Kuwait, Central Asia, Caracus, the Caspian Sea and Kazakhstan.
Then check out where your cars, cameras, cell phones, computers, coffee and chocolate come from -- off-shore. Chile, Korea, Columbia, Cameroon, Calcutta and China for starters. Washington's so-called "free trade" and "globalization" policies are making America extremely vulnerable.
Almost everything that Americans use, buy or own comes from off-shore. If anything should ever happen to our ships or our docks, we'd be completely crippled. Crazy fundamentalists in Cessnas dropping Coke bottles filled with Kryptonite could take out our oil tankers and container vessels easy as pie -- it could be done with very little money. For instance, Timothy McVeigh took out a federal building with a rent-a-truck.
Can we really defend the entire Atlantic ocean and Pacific ocean 24/7? I think not.
Of course America's knee-jerk reaction to this impending threat will be to triple the size of our military (where will they get the poor grunts to serve in it? Off-shore of course!), have F-16's sweep every gallon of every ocean night and day and spend billions of dollars more on defense. "More defense! More defense!" I can hear our fearless leaders recite. That, and "War creates more jobs!"
But the military bomb-everything-to-bits approach is bound to fail because it is unsustainable, untenable, ineffective and wasteful of resources (not to mention dangerous). What we need to do is stop thinking like killing machines and start thinking like Americans! Americans are problem-solvers extraordinaire. Surely we can come up with something better. For starters, let's start growing our own food, manufacturing our own goods and cutting down on the need for foreign oil by investing in solar power, etc. We would be a lot safer.
Plus Americans would suddenly become completely employed. And we would be doing HONEST work. Making our income from building bombs is dirty work at best and immoral and ineffective at worst. IT'S TIME AMERICA STARTED PRODUCING PRODUCTS THAT WE CAN BE PROUD OF.
Sometimes Washington and the Pentagon get so isolated in their ivory towers that they fail to notice things that we average Americans pick up on right away. I am your typical American budget-strapped church-going working mom and even I have noticed the following weaknesses in our country's defense system:
Where is America most vulnerable to terrorist attack? And how can we best protect ourselves? To find the answer to this vital question, let's go do some research: Go to any Walmart and turn over the teacups, tabulate the toy selection, total up the tablespoons and test the towels. How many items on sale in these stores are made in Taiwan, Thailand, Tierra Del Fuego or Tijuana? A lot. Conversely, how many items are made in Tulsa or Tucson or Tacoma? Practically zip.
Then go to your nearest Safeway and check out how much of the food sold there is imported: Sirloin, salmon, strawberries, string beans, syrah, spaghetti -- to name a few.
Then ask your gas station attendant where our gas comes from. The answer? Places like Kuwait, Central Asia, Caracus, the Caspian Sea and Kazakhstan.
Then check out where your cars, cameras, cell phones, computers, coffee and chocolate come from -- off-shore. Chile, Korea, Columbia, Cameroon, Calcutta and China for starters. Washington's so-called "free trade" and "globalization" policies are making America extremely vulnerable.
Almost everything that Americans use, buy or own comes from off-shore. If anything should ever happen to our ships or our docks, we'd be completely crippled. Crazy fundamentalists in Cessnas dropping Coke bottles filled with Kryptonite could take out our oil tankers and container vessels easy as pie -- it could be done with very little money. For instance, Timothy McVeigh took out a federal building with a rent-a-truck.
Can we really defend the entire Atlantic ocean and Pacific ocean 24/7? I think not.
Of course America's knee-jerk reaction to this impending threat will be to triple the size of our military (where will they get the poor grunts to serve in it? Off-shore of course!), have F-16's sweep every gallon of every ocean night and day and spend billions of dollars more on defense. "More defense! More defense!" I can hear our fearless leaders recite. That, and "War creates more jobs!"
But the military bomb-everything-to-bits approach is bound to fail because it is unsustainable, untenable, ineffective and wasteful of resources (not to mention dangerous). What we need to do is stop thinking like killing machines and start thinking like Americans! Americans are problem-solvers extraordinaire. Surely we can come up with something better. For starters, let's start growing our own food, manufacturing our own goods and cutting down on the need for foreign oil by investing in solar power, etc. We would be a lot safer.
Plus Americans would suddenly become completely employed. And we would be doing HONEST work. Making our income from building bombs is dirty work at best and immoral and ineffective at worst. IT'S TIME AMERICA STARTED PRODUCING PRODUCTS THAT WE CAN BE PROUD OF.
Re: Where America is most vulnerable and how to make us safe
Sometimes Washington and the Pentagon get so isolated in their ivory towers that they fail to notice things that we average Americans pick up on right away. I am your typical American budget-strapped church-going working mom and even I have noticed the following weaknesses in our country's defense system:
Where is America most vulnerable to terrorist attack? And how can we best protect ourselves? To find the answer to this vital question, let's go do some research: Go to any Walmart and turn over the teacups, tabulate the toy selection, total up the tablespoons and test the towels. How many items on sale in these stores are made in Taiwan, Thailand, Tierra Del Fuego or Tijuana? A lot. Conversely, how many items are made in Tulsa or Tucson or Tacoma? Practically zip.
Then go to your nearest Safeway and check out how much of the food sold there is imported: Sirloin, salmon, strawberries, string beans, syrah, spaghetti -- to name a few.
Then ask your gas station attendant where our gas comes from. The answer? Places like Kuwait, Central Asia, Caracus, the Caspian Sea and Kazakhstan.
Then check out where your cars, cameras, cell phones, computers, coffee and chocolate come from -- off-shore. Chile, Korea, Columbia, Cameroon, Calcutta and China for starters. Washington's so-called "free trade" and "globalization" policies are making America extremely vulnerable.
Almost everything that Americans use, buy or own comes from off-shore. If anything should ever happen to our ships or our docks, we'd be completely crippled. Crazy fundamentalists in Cessnas dropping Coke bottles filled with Kryptonite could take out our oil tankers and container vessels easy as pie -- it could be done with very little money. For instance, Timothy McVeigh took out a federal building with a rent-a-truck.
Can we really defend the entire Atlantic ocean and Pacific ocean 24/7? I think not.
Of course America's knee-jerk reaction to this impending threat will be to triple the size of our military (where will they get the poor grunts to serve in it? Off-shore of course!), have F-16's sweep every gallon of every ocean night and day and spend billions of dollars more on defense. "More defense! More defense!" I can hear our fearless leaders recite. That, and "War creates more jobs!"
But the military bomb-everything-to-bits approach is bound to fail because it is unsustainable, untenable, ineffective and wasteful of resources (not to mention dangerous). What we need to do is stop thinking like killing machines and start thinking like Americans! Americans are problem-solvers extraordinaire. Surely we can come up with something better. For starters, let's start growing our own food, manufacturing our own goods and cutting down on the need for foreign oil by investing in solar power, etc. We would be a lot safer.
Plus Americans would suddenly become completely employed. And we would be doing HONEST work. Making our income from building bombs is dirty work at best and immoral and ineffective at worst. IT'S TIME AMERICA STARTED PRODUCING PRODUCTS THAT WE CAN BE PROUD OF.
Sometimes Washington and the Pentagon get so isolated in their ivory towers that they fail to notice things that we average Americans pick up on right away. I am your typical American budget-strapped church-going working mom and even I have noticed the following weaknesses in our country's defense system:
Where is America most vulnerable to terrorist attack? And how can we best protect ourselves? To find the answer to this vital question, let's go do some research: Go to any Walmart and turn over the teacups, tabulate the toy selection, total up the tablespoons and test the towels. How many items on sale in these stores are made in Taiwan, Thailand, Tierra Del Fuego or Tijuana? A lot. Conversely, how many items are made in Tulsa or Tucson or Tacoma? Practically zip.
Then go to your nearest Safeway and check out how much of the food sold there is imported: Sirloin, salmon, strawberries, string beans, syrah, spaghetti -- to name a few.
Then ask your gas station attendant where our gas comes from. The answer? Places like Kuwait, Central Asia, Caracus, the Caspian Sea and Kazakhstan.
Then check out where your cars, cameras, cell phones, computers, coffee and chocolate come from -- off-shore. Chile, Korea, Columbia, Cameroon, Calcutta and China for starters. Washington's so-called "free trade" and "globalization" policies are making America extremely vulnerable.
Almost everything that Americans use, buy or own comes from off-shore. If anything should ever happen to our ships or our docks, we'd be completely crippled. Crazy fundamentalists in Cessnas dropping Coke bottles filled with Kryptonite could take out our oil tankers and container vessels easy as pie -- it could be done with very little money. For instance, Timothy McVeigh took out a federal building with a rent-a-truck.
Can we really defend the entire Atlantic ocean and Pacific ocean 24/7? I think not.
Of course America's knee-jerk reaction to this impending threat will be to triple the size of our military (where will they get the poor grunts to serve in it? Off-shore of course!), have F-16's sweep every gallon of every ocean night and day and spend billions of dollars more on defense. "More defense! More defense!" I can hear our fearless leaders recite. That, and "War creates more jobs!"
But the military bomb-everything-to-bits approach is bound to fail because it is unsustainable, untenable, ineffective and wasteful of resources (not to mention dangerous). What we need to do is stop thinking like killing machines and start thinking like Americans! Americans are problem-solvers extraordinaire. Surely we can come up with something better. For starters, let's start growing our own food, manufacturing our own goods and cutting down on the need for foreign oil by investing in solar power, etc. We would be a lot safer.
Plus Americans would suddenly become completely employed. And we would be doing HONEST work. Making our income from building bombs is dirty work at best and immoral and ineffective at worst. IT'S TIME AMERICA STARTED PRODUCING PRODUCTS THAT WE CAN BE PROUD OF.
America's current foreign policy: It's like kicking a hornets' nest while wearing a Speedo
Wanna impress your friends and say that you understand "modern" politics? Here's a list of analogies geared to make politics understandable in no time:
-- America's current foreign policy: It's like kicking a hornets' nest while wearing a Speedo.
-- Shock and Awe: It was like dropping 8,000 Cruise missiles on Los Angeles. Each missile had the capability take out a small town. Each missile costs as much as buying a house in Anaheim. That wasn't a war. That was a barbecue. And now Bush is doing it again.
-- Bush's latest budget proposal: It was like having some rich guy drive up next to you in his limo, get out of said limo and mug you for your wallet.
-- School budget cuts: It's like taking candy from a baby.
-- Military budget cuts: It's like a baby taking candy from a pack of pit bulls.
-- Why Palestinians hate the Bush/Sharon occupation: It's like waking up in your home town every day to a re-enactment of Wounded Knee outside your kitchen window while your children are out there playing jump rope.
-- Why Latin American countries don't like our current foreign policy: It's like having your union go on strike for better wages, walking the picket line and discovering too late that America had just hired the villian of "Mortal Kombat" to come in and French-fry you, your family AND your priest.
-- Media-control in America: It's like someone took David Letterman off the air and forced us to watch endless re-runs of "Misery" and "Saving Private Ryan" and "Mr. Bush goes to Washington".
-- The Department of Justice's over-zealous implementation of the Patriot Act: It's like when the Wicked Witch of the West says, "I'll get you, my pretty -- and your little dog too!" and you sink down in your chair and start to feel paranoid -- even if all you did was secretly wish for honest elections.
-- Terrorist alerts: It's like when the quarterback fakes it so he can make a line drive up center court without having to use the nine iron -- smoke and mirrors to distract you before you realize your wallet's gone -- again.
-- The difference between pre-Bush America and the current reality: It's like comparing "No place like home" to "I know what you did last summer."
We can do better!!!!!
Wanna impress your friends and say that you understand "modern" politics? Here's a list of analogies geared to make politics understandable in no time:
-- America's current foreign policy: It's like kicking a hornets' nest while wearing a Speedo.
-- Shock and Awe: It was like dropping 8,000 Cruise missiles on Los Angeles. Each missile had the capability take out a small town. Each missile costs as much as buying a house in Anaheim. That wasn't a war. That was a barbecue. And now Bush is doing it again.
-- Bush's latest budget proposal: It was like having some rich guy drive up next to you in his limo, get out of said limo and mug you for your wallet.
-- School budget cuts: It's like taking candy from a baby.
-- Military budget cuts: It's like a baby taking candy from a pack of pit bulls.
-- Why Palestinians hate the Bush/Sharon occupation: It's like waking up in your home town every day to a re-enactment of Wounded Knee outside your kitchen window while your children are out there playing jump rope.
-- Why Latin American countries don't like our current foreign policy: It's like having your union go on strike for better wages, walking the picket line and discovering too late that America had just hired the villian of "Mortal Kombat" to come in and French-fry you, your family AND your priest.
-- Media-control in America: It's like someone took David Letterman off the air and forced us to watch endless re-runs of "Misery" and "Saving Private Ryan" and "Mr. Bush goes to Washington".
-- The Department of Justice's over-zealous implementation of the Patriot Act: It's like when the Wicked Witch of the West says, "I'll get you, my pretty -- and your little dog too!" and you sink down in your chair and start to feel paranoid -- even if all you did was secretly wish for honest elections.
-- Terrorist alerts: It's like when the quarterback fakes it so he can make a line drive up center court without having to use the nine iron -- smoke and mirrors to distract you before you realize your wallet's gone -- again.
-- The difference between pre-Bush America and the current reality: It's like comparing "No place like home" to "I know what you did last summer."
We can do better!!!!!
What would Oprah do: Airing government secrets on daytime TV
In order to know what is going on, the American public needs complete access to its own public documents. What would Oprah do? In order to get information about our own government, do we have to force them to go on daytime TV or what?
Erik Thoreson writes about Norway's "sunshine" laws (http//www.salon.com/news/feature/2002/10/12/europe/index_np.html?)x). In Norway, every single government document that isn't a recipe for atomic bombs is open to public scrutiny. We need that!
It's not enough to just protest what is wrong with the current occupants of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. We gotta come up with something that is better than the cloak-and-dagger stuff they offer us. This is one suggestion: Wouldn't it be nice if the rest of us lowly peons were let into the loop?
How can we tell when we are being lied to unless we have full disclosure? And if we are NOT being lied to, then our government should welcome our interest. Plus how can we make informed decisions unless we are informed? The Freedom of Information Act was a good first step in the direction of making America a democracy again. We want more!
Now that the government can wiretap our Yahoo, it's only fair that WE get to wiretap the Oval Office!
In order to know what is going on, the American public needs complete access to its own public documents. What would Oprah do? In order to get information about our own government, do we have to force them to go on daytime TV or what?
Erik Thoreson writes about Norway's "sunshine" laws (http//www.salon.com/news/feature/2002/10/12/europe/index_np.html?)x). In Norway, every single government document that isn't a recipe for atomic bombs is open to public scrutiny. We need that!
It's not enough to just protest what is wrong with the current occupants of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. We gotta come up with something that is better than the cloak-and-dagger stuff they offer us. This is one suggestion: Wouldn't it be nice if the rest of us lowly peons were let into the loop?
How can we tell when we are being lied to unless we have full disclosure? And if we are NOT being lied to, then our government should welcome our interest. Plus how can we make informed decisions unless we are informed? The Freedom of Information Act was a good first step in the direction of making America a democracy again. We want more!
Now that the government can wiretap our Yahoo, it's only fair that WE get to wiretap the Oval Office!
Doing the math: USA + Iraq = USSR + Afghanistan
Here is a letter I wrote that was published in Time magazine last year. It still rings true. George Bush needs to stop killing women and children around the world. "Will Iraq be to America what Afghanistan was to the Soviet Union? The similarities are chilling."
Here is a letter I wrote that was published in Time magazine last year. It still rings true. George Bush needs to stop killing women and children around the world. "Will Iraq be to America what Afghanistan was to the Soviet Union? The similarities are chilling."
Monday, April 19, 2004
Here's an urgent request from Democrats.com to post on my blog regarding impeaching (and jailing) George W. Bush. I get to be a REAL blogger! Bloggers to the rescue! America's new Minutemen! Women?
Impeachment Alert! Dictator Bush Secretly Stole $700 Million to Prepare
for Invasion of Iraq
On 60 Minutes "Woodward says immediately after [Bush ordered a new Iraq
War plan on 11/21/01], Rumsfeld told Gen. Tommy Franks to develop a war
plan to invade Iraq and remove Saddam - and that Rumsfeld gave Franks a
blank check. 'Rumsfeld and Franks work out a deal essentially where Franks can spend any money he needs. And so he starts building runways and
pipelines and doing all the preparations in Kuwait, specifically to make
war possible,' says Woodward. 'Gets to a point where in the end of July
2002, they need $700 million, a large amount of money for all these
tasks. And the president approves it. But Congress doesn't know and it is
done. They get the money from a supplemental appropriation for the Afghan
War, which Congress has approved. 'Some people are gonna look at a document called the Constitution which says that no money will be drawn from the treasury unless appropriated by Congress. Congress was totally in the
dark on this.'" This is a HIGH CRIME - Impeach Bush NOW!
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/15/60minutes/main612067.shtml
Impeachment Alert! Dictator Bush Secretly Stole $700 Million to Prepare
for Invasion of Iraq
On 60 Minutes "Woodward says immediately after [Bush ordered a new Iraq
War plan on 11/21/01], Rumsfeld told Gen. Tommy Franks to develop a war
plan to invade Iraq and remove Saddam - and that Rumsfeld gave Franks a
blank check. 'Rumsfeld and Franks work out a deal essentially where Franks can spend any money he needs. And so he starts building runways and
pipelines and doing all the preparations in Kuwait, specifically to make
war possible,' says Woodward. 'Gets to a point where in the end of July
2002, they need $700 million, a large amount of money for all these
tasks. And the president approves it. But Congress doesn't know and it is
done. They get the money from a supplemental appropriation for the Afghan
War, which Congress has approved. 'Some people are gonna look at a document called the Constitution which says that no money will be drawn from the treasury unless appropriated by Congress. Congress was totally in the
dark on this.'" This is a HIGH CRIME - Impeach Bush NOW!
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/15/60minutes/main612067.shtml
Saturday, April 17, 2004
The difference between Jews defending themselves and Zionists poking sticks at hornets' nests
If I were a Jew (not just someone who loves Seder dinners and Yom Kippur services and the idea of fighting injustice and has respect for the Ten Commandments), I would HATE it if people tried to kill me and my kin for all those centuries. That having been said, I would like Zionists to stop poking sticks in the eyes of Arabs and then wondering why they get a reaction. That's not smart. That's not even religious. That's just plain folly.
There's a difference between self defence and kicking hornets' nests. PS I will never forgive the Allies for not offering the Jews a homeland in Europe after WW II. THAT was anti-semitic. AND will Zionists making threats to drop H-bombs on Europe and the Middle East make Israel safer? Wanna be safe? I recommend that you spend your $10 billion a year "defense" budget on making friends instead.
Unjust punishment ALWAYS leads to resistance. The British learned that in 1776. Some people, including Ariel Sharon and George Bush, never learn that.
If I were a Jew (not just someone who loves Seder dinners and Yom Kippur services and the idea of fighting injustice and has respect for the Ten Commandments), I would HATE it if people tried to kill me and my kin for all those centuries. That having been said, I would like Zionists to stop poking sticks in the eyes of Arabs and then wondering why they get a reaction. That's not smart. That's not even religious. That's just plain folly.
There's a difference between self defence and kicking hornets' nests. PS I will never forgive the Allies for not offering the Jews a homeland in Europe after WW II. THAT was anti-semitic. AND will Zionists making threats to drop H-bombs on Europe and the Middle East make Israel safer? Wanna be safe? I recommend that you spend your $10 billion a year "defense" budget on making friends instead.
Unjust punishment ALWAYS leads to resistance. The British learned that in 1776. Some people, including Ariel Sharon and George Bush, never learn that.
Thursday, April 15, 2004
My George Bush October Surprise Contest: Guess the correct place/date and win $50!
By Jane Stillwater, http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/
"As things heat up at the White House, do you think George Bush will stage his `October Surprise' early?" a friend just asked me.
"No," I replied. "Bush will be in jail by then." But unfortunately we do not live in a perfect world and George Bush seems to be able to get away with an amazing amount of stuff that would have had you or me in jail forever -- so I need to make contingency plans. It's almost a done deal that there WILL be an "October Surprise". It is just a matter of what it is going to be -- and when.
We can't just assume that a man who spent his childhood blowing up frogs is going to change his ways -- so I am assuming that Bush's "October Surprise" will probably have something to do with things that go BOOM.
Let's look at the facts. First Bush blew up the frogs. Then he moved on to bigger things. Did he blow up New York City next? Not according to John Ashcroft. After 9-11, however, Bush went on to blow up Afghanistan, Haiti and Iraq. Is there a pattern here? You bet!
And I will take your bet.
Just enter my new "What will Bush blow up next?" contest. If you are the first to guess correctly what the time and place of Bush's 2004 "October Surprise" will be, you will win $50!
Let's just hope that the winning answer won't be "California".
By Jane Stillwater, http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/
"As things heat up at the White House, do you think George Bush will stage his `October Surprise' early?" a friend just asked me.
"No," I replied. "Bush will be in jail by then." But unfortunately we do not live in a perfect world and George Bush seems to be able to get away with an amazing amount of stuff that would have had you or me in jail forever -- so I need to make contingency plans. It's almost a done deal that there WILL be an "October Surprise". It is just a matter of what it is going to be -- and when.
We can't just assume that a man who spent his childhood blowing up frogs is going to change his ways -- so I am assuming that Bush's "October Surprise" will probably have something to do with things that go BOOM.
Let's look at the facts. First Bush blew up the frogs. Then he moved on to bigger things. Did he blow up New York City next? Not according to John Ashcroft. After 9-11, however, Bush went on to blow up Afghanistan, Haiti and Iraq. Is there a pattern here? You bet!
And I will take your bet.
Just enter my new "What will Bush blow up next?" contest. If you are the first to guess correctly what the time and place of Bush's 2004 "October Surprise" will be, you will win $50!
Let's just hope that the winning answer won't be "California".
Monday, April 12, 2004
How the Japanese government blew the hostage deal
By Jane Stillwater, http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/
Last week, an e-mail group that I belong to got a frantic plea from a group member in Japan. "Please help my friends, 3 days only are given to save my friends' life. 3 Japanese humanitarian and peace activist/journalists are in hostage in Iraq. One of them is dear friend of mine." She asked us if anyone in our group knew of any Arab contacts that she could ask to intervene. The group sprang into action and sent her all kinds of contacts!
The Arab media was alerted to the crisis. "These are not Japanese soldiers. These are peace activists!" we told them. The Arab media then passed the word on to Iraqi clerics. The clerics in turn spread the word to others who then notified the rebels. Just like a game of "Telephone".
"We don't want to harm peace activists," said the rebels. Whew! All was well! Our member sent us another e-mail: "Dear all, I thank you all for your support again. I will cry when I see Imai-kun in person when he returns to Japan." She even sent us the URL! All was well. The internet had triumphed over injustice once again!
ABC (Australia) Reuter
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1085263.htm
Japanese hostages safe in Iraq: report
Then what happened? The Japanese government blew it bigtime. Instead of politely appreciating the situation, they just HAD to go and gloat. "The captors of my Japanese friends in Iraq just announced now that they will kill the hostages if Japan does not withdraw the Self Defense Force. They changed their mind after hearing Japanese government's statement on TV that the captors were releasing the hostages because Japanese government was firm and didn't negotiate with "terrorists". What all the citizens of the world tried days and nights were wasted."
It is time for our macho governments to step back from war and use other means to govern the world. To quote Jeannette Rankin, "Winning a war is like winning an earthquake."
Please request the Japanese government to withdraw its troops from Iraq and thus save the lives of the hostages. E-mail them c/o koizumi@mmz.kantei.go.jp Please request the US government to do the same. Foreign governments have no business killing Iraqi nationals. That's not war. That's murder.
__________________
"Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved: World Peace in one generation!"
By Jane Stillwater, http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/
Last week, an e-mail group that I belong to got a frantic plea from a group member in Japan. "Please help my friends, 3 days only are given to save my friends' life. 3 Japanese humanitarian and peace activist/journalists are in hostage in Iraq. One of them is dear friend of mine." She asked us if anyone in our group knew of any Arab contacts that she could ask to intervene. The group sprang into action and sent her all kinds of contacts!
The Arab media was alerted to the crisis. "These are not Japanese soldiers. These are peace activists!" we told them. The Arab media then passed the word on to Iraqi clerics. The clerics in turn spread the word to others who then notified the rebels. Just like a game of "Telephone".
"We don't want to harm peace activists," said the rebels. Whew! All was well! Our member sent us another e-mail: "Dear all, I thank you all for your support again. I will cry when I see Imai-kun in person when he returns to Japan." She even sent us the URL! All was well. The internet had triumphed over injustice once again!
ABC (Australia) Reuter
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1085263.htm
Japanese hostages safe in Iraq: report
Then what happened? The Japanese government blew it bigtime. Instead of politely appreciating the situation, they just HAD to go and gloat. "The captors of my Japanese friends in Iraq just announced now that they will kill the hostages if Japan does not withdraw the Self Defense Force. They changed their mind after hearing Japanese government's statement on TV that the captors were releasing the hostages because Japanese government was firm and didn't negotiate with "terrorists". What all the citizens of the world tried days and nights were wasted."
It is time for our macho governments to step back from war and use other means to govern the world. To quote Jeannette Rankin, "Winning a war is like winning an earthquake."
Please request the Japanese government to withdraw its troops from Iraq and thus save the lives of the hostages. E-mail them c/o koizumi@mmz.kantei.go.jp Please request the US government to do the same. Foreign governments have no business killing Iraqi nationals. That's not war. That's murder.
__________________
"Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved: World Peace in one generation!"
Sunday, April 11, 2004
Sacrilege! US troops bomb hospitals, massacre women and children ON EASTER SUNDAY
By Jane Stillwater
http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/
"I am reporting from Fallugah," cried a KPFA correspondent. "American troops have just bombed a hospital! Bodies of women and children litter the streets! This is a massacre." Welcome to George Bush's Easter celebration.
As a Christian, I am overwhelmed with complete and abject shame for the demonic satanic spawn of Hell in Washington who could actually command such a horrific butchery of innocents -- on this highest of all holy days. Kill women and children? Send our own brave fighting troops to their deaths? On Easter Sunday! Christ is the Prince of Peace. You spit in his face.
America has no business being in Iraq. None. There is no excuse for sending our troops there other than bloodthirsty greed.
Karl von Clausewitz stated that there was honor in war. Clausewitz was WRONG. There is NO honor in war. What honor could there possibly be in this bloody defilement of everything we as Americans and as Christians stand for? How can I go to church and casually watch children hunt Easter eggs when I know that blood-crazed serial killers are slaughtering women and children in Christ's name? When I know that these demonic killers are endangering us all, threatening not only our way of life but our very souls.
US troops are busy bombing hospitals and massacring women and children ON EASTER SUNDAY. That is sacrilegious. As a practicing Christian, I am sickened and disgusted.
________________
"Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved: World Peace in one generation!"
By Jane Stillwater
http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/
"I am reporting from Fallugah," cried a KPFA correspondent. "American troops have just bombed a hospital! Bodies of women and children litter the streets! This is a massacre." Welcome to George Bush's Easter celebration.
As a Christian, I am overwhelmed with complete and abject shame for the demonic satanic spawn of Hell in Washington who could actually command such a horrific butchery of innocents -- on this highest of all holy days. Kill women and children? Send our own brave fighting troops to their deaths? On Easter Sunday! Christ is the Prince of Peace. You spit in his face.
America has no business being in Iraq. None. There is no excuse for sending our troops there other than bloodthirsty greed.
Karl von Clausewitz stated that there was honor in war. Clausewitz was WRONG. There is NO honor in war. What honor could there possibly be in this bloody defilement of everything we as Americans and as Christians stand for? How can I go to church and casually watch children hunt Easter eggs when I know that blood-crazed serial killers are slaughtering women and children in Christ's name? When I know that these demonic killers are endangering us all, threatening not only our way of life but our very souls.
US troops are busy bombing hospitals and massacring women and children ON EASTER SUNDAY. That is sacrilegious. As a practicing Christian, I am sickened and disgusted.
________________
"Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved: World Peace in one generation!"
Friday, April 09, 2004
Matchstick Men: The Bush-Pentagon-Shiite-Freddie Kreuger approach to governance
By Jane Stillwater
http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/
Is there a psychologist in the house? "And what early childhood trauma did you suffer that makes you constantly want to kill kill kill?"
Hey. You. The guy in the White House. In the future, pleeeze try to think of more creative ways to rule the world than just copy-catting Hannibal Lector. And also bear in mind that Hannibal Lector did end up in jail. You have already collected your 200 billion dollars, George. You are not allowed to pass Go.
Moving right along. For all of you Dr. Strangelove death squad special op suicide bomber sweat shop East Timor Rwanda Stern Gang Kosovo Nazi Taliban serial killer types, I have just one word for you. "Rehab!"
And with regards to all you redneck blogger "Christian" militia pricks drooling over your Blackwater training, your AK-47s and your fond memories of killing gooks in 'Nam? Get over it! Start a 12-step program. If you wanna be a macho dude, get up off your duffs and start PLAYING Monday night football.
How come the people who control the world all appear to be certifiable psychopaths? Guess what? The rest of us are tired of your lack of creative imagination. "If it moves kill it! Women and children first!" Surely we can do better than that.
Let's make it a LAW that in order to serve in the world's congresses, parliaments, knessets and governing councils, you must have worked for at least five years teaching kindergarten! And only dictators who have graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design will be allowed to rule. And you gotta present your senior project in textile design before you will even be allowed to stage a coup!
Boot camp: A place where you grit your teeth and endure six months of intensive training on the cello. Only artists and musicians will be allowed to carry guns. And all those detainees in all those prison camps and penitentiaries and gulags all over the world will be forced to learn flower-arranging and Haiku.
It's time for the people of the world to examine and change our priorities. It's time for us to stop concentrating on the Crucification and start concentrating on the Resurrection. Let's stop making every day a sorrowful mystery -- and turn every day into Easter.
By Jane Stillwater
http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/
Is there a psychologist in the house? "And what early childhood trauma did you suffer that makes you constantly want to kill kill kill?"
Hey. You. The guy in the White House. In the future, pleeeze try to think of more creative ways to rule the world than just copy-catting Hannibal Lector. And also bear in mind that Hannibal Lector did end up in jail. You have already collected your 200 billion dollars, George. You are not allowed to pass Go.
Moving right along. For all of you Dr. Strangelove death squad special op suicide bomber sweat shop East Timor Rwanda Stern Gang Kosovo Nazi Taliban serial killer types, I have just one word for you. "Rehab!"
And with regards to all you redneck blogger "Christian" militia pricks drooling over your Blackwater training, your AK-47s and your fond memories of killing gooks in 'Nam? Get over it! Start a 12-step program. If you wanna be a macho dude, get up off your duffs and start PLAYING Monday night football.
How come the people who control the world all appear to be certifiable psychopaths? Guess what? The rest of us are tired of your lack of creative imagination. "If it moves kill it! Women and children first!" Surely we can do better than that.
Let's make it a LAW that in order to serve in the world's congresses, parliaments, knessets and governing councils, you must have worked for at least five years teaching kindergarten! And only dictators who have graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design will be allowed to rule. And you gotta present your senior project in textile design before you will even be allowed to stage a coup!
Boot camp: A place where you grit your teeth and endure six months of intensive training on the cello. Only artists and musicians will be allowed to carry guns. And all those detainees in all those prison camps and penitentiaries and gulags all over the world will be forced to learn flower-arranging and Haiku.
It's time for the people of the world to examine and change our priorities. It's time for us to stop concentrating on the Crucification and start concentrating on the Resurrection. Let's stop making every day a sorrowful mystery -- and turn every day into Easter.
Wednesday, April 07, 2004
Why do Americans just LOVE getting sucker-punched by George Bush?
By Jane Stillwater
Recently I went on a tour bus with a bunch of senior citizens. This trip was a pivotal point in my political education! All I did was mention...that I thought George Bush had stolen the 2000 election and...Holy cow! Sixteen irate little old ladies immediately attacked me with umbrellas! Were it not for my daughter Ashley's quick thinking, I would not even be here to tell the tale.
Americans just seem to LOVE getting sucker-punched by George Bush. Cite unemployment statistics to them? Line up facts about Bush's close alliances with, say, the bin Ladin family or Enron? THEY ARE NOT INTERESTED!
I double-dog dare you to drive across Texas with a bumper sticker that says "Bush lied, our soldiers died." At the very least, you would get your tires slashed.
Walk into almost any church in America and casually mention that perhaps Christ actually believed all that nonsense about "Thou shalt not kill" and/or that Bush might be exhibiting a tad too much blood-lust to be a good Christian and Boy howdy. You will be in Deep Dog Dookie.
Just go to any unemployment office in the nation and attempt to tell the poor jobless souls there that Bush's outsourcing policies have cost American workers over three million jobs in the last three years. Not a good idea!
Or try telling your Great Uncle Henry that Bush might have blown it on 9-11 by not scrambling our air defenses until over TWO HOURS after the first jet was hijacked. Your Great Uncle Henry will not only stop speaking to you forever, HE WILL WRITE YOU OUT OF HIS WILL!
Or go to a PTA meeting in California's central valley and mention that educational funding has been cut so drastically that EVERY child has been left behind. You'll be sitting in the corner with a dunce cap on before you can even recite the Pledge of Allegiance!
Or check out one of those spit-shined, buzz-cut American military men who fought the Vietnam war from an armchair in front of his TV set. With this guy, if you so much as even HINT that idealistic young American soldiers are dying in Iraq because Bush told 237 documented lies, John Wayne, Jr. here will pull out his1967 Army-issue side arm and shoot you. "You don't like it here then go move to Cuba you unpatriotic bitch!" he will crow over your bleeding corpse.
Just try explaining to Captain America here that all you were trying to do was protect our valiant enlisted men and women from Bush's motley crew of con-artists, hustlers and pimps. Nope. Forget it. Bush is God.
Why is it that whenever I point out to people that Bush does NOT have America's interests at heart, they look at me like I'm some nasty little bug? "America is NOT a superpower," I tell them. "The only superpower in the world today is George Bush. True Americans like you and me are just being used -- systematically hooked and gutted like trout on a fish farm. Do you think that Bush controls our freedom, our education, our jobs, our personal life and our oil because he LIKES us?" Then, after finishing this cute little speech, I run like hell.
Try telling Americans that corporations are not persons -- and even if they were, they need to stop playing Lex Luther and act morally like everybody else. Go ahead. Just tell that to your average dot-commer whose job is now in New Delhi. You will NEVER get asked to the prom.
Why do Americans just LOVE getting sucker-punched by George Bush? George Bush just keeps hitting us again and again -- right where we live: In our homes, in our hearts and in our pocketbooks. Yet Americans still keep passionately lining up to get hit again. Over and over and over again -- like so many bowling pins.
If anyone can figure out this phenomenon, PLEASE let me know! Americans need to stop playing Queen of Denial. It's time for us all to stop letting Bush and his billionaire friends destroy the country we love.
By Jane Stillwater
Recently I went on a tour bus with a bunch of senior citizens. This trip was a pivotal point in my political education! All I did was mention...that I thought George Bush had stolen the 2000 election and...Holy cow! Sixteen irate little old ladies immediately attacked me with umbrellas! Were it not for my daughter Ashley's quick thinking, I would not even be here to tell the tale.
Americans just seem to LOVE getting sucker-punched by George Bush. Cite unemployment statistics to them? Line up facts about Bush's close alliances with, say, the bin Ladin family or Enron? THEY ARE NOT INTERESTED!
I double-dog dare you to drive across Texas with a bumper sticker that says "Bush lied, our soldiers died." At the very least, you would get your tires slashed.
Walk into almost any church in America and casually mention that perhaps Christ actually believed all that nonsense about "Thou shalt not kill" and/or that Bush might be exhibiting a tad too much blood-lust to be a good Christian and Boy howdy. You will be in Deep Dog Dookie.
Just go to any unemployment office in the nation and attempt to tell the poor jobless souls there that Bush's outsourcing policies have cost American workers over three million jobs in the last three years. Not a good idea!
Or try telling your Great Uncle Henry that Bush might have blown it on 9-11 by not scrambling our air defenses until over TWO HOURS after the first jet was hijacked. Your Great Uncle Henry will not only stop speaking to you forever, HE WILL WRITE YOU OUT OF HIS WILL!
Or go to a PTA meeting in California's central valley and mention that educational funding has been cut so drastically that EVERY child has been left behind. You'll be sitting in the corner with a dunce cap on before you can even recite the Pledge of Allegiance!
Or check out one of those spit-shined, buzz-cut American military men who fought the Vietnam war from an armchair in front of his TV set. With this guy, if you so much as even HINT that idealistic young American soldiers are dying in Iraq because Bush told 237 documented lies, John Wayne, Jr. here will pull out his1967 Army-issue side arm and shoot you. "You don't like it here then go move to Cuba you unpatriotic bitch!" he will crow over your bleeding corpse.
Just try explaining to Captain America here that all you were trying to do was protect our valiant enlisted men and women from Bush's motley crew of con-artists, hustlers and pimps. Nope. Forget it. Bush is God.
Why is it that whenever I point out to people that Bush does NOT have America's interests at heart, they look at me like I'm some nasty little bug? "America is NOT a superpower," I tell them. "The only superpower in the world today is George Bush. True Americans like you and me are just being used -- systematically hooked and gutted like trout on a fish farm. Do you think that Bush controls our freedom, our education, our jobs, our personal life and our oil because he LIKES us?" Then, after finishing this cute little speech, I run like hell.
Try telling Americans that corporations are not persons -- and even if they were, they need to stop playing Lex Luther and act morally like everybody else. Go ahead. Just tell that to your average dot-commer whose job is now in New Delhi. You will NEVER get asked to the prom.
Why do Americans just LOVE getting sucker-punched by George Bush? George Bush just keeps hitting us again and again -- right where we live: In our homes, in our hearts and in our pocketbooks. Yet Americans still keep passionately lining up to get hit again. Over and over and over again -- like so many bowling pins.
If anyone can figure out this phenomenon, PLEASE let me know! Americans need to stop playing Queen of Denial. It's time for us all to stop letting Bush and his billionaire friends destroy the country we love.
America needs to apologize to the world -- and to make amends
I am not an expert on world affairs. I am only an ordinary citizen. Yet even I know enough to realize that America needs to apologize to the world for its behavior in the last 50 years -- and then America needs to make amends.
What does America need to apologize for?
First off, America needs to apologize to China for funding the corrupt and tyrannical government of Chaing Ki Shek after World War II. Had we given China a Marshall Plan instead of a brutal dictator, odds are even that China would not have been saddled with Mao Tze Tung, six million Tibetans would not have died and we could have avoided both the Korean War and the war in Vietnam.
America needs to apologize to Cambodia. Had Kissinger not given the secret order to kill 600,000 civilians and de-stabilize the country, Cambodia would not have been vulnerable to the scourge of the Khmer Rouge.
America needs to apologize to Latin America for creating the "banana republics" that replaced democracy after democracy with military coups, death squads and dictators. El Salvador, Guatemala, Chile, Cuba and Nicaragua come easily to mind but if we go down any list of Latin American countries, we will find buckets of American government/corporate money behind every bloody coup.
America needs to apologize to Africa. Eisenhower's thugs funded the overthrow of the democratic government of Patrice Lmumba in the Congo, setting off a domino effect of destabilization that is still playing out in Africa today -- resulting in thousands, possibly millions of deaths.
America needs to apologize to the Middle East. In Palestine, our government has funded 50 years of ethnic cleansing and the creation of the world's largest concentration camp; causing Israel to lose its moral compass by making gunships and F-16's all too handy. America has lured Israel into moral terpretude with the glittery promise of $8.5 million a day to go out and shop for guns.
America needs to apologize to the whole world for that matter -- for forcing guns down countries' throats at every turn and changing the diplomatic process into a world-wide version of Columbine High School.
America needs to apologize for funding the overthrow of democratic Iran in favor of the brutal Shah. America needs to apologize for funneling money through Pakistan to buy weapons for the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan. America needs to apologize for supporting the repressive dictatorship of Saudi Arabia, home of Al Quaeda (America also needs to apologize to the families of the victims of 9-11 for helping to create the tyrannical environments where terrorists like Al Quaeda can grow and flourish.) And America needs to apologize to the people of Iraq for funding and empowering Saddam Hussain.
America needs to apologize to the people of Australia for putting them in harm's way when American government/corporations destabilized Southeast Asia by funding and encouraging the brutal dictatorship of Indonesia. Documents have just revealed that America gave weapons to Indonesia to massacre thousands of civilians in East Timor in cold blood and create the nation-wide repression resulting in the formation of the terrorist gangs who blew up Australian citizens in peaceful and idyllic Bali (Bali used to be to Australia what Hawaii is to us; a safe, affordable vacation paradise).
America needs to apologize to the world for creating "schools" like the School of the Americas in Georgia and its siblings in Africa, Asia and the Middle East -- American schools whose curriculum is "How to Torture".
America needs to apologize to the world for our government/corporate role in overtly and covertly funding so many dictators throughout the world that it is impossible to list them all or to even keep track of them. Documents recently discovered have revealed that American banks/corporations even funded the rise of Adolph Hitler. And I cannot begin to list here the millions -- perhaps billions -- of innocent people who have died because of American government/corporate influence and interference.
America needs to make apologies in every corner of the world.
But apologies are not enough. America also needs to make amends. And America also needs to become an idealistic, democratic example of freedom, courage and hope to the world once again. Let's let the Stars and Stripes stand for something wonderful for a change.
I am not an expert on world affairs. I am only an ordinary citizen. Yet even I know enough to realize that America needs to apologize to the world for its behavior in the last 50 years -- and then America needs to make amends.
What does America need to apologize for?
First off, America needs to apologize to China for funding the corrupt and tyrannical government of Chaing Ki Shek after World War II. Had we given China a Marshall Plan instead of a brutal dictator, odds are even that China would not have been saddled with Mao Tze Tung, six million Tibetans would not have died and we could have avoided both the Korean War and the war in Vietnam.
America needs to apologize to Cambodia. Had Kissinger not given the secret order to kill 600,000 civilians and de-stabilize the country, Cambodia would not have been vulnerable to the scourge of the Khmer Rouge.
America needs to apologize to Latin America for creating the "banana republics" that replaced democracy after democracy with military coups, death squads and dictators. El Salvador, Guatemala, Chile, Cuba and Nicaragua come easily to mind but if we go down any list of Latin American countries, we will find buckets of American government/corporate money behind every bloody coup.
America needs to apologize to Africa. Eisenhower's thugs funded the overthrow of the democratic government of Patrice Lmumba in the Congo, setting off a domino effect of destabilization that is still playing out in Africa today -- resulting in thousands, possibly millions of deaths.
America needs to apologize to the Middle East. In Palestine, our government has funded 50 years of ethnic cleansing and the creation of the world's largest concentration camp; causing Israel to lose its moral compass by making gunships and F-16's all too handy. America has lured Israel into moral terpretude with the glittery promise of $8.5 million a day to go out and shop for guns.
America needs to apologize to the whole world for that matter -- for forcing guns down countries' throats at every turn and changing the diplomatic process into a world-wide version of Columbine High School.
America needs to apologize for funding the overthrow of democratic Iran in favor of the brutal Shah. America needs to apologize for funneling money through Pakistan to buy weapons for the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan. America needs to apologize for supporting the repressive dictatorship of Saudi Arabia, home of Al Quaeda (America also needs to apologize to the families of the victims of 9-11 for helping to create the tyrannical environments where terrorists like Al Quaeda can grow and flourish.) And America needs to apologize to the people of Iraq for funding and empowering Saddam Hussain.
America needs to apologize to the people of Australia for putting them in harm's way when American government/corporations destabilized Southeast Asia by funding and encouraging the brutal dictatorship of Indonesia. Documents have just revealed that America gave weapons to Indonesia to massacre thousands of civilians in East Timor in cold blood and create the nation-wide repression resulting in the formation of the terrorist gangs who blew up Australian citizens in peaceful and idyllic Bali (Bali used to be to Australia what Hawaii is to us; a safe, affordable vacation paradise).
America needs to apologize to the world for creating "schools" like the School of the Americas in Georgia and its siblings in Africa, Asia and the Middle East -- American schools whose curriculum is "How to Torture".
America needs to apologize to the world for our government/corporate role in overtly and covertly funding so many dictators throughout the world that it is impossible to list them all or to even keep track of them. Documents recently discovered have revealed that American banks/corporations even funded the rise of Adolph Hitler. And I cannot begin to list here the millions -- perhaps billions -- of innocent people who have died because of American government/corporate influence and interference.
America needs to make apologies in every corner of the world.
But apologies are not enough. America also needs to make amends. And America also needs to become an idealistic, democratic example of freedom, courage and hope to the world once again. Let's let the Stars and Stripes stand for something wonderful for a change.
Bush wins the trifecta again
George Bush has won the trifecta again -- due to another airplane disaster. Will he say "Lucky me" again this time too?
The legislature, judiciary and executive branches are all now under Republican control as of Senator Paul Wellstone's tragic and untimely death. Dick Cheney now holds the deciding Senate vote.
I offer my sincerest condolences to all my wonderful friends in Minnesota and also to the Wellstone family. Paul Wellstone was a man of principle and an honest man and a hero to our nation.
George Bush has won the trifecta again -- due to another airplane disaster. Will he say "Lucky me" again this time too?
The legislature, judiciary and executive branches are all now under Republican control as of Senator Paul Wellstone's tragic and untimely death. Dick Cheney now holds the deciding Senate vote.
I offer my sincerest condolences to all my wonderful friends in Minnesota and also to the Wellstone family. Paul Wellstone was a man of principle and an honest man and a hero to our nation.
Why is Ariel Sharon dragging the already-suffering Jews of Israel through even further Hell?
Ariel Sharon has somehow convinced the people of Israel -- who have already gone through enough hell to last anyone three lifetimes -- that going deeper into the abject misery of oppression and hate and war is going to solve their problems; that if they only kill more Palestinians they'll be safe. That's magical thinking -- that's how a serial killer would think. And that's not true.
Jews who went through the worst torture imaginable -- go see the new movie with Mira Sorveno and Steve Beshemi about life in the concentration camps if you want to get an idea of what these poor people went through. And now Jews are being told that if they only put the people of Palestine through the same degradation and pain that Hitler put them through, then everything will be all right and Israel will be a smiling, happy place again.
What kind of sick, warped propaganda is that?
Who is this man to take such advantage of innocent, fragile people who are still struggling to get their lives together after tragedy? To take advantage of someone else's fear, somene else's misery? For what? What is in this for Ariel Saron? Wealth and power? You got that right. Sharon just hit American taxpayers up for another ten billion dollars! The man has a racket going. Why should he stop? And he does not care who has to pay the cost; even if it is the sons and daughters of concentration camp survivors.
America already gives Sharon $8.5 million a day to butcher Palestinians. Why should he stop now when he is hitting the trifecta.
Ariel Sharon gets big bucks and the kick of killing people. What do the people of Israel get? They get to live in constant fear. They get to break the Ten Commandments. They get to see terrible things happen to their loved ones. They get to watch their economy die slowly from lack of tourists and from funneling the nation's money into Sharon's settlements and Sharon's Swiss bank accounts.
That's just wrong, Mr. Sharon. Take a break. And give your subjects a break as well -- stop driving them further and further into the heart of Hell. Give up this Palestine insanity. Let the Jews of Israel finally have some well-needed peace.
Peace can never come from killing other human beings.
Some Israelis may think that I am prejudiced in favor of the people of Palestine. I am not. I am prejudiced in favor of eliminating all human suffering -- no matter who is receiving the blows from the lash. Were you to be suffering, Mr. Sharon, I would try to protect and defend even you. It is time for the human race to evolve.
Ariel Sharon has somehow convinced the people of Israel -- who have already gone through enough hell to last anyone three lifetimes -- that going deeper into the abject misery of oppression and hate and war is going to solve their problems; that if they only kill more Palestinians they'll be safe. That's magical thinking -- that's how a serial killer would think. And that's not true.
Jews who went through the worst torture imaginable -- go see the new movie with Mira Sorveno and Steve Beshemi about life in the concentration camps if you want to get an idea of what these poor people went through. And now Jews are being told that if they only put the people of Palestine through the same degradation and pain that Hitler put them through, then everything will be all right and Israel will be a smiling, happy place again.
What kind of sick, warped propaganda is that?
Who is this man to take such advantage of innocent, fragile people who are still struggling to get their lives together after tragedy? To take advantage of someone else's fear, somene else's misery? For what? What is in this for Ariel Saron? Wealth and power? You got that right. Sharon just hit American taxpayers up for another ten billion dollars! The man has a racket going. Why should he stop? And he does not care who has to pay the cost; even if it is the sons and daughters of concentration camp survivors.
America already gives Sharon $8.5 million a day to butcher Palestinians. Why should he stop now when he is hitting the trifecta.
Ariel Sharon gets big bucks and the kick of killing people. What do the people of Israel get? They get to live in constant fear. They get to break the Ten Commandments. They get to see terrible things happen to their loved ones. They get to watch their economy die slowly from lack of tourists and from funneling the nation's money into Sharon's settlements and Sharon's Swiss bank accounts.
That's just wrong, Mr. Sharon. Take a break. And give your subjects a break as well -- stop driving them further and further into the heart of Hell. Give up this Palestine insanity. Let the Jews of Israel finally have some well-needed peace.
Peace can never come from killing other human beings.
Some Israelis may think that I am prejudiced in favor of the people of Palestine. I am not. I am prejudiced in favor of eliminating all human suffering -- no matter who is receiving the blows from the lash. Were you to be suffering, Mr. Sharon, I would try to protect and defend even you. It is time for the human race to evolve.
My father was a Repbulican back in the 1950's. Things have changed a lot since then -- for the better. Under Clinton, there were jobs and peace. And now things have changed again --for the worse. We have been thrown back into my father's time! The only difference between now and then is that back then there was money to spend. Now we don't even have that. If my father was alive today, even he would vote Democratic.
I am sick and tired of being told by Republicans that everything is grand; even as they embroil us in a possible second Great Depression and World War III.
I am sick and tired of being told by Republicans that everything is grand; even as they embroil us in a possible second Great Depression and World War III.
Misleading Congress during war debate is an impeachable offense
Your better class of attorneys tend to carry a copy of the US Constitution in their back pockets. I was talking to one such attorney today. "Section 8, Clause 11 of the Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war," he told me. "However, Congress does not maintain the necessary intelligence-gathering mechanisms to obtain the knowledge they must have in order to make an informed decision on whether or not to declare war. For their actual on-the-ground information therefore, Congress must rely on the intelligence-gathering capabilities of the executive branch. To be mis-lead or misinformed regarding such crucial information is an impeachable offense."
"You mean that Congress has legal grounds to impeach George W. Bush because he withheld vital information regarding North Korea?"
"That is correct."
So. Congress. Let's roll.
Your better class of attorneys tend to carry a copy of the US Constitution in their back pockets. I was talking to one such attorney today. "Section 8, Clause 11 of the Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war," he told me. "However, Congress does not maintain the necessary intelligence-gathering mechanisms to obtain the knowledge they must have in order to make an informed decision on whether or not to declare war. For their actual on-the-ground information therefore, Congress must rely on the intelligence-gathering capabilities of the executive branch. To be mis-lead or misinformed regarding such crucial information is an impeachable offense."
"You mean that Congress has legal grounds to impeach George W. Bush because he withheld vital information regarding North Korea?"
"That is correct."
So. Congress. Let's roll.
If Congress wasn't told about Korea's nuclear bomb, what ELSE is being kept from our elected representatives?
If the White House didn't inform members of Congress about North Korea's nuclear weapons capabilities, it makes you wonder what OTHER secrets are being kept from America's duly-elected Congresional representatives.
If the White House didn't inform members of Congress about North Korea's nuclear weapons capabilities, it makes you wonder what OTHER secrets are being kept from America's duly-elected Congresional representatives.
BRAWL: Let's have Saddam and Dubya duke it out on Jerry Springer!
Rather than spend $9 Billion a month killing innocent women and children, let's have Saddam and Dubya duke it out on the Jerry Springer show! They could yell at each other to their hearts' content and Steve could keep them from getting too physical. And Jerry is a GREAT referee. Works for me. How about you?
I wrote a poem for the occasion:
When Dubya is willing to spill blood for oil, it's time for Jerry Springer.
When American workers get bitch-slapped by their own government, it's time for Buffy the Vampire Slayer!
When we can't tell when our government leaves off and the CEO's begin, it's time for the WWF!
When guys in black suits and buzz cuts run the media and dictate what news gets printed, it's time to bring in Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones -- the REAL Men in Black!
When American jobs are devastated and unemployment is a reality of life, it's time to bring back Roseann!
When the government threatens our union workers with the army, it's time for Superman to come back to Smallville!
When war is our only industry and fear keeps us in line, it's time for a revolution at the polls.
Rather than spend $9 Billion a month killing innocent women and children, let's have Saddam and Dubya duke it out on the Jerry Springer show! They could yell at each other to their hearts' content and Steve could keep them from getting too physical. And Jerry is a GREAT referee. Works for me. How about you?
I wrote a poem for the occasion:
When Dubya is willing to spill blood for oil, it's time for Jerry Springer.
When American workers get bitch-slapped by their own government, it's time for Buffy the Vampire Slayer!
When we can't tell when our government leaves off and the CEO's begin, it's time for the WWF!
When guys in black suits and buzz cuts run the media and dictate what news gets printed, it's time to bring in Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones -- the REAL Men in Black!
When American jobs are devastated and unemployment is a reality of life, it's time to bring back Roseann!
When the government threatens our union workers with the army, it's time for Superman to come back to Smallville!
When war is our only industry and fear keeps us in line, it's time for a revolution at the polls.
Re: America's WAR ON SOCIAL SECURITY or its WAR ON SCHOOLS: Which is more effective?
Even though America's current War on Social Security is coming along nicely and the Social Security fund is clearly a candidate for mass destruction, I would have to say that our government's War on Schools is the most effective. We are doing a really good job of eliminating high-quality education in this country. Already our educational system ranks worst among all industrialized nations -- and probably below several Third World countries as well!
Last night was Back-to-School Night at Berkeley High. Good old BHS used to be one of the top-ranking academic high schools in the United States. However, despite Herculean efforts by its administrators and teachers, this is what I learned about its present state:
* Teachers were instructed to hit parents up for money at the event. And most of them did -- albeit with heart-felt apologies
• Teachers have to pay for their own supplies
• Teachers now have to pay for their own substitutes if they want to take their classes on field trips ($130 a pop)
• The e-mail system is broken
• The photocopier doesn't work
• The 90-minute AP science classes have been eliminated
• The school has now gone from seven periods a day to six periods
• The lunch hour has been shortened
• The steps to the portables wibble-wobble dangerously
• There are no textbooks in some classes and they are hopelessly out-dated in others
• Yet despite this abominable lack of funding for our schools, we can still manage to come up with nine billion dollars a month to illegally invade Iraq.
Good job, America! Even as we speak, you have already won the War on Schools! Please remember, however, that education is cheaper and more effective than war.
Even though America's current War on Social Security is coming along nicely and the Social Security fund is clearly a candidate for mass destruction, I would have to say that our government's War on Schools is the most effective. We are doing a really good job of eliminating high-quality education in this country. Already our educational system ranks worst among all industrialized nations -- and probably below several Third World countries as well!
Last night was Back-to-School Night at Berkeley High. Good old BHS used to be one of the top-ranking academic high schools in the United States. However, despite Herculean efforts by its administrators and teachers, this is what I learned about its present state:
* Teachers were instructed to hit parents up for money at the event. And most of them did -- albeit with heart-felt apologies
• Teachers have to pay for their own supplies
• Teachers now have to pay for their own substitutes if they want to take their classes on field trips ($130 a pop)
• The e-mail system is broken
• The photocopier doesn't work
• The 90-minute AP science classes have been eliminated
• The school has now gone from seven periods a day to six periods
• The lunch hour has been shortened
• The steps to the portables wibble-wobble dangerously
• There are no textbooks in some classes and they are hopelessly out-dated in others
• Yet despite this abominable lack of funding for our schools, we can still manage to come up with nine billion dollars a month to illegally invade Iraq.
Good job, America! Even as we speak, you have already won the War on Schools! Please remember, however, that education is cheaper and more effective than war.
PRESS RELEASE
On July 4, 2002, I served the following "Three-Day Notice to Perform or Quit" on the current tenants of the White House, based on multiple violations of their lease, The United States Constitution.
The "Homeland Security" bill further violates The United States Constitution, leading many American patriots to ask, "Once they have taken The Constitution away, will it be possible to someday get it back?"
That question is clearly answered in Kern Sunset Oil Co. v. Good Roads Oil Co. (1931) 214 C 435, 440, 6 P2d 71; "Acceptance of rent after the tenant's breach of a covenant by a landlord who has full knowledge of all the facts constitutes a waiver of the breach." Translation: Since we have already waived our Constitutional rights, we may not be legally entitled to get them back again. Ever.
PS: In the process of serving this Notice, I broke my arm! I tripped on a pothole in Lafayette Park and spent July 4 in the George Washington University hospital ER. (Our tax dollars do NOT go toward maintaining the National Parks system. They probably go to weapons manufacturers' Swiss bank accounts.)
Over three months later, my arm still hasn't healed. And the tenants in violation are STILL in the White House. This is supposed to be a democracy! Go figure.
Very truly yours, Jane Stillwater, Berkeley, CA
THREE-DAY NOTICE TO PERFORM OR QUIT
TENANTS IN POSSESSION OF THE PREMISES LOCATED AT AND COMMONLY KNOWN AS:
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC 20500
YOU ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED that you have violated the following covenants of your Lease Agreement, The Constitution of the United States, the agreement under which you hold possession of the above-described premises:
Tenants, and each of them, have failed to protect and defend The Constitution of the United States [including but not limited to the Bill of Rights] as follows:
Constitutional Article II, Section 1. [3]: The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be President: Current tenants have not met this criteria for tenancy and are in illegal possession of said premises.
Constitutional Article II, Section 1. [7]: ...[H]e shall not receive...any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them: Current tenants have caused funds to be diverted away from state and federal agencies, bureaus and departments, and diverted toward other personal and/or vested interests and investments including but not limited to weapons production and the production of fossil fuels.
Constitutional Article IV, Section 4.: The United States shall...protect [every state] against Invasion: New York State failed to receive said protection.
Further, tenants have failed to protect and defend the Constitution and also the country bound by its statutes by failing to provide for the common defense in a manner that maximizes fiduciary responsibility.
Example: Tenants failed to discern that it is less costly and more productive to defend the United States by the promotion of the health, education and welfare of its citizens -- and the world -- than it is to declare nuclear war on other countries and to spend trillions of dollars on weapons of wholesale slaughter(WMD); said slaughter only serving to create more and fiercer enemies of the state.
Example: Tenants failed to discern that it is less costly and more productive to promote economic and agricultural efficiency than it is to pursue an economy based on fossil fuel to the benefit of confederates and associates in control of fossil fuel production.
Constitutional Article VI [3]: ...all executive officers...shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution: Tenants have failed to support The Constitution of the United States as evidenced by the "Patriot Act" and other such infringements.
Constitutional Bill of Rights: Congress shall make no law respecting...abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances: Tenants failed in their duty to advise Congress in this matter; and did indeed encourage Congress to disregard said Constitutional Amendment.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable search and seizures: This right has been repeatedly violated by tenants.
With regard for citizens' rights to a speedy and public trial, trial by jury, restraint from use of cruel and unusual punishment, etc.: The current tenants have given away United States citizens' civil rights and liberties hand over fist.
Amendment XV: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged...by any State: Tenants and/or their representatives have conspired to deny the right of citizens to vote. Their rights have been thus violated and abridged.
Further, as recipients of public housing benefits, tenants of the White House are subject to the "one strike, you're out" regulation concerning the use of drugs by their relatives.
YOU ARE FURTHER NOTIFIED that within THREE (3) DAYS after the date of service of this notice on you, you must cure the foregoing breaches of covenant, by providing to the landlord evidence that you are conducting the business of the executive branch in such a manner as to reasonably meet the requirements of the lease aka The Constitution of the United States, or quit said premises and deliver up possession of the same to the landlord, the People of the United States of America.
If not cured within THREE DAYS, the undersigned will institute legal proceedings for unlawful detainer against you to recover possession of said premises, to declare said Lease forfeited and to recover damages, attorneys' fees and costs of suit.
YOU ARE FURTHER NOTIFIED that by this notice, the landlord elects to and does hereby declare a forfeiture of said Lease if said covenant is not performed within said three (3) days.
Dated: July 4, 2002 By Jane Stillwater
POINTS AND AUTHORITIES:
Right to petition the government for redress: Under Amendment I of The Constitution of the United States, Petitioner Jane Stillwater is granted the right to petition the government for redress. Further, as a citizen and taxpayer of these United States, Stillwater is thereby qualified to petition as Landlord in this adversarial proceeding.
Unlawful Detainer: White House tenants meet requirements for a Three-Day Notice to "Perform or Quit" under California Code of Civil Procedure as follows:
Grounds for the three-day notice: Landlords may evict tenants pursuant to a written three-day notice to terminate for breach of covenant in the rental agreement [CCP § 1161(3)] or nuisance or use of the premises for an illegal purpose [CCP § 1161(4)].
A three-day written notice to "perform or quit" is likewise proper to evict tenants who have violated any other material covenant of the rental agreement [CCP § 1161(3)].
"Nail and Mail": Under "conspicuous" service, sometimes called "nail and mail", the landlord affixes a copy of the notice to a conspicuous place on the property, mails another copy to the tenant, and leaves a third with a person residing on the premises (if one can be found) [CCP § 1162(3)]
On July 4, 2002, I served the following "Three-Day Notice to Perform or Quit" on the current tenants of the White House, based on multiple violations of their lease, The United States Constitution.
The "Homeland Security" bill further violates The United States Constitution, leading many American patriots to ask, "Once they have taken The Constitution away, will it be possible to someday get it back?"
That question is clearly answered in Kern Sunset Oil Co. v. Good Roads Oil Co. (1931) 214 C 435, 440, 6 P2d 71; "Acceptance of rent after the tenant's breach of a covenant by a landlord who has full knowledge of all the facts constitutes a waiver of the breach." Translation: Since we have already waived our Constitutional rights, we may not be legally entitled to get them back again. Ever.
PS: In the process of serving this Notice, I broke my arm! I tripped on a pothole in Lafayette Park and spent July 4 in the George Washington University hospital ER. (Our tax dollars do NOT go toward maintaining the National Parks system. They probably go to weapons manufacturers' Swiss bank accounts.)
Over three months later, my arm still hasn't healed. And the tenants in violation are STILL in the White House. This is supposed to be a democracy! Go figure.
Very truly yours, Jane Stillwater, Berkeley, CA
THREE-DAY NOTICE TO PERFORM OR QUIT
TENANTS IN POSSESSION OF THE PREMISES LOCATED AT AND COMMONLY KNOWN AS:
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC 20500
YOU ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED that you have violated the following covenants of your Lease Agreement, The Constitution of the United States, the agreement under which you hold possession of the above-described premises:
Tenants, and each of them, have failed to protect and defend The Constitution of the United States [including but not limited to the Bill of Rights] as follows:
Constitutional Article II, Section 1. [3]: The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be President: Current tenants have not met this criteria for tenancy and are in illegal possession of said premises.
Constitutional Article II, Section 1. [7]: ...[H]e shall not receive...any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them: Current tenants have caused funds to be diverted away from state and federal agencies, bureaus and departments, and diverted toward other personal and/or vested interests and investments including but not limited to weapons production and the production of fossil fuels.
Constitutional Article IV, Section 4.: The United States shall...protect [every state] against Invasion: New York State failed to receive said protection.
Further, tenants have failed to protect and defend the Constitution and also the country bound by its statutes by failing to provide for the common defense in a manner that maximizes fiduciary responsibility.
Example: Tenants failed to discern that it is less costly and more productive to defend the United States by the promotion of the health, education and welfare of its citizens -- and the world -- than it is to declare nuclear war on other countries and to spend trillions of dollars on weapons of wholesale slaughter(WMD); said slaughter only serving to create more and fiercer enemies of the state.
Example: Tenants failed to discern that it is less costly and more productive to promote economic and agricultural efficiency than it is to pursue an economy based on fossil fuel to the benefit of confederates and associates in control of fossil fuel production.
Constitutional Article VI [3]: ...all executive officers...shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution: Tenants have failed to support The Constitution of the United States as evidenced by the "Patriot Act" and other such infringements.
Constitutional Bill of Rights: Congress shall make no law respecting...abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances: Tenants failed in their duty to advise Congress in this matter; and did indeed encourage Congress to disregard said Constitutional Amendment.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable search and seizures: This right has been repeatedly violated by tenants.
With regard for citizens' rights to a speedy and public trial, trial by jury, restraint from use of cruel and unusual punishment, etc.: The current tenants have given away United States citizens' civil rights and liberties hand over fist.
Amendment XV: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged...by any State: Tenants and/or their representatives have conspired to deny the right of citizens to vote. Their rights have been thus violated and abridged.
Further, as recipients of public housing benefits, tenants of the White House are subject to the "one strike, you're out" regulation concerning the use of drugs by their relatives.
YOU ARE FURTHER NOTIFIED that within THREE (3) DAYS after the date of service of this notice on you, you must cure the foregoing breaches of covenant, by providing to the landlord evidence that you are conducting the business of the executive branch in such a manner as to reasonably meet the requirements of the lease aka The Constitution of the United States, or quit said premises and deliver up possession of the same to the landlord, the People of the United States of America.
If not cured within THREE DAYS, the undersigned will institute legal proceedings for unlawful detainer against you to recover possession of said premises, to declare said Lease forfeited and to recover damages, attorneys' fees and costs of suit.
YOU ARE FURTHER NOTIFIED that by this notice, the landlord elects to and does hereby declare a forfeiture of said Lease if said covenant is not performed within said three (3) days.
Dated: July 4, 2002 By Jane Stillwater
POINTS AND AUTHORITIES:
Right to petition the government for redress: Under Amendment I of The Constitution of the United States, Petitioner Jane Stillwater is granted the right to petition the government for redress. Further, as a citizen and taxpayer of these United States, Stillwater is thereby qualified to petition as Landlord in this adversarial proceeding.
Unlawful Detainer: White House tenants meet requirements for a Three-Day Notice to "Perform or Quit" under California Code of Civil Procedure as follows:
Grounds for the three-day notice: Landlords may evict tenants pursuant to a written three-day notice to terminate for breach of covenant in the rental agreement [CCP § 1161(3)] or nuisance or use of the premises for an illegal purpose [CCP § 1161(4)].
A three-day written notice to "perform or quit" is likewise proper to evict tenants who have violated any other material covenant of the rental agreement [CCP § 1161(3)].
"Nail and Mail": Under "conspicuous" service, sometimes called "nail and mail", the landlord affixes a copy of the notice to a conspicuous place on the property, mails another copy to the tenant, and leaves a third with a person residing on the premises (if one can be found) [CCP § 1162(3)]
PRESS RELEASE: ALIENS TAKE OVER PLANET, FORCE PEOPLE
TO BEHAVE LIKE CHRIST.
In a terrifying recent coup, aliens seized control
of the hearts and minds of men today, forcing them to
be Christ-like.
"It's terrible," screamed one top White House
resident, forced to be truthful against his will. "I
cannot tell a lie!"
Elsewhere in Washington, several members of the
US Supreme court were seen desperately thumbing
through the pages of Tennessee phone books.
In Israel, Arial Sharon was inconsolable. "I can
no longer indiscriminately butcher Palestinian
civilians," he wailed. "There goes my 8.5 million
dollars per day from American tax payers! There goes
my Final Solution! I'm ruined!"
In Rome, the Pope was also desperate. "Christ
wants me to nurture, protect, cherish and love the
children that have already been born," he complained
bitterly during Easter liturgy. "I can't do that!
What will I do with all the slums and starving babies in
Africa and Latin America that I personally created? Jesus! I pray that you cast this burden from me! True compassion is too much work."
In the Middle East, Osama Bin Ladin was in tears.
"I can't kill people any more! What am I do do?"
America's Secretary of Defense, various NRA officials
and the stockholders of Lockheed-Martin also Heard his
Pain. Their lives too had been decimated by Christ.
Drug runners, thieves, extortionists, child
abusers and members of the World Trade Organization
also gave up their un-Christ-like behavior and began
to live in Gandhi-like simplicity.
"Every time I think about my Lear jet and my
Lamborghini," said one World Bank executive, "I think
about the starving, enslaved children of Africa who
bought it for me and...I miss my toys."
Meanwhile, women throughout the world took the
changes stoically. "Of course we have some
familiarity with being kind," declared a spokesperson
for NOW. "But we are much more familiar with being
crucified. These changes will not effect us."
United at last, world leaders have put out a plea
to the aliens to "leave us alone."
A Pentagon spokesman told a press conference
today, "This Christ person needs to go back to where
he came from. We have INS working on the problem
now."
Several editors of top American newspapers were
present at the conference. Tears silently formed in
their eyes. "Now that we are forced to tell the
truth," stated one editor, "All of our advertisers
have deserted us."
Fear also shown in the eyes of those present at
the conference - yet they bravely resolved to resist
following Christ's teachings with all the resources at
their disposal. "This is all-out war," declared the
head of the joint chiefs of staff. "This devastating
threat clearly justifes the use of nuclear force."
All across America's heartland, citizens waved
flags patriotically and prayed that they would someday
be free again - forever free of the curse of being
forced to behave like Christ.
TO BEHAVE LIKE CHRIST.
In a terrifying recent coup, aliens seized control
of the hearts and minds of men today, forcing them to
be Christ-like.
"It's terrible," screamed one top White House
resident, forced to be truthful against his will. "I
cannot tell a lie!"
Elsewhere in Washington, several members of the
US Supreme court were seen desperately thumbing
through the pages of Tennessee phone books.
In Israel, Arial Sharon was inconsolable. "I can
no longer indiscriminately butcher Palestinian
civilians," he wailed. "There goes my 8.5 million
dollars per day from American tax payers! There goes
my Final Solution! I'm ruined!"
In Rome, the Pope was also desperate. "Christ
wants me to nurture, protect, cherish and love the
children that have already been born," he complained
bitterly during Easter liturgy. "I can't do that!
What will I do with all the slums and starving babies in
Africa and Latin America that I personally created? Jesus! I pray that you cast this burden from me! True compassion is too much work."
In the Middle East, Osama Bin Ladin was in tears.
"I can't kill people any more! What am I do do?"
America's Secretary of Defense, various NRA officials
and the stockholders of Lockheed-Martin also Heard his
Pain. Their lives too had been decimated by Christ.
Drug runners, thieves, extortionists, child
abusers and members of the World Trade Organization
also gave up their un-Christ-like behavior and began
to live in Gandhi-like simplicity.
"Every time I think about my Lear jet and my
Lamborghini," said one World Bank executive, "I think
about the starving, enslaved children of Africa who
bought it for me and...I miss my toys."
Meanwhile, women throughout the world took the
changes stoically. "Of course we have some
familiarity with being kind," declared a spokesperson
for NOW. "But we are much more familiar with being
crucified. These changes will not effect us."
United at last, world leaders have put out a plea
to the aliens to "leave us alone."
A Pentagon spokesman told a press conference
today, "This Christ person needs to go back to where
he came from. We have INS working on the problem
now."
Several editors of top American newspapers were
present at the conference. Tears silently formed in
their eyes. "Now that we are forced to tell the
truth," stated one editor, "All of our advertisers
have deserted us."
Fear also shown in the eyes of those present at
the conference - yet they bravely resolved to resist
following Christ's teachings with all the resources at
their disposal. "This is all-out war," declared the
head of the joint chiefs of staff. "This devastating
threat clearly justifes the use of nuclear force."
All across America's heartland, citizens waved
flags patriotically and prayed that they would someday
be free again - forever free of the curse of being
forced to behave like Christ.
Re: Angry Yuppies storm Ariel Sharon compound in search of Extra Virgin olive oil
Stylishly turned out in matching Versace camoflague fatigues and Gucci wingtips, angry Yuppies surrounded Ariel Sharon's Tel Aviv compound yesterday, holding Sharon virtual prisoner and demanding his immediate surrender.
"Of course we support Sharon's war on the people of Palestine," stated Yuppie spokesman Dirk Sheerson. "Even an MBA from Harvard knows that war stimulates the economy; duh!
"I can understand Sharon's reasons for bombing villages, killing civilians and shelling elementary schools -- prime real estate, money to be made, location is everything, go for it Ariel," stated Sheerson. "I'd do it myself if I had the time...but my Palm Pilot is booked, what can I say." What indeed.
"But when that bastard endangered the world's supply of EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL -- by God, he went too far."
Via ATT sattelite hook-up to his red Lexus convertible APC parked outside the Sharon compound on Kaplan Street, Sheerson told this reporter, "Of course, I admire Ariel's daring use of eminent domain -- and of course the way he one-upped Bethlehem's Architectural Preservation Commission was brilliant! Blowing up all those ugly 2000-year-old landmarks and replacing them with strip malls? Stroke of genius! There is no doubt in my mind that A.S. is a property developer with a strong, clear vision.
"However," Sheerson continued, "when he destroyed over 200,000 olive trees, Ariel Sharon went too far. Killing women and children is one thing -- but endangering the world's supply of olive oil is...is...simply UNACCEPTABLE. Pasta Prima Vera without Extra Virgin? I'm sorry but that's an unforgivable crime."
Even though our cell connection was breaking up, I managed to quiz Sheerson on a related issue. "Is Palestine a separate nation -- or just a re-zoning problem? Does Israel's Department of Public Works actually have jurisdiction in Palestine? Or is Israel's use of "eminent domain" illegal?"
"Technically yes," replied Sheerson. "When Israeli officials stated recenty that they were at war with Palestine, Israel tacitly acknowledged that Palestine was indeed a separate nation -- one with a separate Planning Commission. But that's not why we're here. We're here because Ariel Sharon has threatened the world's [olive] oil supply. That's not right!"
Hand-to-hand fighting continued throughout the night but by dawn Yuppies heavily armed with Gold Cards had taken the compound and exiled Sharon to Uzbeckistan where his expertise in "property development" was in great demand.
Best regards, Jane Stillwater, Berkeley, CA
"Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved: World Peace in one generation!" And olive oil for all (cars could run on it -- save olive trees now. In 38 years when there is no more petroleum left in the world, we could use them.)
Palestinian olive crop hit by unrest BBC 11 October, 2002 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2317839.stm
The Palestinian Authority's olive output, one of its most important agricultural products, was reduced by more than 80% in 2001, mainly due to Israeli military action. Figures released by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) show that the amount of olives pressed in the Gaza Strip and West Bank fell from 126,147 tons to 22,155 tons.
October is the start of the olive picking season, but while this years' crop is large, output is expected to be low again as Palestinians are reluctant to harvest the fruit. "Thousands of olive trees have been wiped out by the Israelis," Professor Hasan Abu-Libdeh, head of the PCBS told BBC News Online. [200,000 trees in the last 2 years, according to JPN.] "Also, olives could not be harvested because the groves were declared security zones by the Israelis and farmers were being shot at by Jewish settlers," he said
Stylishly turned out in matching Versace camoflague fatigues and Gucci wingtips, angry Yuppies surrounded Ariel Sharon's Tel Aviv compound yesterday, holding Sharon virtual prisoner and demanding his immediate surrender.
"Of course we support Sharon's war on the people of Palestine," stated Yuppie spokesman Dirk Sheerson. "Even an MBA from Harvard knows that war stimulates the economy; duh!
"I can understand Sharon's reasons for bombing villages, killing civilians and shelling elementary schools -- prime real estate, money to be made, location is everything, go for it Ariel," stated Sheerson. "I'd do it myself if I had the time...but my Palm Pilot is booked, what can I say." What indeed.
"But when that bastard endangered the world's supply of EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL -- by God, he went too far."
Via ATT sattelite hook-up to his red Lexus convertible APC parked outside the Sharon compound on Kaplan Street, Sheerson told this reporter, "Of course, I admire Ariel's daring use of eminent domain -- and of course the way he one-upped Bethlehem's Architectural Preservation Commission was brilliant! Blowing up all those ugly 2000-year-old landmarks and replacing them with strip malls? Stroke of genius! There is no doubt in my mind that A.S. is a property developer with a strong, clear vision.
"However," Sheerson continued, "when he destroyed over 200,000 olive trees, Ariel Sharon went too far. Killing women and children is one thing -- but endangering the world's supply of olive oil is...is...simply UNACCEPTABLE. Pasta Prima Vera without Extra Virgin? I'm sorry but that's an unforgivable crime."
Even though our cell connection was breaking up, I managed to quiz Sheerson on a related issue. "Is Palestine a separate nation -- or just a re-zoning problem? Does Israel's Department of Public Works actually have jurisdiction in Palestine? Or is Israel's use of "eminent domain" illegal?"
"Technically yes," replied Sheerson. "When Israeli officials stated recenty that they were at war with Palestine, Israel tacitly acknowledged that Palestine was indeed a separate nation -- one with a separate Planning Commission. But that's not why we're here. We're here because Ariel Sharon has threatened the world's [olive] oil supply. That's not right!"
Hand-to-hand fighting continued throughout the night but by dawn Yuppies heavily armed with Gold Cards had taken the compound and exiled Sharon to Uzbeckistan where his expertise in "property development" was in great demand.
Best regards, Jane Stillwater, Berkeley, CA
"Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved: World Peace in one generation!" And olive oil for all (cars could run on it -- save olive trees now. In 38 years when there is no more petroleum left in the world, we could use them.)
Palestinian olive crop hit by unrest BBC 11 October, 2002 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2317839.stm
The Palestinian Authority's olive output, one of its most important agricultural products, was reduced by more than 80% in 2001, mainly due to Israeli military action. Figures released by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) show that the amount of olives pressed in the Gaza Strip and West Bank fell from 126,147 tons to 22,155 tons.
October is the start of the olive picking season, but while this years' crop is large, output is expected to be low again as Palestinians are reluctant to harvest the fruit. "Thousands of olive trees have been wiped out by the Israelis," Professor Hasan Abu-Libdeh, head of the PCBS told BBC News Online. [200,000 trees in the last 2 years, according to JPN.] "Also, olives could not be harvested because the groves were declared security zones by the Israelis and farmers were being shot at by Jewish settlers," he said
Is Judas Iscariot becoming America's patron saint?
Jesus paused on his way to Jeruseulem. He was on his way to Jeruseulem, knowing that betrayal and certain death awaited him there.
Jesus paused on a hillside in order to give Christians a most invaluable gift -- to give us the most precious gift ever given: The Sermon on the Mount.
And as he spread his arms wide to embrace all Christians down through the ages, he told his listeners of God's Eternal Truth:
"Blessed are the meek..." he said. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst..."
But at no point during His loving recitation of the most valuable creed ever given to man -- more wondrous than even the Declaration of Independence or Book of Revelations -- did Christ say, "Blessed are the munitions manufacturers..." Nor did he say, "Blessed are the war lobbyists." Or "Blessed are the corporate crooks who make their profits by killing their fellow men..." or "blessed are those who indiscriminately drop bombs on women and children..."
Jesus Christ gave us his Word. And then he died a horrible and tortured death rather than go back on it. And his Word was this: "Blessed are the Peacemakeers for they are the Children of God."
Are WE the children of God? Or are we sheep who follow Satan's siren call of "Armmegedon! Armeggedon!"
Do we stand with Our Lord or do we sell His principles of "Love thy neighbor" and "Do unto others that which you would have others do unto you" to the Romans for a few pieces of gold as Judas did?
If we follow Judas Iscariot, the Christ will have died in vain.
Jesus spent his whole life on Earth speaking against hatred, violence and bloodshed. Satan is offering us a chance to kill thousands --nay, millions -- of women and children in the Middle East. Can we do less than Jesus did? Let us screw up our courage and follow HIM.
I am descended from seven generations of Christian preachers of the faith. Please join me in following Jesus.
Jesus paused on his way to Jeruseulem. He was on his way to Jeruseulem, knowing that betrayal and certain death awaited him there.
Jesus paused on a hillside in order to give Christians a most invaluable gift -- to give us the most precious gift ever given: The Sermon on the Mount.
And as he spread his arms wide to embrace all Christians down through the ages, he told his listeners of God's Eternal Truth:
"Blessed are the meek..." he said. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst..."
But at no point during His loving recitation of the most valuable creed ever given to man -- more wondrous than even the Declaration of Independence or Book of Revelations -- did Christ say, "Blessed are the munitions manufacturers..." Nor did he say, "Blessed are the war lobbyists." Or "Blessed are the corporate crooks who make their profits by killing their fellow men..." or "blessed are those who indiscriminately drop bombs on women and children..."
Jesus Christ gave us his Word. And then he died a horrible and tortured death rather than go back on it. And his Word was this: "Blessed are the Peacemakeers for they are the Children of God."
Are WE the children of God? Or are we sheep who follow Satan's siren call of "Armmegedon! Armeggedon!"
Do we stand with Our Lord or do we sell His principles of "Love thy neighbor" and "Do unto others that which you would have others do unto you" to the Romans for a few pieces of gold as Judas did?
If we follow Judas Iscariot, the Christ will have died in vain.
Jesus spent his whole life on Earth speaking against hatred, violence and bloodshed. Satan is offering us a chance to kill thousands --nay, millions -- of women and children in the Middle East. Can we do less than Jesus did? Let us screw up our courage and follow HIM.
I am descended from seven generations of Christian preachers of the faith. Please join me in following Jesus.
KRISTALNACHT: In Palestine, every night is "Kristalnacht" as Israeli brownshirts do everything they can to destroy Palestine's economy in an effort to drive the inhabitants of Palestine into bankruptcy, into the graveyard and into the sea.
That's brutal. That's reminiscent of Al Capone's Chicago. That's creating a monopoly. That's extortion. That's genocide. That's immoral. THAT'S ILLEGAL!
Israel needs to get their shirts together, practice some of their Ten Commandments and either form an inclusive democracy with the conquered Palestinians or let Palestine form its own state.
It's wrong to rub the fact that you are a conquered people in someone's face daily for over 50 years.
Here is an e-mail from a friend of mine, explaining the situation in Palestine in more rational terms. I myself tend to get a bit emotional when I think that Israel gets $8.5 million dollars per day from US taxpayers to expedite a land grab/Mafia take-over of people whose crime was to be born on prime real estate!
Best regards, Jane Stillwater
"Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved: World Peace in one generation!" Capitalism at its best: Resources put to their highest use!
Dear Jane.
The World Bank's March 2002 report "Fifteen Months..." says that the damage to the Palestinian economy (West Bank and Gaza) was already over $2 billion at that time, by their estimate (it's a long report and it describes in great detail how the estimate was arrived at).
That effect was NOT mainly destruction of property but rather the closures and checkpoints which deprived people of the chance to earn income by working in Israel, or which raised the costs for small businesses by enormously increasing the cost of moving things from one place to another.
This was BEFORE the major damage from the attacks beginning April of this year.
I have seen an estimate that the additional damage (both to property and to income earned) has been about $1 billion already this year, or somewhat more by now. The entire Palestinian GDP was about $5-6 billion, and so it has been very roughly cut in half. There are some documents that were drawn up in May or June which have detailed estimates of property damage from the April-May attacks. I think the total was around $700 million, but I would have to check.
I apologize for the rough nature of these numbers...I could go back and get the exact numbers later on if you want them. The World Bank has a quite useful web site on Palestine, and I recommend looking at the documents there.
The estimates of property damage are smaller, but they do not include furniture and household belongings, just structures (homes as well as infrastructure damage). It is the interruption of the FLOW of economic activity that seems actually to be more devastating. However, of course, if one's restaurant is blown up, one can't make a living as a restaurant owner any more.
That's brutal. That's reminiscent of Al Capone's Chicago. That's creating a monopoly. That's extortion. That's genocide. That's immoral. THAT'S ILLEGAL!
Israel needs to get their shirts together, practice some of their Ten Commandments and either form an inclusive democracy with the conquered Palestinians or let Palestine form its own state.
It's wrong to rub the fact that you are a conquered people in someone's face daily for over 50 years.
Here is an e-mail from a friend of mine, explaining the situation in Palestine in more rational terms. I myself tend to get a bit emotional when I think that Israel gets $8.5 million dollars per day from US taxpayers to expedite a land grab/Mafia take-over of people whose crime was to be born on prime real estate!
Best regards, Jane Stillwater
"Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved: World Peace in one generation!" Capitalism at its best: Resources put to their highest use!
Dear Jane.
The World Bank's March 2002 report "Fifteen Months..." says that the damage to the Palestinian economy (West Bank and Gaza) was already over $2 billion at that time, by their estimate (it's a long report and it describes in great detail how the estimate was arrived at).
That effect was NOT mainly destruction of property but rather the closures and checkpoints which deprived people of the chance to earn income by working in Israel, or which raised the costs for small businesses by enormously increasing the cost of moving things from one place to another.
This was BEFORE the major damage from the attacks beginning April of this year.
I have seen an estimate that the additional damage (both to property and to income earned) has been about $1 billion already this year, or somewhat more by now. The entire Palestinian GDP was about $5-6 billion, and so it has been very roughly cut in half. There are some documents that were drawn up in May or June which have detailed estimates of property damage from the April-May attacks. I think the total was around $700 million, but I would have to check.
I apologize for the rough nature of these numbers...I could go back and get the exact numbers later on if you want them. The World Bank has a quite useful web site on Palestine, and I recommend looking at the documents there.
The estimates of property damage are smaller, but they do not include furniture and household belongings, just structures (homes as well as infrastructure damage). It is the interruption of the FLOW of economic activity that seems actually to be more devastating. However, of course, if one's restaurant is blown up, one can't make a living as a restaurant owner any more.
Only PEACE will save us from another September 11!
While I was marching for peace recently, a woman came up to me and shouted, "Saddam is Hitler! Remember September 11!" She got right up in my face and, eyes aglow with hate and fear, screamed "September 11! September 11!" over and over again.
Then, smugly, as if she personally had just defeated Saddam Hussein and saved America all by herself, she left before I could think up a suitable reply.
What would be a suitable reply?
Perhaps I could have said, "We are all in this together, lady. Let's all work together to prevent the unbearable nightmare of September 11 from ever happening again -- and bombing other countries is not the answer. It only sets an example to the world that murder and mayhem are acceptable. There has to be a better way."
But the woman was gone -- and she probably wouldn't have listened to me anyway. Sometimes hate and fear blinds us to larger realities.
A national policy of initiating aggression did not save Hitler's Germany, Mussolini's Italy or Tojo's Japan. And it will not save us either.
Ultimately, only peace -- not war -- will keep America safe from the horrors of another September 11. Those who live by the sword will die by the sword. I want something better for myself and my children -- I want freedom and democracy.
While I was marching for peace recently, a woman came up to me and shouted, "Saddam is Hitler! Remember September 11!" She got right up in my face and, eyes aglow with hate and fear, screamed "September 11! September 11!" over and over again.
Then, smugly, as if she personally had just defeated Saddam Hussein and saved America all by herself, she left before I could think up a suitable reply.
What would be a suitable reply?
Perhaps I could have said, "We are all in this together, lady. Let's all work together to prevent the unbearable nightmare of September 11 from ever happening again -- and bombing other countries is not the answer. It only sets an example to the world that murder and mayhem are acceptable. There has to be a better way."
But the woman was gone -- and she probably wouldn't have listened to me anyway. Sometimes hate and fear blinds us to larger realities.
A national policy of initiating aggression did not save Hitler's Germany, Mussolini's Italy or Tojo's Japan. And it will not save us either.
Ultimately, only peace -- not war -- will keep America safe from the horrors of another September 11. Those who live by the sword will die by the sword. I want something better for myself and my children -- I want freedom and democracy.
Grimm Reality: Saving our children from The Passion
By Jane Stillwater
In my opinion, Mel Gibson was definitely onto something when he made his movie, The Passion. But it definitely wasn't religion.
At first the movie appears to be a story about Christ's adventures on the Via Dolorosa. But on closer inspection, I can see that our Mel is spinning a positively FREUDIAN tale; a fairy tale in the grand old Grimm tradition. This movie isn't about religion. It is a simple bedtime story designed to sooth, comfort and protect Mr. Gibson -- and all the children of the world as well -- against all those ogres and trolls still hanging out in the mental closets of our childhoods.
To my mind, The Passion is an intricately woven tapestry of explanation and denial -- a subconscious attempt by Gibson to explain the unexplainable, the 'Spare the rod and spoil the child" attitude that many children are raised with -- and most likely he was too.
When little kids just can't UNDERSTAND why they are being beaten with a belt, they tend to make up myths. "Why did my father hurt me?" this movie asks on behalf of the world's children. "And when Pops was dragging me off to the woodshed, why didn't he listen to my mother's pleas to intercede for me? Why? Why? Why?"
Remember that poignant scene in Maya Angelou's autobiography when she is being brutally raped as a child and prays to the Green Lantern to come and save her? It's like that.
"Where was Superman?" asks these young children. Where was Spider-Man, Static Shock or even the freaking police department? And how come the priests, who are always preaching love and forgiveness, go along for the ride -- even cheering the father on as he drags poor helpless young Mel off to the woodshed? What would a good Catholic boy like Mel ask himself under these circumstances? "Where is God while this is happening?" Where is Jesus?
Imagine the terror, fear and helplessness of this LITTLE KID as he is being dragged off to the woodshed by an angry man three times his size. To explain this horror to himself, this kid has got to invent major mythology -- and he's got to do it fast! BECAUSE NO ONE IS GOING TO COME AND SAVE HIM.
What mythology would you have come up with? I myself used to invent imaginary twin sisters and fairy princesses -- but then I was a girl. Boys like young Braveheart here tend to think more along the lines of archetypal heroes. "I'm Jesus," thinks Gibson. "I'm taking all this pain so that I CAN TRANSFORM IT." Every abused child can identify with that. "There must be SOME good reason why I am being beaten and beaten and beaten...." With no escape. How sad.
To quote an article by Mitch Battros, "One scene in the film has now been forever etched in my mind. A brutalized, wounded Jesus was soon to fall again under the weight of the cross. His mother had made her way along the Via Della Rosa [sic].... Jesus looked at her with intensely probing and passionately loving eyes (and at all of us through the screen) and said "Behold I make all things new." ...Suddenly, the purpose of the pain was so clear and the wounds, that earlier in the film had been so difficult to see in His face, His back, indeed all over His body, became intensely beautiful. They had been borne voluntarily for love."
My love and respect for Jesus is for a different reason. He is my idol not because Simon sez so but because He was willing to suffer the tortures of hell rather than repudiate his stance on non-violence. Hardly anybody in all the religious fundamentalist camps today is willing to do that. They'd rather go to war.
The Passion is now a top box-office hit. Why is it so very popular? One reason, I think, is that it, like other super-hero movies in the genre, gives hope to all the poor tortured former children who flock to see it -- be they Christian, Muslim or Jew. The Passion gives them a Grimm fairy tale all their own -- one that somehow justifies and transfixes the pathetically sad and unjust treatment that they received as children.
Rather than go to all this work to create all this rationale, wouldn't it just be easier to eliminate child abuse? Before yet another generation of children grow up to beat their own children -- and also become numb to torture, murder and war?
My daughter Ashley, however, has an entirely different take on The Passion. "My friend went to see it," said Ashley, "and she thought it was a great date flick." Date flick? Say what? "After about five minutes, she and her boyfriend got bored and spent the rest of the movie making out. They loved it."
For tips on how to raise a healthy, respectful-yet-independent-thinking child without the use of punishment, please read John Gray's wonderful book, "Children are from Heaven".
By Jane Stillwater
In my opinion, Mel Gibson was definitely onto something when he made his movie, The Passion. But it definitely wasn't religion.
At first the movie appears to be a story about Christ's adventures on the Via Dolorosa. But on closer inspection, I can see that our Mel is spinning a positively FREUDIAN tale; a fairy tale in the grand old Grimm tradition. This movie isn't about religion. It is a simple bedtime story designed to sooth, comfort and protect Mr. Gibson -- and all the children of the world as well -- against all those ogres and trolls still hanging out in the mental closets of our childhoods.
To my mind, The Passion is an intricately woven tapestry of explanation and denial -- a subconscious attempt by Gibson to explain the unexplainable, the 'Spare the rod and spoil the child" attitude that many children are raised with -- and most likely he was too.
When little kids just can't UNDERSTAND why they are being beaten with a belt, they tend to make up myths. "Why did my father hurt me?" this movie asks on behalf of the world's children. "And when Pops was dragging me off to the woodshed, why didn't he listen to my mother's pleas to intercede for me? Why? Why? Why?"
Remember that poignant scene in Maya Angelou's autobiography when she is being brutally raped as a child and prays to the Green Lantern to come and save her? It's like that.
"Where was Superman?" asks these young children. Where was Spider-Man, Static Shock or even the freaking police department? And how come the priests, who are always preaching love and forgiveness, go along for the ride -- even cheering the father on as he drags poor helpless young Mel off to the woodshed? What would a good Catholic boy like Mel ask himself under these circumstances? "Where is God while this is happening?" Where is Jesus?
Imagine the terror, fear and helplessness of this LITTLE KID as he is being dragged off to the woodshed by an angry man three times his size. To explain this horror to himself, this kid has got to invent major mythology -- and he's got to do it fast! BECAUSE NO ONE IS GOING TO COME AND SAVE HIM.
What mythology would you have come up with? I myself used to invent imaginary twin sisters and fairy princesses -- but then I was a girl. Boys like young Braveheart here tend to think more along the lines of archetypal heroes. "I'm Jesus," thinks Gibson. "I'm taking all this pain so that I CAN TRANSFORM IT." Every abused child can identify with that. "There must be SOME good reason why I am being beaten and beaten and beaten...." With no escape. How sad.
To quote an article by Mitch Battros, "One scene in the film has now been forever etched in my mind. A brutalized, wounded Jesus was soon to fall again under the weight of the cross. His mother had made her way along the Via Della Rosa [sic].... Jesus looked at her with intensely probing and passionately loving eyes (and at all of us through the screen) and said "Behold I make all things new." ...Suddenly, the purpose of the pain was so clear and the wounds, that earlier in the film had been so difficult to see in His face, His back, indeed all over His body, became intensely beautiful. They had been borne voluntarily for love."
My love and respect for Jesus is for a different reason. He is my idol not because Simon sez so but because He was willing to suffer the tortures of hell rather than repudiate his stance on non-violence. Hardly anybody in all the religious fundamentalist camps today is willing to do that. They'd rather go to war.
The Passion is now a top box-office hit. Why is it so very popular? One reason, I think, is that it, like other super-hero movies in the genre, gives hope to all the poor tortured former children who flock to see it -- be they Christian, Muslim or Jew. The Passion gives them a Grimm fairy tale all their own -- one that somehow justifies and transfixes the pathetically sad and unjust treatment that they received as children.
Rather than go to all this work to create all this rationale, wouldn't it just be easier to eliminate child abuse? Before yet another generation of children grow up to beat their own children -- and also become numb to torture, murder and war?
My daughter Ashley, however, has an entirely different take on The Passion. "My friend went to see it," said Ashley, "and she thought it was a great date flick." Date flick? Say what? "After about five minutes, she and her boyfriend got bored and spent the rest of the movie making out. They loved it."
For tips on how to raise a healthy, respectful-yet-independent-thinking child without the use of punishment, please read John Gray's wonderful book, "Children are from Heaven".
Re: Let's stop the war on Christ!
We can wage war or we can follow Christ. We cannot do both.
We must chose between Armageddon and the Sermon on the Mount. I myself -- as a firm Christian believer -- choose Christ's true teaching, the Sermon on the Mount. Why? Because killing others goes against all the principles that Jesus gave his life for. Jesus Christ never killed anyone. He devoted his whole life to peace. Let's stop the war on Christ.
Jesus is so much more than just a spy for our parents and/or an excuse to kill strangers. Jesus is the Son of Man.
If we want to call ourselves Christians, then we must stop being hypocrites, gather our courage, follow His lead, become like Him and espouse the way of peace.
It takes far more courage to be a peacemaker than it does to fight a war. Jesus was brutally tortured and killed because of his love for mankind and because of his deep and abiding faith that love is more powerful than war.
Let's prove that we also have the guts to stand up for the teachings of Jesus.
Yours in Christ, Jane Stillwater, Berkeley, CA
We can wage war or we can follow Christ. We cannot do both.
We must chose between Armageddon and the Sermon on the Mount. I myself -- as a firm Christian believer -- choose Christ's true teaching, the Sermon on the Mount. Why? Because killing others goes against all the principles that Jesus gave his life for. Jesus Christ never killed anyone. He devoted his whole life to peace. Let's stop the war on Christ.
Jesus is so much more than just a spy for our parents and/or an excuse to kill strangers. Jesus is the Son of Man.
If we want to call ourselves Christians, then we must stop being hypocrites, gather our courage, follow His lead, become like Him and espouse the way of peace.
It takes far more courage to be a peacemaker than it does to fight a war. Jesus was brutally tortured and killed because of his love for mankind and because of his deep and abiding faith that love is more powerful than war.
Let's prove that we also have the guts to stand up for the teachings of Jesus.
Yours in Christ, Jane Stillwater, Berkeley, CA
Re: Palestinians need a STATEMENT OF DAMAGES (and a Request for Summary Judgment too!)
Dear PRC:
Americans don't seem to care about the astounding number of people that the Israeli Defense Force have killed within the last two years -- even though many of them have been women and children. Were 2,000 killed? Or more? Nobody seems to care over here -- just as long as Israelis aren't harmed.
However, knowing Americans and their great respect for the rights of ownership, perhaps they might take more notice if they knew that the destruction of property was also involved.
Please let me know -- if you have such information -- how much destruction of infrastructure has taken place in Palestine within the last two years. One billion US dollars? Two billion? Ten? Also, please include the financials regarding loss of property due to IDF confiscation of land, bulldozing of houses, destruction of orchards and crops and the destruction of water, electricity and road systems. And don't forget to calculate the damages caused by the destruction of medical facilities and schools. Let's file a Statement of Damages.
Further, Palestinians should easily be able to get a Summary Judgment in any court of law anywhere -- as long as the judge and jury are unbribable, awake and sober!
Thank you.
Best regards, Jane Stillwater, Berkeley, CA
________________________________________________________________
"Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved: World Peace in one generation!" Save the world's children. Please.
Dear PRC:
Americans don't seem to care about the astounding number of people that the Israeli Defense Force have killed within the last two years -- even though many of them have been women and children. Were 2,000 killed? Or more? Nobody seems to care over here -- just as long as Israelis aren't harmed.
However, knowing Americans and their great respect for the rights of ownership, perhaps they might take more notice if they knew that the destruction of property was also involved.
Please let me know -- if you have such information -- how much destruction of infrastructure has taken place in Palestine within the last two years. One billion US dollars? Two billion? Ten? Also, please include the financials regarding loss of property due to IDF confiscation of land, bulldozing of houses, destruction of orchards and crops and the destruction of water, electricity and road systems. And don't forget to calculate the damages caused by the destruction of medical facilities and schools. Let's file a Statement of Damages.
Further, Palestinians should easily be able to get a Summary Judgment in any court of law anywhere -- as long as the judge and jury are unbribable, awake and sober!
Thank you.
Best regards, Jane Stillwater, Berkeley, CA
________________________________________________________________
"Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved: World Peace in one generation!" Save the world's children. Please.
Bush fails to meet the press in DC, Kerry fails to meet the voters in California By Jane Stillwater
Everyone has something that they are afraid of. Arnold Schwarzenegger is afraid that America won't let him run for president just because it would be unconstitutional. John Ashcroft is afraid of what would happen if his version of Big Government stopped interfering with our lives and he was forced to get a REAL job.
My own greatest fear is that the recent Pentagon report is correct and we only have 16 years left before global warming melts the polar ice cap and puts my hometown under a whole bunch of water.
After his dismal appearance on Meet the Press the other day, George Bush's greatest fear appears to be situations wherein he has to think on his feet, such as during the upcoming live Presidential debates. And apparently Bush is not the only one who suffers from Fear of Debating. Presidential debates also appear to be a phobia for John Kerry. Why else would Kerry give the cold shoulder to millions of California voters by canceling a scheduled Los Angeles appearance at the League of Women Voters' debates -- in favor of an appearance in Georgia, a state with far fewer chances to score electoral delegates?
According to his website, Presidential candidate John Edwards is ready, willing and able to take on both Kerry and Bush in a debate. Edwards stated recently that "Voters deserve more than one opportunity to compare the distinctly different visions of the candidates before they make their decisions." We all know that Al Sharpton has his debating suit pressed and ready to go! And candidate Dennis Kucinich, a former college-level debate professor, has also expressed a desire to take on both Kerry and Bush regarding how to best remedy Bush's failed economic and foreign policies.
As a Californian who has only 16 years left before being inundated by the Pacific Ocean, I would like to see as many Presidential candidates as possible express their views as to how we are to get out of this terrible mess. And I am angry that I have been denied a chance to hear every single Presidential candidate explore every possible suggestion regarding how to get us back on track. Hell, if he has something that would save my little home from the Big Tsunami, I'd even listen to Ralph Nader!
____________________
UPDATE: The debate is back on! Hot off the press:
Washington-AP -- The Democratic presidential contenders will debate
in New York on February 29th. But they won't have to compete for
attention with that evening's Academy Awards ceremony. That's because the debate will be held at 11 in the morning.
John Kerry, John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich and Al Sharpton have all
agreed to participate.
C-B-S News anchor Dan Rather will moderate the one-hour debate. It
will be broadcast on C-B-S television and radio stations that choose
to pre-empt local programming. New York will hold its primary on March second.
The candidates will also debate in Los Angeles on Thursday. California also votes on March second.
Bush pronounced "unelectable": Media pundits pronounced recently that, although they love his platform of tax-cuts for the rich, media de-regulation and other economic gouging, George Bush is basically "unelectable".
http://legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news
Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us · Secret report warns of rioting and nuclear war · Britain will be 'Siberian' in less than 20 years · Threat to the world is greater than terrorism --Climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters. A secret report, suppressed by US defense chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world.
Urge John Kerry To Debate
Please stand with John Edwards by joining the Democratic Debate Petition today. Only a few days remain before the most pivotal moment of the primary process when ten states will select nearly one-third of the Democratic convention delegates. Voters deserve more than one opportunity to compare the distinctly different visions of the candidates before they make their decisions. Click here to take action!
Kucinich's book outlines his platform: Amazon.com: Books: A Prayer for America www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/ detail/-/1560255102?v=glance - Similar pages see also http://kucinich.us
From Nuc News: Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us
February 22: Secret report warns of rioting and nuclear war
· Britain will be 'Siberian' in less than 20 years
· Threat to the world is greater than terrorism.
22.02.04: Key findings of the Pentagon
Everyone has something that they are afraid of. Arnold Schwarzenegger is afraid that America won't let him run for president just because it would be unconstitutional. John Ashcroft is afraid of what would happen if his version of Big Government stopped interfering with our lives and he was forced to get a REAL job.
My own greatest fear is that the recent Pentagon report is correct and we only have 16 years left before global warming melts the polar ice cap and puts my hometown under a whole bunch of water.
After his dismal appearance on Meet the Press the other day, George Bush's greatest fear appears to be situations wherein he has to think on his feet, such as during the upcoming live Presidential debates. And apparently Bush is not the only one who suffers from Fear of Debating. Presidential debates also appear to be a phobia for John Kerry. Why else would Kerry give the cold shoulder to millions of California voters by canceling a scheduled Los Angeles appearance at the League of Women Voters' debates -- in favor of an appearance in Georgia, a state with far fewer chances to score electoral delegates?
According to his website, Presidential candidate John Edwards is ready, willing and able to take on both Kerry and Bush in a debate. Edwards stated recently that "Voters deserve more than one opportunity to compare the distinctly different visions of the candidates before they make their decisions." We all know that Al Sharpton has his debating suit pressed and ready to go! And candidate Dennis Kucinich, a former college-level debate professor, has also expressed a desire to take on both Kerry and Bush regarding how to best remedy Bush's failed economic and foreign policies.
As a Californian who has only 16 years left before being inundated by the Pacific Ocean, I would like to see as many Presidential candidates as possible express their views as to how we are to get out of this terrible mess. And I am angry that I have been denied a chance to hear every single Presidential candidate explore every possible suggestion regarding how to get us back on track. Hell, if he has something that would save my little home from the Big Tsunami, I'd even listen to Ralph Nader!
____________________
UPDATE: The debate is back on! Hot off the press:
Washington-AP -- The Democratic presidential contenders will debate
in New York on February 29th. But they won't have to compete for
attention with that evening's Academy Awards ceremony. That's because the debate will be held at 11 in the morning.
John Kerry, John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich and Al Sharpton have all
agreed to participate.
C-B-S News anchor Dan Rather will moderate the one-hour debate. It
will be broadcast on C-B-S television and radio stations that choose
to pre-empt local programming. New York will hold its primary on March second.
The candidates will also debate in Los Angeles on Thursday. California also votes on March second.
Bush pronounced "unelectable": Media pundits pronounced recently that, although they love his platform of tax-cuts for the rich, media de-regulation and other economic gouging, George Bush is basically "unelectable".
http://legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news
Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us · Secret report warns of rioting and nuclear war · Britain will be 'Siberian' in less than 20 years · Threat to the world is greater than terrorism --Climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters. A secret report, suppressed by US defense chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world.
Urge John Kerry To Debate
Please stand with John Edwards by joining the Democratic Debate Petition today. Only a few days remain before the most pivotal moment of the primary process when ten states will select nearly one-third of the Democratic convention delegates. Voters deserve more than one opportunity to compare the distinctly different visions of the candidates before they make their decisions. Click here to take action!
Kucinich's book outlines his platform: Amazon.com: Books: A Prayer for America www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/ detail/-/1560255102?v=glance - Similar pages see also http://kucinich.us
From Nuc News: Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us
February 22: Secret report warns of rioting and nuclear war
· Britain will be 'Siberian' in less than 20 years
· Threat to the world is greater than terrorism.
22.02.04: Key findings of the Pentagon
Women and children world-wide are TIRED OF BEING PREY.
Will Dubya, Osama, Ariel and Saddam please stop killing women and children?
Guys like Dubya, Osama, Ariel and Saddam have one thing in common -- they all had unhappy childhoods.
You can always tell a person whose childhood was miserable: They tend to want to go out there and kill women and children.
Why is that?
Will Dubya, Osama, Dick, Ariel, Saddam and Donald please just take a deep breath, take a time out and realize that they still have hope!?! As Wavy Gravy once said, "It's never too late to have a happy childhood."
Let's encourage these guys to go back to kindergarten and learn to use their words.
Plus we women and children who have better things to do can get on with our lives and not have to flinch every time we hear an airplane flying too low.
Best regards, Jane Stillwater, Berkeley, CA
"Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved: World Peace in one generation!"
Please forward this to five women and/or five children who might not want to be barbecued in the near future by "world leaders".
Will Dubya, Osama, Ariel and Saddam please stop killing women and children?
Guys like Dubya, Osama, Ariel and Saddam have one thing in common -- they all had unhappy childhoods.
You can always tell a person whose childhood was miserable: They tend to want to go out there and kill women and children.
Why is that?
Will Dubya, Osama, Dick, Ariel, Saddam and Donald please just take a deep breath, take a time out and realize that they still have hope!?! As Wavy Gravy once said, "It's never too late to have a happy childhood."
Let's encourage these guys to go back to kindergarten and learn to use their words.
Plus we women and children who have better things to do can get on with our lives and not have to flinch every time we hear an airplane flying too low.
Best regards, Jane Stillwater, Berkeley, CA
"Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved: World Peace in one generation!"
Please forward this to five women and/or five children who might not want to be barbecued in the near future by "world leaders".
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