Ralph Hall:
GOP-lite goes full-tilt GOP
An Obvious Move By the "Stop-Dean" Activists in the GOP
(Why are the GOP and DLC trying so hard to stop Dean?)
Tom DeLay hates Howard Dean with a passion...and we know it.
The GOP is attempting to do permanent damage to Howard Dean in the South.
"....House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said Democrats are "reaping what they've sown."
"Their leaders have lined up behind Howard Dean's brand of angry, intolerant politics. They've made their message clear: 'moderates need not apply' and that's a sad trend for a once-great party," DeLay said...."
Perhaps it's high time for politics to fall out into natural lines of ideology.
For example, what on earth is Zell Miller doing calling himself a Democrat...Southern or otherwise? He's a party traitor and belongs with the Republicans... and we know it.
At the same time, Olympia Snow and Lincoln Chafee (just two examples) are
Democrats at heart..and we all know it.
I think we'll be seeing more activity like Ralph Hall's and Jim Jeffords' over the next few years.
Internet muse.
Daring, bold, never sold.
My daily weblog of politics, humor, philosophy...and a constant and nagging reminder of the existence of universal love....
Friday, January 02, 2004
How can prejudice affect a Christian’s witness?
*Alternate Title #1: "William J Murray is a hypocrite, so sayeth Christ"
*Alternate Title #2: "Iddybud thinks William J Murray is a crazy ol' poopyhead"
I've asked you this question before.
Here's a new example. This person calls himself William J Murray. Beyond that, I know nothing about him..except he's a political Conservative leader cloaking himself with Christ to slander his fellow man. I see clearly that he's passing prejudgement on a soul he does not either know or possess. He sets the poorest example for true Christian witness.
*In my humble opinion, William J Murray might not know G-d if he stumbled over Him in his rush to prejudge his fellow man..all because of the prideful William J Murray's political agenda.*
Just listen to the words of Christ according to His nutty disciple William J Murray.
William J Murray says:
".."It says something about our nation that a great political party consisting of millions of Americans could possibly pick someone as mentally unstable as Howard Dean to lead their party and carry their banner into a national election..
Dissecting Dean's religious background, Murray notes that although his mother was Catholic, his father was Episcopalian and raised him in that faith.
However, when Dean met his wife, Judith Steinberg, she was Jewish. He did not want to convert to Judaism and she did not want to become a Christian. Murray said Dean and his wife contemplated becoming Unitarians as a "compromise."
"Compromise?" Murray questioned. "Unitarians do not believe in a living God."
He added, "Most Unitarians are either agnostics or atheists and they surely do not believe in the deity of Jesus Christ."
As for Dean's children, Murray said, "it gets worse."
"The Deans told their children to pick a religion, any religion, and that they would not get involved in their decision one way or the other," Murray lamented.
The two children subsequently chose to become Jewish.
Dean himself parted ways with the Episcopal Church in the 1980's "over a dispute about the route of a public bike path through the church property," Murray wrote.
"Excuse me? Now, I would leave a church if they ordained female deacons or recruited a homosexual music minister...but a bike path?," exclaimed Murray.
Murray said Dean then joined the Congregationalist Church, but now "rarely, if ever, attends."
Citing the recent Boston Globe interview, Murray said Dean was careful not to mention Jesus Christ as being "the Son of God, as a part of the Trinity, or being in any way divine."
"Indeed, he talks of Christ in the past tense, as if He had died in the human sense," Murray contends. "Perhaps Howard Dean would have been better off in a Unitarian Church, but then he would have had trouble winning any elections as a member of a near atheistic institution."
Murray says this indecision about his faith is what makes Dean change his mind so often about what he believes on a daily basis. "One day [Dean] said he did not know if Usama bin Laden was guilty of 9-11 and that the man should get a fair trial," Murray wrote. "The next day he said Usama deserves the death penalty."
He continued, "[Dean] has stated that the United States should receive 'permission' from the United Nations before waging war and then said that the Iraqi people must determine their own fate."
Murray says this indecision about what Dean believes is evidence of someone who is "not of a single mind," alluding to possible schizophrenia, and that his run for president is both "pathetic and dangerous....[Murray said] "Further, I am sure that President George W. Bush would prefer to run on his merits and his faith against a more worthy opponent than Howard Dean."
~~~~~~~~~~
"Hypocrite! First get rid of the log from your own eye; then perhaps you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye.
Matthew 7:5
~~~~~~~~~~
To my fellow devout Christians (I beg the pardon and indulgence of secularists reading here):
Who is William Murray to judge your spirit and mine..or Howard Dean's?
How does this stranger to my soul [William Murray] purport to know about what lies in the very depths of it?
This is as shameful a display of prejudice as I have seen.
Who is William Murray to judge who is mentally healthy?
He sounds like he's off his rocker himself!
William Murray...I command thee to take thy false piety and thy holier-than-thou barrage and shove it all up your pompous assumptions!
False judgement borne of prideful worldly grandiloquence is against all you have been taught if you are a true follower of the Christ. Your personal relationship with Christ cannot abode piously or truthfully in the same temple with a reliance upon false witness.
While people like William Murray seem to believe they own Christ and consider all other theology (liberal or other) as
something less than Christian, I tell them that Christ's heart bleeds every time they prejudge in His loving name and steal Christ for their own political game-playing.
I'm wagering William J Murray would have been ashamed to look Howard Dean square in the eye and say these things to him. After reading his words I see that William J Murray, in worldly weakness, has allowed politics and so-called patriotism to allow him to compromise his Christian goodness and love for his fellow men.
This may sound sinful, but I can clearly see that William J Murray is a hateful weasel with a political agenda.
If William J Murray is Christian, he should know this judgement is rightfully coming his way.
G-d is watching us.
Judge not lest ye be judged, William J Murray, you crazy ol' poopyhead.
Your fellow Christians are watching you.
You aren't getting away with this, you know.
We see your ugliness for what it is.
Your actions have nothing to do with the spirit of love or freedom.
~~~~~~~~~~~
*Alternate Title #1: "William J Murray is a hypocrite, so sayeth Christ"
*Alternate Title #2: "Iddybud thinks William J Murray is a crazy ol' poopyhead"
I've asked you this question before.
Here's a new example. This person calls himself William J Murray. Beyond that, I know nothing about him..except he's a political Conservative leader cloaking himself with Christ to slander his fellow man. I see clearly that he's passing prejudgement on a soul he does not either know or possess. He sets the poorest example for true Christian witness.
*In my humble opinion, William J Murray might not know G-d if he stumbled over Him in his rush to prejudge his fellow man..all because of the prideful William J Murray's political agenda.*
Just listen to the words of Christ according to His nutty disciple William J Murray.
William J Murray says:
".."It says something about our nation that a great political party consisting of millions of Americans could possibly pick someone as mentally unstable as Howard Dean to lead their party and carry their banner into a national election..
Dissecting Dean's religious background, Murray notes that although his mother was Catholic, his father was Episcopalian and raised him in that faith.
However, when Dean met his wife, Judith Steinberg, she was Jewish. He did not want to convert to Judaism and she did not want to become a Christian. Murray said Dean and his wife contemplated becoming Unitarians as a "compromise."
"Compromise?" Murray questioned. "Unitarians do not believe in a living God."
He added, "Most Unitarians are either agnostics or atheists and they surely do not believe in the deity of Jesus Christ."
As for Dean's children, Murray said, "it gets worse."
"The Deans told their children to pick a religion, any religion, and that they would not get involved in their decision one way or the other," Murray lamented.
The two children subsequently chose to become Jewish.
Dean himself parted ways with the Episcopal Church in the 1980's "over a dispute about the route of a public bike path through the church property," Murray wrote.
"Excuse me? Now, I would leave a church if they ordained female deacons or recruited a homosexual music minister...but a bike path?," exclaimed Murray.
Murray said Dean then joined the Congregationalist Church, but now "rarely, if ever, attends."
Citing the recent Boston Globe interview, Murray said Dean was careful not to mention Jesus Christ as being "the Son of God, as a part of the Trinity, or being in any way divine."
"Indeed, he talks of Christ in the past tense, as if He had died in the human sense," Murray contends. "Perhaps Howard Dean would have been better off in a Unitarian Church, but then he would have had trouble winning any elections as a member of a near atheistic institution."
Murray says this indecision about his faith is what makes Dean change his mind so often about what he believes on a daily basis. "One day [Dean] said he did not know if Usama bin Laden was guilty of 9-11 and that the man should get a fair trial," Murray wrote. "The next day he said Usama deserves the death penalty."
He continued, "[Dean] has stated that the United States should receive 'permission' from the United Nations before waging war and then said that the Iraqi people must determine their own fate."
Murray says this indecision about what Dean believes is evidence of someone who is "not of a single mind," alluding to possible schizophrenia, and that his run for president is both "pathetic and dangerous....[Murray said] "Further, I am sure that President George W. Bush would prefer to run on his merits and his faith against a more worthy opponent than Howard Dean."
~~~~~~~~~~
"Hypocrite! First get rid of the log from your own eye; then perhaps you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye.
Matthew 7:5
~~~~~~~~~~
To my fellow devout Christians (I beg the pardon and indulgence of secularists reading here):
Who is William Murray to judge your spirit and mine..or Howard Dean's?
How does this stranger to my soul [William Murray] purport to know about what lies in the very depths of it?
This is as shameful a display of prejudice as I have seen.
Who is William Murray to judge who is mentally healthy?
He sounds like he's off his rocker himself!
William Murray...I command thee to take thy false piety and thy holier-than-thou barrage and shove it all up your pompous assumptions!
False judgement borne of prideful worldly grandiloquence is against all you have been taught if you are a true follower of the Christ. Your personal relationship with Christ cannot abode piously or truthfully in the same temple with a reliance upon false witness.
While people like William Murray seem to believe they own Christ and consider all other theology (liberal or other) as
something less than Christian, I tell them that Christ's heart bleeds every time they prejudge in His loving name and steal Christ for their own political game-playing.
I'm wagering William J Murray would have been ashamed to look Howard Dean square in the eye and say these things to him. After reading his words I see that William J Murray, in worldly weakness, has allowed politics and so-called patriotism to allow him to compromise his Christian goodness and love for his fellow men.
This may sound sinful, but I can clearly see that William J Murray is a hateful weasel with a political agenda.
If William J Murray is Christian, he should know this judgement is rightfully coming his way.
G-d is watching us.
Judge not lest ye be judged, William J Murray, you crazy ol' poopyhead.
Your fellow Christians are watching you.
You aren't getting away with this, you know.
We see your ugliness for what it is.
Your actions have nothing to do with the spirit of love or freedom.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Election 2004: It's still wide open
Election 2004 Poll: It's still wide open
"..For the next year, presidential candidates will be working to win over roughly a fifth of the nation's voters who haven't made up their minds about which side to support...
In the most recent poll, the swing voters were more likely to be younger adults ages 18 and 39, those without college educations and political independents.....
Other closely divided groups that will be courted heavily during the campaign season are voters in the Midwest, suburban residents and Catholics, according to a Pew analysis done this fall.
Hispanics have tended to lean Democratic in past elections, but increasingly are considered swing voters."
"As long as the president has a stature gap on fighting terrorism," [pollster Andrew] Kohut said, "he has a trump card."
"..For the next year, presidential candidates will be working to win over roughly a fifth of the nation's voters who haven't made up their minds about which side to support...
In the most recent poll, the swing voters were more likely to be younger adults ages 18 and 39, those without college educations and political independents.....
Other closely divided groups that will be courted heavily during the campaign season are voters in the Midwest, suburban residents and Catholics, according to a Pew analysis done this fall.
Hispanics have tended to lean Democratic in past elections, but increasingly are considered swing voters."
"As long as the president has a stature gap on fighting terrorism," [pollster Andrew] Kohut said, "he has a trump card."
Best/Worst Corporateering Of 2003
Counter-Corporateering Blog:
The Worst Corporateers and Best Counter-Corporateering Of 2003
The notion that the free market is more important than the free society was pushed to new heights during 2003...
The Worst Corporateers and Best Counter-Corporateering Of 2003
The notion that the free market is more important than the free society was pushed to new heights during 2003...
More False Witnesses
How can prejudice affect a Christian’s witness?
*Alternate Title #1: "Lewis Golberg is a hypocrite, so sayeth Christ"
*Alternate Title #2: "Iddybud thinks Lewis Goldberg is a big ol' poopyhead"
I've asked you this question before.
Here's a new example. This person calls himself Lewis Goldberg. Beyond that, I know nothing about him..except that I think he's passing prejudgement on a soul he does not either know or possess. He sets the poorest example for true Christian witness.
*In my humble opinion, Lewis Goldberg might not know G-d if he stumbled over Him in his rush to prejudge his fellow man*
Just listen to the words of Christ according to His disciple Lewis Goldberg.
Lewis Golberg says:
"Mr. Dean, what kind of believer in Christ picks a wife that has no hope of salvation? Since you believe so strongly in your religion, what compelled you to share your life with someone who has not the new birth within her?
...what kind of Christian consigns his offspring to life on this earth outside the fellowship of believers, and an afterlife in the pits of Hell?..Mr. Dean, if you pretend to be a Christian, people will forget that you legalized abomination..Mr. Dean, Christ came to us to save sinners from damnation, which is pretty inspiring, but we doubt you ever thought about it....
*WHAT THE HELL IS GOLDBERG TALKING ABOUT IN THIS NEXT SENTENCE?*
"...Keeping more with (????)the Northeast tradition of not believing in G-d(????),
Dean is instead using religion as bait, hoping to snare voters desperately seeking a candidate that shares their values... we need no further proof than what is offered in the article, written by Globe Staff columnist Sarah Schweitzer, that Dean is no Christian. He is but a pretender to Christ's tender mercies, for a faith that is not manifest in the way one lives and works is no faith at all, but just another armband donned to show everyone how great someone is....
~~~~~~~~~~
"Hypocrite! First get rid of the log from your own eye; then perhaps you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye.
Matthew 7:5
~~~~~~~~~~
To my fellow devout Christians (I beg the pardon and indulgence of secularists reading here):
Who is Lewis Goldberg to judge your spirit and mine..or Howard Dean's?
How does this stranger to my soul [Lewis Goldberg] purport to know about what lies in the very depths of it?
This is as shameful a display of prejudice as I have seen.
Lewis Goldberg...I command thee to take thy false piety and thy holier-than-thou barrage and shove it all up your pompous assumptions!
False judgement borne of prideful worldly grandiloquence is against all you have been taught if you are a true follower of the Christ. Your personal relationship with Christ cannot abode piously or truthfully in the same temple with a reliance upon false witness.
While people like Lewis Goldberg seem to believe they own Christ and consider all other theology (liberal or other) as
something less than Christian, I tell them that Christ's heart bleeds every time they prejudge in His loving name and steal Christ for their own political game-playing.
I'm wagering Lewis Goldberg would have been ashamed to look Howard Dean square in the eye and say these things to him. After reading his words I see that Lewis Goldberg, in worldly weakness, has allowed politics and so-called patriotism to allow him to compromise his Christian goodness and love for his fellow man.
This may sound sinful, but I think Lewis Goldberg is a hateful weasel with a political agenda.
If Lewis Goldberg is Christian, he should know this judgement is rightfully coming his way.
G-d is watching us.
Judge not lest ye be judged, Lewis Goldberg, you big ol' poopyhead.
~~~~~~~~~~~
"Our lord loves the country, he's with you at the polls
He knows the lever that you pull
He's keeping track of souls
The way it used to be
The way it ought to be
The way it's going to be again
And when we're in heaven you'll be sorry
When we're in heaven you'll be sorry
When we're in heaven you'll be sorry then.."
-Jill Sobule
*Alternate Title #1: "Lewis Golberg is a hypocrite, so sayeth Christ"
*Alternate Title #2: "Iddybud thinks Lewis Goldberg is a big ol' poopyhead"
I've asked you this question before.
Here's a new example. This person calls himself Lewis Goldberg. Beyond that, I know nothing about him..except that I think he's passing prejudgement on a soul he does not either know or possess. He sets the poorest example for true Christian witness.
*In my humble opinion, Lewis Goldberg might not know G-d if he stumbled over Him in his rush to prejudge his fellow man*
Just listen to the words of Christ according to His disciple Lewis Goldberg.
Lewis Golberg says:
"Mr. Dean, what kind of believer in Christ picks a wife that has no hope of salvation? Since you believe so strongly in your religion, what compelled you to share your life with someone who has not the new birth within her?
...what kind of Christian consigns his offspring to life on this earth outside the fellowship of believers, and an afterlife in the pits of Hell?..Mr. Dean, if you pretend to be a Christian, people will forget that you legalized abomination..Mr. Dean, Christ came to us to save sinners from damnation, which is pretty inspiring, but we doubt you ever thought about it....
*WHAT THE HELL IS GOLDBERG TALKING ABOUT IN THIS NEXT SENTENCE?*
"...Keeping more with (????)the Northeast tradition of not believing in G-d(????),
Dean is instead using religion as bait, hoping to snare voters desperately seeking a candidate that shares their values... we need no further proof than what is offered in the article, written by Globe Staff columnist Sarah Schweitzer, that Dean is no Christian. He is but a pretender to Christ's tender mercies, for a faith that is not manifest in the way one lives and works is no faith at all, but just another armband donned to show everyone how great someone is....
~~~~~~~~~~
"Hypocrite! First get rid of the log from your own eye; then perhaps you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye.
Matthew 7:5
~~~~~~~~~~
To my fellow devout Christians (I beg the pardon and indulgence of secularists reading here):
Who is Lewis Goldberg to judge your spirit and mine..or Howard Dean's?
How does this stranger to my soul [Lewis Goldberg] purport to know about what lies in the very depths of it?
This is as shameful a display of prejudice as I have seen.
Lewis Goldberg...I command thee to take thy false piety and thy holier-than-thou barrage and shove it all up your pompous assumptions!
False judgement borne of prideful worldly grandiloquence is against all you have been taught if you are a true follower of the Christ. Your personal relationship with Christ cannot abode piously or truthfully in the same temple with a reliance upon false witness.
While people like Lewis Goldberg seem to believe they own Christ and consider all other theology (liberal or other) as
something less than Christian, I tell them that Christ's heart bleeds every time they prejudge in His loving name and steal Christ for their own political game-playing.
I'm wagering Lewis Goldberg would have been ashamed to look Howard Dean square in the eye and say these things to him. After reading his words I see that Lewis Goldberg, in worldly weakness, has allowed politics and so-called patriotism to allow him to compromise his Christian goodness and love for his fellow man.
This may sound sinful, but I think Lewis Goldberg is a hateful weasel with a political agenda.
If Lewis Goldberg is Christian, he should know this judgement is rightfully coming his way.
G-d is watching us.
Judge not lest ye be judged, Lewis Goldberg, you big ol' poopyhead.
~~~~~~~~~~~
"Our lord loves the country, he's with you at the polls
He knows the lever that you pull
He's keeping track of souls
The way it used to be
The way it ought to be
The way it's going to be again
And when we're in heaven you'll be sorry
When we're in heaven you'll be sorry
When we're in heaven you'll be sorry then.."
-Jill Sobule
What Ever Happened to Peace on Earth
Willie Nelson writes song titled "What Ever Happened to Peace on Earth" on Christmas Day..
...plans to perform song at Kucinich rally....
..rightwing journalist at World Net Daily indirectly connects Willie Nelson with terror groups to punish him for the heartfelt song.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I don't care if people say, 'Who the hell does he think he is?' I know who I am."
-Willie Nelson
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
...plans to perform song at Kucinich rally....
..rightwing journalist at World Net Daily indirectly connects Willie Nelson with terror groups to punish him for the heartfelt song.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I don't care if people say, 'Who the hell does he think he is?' I know who I am."
-Willie Nelson
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LYRICS:
What Ever Happened to Peace on Earth
There's so many things going on in the world
Babies dying
Mothers crying
How much oil is one human life worth
And what ever happened to peace on earth
We believe everything that they tell us
They're gonna' kill us
So we gotta' kill them first
But I remember a commandment
Thou shall not kill
How much is that soldier's life worth
And whatever happened to peace on earth
(Bridge)
And the bewildered herd is still believing
Everything we've been told from our birth
Hell they won't lie to me
Not on my own damn TV
But how much is a liar's word worth
And whatever happened to peace on earth
So I guess it's just
Do unto others before they do it to you
Let's just kill em' all and let God sort em' out
Is this what God wants us to do
(Repeat Bridge)
And the bewildered herd is still believing
Everything we've been told from our birth
Hell they won't lie to me
Not on my own damn TV
But how much is a liar's word worth
And whatever happened to peace on earth
Now you probably won't hear this on your radio
Probably not on your local TV
But if there's a time, and if you're ever so inclined
You can always hear it from me
How much is one picker's word worth
And whatever happened to peace on earth
But don't confuse caring for weakness
You can't put that label on me
The truth is my weapon of mass protection
And I believe truth sets you free
(Bridge)
And the bewildered herd is still believing
Everything we've been told from our birth
Hell they won't lie to me
Not on my own damn TV
But how much is a liar's word worth
And whatever happened to peace on earth
Thursday, January 01, 2004
Happy New Year
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
The Time We Thought We Knew
January 1, 2004 / N.Y. Times
By Brian Greene
"...my presence in Times Square that rainy morning - losing sleep to mark an arbitrary moment in the passage of what I
truly believe to be a derivative concept - attests to the power of convention and experience. Regardless of our
scientific insights, we will still mourn the evanescence of life and be able to thrill to the arrival of each newly
delivered moment. The choice, however, of whether to be fully seduced by the face nature reveals directly to our
senses, or to also recognize the reality that exists beyond perception, is ours."
~~~
USA Today: Freewheeling Bloggers Are Rewriting Rules of Journalism
"....There are liberals, conservatives, libertarians and near-anarchists. The one thing they all agree on: blogging. Bloggers discuss the new medium with proselytizing fervor. They know each others' Web handles (AngryLiberal, Atrios, Instapundit). They use links, which enable Internet users to jump from one Web page to another, to publicize each other's work. Bloggers feel so strongly about blogging, they even promote bloggers they don't agree with..."
**Which reminds me, I am linking Sgt Stryker's 'Team Stryker' blog this week. ;)**
The Time We Thought We Knew
January 1, 2004 / N.Y. Times
By Brian Greene
"...my presence in Times Square that rainy morning - losing sleep to mark an arbitrary moment in the passage of what I
truly believe to be a derivative concept - attests to the power of convention and experience. Regardless of our
scientific insights, we will still mourn the evanescence of life and be able to thrill to the arrival of each newly
delivered moment. The choice, however, of whether to be fully seduced by the face nature reveals directly to our
senses, or to also recognize the reality that exists beyond perception, is ours."
~~~
USA Today: Freewheeling Bloggers Are Rewriting Rules of Journalism
"....There are liberals, conservatives, libertarians and near-anarchists. The one thing they all agree on: blogging. Bloggers discuss the new medium with proselytizing fervor. They know each others' Web handles (AngryLiberal, Atrios, Instapundit). They use links, which enable Internet users to jump from one Web page to another, to publicize each other's work. Bloggers feel so strongly about blogging, they even promote bloggers they don't agree with..."
**Which reminds me, I am linking Sgt Stryker's 'Team Stryker' blog this week. ;)**
Wednesday, December 31, 2003
Unresolved New Year Resolutions
Unresolved New Year resolutions
Abhishek Singhvi/Hindustan Times/December 31, 2003
Excerpts:
Abhishek Singhvi/Hindustan Times/December 31, 2003
Excerpts:
"---On New Year’s Day, my personal resolutions remain the same and as unachieved as a decade ago...By any yardstick, I am a dismal failure, since I have achieved none of these...Let me see if I can do better by itemising some New Year resolutions for others....At the most important level of the nation, let us collectively adapt Gandhiji’s simple test before evaluating any act or omission: does it improve the lot of this nation or does it diminish it?.....Every year in the last week of December, I try to dedicate myself to the laudable activity of ‘doing nothing’.....
.....Robert Louis Stevenson..wrote a forceful apology for idlers:
“Idleness... has as good a right to state its position as industry itself... Many make a large fortune who remain underbred and pathetically stupid to the last... Extreme busyness, anywhere, is a symptom of deficient vitality; and a faculty for idleness implies a catholic appetite and a strong sense of personal identity... As if a man’s soul were not too small to begin with, they have dwarfed and narrowed theirs by a life of all work and no play...”
Iraq Quake
Good News Can Come From Bad-
Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting: Global sense of solidarity with quake victims has 'injected spirituality' into the world
Note: The translation here is certainly not perfect, but the universal message is clear.
"Of one Essence is the human race,
Thusly has Creation put the Base;
One Limb impacted is sufficient,
For all Others to feel the Mace."
Saadi poem
Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting: Global sense of solidarity with quake victims has 'injected spirituality' into the world
Note: The translation here is certainly not perfect, but the universal message is clear.
"--The touching situation of the quake victims and the tears shed over the loss of the beloved ones by the grief-stricken survivors deeply impresses anyone, whether present in the scene or anywhere else watching footage on the disaster.
--The catastrophe almost left the entire world in deep grief, touched the hearts of human beings around the world and materialized the most touching poem of the renowned Iranian poet Saadi quite applicable to the current situation as if versed particularly to this same occasion.
According to the poem composed by Sheikh Mosleh al-Din Saadi Shirazi, the 13th century Iranian poet,
`The sons of Adam are the limbs of one another, having been created of one essence.'
When the calamity of time afflicts one limb, the other limbs cannot remain at rest.'
"Of one Essence is the human race,
Thusly has Creation put the Base;
One Limb impacted is sufficient,
For all Others to feel the Mace."
Saadi poem
Top News 2003
Scripps News Service: Top News Stories of 2003
TOP 10 NATIONAL STORIES
1. The United States attacks Iraq with shock and awe weapons, easily overpowering Saddam Hussein's troops.
2. The space shuttle Columbia crashes as it returns to Earth, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
3. A huge blackout spreads across the Northeast and some Midwest states, leaving 50 million people in the dark.
4. California recalls its Democratic governor and elects Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger.
5. Hurricane Isabel knocks out power to 6.5 million households and causes damage in excess of $2 billion. The hurricane is blamed for more than 30 deaths.
6. Gay rights come front and center: The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down laws in 16 states that criminalized sodomy. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court gives gays and lesbians the right to marry and the Episcopal Church ordains its first openly gay bishop.
7. A jury recommends the death penalty for convicted sniper John Muhammad while his teenage companion Lee Malvo stands trial with an insanity defense.
8. Wildfires in California set a record, burning 989,000 acres and surpassing the last record set in 1987 when 780,000 acres burned.
9. The U.S. Supreme Court upholds affirmative action in college admissions.
10. The U.S. Catholic Church agrees to pay millions of dollars to victims of sexual abuse and ousts a number of high-ranking individuals.
TOP 10 INTERNATIONAL STORIES
1. Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein is quickly knocked out of power and captured eight months later. Hundreds of soldiers are killed by guerrilla attacks following the major battles.
2. Al Qaeda-linked terrorist bombings strike in Turkey, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Morocco.
3. The White House's "road map to peace" in the Middle East collapses as violence escalates.
4. An outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) spreads from China to more than 30 countries, infecting 8,000 people and killing more than 800.
5. A heat wave in Europe kills an estimated 35,000 people.
6. North Korea and Iran are found to be far ahead on making nuclear weapons.
7. China launches a manned spacecraft into Earth orbit in October, becoming the third country to put humans in space.
8. Strongman Charles Taylor is forced out of Liberia after 25 years of bloodshed.
9. Canada confirms a case of Mad Cow disease in a slaughtered animal, triggering a quarantine of Canadian beef and soaring beef prices at U.S. supermarkets.
10. Russian President Vladimir Putin jails a top oil executive and Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze is driven from office by popular demand.
Conservative News 2003
From the Conservative Corner:
Townhall.com readers pick their top stories of 2003
Media Research Center: Best Notable Quotables of 2003
;)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Moving out of the righthand corner of the room.....
Their Media War and Ours in 2004
A Call to Educate, Organize and Mobilize
2003 -- The Year We Almost Lost Honest News
A Look Back and Ahead at the Year in Media
Townhall.com readers pick their top stories of 2003
Media Research Center: Best Notable Quotables of 2003
;)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Moving out of the righthand corner of the room.....
Their Media War and Ours in 2004
A Call to Educate, Organize and Mobilize
2003 -- The Year We Almost Lost Honest News
A Look Back and Ahead at the Year in Media
Howard Dean in South Carolina
Howard Dean to Georgetown, S.C.:
"We want jobs in America. If you want jobs in America, you don’t run a $500 billion deficit. You can’t trust the Republicans any more.”
Here's a shame: National [USWA] union leaders told the local chapter it could not let Dean come to its hall since the union has endorsed Democratic presidential rival Dick Gephardt.
Although the national Steelworkers Union has endorsed Dick Gephardt for the Democratic nomination, local union leaders endorsed Dean.
And this is an example of how false media punditry effects real-time electoral processes:
“[Dean's] already been labeled as too liberal,” said Solomon, former director of the state’s Department of Social Services [Gerogetown, S.C.]. “He’s not going to be able to shake that.”
We need to start fighting falsehoods in the media before they have chance to snowball into these iceheaps of ugly fantasy-turned-real.
"We want jobs in America. If you want jobs in America, you don’t run a $500 billion deficit. You can’t trust the Republicans any more.”
Here's a shame: National [USWA] union leaders told the local chapter it could not let Dean come to its hall since the union has endorsed Democratic presidential rival Dick Gephardt.
Although the national Steelworkers Union has endorsed Dick Gephardt for the Democratic nomination, local union leaders endorsed Dean.
And this is an example of how false media punditry effects real-time electoral processes:
“[Dean's] already been labeled as too liberal,” said Solomon, former director of the state’s Department of Social Services [Gerogetown, S.C.]. “He’s not going to be able to shake that.”
We need to start fighting falsehoods in the media before they have chance to snowball into these iceheaps of ugly fantasy-turned-real.
Richard Perle Wants More War
Richard Perle is longing to see more endangered troops, more insecure foreign places, fewer American allies, and far more broken American-family hearts....
His poorly-planned security-disaster in Iraq just isn't enough to sate his gnarly appetite for more of the same. I can't help but think Perle is somehow relieved there will be 50,000 fewer citizens in the city of Bam
to have to worry about when we move in on Iran.
"You're a foul one, Mr.Grinch Perle.
You're a nasty, wasty skunk.
Your heart is full of unwashed socks
Your soul is full of gunk.
Mr.Grinch Perle.
Your soul is an apalling dump heap overflowing
with the most disgraceful assortment of deplorable
rubbish imaginable,
Mangled up in tangled up knots..."
His poorly-planned security-disaster in Iraq just isn't enough to sate his gnarly appetite for more of the same. I can't help but think Perle is somehow relieved there will be 50,000 fewer citizens in the city of Bam
to have to worry about when we move in on Iran.
"You're a foul one, Mr.
You're a nasty, wasty skunk.
Your heart is full of unwashed socks
Your soul is full of gunk.
Mr.
Your soul is an apalling dump heap overflowing
with the most disgraceful assortment of deplorable
rubbish imaginable,
Mangled up in tangled up knots..."
James Zogby Trashed by World Net Daily
World Net Daily Trashes Pollster James Zogby for Giving Straight Facts to Foreigners
They claim the Saudi population never gets the truth from their own media....so, based upon this curiously odd reasoning, why would they deserve the truth from James Zogby?
They claim the Saudi population never gets the truth from their own media....so, based upon this curiously odd reasoning, why would they deserve the truth from James Zogby?
Jimmy Breslin-Our Fallen Troops
Our Fallen Troops-
Jimmy Breslin: Their Photos Tell the Story
Excerpts:
~~~~~~~
ATRIOS blog has more information about the Cher phonecall mentioned in the article.
~~~~~~~
Please see my own Honor Roll website.
Although incomplete at present, I am working so you may see the faces and stories of each man and woman who have given their lives in Iraq.
Jimmy Breslin: Their Photos Tell the Story
Excerpts:
"....The Army Times, a civilian newspaper that is sold mainly on military bases and thus reaches the prime wartime audience, uses eight pages of its year-end review, out now, to run photos of all those who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan, except 35.....There were 506 killed by the time the newspaper closed last Friday. Since then, another seven have died. The newspaper has said this is the deadliest year for the U.S. military since 1972, when 640 were killed in Vietnam....The chilling photos run at a time when the government tries to describe the war as a civic venture, and nearly all of the news industry doesn't know how to object. This probably is the worst failure to inform the public that we have seen. The Pekingese of the Press run clip-clop along the hall to the next government press conference...."
~~~~~~~
ATRIOS blog has more information about the Cher phonecall mentioned in the article.
~~~~~~~
Please see my own Honor Roll website.
Although incomplete at present, I am working so you may see the faces and stories of each man and woman who have given their lives in Iraq.
Howard Zinn: Logic of Withdrawl
Howard Zinn: The Logic Of Withdrawl
This is in the January 2004 issue of The Progressive. Howard Zinn has written his own speech intended for the hoped-for use of whichever candidate emerges as Democratic Party nominee for President.
This is in the January 2004 issue of The Progressive. Howard Zinn has written his own speech intended for the hoped-for use of whichever candidate emerges as Democratic Party nominee for President.
Tuesday, December 30, 2003
David Brooks-On Oakeshott
David Brooks has been "communing with big thinkers".
Brooks has written a rather engaging piece about English philosopher Michael Oakeshott, who was the subject of Andrew Sullivan's dissertation. I especially enjoyed Brooks' reference to the Chuang-tzu tale. It's a wonderful lesson to learn. Oakeshott thought Hobbes' 'Leviathan' was "the greatest, perhaps the sole masterpiece of political philosophy written in the English language". After writing several books and spending five years in the British Army, Oakeshott got wide public recognition upon his return to Cambridge to edit the Cambridge Journal. A former student of Oakeshott commented upon the unforgettable experience of his lectures on the majesty of St. Augustine's "City of God".
What I find enchanting about Oakeshott is that he would have embraced bold, highly creative individualists such as the writer Francois Rabelais.
In Rabelais, I often see much of myself. I see it in the knowlege (or should I say the hope) that language possesses us just as we attempt to harness the same language and use it to turn the tables on the follies of being human. We strive to make our personal sanity known to all others swirling in the same chaotic carnival of the kaleidoscope of time in which we are destined to live together. Through the language that permeated the unique novels of "Gargantua and Pantagruel", Rabelais magically exposed the circus of the life around him in the 16th century. If anything could overthrow orthodoxy, it is surely the arresting language of the satirically colorful individualist.
Oakeshott was bohemian, intuitive and boldly individual himself. His philsophical legacy could not be pinned down like a butterfly on display. He presented and represented a wonderful view of freedom. He understood that politics is about reflective judgement. Personally, I think he would have been raking Tony Blair over the hottest coals with sharpest wit for chiming in with G.W. Bush and making this pre-emptive strike on Iraq. Where was Tony Blair's bold individual courage or color when needed most? It slipped inside Bush's pocket, where it remains shielded from the light to this day.
I believe Oakeshott would have a joyous time playfully attacking the Bush administration's NeoCons for all their social planning to force and cram the Middle East into their Utopian mold of capitalistic democracy. Paul Wolfowitz and Bill Kristol would have been the whipping boys of Oakeshott's knowing admonitions about the dangers of abstract rationalism.
The fullness of one's writings are surely revealed over time.
What I enjoy about blogging is that we can all converse about great men such as Oakeshott without him being here in our presence...and speculate on what he might have said or believed..and none of us can say we've won or lost the debate on the very speculation. Yet we find a common topic..common ground between people who often do not see today's carnival eye-to-eye.
As Oakeshott himself had said:
"In conversation ... thoughts of different species take wing and play round one another, responding to each other's movements and provoking one another to fresh exertions. Nobody asks where they have come from or on what authority they are present; nobody cares what will become of them when they have played their part. There is no symposiarch or arbiter, not even a doorkeeper to examine credentials. Every entrant is taken at its face-value and everything is permitted which can get itself accepted into the flow of speculation. And voices which speak in conversation do not compose a hierarchy..."
Brooks has written a rather engaging piece about English philosopher Michael Oakeshott, who was the subject of Andrew Sullivan's dissertation. I especially enjoyed Brooks' reference to the Chuang-tzu tale. It's a wonderful lesson to learn. Oakeshott thought Hobbes' 'Leviathan' was "the greatest, perhaps the sole masterpiece of political philosophy written in the English language". After writing several books and spending five years in the British Army, Oakeshott got wide public recognition upon his return to Cambridge to edit the Cambridge Journal. A former student of Oakeshott commented upon the unforgettable experience of his lectures on the majesty of St. Augustine's "City of God".
What I find enchanting about Oakeshott is that he would have embraced bold, highly creative individualists such as the writer Francois Rabelais.
In Rabelais, I often see much of myself. I see it in the knowlege (or should I say the hope) that language possesses us just as we attempt to harness the same language and use it to turn the tables on the follies of being human. We strive to make our personal sanity known to all others swirling in the same chaotic carnival of the kaleidoscope of time in which we are destined to live together. Through the language that permeated the unique novels of "Gargantua and Pantagruel", Rabelais magically exposed the circus of the life around him in the 16th century. If anything could overthrow orthodoxy, it is surely the arresting language of the satirically colorful individualist.
Oakeshott was bohemian, intuitive and boldly individual himself. His philsophical legacy could not be pinned down like a butterfly on display. He presented and represented a wonderful view of freedom. He understood that politics is about reflective judgement. Personally, I think he would have been raking Tony Blair over the hottest coals with sharpest wit for chiming in with G.W. Bush and making this pre-emptive strike on Iraq. Where was Tony Blair's bold individual courage or color when needed most? It slipped inside Bush's pocket, where it remains shielded from the light to this day.
I believe Oakeshott would have a joyous time playfully attacking the Bush administration's NeoCons for all their social planning to force and cram the Middle East into their Utopian mold of capitalistic democracy. Paul Wolfowitz and Bill Kristol would have been the whipping boys of Oakeshott's knowing admonitions about the dangers of abstract rationalism.
The fullness of one's writings are surely revealed over time.
What I enjoy about blogging is that we can all converse about great men such as Oakeshott without him being here in our presence...and speculate on what he might have said or believed..and none of us can say we've won or lost the debate on the very speculation. Yet we find a common topic..common ground between people who often do not see today's carnival eye-to-eye.
As Oakeshott himself had said:
"In conversation ... thoughts of different species take wing and play round one another, responding to each other's movements and provoking one another to fresh exertions. Nobody asks where they have come from or on what authority they are present; nobody cares what will become of them when they have played their part. There is no symposiarch or arbiter, not even a doorkeeper to examine credentials. Every entrant is taken at its face-value and everything is permitted which can get itself accepted into the flow of speculation. And voices which speak in conversation do not compose a hierarchy..."
VP Clinton?
President Dean
Vice President Clinton?
Secretary of Defense Wesley Clark?
Hey! What about Al?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Terry McAuliffe Virtually Says 'Sorry, Howard...
Can't help--Won't Help. Politics is Dog-Eat-Dog.'
Is it 'Tough Love'? --or 'Making a Wreck of the Democratic base'?
You decide.
This decision will make or break DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe.
Here's my opinion. (You knew you couldn't escape it! ;)
Let's face it...a huge chunk of the old Democratic base began to break away when lily-livered Democrats refused to effectively stand up to Bush and caved in easily to the October, 2002 Iraq Resolution.
And now, we see the lily-livers making brutal attacks upon a strong front-runner who exposed them for what they were every step of the way.
This front-runner has succeeded in motivating the base once again.
What the hell is McAuliffe thinking? I really would like to know.
Terry McAuliffe should think about how this inner-party brutality is sabotaging the already-weakened base.
It may look cute and politically-acceptable in the polifantastic (that's my own word;) world of Washington, D.C., but out here it looks like losers' misery.
Terry McAuliffe needs to act swiftly in the best interests of the party..or risk removal for his negligence.
Hey-look at me..I'm the real angry guy! Howie's a melter!
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