Thursday, March 31, 2011
Verite
Je n'ai pas fait le delit que tu a imaginer Je n'ai pas tu tromper Tu a eu ma coeur depuis la premiere journee et je reste dans ton amour.
Needed Now More Than Ever
Part II; Peacemaking and Building with JOHAN GALTUNG WORKSHOPS with Dr. Diane Perlman Wednesday, April 6, 2011 Search for Common Ground 4th floor 1601 Connecticut Ave., NW, Dupont Metro North ExitStrategies for Transforming Seemingly Intractable Conflicts Vision and Strategies for the Middle East Dr. Johan Galtung is a pioneer in peace research and conflict transformation, founder and co-director of Transcend, consultant to many world leaders and organizations. He was nominated twenty times for the Nobel Peace Prize and received the Right Livelihood Award - the "alternative Nobel Prize." He originated the idea of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe OSCE -and the resolution of the 8-year conflict between Peru and Ecuador. We will explore innovative strategies in several hot spots, with a special focus on the Middle East. We will encourage opportunities for participants to become actively involved in the solutions since we are in Washington. In more than 50 years of mediating international conflicts, Galtung has earned the respect of leaders and scholars throughout the Middle East and around the world. He has valuable insights from his meetings with leaders of the Taliban, Hamas, and Hezbollah. And he has Israel’s higher interests at heart, where he visits often to see his son and grandchildren. SCHEDULE 9:30 - 10:00 Coffee and Registration 10:00 – 12:00 Workshop 1 HOLISM-DIALECTICS: On making prognoses, 12 examples DEEP STRUCTURE AND MEDIATION: Professional biases 12:15 – 2:15 Special Lunch Session THE 6 STATE- SOLUTION TO THE ISRAELI/PALESTINIAN CONFLICT Galtung transcends the raging debate between a "one-state solution" and a "two-state solution." Learn about the Six State Solution, how it can work, and why it will be especially good for Israel and Arab states alike. We will brainstorm this strategy and ideas for promoting in Washington among opinion leaders, policy makers, media and academia 2:30 – 5:00 Workshop 2 DEEP CULTURE AND MEDIATION: National profiles, 10 cases A THEORY OF PEACE: A preview Workshop 1 - $30.00 Lecture/Lunch $20.00 Workshop 2 - $30.00 All 3 - $70.00 Healthy, vegetarian, low methane, low carbon, and mostly low carb snacks included Space is Limited, First come basis Diane Perlman, PhD is a clinical and political psychologist, Visiting Scholar Institute of Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University, a member of Transcend, Mediators Beyond Borders, and Psychologists for Social Responsibility, TO RESERVE - Email Dr. Diane Perlman, EnduringSecurity@gmail.com– give name, email address, phone # and which workshops, 1, 2, and/or 3. Pay at door on 4/6, If you have questions call Diane Perlman, 202 775 0777 cell 202 241 7018
Love Without Limits
And Food for the Hungry Miram's Kitchen continues to feed the Sheep. Anyone in need is welcome- regardless of religion. They feed hundreds a day in DC. You can help.
Miriam's Kitchen's 10th Annual 100 Bowls of Compassion Gala Thursday, May 12th, 6-9:30 pm at the National Building Museum Tickets: $250 or $150 for young professionals (under 35) and first time attendees Purchase tickets by: Calling 202-452-8926 x227 Emailing ashley@miriamskitchen.org
Ticket includes: Access to live and silent auctions where supremely talented artists have donated hand made bowls, large and small of every variety (Sushi platter/bowls, salad bowls, large decorative platter bowls, etc.) Open bar and Silk Road-inspired gourmet food made by Miriam's Kitchen world class chefs. For information about sponsoring 100 Bowls of Compassion: Contact Executive Director Scott Schenkelberg at (202) 452-8926 x 222 or scott@miriamskitchen.org
You can sponsor a TABLE for your church or org. or individual tickets. All proceeds go to Miriam's Kitchen to support our programs
The Economist
Mandatory Reading for Libya Second Guessers http://www.economist.com/node/18441153?story_id=18441153&fsrc=nlwwwp03-31-11politics_this_week
Lenten Forgiveness
Doesn't require Altzheimers. You may never forget what happened, but it's required to get over it and move on. "Avance en large" is how one confessor put it to me. Get over it and move on. If the other party doesn't acknowledge squarely the wrong at all or apologize it doesn't require a reconciliation with that person-- just a reconciliation on your part with God by your forgiveness. If the other person is so clueless they don't get what was wrong with their conduct to a point where they ask forgiveness and say sorry to your face, you don't have to subject yourself to the possibility that they will recreate the same destructive behavior again. Move on. My father mentored someone for years in a company who ended up betraying him, screwing him over and taking over a promotion that my father should have received. My father had two choices. I told him - if you can't forgive and move on he wins, if you can forgive and move on you win. He hadn't thought of it in those terms. He had an option of suing for a bucket of things, but didn't. It is an earth trial for a heavenly reward. You may lose on earth and win in heaven. It is even more hurtful and painful and harder to forgive when the other side perversely uses the authority structure to try to make you out to be a bad guy. Jesus recall was tried officially. He was put on trial. Mocked by soldiers in authority who had authority to detain and torture him under color of law. He was given the official government punishment of Crucifixion- the most humiliating torturous death. And what were his last words "Father, Forgive them-" They don't have the foggiest clue what they are doing. Previously he called these people "blind guides", "white washed tombs full of dead men's bones." Utterly clueless. And they killed off their very salvation. We can in hindsight look back and say what stunning stupidity. He probably looked in head shaking amazement at their spiritual blockages, like corroded arteries to the heart of God. And yet, he forgave them. For those who say sorry, he says come back home. The saying 'sorry' part is what the act of contrition is for in the confessional- but it is also required, if you wish to reconcile with the person wronged or offended to say sorry directly to them. If you don't consider yourself unreconciled. Forgiven possibly, but still unreconciled. It could be an ego blockage, which is why Pride is a deadly sin.
Let Them Eat Coconut Cake!
Those Church Ladies Have Something Cooking! Join us for the "Makes Me Wanna Shout Coconut Cake Challenge" presented by Eatonville and Church Lady Cake Diaries. Come taste the best coconut cakes in the area, chat with renowned chefs and enjoy live music while supporting Miriam's Kitchen! Tickets are $15 and you can get them from Jen Georget at jengeorget@miriamskitchen.org. All proceeds go to Miriam's Kitchen to support our programs. Miriam's Kitchen is the homeless ministry in Western Presbyterian Church (across from the State Department) which feeds daily hundreds of homeless people in DC. Yes, there are hundreds and hundreds of them. Michele Obama has graced their kitchen serving vittles to them. They make lots and lots of goodies for people who drag themselves in off the streets from sleeping in doorways, shelters and yes, down by the river. Remember when Abraham went to the netherworld and Lazarus went to heaven? This is your chance to bridge the chasm. Support Miriam's Kitchen. They make lots and lots of goodies for everyone. Stay tuned for their bowls of compassion huge annual fundraising event...details to follow. churchladycake.com/
Bucks For
BROTHER BOB Not my real brother, but in Spirit. Bob Casey is the Pro Life Senator from Pennsyslvania. He's in for a heckuva battle and needs the proverbial Peace Chest to make his run. I support him and hope you will too. Please donate to the Pro Life Democrat- He's a Moderation in everything kinda guy, a huge family man, a catholic with a bevy of beautiful girls and constant wife by his side. How can you not love this guy? Contribute here. Really. https://secure.bobcasey.com/?utm_source=sp3859972&utm_medium=e&sc=sp3859972
All that is Seen
And Unseen. I know people whose whole life revolves around greater acquisitiveness. They work stressful jobs to get to the next rung of higher levels of financial success to manifest in things like the biggest house in the neighborhood, a fleet of higher line cars, kids in the most prestigious schools, etc. Their power is in their social status and standing and the wealth they convey. I have a friend who is a third order Carmelite who says "The realest things are invisible." Think of what powers life that is invisible. Can you see the wind? Do you know from where it comes? (a question actually asked in scripture.) You might see leaves whipping around but do you see the wind? Do you see electricity? You can see a light go on but did you see the electricity that made it happen? Do you see the transmission that connects your internet with the server? The 'wireless' in Starbucks in the air? Do you see the rain when it is absorbed back into the clouds overhead? Do you see what powers the waves to roll? You see the effects of this power. The manifestations. The white froth atop the waves, the "you've got mail" in your email inbox, the fallen leaves cluttering your gutter, and the lights on. These are the fruits of these powers. The fruits of the Spirit are patience, kindness, longsuffering, gentleness, peace, etc..... The Fruits of Love are LIFE abundantly and more LIFE created ex nihilo out of nothingness. LOVE is the electricity that powers all goodness and births new life. LOVE is the foundational operating principle of the earth's entire creation.
OH THAT YOU WOULD KNOW
The Heights, Depths and Breadth of His Love This is lent for Christians. To some this means giving up something- my mother always gives up watermelon (because it's never in season)- but really, it's not a joke. It's serious. With prayer, fasting, and generosity of heart giving till it hurts we declare that all we are and have is from God, belongs to God and we are his servants, butlers and handmaidens to His Love. Everything is Love- Love can want to spare you suffering and rapture you off early-and if Love wants to do that I say let it- or Love can want you to just be His Servant in humility with whatever gifts he gives you. If you are old enough (I can brag half a century) you remember well when there were no laptops, netbooks, tablets, wireless, 3G, 4G, cell phones or blackberries. NONE. I wrote my high school papers on a clunky old IBM typewriter and whited out with liquid 'white out' when I made a mistake or typed over white "correction paper" to masque the mistake. I could not have imagined the day when I could through a thing called a "blog" transmit to thousands of people a day the same message instantaneously. Imagine that there is higher intelligence, but more to the point, higher Love, powerful LOVE, a LOVE that saves you from the earthly limits and constraints of petty earthly bitterness, revenges, vengeance, spites and ugliness, a love that is a FIRE, a love on fire for you with a heart burning so deep that it reduced its being to a presence just like you so it could try to speak to you to take your sins upon himself so you could transcend the earth's evil. This kind of love is no respecter of petty man made rules or boundaries. You cannot contain Fire in a wood box. It is no respecter of ego aggrandizement at the expense of another's heart, it is no elevator of social status for its own sake. It is the Love that raises the dead, feeds the starving, raises the dignity and provides for the Poor, heals the sick, frees the oppressed, empowers the outcast and brings them into belonging, and is everlasting into the next dimension of eternity. This is the deep deep Love of Jesus. It creates Life out of nothing. It dissolves pain into Joy. It kisses the leper, opens the eyes of the blind, and walks even with people who don't recognize him to lead them to safety and peace. How does he do all this? How do you just simply hit an "app" and discover a world of knowledge at your fingertips? How does Jesus 'know'? What frequency is your brain-emotional life sending to heaven in your thoughts and prayers? Ask and it shall be given to you. Knock and the door shall be opened for you. This is lent- time to run your computer through the 'Disk Clean' to 'create in me a clean heart oh God' and the 'Defrag' so your systems are aligned in good working order to receive and send. He is there, he is listening, he Loves you more than you can imagine or conceive. All life, all breath, all being has its source in Him.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Gone Viral
TWINS- I LOVE IT!!
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
The Anti-Hillary
Woman Lawyer Two Term House of Representatives Not as looney as you thought. Michele Bachman. She will likely run for President even if it results in her being put on the ticket as Veep as an outcome. Completely missing the zooey nutty Palin gene, she started her career as a tax attorney and gained a reputation as a tax reformer. She has served two terms in the House of Representatives and is a leader in the Tea Party movement (or knows how to Saavily play it like she is.) She is the mother of four, foster mother of at least a dozen more kids, and runs a small business in her home district with her husband. She is pro life and puts her money where her mouth is as a foster mother who advocates for adoption. She's credible, not as dumb as you thought she was, small business minded, tax reform minded, and speaks with surprising grace and eloquence when not poised over a balcony looking at Lipton tags hanging from fishing hats.She is the anti-Northeastern Liberal arrogance born in Iowa. She is THE run for their money.
What Loose Living Does
This was Khadafi during the days of the Libyan Revolution. No wonder the country followed the dashing military man. Now he's crazy.
We Are The Good Guys
note to Republicans: Repeat After Me --We Are The Good Guys. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RnB6H24VDM&NR=1 It's worth repeating to the House Majority. There are very bizarre twists to this Libya drama- Khadaffi looks not only 'mad' but drugged. His ever previously present but now gone buxom Ukrainian nurse suggests that he needed some routine maintenance medication of some kind and his glazed dazed eyes at times suggest he is medicated. Pharmaceutically enhanced. I suspect advanced Syphilis. Ranting meglomaniacal denials of reality come with the territory of advanced Syphilis. Madmen. It's a pity- he was once a stunningly handsome man and its a waste. Now, years after Botox injections from a Brazilian plastic surgeon that have sunken into his neck and other enhancements/improvements, he has utterly lost his grip. Worrisome are reports that an Israeli company found/recruited the 40,000 men African mercenary army that is defending his regime and being paid roughly the equivalent of $200.a day per African mercenary. What a little 50 Billion Gold Bullion reserve buys these days. If we fund boots on the ground we are in for a long war, and potentially something that could trigger the intervention of Iran - the Israeli company sourcing the mercenaries should be shut down at the pass.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Don't Put Me In the Same Room With Either of Them
Winners of the 'We Haven't a Clue what Respect Women Means' 
Going Along to Get Along-or Moral Courage.
When the church is wrong- its REALLY REALLY WRONG. 
Appeasement and Accommodationism History 101 for Americans who have not lived outside the US. Lord Chamberlain in Britain was famous for wanting to appease Hitler. Hitler was a charismatic figure who mass mobilized an entire country with his demagogic rhetoric. An entire country fell for him. Hard to believe. He was slaughtering people while people screamed-stop the madman. Many many religious leaders cozied up to him including Bishops in Germany. You can google it yourself- many pictures abound of Cardinals and/or Bishops in the presence of Nazis or Hitler himself and accounts are not hard to find. He co-opted the national religion of the place, making himself the leader of the previous German Lutheran Church much like Queen Elizabeth is currently the leader to give himself moral authority. We know now he was the closest thing to a demon on earth. For a very long time, German Bishops allowed him to continue without calling him to moral account. He controlled everything that paid them. So they kept their mouth shut for the most part -not so some brave priests who did hide Jews and pay for it with their lives. Famous Saints like Maximillian Kolbe, a priest, lost his life giving it for a Jewish fellow inmate in a concentration camp. We see the other appeasers now as people like moral cowards-the spineless, the appeasers, who are in part responsible now for the lost lives for their failure to stop him. If only they spoke out sooner, if only they insisted he be checked sooner. If only...... Khadaffi is a person with a proven track record in murdering innocents and so the threat brandished to do in and under his opposer rebels was taken not as an idol threat given what the international community knew of him. To appease him, Obama apparently calculated, would have allowed by default a mass murder of hundreds of thousands of people that we could have stopped. The French don't have our 'innocent bystander' rule which excuses action when it is deemed none of your business. When they see someone in peril, and have the capability or means to save a life, it is in their moral code to rescue the person. This is what is operating here. Obama I believe history will judge did the right thing in intervening in Libya. Should he have told Congress? Yes. That's another question. Did he need a Declaration of War? Not sure- need more research on that. But what is clear, he thought he had a moral obligation to stop a slaughter and apparently the entire UN and NATO agreed. And no one can accuse him of a False Flag attack pretext to get us to see his reasoning.
When the Justice System Fails You
What do you do? This is what over a million women in the Wal-Mart case will feel if the Court refuses to certify the class action. There have been terrible rulings before. Rulings that misrepresent the facts or record, rulings that just evince pathetically bad judgment. Rulings to protect one party that distort the record or mistate it by the Court or their law clerks who are no more experienced than twenty year old law students. But Courts do fail you- not irregularly- sometimes it is political, sometimes bad judgment, even from Judges you expect should know better-sometimes they want to protect industries, sometimes there is a personal or corrupt stake in the outcome when they refuse to recuse, and they always have precedent to support wrong decisions- or we would have a perfect system and there would be perfect Justice in the world. There obviously is not either. It is not unlikely that the Court will either rule against Wal-Mart even though there is obvious discrimination going on (it is not a question of the merits there just certification under technical FRCP rule 23 grounds). If the Court in Wal-Mart refuses to certify the plaintiffs then some of them are not going to be able to start over and bring new suits- it will be too costly. They won't be able to afford attorneys. Their individual damages are not great enough to make it worth their or any attorney's time-so goes the calculation. So the injustice will go unaddressed. When this happens people resign themselves to- so what, I don't care anymore. The Walmart case hopes to address institutional injustice- a predominant pattern and practice of sexism. If it persists in getting unaddressed then this has a devastating effect on morale of both plaintiffs attorneys and their clients. Justice doesn't get done. People generally scream that class action attorneys are the ones who make all the money and their clients don't benefit. Given that the case went on for ten years to the Ninth Circuit and the Supreme Court and that there were ten law firms associated with it at various stages, if you do a calculation of numbers of attorneys, numbers of years, the per attorney pay out calculated per the salary the attorneys may not be getting as huge a windfall as thought. In any class action, after the costs in a national class action of that size, with multiple law firms after spreading the wealth people don't always strike the lottery. And the company wouldn't change without them. When Justice fails however -or gets it badly wrong-there is a clear temptation to just throw in the towel and say- whatever- don't care anymore. Can't care anymore. Just don't care. That is what the Supreme Court risks in a bad decision in Wal Mart- it's all wrong and I can't care any more. The greatest risk to bad Justice is the sense of fatalistic futility and a sense of their irrelevance.
I HAD A DREAM
No, Really, I mean I really had a Dream
The title isn't a play on dismay at the dashed aspirations of MLK. I had a dream last night after the President's speech.
I am not a Jungian or a Freudian-just a little lawyer. But the dream changed my view of the President's actions in Libya 180 degrees. I now just might be his biggest fan again. Before the President's speech I was applauding Medea Benjamin of Code Pink for raising the rucus banner still, and generally considered myself someone who should call out anyone who wages war championing the Pope's call to lay down the arms now. After my dream I appreciated better the distinction between "just" and not so just war. Chamberlonian Appeasement has a bad name for a reason. Appeasement can sometimes mean outright slaughter.
In this dream my late grandfather, a distinguished Pennsylvania attorney who has never before in the 35 years since his passing showed up in my dreams was there lounging in his beautiful living space. I was warmed immensely by his presence. Then I was led out of his presence by a beautiful little small boy whom I knew wasn't my son but felt more like an angel. I followed him to another room whereupon I saw a man whom I recognized immediately as a bad guy capture the angel boy and violently throw him in a closet. I instinctively went toward the man to demand that the angel boy be let out of the closet at which point he threw me against the wall, handcuffed me with state issued military police handcuffs, brandished a switchblade and taunted that he was not only not going to let the angelboy out of the closet, he was going to have his way with me and slice up my grandfather and all the rest of my family. I screamed for help and felt utterly helpless against the power of this evil. I was so shocked/stunned by this dream I immediately awoke in a sweat.
I sat in bed thinking hard about why I had just had such a horrible dream-I don't get them alot. I tend to think the Rosary I say before bed protects me and usually my dreams are the sweetest. But this I needed to think about.
It has dawned on me that God places our leaders in authority over and in positions of strength and power for us because they are good, supremely good and they are there for a reason in a particular moment in history. This is Obama's moment in history.
It's the conservatives who usually say there is evil in the world and it is real.
Indeed, it is real. Sometimes it has to be stopped in its tracks.
Obama has tried every way he can think of to not overreach in the fashion Bush did and not deceive the public like Bush did about why force was here the only responsible response given what he knew of the situation. He has made it a multilateral effort and the responsibility of the entire western world through NATO. He has minimized and reduced our military involvement to what was necessary to stop what he thought was an imminent slaughter of an entire city.
Now I do not fault him for using force to overcome a forceful evil. I can only criticize him for not coming out ahead of the criticism and making this speech a week ago. I apologize and retract for calling it reckless and/or ill advised (I think I was harsher, I called it stupid even.) This was how it appeared to a lot of people and polls have plummetted. Now I need to make it right and redress the decline. The President deserves our humble appreciation. In our name he stood down evil in the face and won. He's Winning.
The title isn't a play on dismay at the dashed aspirations of MLK. I had a dream last night after the President's speech.
I am not a Jungian or a Freudian-just a little lawyer. But the dream changed my view of the President's actions in Libya 180 degrees. I now just might be his biggest fan again. Before the President's speech I was applauding Medea Benjamin of Code Pink for raising the rucus banner still, and generally considered myself someone who should call out anyone who wages war championing the Pope's call to lay down the arms now. After my dream I appreciated better the distinction between "just" and not so just war. Chamberlonian Appeasement has a bad name for a reason. Appeasement can sometimes mean outright slaughter.
In this dream my late grandfather, a distinguished Pennsylvania attorney who has never before in the 35 years since his passing showed up in my dreams was there lounging in his beautiful living space. I was warmed immensely by his presence. Then I was led out of his presence by a beautiful little small boy whom I knew wasn't my son but felt more like an angel. I followed him to another room whereupon I saw a man whom I recognized immediately as a bad guy capture the angel boy and violently throw him in a closet. I instinctively went toward the man to demand that the angel boy be let out of the closet at which point he threw me against the wall, handcuffed me with state issued military police handcuffs, brandished a switchblade and taunted that he was not only not going to let the angelboy out of the closet, he was going to have his way with me and slice up my grandfather and all the rest of my family. I screamed for help and felt utterly helpless against the power of this evil. I was so shocked/stunned by this dream I immediately awoke in a sweat.
I sat in bed thinking hard about why I had just had such a horrible dream-I don't get them alot. I tend to think the Rosary I say before bed protects me and usually my dreams are the sweetest. But this I needed to think about.
It has dawned on me that God places our leaders in authority over and in positions of strength and power for us because they are good, supremely good and they are there for a reason in a particular moment in history. This is Obama's moment in history.
It's the conservatives who usually say there is evil in the world and it is real.
Indeed, it is real. Sometimes it has to be stopped in its tracks.
Obama has tried every way he can think of to not overreach in the fashion Bush did and not deceive the public like Bush did about why force was here the only responsible response given what he knew of the situation. He has made it a multilateral effort and the responsibility of the entire western world through NATO. He has minimized and reduced our military involvement to what was necessary to stop what he thought was an imminent slaughter of an entire city.
Now I do not fault him for using force to overcome a forceful evil. I can only criticize him for not coming out ahead of the criticism and making this speech a week ago. I apologize and retract for calling it reckless and/or ill advised (I think I was harsher, I called it stupid even.) This was how it appeared to a lot of people and polls have plummetted. Now I need to make it right and redress the decline. The President deserves our humble appreciation. In our name he stood down evil in the face and won. He's Winning.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Sunday, March 27, 2011
DRINK YOUR COFFEE There are people sleeping in India. (it's a joke) You can order Mystic Monk Coffee here- Real Monks Really Praying. They also sell it at the Shrine Bookstore but get it on line here by clicking to the right. Coffee sales keeps them alive in the Mountains. I was confusing Carmelites with Franciscans (thanks Amy for clarifying), brown hooded robes being hard to tell apart, but they are deeply contemplative and we need their prayers. You need their coffee. Click on the Mystic Monk Coffee link to the right and get your stash for the month on subscription order. Your church coffee ladies will thank you.
Best Advertising Campaign Award Goes To...
Catholic Match SINGLE? GIVE IT UP FOR LENT http://www.catholicmatch.com/?referrer_code=catholicweb&campaign_code=giveitup_120x182
BEAT YOUR SWORDS
INTO PLOWSHARES The Pope says -time to put down your weapons kiddies. http://www.oecumene.radiovaticana.org/EN2/articolo.asp?c=473430 If the President tomorrow comes out and gives that fixleaf pretext 'we know we saved hundreds of thousands of lives' by our unprovoked, non-imminent danger, half way around the world to a place we don't have immediate security interests blitzkreig he will lose everyone, because we all get it. That's pretty close to horse dung. Hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost already in the Sudan, in the Congo, and elsewhere. What did we do there? Libya has OIL. End of story. That is why we are focused on the Oil Ports and covering the 'rebels' who take cities at the OIL PORTs, not inland. The propaganda coming through the MSM from the warmongers is transparent and obscene- you would expect it from the old guard Soviets- AOL (America on Langley) you should be ashamed. Burning faces of Khadaffi and flags. It's all about who get to reap the harvest of the oil lease deals. The geostragic concerns here can't be greater than Syria or Yemen which are dangerously heated and closer to Israel and we aren't invading there are we. Put your weapons down. Tell your planes to take a U-Turn. Stop the random killing. Just stop it. You can't win where it matters with that mess. It is only going to get worse if you keep it up. Biden is right- the Senate is lost. If the main reason people vote Democratic is because they are viewed as the non-war party as against the republicans who are viewed as the warring non-abortion party- and they both look to the common man as warmongering, the No Abortion guys win on a balance of LIFE assesment. Political suicide- but they said Obama never wanted to be a two -termer anyway. He sure is acting like it.
Don't Ever Say
Honey We're Out Of Coffee Again.
Why not just get great coffee delivered every month so you never run out? How smart is that- consistently great coffee all the time for office, home, church or all the above! Mystic Monks are real Carmelte monks -- They are praying for us (and you)
I have affixed a permenant link to the right so you can support the Franciscans, the PEACE order, who guard the holy sites in Israel. SAINT FRANCIS PRAY FOR US.
(click pic on the right column)
Do you Mourn the Dead
on the other Side
Is a life a life
so small so set aside
and instead derride
their leader with mocking
theatre. Is a life
a human or an enemy
an animal buriable
in rubble
Do you pray
for your enemies
and wish them life
or wish them enlightenment
or arrogantly curse
their existence into
historical dustbins.
on the other Side
Is a life a life
so small so set aside
and instead derride
their leader with mocking
theatre. Is a life
a human or an enemy
an animal buriable
in rubble
Do you pray
for your enemies
and wish them life
or wish them enlightenment
or arrogantly curse
their existence into
historical dustbins.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
The Gal From Queens-Geraldine Ferraro Died Today
Age 75
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/26/geraldine-ferraro-dead-dies_n_840995.html?icid=maing%7Cmain5%7Cdl1%7Csec3_lnk1%7C51917
First national Major Female Vice Presidential candidate-- Stellar.
Masses should be said for her everywhere. She made it credible and possible to even have
female Secretaries of State or higher officials in government. Roman Catholic from New York.
Rest in the Sweetest Peace.
http://www.trueknowledge.com/q/facts_about__geraldine_ferraro
GO BUTLER!
I Just Like The Name! http://beyondthearc.nbcsports.com/2011/03/26/butlers-eyes-on-that-final-four-prize-again/related Who were you supposed to root for when your folks went to Pitt for part of their education and your last name is BUTLER? Well, I forgive you for beating Pitt so I am rooting for you now! Go Butler. It just has a great ring to it. I claim all Butlers as family, including the ones the college is named after. There is a "Butler Castle" in Kilkenny Ireland http://www.kilkennycastle.ie/en/TouroftheCastle/TheBuildingoftheCastle/TheButlerCastle/ and the Butler who was simultaneously the Duke of Ormond was the last great hold out against Oliver Cromwell. One in Ten irishpeople lost their life to Cromwell during his invasion. They wonder why there are so many Irish in America. Go Butler- someone turn on the Riverdance drums. http://www.butlergallery.com/education.html BUTLER UNIVERSITY was founded by Attorney-Abolishonist Ovid Butler, originally from New York. http://www.therestorationmovement.com/butler.htm
The Formidable
Colonel Khadaffi. Let him Marshall in a Constitutional Republic as a Partner in collaboration with the African Union and the Arab League in a power sharing accord with some 'checks and balances.'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/6118691/Colonel-Gaddafi-with-friends-like-these....html
It is all about billion dollar oil deals.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/6118691/Colonel-Gaddafi-with-friends-like-these....html
The Ying Yang of Diplomatic Demonization
This is Khadaffi with Egyptian President Nassar in 1969. He looks less nutty doesn't he. He is currently the longest sitting non-Royal ruler ever. So someone needs to give him credit. He spread the weath around enough that he has lots of friends lots of places.He has been our friend, our nemesis, our friend, then our nemesis again depending on which oil executives can deal with him or not or which european powers want what influence when and how.
Is it true to say that half his country now doesn't want him in power? Is it true to say that the 'rebels' represent the country? If that were the case the US should be open to UN monitored elections. And that is something that the African Union is pushing. If we don't want reform toward elections we are speaking out of our arse and the democracy rationale will be seen as completely pretextual and a misnomer for just getting economic concessions our way.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/25/nicolas-sarkozy-nato-libya-row
The President's Speech
Either Way He Can't Win
That was actually what was said by one of his employees at an Agency-a common refrain to all the criticism leveled recently at President Obama. To his credit he has apparently backed Khadaffi against the wall with all the multilateral western world opinion so squarely against him the NATO resolve has shifted to North Africa to bomb the be-youknowWho out of him.
Reports now circulate in US press (but not BBC) that the African Union has either convinced Khadaffi or the other way around that reforms are on the table and he wants to negotiate with the "extremist" malcontents. Nelson Mandela is Khadaffi's friend. Very Good Friend. Perhaps Mandella or Desmond Tutu's daughter, an Episcopal cleric can serve as mediators in the negotiations.
The US response will be closely watched as the President addresses the nation. So far we have firmly taken the non-negotiable position that Khadaffi is such a bad actor our policy is that he must go. Now what. We negotiate with him? Is he a demon like Hitler? Is he a mass murderer like Milosovitch? Is he just someone so shrewd and unethical that he is able to extort over the barrell the western oil interests who can't get the best deal out of him so they are going to make sure that he hangs like we did in Iraq? Someone who isn't giving us pipeline concessions in as favorable terms so instead of a gold carpet he gets carpetbombed like in Afghanistan?
The President's Speech early next week is going to be an interesting tap dance to watch-
and he will have to try not to look as Megalomaniac as his nemesis. A Nemesis who calls this President a "son of Africa" and even his 'son.'
If Khadaffi is letting out Western journalists unharmed there must be room for good will there.
What can we build on rather than try to destroy. The American people are not going to stand for
oil companies killing off everyone they are too unsuccessful in negotiating with. Send the American executives to the Harvard program on Negotiation.
That was actually what was said by one of his employees at an Agency-a common refrain to all the criticism leveled recently at President Obama. To his credit he has apparently backed Khadaffi against the wall with all the multilateral western world opinion so squarely against him the NATO resolve has shifted to North Africa to bomb the be-youknowWho out of him.
Reports now circulate in US press (but not BBC) that the African Union has either convinced Khadaffi or the other way around that reforms are on the table and he wants to negotiate with the "extremist" malcontents. Nelson Mandela is Khadaffi's friend. Very Good Friend. Perhaps Mandella or Desmond Tutu's daughter, an Episcopal cleric can serve as mediators in the negotiations.
The US response will be closely watched as the President addresses the nation. So far we have firmly taken the non-negotiable position that Khadaffi is such a bad actor our policy is that he must go. Now what. We negotiate with him? Is he a demon like Hitler? Is he a mass murderer like Milosovitch? Is he just someone so shrewd and unethical that he is able to extort over the barrell the western oil interests who can't get the best deal out of him so they are going to make sure that he hangs like we did in Iraq? Someone who isn't giving us pipeline concessions in as favorable terms so instead of a gold carpet he gets carpetbombed like in Afghanistan?
The President's Speech early next week is going to be an interesting tap dance to watch-
and he will have to try not to look as Megalomaniac as his nemesis. A Nemesis who calls this President a "son of Africa" and even his 'son.'
If Khadaffi is letting out Western journalists unharmed there must be room for good will there.
What can we build on rather than try to destroy. The American people are not going to stand for
oil companies killing off everyone they are too unsuccessful in negotiating with. Send the American executives to the Harvard program on Negotiation.
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Scripture to reflect on.
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Scripture to reflect on.
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Friday, March 25, 2011
Salvation Comes From the Jews
And So Does The Internet (It's a joke -for Joel Osteen:-)
How the internet started.....
In ancient Israel , it came to pass that a trader by the name of
Abraham Com did take unto himself a young wife by the name of Dot.
And Dot Com was a comely woman, broad of shoulder and long of leg.
Indeed, she was often called Amazon Dot Com.
And she said unto Abraham, her husband: "Why dost thou travel so far
from town to town with thy goods when thou canst trade without ever
leaving thy tent?"
And Abraham did look at her - as though she were several saddle bags
short of a camel load - but simply said: "How, dear?"
And Dot replied: "I will place drums in all the towns and drums in
between to send messages saying what you have for
sale, and they will reply telling you who hath the best price.
And the sale can be made on the drums and delivery made by
Uriah's Pony Stable (UPS)."
Abraham thought long and decided he would let Dot have her way with
the drums. And the drums rang out and were an immediate success.
Abraham sold all the goods he had at the top price, without ever having
to move from his tent.
To prevent neighboring countries from overhearing what the drums were saying, Dot devised a system that only she and the drummers knew. It was called Must Send Drum Over Sound (MSDOS), and she also developed a language to transmit ideas and pictures - Hebrew To The People (HTTP)
But this success did arouse envy. A man named Maccabia did secret
himself inside Abraham's drum and began to siphon off some of
Abraham's business. But he was soon discovered, arrested and prosecuted -
for insider trading.
And the young men did take to Dot Com's trading as doth the greedy
horsefly takes to camel dung.
They were called Nomadic Ecclesiastical Rich Dominican Sybarites, or NERDS.
And, lo, the land was so feverish with joy at the new riches and the
deafening sound of drums that no one noticed that the real riches were
going to that enterprising drum dealer, Brother William of Gates, who bought off every drum maker in the land.
And indeed did insist on drums to be made that would work only with
Brother Gates' drumheads and drumsticks.
And Dot did say: "Oh, Abraham, what we have started is being taken
over by others."
And Abraham looked out over the Bay of Ezekiel or eBay as it came to
be known. He said: "We need a name that reflects what we are."
And Dot replied: "Young Ambitious Hebrew Owner Operators."
"YAHOO," said Abraham.
And because it was Dot's idea, they named it YAHOO Dot Com.
Abraham's cousin, Joshua, being the young Gregarious Energetic Educated
Kid (GEEK) that he was, soon started using Dot's drums to locate things around the countryside. It soon became known as God's Own Official Guide to Locating Everything (GOOGLE)
And that is how it all began.
How the internet started.....
In ancient Israel , it came to pass that a trader by the name of
Abraham Com did take unto himself a young wife by the name of Dot.
And Dot Com was a comely woman, broad of shoulder and long of leg.
Indeed, she was often called Amazon Dot Com.
And she said unto Abraham, her husband: "Why dost thou travel so far
from town to town with thy goods when thou canst trade without ever
leaving thy tent?"
And Abraham did look at her - as though she were several saddle bags
short of a camel load - but simply said: "How, dear?"
And Dot replied: "I will place drums in all the towns and drums in
between to send messages saying what you have for
sale, and they will reply telling you who hath the best price.
And the sale can be made on the drums and delivery made by
Uriah's Pony Stable (UPS)."
Abraham thought long and decided he would let Dot have her way with
the drums. And the drums rang out and were an immediate success.
Abraham sold all the goods he had at the top price, without ever having
to move from his tent.
To prevent neighboring countries from overhearing what the drums were saying, Dot devised a system that only she and the drummers knew. It was called Must Send Drum Over Sound (MSDOS), and she also developed a language to transmit ideas and pictures - Hebrew To The People (HTTP)
But this success did arouse envy. A man named Maccabia did secret
himself inside Abraham's drum and began to siphon off some of
Abraham's business. But he was soon discovered, arrested and prosecuted -
for insider trading.
And the young men did take to Dot Com's trading as doth the greedy
horsefly takes to camel dung.
They were called Nomadic Ecclesiastical Rich Dominican Sybarites, or NERDS.
And, lo, the land was so feverish with joy at the new riches and the
deafening sound of drums that no one noticed that the real riches were
going to that enterprising drum dealer, Brother William of Gates, who bought off every drum maker in the land.
And indeed did insist on drums to be made that would work only with
Brother Gates' drumheads and drumsticks.
And Dot did say: "Oh, Abraham, what we have started is being taken
over by others."
And Abraham looked out over the Bay of Ezekiel or eBay as it came to
be known. He said: "We need a name that reflects what we are."
And Dot replied: "Young Ambitious Hebrew Owner Operators."
"YAHOO," said Abraham.
And because it was Dot's idea, they named it YAHOO Dot Com.
Abraham's cousin, Joshua, being the young Gregarious Energetic Educated
Kid (GEEK) that he was, soon started using Dot's drums to locate things around the countryside. It soon became known as God's Own Official Guide to Locating Everything (GOOGLE)
And that is how it all began.
The No
Fly by The Seat of Your Pants Zone
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12856665
Watch how NATO is saying the UN mandate does not go further than this- the No Fly Zone.
And the No Fly Zone is to "protect the civilian population" meaning it cannot hit civilians.
It cannot target Khadaffi, it cannot target his forces. It has to merely take out anything that could fly like missile capability, air force, etc. And by all accounts it has largely done that in a week already.
So now the game is all about ground troops- because the battle is on the ground and the NATO air force assault has its hands tied by the construction of the UN resolution which forbids anything other than enforcement of a No Fly Zone. Even US commanders have construed that to mean that it is a limited mission to disable air assaults.
But the whole game is on the ground. And Khadaffi has an arsenal and funds notwithstanding freezing his western bank assets to fund a vicious military campaign. If Western forces intervene in a civil war, which this clearly is, then Western forces are going to come out bloodied beyond imagination. The opposition forces are facing a well financed army arsenal. They are literally playing with toy guns.
The best case scenario for OBAMA now is if Khadaffi somehow bites the dust by his own military coup-style turning on him (no signs of that)- Who can we bribe there? Money seems to make people turn color pretty quickly.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12856665
Watch how NATO is saying the UN mandate does not go further than this- the No Fly Zone.
And the No Fly Zone is to "protect the civilian population" meaning it cannot hit civilians.
It cannot target Khadaffi, it cannot target his forces. It has to merely take out anything that could fly like missile capability, air force, etc. And by all accounts it has largely done that in a week already.
So now the game is all about ground troops- because the battle is on the ground and the NATO air force assault has its hands tied by the construction of the UN resolution which forbids anything other than enforcement of a No Fly Zone. Even US commanders have construed that to mean that it is a limited mission to disable air assaults.
But the whole game is on the ground. And Khadaffi has an arsenal and funds notwithstanding freezing his western bank assets to fund a vicious military campaign. If Western forces intervene in a civil war, which this clearly is, then Western forces are going to come out bloodied beyond imagination. The opposition forces are facing a well financed army arsenal. They are literally playing with toy guns.
The best case scenario for OBAMA now is if Khadaffi somehow bites the dust by his own military coup-style turning on him (no signs of that)- Who can we bribe there? Money seems to make people turn color pretty quickly.
Congress
Will Give Her Heck and a Half
Clinton tried to explain the Libya invasion with a bit of good new- NATO now apparently DOES stand for North African Treaty Org- or at least we have convinced NATO to take over partial at least lead of the no fly zone. Any news is good news-and that wasn't even expected to fly.
Then she dodges out of town to go to London to meet with Cameron who will -what-pledge to lead a ground invasion?
Khadaffi can only be taken out with a ground invasion unless we seek to inflict massive air casualties on civilians.
Jane Harmon (Armed Services Cte.) is even ticked off. Not a good place you want to be. Because this no fly zone looks like Fly by the Seat of Your Pants Zone.
A ground invasion is not something that the US can afford to do politically or monetarily.
And yet, being the conscience of the world coming to the rescue of apparently an Arab League who won't step to the plate with ground troops of any kind and just want the US to implode by
the massive ground slaughter to follow is the definition of being Played.
If the Arab League called you in, make the Arab League put the boots on the ground. Not like they don't have a few Komakazi rebel groups they could arm. What-they say they won't fight an Arab nation? So they convince a christian one to self suicide by slaughter?
Tilt Tilt Tilt. Game Over.
...or maybe we are just going to heavily arm the rebels with state of the art armaments- rebel Muslim troops in a Muslim country whom Hamas is recruiting similtaneously and they already might be card carrying members of the 'Brotherhood.' That's a fantastic idea.
Clinton tried to explain the Libya invasion with a bit of good new- NATO now apparently DOES stand for North African Treaty Org- or at least we have convinced NATO to take over partial at least lead of the no fly zone. Any news is good news-and that wasn't even expected to fly.
Then she dodges out of town to go to London to meet with Cameron who will -what-pledge to lead a ground invasion?
Khadaffi can only be taken out with a ground invasion unless we seek to inflict massive air casualties on civilians.
Jane Harmon (Armed Services Cte.) is even ticked off. Not a good place you want to be. Because this no fly zone looks like Fly by the Seat of Your Pants Zone.
A ground invasion is not something that the US can afford to do politically or monetarily.
And yet, being the conscience of the world coming to the rescue of apparently an Arab League who won't step to the plate with ground troops of any kind and just want the US to implode by
the massive ground slaughter to follow is the definition of being Played.
If the Arab League called you in, make the Arab League put the boots on the ground. Not like they don't have a few Komakazi rebel groups they could arm. What-they say they won't fight an Arab nation? So they convince a christian one to self suicide by slaughter?
Tilt Tilt Tilt. Game Over.
...or maybe we are just going to heavily arm the rebels with state of the art armaments- rebel Muslim troops in a Muslim country whom Hamas is recruiting similtaneously and they already might be card carrying members of the 'Brotherhood.' That's a fantastic idea.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
For The Sake Of His Sorrowful Passion in the name of the Blessed Mother of us all
Today the American Constitution Society sponsored a panel discussion on the very important upcoming Supreme Court case of Wal-Mart v. Dukes (oral arg. next Tuesday) Thank you Grazie Grazie Merci ACS and their Director Ms. Frederickson.
This case, you recall isn't a Title VII gender discrimination on the merits, but it is a question of whether a class may be certified under 23(b)(2) of the rules of civil procedure of all these women (over a million) with different job titles/functions who all experienced what they allege is the same pervasive systemic patterns and practices of the OBN (Old Boy Network) denying women job pay and promotion opportunities.
I have to say I was honored to even be sitting in the room with Marcia Greenberger of the Women's Law Center who spearheaded the Lily Leadbetter legislation to redress the fact that the Supreme Court found her claims out of time overturning the three million or so dollars the company kept that should have paid her. She got nothing- but a nice photo op with the President. And she got to make her point into law for everyone. God Bless her.
This Wal-Mart case is hugely significant for class action plaintiffs attorneys who seek to do justice in the world and know that class actions are the only way to redress institutional grievances of a widespread nature with policies that uniformly affect an entire protected group of people. The sort of statistical data that can prove disparate impact cases can often not even be evidenced with single or even smaller multiplaintiff cases. There are objections as to 'overbroadness' typically leveled at discovery seeking to get data on other employees, and motions to compel follow with varying success at gaining this evidence. Typically defense will try to discredit the credibility of any one single plaintiff and make it just their issue and deem discovery pertaining to all the other women for example as just not relevant to any one person's claim. Injunctive or Declaratory relief sought under 23(b)(2) of the FRCP (Federal Rules of Civil Procedure). It is deeply fundamental to the ability to prosecute corporations in a way that forces them to implement or change policies across the board by this procedural mechanism.
Another panelist is a current Law Professor at Catholic U's law school, Suzette Malveau who bears a striking resemblance to her newscaster sibling, has written a law review article "Class Action At A Crosroads: An Answer to Wal-Mart v. Dukes" Vol.6, No.1, 2011 (winter) Harvard Law Review which is mandatory reading for anyone seriously interested in this. It's a bit technical but raises very interesting angles.
Women in this country make on average still 64 cents less on the dollar to men we were told by Marcia. We have come a little not a long way from the 54 cents when the Equal Pay Act first kicked off. We got a ten cent raise. The same stereotypical assumptions still pervade in large corporations and Wal-Mart is the largest private employer in the country with billions and billions in annual revenues. Women are considered en masse more non-career, able to make comparably less and forced to do so because the guy is supporting a family and so he should get the pay promotion. Women are presumed not to stay as long and cost more over maternity benefits and leave, etc. What this case showed is however that the performance evaluations were on the whole better for the women, and the women were treated unfairly by operation of the systemic corporate wide policies that kept them down- policies that gave too much discretion over pay and promotion with less guidelines than what they give store managers over how to control the temperature gauges inside stores, argued Marcia.
This case could and should say something very significant for women's equal rights and pay and dignity and standing in corporate life.
On a personal note, I have a grandmother who had to go back to work and earned a Masters' degree at age 50 because she was widowed. She worked into her late 70s as a professor at a Pennsylvania State College. I have an aunt who lost her husband with two small children when she was in her early 40s. I have another late aunt who was divorced with two small children and had to work. Half the country is divorced now and women have to work and support their children too. There is just no excuse for any pay promotion or hiring disparities in large corporations for women.
At this juncture in our history the Courts if they wish strong American families have to help make women strong and certifying this class action would send an enormous signal that life has to start getting fairer.
Some people are told to just swallow and accept the "Life is not Fair" conclusion. Others try to change it and believe they can. Ask what you can do for your country now. Let it not be in vain.
This case, you recall isn't a Title VII gender discrimination on the merits, but it is a question of whether a class may be certified under 23(b)(2) of the rules of civil procedure of all these women (over a million) with different job titles/functions who all experienced what they allege is the same pervasive systemic patterns and practices of the OBN (Old Boy Network) denying women job pay and promotion opportunities.
I have to say I was honored to even be sitting in the room with Marcia Greenberger of the Women's Law Center who spearheaded the Lily Leadbetter legislation to redress the fact that the Supreme Court found her claims out of time overturning the three million or so dollars the company kept that should have paid her. She got nothing- but a nice photo op with the President. And she got to make her point into law for everyone. God Bless her.
This Wal-Mart case is hugely significant for class action plaintiffs attorneys who seek to do justice in the world and know that class actions are the only way to redress institutional grievances of a widespread nature with policies that uniformly affect an entire protected group of people. The sort of statistical data that can prove disparate impact cases can often not even be evidenced with single or even smaller multiplaintiff cases. There are objections as to 'overbroadness' typically leveled at discovery seeking to get data on other employees, and motions to compel follow with varying success at gaining this evidence. Typically defense will try to discredit the credibility of any one single plaintiff and make it just their issue and deem discovery pertaining to all the other women for example as just not relevant to any one person's claim. Injunctive or Declaratory relief sought under 23(b)(2) of the FRCP (Federal Rules of Civil Procedure). It is deeply fundamental to the ability to prosecute corporations in a way that forces them to implement or change policies across the board by this procedural mechanism.
Another panelist is a current Law Professor at Catholic U's law school, Suzette Malveau who bears a striking resemblance to her newscaster sibling, has written a law review article "Class Action At A Crosroads: An Answer to Wal-Mart v. Dukes" Vol.6, No.1, 2011 (winter) Harvard Law Review which is mandatory reading for anyone seriously interested in this. It's a bit technical but raises very interesting angles.
Women in this country make on average still 64 cents less on the dollar to men we were told by Marcia. We have come a little not a long way from the 54 cents when the Equal Pay Act first kicked off. We got a ten cent raise. The same stereotypical assumptions still pervade in large corporations and Wal-Mart is the largest private employer in the country with billions and billions in annual revenues. Women are considered en masse more non-career, able to make comparably less and forced to do so because the guy is supporting a family and so he should get the pay promotion. Women are presumed not to stay as long and cost more over maternity benefits and leave, etc. What this case showed is however that the performance evaluations were on the whole better for the women, and the women were treated unfairly by operation of the systemic corporate wide policies that kept them down- policies that gave too much discretion over pay and promotion with less guidelines than what they give store managers over how to control the temperature gauges inside stores, argued Marcia.
This case could and should say something very significant for women's equal rights and pay and dignity and standing in corporate life.
On a personal note, I have a grandmother who had to go back to work and earned a Masters' degree at age 50 because she was widowed. She worked into her late 70s as a professor at a Pennsylvania State College. I have an aunt who lost her husband with two small children when she was in her early 40s. I have another late aunt who was divorced with two small children and had to work. Half the country is divorced now and women have to work and support their children too. There is just no excuse for any pay promotion or hiring disparities in large corporations for women.
At this juncture in our history the Courts if they wish strong American families have to help make women strong and certifying this class action would send an enormous signal that life has to start getting fairer.
Some people are told to just swallow and accept the "Life is not Fair" conclusion. Others try to change it and believe they can. Ask what you can do for your country now. Let it not be in vain.
Absolutely
No American Ground Troops
This NYTimes article posted all over MSNBC today says it all:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42245106/ns/world_news-the_new_york_times/
We are fighting Libya for the commercial interests of mostly oil company executives who feel extorted by him. It's all about money. It's not about Human Rights, humanitarian impulses- that is what is sold to people to convince them to send in their sons and daughters to lose their limbs. This is about oil companies complaining its too expensive to do business there because the guy is a crook. It's a Kleptocracy- he puts too much a surcharge premium on his country's resources and keeps it all for his family. -OK, so now we are clear.
Thanks for being honest. I agree making US oil companies pay for terrorist acts in kickback schemes is morally repugnant. But does it justify our killing off his family and anyone who supports him? How many people do we get to kill to oppose the kleptocracy? As many people as were in the Pan Am Lockerbie jet?
How many other countries, Arab or European do we get to throw their sons and daughters in front of grenades and African mercenaries in the interest of American commerce?
No one told any American company they had to do any business in Libya. Generally smart companies do foreign risk analysis and decide which countries and companies they do and don't want to do business with on various risk analysis and it if is too expensive to do business there- don't. Just like the reported cell company that didn't want to get into a contract with Khadaffi's son. You can choose who to do business with. Cancel your oil leases. Get it somewhere else.
You don't get to kill all the people in the government if they make life too expensive. Take your ball home and go play somewhere else. We don't get to kill off every government that does not sign up with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Figure out some other sanction for them not doing so tied to the contracts originally.
The era of oil companies dictating our Foreign Policy has to be over. The sham and charade of putting forth pretextual UN excuses to invade countries to protect American commercial interests in the name of protecting civilians from their government after we incited the riots is pathetic and frankly, a bit disgraceful.
If the Libyan people want to share in the spoils-that's another thing. If we are mad that a foreign government put an absurd or immoral premium too high on the natural resources within their borders or their commercial contracts, don't do business there.
This NYTimes article posted all over MSNBC today says it all:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42245106/ns/world_news-the_new_york_times/
We are fighting Libya for the commercial interests of mostly oil company executives who feel extorted by him. It's all about money. It's not about Human Rights, humanitarian impulses- that is what is sold to people to convince them to send in their sons and daughters to lose their limbs. This is about oil companies complaining its too expensive to do business there because the guy is a crook. It's a Kleptocracy- he puts too much a surcharge premium on his country's resources and keeps it all for his family. -OK, so now we are clear.
Thanks for being honest. I agree making US oil companies pay for terrorist acts in kickback schemes is morally repugnant. But does it justify our killing off his family and anyone who supports him? How many people do we get to kill to oppose the kleptocracy? As many people as were in the Pan Am Lockerbie jet?
How many other countries, Arab or European do we get to throw their sons and daughters in front of grenades and African mercenaries in the interest of American commerce?
No one told any American company they had to do any business in Libya. Generally smart companies do foreign risk analysis and decide which countries and companies they do and don't want to do business with on various risk analysis and it if is too expensive to do business there- don't. Just like the reported cell company that didn't want to get into a contract with Khadaffi's son. You can choose who to do business with. Cancel your oil leases. Get it somewhere else.
You don't get to kill all the people in the government if they make life too expensive. Take your ball home and go play somewhere else. We don't get to kill off every government that does not sign up with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Figure out some other sanction for them not doing so tied to the contracts originally.
The era of oil companies dictating our Foreign Policy has to be over. The sham and charade of putting forth pretextual UN excuses to invade countries to protect American commercial interests in the name of protecting civilians from their government after we incited the riots is pathetic and frankly, a bit disgraceful.
If the Libyan people want to share in the spoils-that's another thing. If we are mad that a foreign government put an absurd or immoral premium too high on the natural resources within their borders or their commercial contracts, don't do business there.
Forgive Me Father
I Can't Stop Scratching My Head
At what we think we are doing in Libya. Aside from the shock and awe of blitzkriegging the place without much discussion, i.e. Congressional approval and clue in....you didn't obviously
get the commitments lined up to follow up or follow through with the 'no fly zone' enforcement on what looks like a Rice-Clinton replay of Powell's embarassing UN moments because still six days later (starting Friday) no one wants to step forward in the bloody battle to follow with Khadaffi's billion dollar Gold reserve to hire half the African continent as mercinaries.
Hillary's talk last night left me with Shivers. I like these people and I am scared!
First of all, the case to the American people concerning why exactly Khadaffi 'has lost all legitimacy to govern" fell far short of an explanation. What did he do besides being brutal in
putting down an uprising that caused him to 'lose all legitimacy' ? How many of his people have turned on him, how many like him and how many find the opposition a bit off their meds? He's been there forty years, what did he do recently except feel threatend by the uprisings around him so decided to crack down on opposition? They did the same thing in Iran and we didn't say there the leader lost all legitimacy.
If this conclusion is because the Libyan UN contingent defected, or everyone in the Arab Leage says so, then we need to hear from the UN guy as to why and from someone in the Arab League.
Also, Hillary's tone is off base. It comes off as arrogant and bullying and plays into the hands of people accusing us of conspiring with imperialist aggression. The 'crusader' term flung is ridiculous because neither Hillary nor Obama are of the same religious fundamentalist cloth as Bush and it is a more secular administration than we have had in a while- but the conspiracy with imperialism moniker has to be addressed.
My humble suggestion:
the next public appearance anyone makes on this has to have an Arab translator simultaneously translating standing next to Hillary or Rice or Obama explaining, preferably with someone, anyone, from the Region or a former government official who defected (sought asylum) what exactly Khadaffi has done to suggest he has lost legitimacy to govern as recognized by the people bold enough to oppose him. Further, a plea to explain to the people why it is in THEIR interest (not the US interest) to oppose him and not support him should be articulated. Something like- Good people of Libya who have a long and honorable history which predates Khadaffi's administration, you have over the past forty years been victims to such an undemocratic unegalitarian pillage of your country's resources that Khadaffi has earned over fifty billion dollars in oil revenues which he has stockpiled for himself and to support his regime while you barely survive, your businesses are barely solvent, he has kept you in poverty while amassing luxury and riches for himself without sharing, etc.... He now threatens to use over fifty billion in stockpiled gold reserves in your central bank to convine you that you have to die for him rather than using that money to develop infrastructure, build roads, universities, industrial development to raise your lifestyles. He has kept you his peasants, he has oppressed you brutally, he has created a culture that values military oppression over economic development. We are here to assist you and we encourage you to assist yourselves and grab the ring in this moment of your history.
Love, Barach, Suzie, Hill. and Faoud. Something like that. Works much better than the Bullying Blonde Biatch act.
At what we think we are doing in Libya. Aside from the shock and awe of blitzkriegging the place without much discussion, i.e. Congressional approval and clue in....you didn't obviously
get the commitments lined up to follow up or follow through with the 'no fly zone' enforcement on what looks like a Rice-Clinton replay of Powell's embarassing UN moments because still six days later (starting Friday) no one wants to step forward in the bloody battle to follow with Khadaffi's billion dollar Gold reserve to hire half the African continent as mercinaries.
Hillary's talk last night left me with Shivers. I like these people and I am scared!
First of all, the case to the American people concerning why exactly Khadaffi 'has lost all legitimacy to govern" fell far short of an explanation. What did he do besides being brutal in
putting down an uprising that caused him to 'lose all legitimacy' ? How many of his people have turned on him, how many like him and how many find the opposition a bit off their meds? He's been there forty years, what did he do recently except feel threatend by the uprisings around him so decided to crack down on opposition? They did the same thing in Iran and we didn't say there the leader lost all legitimacy.
If this conclusion is because the Libyan UN contingent defected, or everyone in the Arab Leage says so, then we need to hear from the UN guy as to why and from someone in the Arab League.
Also, Hillary's tone is off base. It comes off as arrogant and bullying and plays into the hands of people accusing us of conspiring with imperialist aggression. The 'crusader' term flung is ridiculous because neither Hillary nor Obama are of the same religious fundamentalist cloth as Bush and it is a more secular administration than we have had in a while- but the conspiracy with imperialism moniker has to be addressed.
My humble suggestion:
the next public appearance anyone makes on this has to have an Arab translator simultaneously translating standing next to Hillary or Rice or Obama explaining, preferably with someone, anyone, from the Region or a former government official who defected (sought asylum) what exactly Khadaffi has done to suggest he has lost legitimacy to govern as recognized by the people bold enough to oppose him. Further, a plea to explain to the people why it is in THEIR interest (not the US interest) to oppose him and not support him should be articulated. Something like- Good people of Libya who have a long and honorable history which predates Khadaffi's administration, you have over the past forty years been victims to such an undemocratic unegalitarian pillage of your country's resources that Khadaffi has earned over fifty billion dollars in oil revenues which he has stockpiled for himself and to support his regime while you barely survive, your businesses are barely solvent, he has kept you in poverty while amassing luxury and riches for himself without sharing, etc.... He now threatens to use over fifty billion in stockpiled gold reserves in your central bank to convine you that you have to die for him rather than using that money to develop infrastructure, build roads, universities, industrial development to raise your lifestyles. He has kept you his peasants, he has oppressed you brutally, he has created a culture that values military oppression over economic development. We are here to assist you and we encourage you to assist yourselves and grab the ring in this moment of your history.
Love, Barach, Suzie, Hill. and Faoud. Something like that. Works much better than the Bullying Blonde Biatch act.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
You know Nothing
Black Holes and Worm Holes-Soul Transporter Portals
The Power who created heaven, hell and purgatory
Now start with this assumption: You Know Nothing- like a child.
Because unless you are like a child you cannot enter the wormhole and
be transported- your belief is the oil that fuels you to God who
gave you a gift if you recognize your portal ticket.
The Power who created heaven, hell and purgatory
Now start with this assumption: You Know Nothing- like a child.
Because unless you are like a child you cannot enter the wormhole and
be transported- your belief is the oil that fuels you to God who
gave you a gift if you recognize your portal ticket.
Saving
Suicide Bombers From Their Destiny
Earth is not the end game. Suicide is never Martyrdom.
War is Governmental Suicide.
Earth is not the end game. Suicide is never Martyrdom.
War is Governmental Suicide.
Preferred Pilgrimages
Highly Recommended Five Stars
Aptly named because the Blessed Mother appeared at twenty to six to the visionaries in Medjugorje, this agency was founded by a Serbian who worked for Yugoslavian Airlines then started her own business which is now a pre-eminent international Catholic Pilgrimage Agency. Priests accompany all tours, and the tour guides are the best in the area with special inside access to privileged audiences and spaces. http://www.206tours.com/ They go everywhere and anywhere.
These are all rated Five Stars by Pilgrims, Patriots and Prophets and are recommended without reservation.
For the May Beatification of JPII :
***** 206 Tours.Aptly named because the Blessed Mother appeared at twenty to six to the visionaries in Medjugorje, this agency was founded by a Serbian who worked for Yugoslavian Airlines then started her own business which is now a pre-eminent international Catholic Pilgrimage Agency. Priests accompany all tours, and the tour guides are the best in the area with special inside access to privileged audiences and spaces. http://www.206tours.com/ They go everywhere and anywhere.
*****Bethesda Travel Center
The owner Guido Adelfio, born in Palermo, whose clientele have included Washington's well heeled attending the Washington Cardinal's invocation at the Vatican among his long list of pilgrimages has special ins and access by virtue of his priestly connections all around Rome. BTC also specializes in family vacations and Honeymoons and is located in the heart of downtown Bethesda, Maryland. The agency's hallmark is the impeccable taste, style and class of the owner who never disappoints and takes personal care and attention to every trip. It is a family owned business which has been in the business for fifty years.
http://www.bethesdatravel.com/
*****Renaissance Travel
These are all rated Five Stars by Pilgrims, Patriots and Prophets and are recommended without reservation.
Billions on War
And Not Here In Middle America
Detroit. Huffington Post photographer-journalist: Don't think this isn't coming to a city near you.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/23/detroit-decline_n_813696.html#218521
Detroit. Huffington Post photographer-journalist: Don't think this isn't coming to a city near you.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/23/detroit-decline_n_813696.html#218521
Talk with Father Ivo Markovic, a Bosnian Friar | United States Institute of Peace
Talk with Father Ivo Markovic, a Bosnian Friar | United States Institute of Peace: "Talk with Father Ivo Markovic, a Bosnian Friar
The Status of Interreligious Cooperation and Reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Father Ivo Markovic, a Bosnian Friar, is a founder of Pontanima, an interreligious choir based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is widely acclaimed as an innovative peacemaking project, a shining representation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and a major contributor to the country's cultural life. The choir and its founder received Search for Common Ground Reconciliation Through the Arts Award (2004) and the Tanenbaum Peacemakers in Action Award (1998), among others.
Father Ivo will give a talk on the status of interreligious cooperation and reconciliation in today's Bosnia, which remains a very unsettled place even 16 years after the war ended.
Speakers
Father Ivo Markovic
Founder, Pontanima Interreligious Choir
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Renata Stuebner, Introduction
Senior Program Assistant, Religion and Peacemaking Center
U.S. Institute of Peace
Explore Further"
The Status of Interreligious Cooperation and Reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Father Ivo Markovic, a Bosnian Friar, is a founder of Pontanima, an interreligious choir based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is widely acclaimed as an innovative peacemaking project, a shining representation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and a major contributor to the country's cultural life. The choir and its founder received Search for Common Ground Reconciliation Through the Arts Award (2004) and the Tanenbaum Peacemakers in Action Award (1998), among others.
Father Ivo will give a talk on the status of interreligious cooperation and reconciliation in today's Bosnia, which remains a very unsettled place even 16 years after the war ended.
Speakers
Father Ivo Markovic
Founder, Pontanima Interreligious Choir
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Renata Stuebner, Introduction
Senior Program Assistant, Religion and Peacemaking Center
U.S. Institute of Peace
Explore Further"
JOHAN GALTUNG to lead DC Peacebuilding Workshop: Worth Repeating this 2010 Democracy Now Broadcast
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Galtung
JOHAN GALTUNG WORKSHOPS & LECTURE/RECEPTION with Diane PerlmanMarch 25, 2011
Search for Common Ground 4th floor 1601 Connecticut Ave., NW, Dupont Metro North ExitOutside the Box Strategies for Transforming a Seemingly Intractable Conflicts
9:30 - 10:00 Coffee and Registration
10:00 – 1:00 Workshop 1 – Training in Deep Culture, Deep Structure, Mediation & Positive Peace1:30 – 4:00 Workshop 2 – The New Situation in the Middle East
4:15 – 5:30 Lecture /Reception – The Israeli/Palestinian Conflict 6 State SolutionWorkshop 1 - $30.00 Workshop 2 - $25.00 Lecture/Reception $15.00 All 3 - $60.00
Healthy, vegetarian, low methane, low carbon, and mostly low carb snacks included
Space Limited, First come basis
Workshop 1 – Training in Deep Culture, Deep Structure, Mediation & Positive Peace This workshop will present the Transcend Method – creative, successful strategies that inform sound policies capable of breaking deadlocks and transforming challenging and dangerous conflicts.
Workshop 2 The New Situation in the Middle East This workshop will address of the uprisings in the Middle East, intervention in Libya and more.
Lecture/Reception – The 6 State Solution to the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict This core conflict fuels other conflicts, increasing tensions, driving extremism and inflaming anti-American and anti-Israeli sentiments. Military and political leaders recognize consequences for US security at home and abroad. Rather than blaming the inability to end this conflict on parties, we will consider decades of failure as a result of inadequate solutions based on old paradigms and narrow thinking that miss deep psychological forces and dynamics that provoke resistance and setbacks.
Outside-the-box thinking includes a proposal for a Middle East Community, MEC, and a regional Organization for Security and Cooperation in the Middle East, OSCME, modeled after the OSCE. Our approach will address issues of trauma, identity, fear, guilt, envy, humiliation, and systems theory. We will consider basic human needs, legitimate goals, and just grievances, and strategies for overcoming bitterness. We will explore the critical role and untapped contribution of conflict analysis in collaborating to design creative, transformative, sound solutions more capable of reducing tensions and transforming conflict
Dr. Johan Galtung is a pioneer in peace research and conflict transformation, founder and co-director of Transcend, originator of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and resolver of the 8 year conflict between Peru and Ecuador, consultant and advisor to many world leaders and organizations, focusing on strategies which create a new reality conducive to sustainable, enduring security.
Diane Perlman, PhD is a clinical and political psychologist, Visiting Scholar Institute of Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University, a member of Transcend, Mediators Beyond Borders, and Psychologists for Social Responsibility, and Abolition 2000, working on the psychology of nuclear proliferation, terror reduction, enmity, reversing cycles of violence and reconciliation processes from perspectives of depth psychology, systems theory and conflict dynamics.
TO RESERVE - Email Diane Perlman, EnduringSecurity@gmail.com– give name, email address, phone # and which workshops, 1, 2, and/or 3. Pay at door on 3/25, If you have questions call Diane Perlman, 202 775 0777 cell 202 241 7018
JOHAN GALTUNG WORKSHOPS & LECTURE/RECEPTION with Diane PerlmanMarch 25, 2011
Search for Common Ground 4th floor 1601 Connecticut Ave., NW, Dupont Metro North ExitOutside the Box Strategies for Transforming a Seemingly Intractable Conflicts
9:30 - 10:00 Coffee and Registration
10:00 – 1:00 Workshop 1 – Training in Deep Culture, Deep Structure, Mediation & Positive Peace1:30 – 4:00 Workshop 2 – The New Situation in the Middle East
4:15 – 5:30 Lecture /Reception – The Israeli/Palestinian Conflict 6 State SolutionWorkshop 1 - $30.00 Workshop 2 - $25.00 Lecture/Reception $15.00 All 3 - $60.00
Healthy, vegetarian, low methane, low carbon, and mostly low carb snacks included
Space Limited, First come basis
Workshop 1 – Training in Deep Culture, Deep Structure, Mediation & Positive Peace This workshop will present the Transcend Method – creative, successful strategies that inform sound policies capable of breaking deadlocks and transforming challenging and dangerous conflicts.
Workshop 2 The New Situation in the Middle East This workshop will address of the uprisings in the Middle East, intervention in Libya and more.
Lecture/Reception – The 6 State Solution to the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict This core conflict fuels other conflicts, increasing tensions, driving extremism and inflaming anti-American and anti-Israeli sentiments. Military and political leaders recognize consequences for US security at home and abroad. Rather than blaming the inability to end this conflict on parties, we will consider decades of failure as a result of inadequate solutions based on old paradigms and narrow thinking that miss deep psychological forces and dynamics that provoke resistance and setbacks.
Outside-the-box thinking includes a proposal for a Middle East Community, MEC, and a regional Organization for Security and Cooperation in the Middle East, OSCME, modeled after the OSCE. Our approach will address issues of trauma, identity, fear, guilt, envy, humiliation, and systems theory. We will consider basic human needs, legitimate goals, and just grievances, and strategies for overcoming bitterness. We will explore the critical role and untapped contribution of conflict analysis in collaborating to design creative, transformative, sound solutions more capable of reducing tensions and transforming conflict
Dr. Johan Galtung is a pioneer in peace research and conflict transformation, founder and co-director of Transcend, originator of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and resolver of the 8 year conflict between Peru and Ecuador, consultant and advisor to many world leaders and organizations, focusing on strategies which create a new reality conducive to sustainable, enduring security.
Diane Perlman, PhD is a clinical and political psychologist, Visiting Scholar Institute of Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University, a member of Transcend, Mediators Beyond Borders, and Psychologists for Social Responsibility, and Abolition 2000, working on the psychology of nuclear proliferation, terror reduction, enmity, reversing cycles of violence and reconciliation processes from perspectives of depth psychology, systems theory and conflict dynamics.
TO RESERVE - Email Diane Perlman, EnduringSecurity@gmail.com– give name, email address, phone # and which workshops, 1, 2, and/or 3. Pay at door on 3/25, If you have questions call Diane Perlman, 202 775 0777 cell 202 241 7018
Still Can't Sleep
Calgon Take Me Away
(for those generation x and y it is a reference to an old bath bubble commercial)
Because watching what is happening in Libya is only making me want to hide somewhere. I envy Mika of Morning Joe who gets to poll the folks in the South of France about the latest incursions.
If I didn't have all these bills I might defect to Monaco.
Here is why Libya is not the Balkans where the air power with minimal casualties turned a genocide into a good resolve. There the I-4 you recall came in under UN auspices and protection as NATO forces stopped the genocide of Milosovich who died before final verdict in his war crimes trial. Someone tell them NATO stands for North Atlantic Treaty Org. not North African Treaty Org. Without Germany, Russia and Turkey there is no NATO backing for anything, and certainly not in North Africa. Merkel has pulled all German ships from the Mediterranean because she wants no part of invasion in Libya. Strategic miscalculation No.1
Strategic miscalculation No.2
Someone is going to have to bring ground troops to bear if we aren't done until the Regime is changed because Khadaffi wasn't fighting an air war to begin with. Obama knows as much now and is saying things like-all options on the table, we rule nothing out, etc... If we launch another Afghanistan or Iraq-style ground troop invasion in Libya we are in real trouble. Iraq is probably the single greatest Foreign Policy disaster since WWII we have ever engaged in and we are still there eight years later. Obama just lost his base. He rode in on Anti-Iraq Anti-War sentiment and he is proving himself dumber than the predecessor. And more elite ivy league arrogant.
(for those generation x and y it is a reference to an old bath bubble commercial)
Because watching what is happening in Libya is only making me want to hide somewhere. I envy Mika of Morning Joe who gets to poll the folks in the South of France about the latest incursions.
If I didn't have all these bills I might defect to Monaco.
Here is why Libya is not the Balkans where the air power with minimal casualties turned a genocide into a good resolve. There the I-4 you recall came in under UN auspices and protection as NATO forces stopped the genocide of Milosovich who died before final verdict in his war crimes trial. Someone tell them NATO stands for North Atlantic Treaty Org. not North African Treaty Org. Without Germany, Russia and Turkey there is no NATO backing for anything, and certainly not in North Africa. Merkel has pulled all German ships from the Mediterranean because she wants no part of invasion in Libya. Strategic miscalculation No.1
Strategic miscalculation No.2
Someone is going to have to bring ground troops to bear if we aren't done until the Regime is changed because Khadaffi wasn't fighting an air war to begin with. Obama knows as much now and is saying things like-all options on the table, we rule nothing out, etc... If we launch another Afghanistan or Iraq-style ground troop invasion in Libya we are in real trouble. Iraq is probably the single greatest Foreign Policy disaster since WWII we have ever engaged in and we are still there eight years later. Obama just lost his base. He rode in on Anti-Iraq Anti-War sentiment and he is proving himself dumber than the predecessor. And more elite ivy league arrogant.
Hillary is hinting as leaked apparently that Khadaffi is looking for a way out in exhile perhaps- not bloody likely and very wishful thinking. He ruled for over forty years and he will go down with his ship because his religion views martyrdom as the highest calling. And that's all we need- a head of state as an Islamic Martyr.
How you invade without the plans prior to back up what you say you are going to do first looks totally immature and foolish. No, it looks downright Reckless.
People should now be prepared to run Biden against Obama and put up other people for the Democratic nomination because Obama cannot win in 2012.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
I need another Retreat
Gone Fishing to an Undisclosed Location
Wonder if I will meet Olberman there.
I am on blogging hiatus because I am beyond upset at the recent turn of events. War gives me bad stomach acid. I try to be consistent in this Peace ethic thing and I like Obama. I can't stand what is going on and don't want to criticize him but it's too obvious. I don't know if I will wake up and some other American soldier is wandering around libyan rebel territory after parachouting out of his torched sortie or F16. I hope they serve good tea there. This is just surreal. -No, some Congressional resolution referring Khadaffi to the International Criminal Court for something he did a few decades ago is not a Congressional authorization to war against the entire country now, to take out all his air force and tanks. How is that not war?
Wake me up when they capture Khadaffi or find his head on a stake. If I lose any more sleep over this I will turn as Manic as Sarkozy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/world/africa/22powers.html?nl=us&emc=politicsemailema1
Wonder if I will meet Olberman there.
I am on blogging hiatus because I am beyond upset at the recent turn of events. War gives me bad stomach acid. I try to be consistent in this Peace ethic thing and I like Obama. I can't stand what is going on and don't want to criticize him but it's too obvious. I don't know if I will wake up and some other American soldier is wandering around libyan rebel territory after parachouting out of his torched sortie or F16. I hope they serve good tea there. This is just surreal. -No, some Congressional resolution referring Khadaffi to the International Criminal Court for something he did a few decades ago is not a Congressional authorization to war against the entire country now, to take out all his air force and tanks. How is that not war?
Wake me up when they capture Khadaffi or find his head on a stake. If I lose any more sleep over this I will turn as Manic as Sarkozy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/world/africa/22powers.html?nl=us&emc=politicsemailema1
Delusional
OBAMA is a ONE TERM PRESIDENT
http://www.presstv.ir/usdetail/171188.html
Hillary start sending resumes to Harvard and Yale to teach.
Obama is a one term President. That is a frightening thought given the alternatives out there.
I can't even imagine what Netanyahu said to Caribou Barbie. Then there's Newt Gingrich paradied on John Stewart the other day as the thrice married "I want to screw all of America" candidate.
But this is -Are you smarter than a fifth grader Foreign Policy at its scariest.
Obama's comments now look almost as delusional as Bush in bragging how proud he is to
enter into rebel fracases intervening in other countries- OK Khadaffi is a really bad dictator. What about the genocide in the Sudan? What did we do there? Or didn't we want to tick off the Chinese who own us and all the oil in Sudan?
We intervened in a civil war to protect whose interests? Israel? You think that didn't just inflame all the nuts who think this attack is motivated by "zionists"- you cannot imagine the terrorist retribution fall out we are going to get. This is just the same deja vous all over again.
http://www.presstv.ir/usdetail/171188.html
Hillary start sending resumes to Harvard and Yale to teach.
Obama is a one term President. That is a frightening thought given the alternatives out there.
I can't even imagine what Netanyahu said to Caribou Barbie. Then there's Newt Gingrich paradied on John Stewart the other day as the thrice married "I want to screw all of America" candidate.
But this is -Are you smarter than a fifth grader Foreign Policy at its scariest.
Obama's comments now look almost as delusional as Bush in bragging how proud he is to
enter into rebel fracases intervening in other countries- OK Khadaffi is a really bad dictator. What about the genocide in the Sudan? What did we do there? Or didn't we want to tick off the Chinese who own us and all the oil in Sudan?
We intervened in a civil war to protect whose interests? Israel? You think that didn't just inflame all the nuts who think this attack is motivated by "zionists"- you cannot imagine the terrorist retribution fall out we are going to get. This is just the same deja vous all over again.
Poor Judgment Abounding Everywhere
With Bad Outcomes Forseeable.
Manic. Too impetuous. Run by re-election fears. This is what they say about Sarkozy. Angela Merkel sends a note to the Elysee Palace saying, please, can someone tell the guy to stop hugging me-too 'tactile"! http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/wintour-and-watt/2011/mar/22/nicolas-sarkozy-davidcameron
Behind the camera niceties David Cameron is more than a little peaved, feels underconsulted and AFTER the invasion we manoever around saying someone else is going to run with the ball and take the reins. Really. Trust me. Gates is put out there to say-really Trust Him Really. Really?
NATO has Turkey in it and they say, no way Jose- or no way Ataturk. They didn't even let us land planes there during Iraq. NATO? Invading an Arab Muslim country?
Sorry, I have to say, this just looks like keystone cops tries not to go to War.
So far I must say though, to those who say this trumps "Mission Accomplished" because this time we didn't even pretend there were massive WMDs (except a little mustard gas) or that an attack on the US was 'imminent' to pretend to comply with International law on pre-emptive strikes on a country that never attacked us first, we have not lost massive amounts of lives yet-have we? At least we aren't targeting civilians unless they agree to be human shields and that casued at least one mission to turn back. We are just after your aircraft and anti-ballistic missiles apparently.
England looks ticked if France takes the reins, France doesn't even look like it has the military capacity to take the reins, NATO isn't going to invade Libya if Turkey and Russia can help it, which leave Obama hat in hand looking for who exactly to pass off the baton to?
Did any of you play chess as kids?
Manic. Too impetuous. Run by re-election fears. This is what they say about Sarkozy. Angela Merkel sends a note to the Elysee Palace saying, please, can someone tell the guy to stop hugging me-too 'tactile"! http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/wintour-and-watt/2011/mar/22/nicolas-sarkozy-davidcameron
Behind the camera niceties David Cameron is more than a little peaved, feels underconsulted and AFTER the invasion we manoever around saying someone else is going to run with the ball and take the reins. Really. Trust me. Gates is put out there to say-really Trust Him Really. Really?
NATO has Turkey in it and they say, no way Jose- or no way Ataturk. They didn't even let us land planes there during Iraq. NATO? Invading an Arab Muslim country?
Sorry, I have to say, this just looks like keystone cops tries not to go to War.
So far I must say though, to those who say this trumps "Mission Accomplished" because this time we didn't even pretend there were massive WMDs (except a little mustard gas) or that an attack on the US was 'imminent' to pretend to comply with International law on pre-emptive strikes on a country that never attacked us first, we have not lost massive amounts of lives yet-have we? At least we aren't targeting civilians unless they agree to be human shields and that casued at least one mission to turn back. We are just after your aircraft and anti-ballistic missiles apparently.
England looks ticked if France takes the reins, France doesn't even look like it has the military capacity to take the reins, NATO isn't going to invade Libya if Turkey and Russia can help it, which leave Obama hat in hand looking for who exactly to pass off the baton to?
Did any of you play chess as kids?
As I Predicted
Again
The Republicans are all over talking headom about Obama being too arrogant to get a declaration of war or even a serious discussion or hearing going over the invasion of Libya. Even
John Conyers, a democratic loyalist friend of Obama (I thought) is finding it hard to swallow.
Because this "limited" mission in scope and duration is a profound provocation and a first strike in a war. You can't just say we are implementing a UN no fly zone. Clearly, you aren't just doing that if you are bombing his compound. Does he have air craft anti-ballistic missiles in his compound anywhere other than photoshopped imagination?
Here's where the American blindsidedness comes in- there are French and there are French. And most Americans can't tell the difference. The French have their internal political right-left issues just like we do. Sarkozy came in the wake of people being sick of being demonized by Americans and accused of not helping and letting down the faith who viewed Chirac as too corruptly tied to the interests of Saddam Hussein. Recall under Chirac millions of people in 2003 (eve of Iraq invasion) went to the streets pouring out in 'manifestations'- rallys and riots almost to stop the war in Iraq which killed Millions of people. Libya is 'the Magreb' which has large French imperialist influence in it. The Conservative guard French are still smarting from the Algerian revolution- and they
have a large contingent of anti-arab racism. Sarkozy recall is the guy who sent back all the Romani to ---where?? They were French too- and he expatriated them, in a racist move that would have every plaintiffs' civil rights attorney in this country suing the government if it happened here. Sarkozy is to the right of Atilla the Hun's grandfather. He's a Bushie with a better wine collection.
Here is why it is all so barbaric. Clearly, Khadaffi is not a good guy. Clearly he engineered the lockerbie crash and other air crashes and terrorist actions. Arguably the Palestinians have had leaders that are terrorists, the Irish have the IRA, and apparently there is talk now in Geneva that some Israeli leaders should be hauled before Human Rights commissions because of unilateral attacks against Gaza and breaching the border agreements with settlement abuses.
Everyone against anyone who has experienced violence by anyone sees the other side as terrorists. Americans were terrorists to the British before winning the Revolution of 1776.
The evolution of humanity requires a better response, a more enlightened one- a one driven by peacemaking impulses for resolve that is more clever. That is why Pax Christi is deeply upset at the Western response under cover of the 'by any mean necessary' UN resolution purporting to be a No Fly Zone enforcement.
Violence of any kind is a failure. Fire cannot be put out with more Fire. The 'shock and awe' of the Bush aggression was shocking and aweful. And it is being repeated here.
The provocation is deeply disturbing and deeply dangerous.
Chirac is now being tried for corruption- and the right wingers are jumping with glee. I predict he will be exhonerated. I also predict that Sarkozy will be run out of town on a rail at his re-election. This War is a big deal for everyone. Bigger than you calculated.
The Republicans are all over talking headom about Obama being too arrogant to get a declaration of war or even a serious discussion or hearing going over the invasion of Libya. Even
John Conyers, a democratic loyalist friend of Obama (I thought) is finding it hard to swallow.
Because this "limited" mission in scope and duration is a profound provocation and a first strike in a war. You can't just say we are implementing a UN no fly zone. Clearly, you aren't just doing that if you are bombing his compound. Does he have air craft anti-ballistic missiles in his compound anywhere other than photoshopped imagination?
Here's where the American blindsidedness comes in- there are French and there are French. And most Americans can't tell the difference. The French have their internal political right-left issues just like we do. Sarkozy came in the wake of people being sick of being demonized by Americans and accused of not helping and letting down the faith who viewed Chirac as too corruptly tied to the interests of Saddam Hussein. Recall under Chirac millions of people in 2003 (eve of Iraq invasion) went to the streets pouring out in 'manifestations'- rallys and riots almost to stop the war in Iraq which killed Millions of people. Libya is 'the Magreb' which has large French imperialist influence in it. The Conservative guard French are still smarting from the Algerian revolution- and they
have a large contingent of anti-arab racism. Sarkozy recall is the guy who sent back all the Romani to ---where?? They were French too- and he expatriated them, in a racist move that would have every plaintiffs' civil rights attorney in this country suing the government if it happened here. Sarkozy is to the right of Atilla the Hun's grandfather. He's a Bushie with a better wine collection.
Here is why it is all so barbaric. Clearly, Khadaffi is not a good guy. Clearly he engineered the lockerbie crash and other air crashes and terrorist actions. Arguably the Palestinians have had leaders that are terrorists, the Irish have the IRA, and apparently there is talk now in Geneva that some Israeli leaders should be hauled before Human Rights commissions because of unilateral attacks against Gaza and breaching the border agreements with settlement abuses.
Everyone against anyone who has experienced violence by anyone sees the other side as terrorists. Americans were terrorists to the British before winning the Revolution of 1776.
The evolution of humanity requires a better response, a more enlightened one- a one driven by peacemaking impulses for resolve that is more clever. That is why Pax Christi is deeply upset at the Western response under cover of the 'by any mean necessary' UN resolution purporting to be a No Fly Zone enforcement.
Violence of any kind is a failure. Fire cannot be put out with more Fire. The 'shock and awe' of the Bush aggression was shocking and aweful. And it is being repeated here.
The provocation is deeply disturbing and deeply dangerous.
Chirac is now being tried for corruption- and the right wingers are jumping with glee. I predict he will be exhonerated. I also predict that Sarkozy will be run out of town on a rail at his re-election. This War is a big deal for everyone. Bigger than you calculated.
REBUILD
My Church
Rebuild My Church. This is what Saint Francis heard God say to him. It's God's Church. It's not any one else's church. Jesus with God and The Holy Spirit at Pentacost created it. No one else in it can claim 'ownership' of it. At the time Saint Francis lived, God's church was in shambles.
Saint Francis didn't really understand what God meant at the time. He lived in a time of petty conflicts all around where little city-states in Italy were warring. He himself was a prisoner of war, a POW, likely tortured in a prison in Perrugia. There he was smuggled a bible in the Vulgate, not the official latin language but one he could read. He discovered the Gospel afresh. Saint Francis is a saint to both the Catholic and Protestant world because he lived prior to the Protestant reformation. Two billion people in the world recognize him as a great purifier. He founded the order consecrated to Peacemaking who guard the Christian holy sites in Jerusalem.
Saint Francis was told to "build my church." So stone by stone he first went about physically building a new space to worship. Then he realized, that is not what God meant exactly. This actual stone church is still standing, enclosed within a Basillica in Assisi.
Rebuilding the Church means reclaiming the Heart of Christ in it. Evolving away from the dirt of worldly corruption which threatens to swallow it. It means purifying it in a cleansing at the heart of the Church to put Christ's heart at the center of it.
We have now historically a profound filth in the church in the form of the persecutions of people who are highlighting various 'abuses' of clergy and the filth of the abuses themselves which are indeed far more widespread than anyone minimized earlier. It has threatened to completely undermine the church in Ireland and has given ammunition to critics who seek to use the filth to discredit Christ's mission and meaning.
Franciscans, not coincidentally are the order that didn't defect from the Croatian hills against persecutions. They survived them- one third killed, one third imprisoned and the rest persecuted mercilessly. They are the purifying fire. It is also not coincidence that they are the order who are praying non-stop around the Eucharist at Medjugorje and stayed while the diocesene and secular priests fled.
The church in Medjugorje stands as a testament for God's love of womanhood and motherhood, surrounded by the Blessed Mother who won't leave the place according to the three Visionaries who still see her until her mission there is accomplished.
One of the franciscans has been defrocked- because he had a relationship with a woman -a nun-who got pregnant.
I believe that part of the Blessed Mother's mission, the spouse of the Holy Spirit is to cleanse the filth of the hearts of men who view women as lesser, more unworthy or sub-holy, such that they view marriage as scandal, even marriage with clergy. This is contrary to verses in Timothy wherein it is noted that in the end times in particular people will forbid marriage- and this is sin. Error. Falsehood. Heresy. This is contrary to Jewish law and teaching and Jesus said he did not come to abolish the laws but to fulfill them. It has created a path for the foothold of evil to trample the church.
The church needs to repent of this- and once it does, it will go a long way toward cleansing it's ego-errant deviations from God's Will. I believe that the Blessed Mother is not going to leave Medjugorje until there is a formal doctrinal revocation of the mandatory all person all time clerical celibacy imposition which confuses and conflates charisms and drives people God has called into priestly service out of service in HIS church. It is an Afront to LOVE, and God is Love- or he is nothing.
Rebuild My Church. This is what Saint Francis heard God say to him. It's God's Church. It's not any one else's church. Jesus with God and The Holy Spirit at Pentacost created it. No one else in it can claim 'ownership' of it. At the time Saint Francis lived, God's church was in shambles.
Saint Francis didn't really understand what God meant at the time. He lived in a time of petty conflicts all around where little city-states in Italy were warring. He himself was a prisoner of war, a POW, likely tortured in a prison in Perrugia. There he was smuggled a bible in the Vulgate, not the official latin language but one he could read. He discovered the Gospel afresh. Saint Francis is a saint to both the Catholic and Protestant world because he lived prior to the Protestant reformation. Two billion people in the world recognize him as a great purifier. He founded the order consecrated to Peacemaking who guard the Christian holy sites in Jerusalem.
Saint Francis was told to "build my church." So stone by stone he first went about physically building a new space to worship. Then he realized, that is not what God meant exactly. This actual stone church is still standing, enclosed within a Basillica in Assisi.
Rebuilding the Church means reclaiming the Heart of Christ in it. Evolving away from the dirt of worldly corruption which threatens to swallow it. It means purifying it in a cleansing at the heart of the Church to put Christ's heart at the center of it.
We have now historically a profound filth in the church in the form of the persecutions of people who are highlighting various 'abuses' of clergy and the filth of the abuses themselves which are indeed far more widespread than anyone minimized earlier. It has threatened to completely undermine the church in Ireland and has given ammunition to critics who seek to use the filth to discredit Christ's mission and meaning.
Franciscans, not coincidentally are the order that didn't defect from the Croatian hills against persecutions. They survived them- one third killed, one third imprisoned and the rest persecuted mercilessly. They are the purifying fire. It is also not coincidence that they are the order who are praying non-stop around the Eucharist at Medjugorje and stayed while the diocesene and secular priests fled.
The church in Medjugorje stands as a testament for God's love of womanhood and motherhood, surrounded by the Blessed Mother who won't leave the place according to the three Visionaries who still see her until her mission there is accomplished.
One of the franciscans has been defrocked- because he had a relationship with a woman -a nun-who got pregnant.
I believe that part of the Blessed Mother's mission, the spouse of the Holy Spirit is to cleanse the filth of the hearts of men who view women as lesser, more unworthy or sub-holy, such that they view marriage as scandal, even marriage with clergy. This is contrary to verses in Timothy wherein it is noted that in the end times in particular people will forbid marriage- and this is sin. Error. Falsehood. Heresy. This is contrary to Jewish law and teaching and Jesus said he did not come to abolish the laws but to fulfill them. It has created a path for the foothold of evil to trample the church.
The church needs to repent of this- and once it does, it will go a long way toward cleansing it's ego-errant deviations from God's Will. I believe that the Blessed Mother is not going to leave Medjugorje until there is a formal doctrinal revocation of the mandatory all person all time clerical celibacy imposition which confuses and conflates charisms and drives people God has called into priestly service out of service in HIS church. It is an Afront to LOVE, and God is Love- or he is nothing.
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