Recessivists are not conservative. They are consumption driven.

Published on Friday, December 11, 2009 by the Telegraph/UK
G77: 'US Should Spend as Much on Global Warming as War'
Poor countries have demanded that the US spends as much on tackling climate change as it does on warfare.
by Louise Gray, Environment correspondent and Rowena Mason in Copenhagen
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/12/11-1

Time from LA, about the 9-11 commission, check, roger and over and out.

I wish people would think of the Saudi connection and connect the dots: Saudis and Unocal in CENTGAS consortium in mid 1990s, can't negotiate route through Afghanistan because of Taliban, Taliban come to Houston in 1999, negotiations fail, 2000 election Floridia recounts stopped, James Baker heads the legal proceedings against Gore, Bush, Bush senior Prince Bandar, Bin Ladens all in oil business. Cheney meets secretly with Enron and oil giants prior to 9-11, 9-11 happens and Bush Senior is sitting with Bin Laden family at Ritz Hotel with Bin Laden family, Bush freezes air traffic with exception of Arabs and Bin Laden family, ushers them safely out. James BAker defends the Arabs against the suits by the 9-11 victim's families, we invade Afghansistan, BBC report in 2002 states pipeline back on track. We invade Iraq, James BAker named by bush to head Iraq Study Group. and it goes on and on.

The health care debate is well thought out and framed by Thom. It's always fun to hear him joust with right wingers insisting on what we have is so great.

How Do you spell relief? N-O-G-O-P-S

@StevePipenger: I agree. Ben Bernanke intentionally chose and acted to sewer America’s economy. There was No sleeping at the wheel.

@GeraldSocha: The Bernanke thing Pipenger points out is the very reason that I reject your Faith-Based support of Faith. Bernanke worships at the alter of deregulation in financial markets. IT is his GOD and all his faith put us in the toilet.

@GeraldSocha: I firmly disagree with your premise that “When a man stops believing in God, he loses his common sense. Faith will help us recover our common sense.”

Faith only has a place in faith–based religion. Faith allows folk to ride directly into their respective Hell on the pony of their personal good intention(s). One can default to non-action because intentional action is not required. Pre-destiny (read entropy and anarchy) rules as folk abdicate all their responsibility to act to the magic beastie they have chosen to surrender their intentional, rational minds to . . . The faithful default control to this ‘other’ to solve all.

In act-based religions, faith is irrelevant and it is only ones actions that affect the universe. Judaism, in its typical interpretation, holds that faith is personal (and while it may influence one’s tendency to act responsibly) and is not necessary to chose to do the righteous thing.

I believe that civics courses and not faith will return the American people to sane, rational behavior.

War on Christmas?

Ho, Ho, Ho Merry Mithras To All!

by Stephen Van Eck

One of the most tiresome and predictable aspects of the holiday season is the annual lament that we're "forgetting whose birthday it is." Related to that is the exhortation to "keep Christ in Christmas."

Those who employ these tired slogans simply do not understand Christmas at all. A review of the true historical roots of Christmas might help ease their confusion, and should be diverting to those who've never been bothered by the secular aspects of this holiday.

Devout Christians are of the opinion that Christmas has been corrupted, becoming more secular in recent decades than in its authentic form. Nothing can be further from the truth. What they fail to understand is that Christmas is actually the awkward amalgamation of two distinct cultural heritages, Christian and pagan. And the pagans had the holiday first.

Unknown to many, Christmas has its origins in the winter solstice festivals that virtually all ancient civilizations observed. (The Romans called it the Saturnalia.) The sun had ceased its ebbing, and had started to return to the world. Days stopped getting shorter, as if the light were reborn. The occasion was marked with feasting and merrymaking.

The original Christian church spread itself into cultures that had strong pagan traditions. They found these practices difficult to eradicate, and instead settled on a policy of consciously co-opting them. Pagan traditions continued, but in a new Christian context. This is what happened with the winter solstice festivals.

There is no record whatsoever of the specific date of Jesus' birth, but December 25th is extremely unlikely. (While shepherds watched their flocks by night? Not in the winter they didn't!)

The Church quite deliberately selected December 25th as a way of co-opting the solstice celebration. Since it was the time of the light coming back into the world, it had a practical symbolic tie-in that served their purposes well.

It could have been December 21st, a typical date for the actual solstice, but December 25th happened to be the birthday of Mithras, a Persian savior-god who was himself considered the light of the world. Mithras had a sizable cult within the Roman Empire during the first two centuries of the Christian Era, and by appropriating his birthday for their Savior, Christians could more easily convert Mithraites with a remarkably similar tale. As Mithras is forgotten today, it's clear the strategy was a rousing success.

But Christmas continued as a schizophrenic holiday, part pagan festival, part Christian narrative. Along the way it absorbed more pagan elements that had absolutely nothing to do with Christian theology. Such things as decorating fir trees, hanging mistletoe, and sleigh bells in the snow simply do not pertain to ancient Palestine or Christian dogma at all, but they've had a strong appeal to our civilization just the same. It's a true reflection of our forgotten pagan heritage.

Eventually, most Christians were no longer aware of the pagan origin of Christmas, which only created confusion over its persistent pagan aspects. The Puritans, however, did recognize its essential pagan character, and some early American colonies actually prohibited the celebration of Christmas.

One suspects they may have been disturbed not just by the paganism, but by the prospect that some people might actually cut loose and have fun. To them, December 25th was strictly to be just another working day, to be faced as sternly and joylessly as possible. The present-day Jehovah's Witnesses attitude, when it comes to the legitimacy of Christmas, is pretty much the same.

The increasing secularism of the Christmas season, then, represents not a corruption of its original form, but a re-emphasis on the paganism that lies at its very foundation. Paganism that, since it was the original source of the holiday, has a more legitimate right to define what that holiday is. And let's face it - all these pagan customs are actually rather enjoyable.

You'll get no "bah humbug" from me - I'll leave that to the Christians, who failed to co-opt the holiday completely, and are now upset that to most of us, it means something besides drab indoctrination. Merry Mithras to all, and to all a good night.

Thom,

Regarding health care. It seems as though the Obama administration itself is trying to make this more difficult. Even the head of the FDA, Margartet Hamburg is outwardly opposing the importation of pharmaceuticals, citing that they may not be safe. Well...correct me if I'm wrong, but if the drugs aren't safe when they reach the market, the she's NOT DOING HER FREAKING JOB!!!

Rant over...keep it up!
West

G.K. Chesterton believed that religion has been important in a democracy. I do not disagree with G.K.

Zero G.,

Your slip is showing (metaphorically speaking.) How do you know about Gordon Wasson? (Mushrooms, anyone? LOL)