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People should try to understand WHY Obama has to go and Help IRAQ
US BROKE IT and WE must help somehow. Iraqis have to do the work.
SItuations change ,..........so we have to adjust to new situations.
Regarding hunger in our country, Thom says, "this is not the way the wealthiest nation on earth should treat its citizens." We may be the wealthiest nation, but I think the latest stat shows our Middle Class has dropped to 27th amongst the wealthiest nations. So obviously our nation's wealth continues to be bogarted by the few who have enough to purchase our government and media for their exclusive use. While Fascism is very profitable for the few, the many go hungry and jobless.
Time to return to pre Reagan tax rates. The problem of hunger is related to the biggest lie ever told....trickle down economics. It's why we have austerity Teabag politics and it's why the sequestration happened. The automatic cuts include food.
So the Kochs will someday be in the cemetery with 90 billion left behind to be grabbed up by a new set of scoundrels with arbitrary power. It's so god damn medieval, actually it's god damn imbecilic............ That we let it happen!
I noticed that even the cats that I feed, they're not really my cats just some strays that started hanging around (because I fed them), get finicky when I feed them food they like to eat...the expensive kind...and then will turn up their nose at the cheaper dry cat food.
Although, I did find 1/2 inch long meal worms in one dish one time. I've been trying to figure out where they came from...and then a search on the internet told me that a lot of people have been having this problem...they believe that the cat food came from the store with the meal worm eggs already in the food...later hatching in the dish when I mix in the moist cat food with the dry cat food.
I've heard that some people have actually resorted to eating cat or dog food. Never tried it, myself.
Fabian- regarding your point about religion not being harmful beyond its corruption and exploitation for political purposes, I beg to differ. Most religions are misogynist by design and THAT is harmful in itself. Ditto the hostility against gays exhibited by most religions as well. All these religiously endorsed forms of bigotry exist independently of politics or political exploitation. Political exploitation makes the problem worse, is all. - AIW
A very BIG "thank you" to Thom Hartmann.
It's not religion that causes harm. The corruption and exploitation of religion, mainly for political purposes, is what is so toxic.
What safety net? We ended aid for the jobless poor back in 1996. TANF is a short-term job program exclusively for those with minor children. Bill Clinton had cut aid to the disabled as well. (President Obama reversed Clinton's policies against the disabled.) Food stamps are for the elderly, disabled and working poor; benefit levels are determined by one's total income. This generation got very tough on the poor. In fact, the overall life expectancy of US poor has already fallen by over 5 yrs just since the 1990s.
We now have a huge surplus of people who are desperate for any job at any wage; we no longer have anything to fall back on. Because of this, employers are able to call all the shots. They can be as picky as they want, and still be assured of finding adequate employees.
An entire generation grew up during a long period of "poor bashing" by politicians and media. Middle classers today are clueless about the causes of poverty and the consequences of years of unrelieved poverty. We know that the US shipped out a huge chunk of our working class jobs since the 1980s, then ended welfare for the jobless poor in the 1990s. We know that not everyone can work due to health or circumstances. Yet people can't seem to grasp how this could cause a poverty crisis, much less what to do about it. It's great to call for job creation -- been doing it for over 30 yrs now, and it remains as popular as ever. But until those jobs come along...? You can't buy a loaf of bread with promises of eventual jobs. Tragically, the media marketed to liberals today have been focused on middle class consumers and campaign donors, choosing not to have a legitimate discussion about US poverty.
Maybe millions of people are struggling to get enough to eat because they are being trampled by hundreds of special interest groups--each trying to get what they want. The problem is made worse by employers who are brushing off job seekers with chldren. Employers are increasingly looking for people without children, who can work all kinds of hours, have a reduced health insurance cost, and don't have to leave work for childcare emergencies.
To my way of thinking, a society should be judged not on the size and power of its military might , but on how well it cares for its poor, it's children, the disabled and the most vulnerable. From all accounts, to maintain the safety nets for these groups, the US in 2014, is a dismal failure. Both political parties are responsible, the Democrats being the less of two evils. There is a war being waged on the poor and the GOP is leading the pack. They have no shame, these overpaid, overfed hypocrites in the US Congress who, while they are cutting services from those less fortunate, are living high off the very government they wish to shrink.
Proverbs: The ways of the greedy steal life from the true owners of gain.
Mark S -- Wonderful story. Thanks,
Perhaps we should refrain from teaching children religion before age 7.
The first ten amendments were done all at once, so constitute only one act of amending. The other 17 amendments were all done separately, so the U.S. Constitution has actually been amended only 18 times.
Leighmf, you gotta watch that kind of theorizing. Casual, facile, sweeping and careless definitions and condemnations are a hallmark of privilege.
Bentley 72, I don't think there is a difference between racism and bigotry nor do I think it is either to disagree with one's culture. That's just being a social critic or a social dissident. It is, however, both if you are adopting and accepting a racist's racist or bigotted (false and biased) view of your own culture - which I'm not necessarily trying to say that your doing.
Alice we do, in fact, benefit from white privilege - and class privilege, and I from male privilege - but to us it's invisible. The master always benefits, in some basic sense, from a slave's uncompensated or undercompensated service - and exploitation - but he takes it for granted.
Palindromedary, not all cultures are necessarily racist, at least not like ours. Native Americans may've developed animosities toward each other and fought each other but they also accepted strangers and newcomers.
There are many kinds of privilege and most of it is 'invisible" to the posessor of the privilege. Middle and upper class, white, male heterosexuals just don't understand the advantages they have and the disadvantages of others. They are used to the world belonging to them and wouldn't get sharing it with others.
Check this cartoon out.
Ever hear of the "just world complex"? It's when privileged people think the world is just. A lot of cops suffer from it.
D'Anne Marc, I think it may mean, "replenish the earth [with our own offspring]". There's a definite cotradiction between "dominion" and "subjugate" and "replenish the earth". At least there's one between the newer, patriarchal "dominion and subjugate" religious world view and the older animism that was close to the earth and to nature and did, in fact, "replenish the earth".
The older form was, I think, perhaps most importantly, not anthropocentric, willing to share the earth with other sentient beings. I heard a story once of a Native American elder speaking with a white representative of white settlers, white society or maybe even the U.S. government, I'm not clear on that point, sometime in the 19th century. The Native American elder was telling the white guy about how it had been a rough previous winter and many from his band had starved to death.
The white man then asked, "Well then, why don't you clear out that area over there and plant more corn?" pointing to a wooded area near to the land the band was living on.
The elder replied, "Oh we can't do that, that part over there belongs to the deer and if we did that the deer would starve." The whole understanding was that you're supposed to starve to death when there's a rough winter.
That story may be legend and lore or it may, in fact, be true enough. It was told to me by a pretty credible friend who was real into Native American culture so I consider it on good authority but it does illustrate the different attitudes and world views of the different cultures coming from two different levels of technology.
a sad world we are creating...and leaving for the future......we don't have the right, my opinion, to be so greedy and use so much "stuff"....but then we, at least in the western world, have become "The Me Now" Generation....
I'm only 58, but if I manage to survive another twenty years, the population will have doubled TWICE in my lifetime. I am so glad I didn't contribute to that...at least not directly.
Mark J. Saulys ~ I couldn't disagree more! "...replenish the Earth." pretty much speaks for itself. If you are stating that the King James Version is a very poor translation of the original version I would have to give you the benefit of the doubt because linguistics simply is not my forte; and, admittedly, the Book of Genesis has undergone more translations than any other book. Also, if your suggestion that this is not the way contemporary theologians from commercial religious institutions interpret the text, I would also tend to agree.
However, if you are challenging the current English translation I'm sorry it quite simply says what it says; and, that is not to "replenish ourselves" that is to "replenish the earth." It could not be stated more simply. It quite simply has been ignored; but, it most certainly is there. Check out my direct quote if my paraphrase confuses you. If that doesn't work look it up yourself.
Replenishing the earth comes right after being blessed and told to "be fruitful and multiply." It comes before "dominion". Of course it stands to reason through simple logic. How can you control something if you don't replenish it? Even a slave needs replenishment. So do simple machines. Even your own body needs regular replenishment or you lose it. Furthermore, how can you dominate something you can't control? It is the basic teaching of the text of the Bible and in no way is to blame for the consequences of humanities cherry picking of the commandments that it wants to obey and that it doesn't.
The simple fact of the matter is that we have fallen away from God. Replenishment costs money. Replenishment takes away from profits.
Mankind has chosen profit over God. The destruction of the earth is the natural consequence; and, the inevitable price that he must pay for defying both God and logic. After all, God and logic are nothing if not both one and the same thing.
Thumpers will always point to the Bible to justify their sins; and they will lead many astray, including the elect. That fact is also in the Bible. Do not be deceived! The truth is out there, you just have to look it up yourself. Misinterpretation is not the fault of the book it is the fault of the reader.
Whatever credibility Bill O’Reilly may have had in the past, certainly no longer exists, at least to those with half a brain. These talking heads were created by Rupert Murdoch’s FOX News that even he stated was nothing more than “infotainment.” Yet the Christian Right, Tea Partiers, and Republicans watch him as well as others like Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Pat Robertson, Ann Coulter, and Rush Limbaugh as if they are the only possessors of truth.
I agree with what Thom said, however I believe we have already reached a point where “what can we do?” becomes a moot point. Sometimes I wonder if the polluting industries either don’t care, or feel it’s not worth the expense to alter their behavior. It’s like an addict knowing that the next dose of heroin will kill them, but they just can’t seem to quit.
Even now, people are dying due to the pollution of our environment, and the continued exploitation of the planet for greed and profit is not sustainable. Each of us on our own can reduce our own individual “carbon footprint” by adjusting our lifestyles by consuming less, and creating less waste. However in the end, this is just a band aid on a gaping wound that industrialization has created on our environment.
D'Anne Marc, in the biblical passage you quoted I think "replenish" referred to human beings replenishing themselves. With the domestication of plants, animals and, ultimately, other people, the dawning of civilization, slavery, patriarchy - and thus, patriarchal, anthropocentric, domineering and "dominioning" religion (as opposed to animistic, more woman centered and earth and nature centered paganism) - and the concomitant need to sudue and subjugate the seeds for our destruction were planted already then, at the writing of Genesis.