USA using Patriot Act against its own citizens

YouTube – USA using Patriot Act against its own citizens.

 

My Syllabus for Next Semester

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2009/4/20lanham.html

 

Denying the Deniers is Unproductive

I just read that President Obama says we have an obligation to confront the scourge of people who deny the holocaust. This idea of confronting holocaust deniers is something I’ve been hearing for a while now, and I just don’t get it. Why argue with people about it? Why are those people considered dangerous? They are simply voicing their opinion, just like people who claim that we never landed on the moon, or that Oswald was set up in the JFK assassination, or any other opinion that goes contrary to the  dominant one. If it’s a bogus opinion, then as more people talk about it and investigate it for themselves, it will be revealed for the bogus opinion that it is.

People, stop wasting your energy criticizing each other and do something productive.

 

Curious

I wonder how they came up with the $283 figure? Reminds me of the 18 mph speed limit sign I saw once.

 

Stop Their “Divide and Conquer” Strategy

I had thought of attending my local tea party until I listened to talk radio for a couple of days before the event and realized just how partisan it would be. The talk radio people made it seem that the Republicans were the only noble Americans who were fed up with the way that our tax dollars are being spent (wasted). What could have been gatherings for Americans to show their frustration against corporate/government collusion turned into “bash-the-Democrats-Obama-is-evil” rallies. People like me who would have turned out to protest the  lavish wasting of our tax dollars that has been going on for years were turned off by the right-wing rhetoric that accompanied these tea parties. And I think that those who have been wasting our tax dollars planned it that way.

Our elected officials and their friends in corporate America and the media have for many years been successful in deceiving us into believing that all the problems are the fault of the “other party,” thus creating a false “us vs. them” paradigm that diverts our attention away from the true culprits. For too long we have bought into and played along with this game, and we have done so because it was comfortable and didn’t require us to do any more than complain about the latest outrage we heard about on the news that morning. But I think now we are starting to realize that both the Democrat and Republican parties are simply inventions created by those same government/corporate interests, both used against us for the same ends–to keep us quiet and doing the work that keeps them rich and powerful.

We as Americans need to quit playing the Democrats vs. Republicans game and come together to point the fingers at anyone, regardless of political affiliation, who is contributing to the waste and corruption in our government. We can’t continue to allow them to divert our attention with petty rhetoric and name-calling.

 

Welfare Winners

I just read that Tennessee state lawmakers are debating whether to put a cap on lottery winnings for people who receive public assistance.

“[Recipients of public assistance] shouldn’t be playing the lottery,” said State Representative Stacey Campfield.

Campfield pushed a bill that would cap winnings at $600 if a person was on public assistance.

How about instead of limiting their winnings, just kick them off of public assistance? If they win enough money, then they don’t need assistance, and if they didn’t, then they can just go through the process to requalify. Seems we might weed out some people that don’t really need to be on the public dole.

 

Bart Ehrman, “Jesus Interrupted” | Salon

Bart Ehrman, “Jesus Interrupted” | Salon.

Having read some other of Ehrman’s work, including Jesus Misquoted, I plan to read this one as well. Ehrman explores those nagging questions about bible contradictions that you don’t want to ask your pastor.

 

Protesting the Protesters

A story on CNN.com today notes that “activists have a reputation for being early adopters of technology” and they use new communications methods “to disseminate information, connect with each other and gather en masse.” From the article:

“. . . Internet technologies — particularly mobile technologies — have made it dramatically easier to organize groups of people in protest — and far harder for police to know where to target their defensive efforts.

“[Protesters] have made it impossible for the defenders to adopt a cut-off-the-head-and-the-body-will-die strategy,” he told CNN. “[Technology] has made the idea of a frontline of protests almost completely amorphous.”

So the police are crying because they can’t figure out who is the leader or organizer of a particular protest? Don’t we have the right to assemble peaceably in order to protest actions we find disagreeable? As long as the protesters don’t begin to act out violently, it seems that the police don’t really have any need to know who organized the protest. This complaint seems to me to be the government lamenting the fact that more and more people are dissatisfied with what our elected officials are getting away with and allowing their friends to get away with. These elected officials seem to be afraid that the people will remember that the government is supposed to be “by the people and for the people” and that when the government oversteps its bounds, “it is [the people’s] right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government.” The elected officials and police would like nothing better than to quell any opposition before it begins, and that’s why they’re lamenting technology that allows people to rapidly spread news and ideas.

The CNN article notes that the invention of the printing press “made broad dissemination of information possible” and was adopted by early civil and religious libertarians to help spread their messages. Maybe our political leaders would like to go back to the days before the printing press when the people learned the news of their government’s actions too late to do anything about it.