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 | History/Culture: Which Parts of Jesus Teaching Should We Believe? |
 By Howard Bess
Typical Christians are very selective in their Bible reading. The parts in which believers find affirmation, they are quick to quote. Bible portions that confront them and their chosen lifestyles are conveniently ignored. Americans are especially adept at sidestepping the teachings of Jesus about wealth. Jesus left us with a lot of teachings about wealth. They are not few and are not obscure.
This Sunday many churches, especially those connected with a denomination, will use Bible readings from the Common Lectionary, a weekly listing of suggested Bible passages chosen by the denominational bureaucracy. Very few ministers will dare preach on the Gospel Lesson for the day. If they do, they will dance around the clear message, being careful to offend no one. It is the parable of the bigger barns found in chapter 12 of the Luke Gospel.
The Gospel writer chooses to put the story into the context of a dispute between two brothers. It seems their father had died and left an inheritance. By tradition, the oldest son was in charge of the estate. The disagreement between the two brothers was not different from the ugly arguments that still take place among family members when their parents die. In our modern world lawyers make a lot of money settling such disputes. The triumph of greed over blood is an experience that is both ancient and modern.
The younger of the two brothers came to Jesus and asked him to arbitrate the dispute. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Saturday, July 31 @ 21:50:47 EDT (4 reads)
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| Opinion: The Missing Piece Meets the Big O |
 by: William Rivers Pitt, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed
I've been trying to wrap my mind around the dispiriting sense of failure that seems to have enveloped the Obama administration on the eve of the November midterms. The right hates him because he won, because he's Black, and because he won. Their utter intransigence has completely upended Obama's knee-jerk instinct for compromise and bipartisanship, making it appear that he's not getting anything done, and so the middle of the electorate feels a deep sense of disappointment exacerbated by unrelentingly bad coverage in the media. The left is up in arms because he hasn't met the lofty goals set after his election, and because he's allowed himself to get rolled by the right and their corporate paymasters on half a dozen occasions, resulting in several half-a-loaf pieces of legislation that look more like giveaways than accomplishments.
But there's a missing piece in here somewhere, and strangely enough, it took a recent Sports Illustrated article to bring the situation into focus for me. The article dealt with the scandal surrounding former USC running back and Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush, whose involvement with agents and payoffs during his college career led the NCAA to punish USC severely for his, and their, transgressions. Rather than face the issue head-on and offer mea culpas, USC chose instead to erase the Bush legacy from the annals of their sports history: ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Saturday, July 31 @ 21:43:28 EDT (6 reads)
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| The News: Danger Of Establishing "New Normal" With Worst Bush-Era Policies |
 Group Releases 18-Month Review Of President's National Security Policies And Civil Liberties
From: aclu.org
NEW YORK – The Obama administration has repudiated some of the Bush administration's most egregious national security policies but is in danger of institutionalizing others permanently into law, thereby creating a troubling "new normal," according to a new report released today by the American Civil Liberties Union.
"Establishing a New Normal: National Security, Civil Liberties, and Human Rights Under the Obama Administration," an 18-month review of the Obama administration's record on national security issues affecting civil liberties, concludes that the current administration's record on issues of national security and civil liberties is decidedly mixed: President Obama has made great strides in some areas, such as his auspicious first steps to categorically prohibit torture, outlaw the CIA's use of secret overseas detention sites and release the Bush administration's torture memos, but he has failed to eliminate some of the worst policies put in place by President Bush, such as military commissions and indefinite detention. He has also expanded the Bush administration's "targeted killing" program. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Friday, July 30 @ 20:08:14 EDT (10 reads)
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| The News: Military Was Concerned About Vets' Exposure to Depleted Uranium |
 by: Mike Ludwig, t r u t h o u t | Report
For years, the government has denied that depleted uranium (DU), a radioactive toxic waste left over from nuclear fission and added to munitions used in the Persian Gulf and Iraq wars, poisoned Iraqi civilians and veterans.
But a little-known 1993 Defense Department document written by then-Brigadier Gen. Eric Shinseki, now the secretary for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), shows that the Pentagon was concerned about DU contamination and the agency had ordered medical testing on all personnel that were exposed to the toxic substance.
Shinseki's memo, under the subject line, "Review of Draft to Congress - Health and Environmental Consequences of Depleted Uranium in the U.S. Army -- Action Memorandum," makes some small revisions to the details of these three orders from the DoD:
1. Provide adequate training for personnel who may come in contact with DU contaminated equipment.
2. Complete medical testing of all personnel exposed to DU in the Persian Gulf War.
3. Develop a plan for DU contaminated equipment recovery during future operations.
The VA, however, never conducted the medical tests, which may have deprived hundreds of thousands of veterans from receiving medical care to treat cancer and other diseases that result from exposure to DU. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Wednesday, July 28 @ 18:20:54 EDT (24 reads)
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| Politics: Candidate appearances affect election outcomes |
 MIT researchers demonstrate people around the world have similar ideas about what a good politician looks like
by: Peter Dizikes, MIT News Office
When you vote in an election, your choice is surely not influenced by anything as superficial as a candidate’s looks, right?
Right?
New research from MIT political scientists shows that the appearances of politicians do indeed strongly influence voters — and that people around the world have similar ideas about what a good politician looks like.
While few political observers would be surprised to learn that good looks earn votes, the MIT researchers have quantified a phenomenon that is more often assumed to be true than rigorously measured. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Wednesday, July 28 @ 17:56:47 EDT (19 reads)
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| Politics: It Takes too Much Money to Run |
Who are we to tell other countries how to manage their elections?
By William A. Collins
Our elections
Run on lies,
Best distortions
Bucks can buy.
There's no small irony in the United States forcing "democracy" down the throats of our adversaries around the world while our own democracy is teetering on so many perilous brinks. Given the shaky system here, what nation abroad would want to take direction from us?
We seem to feel that the American system is above reproach because that's essentially what we learned in school. But the rest of the world is not so easily deluded. There's widespread understanding that money rules Congress, both by promoting specific candidates and by fawning over them when they win. That's why a few enlightened lands have imposed strict contribution limits and much shorter campaigns. They view our experience with horror. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Tuesday, July 27 @ 21:42:58 EDT (24 reads)
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| History/Culture: Afghanistan Funding: Time to Make a Fuss |
by: Maya Schenwar, Executive Director, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed
In a moving statement before Congress in February 2009, President Obama made a promise. "For seven years, we have been a nation at war," he said. "No longer will we hide its price."
Obama was referring to the Bush administration's devious practice of using supplemental spending bills - emergency cash transfusions that are separated from the annual federal budget - to funnel off money for war. This parliamentary trick masks the yearly cost of war, which would otherwise appear as one massive lump sum, by breaking it up into bite-size, deceptively digestible chunks.
Supplementals are intended for emergencies in which large amounts of money are suddenly needed: a huge-scale natural disaster, an unexpected war of defense, a Mars attack. The Bush administration used a supplemental to fund the early stages of the war in Afghanistan, then kept doing it ... and doing it and doing it. Throughout his tenure, Bush sent 17 war supplementals to Congress, and they all passed with flying (bipartisan) colors.
As someone who'd spent the previous four years chronicling Bush's slimy war funding ways, I was particularly relieved by Obama's words in 2009. Maybe, I thought, when Congress and the American people are confronted with that giant, ugly price tag for war hanging from the frail skeleton of our federal budget at the start of the year, reality will hit and plans to bring the troops home - for real - will become more than just a progressive talking point floating in the legislative ether.
However, less than two months after his bold pronouncement, the president slipped in a request for $76 billion in off-the-books war funds. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Tuesday, July 27 @ 16:39:44 EDT (24 reads)
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| Health News: Americans are Dying to Eat |
 Despite evidence that they may cause cancer, food manufacturers continue to pour about 15 million pounds of eight synthetic dyes into the American food supply every year.
By Michael F. Jacobson
Try pronouncing disodium 6-hydroxy-5-((2-methoxy-5-methyl-4-sulfophenyl) azo)-2-naphthalene-sulfonate.
It's not easy, right? That explains why this mouthful goes by its friendlier name, Red 40. It might sound innocent, but this ingredient and others like it are far from harmless. And they're in our food.
For years, we at the Center for Science in the Public Interest and food-safety officials in Europe have highlighted studies linking food dyes to hyperactivity and other behavioral problems in children. The British government and the European Parliament even decided to phase out artificial dyes based on these concerns alone, but the same can't be said for the United States. So why do food manufacturers continue to pour about 15 million pounds of eight synthetic dyes into the American food supply every year? ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Monday, July 26 @ 20:48:45 EDT (22 reads)
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| The News: Experts: Health Hazards in Gulf Warrant Evacuations |
 by: Rose Aguilar, t r u t h o u t | Report
When Louisiana residents ask marine toxicologist and community activist Riki Ott what she would do if she lived in the Gulf with children, she tells them she would leave immediately. "It's that bad. We need to start talking about who's going to pay for evacuations."
In 1989, Ott, who lives in Cordova, Alaska, experienced firsthand the devastating effects of the Exxon Valdex oil disaster. For the past two months, she's been traveling back and forth between Louisiana and Florida to gather information about what's really happening and share the lessons she learned about long-term illnesses and deaths of cleanup workers and residents. In late May, she began meeting people in the Gulf with symptoms like headaches, dizziness, sore throats, burning eyes, rashes and blisters that are so deep, they're leaving scars. People are asking, "What's happening to me?"
She says the culprit is almost two million gallons of Corexit, the dispersant BP is using to break up and hide the oil below the ocean's surface. "It's an industrial solvent. It's a degreaser. It's chewing up boat engines off-shore. It's chewing up dive gear on-shore. Of course it's chewing up people's skin. The doctors are saying the solvents are making the oil worse."
In a widely watched YouTube video, from Project Gulf Impact, a project that aims to give Gulf residents a voice, Chris Pincetich, a marine biologist and campaigner with the Sea Turtle Restoration Project, said Coast Guard planes are flying overhead at night spraying Corexit on the water and on land. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Friday, July 23 @ 20:50:56 EDT (30 reads)
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| Screwed Again: Florida Dengue Fever Outbreak Leads Back to CIA and Army Experiments |
by: H.P. Albarelli Jr. and Zoe Martell, t r u t h o u t | News Analysis
With little fanfare on July 13, Florida officials released the findings of a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) study conducted recently in the Key West area revealing that about 10 percent, or 1,000 people, of the coastal town's population are infected with the dengue fever virus.
While the July 13 release made little mention of it, the CDC study was provoked by an earlier 2009 report that a woman in New York State, who had returned from a Florida Keys' visit, had contracted dengue fever. Within a few weeks of this initial report, two additional cases were discovered in people who had returned from Key West. Over the next three months of 2009, an additional 26 cases were identified, all tied to visits to the town.
Because of these reported cases, the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District conducted greatly increased aerial spraying to control mosquitoes. Following the spraying, a small amount of other cases were reported, including that of a 41-year-old Key West man who found blood in his urine and had severely aching joints. Following these additional reports, the CDC launched its study of antibodies in Key West residents and found that 5 percent of the town's residents have been exposed to the dengue virus. Said CDC dengue expert, Dr. Christopher J. Gregory, "The best estimate from the survey is that about 5 percent of [residents] was infected in 2009 with dengue." Gregory also stated, "We have known for a while it is a possible risk, but this outbreak shows it is more than possible: It is something that did happen and could happen again."
Despite the low-key nature of the Florida release, the Homeland Security Administration immediately issued a "terror alert" concerning the findings and Monroe County, within which Key West is located, also issued its own health advisory warning "effective immediately." ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Friday, July 23 @ 20:29:48 EDT (32 reads)
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| History/Culture: BP's Long, Bloody History of Reckless Greed |
by: Al Hart, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed
British Petroleum (now known as BP), the company responsible for the worst single-source environmental catastrophe in U.S. history, has over its 100-year history caused a number of environmental and workplace disasters. But the harm BP has caused goes further. In the early 1950s, BP and the British government convinced the U.S. to overthrow the democratic government of Iran - an action that has had disastrous consequences for Iran, the U.S., and the Middle East to this day.
Before the Gulf disaster - and the stupidly arrogant statements of its CEO Tony Hayward - many Americans probably didn't even know that BP was a British company. In the 1980s BP began gobbling up U.S. oil companies - Standard Oil of Ohio (Sohio) in 1978, Standard Oil of Indiana (Amoco) in 1998, and Atlantic Richfield (Arco) in 2000. It's now the third-largest energy company in the world.
The April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oilrig killed 11 oil workers and started the giant oil leak that has devastated the Gulf of Mexico. For BP, this deadly explosion may be the worst, but certainly not the first. In 1965 the BP oilrig Sea Gem collapsed, killing 13 workers. In September 1999 BP agreed to pay $22 million - including a $500,000 criminal fine - for its hazardous waste dumping on Alaska's Endicott Island. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Wednesday, July 21 @ 17:38:39 EDT (34 reads)
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| Space: Rensselaer in Search for Conditions of Life in the Universe |
NASA Grant Supports New York Center for Astrobiology
News Release: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
The New York Center for Astrobiology will widen the scope of its search for the building blocks of life beyond Earth with the help of a new NASA grant. Based at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the center is devoted to investigating the origins of life on Earth and the conditions that lead to formation of habitable planets in our own and other solar systems.
“We are looking for the conditions of life, rather than life itself,” said Douglas Whittet, director of the New York Center for Astrobiology and a Rensselaer professor of physics, applied physics, and astronomy. The center opened in 2008 with support from NASA.
One interesting finding from its research thus far is that stars aid in the process of forming the more complex matter found on planets and in life.
“You need energy to drive the chemistry. A star itself can cook simple molecules into something more interesting,” Whittet said. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Wednesday, July 21 @ 17:19:19 EDT (30 reads)
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| Peace News: We've Got Empire Stress Disorder |
 By William A. Collins
Keep those Stars
And Stripes unfurled;
Wave them high and
Rule the world.
It's a lot of work being an empire. Expensive, but well worth it. Americans make up only 4 percent of the world's population, but we get to use up 25 percent of its resources. That's pretty high living and you don't get to pull it off by being a wimpy socialist nonentity. We also get to spew 25 percent of the earth's unsustainable pollution. Sure, this all has to come to an end eventually, but no matter; it's been a great ride.
And at least it won't come to an end militarily. Our army puts Rome to shame. We have 865 foreign bases, and blanket every continent with soldiers and CIA nests. ESPN World Cup announcers "welcome our men and women in uniform serving in over 175 countries and territories." Japan hosts 47,000 of our troops, paying $2 billion for the privilege and annoying its own citizens no end. It just ousted a prime minister over that spat. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Tuesday, July 20 @ 22:24:46 EDT (43 reads)
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| War News: Managed News: Inside The US/NATO Military Industrial Media Empire |
by: Peter Phillips and Mickey Huff, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed
We face what appears to be a military industrial media empire so powerful and complex that truth is mostly absent or reported in disconnected segments with little historical context. A case in point: The London Times reported on June 5, 2010, that American troops are now operating in 75 countries. Has President Obama secretly sanctioned a huge increase in the number of US Special Forces carrying out search-and-destroy missions against al-Qaeda around the world? If so, this increase is far in excess of special forces operations under the Bush administration, and reflects how aggressively Obama is pursuing al-Qaeda behind his public rhetoric of global engagement and diplomacy. Somehow this information didn't make it into the US media.
"There is nothing so strong or safe in an emergency of life as the simple truth."
- Charles Dickens
The US, in cooperation with NATO, is building global occupation forces for the control of international resources in support of Trilaterialist - US, Europe, Japan - corporate profits. A New York Times report on the availability of a trillion dollars in mineral wealth in Afghanistan, on top of the need for an oil/gas pipeline from the Caspian Sea, suggests other reasons for US objectives in the region. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Monday, July 19 @ 15:53:09 EDT (37 reads)
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| Spirituality: Christian Commitment to Disobedience |
 By Howard Bess
Among early followers of Jesus from Nazareth, their first and most profound confession was “Christ is Lord!” They all understood the significance of that confession.
When they faced the challenge of bowing down to Caesar and obeying the Roman government or living by the teachings of Jesus, their minds were quite clear. They followed the teachings of Jesus. They became a persecuted people and many lost their lives because of their commitment to their Christ.
This defiance of rulers and governments has been repeated in every generation. Here in the U.S. the latest challenge to Christian morality is taking place in Arizona. The State of Arizona has passed a very harsh law that they hope will bring under control the flood of illegal Mexican immigrants that continue to cross over the Mexico-Arizona border. The Arizona law can be criticized for fostering racial profiling and illegal searches. Those concerns are real, but they are not the issue that prompts this column.
Churches in Arizona of every kind, Roman Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Pentecostal, liberal and conservative, offer services to people in need. Churches seldom ask about immigration status. Typically they provide services with a full knowledge that some recipients are in the U.S. illegally. On this subject, I suspect I represent not a few Christians. We help people who have needs. We are not and can never be an arm of the law. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Saturday, July 17 @ 14:21:02 EDT (43 reads)
(Read More... | 5579 bytes more | Comments? | Spirituality | Score: 5)
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| Saturday, July 17 | | · | Blessed Are the Peacemakers ... but Not in America |
| Friday, July 16 | | · | Double Dividend: Make Money by Saving Nature |
| Thursday, July 15 | | · | What Tea Party Activists Owe Liberals |
| · | When Teachers Unions Back War Escalations |
| Wednesday, July 14 | | · | Who Will Speak Up For The Expendables? |
| Tuesday, July 13 | | · | The War on Antibiotics |
| Monday, July 12 | | · | No Dominion: |
| Friday, July 09 | | · | 'Just Business': Capitalism is an Anti-Social Disease |
| Thursday, July 08 | | · | Dying-In to End the Wars |
| Wednesday, July 07 | | · | EPA Suspends Coal Ash Promotion Program |
| Tuesday, July 06 | | · | The Anti-Empire Report - July 2010 |
| Monday, July 05 | | · | Witnessing Against Torture: Why We Must Act |
| Saturday, July 03 | | · | Restoring the Fourth Amendment: |
| Friday, July 02 | | · | Why Shut Them Down? |
| · | AT&T's Dirty Politics |
| Thursday, July 01 | | · | Cowardice, American Style |
| Wednesday, June 30 | | · | ACLU Sues Wal-Mart On Behalf Of Cancer Patient |
| Tuesday, June 29 | | · | Leaving Granny Behind |
| · | The Pentagon's Threat to the Republic |
| Monday, June 28 | | · | Sirhan Sirhan: In His Own Words |
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