On This Day In 1431 Joan of Arc, Age 19, Was Burned At The Stake .

She had been convicted of heresy by an ecclesiastical court. The conviction was later overturned, but too late for Joan. See, Joan of Arc, Witch and Heretic, Powerful Women Had to Fear the Accusation of Witchcraft From Austin Cline
England, France, and the rest of the civilized world, have since abolished the death penalty. We haven't. I reckon we figure that the innocent we execute will go to heaven anyway. Sometimes we're not very smart.

Halifax and The Gaelic Players Association Have Launched a New Hurling Initiative Aimed at Promoting the Game in the Non-traditional Counties.

"Set Em Up Joe"

Billie Holiday-One for my Baby

Vern Gosden-Set Em Up Joe

Spin This.

Scott McClellan says “Bush Relied On ‘Propaganda’ To Sell The War... Press Corps Too Easy In Run Up To Iraq... Press Briefings ‘Badly Misguided’... Bush Convinces Himself Of His Own Spin... Couldn't Remember If He Used Cocaine” See, Scott McClellan, Former Press Secretary, Attacks Bush's White House

Generation Chickenhawk: With The College Republicans

Since war began (3/19/03): 4084 Americans have died in Iraq.

A Difference Between Bob Barr & John McCain-Barr Knows He Was Bamboozled By Borat While McCain Has No Clue He Was Bamboozled By Bush.

It's better to be taken in by an actor than a boob, and there is merit in recognizing one's mistakes. If the choice were between these two, Barr gets the nod over McCain. (Borat's not running.)

Denny, Crane Killed.

"Crane led the defense . . . dispatching one of the enemy warriors. . . . Denny was also killed and another man seriously injured." Fremont in Klamath County Confirmed by Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West by Hampton Sides Pgs 100 & 107.

Osama bin Laden, Moammar Gadhafi, Rev. John Hagee, & Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg Acting Within God’s Plan? Jesus Christ!

"Pastor interpreted a Biblical verse in a way not very different from several legitimate Jewish authorities". Viewing Hitler as acting completely outside of God's plan is to suggest that God was powerless to stop the Holocaust, a position quite unacceptable to any religious Jew or Christian." Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg, of Congregation Rodfei Sholom in San Antonio.
The Rabbi and the Reverend share a myopic, anthropomorphic view of God. It is not true that all "religious" Jews and Christians share that view. Some religious folks believe in a less concrete, benevolent force that does not have extermination of populations as part of a divine plan. I'm trying, as my beloved Mary, Rev. Sandi, and Abuelita have suggested, to be more tolerant. I'm failing. These folks give me the creeps. They seem to yearn for a nuclear Armageddon to fulfill what they believe are are prophesies. Jingoistic rallies may make them smile, but their flag decal still won't get them into heaven anymore. Take it away John.

Speaking of journeys and preachers, I'll take Kris Kristofferson over Rabbi Aryeh and Rev. John any day. Here's a later version of The Pilgrim Chapter 33 .

Court Rules That Texas Must Have Evidence Before Removing Mormon Children From Their Homes.

Texas Appeals Court Rules That 460+ FLDS Children Should Not Have Been Removed. This is a dangerous precedent. Surely the Patriot Act removes Mormon freedoms as it did everybody else's. If courts start requiring evidence in order for the government to remove Mormon children from their parents' custody the courts may start requiring evidence before the government may imprison and/or torture suspects. Here's more from Alan Shore.


Thanks to Denny Crane for the tip.

Does your dog bite?

Alan Shore On Costs Of War

Boston-Legal---Stick-It-speech - Hosted by Putfile.com

Sally, please watch in a private place.

Is McCain Ignorant or Is He Just a Liar?

". . . McCain clearly has a pattern of getting the basic facts wrong. McCain insisted that ultimate political authority in Iran rests with Ahmadinejad -- even mocking Klein when he challenged him on it. In fact, according to the CIA's World Factbook, ultimate political authority in Iran rests with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, not the president." McCain Confronted With New Iran Gaffe, Gets Facts Wrong Again

Still, if it will help him with the Jewish vote, "ignorance" is bliss.

Thanks to All Who Ran, Worked In Campaigns, and Voted.

As much as I love ridiculing politicians and sometimes thinking that none who would seek the offices could possibly be qualified, they’re the only ones who will do it. It’s hard work. It is painful to put yourself and your family on the line and open to public ridicule and if you eventually lose, it feels like a spear has been rammed through your gut for a while. Thank you all for giving a damn and, at least trying. I dedicate these two songs to you. Take it away Lacy J. and Tom T.

Great question!

What would Martin say? Martin Luther King Jr. could never have anticipated many of the realities facing the African-American community today, says Dwight N. Hopkins, a theologian at the University of Chicago. King did not know that the black community would be afflicted with AIDs, crack cocaine and the importation of assault weapons. Or that a middle- and upper-class segment of the African-American population, benefiting from the civil rights movement, would be absorbed into mainstream American society. Or that many blacks would revert to "provincial preaching and silent witness." Hopkins finds especially regrettable the impact of popular culture in African-American life. "If Congress passed a law, subsequently signed by the president and upheld by the Supreme Court, that removed cable network television services from black homes, African Americans would start guerilla warfare to overthrow the government," Hopkins says (Theology Today, April). from the Christian Century, May, 2008

In a recent discussion about what' s on TV, who watches what, and what programs will return next season, it occurred to me that, for the most part, TV watching wastes time and we gain little. Altho' I have been known to rent 5 movies and veg in a chair for hours on a week end. But, mostly, it's a waste of valuable time and energy. What say, you?

Forked Tongue Express-McCain's Problems with Truth.

Thanks to Dr. Steve

Perspective

A Toad, can die of Light —
Death is the Common Right
Of Toads and Men —
Of Earl and Midge
The privilege —
Why swagger, then?
The Gnat's supremacy is large as Thine —
Life — is a different Thing —
So measure Wine —
Naked of Flask — Naked of Cask —
Bare Rhine —
Which Ruby's mine?

A Toad, can die of Light -Emily Dickinson

Gay Marriage

WARNING: This video may be offensive to some.

Funny (peculiar-not ha ha) how this issue comes up around presidential election time. The house is burning. Will crisis again bring out the best in us?

Of War and Golf

Mr. Bush, at long last, has it not dawned on you that the America you have now created, includes 'cold-blooded killers who will kill people to achieve their political objectives'?'
They are those in, or formerly in, your employ, who may yet be charged some day with war crimes.
Through your haze of self-congratulation and self-pity, do you still have no earthly clue that this nation has laid waste to Iraq to achieve your political objectives?
'This ideological struggle,' Mr. Bush, is taking place within this country.
It is a struggle between Americans who cherish freedom - ours and everybody else's - and Americans like you, sir, to whom freedom is just a brand name, just like "Patriot Act" is a brand name or "Protect America" is a brand name. . . .

You also said "Iraq is the place where al Qaeda and other extremists have made their stand - and they will be defeated."
They made no "stand" in Iraq, sir. You allowed them to assemble there!
As certainly as if that were the plan, the borders were left wide open by your government's farcical post-invasion strategy of 'they'll greet us as liberators.'
And as certainly as if that were the plan, the inspiration for another generation of terrorists in another country was provided by your government's farcical post-invasion strategy of letting the societal infra-structure of Iraq dissolve, to be replaced by an American Vice-Royalty enforced by merciless mercenaries who shoot unarmed Iraqis and then evade prosecution in any country, by hiding behind your skirts, sir.
Terrorism inside Iraq is your creation, Mr. Bush! . . .

Mr. Bush, I hate to break it to you, six-and-a-half years after you yoked this nation and your place in history to the wrong war, in the wrong place, against the wrong people but the war in Iraq is Not. About You. . . .
It is not, Mr. Bush, about what your addled brain has produced in the way of paranoid delusions of risks that do not exist, ready to be activated if some Democrat, and not your twin Mr. McCain succeeds you.
The war in Iraq - your war, Mr. Bush - is about how you accomplished the derangement of two nations, and how you helped funnel billions of taxpayer dollars to lascivious and perennially thirsty corporations like Halliburton and Blackwater, and how you sent 4,000 Americans to their deaths - for nothing.
It is not, Mr. Bush, about your golf game!
And, sir, if you have any hopes that next January 20th will not be celebrated as a day of soul-wrenching, heart-felt Thanksgiving, because your faithless stewardship of this presidency will have finally come to a merciful end, this last piece of advice:
When somebody asks you, sir, about Democrats who must now pull this country back from the abyss you have placed us at.
When somebody asks you, sir, about the cooked books and faked threats you foisted on a sincere and frightened nation.
When somebody asks you, sir, about your gallant, noble, self-abnegating sacrifice of your golf game so as to soothe the families of the war dead.
This advice, Mr. Bush.
Shut the hell up!
Excerpt from Of War and Golf By Keith Olbermann
Thanks to Dr. Steve

The Real McCoys

Speaking of West Virginians, my family never missed the Real McCoys when I was a kid. I wished that they had been from Arkansas. When I’d get irritated with my Dad’s advice, he'd parrot Grand Pappy Amos’s line to Luke, “I’m telling you this so you won’t make the same mistakes I would have made when I was your age if I hadn’t been a dang sight smarter than you are.”

Almost Heaven?

Being the son of a coal miner’s daughter, and being from a place like West Virginia, I have to love it, probably more than John Denver did. That said, I’m saddened by the results of exit polls in yesterday’s primary. “ . . . West Virginia's voters revealed that they are the most racist in the country so far in the Democratic primaries. Fully 20% of the voters consisted of whites who reported that race was a factor, and they voted for Clinton 84-10 over Obama. . . .What may be most remarkable about these figures is that they show how little history matters in racism. . . West Virginia . . . broke away from Virginia and rejected the Confederacy to remain part of the Union. . . . So why is West Virginia more racist than the former Confederate states? One reason might be lack of contact with blacks. The exit polls indicated that voters were 95% white, and only 3% black. Whites may hold on to bigotry when they rarely encounter blacks and do not have their stereotypes challenged. However, Obama has done very well in other all-white states, including Iowa and Vermont.” West Virginia: Country's Most Racist Voters by John K. Wilson
Wilson did walk on the fightin side of me when he labeled Arkansas “the second most racist state,” but that’s politics.

Women Are a Threat To Sport, Competition, and Thus, America.

Stephen Colbert comments on threats to America such as the “softball softies” who carried Sara Tucholsky around the bases, airlines, dirty keyboards, Isabella Rossellini and adorable bears.


Stephen did not comment on this adorable un-American polar bear.
Thanks to Jane.

YAYA'S MUST ARISE AND BE ONE.....I'M GONNA BLAME THIS ONE ON BILL......

Sorry Virg, but I got on a roll this morning while drinking my bloody mary......I can't let this one go! I pulled up this article on yahoo.com about the sisterhood letting our girl down ( and at first, truthfully I wasn't sure if she was my girl or not) and now I'm feeling melancholy for the ol' girl. This can't be it......not after all we've been thru with Jennifer Flowers, White Water, Monica, the BLUE DRESS, Linda Tripp (thank god for plastic surgery), Foster, and the list goes on and on and on........You stood by him for your own selfish reasons cuz you knew, as we all did, what your full intentions were; it was no secret that you wore the pants in that relationship! We knew you made the decisions and you earned the spot in the oval office! Hillary, you earned the ticket; you earned it thru your battles as the good woman behind the successfull man crap we have had to listen to all our lives! What else do YOU have to do less nail yourself up to a cross and bleed, for Goddette's sake???? You've done your time and we can only hope that St. Jude will pull thru for you..........but then again, are there that many men out there of quality that we need the respect from???? I ask myself this daily when they turn into the self, induced jerk wads that they oh so easily do on a dime. But the sad part is that while the men lacking in quality are so abundant, I think they are spreading the disease and abusing the minds of the women that they are in touch with. This is where we must stand up and ARISE and just say no to their ol' boys club ways and dig deep into our women intellect and fool the crap out of 'em at the polls!

Speaking of Creating God In Our Own Images.

"God says that the Africans are the Tribes of Ham. Ham was the worst one of Noah’s three boys: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Everybody comes down on their family tree from just those three, because God made a big flood and drowneded out the sinners. But Shem, Ham, and Japheth got on the boat so they were A-okay.
Ham was the youngest one. After they all got off the ark and let the animals go is when it happened. Ham found his father Noah laying around pig-naked drunk one day and he thought that was funny as all get-out. The other two brothers covered Noah with a blanket, but Ham busted his britches laughing. When Noah woke up he got to hear the whole story from the tattletale brothers. So Noah cursed all Ham’s children to be slaves for ever and ever. That’s how come them all turn out dark." RUTH MAY PRICE in The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Ruth May is making fun of her daddy and makes this kind of thinking sound as insane as it is. Still, some, out of ignorance or convenience, either believed it or preached it for centuries. Some still do. We’ve come a long way, but the legacy lingers. One example is that children of color still don’t have access to swimming pools and are dying because of it. “The minority swimming gap has deep roots in America's racial history. For decades during the 20th century, many pools were segregated, and relatively few were built to serve black communities.” Bridging the Minority Swimming Gap By Mallary Jean Tenore. “ . . .58 percent of black children can't swim and . . . they drown at nearly three times the average rate. An estimated 56 percent of Hispanic children can't swim, compared to 31 percent of Caucasian children. Id. Thanks to Cecil for the tip.
Picture is from Black Jesus: creating God in our own image by Stephen Zook

Bye Bye Buddhas

The great Buddhas of Bamian (Bamiyan), built in the 6th Century at an elevation of 8,202 ft, were dynamited by the Taliban in 2001.

Buddha statue destruction Afghanistan
Uploaded by diodre

Speaking of atrocities we inflict on each other and justify because of tradition, religion, and/or political or philosophical dogma, these statues are mentioned in A Thousand Splendid Suns By Khaled Hosseini which Virg highly recommends. It’s a good but disturbing read. It vividly portrays both the horrors we inflict on each other and our compassion.

McCain Doesn't Know Shiites from Shinola.

"In the past month, the veneer of Sen. John McCain's foreign policy expertise has been muddied by his repeated confusion of Sunnis and Shiites. During his Middle East tour, McCain repeatedly claimed that al-Qaida, a Sunni terrorist organization, was receiving funding and training from Shia Iran. Only later, after Sen. Joe Lieberman whispered a correction in his ear, did McCain acknowledge his error. Nevertheless, MCain has since repeated the mistake. Lieberman's lesson has not quite sunk in, it seems." John McCain Repeats Al-Qaida Shiite Confusion by Will Thomas
On a lighter note, maybe, in Larry King's interview with Jon Stewart, Larry brought up the subject of the primaries and asked him if America was ready for a woman or a black president.
Jon looked at him quizzically and said "This is such a non-question. Did anyone ask us in 2000 if Americans were ready for a moron?"
Thanks to Gene

Arise Sons and Daughters!

Sunday is Mothers' Day. According to Wikipedia, the idea was imported from Britain by social activist Julia Ward Howe after the Great Civil War. Her intent was to unite women against war. Her original Mothers Day proclamation was a call for peace and disarmament. It was "Arise, then, women of this day!"
This, of course, was before Hallmark and, if you're a good son/daughter, taking mom out to lunch. Commercialization is now rampant and restaurants and florists love it!
Why not spend the day writing Congress and Senators?! Speak out against the war! Arise sons and daughters! Make mom proud!

We need to remember

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Never Again (by Duane Shank)

Today is the commemoration of Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Memorial Day)in the modern Jewish calendar. The date was originally enacted by the Israeli Parliament in 1953, but has now become a commemoration by the international Jewish community and friends.

It is a day to commemorate the more than 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis from 1938-1945. It is a day to reflect on the fact that when the rest of the world knew what was happening, too little was done to stop it. And, it is a day to reflect on contemporary genocides, such as Darfur, and redouble our efforts to ensure that "never again" becomes a reality.

Shank is a contributor to Jim Wallis' God's Politics blog. He reminds us to remember...

A Penguin Takes His Car In To The Shop and the Mechanic Says . . .Could I Get a Bierbitzh?

If I Were A Terrorist-James Pence

FOR MORE OF THE SAME, SEE CINDY BEER

The 5th Anniversary of "Mission Accomplished"

"Five years ago today, on May 1, 2003, the Bush production company devoured some of America's most powerful national and cultural signifiers, not just for crass political gain, but to inspire and enthrall the populi." Bush Semiotics: The 5th Anniversary of "Mission Accomplished" by Joseph A. Palermo
Thank god we had the mainstream media to cut through the crap and tell us the truth. "I'm waiting to hear the words, 'I was wrong,' from some of the world's most elite journalists, politicians and Hollywood types. . . . Maybe disgraced commentators and politicians alike, like [Tom] Daschle, Jimmy Carter, Dennis Kucinich and all those others, will step forward tonight and show the content of their character by simply admitting what we know already: that their wartime predictions were arrogant, they were misguided and they were dead wrong. Maybe, just maybe, these self-anointed critics will learn from their mistakes. But I doubt it. After all, we don't call them 'elitists' for nothing." Arrogant Elitist Joe Scarborough April 10, 2003 MSNBC fired Phil Donahue in February 2003, because he opposed the war and hired this dick head. "By canning Donahue, MSNBC made sure that cable viewers had no place to turn for a nightly opinion program whose host forcefully questioned the invasion. The irony was that at the time of Donahue's firing -- one month before bombs started falling on Baghdad -- MSNBC officials cited the host's weak ratings as the reason for the change. In truth, Donahue was beating out Chris Matthews as MSNBC's highest-rated host." Booing Bush at MSNBC by Eric Boehlert