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@thepossibleteapot-blog
West Point’s Cadet Chapel hosts first same-sex wedding
(Photo: Amanda Fulton via Associated Press)
Cadet Chapel, the landmark Gothic church that is a center for spiritual life at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, was hosting its first same-sex wedding Saturday.
Read the complete story.
Although I'm not sure what the high stools are for!
Israel and Hamas are both declared winners of an unwinnable conflict. http://on.cc.com/Tr7ABA
Liberalism: defined
Political liberalism is defined in 'the free dictionary' as:
A political theory founded on the natural goodness of humans and the autonomy of the individual and favoring civil and political liberties, government by law with the consent of the governed, and protection from arbitrary authority.
NOT
A political theory founded on the desire to expand government and enslave the population. Synonymous with communism / socialism / Nazism.
Just thought I'd clear that up, thanks :-)
Don't bury your head in the sand
There is an ideological and cultural war raging in the United States and it is being fought on the internet.
An email exchange came to my attention this week which shows how far the national discourse has sunk, and the extent to which people are ready and willing to submit to tribal, in/out group mentalities.
The main item of contention: Obama’s firearms policy, specifically, an imagination of Obama’s firearms policy by those on the right wing.
FYI ... Snopes is not the be and end all of correct information ... people who run Snopes are VERY liberal .... this warning has been going around since 2010, true, and since Obama has consistently ignored the Constitution since he got into office, and he has been working behind the scenes to ban guns, people need to have their guard up.......
This is a false chain letter that’s been going around since 2010, FYI!
http://www.snopes.com/politics/guns/untreaty.asp
This should be worrying to thinking people on many levels, not only because people would ever buy this guff.
The central accusation of the chain email is that Obama is secretly working behind the scenes to ban all guns. Where does this stuff even come from? I just don't get it.
Clearly the person who forwarded this message believes the content of the chain email, they believe it so much that they are prepared to utterly disregard evidence which contradicts its content. Why? Because “people who run Snopes are VERY liberal (sic)”.
So, the trend continues, any information suspected of coming from a ‘liberal’ source is immediately and unquestioningly disregarded.
Call me old fashioned but I prefer debates based on facts, not ones which attack the participants.
Never mind the fact that there is no evidence that the owners of Snopes are ‘very liberal’, this assertion seems rooted in yet another chain email which has since been debunked.
The attempt to discredit Snopes came about during the ’08 campaign cycle, instigated presumably by people irritated that the sight was successfully debunking the anti-Obama chain emails which were doing the rounds.
The solution? Spew out yet more disinformation to discredit Snopes.
Isn't that really worrying? There are people out there deliberately, maliciously concocting false and misleading emails in order to further their own lies and half-truths?
The worst thing is that it worked.
It is as a result of this thinking that any legitimate news source or blog espousing anything other than an overtly right wing agenda is labelled part of the left wing media conspiracy. Thus allowing those with a certain ideological bent to further bury their heads in the deep sand of the right wing internet echo chamber.
Meanwhile the word ‘liberal’ has become synonymous with (misunderstood) socialism, communism, Nazism just about everything contrary to the American way in the minds of those who bandy it about like a cuss word.
Political discourse between the two sides of the US political spectrum is the chilliest it has been in my life time, arguably in that of anyone alive today. It is less than 150 years since the end of the US civil war. If we want to arrest the march of party political polarization we must engage with each other, not close our minds.
Never again.
(photo: Roberto Gonzalez/AP)
Dear Rick Santorum,
Every time you say something, this is what I want to say.
Sincerely, Allyson.
First assignment - produce anti-Chinese government propaganda.. check.
Mr Eric X. Li is a tool. The NYT should be ashamed for wasting valuable digital ink on such a fawning, mealy-mouthed, blowhard. His non-explanation of why the meeting of X.J.P. and B.O. is not a meeting of authoritarianism and democracy defies belief. According to Eric, the repression and exploitation of a billion working people is justified to 'achieve larger national ends' (read: make him and his ilk yet more rich and corpulent) I assume that Mr Li would not be so happy with the status quo in China were he were one of the less fortunate Chinese. Authoritarianism serves his purposes very well in that regard. How he justifies his claim that the alternative to the bloody murder of China's own citizens in 1989 would have ultimately been 'far worse' we are left to wonder. The Party is apparently just waiting for the most conducive time to enfranchise its people - but only when it's best for them. Boy, I bet the Chinese people are glad the all knowing Party are looking out for their best interests. But hold on, whoops! Looks like things have taken a turn for the worst - it's back to the workhouse with ya. The idea that the Chinese government is going to become accountable to it's citizens without a fight is simply laughable. China's day is coming - they will have to face up to their own internal political and economic realities sooner or later. I do have one area where I perhaps agree, America's system is broken. As it is here in the UK, although in different ways. Get the money out of elections and the lobbyists and political intel guys out of Washington and you'll have made a good start. The US system is still in a different league to the Chinese one. Hearing opinions like that makes me glad that I left the place.
The elephant in the room - God doesn't exist
I recently read some religiously motivated articles purporting to answer the age old question: If I were born in Pakistan, wouldn't I likely be a Muslim? One of the articles used a parable as an example (now there's a surprise!)
There is an old parable about six blind Hindus touching an elephant. One blind man touched the side of the elephant and said it was a wall. Another blind man touched the ear and said it was a large leaf of a tree. Yet another blind man was holding a leg and thought it was a tree trunk. Still another blind man took hold of the elephant’s trunk and said it was a snake. Someone else was touching the elephant’s tusk and believed it was a spear. Another blind man had the elephant’s tail in his hand and was calling it a rope. All of the blind men were touching the same reality but were understanding it differently. They all had the right to interpret what they were touching in their own personal way, yet it was the same elephant.
So, all different cultural interpretations of reality and spirituality are equally valid as interpretations of a greater misunderstood truth after all it is difficult to understand the greater nature of something when one has too little information.
In the context of this article it is used to demonstrate the idea that all attempts to know god are equally valid, the idea of religious pluralism.
Religious pluralism is an interesting idea. In fact, I have wondered why at least the Abrahamic three: Christianity, Judaism and Islam don't bury the hatchet (or the sickle?). They've got the same god after all.
The problem is that they can't, their holy men and their holy books will not allow it. They are in fact too dogmatic. Religious pluralism is a nice idea but it is simply that. It is not an idea which is accepted, or even encouraged, by religious establishments or mainstream religious proponents.
Those who do voice such a notion need quickly to re-affirm that 'all roads do not lead to god' for fear of being denounced as a heretic.
After all, if mainstream religions accepted the dogmatism of others their own would be critically undermined. Instead they tend to get caught up in a 'my prophet is better than your prophet' squabble.
An even more common tactic is to turn this enquiry into a call for evangelism. If Islam contains a shred of truth then it is our duty as Christians to show them the light of Jesus or else they will be lost.
Because we know better than them right? I'd be interested to know if there are any schisms of Christianity out there who believe that a person's entrance into the divine realm is not predicated upon acceptance of Jesus.
Then Muslims and Christians could go to generic heaven together? What would be the basic requirements then? Belief in an Abrahamic god? but then what about the Hindus, the Sikhs and the Buddhists? Well - they led a good life - In that case, atheists too should be admitted, provided they have lived a good life according to their conscience, correct? It would be nice wouldn't it.
Some might say - you will be judged by what you knew.
I have certainly heard the message and thus far, ignored it. Am I to be cast into the fiery abyss no matter my dedication to serving others. The CIA factbook estimates that the religious spread in the world is thus:
Christian 33.35% (of which Roman Catholic 16.83%, Protestant 6.08%, Orthodox 4.03%, Anglican 1.26%), Muslim 22.43%, Hindu 13.78%, Buddhist 7.13%, Sikh 0.36%, Jewish 0.21%, Baha'i 0.11%, other religions 11.17%, non-religious 9.42%, atheists 2.04%
A poor showing for atheists! Of those non Christian religions, how many do you think have heard the Christian message and disregarded it? Are all those people to be damned unless they repent?
What percentage of the world population, what percentage of all the people who have ever lived on this world are to be damned to hell for eternity?
The claim that this belief system is an intrinsically moral one is impossible to understand.
My favourite thing about the parable is they all failed to identify the elephant in the room, a common syndrome in religious thinking.
seriouslyamerica
NO MORE CUTS A masked protester in Lisbon poses for the camera. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to protest against austerity measures ahead of next week’s evaluation of Portugal’s bail-out programme by officials from the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund.
This activist is clearly protesting ACTA - not austerity European Voice!
The Corporations' attempts to censor and control the internet may well be the defining issue of our generation. Stand up and fight it.
I cannot believe that this is legal - I wonder if similar things go on here in the UK?
