Trump Took Small Business Grant Money after 911 Attacks

Trump Took Small Business Grant Money after 911 Attacks

http://news.groopspeak.com/report-trump-took-911-funds-meant-for-struggling-families/

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Secular Kids More Altruistic than Religion Taught Kids - Study Shows

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/06/religious-children-less-altruistic-secular-kids-study?CMP=fb_gu

Older children, usually those with a longer exposure to religion, “exhibit[ed] the greatest negative relations”.

The study also found that “religiosity affects children’s punitive tendencies”. Children from religious households “frequently appear to be more judgmental of others’ actions”, it said.

Muslim children judged “interpersonal harm as more mean” than children from Christian families, with non-religious children the least judgmental. Muslim children demanded harsher punishment than those from Christian or non-religious homes.

At the same time, the report said that religious parents were more likely than others to consider their children to be “more empathetic and more sensitive to the plight of others”. …

The report was “a welcome antidote to the presumption that religion is a prerequisite of morality”, said Keith Porteus Wood of the UK National Secular Society.

“It would be interesting to see further research in this area, but we hope this goes some way to undoing the idea that religious ethics are innately superior to the secular outlook. We suspect that people of all faiths and none share similar ethical principles in their day to day lives, albeit may express them differently depending on their worldview.”

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Fox News Challenged To A Duel with The French – Mayor of Paris to Sue Over False News Reporting

http://americablog.com/2015/01/fox-news-declares-paris-unsafe-iraq-afghanistan.html

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-30915395

The mayor of Paris has said she will sue Fox News for its inaccurate reporting about the city following the attack on the magazine Charlie Hebdo.

The US network claimed there were "no-go areas" in the French capital where police and non-Muslims refused to go.

Anne Hidalgo said the people of Paris had been "insulted" and the city's image had been "damaged".

The network has since apologised for making "regrettable errors" on air regarding the Muslim population.

Ms Hidalgo told CNN: "When we're insulted and when we've had an image, then I think we'll have to sue. I think we'll have to go to court, in order to have these words removed.

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Bill Donohue/Catholic League Shilling For Conservative Telemarketing Penny Anty Scam Web Site – NewsMax – Front for Out of Work (no wars going) Neo-Con Executives?

I hear the Confections in Iran are far superior to North Korean Sweets.
But we won't know until we contract out there, will we?

Like I said the other day about how neo-cons get to land in easy cushy no show jobs in between American Global Wars of Genocide and Profit for White Republicans, like St. Vincent’s College in Latrobe Pa., Bill Donohue over at Catholic League has a nasty article about NYC mayoral candidate that thumbs his nose at Catholic Cuddling that Bill has come to expect sitting at the feet of American high level clerics and giving them free pedicures too I hear (bishops and above only – holy foot fetish, don’t ya know, lol).  And lets not forget the unofficial Catholic views on male waxing. 

I go into Bill's least offensive sounding “defen$e” of Catholicism tax free web site article at Catholic League that leads to a (wink,nod) link to NewsMax, a west Palm Beach neo-con News sites that supposedly makes over 24 million a year, doing what? I have to wonder why a tax free Catholic employee at the Catholic League is hanging out at a right wing political "newspaper".

Makes you think that maybe separation of church and state and the tax free jerk off thing does not matter anymore in the shiny city on a hill republic of Ronald Reagan that now has sunk into the adjoining swamp land below? When it comes to the Catholic League and Doctor Donohue that is. Quack! Quack!

A House of Prayer

St Thomas/High Altar/5 Av/53 St/NYC

From a journal – May 2003

...Rushing to my express bus on Fifth Avenue I glanced up the steps into an unused entrance to Saint Thomas Episcopal Church, a structure I have mentioned before in this journal – (a place where I have gone to pray and mediate and admire the unique massive stone altar piece and stained glass)...

I saw a Muslim engaged in his 4th (?) prayer of the day. He was shoeless – white socks on gray stone – I had seen something like this before, at this same spot, on a cold dark winter night at 5:30 P.M. last winter or one winter ago – one loses track of time here in New York –

...glanced before, at that time, and did not pay much attention to that scene – (did not wish to stare or to intrude on prayer which can be both a public or a private thing). (I was also in a hurry to catch my bus). Later I tried to recollect the scene, reconstruct the scene – but the memory did not fit. Was not reminded of it again until today.

I thought that there were stone saint icons on the side of that locked wooden door area. Today, in less darkness, I noticed the angle of the pray-er’s focus. That focus was not in the direction of the stone statues but on stone support columns – round pillars rising up to typical gothic angle – an arabic angle? – a muslim angle? Which came first, the gothic or the...-

Does not matter. I am reminded of this pray-er and Isaiah’s words. “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations” Those words more than ever are needed today in this world.

God be praised!...

http://thisculturalchristian.blogspot.com/2008/06/house-of-prayer.html

http://urbaninfidel.blogspot.com/2010/09/muslim-day-parade-2010.html

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Muslims Outdo the Crazy Religion Thing on This One!

Religion in Egypt gets crazier by the minute!

It perhaps loses something in the translation thing?????

http://rt.com/news/egypt-sex-dead-wife-054/

Egypt’s Islamist-dominated parliament is set to introduce a law allowing husbands to have sex with their dead wives up to six hours after death. Critics fear it highlights a trend of increasingly anti-female legislation since the Arab Spring.

The “farewell Intercourse” bill was inspired by a Fatwa issued by a Moroccan cleric last year. Zamzami Abdul Bar said that since the two would meet in Heaven again anyway, death shouldn’t get in the way of one last post-mortem marital romp. 

Critics have slammed the law as “catastrophic.” Prominent journalist and TV host Jaber al-Qarmouty used his program on Tuesday to lash out at the proposed law.

“This is unbelievable. It is a catastrophe to give the husband such a right! Has the Islamic trend reached that far? Is there really a draft law in this regard? Are there people thinking in this manner,” he lamented on air.

Egypt’s National Council for Women (NCW) also called on Parliament not to adopt this and other measures which they believe increasingly seek to roll back women’s rights.

The NTC further charges that "marginalizing and undermining the status of women would negatively affect the country's human development.”

Along with the rather grim “farewell Intercourse” draft law, parliament is also set to approve legislation that would allow girls as young as 14 to get married.

Lawmakers are also seeking to eliminate a reform implemented over a decade ago that allows women to end unhappy or abusive marriages without interference from their spouses.

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Bush Cheney Rumsfeld Obama War Crimes Trickle Down, Tinkle Down – U.S. Marines Desecrate Muslim Dead

Like Abu Ghraib was a fluke?  So too this obscene video of U.S. Marines desecrating the Muslim dead in Afghanistan.

They are guilty of no crime.  The collapse of the west, Christianity, human rights, civilization as we used to know it etc. evidenced by video below:

WARNING – GRAPHIC UNCENSORED CONTENT

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Catholic Sharia Upheld Wash.,D.C. - Cardinal Wuerl Lawsuit - Separation of Sexes - Discrimination Muslims

Interesting article about a discrimination lawsuit down in D.C. regarding separation of the sexes:

The D.C. Office of Human Rights (OHR) has dismissed the complaint filed by George Washington University law professor John F. Banzhaf III in response to The Catholic University of America’s single-sex housing policy, affirming the University’s position that the law does not require men and women to be housed together in residence halls. 

and discrimination against Muslims at Catholic University.  Yeah their tuition money is good but they just don't understand that minorities in America are supposed to keep their heads down and suck it up.

Banzhaf’s complaint about single sex residence halls is the first of two that he has lodged this year against the University. He filed a second complaint in October against Cardinal Donald Wuerl, archbishop of Washington and University chancellor, charging that Catholic University has been engaging in discrimination against its Muslim students. The University has yet to receive any official notification from the OHR that it intends to move forward with adjudicating the second complaint.

Like Bishop Lori has said, this "Religious Liberty" culture war to establish Catholic Sharia in the U.S. has come into the legal stages of the battle of that war.

http://publicaffairs.cua.edu/releases/2011/complaint-dismissed.cfm

Whatever.

Have a nice day.


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People of the Book - Jews, Christians, Muslims

“People of the Book” is a Muslim term to describe Judaism and Christianity and it is in reference to the OLD and NEW testaments.

In truth Muslims are also People of the Book which is the Koran, Quran or whatever flavor of the month English spelling it has lately.

The term came about in a time when Islam was still a verbal religion and before it had to be written down shortly after the death of Mohammed for fear that oral tradition would break down or disappear.

In this sense the People of the Book – Jews, Christians, Muslims share a possibly confusing term that is obsolete once you look at the facts.

Looking at the decline of Christianity in the west, I see the lack of reinforcement of the words and practices of the Book dying out. With the closing of my Catholic High in Philly, it is funny how they think that without grade schools, high schools, nuns, and a real, not a virtual, sense of community that it as a faith can survive. Faith cannot survive solely on the words, ink, of a bible or catechism that is hoped will one day to be revived during some decade in the future.

Christianity or parts of it are dead. Dead like the language Latin. The definition of a dead language is not that the original users are dead. The definition of death in a language occurs when no new words or meanings are rendered to the language. The language is no longer living or evolving in a positive direction.

In a sense you cannot mix apples with oranges in any accounting of things. If language is an apple then the written ink version of language transposed onto paper is an orange.

While the language is alive, the oral and written words are fruit. Once a culture dies, nothing in the translation of a dried up orange will ever give you the flavor of an apple.

The Nag Hammadi Gospels are only translations of words. The dynamics, energy of the original spoken word is lost in any present translation.

Peoples of the Book, Jews, Christians, Muslims may look at the dynamics or the number of new churches or mosques that get built at any time or in any place. Without a sense of community and a flow of growth in the belief system, People of the Book are just not alive. They are lost - without true community, true brotherhood and a shared hope of a better future for all the People of the Book.

It is not a matter to inspect the strength of the branches of the tree of life. It is the overall health of the tree of life that determines the health of the branches.

The global culture, the global reality puts a unique and as yet undefined essence into all religious faiths. That essence is how does it continue to be a living belief system of a system also recorded in a book - without being possibly dead like Latin at the same time.

Avatar - Christianity At War With Nature?

Pantheism or the respect of Nature and not the worship of nature is the default belief system of the human race. Long before we had popes and bishops wearing 20 yards of silk each in the name of the homeless guy – what’s his name? – Jesus, we had nature. And let’s not forget the Creator of nature.

No doubt, James Cameron, native of Canada, having lived through a few Canadian winters has a healthy respect for nature.

His film Avatar is opening a panadora’s box of meaningless tangents. These tangents are mostly of religious symbolism more so than dogma. It never the less scares the Bejesus out of the institutional Christian church because the respect for nature is something that can fall through the cracks and before you know it Druidism and Wicca will reemerge to compound the dying stake share of paying customers in church on Sunday.

Basic fact is that Christianity as a religion is at war with Nature. Avatar only in some ways in a symbolic manner rubs up against and causes friction with the established order of perception where religion is concerned.

Being a good OLD TIME Christian means you are at war with nature. Being at war with nature makes you a “GOOD” Christian. Or so it has gone since Constantine's time.

When you see the typical southern cracker Senator like Jim DeMint against Nature and or climate change, his spiel is part of the hidden dogma of Christianity and has been so since the beginning of that religion.

Which leads us back to an old question. Which came first, the teachings of Jesus or the teachings of the church?

There are two Christianities. Not the east and west thing with orthodox versus roman.

The two Christianities has to do with the teachings of the radical revolutionary Jesus and his message of balanced economics and LOVE as opposed to the totalitarian reformed Roman Army religion of Constantine, founder of the Roman church. Ancient Rome was always at war with nature. Christianity as an official vehicle of Rome is at war too with nature to this day.

The Book of Revelation as a book of Propaganda for the Roman Army/Church is a propaganda message of pacification to the natives. You are with us or against us. If you are against us – expect only Roman Hell to come your way.

Also, the western, Roman and or default calendar I have to say is the universal calendar now on the planet. Every major mcountry in the world including Muslim countries had secular 2010 New Year celebrations or at least in their major cities.

I say universal in a sense of commerce in terms of dating e-mails, letters of credit, date of trades etc. Every regional culture and Islam still has its own regional or exclusive calendar system co-existing next to the Roman Gregorian Calendar – default calendar of global convenience.

The Romans, starting with Julius Caesar, used this same or standardized calendar based solely on numbers. No more of the “move your army between the new and full moon" stuff. Move your army in ten days, period. Move it from Point A to Point B, period.

No more feminine lunar calculatons. No more farmer’s calendars. Armies take what farmers grow. Armies do no grow food anymore. No need for a nature or natural calendar. Sounds like parts of this echoes to this day with the present American/corporate global Empire.

The Romans and their armies crashed their roads through forests and waterways the locals considered sacred in any Pantheist sense. The quickest way to any place on a map is on a straight line. Those old nature religions got obliterated by the Roman Army. Nobody really knows what these old religions really believed. Only bits and pieces or historical rumors of these old beliefs come to us to this day.

Which brings us back to Avatar. Avatar as a word is Hindu Symbolism for the god Vishnu coming to earth. I guess when the Vatican criticizes this Cameron movie they are trying to deflect other religions and their symbolism and commonality as in Jesus as an Avatar and or human form of Nature and or God.

Also the tree of souls in the movie harkens back to the tree of Life theme common in every native culture on the planet.

From the comments in the article below:

The real "Nav'vi"--"Nav'vi" is Hebrew for "prophet"--railed against the nature worshipers of Canaan, because they "fertilized" the ground with human blood (including children of up to 4 years old).

Geez! Now even the Jewish angle is being played into the interpretation of a fantasy movie as a vehicle to promote religion.

If you sit down and analyze Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, you could write volumes on hidden religious and Pantheistic meanings. Why go there ?

Sometimes a movie is just a movie to paraphrase Freud.

The science fiction movie ''Avatar'' borrows themes from many religions.

The big religious question the movie raises can be put this way: Will we see creation hierarchically or ecologically -- governed from above or through mutual interdependence?

The movie preaches the latter, that a network of energy flows through all things, that disturbing natural balance leads to disaster.

Christianity has sometimes been called a religion of colonizers, despoilers and decimators of native peoples.

Also, I always thought that an avatar was something like the image I use on my Internet profile. But what do I know?

You really are giving too much credit to James Cameron who made Titanic. Cameron’s Titanic was a typical Hollywood formula movie with too much success as hype and a thin script thrown in. The gimmick in that Cameron film, which I waited to see on cable TV, was a hidden treasure, the necklace, and the sets and costumes, some extraordinary character actors like Kathy Bates and a puckish Leo. Kate of course is one in a million

We are talking James Cameron here. James "Terminator" Cameron. What religious symbolism did Arnold secretly tell us about? Let’s stop Americanizing the process and mistaking financial success for intelligence, fine film making, good literature or deep religious symbolism.

The religion of money and greed taints everything these days to the point where it is poison like Midas’ gold.

I fear that the new emerging GREEN(secular)RELIGION wants to makes Avatar more than it really is by playing to the Pantheism tune spun off from the Vatican recently.

Americans are dumb enough these days. Don’t make a cottage industry of trying to explain to them the common sense symbols or religious symbols in front of them. They either understand or they don’t. Do we have to FOX NEWS spoon feed them and explain PC and RC (religiously correct) reality to them? So long as they have the price of a movie ticket, let them and their herd in. Green in the form of money and is all they have to worry about.

I have avoided Avatar. My college age son assured me that he enjoyed it. Good. I perceived this new gimmick to be another Hollywood Video Game version of reality thingy with dancing blue monkeys.

I will probably end up seeing it on cable, sans 3-D glasses, when I have insomnia and hopefully the tired Hollywood formula of John Smith and Pocahontas will put me to sleep. Shamans always bore me too.

And at its very confused fused roots of origin, Christianity IMHO is in eternal war with nature (hostility to all things non-Roman) to mention one of several possible Intervention issues.

Papal Circus on the Road Again

The Pope and his entourage of 2,000 “journalists” are on the road again, making a royal progress through the Middle East. Party!

An Excellent article by Jeffrey Fleishman in the Los Angeles Times.

Jordan first stop on papal Holy Land visit

Edward Eid is a Catholic and general director of Greek Orthodox schools in Jordan. Such a role might seem contradictory for him, but in Jordan, where Christians account for less than 4% of a population of about 6 million, interdenominational mingling is a way of life. Eid has a VIP ticket to the pope's Sunday Mass, but he's not going, feeling a closer allegiance to his Muslim countrymen than to the Holy See.

"We Christians paid the price for what the pope said in 2006," he said. "Before he says anything about the Middle East, he should know how Christians live here."

The Christian population has been shrinking through economic emigration and over the rise of Islamic conservatism. For every church that is built, one mosque, or possibly two, pops up in the same neighborhood. After the pope's comments three years ago, he said, 15 Muslim families threatened to remove their children from Eid's schools; rancor and bruised feelings spread between the Christian village where he grew up and the neighboring Muslim town. Tribes, customs and family connections fixed things, but there remains an air of unease.

"The pope's a smart fellow and I was astonished. His comments were like a bullet out of a gun. You can't take them back. Even the Orthodox Church told me, 'Leave us out of the pope's visit,' " Eid said. "But I'm using the visit for the benefit of Jordan. The pope travels with something like 2,000 journalists. Jordan will be shown all over the world."

Oh God of our many understandings

"O God of our many understandings..." -

That phraseology from Bishop Robinson of New Hampshire says many things.

Without being in the know of the latest PC thoughts from a Jesus Seminar or an ivy league divinity school, these words reach out for intelligence and tolerance and empathy. These words say that what we each may believe, though our various cultural contexts may be varied, we all, most of us, basically believe the same thing in the concept of the One God.

I am sometimes disheartened when on the news I see the lack of tolerance or understanding between the various monotheistic religions. Too many centuries of comfort in a region and too little reaching out makes for present friction between those who to this day will say that the God of the Jews or the God of Jesus or the God of Mohammed are not one and the same God.

Different names, different understandings but in truth, in our hearts, they invoke the same God.

There is local and there is global. There is sacred and there is secular. There is God and the inability of many who do not try to walk a mile in their brother’s shoes. There are those who do not realize how God has revealed himself in the same way many times throughout the ages but with different accents, and interpretations of the same language and same message from the Source of the Universe...
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(there is some hype on TV commercials about what do you tell your grandchildren about where you were when Obama was sworn in)
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I began to write the preceding early this morning. It was left unfinished and before the Inaugural of President Barack Hussein Obama. I had been out driving and doing some necessary urgent errands. I caught his swearing in oath on the car radio. I heard the oath of office just before turning onto another road here in Staten Island. Half a block away I saw the minaret of a mosque recycled from an old factory up ahead. The Muslims there of that particular congregation are from Albania. America has changed. The world is changing. We of necessity must change in those things that brings forth more tolerance and understanding to all matters local and global.

I saw the later part of President Obama’s speech on television and was struck by one line as part of a larger paragraph. It was: “…that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace…”

Perhaps our common humanity as it is uniquely blended in the USA will help form the comfort of our using some words first that elsewhere will one day be used that will help thaw cultural differences by their use and in faithful translation. Words and or phrases like “O God of our many understandings …” is a good start.