Have Thought Will Travel. Ruminate on ideas, philosophy, culture, society, books, music, politics, religion, movies...and see where it takes us.
May each of you have the heart to conceive, the understanding to direct, and the hand to execute works that will leave the world a little better for your having been here. -- Ronald Reagan
Both the idea and the name—“Courtyard of the Gentiles”—came from Benedict XVI himself, the Pope-philosopher. The meeting, promoted by the Pontifical Council for Culture and launched with major international participation on Thursday at the Paris headquarters of UNESCO, was aimed at recovering a broad cultural dialogue between believers and non-believers, because, as the Pope said in his Christmas greetings to the Roman curia on December 21, 2009, “To the dialogue with the religions must be added today the dialogue with those to whom God is unknown.”
The initiative took its name from the space in the area of the great Temple at Jerusalem, in which Jews and gentiles met and engaged each other. And the choice of Paris as the venue for the conference was no accident: la Ville Lumière, with its symbolic status as the home of the Enlightenment and with its modernist La Grande Arche de la Défense, the monument to what the French call laïcité which is almost a perfect cube and which inspired the provocative title of George Weigel’s The Cube and the Cathedral.
With the promotion of the “Courtyard of the Gentiles” Benedict XVI created “a new starting point for dialogue between believers and nonbelievers,” the Vatican spokesman said. And I think we can believe him. So here are a couple of reading suggestions for those who want to learn more about the whole thing:
The full text of Pope Benedict XVI’s video message to participants at the meeting.
An initial assessment of the initiative, on the part of Cardinal Ravasi, and a conversation with a French intellectual of Bulgarian origin, Julia Kristeva, who has been one of the most dedicated participants in the meeting. Both of the interviews were published in Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian Episcopal conference.
And here is a video introduction to the initiative from Rome Reports:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y1eAKbXk7E “And for a young person like that young woman that we just spoke to who’s going to school, doing all the right things, we want them to succeed."
He's focusing on going after criminals, and those deportations are up, and non-criminals deportations are down? Not to put too fine a point on it, but if you enter a country illegally, aren't you a criminal?Since the woman asking the question is holding up what appears to be her deportation papers, why isn't the chief law enforcement officer of the land sending people to deport her? A rhetorical question of course. Obama and the Dems need undocumented Democrats to vote for them. It's why the Dems fight having voters show a picture ID.
Remember last May when Turkish “Peace Activists” got a boat and tried to run a blockade the Israelis had on Gaza? The reason for the blockade was to keep weapons and stuff out. When the Israelis boarded the “peace” boat, it turned out there were murderous Islamofacist terrorists with weapons that attacked and tortured the Israeli soldiers. Nine passengers were killed when the Israeli’s had to defend themselves from the terrorist’s attack.
Now a picture of one of the soldiers of the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) being tortured has won the Turkey's 2010 Photo of the Year Award in the News category, presented by the Turkish photojournalism association. The picture was chosen from over 1600 entries. At the presentation were the parliament speaker, many members of the Turkish parliament and the deputy prime minister.
It’s clear Turkey has become an Islamofacist State. It should be voted out of NATO. This is just the last of their activities of growing oppression, imprisonment, torture and murder of infidels.
Plus they are not backing NATO's activities in Libya.
Part of the attack on Christianity is deconstructing the Bible, changing the language to fit the times. Leftists do it to the Constitution to pass laws that are in violation of the Constitution. Leftists in the Christian community do the same by agreeing to change the language of the Bible. There have been attempts to make scripture gender neutral for example, and now some alleged Christians are siding with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to change scripture because it’s “speciesist". These knuckleheads even make up words to create an issue.
PETA and their supporters in the Christian community think using ‘it” to identify an animal is wrong, and animals should be identified as ‘he’ and ‘she’. There’s lots of animals in the Bible. Would giving them a gender, that in the case of the Torah and the rest of the Old Testament, give more meaning and understanding to God’s Word?
Bruce Friedrich is PETA's vice president for policy, and claims to be a practicing Roman Catholic. How one could be an animal worshipper and Christian at the same time mystifies. He’s said some ridiculous things, and obviously doesn’t understand the meaning of Scripture.
Some of his observations:
"Language matters. Calling an animal 'it' denies them something. They are beloved by God. They glorify God." How do they glorify God? Do they pray, sing hymns, feed and clothe the poor? Glory in the Biblical sense means recognizing God's divine quality. How would an animal to that?
“What happens in slaughterhouses mocks God.” People know intuitively that "animals are 'who' not 'what.' ... Acknowledging it would better align our practices with our beliefs.” God requested a lot of animals to be sacrificed to Him. So I suppose He was having that done to mock Himself? Animals are understood to be who? Who was that masked raccoon? What practices and beliefs is this guy aligning?
“God’s covenant is with humans and animals. God cares about animals." I would think that’s a rather unanimous opinion among biblical scholars today, where that might not have been the case 200 years ago.” The second part of the quote is just made up nonsense. Of course God cares about everything in His creation. What He doesn’t have, is a covenant with animals. A covenant is an agreement between two people or groups of people, and they make a promise to each other, usually for a lifetime. People 200 years ago didn't think God cared about animals? What?
Then there’s a covenant between God and people, Again it’s an agreement. God made a covenant with Noah not to flood the Earth again. He made a covenant with David, He made a covenant with Abraham. Don’t read about any covenants where animals and God agreed to things. In CS Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, the lion had a covenant that he would sacrifice himself, but that’s fiction, which is what PETA and all the rest want to do with the Bible; turn it into a piece of fiction. In real life, Jesus did in fact sacrifice himself. Don't suppose PETA and their supporters can wrap their souls around that. I wonder, taking a poll, how many PETA member and Gaia worshipers are Christians? My bet would be they are anti-Christian bigots, atheists, pagan Gaia and animal worshipers.
The word itself, covenant, comes from the Hebrew word “to cut”. People in those days would cut a piece of meat, whether a he or she animal we don’t know, to seal an agreement. Sometimes they would share a meal of meat, he or she we don’t know, to seal a deal. Animal blood, he or she we don’t know, was sprinkled on altars to seal a covenant. I’ll bet all those sacrificed animals, he or she we don’t know, didn't have a covenant with God to be sacrificed.
Then there’s the problem of language. Gender specific terms are used differently in ancient languages than in modern languages. The PETA people and their supporters would just have to make stuff up again. Every time there’s an animal mentioned in the Bible, instead of ‘it’ there will be ‘he or she’. Really?
Which brings us back around to people that need to destroy tradition to gain power for themselves. Need to destroy the Constitution and the Bible…that would be quite effective, and there are people that claim to be Christians and Jews who will go right along with this.
I’ve just read a book, Radical, by David Platt. In it he addresses the comfort of American Christianity. He asks what are we really sacrificing? There are people all over the world that risk their lives to be Christians. What are we doing to help them? Billions of people all over the world don’t know Christ. What are we who identify ourselves as Christians doing to bring Christ into their lives? Are what we are doing to introduce Christ, feed the poor and heal the sick enough?
I admit I’m not doing much. I go to church every Sunday, I pray several times daily, and when the opportunity presents itself I witness and disciple. I belong to small groups in our church. It’s all comfortable. At worst, I may have to go to an hour long meeting when I’d rather be home. Sometimes I don’t want to go to choir practice, but go, and it’s always a good thing. Not a sacrifice at all! Geeeeeeze. This is, says Platt, how most of us experience our Christianity. Comfortably.
Jesus told His disciples there was pretty much mostly suffering that was going to result in their following Him. Platt contends we’ve made the Christianity a comfortable refuge and are not doing the things Jesus challenged us to do. There’s the story when Jesus told the rich man to give away his stuff and then he’d be able to follow. We don’t even give away a little of our stuff, yet still claim we follow.
An interesting turn. When we join a church, we are asked if we accept Christ. Platt asks, “Accept him? Do we really think Jesus needs our acceptance? Don’t we need him?”
Much of the book are stories of people that decided to take Jesus’ Commission seriously, that in fact sold possessions, and went into the world to feed the poor, heal the sick, and put faith into their Faith. Jesus knew His path to be difficult. He turned people away not willing to commit. Besides telling the rich man to give away his possessions to follow, he told another man that wanted to bury his father first, to let others bury him. He told a third that wanted to say goodbye to his family first, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the Kingdom of God.” As Platt puts it, a relationship with Christ “requires total, superior and exclusive devotion. Become homeless. Let someone else bury your dad. Don’t even say goodbye to your family.”
It’s a challenge, and far beyond me, I'm thinking at this point. Of course these aren’t absolutes. Everybody being homeless and broke doesn’t make a lot sense, and isn’t practical. We do need, I think, to reevaluate how we are practicing our Christianity. God gave us our gifts (talents), and we need to evaluate if and how we’re using them. He gives some practical advice at the end.
He advises over the next year to pray for the entire world. There are 4.5 billion people that don’t know Christ, and over a billion that live on the edge of starvation. Those of us that pray know the power of it. It’s a huge order, praying for the entire world. He provides us a guide, “Operation World”, and the website is www.operationworld.org.
He challenges us to read the entire Bible over the next year. Combined with praying, he asks, how much will your life radically change? I try and fail every year. I mean really, Leviticus?
He challenges us to not only tithe, but sacrifice. Give a little more. He advises to be prudent and careful, making sure your money goes to where it’s supposed to. Give more of your time.
Go somewhere, another neighborhood, town, even country if you can. He challenges us to get out of our “context” and disciple.
Lastly, he challenges us to be strongly involved in our Faith Community.
I must confess, I let these things pass. Someone else will do it, and I'll just support them. I have to ask myself, do I have the Faith it takes to step up to the plate of The Great Commission:
“Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted.
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go thereforeand make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age’.”
I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as livings sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your act of worship. Apostle Paul
“I want to make it clear. And I made it clear to the President that if he takes this nation to war with Iran without Congressional approval. I will make it my business to impeach him. That’s a fact. That is a fact.”
Well, not quite. Obama has attacked a nation with no congressional approval. Bush attacked Iraq with congressional approval. Of course the Dems then tried and said everything they could to make sure the effort was a failure once they voted for it. Bush got congressional approval for Afghanistan too.
Obama's US\Mexican Border policies continue to get American Citizens killed. "Project Gunrunner" was set up to sell weapons to what’s known as “straw buyers”; people that can buy guns legally in the US, and then illegally smuggle them across the border. Their idea was to track how many weapons were flowing into Mexico from the US; the underlying reason being the anti-Second Amendment Obama administration was trying to find another reason to deny that right to US citizens. It has been their contention that most of the weapons (they say about 90%) Mexican thugs were using were from the US. Most independent studies show less that 5%. If one just looks at seized weapons caches, mostly there’s AK 47’s; not M16’s, and the heavy weaponry not of US design.
Filtered, the US Government was selling weapons to the Mexican Drug Cartels, utilizing the Dept of Justice and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
That resulted in the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, shot down by one of the weapons. A fellow agent was wounded in the shootout. What were the US agents armed with? Beanbags. Really and truly.
Then the two agencies tried to cover it up.
When the guns were sold the ATF could have just arrested the buyers at that point. Letting the weapons get smuggled into Mexico has resulted in an estimated several hundred deaths. Over a 1,000 weapons were smuggled into Mexico. About two-thirds of them have been found at crime scenes; crime scenes with dead people, crime scenes of robbery, crime scenes of rape. The Obama administration sold weapons to drug runners that killed innocent civilians and a US Border Patrol Agent.
Hat’s off to CBS News, the only member of the Jurassic Press that reported on this story.
Muslim atrocities continue world wide, against infidels in general but Christians specifically. The latest horribleness is going on in Ethiopia, as close a Christian nation as one’s going to find in Africa. It has a Christian majority population.
International Christian Concern (ICC) reports at least one Christian killed and an unnumbered amount injured in attacks by members of the religion of peace. The damage to buildings is horrific with the burning down of a Christian orphanage, 69 churches, and 30 Christian homes.
It all started because some Muslims thought some Christians desecrated the Koran, their guide to hatred, oppression, intolerance and violence. So far about 10,000 Christians have been displaced.
We’re glad to see Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has taken action. The local administrator of the western region where most of this is taking place is a Muslim; he’s taken no action to round up the arsonists and murderers, and has been removed. He should be jailed.
The underlying reason for all this of course is the Islamofacists are working to establish an Islamic nation. Enter the requisite Western knucklehead, Mike Turner, a “strategy leader” for the North Africa section of the International Mission Board. Turner: "While I have seen Islam advance in [Ethiopia], I do not have any concrete evidence to support the notion that radical Muslims are trying to make Ethiopia an Islamic state by using violence or any other means." Really? Islamofacists killing Christians, destroying their property, and trying to overthrow the government isn’t evidence? Don’t know if guys like this will ever get the message, Islam is about submission, and if you don’t submit, they will kill you. Good grief, how much more clear can it be?
Ethiopia has been a Christian majority nation for centuries: right now about 40% of the population is Muslim and growing. Their view is that by reducing the Christian population through violence is a good thing. Turner: "There are strong Islamic bases all around Ethiopia," (adjoining nations are Islamist fascist States)… "But it has historically been a 'Christian' nation. If that was going to ever change … you're talking about a massive revolution that frankly I just don't see on the horizon anytime soon." Good grief.
In the line at the store, the cashier told the older woman that plastic bags weren't good for the environment. The woman apologized to her and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my day."
That's right, they didn't have the green thing in her day. Back then, they returned their milk bottles, Coke bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, using the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But they didn't have the green thing back in her day.
In her day, they walked up stairs, because they didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. They walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time they had to go two blocks. But she's right. They didn't have the green thing in her day.
Back then, they washed the baby's diapers because they didn't have the throw-away kind. They dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts - wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that old lady is right, they didn't have the green thing back in her day.
Back then, they had one TV, or radio, in the house - not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a pizza dish, not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen, they blended and stirred by hand because they didn't have electric machines to do everything for you. When they packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, they used wadded up newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.
Back then, they didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. They used a push mower that ran on human power. They exercised by working so they didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she's right, they didn't have the green thing back then.
They drank from a fountain when they were thirsty, instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time they had a drink of water. They refilled pens with ink, instead of buying a new pen, and they replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But they didn't have the green thing back then.
Back then, people took the streetcar and kids rode their bikes to school or rode the school bus, instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. They had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And they didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.
But that old lady is right. They didn't have the green thing back in her day.
Today is the first Sunday of Lent. I'm at a loss what to give up. My life is monkish and spartan already, and fasting makes me ill. I think this year, I'll say this prayer daily for the 40 days of Lent instead.
US Attorney General Eric Holder has repeatedly made it clear he's not interested in enforcing the law, he's interested in prosecuting Whites, and protecting Black criminals. The most notable is the case of the Black Panther thugs that stood outside a polling site with clubs intimidating white voters. This issue just came back, and his response:
"Think about that."... "When you compare what people endured in the South in the 60s to try to get the right to vote for African Americans, and to compare what people were subjected to there to what happened in Philadelphia—which was inappropriate, certainly that…to describe it in those terms I think does a great disservice to people who put their lives on the line, who risked all, for my people." (emphasis mine)
Now the racist Holder is ordering the Dayton Police Department to lower its qualifications to allow more diversity. Specifically, the Dept of Justice says not enough blacks are on the force. Even more appalling are the current low scores needed to pass the exam: 66% and 72% on each of the two parts of the exam. Really? Every few weeks on my job we get tested on new info and upgrades, and must pass with 85%. Every year those of us in supervisory positions have to re-certify in every program we support, and there are several; 85% is required to pass on all of them. The racist Holder wants the minimum passing score lowered even further 58% and 53%. That means you barely get half the answers right and you’re qualified to be a cop or firefighter. Really? We as a society want this?
The Left is trying to do the same to the US Military. They’ve recently starting suing the Dept of Defense to allow diversity of sexual orientation as well as ethnicity to be considered in promotions. Do we really want a military where skin color and who you’re having sex with determine who gets promoted; not who’s best at killing bad guys and breaking things? Good grief.
The Democrats and their various Statist supporters contend the Leftist Wisconsin violence, the promotion of unqualified people into positions where the people's lives depend on knowledge and competence, union thuggery, cheating at elections, $trillions of debt added in the past two years...all are for the betterment of America. From my America to their Amerika.
This is how Leftists act when they lose elections. For over three weeks these thugs have been yelling epithets, trashing and fouling the capital building in Madison, WI. Conservatives have been losing elections for decades and they never act like this. This vid shows Leftist thugs (that's becoming redundant) climbing the wall to harass people in their offices. Where's security?
The Left say TEA Partiers are the violent protesters. They say Conservatives are the violent and disruptive ones. They say their political and cultural opponents are homophobes and anti-Semitic, yet they are the ones caught on vid using homosexual and anti-Semitic slurs. Of course this is not getting covered in the Jurassic Press. Of course Obama isn't denouncing the violence, he's even sent his own thugs in.
People inherently yearn for freedom. You can bet your last dollar the people of Russia or China didn't vote to be slaughtered, starved and enslaved to the State. These people yearn for tyranny because they're the beneficiaries; they've been getting free medical and retirement benefits, and can't get fired from their jobs. That's why Bolsheviks, Red Chinese Communists, and other Statist movements resort to violence to take over governments; they've got theirs and want the citizens to continuing to pay for it. All the while they're doing this, they say they're protecting freedom. They lost the election. That's where the people speak. Leftist's hate that unless they win, and they often win by cheating. That's a whole other post.
Conservatives, Christians and Republicans never act like this, yet they're the ones that are charged with this kind of behavior and the real transgressors and violators of civility are given a pass.
We have a moral obligation to be happy. It’s because when a person is mad or upset, displaying unhappiness, it’s the negative pebble in the pond that keeps ringing out. Much better to be the happy pebble. I tell this to people as often as I can. A lot of people struggle with this, and it may be because of the lack serenity. I know I deal with my “little rages” much better than I used to. Jesus has calmed me since my acceptance of Him and my involvement in Church. Jesus calmed the stormy sea of my soul. Does it still sometimes get a bit choppy. Yes. Does it stay that way so long I get angry and panicky like I used to? No.
Many want to change the world without changing themselves. They want world peace but fight and argue with their spouses and loved ones. We create unrealistic expectations, and become upset, lack serenity, when they don’t develop. We strive to become more like someone we admire, causing us to be other than ourselves that God gifted us with, and we lack serenity because of it. Often we aren't silent and listen to God's still small voice. All the times we lack serenity is when we don’t let God fill our soul, and make it well.
Trying to control time to feel important and they’re accomplishing something, congress critters move the big hand on the clock back and forth for the nonsensical reason of creating more daylight.
Of course the observation is just thrown out there that this is to save energy, stated as fact when there’s no evidence to support it. There’s new evidence to support there may actually an increase in energy usage during daylight savings time.
Up until a couple years ago, only 15 of Indiana’s 92 counties changed their clocks. Then their state politicians forced all the counties to change their clocks. This provided a lot of data to true scientists, not the ones that believe stuff and form a consensus, to actually measure if there was a decrease in energy usage.
Ooooops. It turned out energy usage goes up. Researchers found that households spent and additional $8.6 million in electricity bills. Turns out folks are getting home when it’s still hotter out than when following the natural order of things, so air conditioners are run more. To be valid, studies need to be repeated with the same result. The same study was done in Australia with the same results. Daylight savings time increased energy usage.
Without any supporting data, a politician advocating for daylight savings time, Indiana Rep. Julia Carson stated as fact daylight saving time would save "over $7 million annually in electricity rates alone". Of course politicians, on any subject, always state a piece of legislation will save X amount over X amount of years, and the whatever legislation always becomes a money pit citizens have to pony up for.
The recent change making daylight savings time last longer, adding three weeks at the beginning and one week at the end, was proposed by Reps. Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts and Fred Upton of Michigan, and was accepted by their fellow congress critters. Markey says he has studies that show "less crime, fewer traffic fatalities, more recreation time and increased economic activity" because of moving the big hand on our clocks. The thing about politicians citing studies is they find the ones that support their belief.
These knuckleheads want to control when the sun comes up and goes down. This legislation won’t change, even if a dozen more studies prove it costs citizens more money when they move the clocks’ big hand around.
We are getting close to the time when the incandescent light bulb will be illegal. We will all be forced to buy the curly cue compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL’s) that are proving to be dangerous and toxic. Next time you’re in the store, pick one up and look at what you have to do if one breaks. You’ll need a hazmat suit.
Do you like your three way bulb? Bye bye! One light, one brightness, poor at that. Really, have your tried to read by CFL?
Will we be able to throw these mercury based light bulbs in the trash? They’re highly toxic. What if one is broken in a school, will the hazmat team need to be called in? What if a case of them is dropped in a work place?
Brandston: “The compact fluorescent lamp contains mercury,” “One gram of mercury will pollute a two acre pond. This 2007 light bulb standard brings a deadly poison into every residence in our nation.”
"Mr. Obama has told people that it would be so much easier to be the president of China. As one official put it, “No one is scrutinizing Hu Jintao’s words in Tahrir Square.”~ New York Times
Remember too ex-White House Communications Director Anita Dunn said Mao Tse Tung was one of her favorite political philosophers. The guy that slaughtered over 65 million people, imprisoned millions more, visited the "cultural revolution" on the people, destroyed Tibet and its culture, had "re-education camps", and slave labor.
Does it make you wonder where this guy's head is at?
Oooops! Wrong guy! Obama stated this bold lie again. Today he said: “Oil production at its highest level in 7 years. Oil production from federal waters in Gulf at an all time high.” Facts are sooooo stubborn. When the oil rig exploded there were 55 rigs drilling in the Gulf. Now there are 25 rigs. Those 25 rigs are producing as much as 55 rigs? Really. The moratorium Obama and Salazar have clamped down on the oil companies has been ruled illegal by the Courts, yet Obama moves ahead ignoring the law. The Energy Department's own reports state there's been a decline in production, plus projects a decline of 250,000 barrels a day. Not only has Obama stopped production in the Gulf, he's refused to grant any new permits.
Of course he's rattling on about tapping the Federal Oil Reserve. Yeah, that'll make the Saudis and Venezuelan Dictator Chavez happy; the US will be totally dependent on imports from them.
Some TEA Partiers and other supporters of what the Republicans are doing in Wisconsin had gotten together a recall petition signing event to recall one of the cowardly Democrat fleebaggers, State Senator Holperin. They were attacked by union thugs and other supporters of cowardly fleebaggers.
The event was going to be held at a restaurant, but they called it off because union and Democrat Party thugs threatened to burn them down. Apparently that was only one of the fifty threats to the restaurant.
Kim Simac, one of the recall organizers:
“They circled around us, and they’re bullying us. They have a loud horn and they’re trying to intimidate people that would like to come and sign the petition.”“We had a lady come up and write profanity and rip some of them right on our table…. so I guess that’s what democracy looks like to them.”
Of course one of the thugs says it’s a minor thing, that this wasn’t their intent. Really? Then how come whenever there are TEA Partiers and supporters of the Republicans gathered, this kind of thing happens?
Thanks so much Leftists, for showing those violent, racist TEA Partiers how to act. The new civility indeed.
This is a copy of a death threat letter. See, these are Leftists, and like Leftists since the Bolshevik revolution, they will threaten and bully until they get their way. Elections only count if they win them, and the citizens submit. This is vile and despicable.
Please put your things in order because you will be killed and your familes
will also be killed due to your actions in the last 8 weeks. Please explain
to them that this is because if we get rid of you and your families then it
will save the rights of 300,000 people and also be able to close the deficit
that you have created. I hope you have a good time in hell. Read below for
more information on possible scenarios in which you will die.
WE want to make this perfectly clear. Because of your actions today and in
the past couple of weeks I and the group of people that are working with me
have decided that we’ve had enough. We feel that you and the people that
support the dictator have to die. We have tried many other ways of dealing
with your corruption but you have taken things too far and we will not stand
for it any longer. So, this is how it’s going to happen: I as well as many
others know where you and your family live, it’s a matter of public records.
We have all planned to assult you by arriving at your house and putting a
nice little bullet in your head. However, we decided that we wouldn’t leave
it there. We also have decided that this may not be enough to send the
message to you since you are so “high” on Koch and have decided that you are
now going to single handedly make this a dictatorship instead of a
demorcratic process. So we have also built several bombs that we have placed
in various locations around the areas in which we know that you frequent.
This includes, your house, your car, the state capitol, and well I won’t
tell you all of them because that’s just no fun. Since we know that you are
not smart enough to figure out why this is happening to you we have decided
to make it perfectly clear to you. If you and your goonies feel that it’s
necessary to strip the rights of 300,000 people and ruin their lives, making
them unable to feed, clothe, and provide the necessities to their families
and themselves then We Will “get rid of” (in which I mean kill) you. Please
understand that this does not include the heroic Rep. Senator that risked
everything to go aganist what you and your goonies wanted him to do. We feel
that it’s worth our lives to do this, because we would be saving the lives
of 300,000 people. Please make your peace with God as soon as possible and
say goodbye to your loved ones we will not wait any longer. YOU WILL DIE!!!!”
This is one of many vids of Leftists protesting in the Wisconsin capitol building. Could you imagine what the Jurassic Press would be reporting if TEA Partiers acted like this? This camera guy is pretty brave I'd say, given the number of physical attacks that have happened the past three or so weeks.
We have been chronicling the violent vile disgusting behavior of Leftists, sent by unions, Democrat Party and Obama, to bully people that disagree with their socialist agenda. We've been doing this in the light of them and their mindless mouthpiece lap dinosaurs in the Jurassic Press saying TEA Partiers are violent and more of a threat to the nation than Islamofacsist terrorists.
Police and SWAT teams have had to be sent in to protect Wisconsin state Republicans from violent union thugs and others that the Democrat Party has sent in to bully until they get their way. I remember when Obama had a meeting with Republicans about his stimulus package, he said to them, "I won". He refused to budge from his position. What's happened in Wisconsin is the Republicans won, saying exactly what they were going to do during the campaign, no surprises, and the cowardly Democrats fled the state and got Leftist thugs to bully Republican elected officials; instead of staying in town and voting like they were hired to do. Then when the Republicans went ahead and voted on stuff, the Dems and their Leftist thugs accused them of tactics and procedures worthy of communist Moscow. These knuckleheads advocate for a socialist State, at the same time accusing their opponents of socialist state behavior. Good grief.
Back to Leftist thuggery, a head thug, Wisconsin State Assembly Democrat Mark Pocan said: “Police in riot gear at Capitol, for chicken sh*t Republicans to enter building. Unbelievable.” (This is what the caption says on his Facebook photo here.)
Unbelievable that he's supporting the Leftists that are physically threatening members of the Wisconsin congress, and have physically attacked counter protesters. He's supporting Leftists that have trashed the capitol building leaving behind a mess that going to cost the citizens of that state $millions to clean up. This knucklehead even proudly posted a pic of cops in riot gear stationed at the capitol building on his Facebook page. Threaten people, then mock them for asking for protection. Classy.
All this from an elected representative of the people. Really.
Yep, those TEA Party people and Republicans are sure a nasty uncivil lot.
Yet another Leftist teachable moment how we Conservatives and Republicans need to be more civil. This huge union thug at an Ohio whine festival, over 6' and a couple hundred pounds, trying to steal this woman's cell, her name is Amanda Shell. The guy finally got her phone. Freedom of speech anyone? Freedom of assembly?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwByn5ho_1o
There's been plenty of vids out, where union thugs and other Democrat Party operatives have crossed streets and barriers and pushed people around. Yeah, those mean Conservatives. What a bunch of trouble makers.
Fleebagger Wisconsin coward Senator Mark Miller wanted to meet the Governor alone and unarmed along the wilds of the Wisonsin/Illinois border. Ya gotta love this response!
March 7, 2011
Sen. Mark Miller
Parts Unknown, IL
Dear Senator Miller,
Thank you for your hand-delivered letter with an offer to meet, in Illinois, about the business and future direction of Wisconsin.
Let’s set aside how bizarre that is for a moment.
As you know, this legislation is designed to finally balance the state budget, prevent layoffs and create jobs in the real world. There are hundreds of thousands of unemployed or underemployed Wisconsinites, and at least 1,500 more whose jobs are in the balance because of your media stunt. We all deserve better than this.
In the meantime, members of your caucus have been meeting with the governor’s staff, talking to the media, trying to find a way back to Madison, and contradicting your message in public. In case you don’t remember, you were present yourself at one of those meetings with the governor’s staff. Your grasp of reality, and control of your caucus as minority leader, continues to amaze me.
As you know, your opportunity to compromise and amend the bill was on the floor of the state Senate. As you know, you forfeited that right and opportunity when you decided to flee the state instead of doing your job.
Your stubbornness in trying to ignore the last election and protect the broken status quo is truly shameful. While we wait for you and your colleagues to finally show up, Senate Republicans continue to stand ready to do the job we were elected to do, here in Wisconsin. I hope you are enjoying your vacation, and your vacation from reality.
Sincerely,
Scott Fitzgerald
Senate Majority Leader
CC: Governor Scott Walker
We've chronicled the vile hateful nastiness of the Left, especially during their whine fest in Madison, WI. This is a cute vignette by Mary Katherine Hamm about the advocates of the 'new tone'.
Of course, the TEA Partiers with their dockers, polo's, sundresses and business causal attire, with kids in tow going to town hall meetings, and picking up their trash after rallies are the really uncivil ones.
The first woman ex-Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, famously said about the passage of ObamaCare, they “had to pass it to see what’s in it”.
As of today the Obama administration has granted 1,040 waivers. When government controls things, as proven in any communist country, services are provided to the politically connected. At its worst in this case, the government will decide based on political actuarial tables, who will get life saving care or not.
The way it’s starting out is that the big donators to the Obama campaign, especially the Unions, and most especially SEIU, is being given waivers. SEIU spent $27 million on Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. SEIU Local 25 is in Obama’s hometown.
Plus 26 states are suing to opt out, plus two federal judges have ruled the legislation unconstitutional; this horrible plan is crumbling under its own weight.
Here’s the list from the HHS website of companies and unions given waivers. Lots of them are unions that donated to Obama. A lot, if not most, of the “stimulus” money didn’t go to the private sector or small businesses, but went blue states to pay union government employees, who pay dues to the unions (collected, deducted from paychecks by the various governments) and sent back to Obama’s campaign coffers. I think that not only should the union thugs not be given waivers, but every Democrat in Congress that voted for this monstrosity be required to use it and give up their fat corruptocrat healthcare program.
Judicial Watch has filed suit against the Administration’s Department of Health and Human Services for records about the decision to grant waivers.
These are some of the unions that Obama has given a pass to, all of them contributors to his campaign.
* The Service Employees Benefit Fund
* United Food and Commercial Workers Allied Trade Health & Welfare Trust Fund
* International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union No. 195
* Asbestos Workers Local 53 Welfare Fund
* Employees Security Funds
* Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 123 Welfare Fund
* United Food and Commercial Workers Local 227
* United Food and Commercial Workers Maximus Local 455
* Service Employees International Union Local 25
* United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1262
* Musicians Health Fund Local 802
* Hospitality Benefit Fund Local 17
* Transport Workers Union
* United Federation of Teachers Welfare Fund
* International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (AFL-CIO)
It’s a healthcare animal farm. Some groups are more equal than others.
The government will provide you with all your material needs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhdPrA0b1UM
This guy is dumb as a doorknob. Son of racist and extortionist Jesse Jackson. The nut sure didn't fall far from the tree. O'my...
Reporter Mike Tobin of Fox News was physically threatened a couple times, and constantly berated and yelled at while reporting at the Leftist protest in Madison Wisconsin these past weeks.
He had this to say about many of the protesters there:
“One thing I think should make clear – the people coming after us from every live shot here, these people hate” … “These are people who don’t respect diverse viewpoints. In fact, they’re so afraid I’ll present a diverse viewpoint, that’s why they try to heckle me and shut down every live shot. They’ve made it clear, that what they want to make it harder for me to do my job. They are proud of that when they disrupt a live shot, when they really trample over the First Amendment rights or the First Amendment’s obligations of a reporter. Now, I am not saying that’s all of the people. Those are the people that come here and heckle and try to disrupt things. I look in their eyes – there is hate in their eyes. They don’t want to hear any kind of viewpoint that is different from their own. That’s why they do what they do.”
I have a Leftist friend that often says something to the effect of ‘stop the hate’, ‘don’t hate’ when I present my opposing point of view. Like many things, Leftists project their own perceptions and feelings on others and refuse to look at how they think and act themselves. The biblical injunction to look to the mote in your own eye applies here. Hatred in the Left runs deep and unabated and is shown in the demonstrations and most especially on Leftist websites. I visit them on occasion and provide my alternative view, and the vile nastiness of the attacks is immediate and breathtaking.
It’s really group think. A few years ago I was watching a Fox News reporter, I think it was Tony Snow, on a college campus asking a small group of students about something, challenging their assumptions, and one girl yelled at him he has no right to ask those questions. Really? The Left constantly affirms First Amendment rights only apply to those with views the same as theirs.
Back to Hate. It should really be reserved for the truly despicable, like racism, fascism, Nazism and the like. It shouldn’t be the lens of one’s social group; the basis for one’s world view. It shouldn't be directed at people that simply disagree with you.
Elizabeth Scalia on her blog “The Anchoress” had this (full article here) to say about hate as foundation for one’s belief system:
"On the surface, attaching oneself to a hate-collective seems a safe way to belong. One feels invited to the party; one no longer has to think for oneself, or worry about individual appearances or instincts. To continue to fit-in, to feel as if you were truly loved, all one needs to do is continue to hate—and that not even willingly.
This hate that feels like wide-open love is paradoxically limiting and self-defeating. Once hatred has become one’s social vehicle of choice, the travel options become limited: either stay the course and wear the peripheral blinders or attempt to break free and risk the very real possibility of being altogether ditched.
Regardless of whether one hates a Republican governor or a pro-abortion president or Hollywood or “fundamentalism” or “the system” or even a sports team, if one’s sense of belonging depends on hatred, then second-thoughts will flee and stagnation will follow. The only way to re-energize and to delay the inevitable endgame described by Enright as “destruction, discouragement, and hopelessness” is to find a new hate to love.”
One can love something so much that any opposition generates hate. Scalia again:
“The most insidious part of this Borg-like hate collective is how easily one can slip into its influence through the simple error of attaching real but disproportionate feelings of love onto things which are often illusory and ultimately temporary. I love my politics so much that I must hate you for your policies; I love my church so much that I must hate you for not loving it as intensely; I love the promise of my pension plan so much that I must hate you for pointing out that it is unsustainable; I love my opinions so much that I must not allow you to have opinions of your own.”
These Leftist don't recognize their own hatred but see it in others instead. Even when pointed out to them that what they say and do is hateful, they deny it. The demonstrations in Wisconsin were exactly the bullying, hateful, violent, intolerant, mean spirited event that they accused TEA Partiers of engaging in these past two years. The intolerance, racism, Antisemitism and hatred is glaringly evident in the YouTube vids and pictures. Look at any TEA Party event on YouTube and you’ll not see anything coming even close to what Leftists engage in during their protests. TEA Partiers pick up their trash too. It’s going to take about $7.5 million to clean up the Madison capitol building.
I sadly suspect the hatred and anger will manifest itself in more violence by the Left as budgets and legislation get passed that try and put our socio-economic house in order.
