This Cultural Xtian

Boycott Pink Ribbon Charity – Susan G Komen NOT for the Cure - Tea Party Anti Women Agenda

2012-02-02T17:16:00.000-05:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/02/susan-g-komen-planned-parenthood-rule?newsfeed=true

Planned Parenthood, the largest reproductive and sexual health service provider in the US, provides screenings for cervical, breast cancer, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/Aids. It is also widely known to help women access abortions and contraception.The row escalated on Thursday after it emerged that one leading health official for Komen resigned over the $650,000 funding cut, amid reports that it had caved in to the anti-abortion right.

Cecile Richards, the President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement: "On behalf of hundreds of thousands of women nation wide who rely on Planned Parenthood for breast cancer education and screening, we are enormously grateful to mayor Bloomberg. This contribution will help ensure that politics don't interfere with women having access to health care.

New York - Where is the Victims Monument at Fresh Kills Staten Island?

2012-02-01T08:19:00.002-05:00

Ran into this 1910 picture of a monument to dead Firemen in Philly on Girard Ave. Don't know if it is still there.

Which makes me think that is time we were putting a fitting monument on all the remains of the dead of 911 still out there in the hallowed ground of Fresh Kills garbage dump in Staten Island.

I like the design of the above obelisk. Say fifty feet high and in white stone or concrete and visible from the nearby highway.

They can spend billions over in Manhattan for show (the tourists). How about tossing a bone to the forgotten borough regarding the forgotten dead - the unknowns?

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Financial Transaction Tax in France to Pay National Debt - Way to Go

2012-01-29T22:19:00.000-05:00

The 0.1% levy will be introduced in August regardless of whether other European countries follow suit.

The tax is part of a package of measures set out by the president to promote growth and create jobs.

Mr Sarkozy faces a presidential election in April, but is currently trailing in the opinion polls behind his Socialist rival, Francois Hollande.

In an interview with French television, Mr Sarkozy said he hoped the tax would push other countries to take action.

"What we want to do is create a shockwave and set an example that there is absolutely no reason why those who helped bring about the crisis shouldn't pay to restore the finances," he said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16783520

World Trade Center - Tower One - Progress

2012-01-23T12:29:00.000-05:00

http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3672&page=777&p=386959#post386959

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Adultery is Between A Man And A Woman - Defense of Marriage Act

2012-01-23T06:26:00.000-05:00

Republican Family Values? Ask Newt!

Marriage is Sacred - For other People - the little people - not me.

It is despicable to ask me about my marriages. I would lie anyway. Like I lied to them.

Defense of Marriage Act? Adultery is between a man and many women.

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Was Callista Gingrich once a man?

2012-01-22T06:55:00.002-05:00

Was Callista once a man?

I am sorry but she does not do anything for me in a missionary fantasy or on her knees kind of way.

Sarah Palin, in spite of her GOP illogic and evangelistic dumbness, I could do.

In the spirit of the 1990s GOP civility standards set by Newt himself and judging if first ladies are murderers or not etc., was Callista ever a man? Inquiring minds want to know.

Where is his/her birth certificate?

So what does Newt see in his third wife? GOP Family Values are like so really phony, plastic and or closeted if you know what I mean.

I was surprised doing research on the Tiffany line of credit to see that it is also accepted by plastic surgeons in that they also accept gold, diamonds and platinum as payment.

Plastic surgery is a given. Massive amounts. Just look at her.

But what I found interesting is that sex changes are not only considered optional and not paid for by health insurance but they are also considered as cosmetic surgery. Is that a correct humanistic perception of the trans gender situation in life?

Since Plastic Newt has a Plastic Wife, does he also have the one and only Man-Man same sex marriage officially sanctioned by the RCC? Secular law recognizes gender change. The Church?

Did you check under the hood Cardinal Wuerl before you signed off on that marriage?

LOL

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Catholic Conscience Speaks Re: Catholics Gingrich Santorum’s Ugly Race and Poverty Hate Rhetoric

2012-01-21T08:13:00.000-05:00

An Open Letter to Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum

As Catholic leaders who recognize that the moral scandals of racism and poverty remain a blemish on the American soul, we challenge our fellow Catholics Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum to stop perpetuating ugly racial stereotypes on the campaign trail. Mr. Gingrich has frequently attacked President Obama as a “food stamp president” and claimed that African Americans are content to collect welfare benefits rather than pursue employment. Campaigning in Iowa, Mr. Santorum remarked: “I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money.” Labeling our nation’s first African-American president with a title that evokes the past myth of “welfare queens” and inflaming other racist caricatures is irresponsible, immoral and unworthy of political leaders.

Some presidential candidates now courting “values voters” seem to have forgotten that defending human life and dignity does not stop with protecting the unborn. We remind Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Santorum that Catholic bishops describe racism as an “intrinsic evil” and consistently defend vital government programs such as food stamps and unemployment benefits that help struggling Americans. At a time when nearly 1 in 6 Americans live in poverty, charities and the free market alone can’t address the urgent needs of our most vulnerable neighbors. And while jobseekers outnumber job openings 4-to-1, suggesting that the unemployed would rather collect benefits than work is misleading and insulting.

As the South Carolina primary approaches, we urge Mr. Gingrich, Mr. Santorum and all presidential candidates to reject the politics of racial division, refrain from offensive rhetoric and unite behind an agenda that promotes racial and economic justice.

Francis X. Doyle
Associate General Secretary
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (retired)

Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Institute Leadership Team:
Sisters Patricia McDermott, RSM (President) Eileen Campbell, RSM Anne Curtis, RSM Mary Pat Gavin, RSM Deborah Troillett, RSM

Sister Pat Farrell, OSF
President
Leadership Conference of Women Religious

Rev. Bryan N. Massingale
Associate Professor of Theology
Marquette University

Rev. Clete Kiley
Director for Immigration Policy
UNITE HERE

Rev. Anthony J. Pogorelc, M.Div., Ph.D.
The Catholic University of America
Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies

Rev. David Hollenbach, S.J.
University Chair in Human Rights and International Justice
Boston College

Sr. Patricia J. Chappell, SNDdeN
Executive Director, Pax Christi USA

Marie Dennis
Co-President, Pax Christi International

Rev. John F. Kavanaugh S.J.
Professor of Philosophy
St. Louis University

Rev. Jim Keenan, S.J.
Founders Professor in Theology
Boston College

Rev. Thomas J. Reese, S.J.
Senior Fellow
Woodstock Theological Center
Georgetown University

Sister Mary Ellen Howard
Executive Director
Cabrini Clinic, Detroit

Rev. James E. Hug, S.J.
President
Center of Concern

Sister Simone Campbell
Executive Director
NETWORK, A Catholic Social Justice Lobby

Steven Schneck
Director
Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies
The Catholic University of America

Sister Karen M. Donahue, RSM
Justice Team
Sisters of Mercy West Midwest Community

Sister Mary Ann Hinsdale
Assoc. Prof. of Theology
Boston College

Tom Allio
Cleveland Diocesan Social Action Director (retired)

M. Shawn Copeland
Associate Professor of Theology
Boston College

Sister Maria Riley, OP
Senior Advisor
Center of Concern

Todd Whitmore
Associate Professor
Department of Theology
University of Notre Dame

Terrence W. Tilley
Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., Professor of Catholic Theology
Chair
Theology Department
Fordham University, Bronx, NY

Michael E. Lee
Associate Professor
Theology Department
Fordham University, Bronx, NY

Paul Lakeland
Aloysius P. Kelley S.J. Professor of Catholic Studies
Director, Center for Catholic Studies Fairfield University

Lisa Sowle Cahill
Monan Professor of Theology
Boston College

Eric LeCompte
Board Member
Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good

Tobias Winright
Associate Professor of Theological Ethics
Saint Louis University

Christopher Pramuk
Assistant Professor of Theology
Xavier University, Cincinnati

John Sniegocki
Associate Professor of Christian Ethics
Xavier University, Cincinnati

Kathleen Maas Weigert
Carolyn Farrell, BVM Professor of Women and Leadership
Loyola University, Chicago

Daniel K. Finn
Professor of Theology and Economics
St. John’s University, Minnesota

Gerald J. Beyer
Associate Professor of Christian Social Ethics
Department of Theology and Religious Studies
Saint Joseph’s University, Philadelphia

Jeannine Hill Fletcher
Associate Professor of Theology
Faculty Director
Dorothy Day Center for Service and Justice
Fordham University, Bronx, NY

Sister Mary Ann Hinsdale
Assoc. Prof. of Theology
Boston College

John Inglis
Professor and Chair
Department of Philosophy
University of Dayton

Anthony B. Smith
Associate Professor
Department of Religious Studies
University of Dayton

David O’Brien
University Professor of Faith and Culture
University of Dayton

William L. Portier
Mary Ann Spearin Chair of Catholic Theology
University of Dayton

Alex Mikulich
Research Fellow
Jesuit Social Research Institute
Loyola University, New Orleans

Susan M. Weishar
Migration Specialist
Jesuit Social Research Institute
Loyola University

Kristin Heyer
Associate Professor
Religious Studies
Santa Clara University

James Salt
Executive Director
Catholics United

Vincent Miller
Professor of Religious Studies
University of Dayton

Nancy Dallavalle
Associate Professor and Chair
Department of Religious Studies
Fairfield University

http://www.faithinpu...ce-and-poverty/

Schlichter Jute and Rope, Harrowgate, Philadelphia

2012-01-20T13:32:00.000-05:00

built 1858

1930

http://fieldnotesphilly.wordpress.com/2010/07/30/schlichter/

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Despicable Newt - GOP's Perfect Angry White Male

2012-01-20T09:12:00.004-05:00

I really don't care if Newt Gingrich is a male slut and a serial adulterer, born again Catholic etc.

All I know is that he, more than any other living American, had more to do, in the nineties, with debasing the level of civility in the American Town Square. And all that loss of civility marked up as the cost of power, to make him Speaker of the House.

I don't care about the Christian myth of sin and forgiveness. If he is a new man, wonderful.

Newt's blowjobs in adultery in the past apparently are now less despicable than Clinton's blowjobs in adultery.

Typical mean spirited GOP Family Values.

And for the GOP audience to stand in applause at the perfect angry man. What you see is what you get.

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Fake Mustard Seed Parable -- Greco-Roman Urban Legend?

2012-01-19T11:05:00.002-05:00

I happen to like mustard as a condiment. Researching it, I see its history as both a condiment and a medicinal herb going back to ancient Rome and Egypt.

Problem with that is that it had always been a rich man’s condiment in ancient days and all the way up until Columbus. Indeed the whole Columbus thing of going out of the superstitious Christian European box was a marketing strategy to obtain greater market share and greater market profits out of the spice trade that had been disrupted by the collapse of the Center of the Christian World in Constantinople in 1453. Center of the European distribution network too regarding the spice trade from the far east.

Greed was the motivating factor in Columbus’ zeal to find a shorter trade route to India.

When I read the parable of the Mustard Seed in the synoptic Gospels I wonder why a simple man of the people, a day laborer, a migrant homeless man in the form of Jesus, why he would preach to the simple masses, mostly farmers and goatherds etc. about the very complex and exotic spice trade item from India such as mustard and or the mustard seed.

I understand the power of metaphor, the power to illustrate a small lurching into the big, to illustrate some other point.

Indeed, I feel certain that the Jesus-y feel of the mustard seed parable has an overlaying stink of an urban scholar that knows all the aspects of primitive botany from books and also commodity profits of an earthy sounding farm product that Jesus must have had knowledge of, but probably did not.

In fact, in one of the synoptic passages, the mustard seed parable is preceded by a parable of weeds among wheat. While an urban dweller who wrote this mustard seed parable might stick his nose up at weeds, many weeds are indeed edible and the poor, the starving unentitled poor, Jesus’ poor, would have gathered up many of those weeds separated eventually from the wheat and ate them. Survival makes more sense that urban vested scholarship in the early church’s reconstruction of a holy man who few if any recorded any details about.

Not only eat the weeds, but dry the ones that were not edible and use them as fuel, not burn them up foolishly like waste in an urban middle class garden.

Mustard, where it can grow, not the Holy Land, is also considered a weed.

A middle class Greco-Roman urban garden view of the natural world?

Confused mixed message from early paid for Jesus scholars? Greco-Roman urban myths? Faulty creationist type middle class science? If it sounds good in an abstract middle class context, it must be true.

Problem with scholars, urban middle class scholars, like the ones involved with the Jesus Seminar, who have signed off on makes sense, sounds like middle class, myths like the Mustard Seed parable, is that they are middle class and see the whole world with their born to, ingrained way of looking at the world.

This middle class urban way of looking at Jesus, invention then and still now, is an interesting illustration of the human condition but it is not the true Jesus.

Opus Dei vs. Opus Meum – Rick “Fecal Matter” and GOP go off a Cliff

2012-01-19T09:03:00.000-05:00

The Opus Dei candidate for President, Rick “Fecal Matter”, is doing remarkably well on a spike from a weekend endorsement from lunatic fundies on a Texas ranch.

Below is an attack ad probably paid for with freshly laundered Opus Dei funds. While I agree that both political parties in America are going off the cliff, Rick Santorum is no messiah and or Jack Kennedy.

I don’t care if Rick privately tortures himself to get mythical grace for his many, many sins, most of which are based on basic human ignorance and an allergy to empathy and or compassion.

On the matter of a dying Christian church putting up Rick to push what is left of the human race off a cliff, perhaps the solutions all along to humanity’s problems lie with Humanity and Secularism – OPUS MEUM – Work of Humanity, me and mine.

Have a full rich wonderful secular day.

Roman Empire Was Not Green

2012-01-19T01:42:00.000-05:00

Don’t mistake later memes on the timeline. Don’t insult Jews or early Christians with the lording over the animals in a wrong way now, as opposed to original context in Genesis.

One of the themes I have come to in my research and writing is that the Roman Empire was not Green.

Rome hated nature as evidenced by its military, numbers only, Julian calendar that abandoned the moon and or feminine (balanced) concept connected to nature.

By turning sex into a body function to serve the state, Rome, like the present Roma Nova American/European empire culture and its Roman Church, has turned sex into a commodity to be monitored, censored, taxed and exploited.

If Christianity is to survive in the west, it must go to its pre-Constantine roots and adore the abundance of gifts of a loving God to her children and abandon the reptilian chaos and natural imbalance caused by the Roman military mind.

Ref: Terry Weldon on Catholic Magisterial Teaching about Human Sexuality: Animal Considerations

Darwin's Box

2012-01-17T12:32:00.003-05:00

I think that Darwin's box, which is a good metaphor, expanded the possibility of thoughts regarding science way out of the ball park in terms of 19th century western thought. If you stick you neck out, think outside the present box, and are proven right with your theories, then the box of reality expands for everyone.

In fact, I think using the same metaphor, that the Creationists' box, ability to perceive or understand, is merely a pedestal that Charles Darwin is standing on in his new box IMO.

I use the time, dating, calendar idea to expand perception, in reaction to the really dull loop arguments I read over and over again from creationists. A little bit like rants from Mao's little red book. The calendar I mention is the year 152 A.D.I. (After Darwin' Idea). The Gregorian calendar with its start date of Jesus, if he existed, being born around 4-6 B.C.E., is a built in unproven prejudice used in the arguments of the fundies, who with that calendar then do not expand thought, but collapse backwards into a six thousand year old fishbowl/universe. Duh!

The playing field, the arguments pro and con on creationism and intelligent design, the ground rules need to be expanded. Most people start and end in frustration with them because many assume the present world is real, that Jesus is two thousand years old etc. Actually to get political here, if you try to ask for Jesus's birth certificate from them, they will hold up the book that they worship.

In a way, in a modern scientific way, at least we know or have stronger evidence that Charles Darwin actually existed with papers, photos, portraits, biographies, written certifiable court room testimony type witnesses etc. A better starting point for a western calendar. The eastern world, philosophies, time etc. is another can of worms all together.

Regarding the bible, during my long term search, research into faith, spirituality, I ran into a blog of a homeless man in Nashville who no doubt was running it on a computer interface at the local public library. He said, being a person who had to smile when getting handouts, food, survival, from the fundamentalists and in reaction to their preaching, evangelization, he said something to the effect that these people worship the physical book itself. Mumbling the words in it and not understanding them and repeating them over and over again is in a way not their faith but really their idol.

And a final note on Darwin. A business psychologist in college whose insights I found interesting defined Great Men as men who made the world see itself differently. In the context of recent history, he defined people like Einstein, Gandhi and Darwin as great men because they changed the world with their POV. They in essence helped change the world's POV.

The problem I get with all fundies and the creationists in particular is that they have no respect for other people's POV. It is all a war mentality. Expand or collapse.

(What is the difference between General Moses, General Constantine and General Mohammed? None. They all founded religions of peace.) (sarcasm)

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Obama (American) Creed *

2012-01-17T06:30:00.006-05:00

Do nothing.

Attend church and pray away the gay.

Floss and tithe.

Be prepared for The Rapture.

Clean your gun.

Always support and protect your local billionaire.

Don't use contraceptives or have an abortion.

Tell on those who do.

Keep your head down.

Don't get sick.

If you do, die quickly.

God has been outsourced

(to China)

People. What’s people?

Dumb it down.

Too big to fail.

Too big to jail.

Too Big to Change.

Harvard diploma.

Get out of jail free card.

Size matters.

Color matters.

Money matters.

Gifts/bribes matter.

Habeus Corpus sucks.

Gitmo is eternal.

Me and Lincoln were corporate lawyers.

Death of the American Dream?

**** you, I got mines.

(ay-men)

*(lines 1-9 by "Spanner", Internet)

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Vatican Plot to Kill Lincoln?

2012-01-16T10:12:00.005-05:00

Robert Redford had done a great social service in shedding some fresh light on a forgotten darkened corner of American history in directing The Conspirator.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0968264/

The movie centers around the trial for treason/murder of civilians and or spies in times of war in a military tribunal.

The movie is a bit too thoughtful for the average dumbed down American but then again I could be wrong. The young these days of course get their history from the cinema, and not from any boring dumbed down classroom and for that I am grateful that Mr. Redford has kept an ember of our history alive in this historic period piece to all that seek it.

This is perhaps both a movie review of sorts but not so much as a social commentary on the state of America then and now.

Lincoln was the bastard that suspended Habeas Corpus in time of war, same as what Obama did a week or two ago regarding the so-called PR War on Terror. Of course John Wilkes Booth, an actor, killed Lincoln, made him a martyr, made him a saint, and a demi-god as only republics can make gods by giving him a Zeus like temple for worship and remembrance on the Mall in Washington D.C..

Redford, with this script, touches very briefly on the fact that one of the main conspirators in the plot to kill Lincoln, John Surratt, was given sanctuary by the RC church and whisked off to Europe to serve in the Pope's personal bodyguard in the Vatican.

The Conspirator reveals a less than glorious defense of the secular plot to assassinate Lincoln by a nest of Confederate spies at Mrs. Mary Surratt's boarding house in Washington D.C..

If it was a new line of defense to tell the story, okay. But as a story line to say that Mary Surratt did not deserve to be the first woman officially hanged in the United States, not okay. And of course there were those witch hangings in Salem Massachusetts around 1690 before there was a United States as an aside.

The line is that John Surratt, son of Mary Surratt, as a Confederate courier/spy had only plotted with John Wilkes Booth to kidnap Lincoln and not kill him is weak at best. That Booth probably did at the last minute conceive of the assassination as revenge for the surrender of General Lee to General Grant is the probable truth and he, Booth quickly gathered his former kidnap conspirators to join him in this last minute enterprise.

The story does go against possible perjured testimony that saw John Surratt outside Ford's Theater on the night of the assassination. That Surratt was out of town, and already in Montreal on his way to Rome? That his mother, playing the Catholic martyr, did not push for her son to return. That she in fact was a scapegoat in a much larger unseen international political plot involving the U.S.A., the C.S.A and the Vatican.

Kevin Kline gives a very powerful performance as micro-manager Secretary of War Stanton who held the government together at a critical moment of potential national crisis. That Stanton orchestrated the trial of civilians in a military court is the underlying message of Redford's film. That we must give heavy thought to the consequences of signing away Habeas Corpus as two former corporate lawyers Lincoln and Obama did. To not surrender our rights so lightly or carelessly.

That Mary Surratt was taken from her house and imprisoned and tried on the direct orders of Stanton, I do not disagree with. That a kangeroo like military court was convened to satisfy the blood lust of a nation confused by a confusing ending to a confusing corporate war between the northern industrialists and bankers against the southern plantation owners and their European/Vatican bankers. That in reality if Stanton had not done what he did, a mob would probably have hung Marry Surratt from her own tree or the nearest city lamppost. Enough said.

As for the Vatican conspiracy, no doubt Pius XI was glad to see Lincoln dead. I don't see anything more than tea, sympathy and perhaps a little enabling gold from the Vatican to the South on any real plot to kill Lincoln.

My seeing the movie and subsequent research makes me think that perhaps some historian has already noted the timeline thing with a possible Jesuit worldwide spy network telling special friend and Catholic educated Jefferson Davis of Lincoln's intention to sign the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.

That Jefferson's September 1862 Letter to Pius XI and Pius' December 1862 reply to his dear friend and President of the Confederacy Davis was an attempt to offset Lincoln and his propaganda victory regarding the theoretical freeing of the slaves in the South by that executive proclamation.

Oh well.

I only recommend the movie if you are a heavy history buff.

Have a nice day.

John Surratt photo in his Vatican Uniform

Bishop Mitt Romney and the Unmarried Mother

2012-01-16T08:29:00.003-05:00

Now that the secret stockholders at the Fed have decided that Mitt Romney will be Presidential nominee of the Republican wing of the Property Party, let me put some spin on Mitt's religious/management role of Bishop in the Church of JC/LDS.

I am quessing that the title of bishop in the LDS church is like a district manager in a business or church elder in other "Christian" sect congregations. So before this gets out of control, Mitt's story is starting to get mentioned and like so many things Plastic Mitt has fucked up so far in the PR/humanity department thus far, I think he probably did the right thing in pushing an unmarried mother toward the adoption thing.

Embrace the story. Don't deny it. Deal with it. Stand by it. Move on with political thing.

Though the ultimate choice of such a thing should be up to the woman, the LDS setup and their internal system of self help, charity, would see an unmarried woman with a child as a potential burden on the community.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/bishop-romney-pressured-single-mother-to-give-up-b

The anecdote, which Romney has disputed, sheds new light on a compelling part of the candidate’s religious life—one that serves, politically, as a double-edged sword. On one hand Romney’s time spent as a minister of his faith gave him the unique opportunity of serving low-income Boston neighborhoods, undercutting the narrative that he’s an out-of-touch millionaire. On the other, his role as a representative of the church sometimes put him in a position of standing up for politically unsavory teachings.

Peggie Hayes had converted to Mormonism as a teenage along with her family, and told the book’s authors, Boston Globe reporters Michael Kranish and Scott Helman, that for a long time she found comfort in the faith’s teachings. After returning to the congregation as a 23-year-old divorced single mother, she soon got pregnant with a second child. Knowing she was in need of financial assistance, the Romneys arranged for her to do odd jobs for members of the congregation.

My real gripe with all this is the title bishop. Once I hear that word as an ex-Catholic, I can't get over the image of bishops who secretly approve and also cover up the buggery thing.

Problem with invented religions like LDS is use of adopted cover words like bishop, that sounded so legitimate a century or two ago. These days the thought of a bishop running for president conjures up the words theocracy, inquisition, lack of freedom, lack of freedom of choice, forbidden pursuit of happiness etc.

Whatever.

Prince Mitt Romney of the Mormon Church – Sunshine Patriot – Vietnam War

2012-01-14T12:04:00.004-05:00

Penny loafers, no socks, tweed jacket - What a mannequin then and now!

Prince Willard, aka “Mitt”, Romney of the Mormon Church protested the Vietnam War Protesters at Stanford in 1966. With his education drafts deferments to protect him from mortal combat, he as a Mormon Missionary, was also granted automatic entitlement to a religious draft deferment following college.

He and his fellow Mormons, being “religious” types, did not seem to carry their fair share of the water in Vietnam. But they sure supported the War. Sunshine Patriots.

Whatever.

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/specials/romney/articles/part1_side_2/?page=full

The exemption for Mormon missionaries created controversy at the time. Non-Mormons in Utah filed a lawsuit against the federal government in 1968. The suit was still in court two years later, at a time when "the church and the Selective Service System work hand-in-hand in deferring the missionaries," according to an article from the period published by The New York Times.

Richard Leedy, the lawyer who brought the suit, said in a telephone interview that he did so because "the substantial number of deferments to missionaries made the likelihood of us non-Mormons going to Vietnam a lot more likely."

Prince Romney's property received at birth. Any don't you forget it.

Do mannequins have souls? I have to wonder.

Romney’s Bain Capital Owns Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Michael Savage

2012-01-14T08:19:00.001-05:00

Great Salt Lake Seagull

America's Hate Radio Network Owned by the Mormons?

http://www.prisonplanet.com/bain-capital-owns-clear-channel-rush-limbaugh-sean-hannity-glenn-beck-michael-savage-etc.html

Wouldn’t it be great if a Republican presidential candidate could just buy the support of just about every major conservative talk show host in America? Well, it may not be as far-fetched as you may think. Clear Channel owns more radio stations (850) than anyone else in the United States. They also own Premiere Radio Networks, the company that syndicates the radio shows of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck, among others. Needless to say, Clear Channel basically owns conservative talk radio in the United States. So who owns Clear Channel? Well, it turns out that Bain Capital is one of the primary owners of Clear Channel. Yes, you read that correctly. The company that Mitt Romney ran for so long is one of the “big bosses” over virtually all conservative talk radio in America. Of course Mitt Romney is not running Bain Capital anymore. He is a “retired partner”, but he still has a huge financial stake in Bain Capital. We’re talking about millions upon millions of dollars. If you doubt this, just check out page 34 of this public financial disclosure report. So if you have been wondering why so many conservative talk show hosts are being so incredibly kind to Mitt Romney, this just might be the answer…

Clear Channel, through its subsidiary, Premiere Radio Networks, auditions and hires actors to call in to talk radio shows and pose as listeners in order to provide shows, carried by Clear Channel and other broadcasters, with planned content in the form of stories and opinions. The custom caller service provided by Premiere Radio ensures its clients they won’t hear the same actor’s voice for at least two months in order to appear authentic to listeners who might otherwise catch on.

(got to keep those honest Mormon actors employed?)

Don’t call me a “Christian” anymore!

2012-01-13T18:32:00.003-05:00

Beards for the Military Industrial Complex

This blog has evolved. I have evolved.

I am told and I am witnessing the fact that my old label “This Cultural Christian” does not market well. People under 40 are turned off by all things labeled “Christian” these days.

The Christian Brand has lost most of its luster.

Rather than turn off potential readers I am going for the mystery of “X”. My descriptive is above. I state what I am. I am an agnostic, areligionist, X-tian.

Please do not confuse me with that knuckle dragging Christian Political Party Shit.

It has been a forty year process to officially merge the Republicans with all things hypocritical and hiding under the label “Christian”.

Jesus is one thing. I like Jesus.

I believe in G*d. Not madison avenue toothpaste sold as G*d.

But this Christ cult thing worshiping Constantine’s army god is not what I believe in.

I think my turning point came this week when the Pagan majority Supreme Court said it was okay to hate blacks and gays and women and others, especially the disabled as in this particular court case, if you are a tax free church and you don’t want to hire them or you just want to fire ‘em.
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What would Jesus do in a situation like the above Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison of the LCMS?
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Tell the gimp to go fuck off? I don't think so!

If you look at those dumb Marines pissing on some dumb slob Muslims in Afghanistan, those Marines are nothing more than a beard for the MIC – Military Industrial Complex. Are they Christian? You betcha.

Death and Profits are all that Christianity seems to represent these days on the worlds' markets.

There is more God in my pet rock than these political hacks masquerading as religions these days.

If Stephen Colbert can run for President, I want tax free status for my pet rock religion and the right to diss anybody I want scot-free.

MY PET ROCK is the ONE TRUE PET ROCK!

Contributions greatly accepted for your Pet Rock Salvation. Guaranteed. Etc. LOL

I have some hope for some of those mainstream “Christians” that still operate in intelligence like the Lutheran, Anglicans etc. Some – not much.

Christianity is a dying religion. It is perhaps already a corpse in some places (like Italy) and merely being propped up by some dusty empty buildings.

But the ignorant Pagans, Roman Church and the Literalists, Fundamentalists, those who worship the words in a book and do not know how to think or consider those words, well, what the world sees is the insane American Government as it stands to the nations, a “Christian” country. It is of late just a waste of any real people’s time, the Christian part that is, to that world.

I want my America. I want my country back from these religious fanatics and Christians.

I humbly remain This Cultural Xtian.

Have a nice day.

The Cardinal Jameson - Cocktail - New in Manhattan

2012-01-12T22:21:00.000-05:00

The Cardinal Jameson

Jameson on the Rocks

with a cube of

Baloney on a toothpick

added

Class

Real Class

Vulture Capitalism – It is a Victimless Crime - Right?

2012-01-12T12:42:00.000-05:00

People? What's People?

With Newt jockeying for a Contract on FOX NEWS, he will do anything, the ultimate spoiler, mean spirited Republican, even start the feeding frenzy amongst the 1% on their own, each other.

Cannibalism (among the vultures?) is the last stage of a dying civilization.

The 99% taste of HFCS - skip them -

the 1% have the tastiest fat

(Thanks Newt)

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

2012-01-12T11:38:00.000-05:00

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

Catholic United States Supreme Court Protects Religion Bigotry Entitlement over mere Secular Human Rights

2012-01-12T09:58:00.000-05:00

SCOTUS Approved Workplace Rules?

The hack elitist US Supreme Court, run under the skirts of the Vatican, with its Catholic majority is out of touch of every day workers reality.

If a church has employees, if they pay taxes to the state, social security, Medicare taxes etc., do these employees have to surrender their human rights to sue under secular laws like in this case because their employers claim a connection to the great mafia godfather in the sky?

Ignorance and injustice is somehow grandfathered in the law if it is connected to the mythical grandfather in the sky?

Ignorance. Injustice. Fantasy. Delusion. – The U.S. Supreme Court

http://www.freep.com/article/20120111/NEWS02/120111034/Supreme-Court-Woman-can-t-sue-over-firing-from-Redford-church

WASHINGTON — In a groundbreaking case, the Supreme Court today held for the first time that religious employees of a church cannot sue for employment discrimination.

But the court’s unanimous decision in a case from Michigan did not specify the distinction between a secular employee, who can take advantage of the government’s protection from discrimination and retaliation, and a religious employee, who can’t.

It was, nevertheless, the first time the high court has acknowledged the existence of a “ministerial exception” to anti-discrimination laws — a doctrine developed in lower court rulings. This doctrine says the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of religion shields churches and their operations from the reach of such protective laws when the issue involves employees of these institutions.

The case came before the court because the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued the Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School of Redford on behalf of employee Cheryl Perich, over her firing, which happened after she complained of discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Xbox Suicides China - Chairman Bill's Offshore Worker's Paradise Sucks?

2012-01-11T23:56:00.000-05:00

Xbox Suicides sounds like an awful off-broadway play using Goth actors etc.

But Chairman Bill and the late Chairman Steve has turned all their offshore worker’s paradises into the sort of place where workers threaten suicide and some actually do that under care of Bill’s and Steve’s go-to Foxconn.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/11/world/asia/china-microsoft-factory/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

"Microsoft is committed to the fair treatment and safety of workers employed by our vendors and to ensuring conformance with Microsoft policy."

http://chinaworker.info/en/content/news/1310/

All the suicide victims at Foxconn’s two Shenzhen factories have been migrant workers in the 17-25 age group. One obvious factor is overwork – employees are forced to work double or triple the legal limit on overtime on a regular basis, according to independent surveys. While the maximum legal amount of overtime is 36 hours per month in China, researchers report that 80 to 100 hours of overtime is normal at Foxconn. Other violations of China’s labour laws are legion, according to interviews with employees and ex-employees.

Another factor is systematic repression. The company prefers to employ ex-army officers from Taiwan as line supervisors. Militarisation of the production process is a feature of the ‘Foxconn model’. Nearly 28 percent of workers have been verbally insulted by supervisors or security personnel, and 16 percent have suffered physical abuse, according to a 83-page dossier on Foxconn produced jointly by 20 Chinese, Hong Kong and Taiwanese universities last October.

“Workers aren’t allowed to talk, smile, sit down, walk around or move unnecessarily during their long working hours, which require them to finish 20,000 products every day,” the report states. More than one in eight employees interviewed for the report said they had passed out on the assembly line due to the high pressure and long working hours. One in four women workers said they suffered menstrual disorders due to overwork.

Sabbatical

2012-01-06T00:01:00.006-05:00

See ya soon.

.