Opposing Religious Violence And Coercion

Many people, myself included, were taught to be respectful of other religions. Contrary to what some think, namely that if you do not accept what they believe, that means you are against what they believe. If you do not accept the divinity of Jesus, for example, because Jesus is not part of your religion, that does not mean you are against Jesus or opposed or hostile to Jesus. It only means most likely that you do not believe in Jesus because it is not what you were raised to believe. There are millions upon millions of people in this world that are members of religions where Jesus is simply not part of the religion. This includes Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, and others. That is far different than proclaiming that any of these religions are hostile towards Jesus or Christianity. To not accept or believe in the Quran, or to not believe Muhammad is the final prophet or a prophet at all, does not mean you are opposed to Islam. It simply means this is not part of your religion and it is not part of what it is you were raised to believe. It is the simple fact that millions upon millions of people in this world, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, other religions, believe in different things than what is in the two largest religions of the world, Christianity and Islam. There was a time in history in which Christians would shove their religion down the throats of others, forcing conversions and murdering millions. Thankfully, Christianity has long ago evolved beyond that. Christianity actively seeks converts, unlike Buddhism, Judaism, Yazidis and a number of other religions, but it seeks conversions by choice, not by force. If Christianity still practiced forced conversions and expansion by force, this world would be drenched in even more blood than it is already drowning in. There are those in the Islamic world that impose their religion upon others by force. Free men and women do not want to live under religious domination and tyranny by any religion. That is why the most successful, productive societies in the world have separated church from state. Religious freedom is a basic human right. Islam has a long history of forcing itself down the throats of others and murdering millions that do not submit. Sadly, this continues to this day. Every minority religious community in the middle east and other places, including Christians, Bahais, Yazidis, are under threat or being destroyed. Muslims that practice and believe differently than the rigid, intolerant forms of Islam aggressively promoted by certain oil rich Muslim nations are also under threat. No one under the banner of their religion has the right to use force or harm members of another faith simply because of what it is they believe. Freedom against religious violence must be a universal right of all people, Muslims included. Opposing Islamic violence is far different than opposing Islam. All religious violence must be opposed, regardless of what religion is practicing the violence. But to pretend that hatred, violence, intolerance, incitement against Jews, Yazidis, Christians, Bahais, Hindus, Buddhists, and others is not running rampant and out of control in the Islamic world might be politically correct, but it is also suicidal. There are Muslims that proclaim that the whole world will be made Muslim by force(violent Jihad). This may be true one day, but if does happen, there will be no one left alive to see it. This is the age of nuclear weapons, and even without them, humans are already destroying this world.

Jew Baiting,Jew Hating, Final Thoughts

What the whiny Jew haters say abut Jews, and what is the actual reality, are completely different. The Jew haters, people that need a scapegoat, need to demonize an external group of people to blame for everything wrong in the world, are weak people that are incapable of taking responsibility for their own lives and for the religion or group to which they belong. It is easier to just blame the Jews and fulfill some pathological need to have a scapegoat to despise and hate. To respond to the endless accusations against the Jews, the endless Jew baiting, is a complete waste of time and just feeds into their pathology. Regardless of what is reality, and what facts are presented to this demented, often obsessive, unfortunately not uncommon bunch of cowards, little or nothing will change their need to hate. As with any group of people in the world, there are Jews that are good, kind, compassionate, generous, productive, industrious, hardworking, brave. There are Jews that are the complete opposite. What is consistent in the religion, culture and ethnicity that defines Jews is an adherence to the basic tenants of decency and humanity. Education is highly regarded. Do unto others as you would have others do unto you is the golden rule. The conspiracy theories can abound, because weak,cowardly people need a scapegoat, and Jews are humanity's oldest scapegoat. But as history has shown far too often, with or without the Jew, people find scapegoats to persecute, torment and kill. The world would be a far better place if every person, every religion, every group of people, instead of focusing on the Jew or another group to hate and scapegoat, manned up and focused on making themselves better, braver and more humane. Until that day comes, if ever, we need to stop kowtowing to the hate of others, ignoring it, running from it, giving it refuge and legitimacy when it masks itself in the form of religion or anything else.

Jew Hating, Jew Baiting

If you throw enough mud on a wall, eventually some of it will stick. Those who hate and want to persecute Jews endlessly accuse them of everything bad in the world they can think of. By demeaning and tarnishing the character of Jews, by reducing them to an evil caricature, it makes it easier to hate, to persecute, and to even murder them. People like someone to hate and despise, and that they can blame for everything. It does not matter if you respond rationally to the endless accusations against Jews, because none of this has to do with what is rational and factual. Weak people need scapegoats. Their need to be accepted and part of a group, no matter how hate filled the group might be, is greater than their need to be ethical. Manipulative, greedy men know all of this. They know that they can be rich, they can obtain fortunes, they can attract followers, in some cases huge numbers of followers, by Jew hating and Jew baiting. The Jew as the eternal scapegoat has caused centuries of blood and misery. Jew hating, Jew baiting, the domain of the cowardly, is humanity's shame that persists to this day.

The Jew And The Jew Hater

Everyday thousands, even millions, listen to sermons, speeches, lectures, internet videos, blogs, internet postings, films, and so on, telling them how terrible is the Jew. The rabid Jew haters go on incessantly, because obsessive people that are filled with hate or that are sadistic cannot control themselves. They cannot stop themselves. It does not matter what is the actual reality. This is about hate combined with obsessiveness, not about fact or truth. Millions of humans follow these demented hate mongering cowards. The followers are like mindless sheep eager to be told how to live, how to think, who to hate and how to hate, who to harm, who to kill. They listen and watch, willing to become homicidal robots. The Jew haters know their Jew hatred can make them rich and attract a following. Jew hatred frees them and their followers of individual responsibility and accountability. Theirs is a demented world where everything depends on having the Jew scapegoat to blame. No one questions, no one wonders, how a tiny minority still numbering in the millions(no matter how persecuted it has been, still survives) can all think and act alike. The Jew hater wants you to believe Jews are like one single celled amoeba, where every Jew thinks and acts alike. But it is they that acts as a mindless single celled entity, full of hate and homicidal rage. No matter what the world faces - wars, environmental disaster, deforestation, biodiversity collapse, nuclear bombs, radiation poisoning, failed nuclear power plants, massive oil spills, hurricanes, unemployment, economic collapse, earthquakes, volcano eruptions, terrorism, tornadoes, cyclones, land slides, disease, famine, typhoons, tsunamis, drought, flooding, poverty, hunger - these simplistic hate filled cowards will still obsess endlessly about the Jew and ignore all else. They revel in their self indulgent obsessive hatred. And we who choose to ignore their hatred, do so at our own peril.

Genocides Do Not Occur Because Of Lack Of Will, Only Lack Of Opportunity

There is a cancer in the human soul that has been with us for thousands of years. It is a weakness in the human spirit that needs a target, an enemy to despise, someone to hate. No matter what humanity has been through, it cannot shake itself of this cancer. We have seen it played out many times. The genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda, almost all killed by being hacked to death by machetes. The Khmer Rouge that murdered and starved millions. Other genocides, other horrors. The Congo, with over six million killed and millions raped. The rape and sexual slavery of girls and young Yazidi women and the murder of Yazidi males because they believe in a religion different than that of the Islamist fanatics that have overrun their villages. The Nazis and their allies, systematically murdering over 6 million Jews, almost every Jew in Europe, and millions more. When it was over, Europe laid in ruin, with over 50 million dead. Stalin, a mass murderer who exceeded even Hitler in the numbers killed. There is a long list of genocides, past and present, that goes well beyond what little is mentioned here. Despite all the horrors the world has seen, there are millions that will eagerly rape and slaughter every Jew on this planet if given the chance. The world does not learn from its genocides. It cannot free itself of its ancient and pathological Jew hatred whether it is the Jew itself or another minority to hate and despise and seek to destroy. The comfortable Americans drinking overpriced coffee or eating at some high end restaurant in a world removed from all of this might think that the world is full of goodwill and good intentions, and all that matters is their dog and dog park or some self indulgent pleasure. But there is enormous evil in this world. Millions that will eagerly murder, rape, slaughter if given a chance. Genocides do not occur because of lack of will, only lack of opportunity.

The Stock Market Vs. Real Wealth

Real wealth is not what any one person owns or does not own. The richest person, the poorest person, ends up in the same place. Dead, most often buried alone in the ground, or cremated, without a single possession. Real wealth is in the biodiversity and richness of the natural world, which is in terrible decline. The stock market, the financial markets, can reach all time highs. It will make many feel safe and secure. But it is not the true wealth of the planet. It is ultimately transient, fleeting, and meaningless. It is better to be poor in a rich world than rich in an impoverished world. Real wealth is something not respected and not protected, unlike the closely followed stock market.

Do Not Be Seduced By Fast, Mad, Easy Money

Save yourself a lot of time and grief and do not chase mad, fast, easy money. Sure,it exists for a few, and a few will win big. But most will lose, because fast, mad,easy money, like any kind of gambling situation, will reward a few and punish the many. And because the lure, the fast, mad, easy money, is seductive, many will fall for this trap. So turn off the t.v. and refuse to watch. Do not let yourself become seduced. It is too bad that gamblers, not workers, are the ones rewarded in today's world. But besides the moral considerations about lowlife gambling shows that pretend to be about investing, the reality is that being the slow tortoise, not the follower of any fast loud mouth, will reward most far better in the end. Do the research yourself. Passive dollar cost averaging investing in broad based low cost index funds will do better than most actively managed mutual funds, money managers, and stock pickers. It is a huge industry selling people on the idea that they will be better rewarded by following someone else's advice, which is simply not the truth. Do not throw your life away. Do not waste your time. Think twice before following television shows and fools that could care less how much you might get hurt.

The Improperly Sealed, In Some Cases Leaking, Abandoned Oil Wells Of The Gulf Of Mexico.

The thousands of oil wells in the Gulf Of Mexico are a disaster waiting to happen. There was a news story today regarding the abandoned oil well of one company that has been leaking oil for years, and will continue to do so until the oil is depleted, which might take another decade. Thousands of abandoned oil wells that were supposed to be permanently sealed have not been. All kinds of loop holes allow these companies to walk away from their abandoned wells without properly sealing them. The well of the company mentioned above that has been spilling oil into the gulf for years apparently has been able to do so with impunity. Weigh out the threats the United States faces, foreign and domestic, many of which we respond to with massive funding, and then consider the enormous harm that can be unleashed from this threat, which we barely respond to at all. Destroy the Gulf of Mexico, and millions of jobs will be lost. Tourism will collapse. Fishing, commercial and recreational, will collapse. The real estate on the gulf, worth billions, maybe trillions, will become worthless. All the jobs that a healthy real estate market provides will be lost. All the service jobs that keeps a vibrant area alive and healthy will be lost. Many people will become sick. Who will want to visit a polluted, contaminated Gulf of Mexico? Who will want to live there? Are oil special interests and their pocketed politicians that important? Every oil well in the Gulf Of Mexico needs to be permanently and properly sealed if no longer in use. And we need to think hard whether jeopardizing the health of the gulf is worth new offshore ventures, and the lax oversight that is now provided for existing active wells. We spend trillions on military hardware that will never get put to use. Properly and permanently sealing abandoned, unused oil wells in the Gulf Of Mexico is in the national interest. To do anything less is unpatriotic and plain reckless.

The Perilous Future Of Mankind And The Need For Conservation And Biodiversity

In certain ways humans are not the most intelligent species on the planet. Almost everything that lives in this world finds a niche, finds a way or tries to find a way to survive by living within the confines of what nature provides. Only human kind seeks to alter nature to our design, despite finding that nature controls us far more than we control it. In our drive to change nature, we have made the world uninhabitable for thousands of species that cannot live in such a world and are now extinct or near extinction. At some point, a world made uninhabitable for other species will also be made uninhabitable for us. There is a limit to how much we can contaminate, how much we can pollute, how much we can poison our world and still survive, let alone prosper. Since we are unwilling to control our out of control population growth, since we are unwilling to control our insatiable desire to kill and destroy, the least we can do is preserve the few areas left on this planet that are still biologically rich and diverse. This way, if we ever do come to our senses, we will not have lost everything. Biological diversity, the lifesaving gift that nature provides, will still be here. Preserving what little of nature is left will be our gift to generations of the future. As it is right now, we are giving little more than an overcrowded, polluted, contaminated world full of war, hate, weapons of mass destruction, and fanatics, especially religious demented fanatics that are obsessed with killing and death.

Reasons Why To Hate The Jews

Here are reasons why to hate the Jews. You never have to be held responsible for your own failures and deficiencies because you have a permanent scapegoat to hate and blame. You get to live your life free of accountability. If you are a man, you never have to grow up and be a man. You can be weak and cowardly your whole life. If you are a man or woman, you can be petty, spiteful, mean, greedy, hate filled, selfish, cruel, sadistic, violent and vindictive, and never have to change because you have the Jew to blame for everything. Even if members of your religion, of your ethnic group, of your race, murder, rape, steal, or commit any act of evil, responsibility never will be taken because you have your Jew scapegoat. Let us not forget the other benefits to Jew baiting, to Jew hating....You can become rich, or famous, or both, and draw people to your side, because there are enough weak minded people in this world that will blindly follow a simplistic message of hate and scapegoating. And if it is politically incorrect in some circles to hate the Jew, you can insist the Jews you hate are not real Jews, just impostors or phony Jews, so therefore your hatred is acceptable. You can unite people, unite religions, unite nations, and have thousands, even millions or billions united under the banner of hatred. And then, no matter how perverted, how evil, how corrupt a person, a religion, a society, a nation might become, all of it will be overlooked in the quest to harm and kill the Jew scapegoat. And if there is no Jew to hate and despise, if all the Jews are wiped out from planet earth, a new Jew will be found, a new scapegoat. And thus, humanity continues to descend.

Argentina; A Crowd, A Picture, A Baby Franciscana Dolphin Dies

A baby dolphin gets pulled from shallow water in Argentina, where it probably was already in distress, so that people could take pictures with it. No one appeared to protest, no one intervened on behalf of the dolphin, and it ends up dying. People and their self absorbed picture taking obsession can be callous, as can people in general. People in a mob or crowd can be downright cruel. A helpless baby dolphin paid the price.

Bad Medicine-Obamacare

For those with pre existing conditions that made health insurance unaffordable or impossible to get, something needed to be done to assist this population. Low income working class people that could not afford health insurance also needed assistance. This could have been accomplished without a major overall of the health insurance industry that in the end serves the financial interest of health insurance companies, increases the national debt, creates more unproductive paper pushing bureaucracy, and shifts the burden onto struggling middle class people (as usual). It is not reform or improvement when some are helped but millions are hurt because the so called reform or improvement ensures they cannot afford health insurance or can only afford inadequate insurance that comes with ridiculously high deductibles and out of pocket expenses( which means millions still are one serious injury or sickness away from financial ruin).

Non Violence; The Strongest Weapon

Violence and terrorism are counterproductive, and achieve nothing more than death and destruction to all sides, along with greater repression and loss of freedom. Nonviolence as a strategy might involve great sacrifice, but it is the strongest weapon a downtrodden people can implement. Those that thrive on war,hate, blood and pain will resist this strategy. Nonviolence does not work if accompanied by a strategy of violence. A nonviolent movement cannot allow for violence and terrorism. A true nonviolent moment, if implemented, will win the hearts and minds of most of the world, including many of their enemies. It is unfortunate that the strongest weapon people can use is the one least chosen.

The Singsong Minister And His Bigotry

The singsong minister and his bigotry have a huge following. People like to be told there is someone else, another group, to blame for their plight. It is a seductive message, but also a destructive message that instead of promoting self reliance, achieves the opposite.

How To Not Advance; Choosing Bigotry Over Tolerance, Violence Over Nonviolence

Beware of those who justify hatred, bigotry, rage and violence to further their cause. No matter how much a person or a group of people, be it a race,religion, or ethnic group, was wronged, past or present,hatred, bigotry and violence does nothing to correct the wrong. Instead, it ensures innocent people on all sides will be harmed. For those that committed an historical wrong, often all dead, hatred and violence targeting their descendants only ensures the survival of bloodshed and backwardness, and nothing more. The path of nonviolence is difficult, and far less seductive than the allure of violence, rage, hatred, and bigotry, but it is the only productive way to advance.

Education Is Not The Answer To Poverty

There are countries in this world where the populations are literate, educated, and poverty stricken. Even with college degrees, they cannot escape a life of low wage jobs or chronic unemployment and underemployment. Some work in fast food restaurants, way over qualified but only too happy to at least have a job. Politicians, political commentators, democrat or republican, conservative or liberal like to declare their answer to poverty- better education. If only they looked to those places where education has provided no such thing. There are deep inequities in many societies, where wealth is concentrated in a few hands, and opportunity is limited for the vast majority. Labor has been devalued all over the world. Unskilled workers are seen as highly dispensable, and capital too often seeks those places with the lowest wages and the lowest safety and environmental standards. A simple solution to poverty-education, fails to address these deep structural issues. It also ignores the fact that many very average people are not capable of highly skilled positions, and life seems to be pushing these people aside. It is not like years past in which there were plenty of manufacturing jobs that provided middle class likelihoods to average people that did not excel in school or in mastering a difficult trade. And all over the world, large industrial farming and factory farming has displaced millions of people and condemned them to lives of unemployment or underemployment and poverty(to say nothing of the enormous ecological damage this change has brought). Education as the answer to poverty is a good soundbite. It will lift a few out of poverty, but it is not the answer.

The Minister And His Bigotry Creates Weakness And Dependency, Not The Liberation He Claims To Seek

Tearing down another people, be it a different religion, race, or ethnic group, to make yourself appear strong or for another reason, does not advance your own people. It only makes those that follow you and your bigoted ideology dependent. The exact opposite of what you claim you want to accomplish. Bigotry can be a lucrative business. It has made you rich. And it has allowed you a soft life free from working a real job where perhaps you would have learned how complicated and hard life really can be. You probably believe your own nonsense, thinking you are speaking truth to power and that you are a bigger person than what you are really. The crowds that follow you make you convinced that what you say is true. But bigotry always has had its own seductive draw. People like a scapegoat, an easy answer, which is what you provide, especially when you use the Jew, a convenient scapegoat. So you twist facts, the truth, you make up history, you ignore anything negative having to do with your own religion, thinking you are leading, but all you do is make people dependent on you and your bigotry. It is unfortunate that you rarely get challenged, a whole other topic that has to do with pandering or fear, its own form of racism. You think yourself a force for liberation, when in fact you are a force of the exact opposite.

Why The Demagogue Prevails

Why is it people rush to follow men full of hate or poisonous ideas? Men that should be shunned, not embraced. There is a weakness in people, a pathological need to follow, no matter how irrational this might be.

Free Markets With Weak Governments Does Not Work, Nor Does Strong Centralized Governments

An unrestrained free market is not the answer. Talk radio so called conservatives go on endlessly about big government and how if only big government would get out of the way, everything will shine. It is not that simple. There are plenty of countries where there are weak federal governments, few restraints, and massive corruption in the private sector. Wealth gets highly concentrated, and a few families end up owning almost everything. Almost everyone else lives on low wages that ensure a life of poverty, or are chronically unemployed. No safety net for children, for the elderly, for the sick, for the poor. If you are badly injured or sick and do not have money, you die. Toxic chemicals and waste gets dumped into the ocean and other places where the company pays nothing but the public pays a huge price. People severely injured from their work get thrown to the curb. The best run govrnments are not cushy places full of do nothing jobs where no one can ever get fired. The countries that work best, that have the least corruption, have strong checks and balances, including checks and balances on the private sector. They are also places where government is not the road to riches, only the road to a public service career.

It Will Be A Dismal Future If Nature Keeps Getting Destroyed And Population Growth Remains Unchecked

When I was a child, there was something magical about going into a a forest, even if it was nothing more than a small patch not yet destroyed by development. But in time, development claimed all the patches of forest, and the world became a less interesting place. For the millions of children growing up with no connection to nature, to the land, there is so much that they will never know, that they will never have the joy of experiencing. How dismal the future will be if what little of nature that is left keeps getting destroyed, and the human population keeps growing unchecked. At some point, in the same way biodiversity is now unraveling, humanity will pay a heavy price for believing itself a species not beholden to the laws of nature. It is impossible to keep destroying and breeding indefinitely.

Is It Responsible To Urge People To Have Large Families In A Poverty Stricken, Environmentally Degraded,Overpopulated Land?

An archbishop told the crowds at a religious event that attracted hundreds of thousands of people that they should serve as missionaries for God and go out and have large families to spread their religion. Europe, he added, in decline, chooses dogs and cats over children. But this is a false comparison. You can love your children far more than you love a pet, and express this love by having a smaller family size. Because in the country where he urged people to have large families, already millions are malnourished, millions live in dire poverty, millions live in dilapidated inadequate shacks without electricity and water or on the streets without any protection, or under bridges and other such structures. Millions cannot afford even minimal health care, and untold thousands die because without money, there is no one that will treat them with medical care and medicine if they are sick. Almost every forest has been destroyed, almost every mangrove, almost every coral reef. Farmland continues to be destroyed to accommodate the growing human population, even though already the country cannot feed its large and growing population. Millions waste precious hours each day commuting in bumper to bumper traffic, choking on exhaust fumes in huge, overcrowded polluted cities. What is the value of a human being? To be a one dimensional servant of a religion and endlessly breed without regards to the environmental and human suffering that results from overpopulation? Do people deserve the right to live where there is clean air, clean water, clean wholesome food, the opportunity for children to have a future other than a life of debilitating poverty and all of the social ills that brings?

My Pictures, My Efforts To Stop Dog Fighting And Animal Cruelty Enriched A Few And Accomplished Nothing

My pictures, my efforts were not meant to be used in a so called documentary or for other purposes that I believe were nothing more than the exploitation of dog fighting and animal suffering to further your career, promote and ingratiate you to certain animal organizations, and to make you and some others money off the backs of suffering animals. You squandered a rare opportunity, and defenseless animals pay the price.

Police And The Press Fail Again-Spin Over Substance

I happened to read an article in a newspsper that to me rarely has an article of any substance. But this was an exception. I will not get into the details of the article, but I would like to respond with some comments and questions. Why was a spokesman for a police union allowed to respond to police shooting crime scenes or any crime scene? Who authorized this poor judgement? Who from the union? Who from the police department? Why was the media so unquestioning as to the source of their information? Why does a police union need a news media spokesman? It must have something more productive to do with its money. And why is this person still on their payroll? Why is spin more important than substance? I always thought it wrong for a police department or a union to have a news affairs department or personal. It is a waste of money and manpower. It is not the function of a police department or union to massage the media and focus on spin over substance. Once again the media proves its obsession with the sensational, with getting a story, clouds its judgment. But since most reporters are morally bankrupt or at best shallow creatures, it is fitting that they went along.

The Cradle To Grave Protected World Of The Connected

Why do some people keep landing overpaid, cushy jobs and are taken care of from cradle to grave?

The Rise Of Brain Damaging "Sports"

No matter how tough, how strong, how much a warrior a person might be, or imagine them self to be, they are still only human. One of the world's more fragile species. We are not lions, we are not sharks, we are not orcas. We are not masterful predators able to survive in harsh, forbidding environments in which we have only our own senses upon which to rely. Every blow to the head can set off a spark, the beginning of a damaging process that will later debilitate the person as he or she ages. No matter how a person trains their body to withstand blows, no such thing can ever be done for the head. The brain is a fragile, precious organ never meant to be struck, never meant to take blows. All these people taking blows to the head in their youth do not realize the enormous suffering, the enormous loss to cognitive functioning, that the unkind hand of time may inflict.