POLITICAL COMMENTARY: “Is Capitalism Terrorism Against All Humanity?” / The Big Picture RT / Thom Hartmann ☮

Marianne Williamson, Tears to Triumph, joins Thom. The Pope told reporters “Terrorism grows when there is no other option, and as long as the world economy has at its center the god of money and not the person. This is fundamental terrorism, against all humanity.” The Pope was responding question about the link between Islam and terrorism – which the Pope doesn’t think is particular to Islam. He told the reporters – “It is not right and it is not just to say that Islam is terroristic. If I speak of Islamic violence, I should speak of Catholic violence. Not all Muslims are violent, not all Catholics are violent. In almost all religions there is always a small group of fundamentalists. One can kill with the tongue as well as the knife.”

BOOKS: “Thirteen Books Atheists Should Consider Reading” / Atheist Republic ☮

Atheist Scarlet Letter (Hitchens)These are not books debunking creationism, nor an item-by-item critique of the factual plausibility of holy writings, nor a demonstration of their historic shortcomings when compared to current notions of progressive humanist morality, nor are they an overt attack against religion. Since you are already an atheist, I assume you don’t need convincing anymore. Rather, they are about understanding your world and yourself without religion. These ideas are not new. Generally speaking, they are not trying to convince the reader. They are proposals for a different way of understanding reality without a god, logic, ethics, morality and yourself – perhaps the hardest thing to objectively fully understand in life.

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POLITICS: “Will the Democrats Abandon Khizr Khan?” / Secular Talk / Kyle Kulinski ☮

One after another, reporters and pundits, hacks and flacks all began circulating George W. Bush’s response from more than a decade ago to the protest of a dead soldier’s parent. It was a lesson in manners for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who had just attacked Khizr and Ghazala Khan, themselves the parents of a dead soldier, for having denounced the candidate as an unpatriotic bigot at the Democratic National Convention. “Compare Trump to Bush addressing Cindy Sheehan,” tweeted a Daily Beast editor, echoing dozens of others.