QUOTATION: “The Opium of the People” / Karl Marx
Reply
Category Archives: Metaphysics
REASON: “Oh, Bill, you’re such a meanie.” / Bill Maher
Quotation: “On the Malevolence of Monotheism” / Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011)
English-American, Literary Critic, Journalist, Author,
Essayist, Polemicist, and Outspoken Anti-theist
ANTITHEISM: “What Religion has Contributed to the World this Month” / ConversationWithA / Episode 8: June / July 2013
h/t: ConversationWithA
h/t: Planet Atheism
THOUGHT: “On Comfortable Myths” / Bertrand Russell
h/t: Canadian Atheist
h/t: Planet Atheism
CONSERVATIVE CREED: “Blame the Victim”
CHRISTIAN COGNITIVE DISSONANCE: “Christians are Morally Compromised” / Dan Barker
REPUBLICAN CLASS WARFARE: “Hunger Games, U.S.A.” / Paul Krugman
Something terrible has happened to the soul of the Republican Party. We’ve gone beyond bad economic doctrine. We’ve even gone beyond selfishness and special interests. At this point we’re talking about a state of mind that takes positive glee in inflicting further suffering on the already miserable.
The occasion for these observations is, as you may have guessed, the monstrous farm bill the House passed last week.
For decades, farm bills have had two major pieces. One piece offers subsidies to farmers; the other offers nutritional aid to Americans in distress, mainly in the form of food stamps (these days officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP).
Long ago, when subsidies helped many poor farmers, you could defend the whole package as a form of support for those in need. Over the years, however, the two pieces diverged. Farm subsidies became a fraud-ridden program that mainly benefits corporations and wealthy individuals. Meanwhile food stamps became a crucial part of the social safety net.
So House Republicans voted to maintain farm subsidies — at a higher level than either the Senate or the White House proposed — while completely eliminating food stamps from the bill.
[…]
Now, some enemies of food stamps don’t quote libertarian philosophy; they quote the Bible instead. Representative Stephen Fincher of Tennessee, for example, cited the New Testament: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.” Sure enough, it turns out that Mr. Fincher has personally received millions in farm subsidies.
Related articles
- Republicans Nix Food Stamps: This Is Who They Are (ourfuture.org)
- How Republicans Who Took Millions In Farm Subsidies Justify Cutting Food Stamps (ThinkProgress.org)
INJUSTICE: “Extradition Hypocrisy on the Part of the U.S.: Whistleblowers Yes, Terrorists No” / Liberation
Whistleblower Edward Snowden
Terrorist Luis Posada Carriles
Edward Snowden, who recently disclosed the massive nature of NSA spying on not only Americans but on every single person in the world who uses electronic communications of any kind, is currently a fugitive from “justice” in the United States. Although [Edward Snowden] is currently in a Russian airport, he has been offered political asylum by Venezuela, as well as by Nicaragua and Bolivia.
Although Snowden isn’t yet in Venezuela, the U.S. government has already requested his extradition from that country. The irony of this request abounds. For eight years now, since June 15, 2005, the U.S. has refused to extradite a notorious terrorist to Venezuela. Luis Posada Carriles is wanted in Venezuela on 73 counts of murder for masterminding the 1976 midair bombing of a Cubana airliner (the flight originated in Venezuela, and the bombing was planned there, which is why that country is involved). Posada was also responsible for a string of Cuban hotel bombings in 1997 which killed Italian tourist Fabio di Celmo, and was jailed for four years in Panama (2000-2004) for an attempt to bomb an auditorium in which Fidel Castro was speaking to university students. This is the man the U.S. Government continues to allow to walk the streets of Miami a free man, while they ask for the extradition of a man whose crime was to expose their own illegal actions.
Related articles
- Extradition hypocrisy on the part of the U.S.: (pslweb.org)
- Refusal to extradite terrorist to Venezuela exposes Washington’s hypocrisy (workers.org)
- INJUSTICE: “U.S. Shelters Bolivia Ex-President From Genocide Charges As Evo Morales Offers Snowden Asylum” (alwaysquestionauthority.com)
INJUSTICE: “U.S. Shelters Bolivia Ex-President From Genocide Charges As Evo Morales Offers Snowden Asylum”
[…]
Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, president of Bolivia from 2002 to 2003, was a free-market reformer and U.S. ally. He fled his country after protests to his plans to route natural gas through neighboring Chile toppled his government in 2003 — an episode known in Bolivia as the “Gas War.” He now faces charges of genocide in Bolivia for allegedly ordering the military to fire on protesters in 2003, killing more than 60 people, as well as a civil lawsuit in the U.S. brought by relatives of those who died. Sánchez de Lozada, now living in the U.S., is being sheltered from extradition back to Bolivia.
The Sánchez de Lozada issue hung heavy over U.S-Bolivian relations. And that was before Edward Snowden.
[…]
In 2007, prosecutors in Bolivia filed charges of genocide against Sánchez de Lozada. The Bolivian penal code includes massacres as part of the legal definition of “genocide.”
In 2011, the Bolivian courts convicted five military officers and two former cabinet members and imposed sentences ranging from three to 15 years. In its 2013 “World Report,” Human Rights Watch called the convictions the “only notable advance” in Bolivia’s efforts to punish human rights violations under previous governments.
[…]
The Obama administration refused to extradite Sánchez de Lozada last year. The Bolivian government has filed a second request for extradition, according to La Razón newspaper.
Beth Stephens, the attorney representing the victims’ families [said,] . . . “What they really want is for them to face is criminal prosecution in Bolivia,” Stephens said. “The United States shouldn’t be a safe haven for those who order violent attacks against unarmed civilians.”
Related articles
- Extradition hypocrisy on the part of the U.S.: (pslweb.org)
Always Question Authority 