14 June 2010 Flag Day
Pre-Op day as well.
Most of the day spent in Kingsport or traveling to and from Kingsport and home.
There were heavy thunderstorms in Kingsport and on our route but at home we logged only 0.04 inches of rain.
It will be a short night and a long day tomorrow.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Sunday, June 13, 2010
13 June 2010 Listen to the thunder crying “ I am!”
13 June 2010 Listen to the thunder crying “ I am!”
Woke up to the sound of a thunderstorm rolling in at about 0530. The dog, no fan of loud noises, was pacing around the bedroom, looking for a place to avoid the noise. When the rain began, it dropped 0.71 inches of rain in just over an hour. Now the radar map is filled with pop-up thunderstorms along the ridge line and a line of more intense storms dropping in from the north west. We avoided the morning power outage that has begun to feel like a pattern over the last several weekends.
During yesterday’s power outage I tried to call the outage in, as I have always done, using my cell phone to access the no-humans-involved notification system. I keyed in my land line number to identify the account. Unlike previous calls, this one was rejected because my cell phone number is not keyed to the account.
We only have one phone jack in the house. It hides under a desk with a lot of other things obscuring it. To use a land line phone we have to find the land line set, move about a ton of stuff, crawl under furniture, and then look up the number in a phonebook. All of this in the dark, of course. We don’t use our cell phones as primary phones because service is spotty, at best, in our valley. If I hook up the land line so that it works, either the cordless phones or the fax will not work properly. So I need to find a solution that doesn’t entail me crawling under furniture in the dark trying to recall which splitter socket to plug a cable into for one phone call to a computer.
I also copied the account number from a bill and stuck it on the refrigerator for cell phone input. I plan on calling them after Wednesday.
We installed a new printer today on Gloria’s side of the system. Like all HP printers, it required multiple installs and screwed up other settings. We’ll be fighting gremlins for a month.
Steaks and sweet potato fries tonight if the storms hold off. Time to go light the grill. Charcoal and steaks – unbeatable!
Woke up to the sound of a thunderstorm rolling in at about 0530. The dog, no fan of loud noises, was pacing around the bedroom, looking for a place to avoid the noise. When the rain began, it dropped 0.71 inches of rain in just over an hour. Now the radar map is filled with pop-up thunderstorms along the ridge line and a line of more intense storms dropping in from the north west. We avoided the morning power outage that has begun to feel like a pattern over the last several weekends.
During yesterday’s power outage I tried to call the outage in, as I have always done, using my cell phone to access the no-humans-involved notification system. I keyed in my land line number to identify the account. Unlike previous calls, this one was rejected because my cell phone number is not keyed to the account.
We only have one phone jack in the house. It hides under a desk with a lot of other things obscuring it. To use a land line phone we have to find the land line set, move about a ton of stuff, crawl under furniture, and then look up the number in a phonebook. All of this in the dark, of course. We don’t use our cell phones as primary phones because service is spotty, at best, in our valley. If I hook up the land line so that it works, either the cordless phones or the fax will not work properly. So I need to find a solution that doesn’t entail me crawling under furniture in the dark trying to recall which splitter socket to plug a cable into for one phone call to a computer.
I also copied the account number from a bill and stuck it on the refrigerator for cell phone input. I plan on calling them after Wednesday.
We installed a new printer today on Gloria’s side of the system. Like all HP printers, it required multiple installs and screwed up other settings. We’ll be fighting gremlins for a month.
Steaks and sweet potato fries tonight if the storms hold off. Time to go light the grill. Charcoal and steaks – unbeatable!
Saturday, June 12, 2010
12 June 2010 powerless in Chuckey
12 June 2010 powerless in Chuckey
What was intended to be a productive morning of mowing, trimming, and other necessary chores was upset by the dual impact of a thunderstorm and a power outage that began at 0930 and ended at 1100.
We did manage to get the lawn mowed and most of the trimming completed. We still need to mark and cut the solar blanket. We may get it done, we may not.
My cousin and friend, Danny Gelmon, in Vancouver sent me a newspaper article to read. It arrived at a time when I welcomed someone else’s words to convey a bit of wisdom to me. Thanks, Danny! You always come through.
Pilar Rahola (above) is a Spanish politician, journalist and activist and member of the far left. Her articles are published in Spain and throughout some of the most important newspapers in Latin America. She writes:
Why don't we see demonstrations against Islamic dictatorships in London, Paris, Barcelona?
Or demonstrations against the Burmese dictatorship?
Why aren't there demonstrations against the enslavement of millions of women who live without any legal protection?
Why aren't there demonstrations against the use of children as human bombs where there is conflict with Islam?
Why has there been no leadership in support of the victims of Islamic dictatorship in Sudan?
Why is there never any outrage against the acts of terrorism committed against Israel?
Why is there no outcry by the European left against Islamic fanaticism?
Why don't they defend Israel's right to exist?
Why confuse support of the Palestinian cause with the defense of Palestinian terrorism?
And finally, the million dollar question: Why is the left in Europe and around the world obsessed with the two most solid democracies, the United States and Israel, and not with the worst dictatorships on the planet? The two most solid democracies, which have suffered the bloodiest attacks of terrorism, and the left doesn't care.
And then, to the concept of freedom. In every pro Palestinian European forum I hear the left yelling with fervor: "We want freedom for the people!"
Not true. They are never concerned with freedom for the people of Syria or Yemen or Iran or Sudan, or other such nations. And they are never preoccupied when Hammas destroys freedom for the Palestinians. They are only concerned with using the concept of Palestinian freedom as a weapon against Israeli freedom. The resulting consequence of these ideological pathologies is the manipulation of the press.
The international press does major damage when reporting on the question of the Israeli-Palestinian issue. On this topic they don't inform, they propagandize.
When reporting about Israel the majority of journalists forget the reporter code of ethics. And so, any Israeli act of self-defense becomes a massacre, and any confrontation, genocide. So many stupid things have been written about Israel, that there aren't any accusations left to level against her.
At the same time, this press never discusses Syrian and Iranian interference in propagating violence against Israel; the indoctrination of children and the corruption of the Palestinians. And when reporting about victims, every Palestinian casualty is reported as tragedy and every Israeli victim is camouflaged, hidden or reported about with disdain.
And let me add on the topic of the Spanish left. Many are the examples that illustrate the anti-Americanism and anti-Israeli sentiments that define the Spanish left. For example, one of the leftist parties in-Spain has just expelled one of its members for creating a pro-Israel website. I quote from the expulsion document: "Our friends are the people of Iran, Libya and Venezuela, oppressed by imperialism, and not a Nazi state like Israel."
In another example, the socialist mayor of Campozuelos changed Shoah Day, commemorating the victims of the Holocaust, with Palestinian Nabka Day, which mourns the establishment of the State of Israel, thus showing contempt for the six million European Jews murdered in the Holocaust.
Or in my native city of Barcelona, the city council decided to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the creation of the State of Israel, by having a week of solidarity with the Palestinian people. Thus, they invited Leila Khaled, a noted terrorist from the 70's and current leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a terrorist organization so described by the European Union, which promotes the use of bombs against Israel.
This politically correct way of thinking has even polluted the speeches of president Zapatero. His foreign policy falls within the lunatic left, and on issues of the Middle East he is unequivocally pro Arab. I can assure you that in private, Zapatero places on Israel the blame for the conflict in the Middle East, and the policies of foreign minister Moratinos reflect this. The fact that Zapatero chose to wear a kafiah in the midst of the Lebanon conflict is no coincidence; it's a symbol.
Spain has suffered the worst terrorist attack in Europe and it is in the crosshairs of every Islamic terrorist organization. As I wrote before, they kill us with cell phones hooked to satellites connected to the Middle Ages. An yet the Spanish left is the most anti Israeli in the world.
And then it says it is anti Israeli because of solidarity. This is the madness I want to denounce in this conference.
Conclusion:
I am not Jewish. Ideologically I am left and by profession a journalist. Why am I not anti Israeli like my colleagues? Because as a non-Jew I have the historical responsibility to fight against Jewish hatred and currently against the hatred for their historic homeland, Israel. To fight against anti-Semitism is not the duty of the Jews, it is the duty of the non-Jews.
As a journalist it is my duty to search for the truth beyond prejudice, lies and manipulations. The truth about Israel is not told. As a person from the left who loves progress, I am obligated to defend liberty, culture, civic education for children, coexistence and the laws that the Tablets of the Covenant made into universal principles.
Principles that Islamic fundamentalism systematically destroys. That is to say that as a non-Jew, journalist and lefty I have a triple moral duty with Israel, because if Israel is destroyed, liberty, modernity and culture will be destroyed too.
The struggle of Israel, even if the world doesn't want to accept it, is the struggle of the world.
Bold emphasis mine.
What was intended to be a productive morning of mowing, trimming, and other necessary chores was upset by the dual impact of a thunderstorm and a power outage that began at 0930 and ended at 1100.
We did manage to get the lawn mowed and most of the trimming completed. We still need to mark and cut the solar blanket. We may get it done, we may not.
My cousin and friend, Danny Gelmon, in Vancouver sent me a newspaper article to read. It arrived at a time when I welcomed someone else’s words to convey a bit of wisdom to me. Thanks, Danny! You always come through.
Pilar Rahola (above) is a Spanish politician, journalist and activist and member of the far left. Her articles are published in Spain and throughout some of the most important newspapers in Latin America. She writes:
Why don't we see demonstrations against Islamic dictatorships in London, Paris, Barcelona?
Or demonstrations against the Burmese dictatorship?
Why aren't there demonstrations against the enslavement of millions of women who live without any legal protection?
Why aren't there demonstrations against the use of children as human bombs where there is conflict with Islam?
Why has there been no leadership in support of the victims of Islamic dictatorship in Sudan?
Why is there never any outrage against the acts of terrorism committed against Israel?
Why is there no outcry by the European left against Islamic fanaticism?
Why don't they defend Israel's right to exist?
Why confuse support of the Palestinian cause with the defense of Palestinian terrorism?
And finally, the million dollar question: Why is the left in Europe and around the world obsessed with the two most solid democracies, the United States and Israel, and not with the worst dictatorships on the planet? The two most solid democracies, which have suffered the bloodiest attacks of terrorism, and the left doesn't care.
And then, to the concept of freedom. In every pro Palestinian European forum I hear the left yelling with fervor: "We want freedom for the people!"
Not true. They are never concerned with freedom for the people of Syria or Yemen or Iran or Sudan, or other such nations. And they are never preoccupied when Hammas destroys freedom for the Palestinians. They are only concerned with using the concept of Palestinian freedom as a weapon against Israeli freedom. The resulting consequence of these ideological pathologies is the manipulation of the press.
The international press does major damage when reporting on the question of the Israeli-Palestinian issue. On this topic they don't inform, they propagandize.
When reporting about Israel the majority of journalists forget the reporter code of ethics. And so, any Israeli act of self-defense becomes a massacre, and any confrontation, genocide. So many stupid things have been written about Israel, that there aren't any accusations left to level against her.
At the same time, this press never discusses Syrian and Iranian interference in propagating violence against Israel; the indoctrination of children and the corruption of the Palestinians. And when reporting about victims, every Palestinian casualty is reported as tragedy and every Israeli victim is camouflaged, hidden or reported about with disdain.
And let me add on the topic of the Spanish left. Many are the examples that illustrate the anti-Americanism and anti-Israeli sentiments that define the Spanish left. For example, one of the leftist parties in-Spain has just expelled one of its members for creating a pro-Israel website. I quote from the expulsion document: "Our friends are the people of Iran, Libya and Venezuela, oppressed by imperialism, and not a Nazi state like Israel."
In another example, the socialist mayor of Campozuelos changed Shoah Day, commemorating the victims of the Holocaust, with Palestinian Nabka Day, which mourns the establishment of the State of Israel, thus showing contempt for the six million European Jews murdered in the Holocaust.
Or in my native city of Barcelona, the city council decided to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the creation of the State of Israel, by having a week of solidarity with the Palestinian people. Thus, they invited Leila Khaled, a noted terrorist from the 70's and current leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a terrorist organization so described by the European Union, which promotes the use of bombs against Israel.
This politically correct way of thinking has even polluted the speeches of president Zapatero. His foreign policy falls within the lunatic left, and on issues of the Middle East he is unequivocally pro Arab. I can assure you that in private, Zapatero places on Israel the blame for the conflict in the Middle East, and the policies of foreign minister Moratinos reflect this. The fact that Zapatero chose to wear a kafiah in the midst of the Lebanon conflict is no coincidence; it's a symbol.
Spain has suffered the worst terrorist attack in Europe and it is in the crosshairs of every Islamic terrorist organization. As I wrote before, they kill us with cell phones hooked to satellites connected to the Middle Ages. An yet the Spanish left is the most anti Israeli in the world.
And then it says it is anti Israeli because of solidarity. This is the madness I want to denounce in this conference.
Conclusion:
I am not Jewish. Ideologically I am left and by profession a journalist. Why am I not anti Israeli like my colleagues? Because as a non-Jew I have the historical responsibility to fight against Jewish hatred and currently against the hatred for their historic homeland, Israel. To fight against anti-Semitism is not the duty of the Jews, it is the duty of the non-Jews.
As a journalist it is my duty to search for the truth beyond prejudice, lies and manipulations. The truth about Israel is not told. As a person from the left who loves progress, I am obligated to defend liberty, culture, civic education for children, coexistence and the laws that the Tablets of the Covenant made into universal principles.
Principles that Islamic fundamentalism systematically destroys. That is to say that as a non-Jew, journalist and lefty I have a triple moral duty with Israel, because if Israel is destroyed, liberty, modernity and culture will be destroyed too.
The struggle of Israel, even if the world doesn't want to accept it, is the struggle of the world.
Bold emphasis mine.
Friday, June 11, 2010
11 June 2010 T-minus
11 June 2010 T-minus
Day spent running errands, returning books to the library, grocery shopping. Temp peaked at 91.72°F. Sticky, with 40% chance of rain.
Tomorrow we plan to cut the solar blanket to size, perhaps get some mowing done.
Flashpoint should be on tonight. I’m not convinced it will be. We set up to record it last week and the local CBS affiliate ran a children’s fund raiser pledge drive for some cause. I’ve been waiting for Flashpoint to return for nearly a year. It won’t surprise me if the same thing happens tonight.
I get to sleep in tomorrow, looking forward to it very much.
Shabbat Shalom!
Day spent running errands, returning books to the library, grocery shopping. Temp peaked at 91.72°F. Sticky, with 40% chance of rain.
Tomorrow we plan to cut the solar blanket to size, perhaps get some mowing done.
Flashpoint should be on tonight. I’m not convinced it will be. We set up to record it last week and the local CBS affiliate ran a children’s fund raiser pledge drive for some cause. I’ve been waiting for Flashpoint to return for nearly a year. It won’t surprise me if the same thing happens tonight.
I get to sleep in tomorrow, looking forward to it very much.
Shabbat Shalom!
Thursday, June 10, 2010
10 June 2010 In the name of
10 June 2010 In the name of
Taliban executes boy, 7, for spying
By Matiullah Mati, CNN
June 10, 2010 -- Updated 1506 GMT (2306 HKT)
http://afghanistan.blogs.cnn.com/2010/06/10/officials-taliban-executes-boy-7-for-spying/?hpt=T2
Fundamentalism rears its ugly head once more. Although Islam is said to proscribe killing the innocent, somehow this innocent slipped through the cracks. Is he now a martyr for losing his life accused of a crime he was likely unable to fully comprehend? If he is a martyr, does he receive the full benefits of martyrdom, the 72 houris to entertain him? What good are 72 houris to a 7 year old’s soul? Does he get only a percentage of the 72 to acknowledge his death before maturity?
Children are all too often the targets of the religious fundamentalists. They are indoctrinated at the earliest opportunity. This same child might have been convinced by a Mullah that only he can carry the suicide vest close enough to an enemy unit to make it a true martyrdom. Or he might have been convinced that surrendering his body to the predations of a priest or minister was approved by heaven. Perhaps he could have been indoctrinated into becoming a child soldier in the name of some deity.
The children are the same, only the uniform and the sacred text of the predator varies. We have children starving to death while they beg for money to be handed over to religious authorities for their purposes. We have children going door to door selling over-priced gift wrap and snack foods to fund missionaries who will spend the money in another nation, feeding someone else’s children just enough to keep them alive and singing the songs the missionaries want them to sing. If they stop singing they stop eating but the collection process continues here. On both ends of the game, the children pay the cost, do the labor, and please the adults.
We’ve stopped throwing children into the fire in order to placate stone deities and therefore keep the city safe. But we’ve not stopped using and abusing children to placate the men and women who keep the myths alive as a means to their own power. The fire may have been the better option for many of these children.
Every time I see or hear “Save the children,” “think of the children,” “do it for the children,” bring a child to ----,” or “save a child’s soul,” I think of Dickensian orphanages, missionary schools, children bent slavishly over religious texts memorizing but not learning to read anything else. And I refuse the request. Keep all children religion free until they are adults, have learned to read, and can refuse the predation of fundamentalists.
Taliban executes boy, 7, for spying
By Matiullah Mati, CNN
June 10, 2010 -- Updated 1506 GMT (2306 HKT)
http://afghanistan.blogs.cnn.com/2010/06/10/officials-taliban-executes-boy-7-for-spying/?hpt=T2
Fundamentalism rears its ugly head once more. Although Islam is said to proscribe killing the innocent, somehow this innocent slipped through the cracks. Is he now a martyr for losing his life accused of a crime he was likely unable to fully comprehend? If he is a martyr, does he receive the full benefits of martyrdom, the 72 houris to entertain him? What good are 72 houris to a 7 year old’s soul? Does he get only a percentage of the 72 to acknowledge his death before maturity?
Children are all too often the targets of the religious fundamentalists. They are indoctrinated at the earliest opportunity. This same child might have been convinced by a Mullah that only he can carry the suicide vest close enough to an enemy unit to make it a true martyrdom. Or he might have been convinced that surrendering his body to the predations of a priest or minister was approved by heaven. Perhaps he could have been indoctrinated into becoming a child soldier in the name of some deity.
The children are the same, only the uniform and the sacred text of the predator varies. We have children starving to death while they beg for money to be handed over to religious authorities for their purposes. We have children going door to door selling over-priced gift wrap and snack foods to fund missionaries who will spend the money in another nation, feeding someone else’s children just enough to keep them alive and singing the songs the missionaries want them to sing. If they stop singing they stop eating but the collection process continues here. On both ends of the game, the children pay the cost, do the labor, and please the adults.
We’ve stopped throwing children into the fire in order to placate stone deities and therefore keep the city safe. But we’ve not stopped using and abusing children to placate the men and women who keep the myths alive as a means to their own power. The fire may have been the better option for many of these children.
Every time I see or hear “Save the children,” “think of the children,” “do it for the children,” bring a child to ----,” or “save a child’s soul,” I think of Dickensian orphanages, missionary schools, children bent slavishly over religious texts memorizing but not learning to read anything else. And I refuse the request. Keep all children religion free until they are adults, have learned to read, and can refuse the predation of fundamentalists.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
9 June 2010 Dummies and the Tea Party Mob
9 June 2010 Dummies and the Tea Party Mob
Our friend Suki sent one of these links to Gloria.
Normally I avoid You tube and videos as if they were capable of spreading plague and illiteracy.
Imagine my delight when I heard the “Dummies recruit for a tea party zip around the office. There are several of these videos mocking the Texas School Board, The Tea Party mobs, Michelle Bachman, and other targets of opportunity.
Dummies recruiting for the Tea Party
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKohsoxqkJw&feature=related
How Dummies respond to oil spills
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEv_KLpcD2c&feature=related
Does Fox News employ dummies?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8LU4B7JFTY&feature=related
How to use talking points and buzz words to scare dummies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8M1vfA4cRg&feature=related
There are a bunch of these things. Please pick one or two that have you howling at the truth they release for the coming campaign. The GOP and Tea Party deal in lies, deception, and fear. These videos are a great tool to defeat them with truth. Let’s demand to see their birth certificates.
Have fun with these.
Haircut today, only cost $10.00. We found a sort of old-time barber shop that doesn’t try to sell us unnecessary grooming products. Gloria likes the way the 2nd chair beautician cuts her hair and I like the 1st chair barber/owner.
After that, a flying trip through the grocery store for the ingredients to put Greek salads on the table and fried chicken as an entrée behind the salads. I bought chicken prepped and fried at the grocery store. I have no desire to fry chicken here.
Finally, a stop at the Mennonite-owned food store for honey, eggs, bacon, and cheese for sandwiches. The rain held off most of the time I was out.
Now, the trash is ready to move out to the road tomorrow morning, dinner will be an easy fix, and I’m ready to enjoy a quiet, rainy evening.
Our friend Suki sent one of these links to Gloria.
Normally I avoid You tube and videos as if they were capable of spreading plague and illiteracy.
Imagine my delight when I heard the “Dummies recruit for a tea party zip around the office. There are several of these videos mocking the Texas School Board, The Tea Party mobs, Michelle Bachman, and other targets of opportunity.
Dummies recruiting for the Tea Party
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKohsoxqkJw&feature=related
How Dummies respond to oil spills
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEv_KLpcD2c&feature=related
Does Fox News employ dummies?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8LU4B7JFTY&feature=related
How to use talking points and buzz words to scare dummies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8M1vfA4cRg&feature=related
There are a bunch of these things. Please pick one or two that have you howling at the truth they release for the coming campaign. The GOP and Tea Party deal in lies, deception, and fear. These videos are a great tool to defeat them with truth. Let’s demand to see their birth certificates.
Have fun with these.
Haircut today, only cost $10.00. We found a sort of old-time barber shop that doesn’t try to sell us unnecessary grooming products. Gloria likes the way the 2nd chair beautician cuts her hair and I like the 1st chair barber/owner.
After that, a flying trip through the grocery store for the ingredients to put Greek salads on the table and fried chicken as an entrée behind the salads. I bought chicken prepped and fried at the grocery store. I have no desire to fry chicken here.
Finally, a stop at the Mennonite-owned food store for honey, eggs, bacon, and cheese for sandwiches. The rain held off most of the time I was out.
Now, the trash is ready to move out to the road tomorrow morning, dinner will be an easy fix, and I’m ready to enjoy a quiet, rainy evening.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
8 June 2010 All Texans need to know, they can learn from the Taliban
8 June 2010 All Texans need to know, they can learn from the Taliban
Texas Gov. Rick Perry Monday offered a stern warning against halting oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of a massive oil leak, and he raised the question of whether the explosion was an “act of God.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/36691.html#ixzz0qHlwsDzJ
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/36691.html
It must be true. Perry is joined in his certainty by Congressman Tom Cole, R-OK in rushing to absolve the oil industry and its employees of any guilt.
“. Tom Cole on oil spill: ‘Acts of God are acts of God.’
By Lee Fang on Jun 2nd, 2010 at 9:50 am
Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), an ardent supporter of the oil industry and adherent of the “drill here, drill now” chant, appeared on KTOK radio yesterday to discuss BP’s oil disaster in the Gulf. Like Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX), who dismissed the oil spill catastrophe as an “act of God,” Cole sought to downplay dangers inherently associated with offshore drilling. Cole said more could have been done to deal with the spill, but the oil spill itself was more or less unpredictable because “acts of God are acts of God”:
COLE: We probably should have forced BP to mobilize more in the way of vessels. There’s still a lot that can be done. But again, acts of God are acts of God. And you know, FEMA is not, you know, can not cope with everything.”
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/06/02/cole-oil-god/
Just as the pre-failure excuse commonly used in Afghanistan, “Insh Allah” (If God wills it,” is used to limit personal responsibility for nearly everything that takes place from crop failure to lost military campaigns; so can Oil companies shed guilt in the states where Oil is already a primary source of revenue waiting to be laundered and buried in offshore bank accounts.
This is an economic and legislative problem that demonstrates how deeply in thrall our elected officials are to the gods of oil and greed. But even worse, it negates centuries of physics, geology, biology, and evolutionary sciences that are recognized by every modern nation, except the U.S. to be accurate, valid, and true descriptions of how the physical universe came about, the laws which govern it, and the geological history of the planet including the development and deposition of fossil fuels beneath the earth’s surface.
The various creation myths came about as proto-societies tried to understand the physical world and the varieties of life and experiences in that world. Larger than life gods were created and used as both a means of answering poorly defined questions and as a means to power for those who became the intermediaries between gods and men. “God lifted the rocks and put the oil and coal beneath them” may work in a culture which restricts education to males and limits their access to sectarian knowledge in order to maintain cultural and religious purity. But it should not work for any culture that can locate oil in subsurface strata and build the tools necessary to reach and extract it. Nor should that technically more advanced culture be allowed to get by with using “it’s God’s will” as an excuse to limit the penalties for companies that ignored safety requirements and technical indications of problems in order to squeeze a few dollars more from the process of looting national resources.
The scary thing is that with the concerted efforts made by the theocons and Christian fundamentalists to negate teaching the realities of physics, geology, and evolution as part of routine biology, there exists a sub-populace now who buy into the creation myths all too deeply. A former VP candidate believes that dinosaurs and humans co-existed on a planet that is less than 6000 years old. She also believes she was divinely chosen to run for office. She has thousands of rabid followers who believe every word she fabricates; and who will now recall the false statement that she was opposed to offshore oil and gas drilling as if she had actually opposed such drilling.
For the Taliban of Afghanistan and Pakistan, poor education, limited education, and faulty education of the populace is a means to retain power in the religious industry. For the Taliban of American fundamentalists churches, poor education is equally important as a means to gain and exercise political power. When lists of who to vote for are handed out in churches that are supposedly tax-exempt due to absence of political activity, we are in trouble. When our schools are teaching watered down or inaccurate science because the Taliban want it that way, we are in serious trouble. We won’t maintain traffic to the international space station by teaching faulty science. We won’t retain our constitution and our personal freedoms if the churches seize power and re-write the parts they don’t like. The first amendment keeps them safe from government takeover. But far more importantly, it keeps us, and our government safe from religious takeover. Just as the Taliban in Kabul are working to control government and culture, so are our Taliban in Houston, Oklahoma City, Memphis, Jackson, Little Rock, and hundreds of other cities. Is the oil spill an act of god? Hardly. But there’s a problem more damaging to America than any oil spill just waiting to be unleashed if enough of out Taliban grab power. Then we’ll begin to see just how godless such men of god can be.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry Monday offered a stern warning against halting oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of a massive oil leak, and he raised the question of whether the explosion was an “act of God.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/36691.html#ixzz0qHlwsDzJ
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/36691.html
It must be true. Perry is joined in his certainty by Congressman Tom Cole, R-OK in rushing to absolve the oil industry and its employees of any guilt.
“. Tom Cole on oil spill: ‘Acts of God are acts of God.’
By Lee Fang on Jun 2nd, 2010 at 9:50 am
Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), an ardent supporter of the oil industry and adherent of the “drill here, drill now” chant, appeared on KTOK radio yesterday to discuss BP’s oil disaster in the Gulf. Like Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX), who dismissed the oil spill catastrophe as an “act of God,” Cole sought to downplay dangers inherently associated with offshore drilling. Cole said more could have been done to deal with the spill, but the oil spill itself was more or less unpredictable because “acts of God are acts of God”:
COLE: We probably should have forced BP to mobilize more in the way of vessels. There’s still a lot that can be done. But again, acts of God are acts of God. And you know, FEMA is not, you know, can not cope with everything.”
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/06/02/cole-oil-god/
Just as the pre-failure excuse commonly used in Afghanistan, “Insh Allah” (If God wills it,” is used to limit personal responsibility for nearly everything that takes place from crop failure to lost military campaigns; so can Oil companies shed guilt in the states where Oil is already a primary source of revenue waiting to be laundered and buried in offshore bank accounts.
This is an economic and legislative problem that demonstrates how deeply in thrall our elected officials are to the gods of oil and greed. But even worse, it negates centuries of physics, geology, biology, and evolutionary sciences that are recognized by every modern nation, except the U.S. to be accurate, valid, and true descriptions of how the physical universe came about, the laws which govern it, and the geological history of the planet including the development and deposition of fossil fuels beneath the earth’s surface.
The various creation myths came about as proto-societies tried to understand the physical world and the varieties of life and experiences in that world. Larger than life gods were created and used as both a means of answering poorly defined questions and as a means to power for those who became the intermediaries between gods and men. “God lifted the rocks and put the oil and coal beneath them” may work in a culture which restricts education to males and limits their access to sectarian knowledge in order to maintain cultural and religious purity. But it should not work for any culture that can locate oil in subsurface strata and build the tools necessary to reach and extract it. Nor should that technically more advanced culture be allowed to get by with using “it’s God’s will” as an excuse to limit the penalties for companies that ignored safety requirements and technical indications of problems in order to squeeze a few dollars more from the process of looting national resources.
The scary thing is that with the concerted efforts made by the theocons and Christian fundamentalists to negate teaching the realities of physics, geology, and evolution as part of routine biology, there exists a sub-populace now who buy into the creation myths all too deeply. A former VP candidate believes that dinosaurs and humans co-existed on a planet that is less than 6000 years old. She also believes she was divinely chosen to run for office. She has thousands of rabid followers who believe every word she fabricates; and who will now recall the false statement that she was opposed to offshore oil and gas drilling as if she had actually opposed such drilling.
For the Taliban of Afghanistan and Pakistan, poor education, limited education, and faulty education of the populace is a means to retain power in the religious industry. For the Taliban of American fundamentalists churches, poor education is equally important as a means to gain and exercise political power. When lists of who to vote for are handed out in churches that are supposedly tax-exempt due to absence of political activity, we are in trouble. When our schools are teaching watered down or inaccurate science because the Taliban want it that way, we are in serious trouble. We won’t maintain traffic to the international space station by teaching faulty science. We won’t retain our constitution and our personal freedoms if the churches seize power and re-write the parts they don’t like. The first amendment keeps them safe from government takeover. But far more importantly, it keeps us, and our government safe from religious takeover. Just as the Taliban in Kabul are working to control government and culture, so are our Taliban in Houston, Oklahoma City, Memphis, Jackson, Little Rock, and hundreds of other cities. Is the oil spill an act of god? Hardly. But there’s a problem more damaging to America than any oil spill just waiting to be unleashed if enough of out Taliban grab power. Then we’ll begin to see just how godless such men of god can be.
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